I cover my rock garden with a corregated plastic roof - about
4' from the surface so plenty of circulation. I'll take a picture and
post it soon. DH put it up for me today. He put it one leg over
a newly acquired $22 anemonella from Asiatica. :-(
Tam
PS: we need some southern hemisphere rock gardeners!!!
I'm going through withdrawl here.
How do you get ready for winter?
Hi, Tammy. We sure do need some photos from Australia or wherever.
I had my handyman rig up some lattice roofs for some of my containers, to let in the rain while keeping out the big leaves that keep falling around here (persimmon, magnolia, etc.) not to mention the persimmons themselves. What an icky mess they make when they fall.
My Lewisias, Ramondas, Haberleas, and a few other things that hate soggy soil have all been moved under the overhang of my roof. They'll like the cold, but they're going to hate the Northern California rainfall that's non-stop for weeks at a time.
brrr- we've had some noghts in the 20's lately and i'm definitely interested in everyone's winterizing methods- mine is very undeveloped- just evergreen boughs after the christmas season- as they are so available then....usually, the weather hasn't gotten too terribly cold by then, though the ground will have already frozen ( though,this week we are supposed to have a day or two of 60 degree weather, in spite of the snow on the ground right now) tammy- i'm supposing the plastic roof shields from rain and snow- is that what i should be doing??
Yep - the idea is to keep things dry. The first year I put in the rock wall & filled it with soil
and just a few plants, it filled with water & froze. Because the bottem part was frozen, as
the top melted, it just stayed there. I suppose if you have good drainage, this wouldn't happen?
In my reading about rock garden construction, many authors recommended a cover.
I do have a small hemlock that we leave an opening in the roof over to let it get some moisture.
I've moved my small troughs into the greenhouse & left the bigger ones out to fend for themselves.
(I should move them under the over hang as Zuzu does).
Tam
I must say I do very little to protect most alpines...if they need too much coddling, then it's too much work. The exception are the Celmisia, Ramonda and Haberlea which I grow in pots and overwinter in a cold frame to keep off the excess winter-wet. I have a South African helichrysum that I protect by inverting a clay flower pot over the rosettes. That works well for Camp. raineri which also needs to have its crown dry in winter. I also invert pots over my hebes. I place fir boughs over a few dwarf evergreen ferns. The Oxalis collection is kept bone-dry in pots in the basement...they will be repotted and watered come March.
I still have a few Crocus speciosus, a clump of Allium thunbergii and a scattered Gentiana sino-ornata in bloom. No snow yet and none called for in the next 2 weeks. Pansies, violas, snapdragons, calendula, mums and ornamental kale still looking good. Its been a mild fall here in North America's far east.
Here's the cover. I wonder if I really need it? The first
year I lost my lewisia's but I've been successful with them since
so I suspect its helpful. (I always feel like such an amateur!)
Tam
Maybe Todd will post some pictures of flowers if I torture
him with another dreary shot of my rock garden? hint hint
Tam
Tammy, that set-up is actually quite good. It would not work where I live as I get way too much snow for the frame to support.
I keeping with your request, here's a picture of part of the rock garden of the botanical garden where I work. It was taken in early July. SIGH!
Thanks Todd! Oooo... I can tell I'll be going over all the old postings
this winter. That sure is a sight for sore eye.
Tam
Tammy,
The cover is clever, but that wall is great. Did you do that yourself? Is that local rock? It is beautiful. David
The tall rock wall was here and the shorter one was built by a local
stone man. He used a lot of the fieldstone I provided so that it would
blend in. (there's more rock than soil on this property. Good thing
I'm into rock gardening LOL)
tam-i can see that the cover would help in your situation, esp if the whole area filled with water otherwise- like todd, i think i just get too much snow- and also, the drainage is very good on my rocky hillside- new hampshire also has lots of rock...little soil.. i like the upside down pot protection concept- that would not be too hard- i just need to keep learning what needs it, what doesn't. winter is a good time for some studying!
Most of you are writing from wetter climates than Denver has, so I mostly do not have the winter wet problem, particularly where I have raised areas and in my spruce roots (never stays wet!). I find that the proximity of rocks and availability of spots on ridges allows me to winter over some plants that are considered difficult even here, such as Penstemon californicus
(http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/89386/index.html) and
Silene argaea (http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/107956/index.html).
