Papaver alpinum

Five years ago I had the notion of building a 3 foot by 14 foot raised bed on the side of the greenhouse that would simulate alpine conditions with a well draining stony soil that was over 2 feet deep.  You have to work at it to convince alpines to be happy in the Maryland climate.  The construction was long and hard.  Just moving 84 cubic feet of soil is a chore.  But I was more that pleased with the result (think of it as a giant trough).  Things which were difficult to grow now became rambunctious.  Although the bed was fast draining, it also retained moisture well so that watering was not a big issue.  I built the bed on the shady side of the greenhouse and discovered that while that worked well for some things my notion of the Aubreita cascading over the wall didn’t work because, strangely enough, it grew towards the sun which was on the other side of the greenhouse.  So I have begun to tailor the planting on that side to things which were happy with a bit of shade, such as a couple of nice dwarf Rhododendrons.

Rhododendron ‘Ginny Gee’

Meanwhile there a number of plants like the dwarf Aruncus and two Daphnes that seem to be very happy.

Alpine bed on the shady side

In the meantime I decided to build a second Alpine Bed on the other side of the greenhouse which have a sunnier outlook.  I finished that construction project last year and this is the second growing season for the sunny side.  There have been a number of successes for that side and the latest is seeing the little Alpine Poppy for the first time yesterday.

Papaver alpinum

This came from seed obtained from the Scottish Rock Garden Society‘s annual seed exchange in 2017.  I got only this single plant from the seeding and it sat quite tiny and unmoving through the 2017 season.  But I had read that it wants a cold winter before flowering and indeed this seems to be the case.  From the Poppy’s point of view it’s in a very appropriate mountain environment.

Alpine Poppy in the Alpine Bed

Overall the sunny Alpine Bed looks really nice as spring begins.

Alpine bed on the sunny side

The Stachys and the Aubreita show every sign of diving over the wall the way I had hoped.

Stachys lavandulifolius

Hidden amidst the Aubreita is a fabulous eye-catching group of ice plants

Delosperma congestum ‘Gold Nugget’

This is from the highest part of the Drakensberg mountains of South Africa and despite it’s succulent nature it is complete hardy here.  

Other happy residents of the sunny Alpine Bed are growing out of the tufa rock.

Aethionema saxitile

Armeria maritima ‘Victor Reiter’

Suffice it to say I really enjoy the Alpine Beds!

Around the corner, at the front of the greenhouse is the first of my troughs with a now six year-old planting of Vitaliana, another alpine native.

Vitaliana primuliflora

Of course there is life outside of the Alpine beds, and I should share the posting on jewels in our garden from Dan Weil.  He spent last Saturday on his stomach crawling around the yard taking some very nice images of the little spring ephemerals in our yard.  Dan is an artist (paint and photography) with considerable talent and looking at other parts of his website is also rewarding.

In closing, the Kwanzan Cherry came into bloom yesterday, always a lovely milestone for the season.

Kwanzan Cherry