How low can you grow?
Mention the word ‘alpine’ to a garden designer and (in general) you’ll be given the same facial expression as a child who’s just bitten into an unwaxed lemon!
Insignificant leaf growth
with tiny flowers … what’s to love? Associated with badly designed 60’s rockeries, these low growing perennials really do get a raw deal. In the main, the poor little things can’t climb very far, can’t extend their roots to escape from water logged soil, and have not adapted to elongating their stems to reach the sunlight (because a naughty gardener planted the pot-bought specimen under the shade of a tree).
Alpines, like other successful species, have adapted themselves to their native habitats, often found clung to the side of a windy rock face way above sea level. When you observe them in the wild, you easily understand why they are so small. The exposed sites would quickly dry out large leaves, so many are small in size such as those of Hypericum olympicum, and others often silver in colour such as the very cute Artemisia schmidtiana ‘Nana’. Rather a mouthful to say and often not the most romantic sounding names either, take Pulsatilla vulgaris (the pasque flower) as an example. It might not win any prizes in the largest plant competition, but its ability to
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grow on nearly solid limestone rock is pretty impressive. So too are its beautiful flowers, delicate dissected foliage and crazy seed heads.
Until I saw a glasshouse full of alpine plants all in bloom at the same time I wasn’t a huge fan either, but seeing them up close and personal when displayed at waist height, you realise how wonderful these tiny
creations are.
Over recent years, alpines have really been appreciated for their versatility and employed in
new applications. Take the humble
Sempervivum ‘Othello’, famous for thriving on hot dry tiled roofs and now widely used on green roof schemes where it can adapt to the very shallow free draining soils. It’s quite a vigorous semp., with beautiful red tints in winter. Grow in shallow containers in full sun where it will quickly spread to around 30cm in width.
If you are looking for a plant to cover an old dry stonewall or soften the corner of a raised bed, look no further than Campanula poscharskyana ‘Stella’. If happy, it does have a tendency to walk, but with its long flowering season and pretty purple flowers I’m sure your neighbours won’t mind if it starts appearing in their crevices too.
To advertise in thewire t. 07720 429 613 e.
the.wire@btinternet.com
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