My new rock wall

Two years ago I had a dry-stone retaining wall put in front of my house and at the end I built a small rock garden. Two years later, here was the result. Rock gardens are the way to go to get a lot in a small space.

Oh, Todd, that's a gorgeous picture. I'm planning to put in a rock wall just for my lewisias. I'm currently growing all of them in pots and bringing them in when it rains because they don't like being watered from the top, but I'm hoping that problem will be solved by planting them sideways between rocks. Can you think of any other alpines with the same phobia that I should be planting sideways?

I have Lewisias in pots as well but they get rain from above all summer. I put them in a cold frame in winter to keep the crown dry from the ice and snow that stays here for some 4-5 months! I expect they would have no problems growing upright in California. Meanwhile, tow of the best plants to grow in a vertical stone wall are Ramonda and Haberlea...both are hardy African Violet relatives from Greece. Again, I grow mine in pots and keep them overwinter in the cold frame but they are hardy to zone 6 if you can keep the crowns reasonably dry in winter. Here's a close-up of my Haberlea

Here's my Ramonda.

Here's another shot of the new wall rock garden which is adjacent to an older exisiting one on the front of my garden.

Oddly enough, I've recently been experiencing a savage lust for both of those plants. Arrowhead has the haberlea and Siskiyou has the ramonda and I'm planning to order both. As far as I've seen, no one else seems to be offering either one. Another plant that sounds similar but is larger is Hormium Pyrenaicum. Do you have any experience with that one?

It's true that we have no ice or snow here, but we have fierce amounts of winter rain, and all of my earlier lewisia plants in the ground eventually succumbed to it, even those with a gravel necklace. I've heard there are some new varieties that don't suffer crown rot (or whatever the technical term would be) as readily, but I'm growing mostly the old varieties.

Try Lewisia Little Plum...I think its tougher than the straight L. cotyledon. I've never grown Hormium. I grew Ramonda from seed (talk about patience!). Haberlea came from Beaver Creek Nursery http://www.rockgardenplants.com/
They deliver to the US. Another place to try is Alpine Mont Echo...they also ship to the US http://www.alpinemtecho.com/

Todd,
Once again you have posted gorgeous shots of really beautiful plants. Come on Zuzu,we need to see some of these plants of yours. LOL :)

I have Ramonda coming, must go look up the other...what a pretty bloom! I have several alpine/rock garden plant orders coming, will have some questions for you soon Todd. Have you missed all my questions?? Just kidding!
Have a Great Day!!
Jamie

Todd, this is almost eerie. I just responded to your message in the saxifraga thread to tell you that I placed an order with Alpines Mt Echo and got the ramonda and haberlea there.

Little Plum is actually one of the ones that did not like the winter rains here. I lost three of them last year and stopped growing them in the ground after that. My lewisia are now all in pots on a porch under the overhang of the roof, but I will try growing them horizontally this year.

Little Plum is one of the more reliable ones here...go figure. L. columbiana is also fairly reliable and is actually self-seeding in my rockery...maybe that one would do better for you.

Here's my L. columbiana in its pot.

That's beautiful, Todd. Instead of doing my work and making some money today, I've been on line for hours. I just visited Beaver Creek and dropped another $166. More lewisia, more saxifraga, more primula and some truly elusive plants (or at least in my experience): hepatica transsylvanica, gentiana rostanii, cyclamen africanum, incarvillea zhongdianensis, etc., etc. I am reeling!

Zuzu,
You are on a roll today!! And have ordered some amazing plants...can't wait to hear how it goes with them. Will they all go in your Redwood planters?? Or will some of these new special beauties go in the wall you have mentioned?? Can't wait for details, and hopefully pictures...:)
Happy ordering...er, um, gardening - I meant Happy Gardening LOL!!! ;o)
Jamie

Jamie, what a gorgeous picture. Is it Paragon?

The man from Beaver Creek Greenhouses just called me on the phone (he had trouble sending me an e-mail) to tell me that every plant I ordered is available, so the total, with shipping, is now $190.90. I can't believe he did that! I'm old enough to still be impressed by a long-distance phone call. I guess they're not that big a deal in this era of cell phones.

The Canadian nurseries have lower prices than most of the Alpine nurseries we're used to, and lower shipping costs to California than Arrowhead and some others. For that matter, they ship to California. Some of the Alpine nurseries in New York won't do that.

