Photos of my rock garden & troughs

I took a bunch of pictures of my rock gardens today. I'm just getting
started so nothing too exotic here. I did start many of these from seed
from the NARGS annual exchange.

Big picture first

Got this planted up last year and been adding to it!

Close ups of plants in this rock garden:

Lewisia & Gentiana Acauis (almost done bloom) with a daphne in background

Aethionema saxtile close-up

Lewisia and a little geranium I got from Heronswood (just starting to bloom)

A tiny tiny potentilla - planted it by mistake where I already
had a small daffodil. ;-(

And now a few of the troughs - here's one I made two years ago:

Lewisia, phlox, a draba rigita past bloom & an allium

A second trough made at same time:

Campanula, draba, baby gentiana and perhaps
a sedum? (gotta check - not sure about it).

A trough I've had for years *thanks to Todd Boland for the definitive ID*
a Lychnis Alpina in bloom with a daphne fragrantly in bloom and just
a sneak peak at the azalea blooming too.


This message was edited May 16, 2005 8:42 PM

And the last of my troughs. I got this one from Betsy Knapp in NY.
It planted with an alpine aster & a little phlox.

Tammy, for someone who's just getting started, you certainly have some great plants and containers.

Where did you buy that beautiful Aethionema? It's so big and pretty.

Your Lychnis looks like an alpina. Of course, they are coming up with so many new Lychnis flos-jovis cultivars all the time that they might have one with that ball-shaped flower cluster by now. I think any other Lychnis of that size would have flat flowers.

The seventh picture down (Lewisia, Phlox, and Draba) refuses to enlarge. It might need to be posted again.

Is that an Azalea next to the Daphne behind the Lychnis? It's beautiful.

What happened to Jamie? She hasn't posted anything for a long time and she would love these pictures.

Well done! Your troughs are wonderful as well as the rest of your garden. You have a great selection of alpines. You seem to se about a month ahead of me as the creeping phlox are just starting to bud here. The lewisia are looking very healthy.

Zuzu - yes, that's an azalea near the daphne. It was about the only
flowering thing on the property when we bought it. (Except for the
lilacs & catalpa trees).

I got the Aethionema at the local NARGS chapter plant sale. It does
seem really happy.

I had put in several really big lewisias in the rock wall garden - the very
first plants. They died off (I think I let 'em get too wet over the winter).
But all the seedlings I've planted seem very happy. And those big ones
have babies - I see little seedlings all around the dead parent plants.
I've got 8 baby Lewisia Rediviva in a pot in the greenhouse. I need to
pot some up and put the rest in the garden. I hope I can make them
happy too.

Thanks for the nice feedback!

Yes, they really hate wet winters. I grow mine in pots that come inside in winter or plant them horizontally, between rocks in a makeshift rock wall, so that the crown never stays wet. That's really encouraging news that the seedlings around the dead parents survived. I never would have expected that. I love rediviva, but tweedyi is my favorite. I think it looks almost ethereal.

I love Catalpa. I'd like to get one, but I don't have an inch of room left for it. I have a lot of lilacs too, but I really hate the smell. I know that's weird. Everyone else on earth likes the smell of lilacs, but I can't even walk past them in the evening when they're in bloom. I also hate the smell of a blooming mock orange bush, which is another thing everyone else seems to like. Oh, well. Different strokes...

Zuzu,

The catalpa's seed themselves EVERYWHERE. I've got a lot of them
on the property. Our first summer, I came home from work and noticed
a really sweet perfumy smell. I walked all over trying to figure out where
it was coming from and it seemed to be everywhere. I finally figured out
it was the catalpa blooms! You might not like it, with that nose of yours :-)

Lovely! A very nice selection of plants. You said you made some of your troughs. How did you do that? I've read you can use wooden or cardboard boxes as a mould for hypertufa.

I used the Rex Murfett & Joyce Fingerut book as reference. Used styroform,
cut into four peices for sides & one for bottem. Used a wood base. Put the
form peices together w/big nails and then duck tape. And then lined it all with
plastic and shoved in the cement/perlite/peat moss mix in really hard.

Oh Tammy~

I am loving every single one of your pics!!! I am in a HUGE hurry now or I wpold write more....will soon!

LOVELY!!!!!

Jam

Tammy,

The pictures of your enchanting rock garden
have inspired me!

wow- great pictures- lots and lots of plants and neat troughs!! you really are ahead of us folks in new hampshire.. i'm from the philla. region so hearing you talk about the catalpas makes me nostalgic- my folks live there, so i still get down fairly often. except in spring!! it's just too busy!- i can see i'm missing the azaleas....sarah

A few shots of the same troughs/area but on Jun18. A whole new
set of blooms!

A huge silene but too pretty to pull!

A small crepe myrtle in full glory amongst the troughs and
rock walls.

What a beautiful Silene. Such a vibrant color. One of my crepe myrtles suddenly started succumbing to mildew. I've had it for a long time and it never happened until two years ago. This is the third year that the leaves look perfectly horrid. I can't figure it out. Nothing's changed (other than the look of the tree, that is).

Tammy--like everyone else, I am loving the pics of your rock garden bloom! (But, I especially like the Blue Trim on your house! Makes a beautiful frame for your garden and makes looking at your pics really 'joyful'.)

Wow! Gorgeous! Your house looks neat too! Would you mind posting a pic of it so we can get a look? It looks like something out of a magazine!!!

Nicole

You guys are so kind! I mostly take pictures of plants so finding some with
the house may not be easy. I'll dig a few out. Here's one of the house where
you get a peak at the greenhouse (which is set low into the ground so the
few from the deck above is not blocked).

Here's shot from the side - we've got an old stone springhouse (in addition
to the house & barn). Its a wonderful element in the garden & the moist
soil is terrific for primroses etc.

And the last shot - here you can see the house, deck & greenhouse.
The house was built in 1806 (log cabin) and then a 2nd story added
with a stone addition in 1848. We put nn an addition in 1999 (hence those
round top windows). That's when I got my dream greenhouse :-)

WOW!! I am so jealous!! Great house and garden!!!

Thanks Nicole. We sure do love it!

Tammy, what a gorgeous house and lot! I love your greenhouse and deck, and those beautiful arched windows. And you have such a great hill to roll down.

thanks all and now back to rock gardens eh?
...though I don't have any alpines/rock garden
goodies in bloom to share ;-(