Leftwood, I've overwintered Escobaria vivipara and Opuntia fragilis and O. polyacantha in my coldframe no problem but have never tried them in the open ground. Maybe I'll try them now given your success.
A favor to ask - pics of your gardens
Ally, how wonderful both of your beds are! I think I'm inspired :0)
thanks for the nice comments on my 'little piece of heaven'. I really love it here. Eagle Lake is just manmade flood control...it's much wider at the other end though. some of the neighbors have paddle boats or canoes. I had the rock walls built...DH and I are not in good enough health to do that kind of work ourselves anymore. But I have more than a pallet left over, smaller pieces mostly, and lots of ideas what I can use it for ;-)
I have another small area set aside where I was hoping to put a few hardy cacti someday. and some other succulents. I thought a Yucca filamentosa and some semps. so far it contains Sempervivum 'Olivette'. I am attempting to grow the yucca and some cacti from seed.
A picture of my rock garden from yesterday...
the lewisia and geranium nana are in bloom. And I had
to put a larger support for the clematis viorna. It got too
big for the small support I had last year.
Leftwood I believe that the cholla in the picture is Opuntia whipplei.
Gram, piles of rock like that always inspire me. I can imagine all sorts of great possibilities.
Tammy, I love that raised rock garden bed. That little G. nana is darling.
I got those at Heronswood.
Tam
Hi everybody from a newbie. The wife and I are creating our first rock garden. Here's a pic of part of it.
Welcome greyphase! You've got a great looking garden started there.
wow i wish i had room for a rock garden but looks like they are very large and sunny both of which i do not have. mostly shade and small here where we live.
Wow everyone - great photos!
Ally - your rock borders are truly stunning!
Tammy - I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing that gorgeous photo of the primulas by the spring ;-)
Hi greyphase - looks like a gorgeous rock garden in the making!
I'm like galanthophile - I don't really have room for a proper rock garden so most of my alpines are confined to a narrow raised bed along our drive way. It's the only spot in the garden that gets full sun. Ofcourse it's totally overcrowded already after 3 years so now I'll have to start moving out plants that can make it in regular herbaceous borders to make room for more ;-)
Hi, greyphase. looks like you're off to a great start. that's beautiful.
I am at the stage now where plants are being moved out into the garden to create more space in the raised beds!
Greyphase, I am jealous of those rocks already. Welcome to the forum!
I, too am jealous of the beautiful rocks
I'm laughing at the sun comment- I think I would need to do one in part shade for anything to survive SW GA sun, especially if I'm trying to keep it dry!
Not that we've needed to try lately, we just got our first rain shower in 3 months and it will be in the mid 90's by the end of the week
Greyphase - oooooo aaaahhhh... that's a wonderful start! I can't wait to see more pictures as
you get that gorgeous garden planted out!!!
Gardenlady - the wonderful thing about rock gardens is that all the plants are tiny! You don't
need a big space. And there are ones that do well in shadier areas. You might start with a
trough. And the folks here would probably love to share ideas of plants you could use.
Tam
Thanks everybody for the compliments on the garden. We are very fortunate to have some "beautiful" rocks on our 60 acres although the old farmers who tried to farm this land no doubt cursed these same rocks we love.
trough??? whats that like a straight line trough? that would be pretty with a few hens chicks in it.
Check out this thread to get ideas on trough gardening.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/722607/