Sorry I posted here by mistake

I am sorry I posted here before. I misunderstood the title of the forum. I thought it meant alpine or rock gardens. I love all your pictures and will keep coming back to look at the beauty. :-)

Angele,

It does mean that....Rock gardening...with alpine and any other plants that would go in a Rock garden....what did you post??? I will go look...
Jamie

thanks Jamie... I had posted a picture of the front entry to my new home... I had cleared out a flower bed and wanted some suggestions for design and plants for a rock garden. I have done little cactus beds before but never a real rock garden. I went ahead and planted it this morning with some cactus, a yucca (I think), and some celosia that will have red plumes and burgandy/bronze foliage. I'll have to find some pretty rocks next time we go out in the jeep.. nothing but sand around here.

This definately is not an Alpine Rock Garden, LOL. I'm in the middle/southern part of the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico.
Angele

Angele, it doesn't have to be an alpine garden. Please stay. We are interested in any kind of rock gardening (and any other kind of gardening, for that matter).

Thanks Zuzu, I wasn't really going anywhere. When I read the forum description more carefully I just thought I posted my question in the wrong forum.. You'd have to throw rocks at me to keep me from looking at all your beautiful gardens. Did you notice the new banner at the top of the DG pages? I just noticed it a little while ago. Love it. Do the web site owners change it often? I need a plant ID for the flower that's on it!

I noticed it last night. It does change periodically, but not often. Here I am, trying to sound like an expert, but I really only joined DG in January myself.

The flower appears to be some kind of dianthus. Todd is a plant ID expert, so he probably knows the name of it. If he doesn't stop by this forum to answer your question, you could try asking him in one of the threads he frequents. Actually, you should just go to the Identification forum or the Dave's Garden forum. Someone there, perhaps Dave himself, could give you the answer right away.

As for throwing rocks at you, that'll never happen. We treasure our rocks and need every one of them.

dianthus it is.. posted it in the identification forum.. took just a couple of minutes and your ID was confirmed

I saw that. Good for you! You're just zipping around this place like an old pro. I was hoping someone could give you a more specific name, though.

Because of the kind of work I do I'm ok with computers especially database stuff. It's gardening & esp. design thereof that I'm really new at. I have always had flowers in my yard but never tried to really make a garden plan before. My new entry is very simple but I do like it. I'm afraid it's going to be a lot of trial and error, I hope not too much error for the plants sakes.

Is your online name from the "It's a Wonderful Life" movie? I love Zuzu's petals.

I thought the dianthus looked familiar. I actually grew some once when I was at a cooler place in NM. I remember I was really happy with them because just a little 'miracle grow' and they bloomed their little hearts out.

My online name is actually my real nickname. Everyone's called me Zuzu for the last 30 years. People who ask about it either think it came from Zuzu in the Jimmy Stewart movie or from the name of Martha Stewart's chow dog. I acquired it in a much more mundane way. When my nieces were growing up, they couldn't pronounce Elena and called me Zuzu because I used to give them those little boxes of ginger snaps called Zuzu snaps. After they called me Zuzu, everyone else did too. One of my nieces was 21 before she found out my real name was Elena. She had always assumed my mother was wacky enough to name her daughter Zuzu. Actually, my mother is that wacky so it was a logical assumption.

I've been working on my present garden for 20 years, but I've never had any kind of plan. I just buy everything I like and then try to find a place for it. It's not that easy anymore. The combination of an unrepentant plantaholic, good climate, and great soil has produced a half-acre that is so fully packed that I now have to plant almost everything in hanging baskets or draped on arbors.

I only got interested in alpines this year. Mostly because of their size (so many more of them can fit into a container). I'm growing them in big, almost coffin-sized, redwood containers. Seven at last count. They are rigged up on elaborate stilts so that I can grow shade plants underneath.

Yes angele...do stay on this cozy little forum we are trying to keep going...huh Zuzu??? :) I would love to see your entry garden...I LOVE all types of gardening, you will find my pics and coments on the Perennial, Lily, Peony, ShadePlant, Foliage Plant, Pet and etc......forums....I am simply one of the folks that got this one going, so I am here alot to help it grow....I love to help things grow!!

Now that you have explained these containers of yours more in detail Zuzu, you have got to get a camera and post pics! They are so affordable now, especially if you will be posting most pics, and not blowing them up for hanging, or something. I have seen them on Amazon and Overstock for $60-$100 for great little cameras...that horrible order from Hirts was at least that much, right...? And just think of all the pics I would be complimenting you on...and begging you for cuttings, seeds, or division/starts from...LOL :) I just really want to see your 1/2 acre paradise and those primulas, and all the other stuff you are acquiring...
It is really easy to use these digitals...I had NEVER taken a good pic in my life till I got mine, and posting is a breeze with these new programs computers use now...walks you right through it...I know all our $$$ want to go to plants, but please, oh please won't you think about it??? I NEEDto see these plants....

OK , OK....went off on a MAJOR tangent there....I will stop pleading now...
Have a great day!!