So, I ordered many wonderful things, but they include 10 lewisias, 6 saxifrages, and 14 primulas. I need more containers in a hurry. The rock wall will hold lewisias, a haberlea, 2 ramondas, and a variety of other crevice plants. I'll have to find a crevice plant list somewhere. I'm sure to have one in one of my books. I know I have a lot of crevice plants already. They're just waiting in pots for a good permanent spot.

I know the owners of both Beaver Creek and Alpines Mont Echo. The Beaver Creek owner is Roger Barlow...a very nice guy. We meet at a rock garden conference in Banff, Alberta in 1999. I've had several orders with him since. Alpines Mont Echo owner is Maria Galletti. She has collected and offers several Newfoundland native alpines. We are hosting a rock garden conference in Newfoundland this July and she will be one of our featured speakers.

Another great advantage to the Canadian nurseries is that they're still well stocked. I ordered 57 different things from the two nurseries and 56 are available. I'm assuming it's the difference in temperature that I can thank for this. I've been putting in new plants here since January. When I started ordering plants from nurseries in California and Oregon in December, there were already lots of things that were sold out.

Zuzu,
The pic was of Primula 'Lilian Harvey', I just love the doubles! I know you grow a lot of Primulas so I went searching for any pics I had of mine...had to go take one for you...:) Glad you liked it.

It sounds like you had a blast ordering the other day! You better go get containers soon!!! You must have an amazing Primula collection, I really want to see it, if you ever do get pictures, please post them...many of us would love to see all these neat, sometimes uncommon plants you are growing, or soon will be! :)



I hope

Jamie, I was going to put in a link to the lapeirousia at Annie's, but I can't get it to work. I followed someone's instructions from another forum, but I screwed up somewhere. Oh, I think I got it to work. I hope so.

http://www.anniesannuals.com/signs/list/parent_redirect.htm

This next thing, if it works, is a link to the East Lancs show I've mentioned in several threads.

http://www.thealpinegarden.com/el2005.html

Todd--love your plant combination pics--so glad to see some of your plants' placements in your rockery and around your new wall---but am not sure of the ID's--

I think an allium and maybe a creeping phlox in the first?...mmm...

Thanks again for posting your garden shots. Gives me some ideas... ;-) t.

The three main plants in the wall garden are soapwort (left side), pink creeping baby's-breath (right side) and thrift in the back.

Boy can the UK alpiners really grow their plants! Of course, they are grown in alpine houses so not subject to the weather. Some of those plants are to drool over!

Speaking of alpine houses, Todd, what would that entail? I have a huge solarium with a glass ceiling and two glass walls. It has no heat or air conditioning and it certainly is useless for anything but succulents in summer here, but would it be suitable for wintering some of the alpine plants in pots, or would I need to add some fans to keep the room colder than my normal zone 9A temperatures? I get frost, but the temp rarely dips below 25 degrees, and inside it's even warmer, of course, even without a heat source.

In California, I still think it would be too warm for an alpine house. In the UK they get several months that are mostly cloudy and cool (32-45 F)...cool enough to keep the plants dormant for a short while at least....plus the sun is very low in the sky since they are so far north. Sun in a solarium in California would be way too warm even in winter...you'd be better to devote the space to orchids!

I would need a walk-in refridgeration system with grow lights. :-(

John

You're right about the orchids. It's a super place for them in winter, and in fact I do keep my orchids, hibiscus, clerodendron, clivia, and other tender thingies in there until February or March. They all got to come out in the beginning of February, when temps unexpectedly soared to almost 80 degrees for about a week. Now it has cooled back down to 60 or so, but the clivia are already blooming their heads off a month ahead of their usual schedule.

I guess I'll just do my best to keep the alpines cold outside in winter. Maybe I could throw ice cubes at them once in a while.

I have to stick to growing my alpines in a raised bed as I have no more space for anything in my garden! But how wonderful it would be to have a proper alpine house. Some of the collections I've seen in the UK are magnificent.

I was being facetious when I said I would throw ice cubes at the alpines, but today I went on a nursery crawl with a woman from the Luther Burbank Gardens in Santa Rosa (even hotter than Sebastopol), and she said that their success in growing alpines is largely due to the liberal use of ice cubes. They just deposit them in rings around the plants and let them melt.