Perennials: Rock gardening in non-alpine climates, 3 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
Hey Birder,

I\'m not quite sure what you mean about the bap looking plant, but the one amongst the allium christophii is actually miscanthus silberfeil just coming up. I love stuff in various stages. The plant to the left is a cornus alterifolia (pagoda dogwood) after bloom with lilacs against the house and an allegheny serviceberry. Silberfeil is an old cultivar they don\'t really sell anymore, because it is the only one I had that tended to die out in the center.

The pinky plant is the ever cursed but quite wonderful saponaria \'Bouncing Bett\' . I was shipped it by mistake! Bluestone was supposed to send me three salvia \'Rose Queen\' and I got this instead. It took me a while to figure out what the heck it was. It was in my peony beds. You have to divide it every couple of years to control it, but I LOVED it. It is scented, beautiful and reblooming - at least three times a season. I\'m thrilled that you like the picture with the lilies - it is one of the best I think I\'ve ever taken because I am photographing one bed while standing behind another - dumb luck.

Anyway, here is the saponaria. It\'s not for the gardener who puts in plants and walks away, but I love it! I had a ten foot easement on one side of my property and got permission to cut out the grass and grow things.

I loved the saponaria so much that when I found out it came in white I ordered it. Glenn Varner, from Flower Scent Gardens, had it and I ordered four. Dear Glenn closed his garden a couple of years later because his mother was dreadfully ill, and I felt fortunate to get it. It is a little less wild, and I put four plants in my front beds. Yes, it too has to be controlled, but look how beautiful - and the scent! I was lucky enough to be able to bring the white form with me, which I am very happy about, because it is out of commerce. I am naturalizing it under my new paperbark maple, as I did with my old one. It was tough to transplant, and took me four tries, but I have it now and I am thrilled. I think of Glenn whenever I see it. I\'m very sentimental about my plant providers. I got the most wonderful rose \'Madame Hardy\' from the great Sam Kadeem in the last year he was shipping out of state (Minnesota). It was too mature to dig up, but when I look at my new one (excellent, from Roses Unlimited) I think of Mr. Kadeem, who used to answer his own telephone, and with whom I had the joy of speaking.

By the way, the blue plant is cynoglossum. You tend to find it in heirloom catalogs. It\'s a funny plant because it has sticky seeds, which means that its seeds stick to you and any animal and it ends up in other places in your yard. I grew it from seed and it was so easy that I now have some here. It also comes in pink, which I grew with my fothergillas and arabis caucausica. It\'s one of the few truly blue plants that is really tough. I am in the process of spreading it around my yard because I am a cool color gal, and it goes with everything.

Thank you so much for asking about my plants. It allows me to walk down memory lane, which I really enjoy.