Jamie
ps.....two Primula that are blooming under a weeping cherry...one of my few shady spots. The candleabra type is in its first year of bloom....just budding up now. Do you have any Primula japonica?? And if so, what do you fertilize with...anything besides compost, manure etc......

Overstock's a great idea, Jamie. I never even thought of that, but I've bought a lot of their rugs and Tiffany-type lamps and I love their quick and cheap shipping. I'll definitely get a camera from them.

I grow lots of Japonicas, but that's a bog plant, Jamie, so I only grow them in two spots. One is the spot where the gray water gets dumped from my washing machine and bathtub at least twice a day (I live in rural country here and I have a septic tank that's quite small, so I divert the gray water out to the garden) and the other is a bog garden I just made for myself a few weeks ago. I would never be able to water a Japonica enough in summer if I grew it anywhere else. The Primula florindae, denticulata, and beesiana are in the bog garden too. I'm thinking of moving the Primula rosea there too, because it dries out too quickly.

As for fertilizer, I'm embarrassed to say I never use it. I always mean to, but there's never enough time. It's one of those things I never get around to doing, like most of the deadheading and some of the pruning. This winter it was so cold and wet that I never pruned my roses. By the time I could spend time outside again in late January, most of them were already starting to bloom. If it isn't done by Christmas, it just doesn't get done.

Back to the subject of fertilizer, though, I really have incredible soil here. This area has always been agricultural land. My house is in the middle of what used to be a 40-acre apple orchard. The house was built in 1942 and when I moved here 20 years ago, there were still four of the old apple trees on the property. Those trees had to have been planted before 1942 and they were still going strong in 1984. I know they were part of the old orchard because they were exactly 20 feet apart. I eventually took them out because my son and his friends kept climbing them and having horrible accidents. Old apple trees are not good for climbing.

Zuzu,

I have my Primula japonica in normal garden soil that just tends to stay a bit moist...shady, luxurious leaf mould under a weeping cherry....I loved the plant, talked to the nursery plant propagator at the place I get many plants each spring...he has his in a similiar situation so I decided to try it...It has thrived for over a year! Major new growth, and many bloom stalks starting to form down inside the leaf center...if it ever shows signs of stress, I will do something then. For now, it is happy....and I am thrilled to grow a "bog plant" without any "boggy soil"!

I can't wait for you to get a camera...I feel as if you would be a virtual plant encyclopedia...ecspesially with all these new orders you have into these alpine nurseries! And those containers...oh how I want to see what you have got in those!! Can't wait...:)

Have a great day!
Jamie
ps...here is my P. japonica..sending up its 1st flower shoot...I want to see the blooms!!

edited for spelling...

This message was edited Apr 13, 2005 12:34 AM

Hey, that's a whole japonica family you have there. What a nice big clump! It's going to be magnificent in a little while. Is that a Brise d'Anjou next to it? I can't get mine to bloom. I think it gets way too much shade. It's under a big black walnut tree.

I think you have more natural precipitation in Washington and you probably don't need a bog. We get essentially no rain whatsoever between April and October. My water bill soars to almost $300 in summer. In August I move some of the potted plants to a shelf in one of the fish ponds, especially the little fancy calla lilies. I have a sister who lives in Pacifica (on the coast just below San Francisco) and has never watered her garden. She doesn't even own a garden hose. She gets enough fog every single morning of the year to keep her plants happy. If I didn't have to spend an hour or two a day watering, I might have time to deadhead and fertilize and all that good stuff. Maybe when I retire.... I hired a gardener to do some pruning last year, especially the stuff requiring a chain saw, but he kept stepping on plants, so he's not coming back.

I've never invested in a sprinkler system or a drip system because it would be highly impractical. My garden is a constant work in progress. It changes every year, and moving and readjusting all of the watering attachments would be like another full-time job. Besides, I figure I know more about the needs of individual plants than any mechanical system could. One good trick I've discovered is to plant a little bit of impatiens in every flower bed. It always lets you know when the soil gets too dry.

I grow a number of Primula japonica and close relatives (pulverulenta, bulleyeana) but alas, they are still under snow. I feel so inadequate! My Primula japonica won't be in bloom until July!.....what do you have in bloom come July-August, if all the alpines are blooming now? My first Kabschia are almost opened and the crocus and snowdrops are just opening. Late May-early June is the peak of the 'spring' alpines with Campanulas, Penstemon and Dianthus peaking in July. August is Gentian month and the dwarf asters in September. The snow is nearly all gone from my garden but it's been a slow spring. The only rock garden plant I can share pics of is my double snowdrop.....

and my Eranthis hyemalis.

