Hi, everybody--I would like your thoughts...
I first became interested in 'rock gardening' when a friend of mine had a huge rock she especially liked moved by semi truck and crane from a Kansas field to her garden in Los Angeles...I thought this was really 'wild' and I wanted to know more about what she was up to...
UntilI I read this forum (being a relative gardening newbie), I thought that this was what 'rock gardening' was about---collecting interesting rocks to be set off by appropriate plantings...
Now I see that alpine plants are the main focus of 'rock gardening' (at least here on DG) and that is fascinating too, ---but does anybody out there collect beautiful or symbolic rocks and use them in their 'rock gardens'? I would like to know more about it, if you do...
I did find this article about Japanese 'Rock Gardens' that I think is along the lines of what my friend was doing...(only American style).. http://www.helpfulgardener.com/japanese/2003/garden.html which I thought was very informative...
Maybe others who post here have some experience with this aspect of 'rock gardening'? Thanks. t.
Japanese Rock Gardening? Collecting Interesting Rocks?
Here is another aspect of 'Rock gardening', exploring the healing powers of rocks, that is interesting http://www.gardenguides.com/articles/rockhygenics.htm
Tabasco ~
There was a thread, or a response to one that was from a lady that brings rocks she likes home from her many travels and works them into her garden in interesting, and quite attractive ways. She posted pics...I am off to search for it...I think it was closer to the kind of info you are wondering about. It was very interesting, and a neat idea....I'll post a link - or bump her thread as soon as I find it....
Have a 'Rockin' Day......(ok, lame-I know.....it's early...lol ;o) )
Jamie
Thanks, Jamie, since I first posted here, I have read some history of the British victorian plant hunters in high elevations and their collections...I suppose most rock gardeners in the western hemisphere model their rock garden concepts along this 'plant collecting' theme...and secondary to them is a rock garden designed as an artistic entity as a whole or part of the landscape...am I right about that? What do you think?
It seems like when I lived in California many people had rock gardens but focused on Xeriscaping and succulents in 'rockeries' (rather than alpines, unless they were in The Sierra)...they were fascinating gardens too, although I think the purists would eschew them!
well, and also there were a number of Zen gardeners and symbolic rock garden designs after the Asian tradition around...
Do you have any friends who vary from the traditional alipine collections? Just wondering...
Rock on in the garden this weekend! take care. t.
I love rocks too, and at times I bring them back from places we've visited. My husband's family had some prairie property with a lot of wonderful round moss covered rocks. When we finally landscaped our new property two years ago, we went and got a lot of these mossy rocks for the creek and pond. Before we added them, it looked too new and unnatural. It's still becoming something, but with the mossy rocks, the other granite rocks that were here definitely look better. I am also known for bringing home hunks of driftwood, which I like to throw around on the edges of the creek. Your story about the woman who had that boulder moved cross country sounded perfectly reasonable to me!
My unstudied take on Japanese rock gardening with a Japanese Maple and rusty pagoda lantern:
This message was edited May 16, 2005 8:13 PM
What a gorgeous picture! The mossy rocks are beautiful and so's the driftwood.
Yes, thanks, galega, your stream bed after the Asian tradition is a great example of what I was thinking of...
And moving your mossy rocks to your new landscape no doubt added that extra dimension of natural beauty....thanks for posting your picture...and what plants did you include in the stream bed garden? Is that Japanese iris?
galega, your mention of collecting driftwood reminded me of HRH The Prince of Whales' landscaping at his Highgrove Estate... apparently he has collected tree stumps from the estate and placed them in a "Stumpery" garden planted with exotic ferns, hostas and other shade loving plants, accented with boulders and rocks...
I'm guessing the 'stumpery' landscaping concept is after the British Victorian tradition of plant collections in unusual settings, but I have not seen HRH's myself...If my thinking is correct, hostas were found originally in the higher altitudes of China and Korea, and many ferns too...at least I think Dan Hinkley goes on plant hunting expeditions to Asia to find them...I wonder if that qualifies them as 'alpines'?
Thanks for posting and welcome to DG, btw. Please post more pics of your garden...it looks fascinating.
t.
