lime chips?

Hey everyone. I have been drooling over the 2013 catalogs. I garden on clay, glacial till, and builders rubble. I never tested it but I assume it is acidic, because soil around here is acidic, and by reviewing my list titled "Plants That Have Died" many of them are lime lovers. But I still want them. I had an idea that I could sort of permanently amend a tiny area by putting a limestone rock on each side of such a plant. This would be like the White Cliffs of Dover in miniature, and would slowly erode and raise the pH. I also saw somewhere that I should be "sprinkling some lime chips" over the crowns of certain lime lovers. Nobody seemed to know about those when I asked at my local nursery. Has anybody tried this? How would one purchase limestone rocks or limestone chips? Am I crazy? (well, don't answer the last one). I thought about sprinkling horticultural lime on certain plants every year, but it just isn't going to happen, I am too busy and too disorganized. I could manage a one time fix when I planted something.

I do this for my peonies. I read that lime chips would help preventing fungus. I purchased a bag from a terrazzo manufacturer in Bellevue, WA several years ago. They were located by the humane society, near Factoria.. I do not remember the name of the company. I do not know if this actually works in preventing the fungus, but it does make it easy to locate plants when they are dormant. I just sprinkled a circle covering the area where each peony was planted.
They look like small pieces of rock, and you have a choice of colors. I chose a beigeish color , not too glaring in the flower beds.

Thanks Frito- there is a stone company in Everett, I will ask them for a bag.

Swanson's Nursery usually has lime chips

Using regular powdered lime works well also. The chips can be expensive but that is what Cisco uses. Hellebores love lime also and so do dianthus.

I also just saw lime chips at Sky nursery today- by the daphnes.

Thanks everyone-I gave up too soon!

I got two bags of oyster-shell chicken grit when I was looking for crushed granite.

I think oyster shell is mostly Calcium Carbonate, just no Magnesium Carbonate. So it would serve as limestone, just not Dolomite limestone.

This is a great discussion for learning. I'll add delphiniums to the list of plants who like lime. Please list all of the plants you know of that can benefit from lime. I have a bag of it, and I'm ready to use it! Thank you.

Now is the perfect time to apply lime to plants. It'll get washed in. I like to fertilize in the rain. Who wants to drag out a hose this time of year.

Out of line but I have a new cat. His name is Carmel and he is that color. About six months old and if he ever sits still I will get a pic.

Hi Carmel! You sound sweet.

Hi everyone-
i just found where I found the reference to lime chips-it's in "Ask Ciscoe", he gets them cheap at a place in Renton.

Kosk- I have an incomplete list, from many sources, of lime lovers. It includes things I have, or wish for. Especially it includes things I have lost for no apparent reason- I increasingly suspect acidity).
Choisya ternata (mine are ok, so it must not be crucial)
Cotinus coggygria mine is ok, but not happy, in a dry spot)
Peonies
Potentilla fruticosa- (mine are never very good here, and are short-lived. I thought it was the clay but supposedly clay is ok)
Hellebores-(Ciscoe says they love the lime chips)
Hepatica (i never dared)
Dianthus-mine die
Echinops
Anchusa azurea-I will try again with lime
Perovskia (it's alive, but barely)
Coreopsis (usually gets a C-minus. I don't know why I keep trying)
Kniphofia (some have made it, but are not like the pictures!)
Sedums Autumn Joy (it seems ok without lime)
Aubrieta
Veronicastrum virginicum (I got some last year, I hope it makes it)

I would love comments about this list!

mlmlakestevens---that's FANTASTIC. Thank you for the time you spent putting together that awesome response. It's so helpful. I put lime around my peonies yesterday, and prepped my new delphinium bed with a healthy amount of it.

Aubrieta---I think you are on to something there, for sure. Mine should be huge by now. Instead they straggle along, and several didn't come back this year, despite an incredibly mild winter. I'm adding lime to my aubrieta TODAY. They are one of my favorite spring ground covers. I just love the intense purple! In fact---there is a home a couple of miles from me that has huge aubrieta.....it looks like the person doesn't do much to maintain their yard/garden. The aubrieta are draped over a cement (source of lime) wall. voila. the reason for her success. oooh, so excited to learn this. Hoping my aubrieta get huge in the next year or 2. THANK YOU!!!

Add clematis to list. From clematis nursery website:

Clematis have been regarded as lime-lovers ever since they were found growing wild on limestone. However, we have seen our native C. virginiana ramping happily over laurel and rhododendron in Willowdale State Forest where the soil is highly acidic. The truth lies in between - clematis grow and flower best in a good neutral soil. If your soil is acid, you should definitely add lime which will make the existing nutrients in the soil available to the plant. If your soil is very acid, and you haven't limed before, you may want to lime twice a year the first year (in spring and fall) and once a year thereafter. A light dusting under each plant in the root zone should be enough. This needs to be done regularly because the more it gets the more it consumes and needs. Remember that if you don't lime your clematis, any fertilizer is largely wasted because without the lime it will not be available to the plant.

Explains why I could never do well with clematis except for the one that grew very near the foundation and brick wall. Will definately try again. Have you seen the pictures where they put three clems in the same spot, all different colors. That really looks great.

Hi everyone- swedishchef is right- Sky Nursery in Shoreline has lime chips, I got a 50# bag for I think it was $13. They also had gallon ziplock bags for ? $6. I will let you know if I have success with this.
Hey Willow did you ever take a pic of Carmel? Here is 'Peeta' a stray that is moving in on us.

I do have one or two. Mindy and Carmel were watching a squirrel in the bird feeder.

willow-total cuteness. These pics say it all.