Good Morning! Beautiful pictures. I envy you your soil ZuZu. I have a pretty good layer of sandy soil about a foot to foot and a half deep and then most of the yard seems to have a layer of clay under that with just a little caliche in spots. I haven't had anything analyzed but that's what it seems like. I have to be careful because the sand seems to retain the moisture for a long time and when it dries out it gets very hard and dense. When I lived in upstate NY, 1975 - 1983 it was so nice to plant something and watch it grow. Here you really have to nursemaid plants and then you win some you lose some.
Someone pointed me to the advanced search yesterday. Lots of kinds of sedum came up for my beds in part shade conditions. Have any of you had any luck with them? If so, do you have a favorite as far as form and year round interest?

Oh Todd...those are two of my favorite early spring bloomers....I ordered 100+ double snowdrops, and as many of the winter aconite....I didn't have my digital camera when they bloomed this year in Jan & Feb....next year....

It is going to be so perfect...when Zuzu and I have gone over our spring peak in the rock gardens...yours-- Todd-- will just be coming in...the pics can go on for months :o)-

As for July-August bloom, this is my first full year in a rock garden. I prepared my bed in Fall....planted early spring - and continue to plant...so I don't know what will be blooming when! A huge learning experience, my journal, and camera getting used daily...hard to keep up!!

One of my Shrub-type Clematis - with the blue-est blooms of anything I grow...including 3 types of Gentian! ;o)
Happy Spring!!
Jamie

Here's the new entry almost finished- picture taken early this morning. I have to find some pretty accent rocks to add. No rocks right where I live- none. But I can take a short jeep trip and find lots of really pretty ones. The county where I live in NM has a very pretty red rock named for it "Sierra Red" Perfect weather for a jeep trip. The baby celosia are supposed to grow to 14" and have deep red plumes. The tree branch you see is a Catalpa.. I can't wait to see it in bloom. The leaves will be huge. It is pretty spring, summer, and winter but not very interesting in the fall.

Todd, I can't say what will be happening to my alpines in summer. I've never had any before this year. I started buying them in December-January and put them in containers when they arrived. Most of them are still tiny little clumps of greenery and probably won't bloom much this year. If they survive, I expect them to put on quite a show next spring. We'll see. The only things that are blooming in the containers now are the Arenaria montana, Gentiana verna, acaulis, and rostanii, Anemonella, Polygala calcarea, Phlox bifida and douglasiana, and a couple of tiny thalictrums (kiusianum and something else). Some of the saxes and soldanellas bloomed and are already finished, and some varieties of androsace look like they're ready to bloom. I expect the little veronicas to bloom in summer, but I'll keep you all posted.

Jamie, I went to Overstock and couldn't understand any of the terminology. Besides, most of the customer reviews were really bad for any camera under $140, so I'm going to Good Guys tomorrow. The salespeople there always know what they're talking about, can explain it to me in words of one or two syllables, and probably will show me how to use the camera too. I know I sound like an absolute idiot, but I've never had anything but Polaroid cameras, because I didn't like the idea of waiting until pictures were developed. I'm a real sucker for instant gratification.

Angele, sand and clay? Wow, what a challenge! On the other hand, you do have a catalpa, and they're not that easy to grow, so the soil must be fairly good. As for the sedum, there are so many different kinds that I couldn't really suggest anything. I think Dragon's Blood is famous for growing under any conditions whatsoever. I guess it just depends on the bloom colors you like. I got one from Annie's Annuals this year that's supposed to be unique because it has blue flowers. It hasn't bloomed yet, so I can't tell you anything about it.

Zuzu,

If you love instant gratification, you will love your digital camera when you get it. Take a picture, load it onto your computer, print it out and post it to DG so I can drool all over my keyboard and write how much I love all your plants...and all that can be done in 10-20minutes..at the most! Once you are good at it ,and have had it a while, it can be done in 5 minutes from pushing the button on the camera -to holding the picture in your hand....you will love it!! And I will log on every day to look at your pics, and feel lucky to know you (at least on line...) so I can see and pick your brain about all your cool plants..:)

What is the sedum from Annie's that has blue flowers?? You and your blue...LOL :) You must have many, many flowers in many shades of blue...Can't wait to see them...;o)

Jamie

Jamie, the blue sedum is Sedum caeruleum. You probably could have guessed that just from hanging around Dave's Garden. I automatically gravitate toward anything with the word "caeruleum" in its name.

I did not buy a camera today because I'm having computer problems. My computer is dying. My modem is actually operating at 4.8 kbps! I have to go out tomorrow and get a computer and a camera and then find someone to move everything from the old computer to the new one, minus whatever made the modem sick. Oh, how I hate machines! I sold my last car 25 years ago and never drove again. It just kept letting me down. Unfortunately, I need the computer for my job (and for socializing in DG, of course), so I can't just get rid of it, although it lets me down more often than my cars ever did.

Oh Zuzu,
I really sympathize...I just had to get a new system as mine was dying a slow death, and as fast as computers get outdated it was better just to get a new system, than try to repair my old one. So now I have a nice set-up....for about 2-3 years, then it will be "outdated"...UGH!!! But I really do like the new stuff. Let me know what ya get...we'll talk computers, and be a support group for the computer frustrated!!!...:)

Jamie