Both are advised as "protect from winter wet" and yet they have gotten through 2 winters of snow that can persist for days. Both are on ridges with 2-3 rocks around them, and I think that is the key. I do nothing to protect them from snow. The rock garden does freeze solid for the winter, as it is in full shade then.
This pic of my very rocky rock garden is from 1 year ago, 3rd day of snowmelt. The blue fuzzy P. californicus is fully visible on the ridge on the right side. The brown S. argaea is under snow on the left ridge, about half-way down.
I did have a P. californicus fail elsewhere in this rock garden, on the lower plateau on the left. In the summer this is a full-sun, baking locale and the plant was happy. After a snow with prolonged cold (not that often, here), the snowmelt accumulates as a sheet of ice on that now-shady plateau (as well as in the dry streambed, making a river of ice). The plateau was built with a pretty solid row of rocks at the base and this seems to act as a dam for the water, making the xeric plant rot out in the winter. (Or, it could just be that the plateau is just too flat to drain well, not the rocky base.)
I find the ups and downs, as well as all the rocks, make for many microclimates and thus accommodate a wide variety of plants. My digital camera has also been used to document this garden, with patterns of sun/shade and snow/melt, every couple of weeks, at least, year-round. This is how I've come to understand more about why I lose certain plants or why they thrive. (The lattice fence on the right, for example, provides moving diamonds of full afternoon sun that plants that should have "morning sun" just love.)
Sally, I love your very rocky rock garden and I can't wait to see it in spring.
I was in Denver last September and was amazed at the plant material they can grow there. Considering they are zone 5 (same as me) much more can be grown in Denver than Newfoundland...simply because the winters there are dry. Many alpines can take extreme cold as long as they are dry. With 60 inches of rain (and snow) per year, Newfoundland is the wettest place in eastern North America thus alpines are challenging. Our summers are perfect for them but the winters less so. At our Botanical Garden we have an alpine house which keeps those plant perfectly dry in winter. There, we can get away with many additional alpines we could not grow outside. Also, the ground is not frozen for long in Denver...cold snaps are generally short-lived. Here, the ground many be frozen for 4 months. Again, this will limit what we can grow here despite our being relatively mild. Overall, the foothills of the Rockies are ideal for most alpines.
Zuzu, thanks for your interest. I have one photo from last June 2 that features a Penstemon alpinus, but has the P. californicus in the background (grey foliage with rosy lavender flowers).
I agreee wtih Todd that it is amazing what can be grown in Denver, having come from the East Coast (Philadelphia), myself 20 yrs ago. I am right in town, just one mile from the Denver Botanic Gardens. With all the brick houses, I think we are zone 6 and I have overwintered a number of zone 7 plants in locations that are shaded in winter. Our sun is so strong that plants in sun in winter are at a much higher risk of dying, it appears - and probably also from false starts during our warm spells in the midst of "cold season". (We had a high of 17 recently and a few days later it was in the 60's.) Christmas tree branches or other mulch over sunny beds help plant survival a lot, I think. My rock garden that is in full shade (winter) and against a very cold brick garage does seem to stay frozen for prolonged periods, at least - not like other areas that get sun.
It is fascinating what seemingly little details can mean to the plants. Each person in our chapter (RMC) of NARGS seems to be able to grow some plants that almost no one else can.
So here is my favorite pic from last summer. Happy holidays to all!
Oh, Sally, what a beautiful scene. It's a paradise garden. Thanks so much for that picture.
Oh my yes! Glorious!!! What are the yellow flowers?
Thank you.
What vibrant color- one way or another east coast gardens have a sort of hazy muted look- it seems to take the kind of sun and air that the west has to get colors like that- I look forward to pictures of this coming spring from your garden!
Tammy, the yellow flower looks like the yellow form of Penestemon pinifolius....perhaps Sally will confirm that.
I apologize for answering so late--I am sporadic visitor.
Yes, Tammy, Todd Boland is correct that the yellow tubular flowers are Penstemon pinifolius "Mersea Yellow". I find it grows happily all over my garden in different soils and conditions provided it is always next to a rock. It eventually becomes a low, loose shrublet. I've never had it seed around, but perhaps I don't have the right polinators. The typical orange form grows well at the edge of a huge spruce tree, where the roots provide a great home for many penstemons.
That vignette is the best picture by far of that rock garden. One friend says he is amazed at how many plants grow in a pretty small space, but I am convinced that is so because of all the rocks. (The closely-spaced rocks also make transplanting of all but 2-1/4" pots or smaller impossible, and moving a plant once established there is hopeless.)