It's been a tough summer, hot for the East Coast, but it's the lack of rain that really strains the garden. We'd finally get a rain after many weeks of drought, and then it would start all over again. Had the spring been wet it I don't think we'd be so exhausted from it, but no, it was dry too, and the fall so far doesn't look much more hopeful in terms of a penetrating rain.
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Anemones are amongst some of the showiest plants we have for the garden; and thankfully, the tuberous rooted species are some of the easiest to grow.
Anemone nemerosa is found on wooded hillsides throughout Europe. Digging up a colony reveals a mat of thin, woody stems that much resembles a writhing tangle of snakes _ if only they would move a bit. This makes propagating straight…
We started growing peonies from wild collected, Josef Halda seed ~ 15 years ago. Regardless of the species, they can be handled in a similar fashion. Early on I would soak the seed in 35% hydrogen peroxide - a very strong bleaching agent that will soften the seed coat. Leaving the seed in for ~10-30 minutes is sufficient. Planted in a some standard seedling mix, the seeds will swell,…
The plants in genus Dionysia are some of the most demanding in cultural requirements that few people attempt to grow them. They possess beautiful flowers, form tight domes of tiny leaves and the intriguing habit of growing on near vertical walls with a ledge of rock protecting them from full sun and weather.
Clearly, they are not easy to please. Mostly they are grown in pots…
The heated greenhouse is almost empty. We leave the plastic on the hoops and clear out all the newly propagated material into the uncovered holding houses.
This place is a burning sauna in the summer - you kind of hold your breathe - run in and get what you need - and run out.
Strangely though, there are some plants that have seeded, or rooted into the sand and thrive here...…
Of all the shrubs that can be put in a rock garden, Daphnes are at the top of everyone's list. It helps to have the image of the nymph who escaped the lust-filled Apollo by turning into the laurel - now Daphne laureola. But plants must have more than mystique; gardeners are practical, earthy types, and their plants must perform. Two of my favorites are Daphne velenovskyi and Daphne arbuscula,…
Soldanellas: delicate, fringed purple flowers. But this David Attenborough clip from "The Private Life of Plants" makes it look absolutely stunning. Now I understand why people drool over them...
A few that we offer: Soldanella alpina, Soldanella pindicola, Soldanella minima, Soldanella carpatica, Soldanella cyanaster.
The last two weeks in the garden have been all blue, the mystical colour that everyone wants...and the gentians haven't even started to open. A plant people are reluctant to grow is the blue corydalis. I remember the days when my dad badly wanted blue corydalis (years and years ago), and as a rough rule of thumb he had to kill it 3 times or so before he had success. My guess is it has nothing…
All leaves have such a fresh texture. Even though it's flower, flower everywhere in the alpine gardens right now, the leaves are doing their best to compete. Here's a taste of what is happening in the garden right now.
Arenaria sp. Wallowa Mt. - the perfect mat. Nobody ever asks if it has flowers. Now and then it has some white flower-blips, but nothing showy enough to take a picture…
Typically, we regard the members of Ranunculaceae as lush perennials growing in rich, moist soils and giving us flowers that may be either flamboyant as the aquilegia spp. or as elegant as Anemone spp. A quieter demeanor can be found in some of the alpine buttercups. Ranunculus alpestris is a little fibrous rooted clump that covers wet areas where the high elevation snow collects. The…
This has been the perfect spring for Saxifraga here. The slow, cool, moist weather has let the blossoms slowly come out with perfection. Some springs, when it is dry, warm and windy the petals are tattered and whipped - none of that this year.
Saxifraga x 'Valerie Keevil'
Saxifraga bursereana
Saxifraga x 'Redpol'
Saxifraga x 'Mother…
Finally it was 20C this weekend. Finally the snow is gone.
We've had too much snow this year. Really, I like snow, but my kids had more then 10 snow days off from school this winter - so many that they just expected a snow-day-a-week all winter. It started in December already (I never heard of a snow day in December) -- we had three in a row, and the next week another three.…
The biggest pleasure of the past season was watching the new plantings of Chinese gentians growing in the garden. Gentians are slow to develop. G. acaulis takes 3 or 4 years to form a mat/mound of ~15 cm circumference. At that size, it is a colony of individual plants both competing and helping each other to survive. As the mound expands, the population increases. It adds to the…
20 years ago I was enthralled with offering of eritrichium howardii seed in Jim & Jenny Archibald's North American collections list, "...Dead Indian Pass NW of Cody. 2800m. Limestone gravel patches and rock fissures... this is certainly not impossible to cultivate well... of course it needs superb drainage and protection from winter wet... Silver rosettes packed into dense…
A hint of the beauty that section ornatae holds was offered in the description and photo of gentiana futtereri - the large flowers coming in all shades of blue with prominent striping will rivet the attention of any garden visitor - blue has that ability to bewitch the viewer. The recent collections from Halda, Jurasek, Pavelka and Holubec have provided over 100 separate collections…