Thanks Zuzu and Tabasco -
Even though I designed this garden, it is still evolving through trial and error. I am an impulse buyer, and a scrounge in my friend's gardens, and that sometimes dictates the plantings! I wanted to put different irises next to the stream and pond because I love the foliage, though I don't know what kind they are. All of these were dug up at salvage sites, or ones that I received from my ever-shovel-wielding mother in law - she's the best! Some of them have not bloomed for me because I put them in late last summer when I had no idea what color they were. If there are hideous color combinations, I'll just dig and move them again, I guess.
Other plantings are: a golden red heather, wooly thyme, fountain grass, blood grass, red daylilies, lime green variegated sage, variegated petasites, wild honeysuckle, oregano, artemesia, a weird weeping witchhazel that I just found, escallonia, and trailing roesmary. There is also a deodar cedar at the end of the pond and a little alpine noble fir. I am going to add a Japanese Yew and a small mountain hemlock, as soon as I can decide where to put them.
I had to laugh about the stump thing! I actually pulled one out of a burn pile that the construction workers had made, and hauled it out into the front yard. It was the inspiration for a dry creekbed that I am trying to fill in with different plantings. Here's a photo -
OOps - here's the one showing the stump. -G
Oh, that is a magnificent stump. As for the possbility of hideous color combinations, things rarely clash in nature. I've mistakenly planted purple blooms next to orange blooms next to pink ones, etc., etc., without being appalled by the results. Nature seems able to break all of the fashion rules.
Thanks Zuzu - I know you're right about the colors. I have just seen some pretty awful bearded irises. Like the rusty yellowy brown ones that bloom and look like they are really dead, or well on their way...you know? I am hoping that I managed to get all pretty ones, but I'll know soon enough. I know there are some iris aficionados around here, so I'd better shut up now. Shhhhhhhhhhhh!
Don't worry, Galega. I'm the resident bearded iris aficionado, I think (Todd thinks they're too flamboyant), and I'm a real sweetie. But I know what you mean about the dead-looking rusty yellowy brown ones. They're hard to like.
Tabasco, I love the whole concept of the stumpery garden. I once found a huge hideous fungus of some kind growing on a stump in my garden and displayed it proudly to everyone. My sisters laughed and laughed: Apparently, my father, whom I never really knew because he died when I was two, had once brought a huge hideous fungus home from a walk in the woods and made it into a mantelpiece, which he displayed proudly. The apple doesn't fall far...
Gal--I love your magnificent stump and the fine boulder with little rocks. And thanks for your list of plantings...I like knowing what others have planted in combination.
Here's a link to the Stumpery at Chaumont en France
http://www.chaumont-jardin.com/site/page/festival/2004/stumpery.php
Apparently Prince Charles has not offered pics to the internet of his stumpery, but, he has a book out on the gardens at Highgrove which features his woodland garden and the story of the picturesque movement and his 'stumpery'. I guess there's a lot we could do with stumps! But only the British gardeners can take it to the limit, I think!
About the irises--I did snap a pic of our 'Caesar's Brother' siberian that is planted next to our dry stack wall...it is partnered with a hardy geranium Biovoko (I think) and they make an attractive couple.
Our few beardeds will be out next week, I guess, and we have one Japanese iris.
Happy gardening. t.
Tabasco - what lovely French stumps! It makes me want to go for another walk in the woods with my wheelbarrow (and possibly a forklift). I convinced my nextdoor neighbor to haul a bright red stump out of her woods last summer to place near a large boulder in her front yard. Her husband still thinks we're nuts - he's the one who had to move it - but it looks great! He said it looks like a reclining nude, and it was all I could do to resist secretly planting some black mondo grass in a particular location -LOL.
Zuzu - I am such a newbie with the bearded iris. It's good to know that you could possibly help me to identify whatever these may be, once they do open up. So far just the lavender ones are out, and a dwarf pale blue. I am also supposed to have some different Japanese iris besides the yellow, but they have not bloomed yet either. I'll just be surprised.
This message was edited May 18, 2005 8:08 AM