rock gardening

First Flowers of Flat Iris

Late December marks our first flowering of Iris planifolia. This odd native to Southern Europe and Northern Africa has a similar distribution to the better-known Iris unguicularis, but this Iris belongs to the group, known as Juno or bulbous iris. These deciduous iris are extremely sensitive to summer moisture, which is why this resides in

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Tongue Caught in the Crack

We’ve struggled for years to grow some of the exceptional forms of Hart’s Tongue fern, Asplenium scolopendrium in our hot, humid climate. One cultivar that we’d long been enamored with is Asplenium ‘Keratoides’. After killing nearly everything we had, we stuck one in the crevice garden, where, to our amazement, it has performed marvelously. It

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Don’t Miss the Stones latest show

Putting on a show this week in the garden are the Living Stones. No, not Mick, Keith, and Ronnie, but the horticultural Living Stones, Lithops aucampiae. Our oldest patch starts flowering in early to mid November each year, growing beautifully under an overhanging rock. For all the articles about how difficult they are to grow,

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Strumming on a Strumaria

Flowering in the crevice garden in early November is the little-known South African bulb, Strumaria discifera ssp. bulbifera. These hail from the winter wet/dry summer region of the Western Cape, and have been right at home in the ground here since 2018. Okay, so it’s not as flashy as a tulip of daffodil, but to

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That Won’t Grow Here

We love it when people tell us that certain plants won’t grow in our climate. As gardening contrarians, we thrive on proving gardening experts wrong. Below is a great example–our combination of Globularia repens (Spain, Italy) and Acantholimon halophilum (Central Turkey) thriving in the dryland crevice garden. Both have sailed through out rainy, humid, hot

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Shaz-zauschineria

Through the years, we’ve killed far more than our share of Zauschnerias, California fuchsia, but a combination of building a crevice garden and planting the superb clone, Zauschneria canum var. arizonica ‘Sky Island Orange’, we have a winner. Our clump, which is in full flower in October, has been growing here since 2018. To say

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Shaggy, but not a dog

The shaggy blazing star, Liatris pilosa has put on quite a show over the last few weeks. Looking quite different in the garden than it did in the wild, this native from Delaware south to Florida enjoys bright sun and well-drained soils. Our plant is growing in one of our Permatill amended rock gardens. Hardiness

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