While daphnes have a reputation for being tough to grow, many are actually quite easy if given proper siting. My life with daphnes changed significantly after my 2010 botanical expedition to Crete. I was shocked to find daphnes growing in full baking sun in bone dry regions among large rocks. Before then, I had obviously taken far too good care of my daphnes. Once we constructed the crevice gardens at JLBG, we replaced all the daphnes we’d killed in “better” garden locations. Here’s the Cretan native Daphne sericea in full flower.
Yes, cactus flowering season has begun at JLBG with our two earliest specimens. Both Notocactus hasselbergii from Argentina and Pediocactus simpsonii from the Western US are the first two to bloom each season. We should have an incredible cactus flowering this year, which should still be in full swing for our spring Open Nursery and Garden days.
There are several tiny rock garden-sized phlox, bred in the EU, and sold by specialist nurseries as forms of the Western US native, Phlox douglasii. The only problem is that Phlox douglasii isn’t really growable much outside climates similar to its native haunts. Phlox expert Charles Oliver determined these are actually hybrids between Phlox douglasii and the East Coast native Phlox subulata. This week, one of those hybrids, Phlox ‘Ochsen Blut’ is ravishing, and thriving in our crevice garden. The name, which translates to Ox Blood, indicates that the breeder most likely doesn’t have any training in marketing.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a piece of concrete, you’ve no doubt heard of our crevice garden experiment, constructed with recycled concrete and plants planted in chipped slate (Permatill). It’s been just over three years since we started the project and just over a year since its completion. In all, the crevice garden spans 300′ linear feet and is built with 200 tons of recycled concrete. The garden has allowed us to grow a range of dryland (6-12″ of rain annually) plants that would otherwise be ungrowable in our climate which averages 45″ of rain annually.
One of many plants we’d killed several times ptc (prior to crevice) are the arilbred iris, known to iris folks as ab’s. These amazing hybrids are crosses between the dazzling middleastern desert species and bearded hybrids. Being ready to try again post crevice (pc), we sent in our order to a California iris breeder, who promptly emailed to tell us that he would not sell them to us because they were ungrowable here. It took some persuading before they agreed to send our order, but on arrival, they became some of the first plants to find a home in the new crevices. Although we’ve added more ab’s each year, the original plantings will be three years old in August. Here are a few flowers from this week.
Iris ‘Aztec Prince’
Iris ‘Bold Awakening’
Iris ‘Confederate’
Iris ‘Glow of Love’
Iris ‘Peresh’
Iris ‘Refiner’s Fire’
Iris ‘Sand Dancer’
Iris ‘Sharman’s Magic’
Iris ‘Shimmy Shake’
Iris ‘Signal Butte’
Iris ‘Tresco’s Eclipse’
Iris are just a few of the gems that can be found in our “cracks”, continuing below with dianthus. As we continually take note of our trial successes, more and more of those gems will find their way into our catalog and on-line offerings…as long as we can produce it in a container. Please let us know if any of these strikes your fancy.
Dianthus ‘Appleblossom’
Dianthus arenarius
Dianthus ‘Inshirach Dazzler’
Dianthus ‘Razzlepop’
Dianthus subacaulis
Dianthus ‘Vivid Bright Lights’
Dianthus ‘White Crown’
If that’s not enough, here are some more shinning stars currently in bloom.
Allium trifoliatum ‘Cameleon’
Arenaria grandiflora
Corydalis flexuosa ‘Porcelain Blue’
Crambe maritima
Delosperma ‘Mountain Dew’
Delphinium tricorne
Globularia meridionalis
Homothophylla pyrenaica
Hymenoxys scaposa ‘Travis’
Manfreda undulata ‘Crested Surf’
Penstemon heterophyllus
Penstemon triflorus
Puya dyckoides
Scorzonera cretica
Taraxacum pseudoarurem
If any of this seems interesting, you probably should be a member of the North American Rock Garden Society…a group of similarly afflicted individuals. If you are specifically addicted to cracks, check out the nearly 2000 strong, really sick folks on Modern Crevice Gardens on Facebook
When we completed our crevice garden, we wanted to see if it would be a good home to cyclamen, since they like to grow naturally in well drained sites, and sites that are very dry during their late spring/early dormant period. Here, they also get a couple of hours of morning sun, but shade after that and no supplemental water. The soil mix is about 50% Permatill and 50% native soil/compost. Here are some photos recently taken this winter showing how they have fared. The joy of growing cyclamen is that each seedling has a different leaf pattern…what amazing plants!
If you haven’t been out lately, the last section of our crevice garden along the exit drive is nearly finished and being planted as we speak.
Previous sections are starting to fill in nicely and really shining this spring. Be sure to visit during our upcoming 2019 Spring Open Nursery & Garden Days, May 3-5 & 10-12, and get inspiration for your own crevice or rock garden.
We’ve got a thing for hardy cactus in the garden, but haven’t propagated many to offer yet. One of our many favorites is Notocactus apricus. Above is our 17 year old clump in the garden, which is 4″ tall x 15″ wide. We’ve grown a few from seed, but are curious how many folks might consider purchasing one? We’ve only been to 7F since 2000, so we don’t know if it will take colder temperatures or not.
Visitors to our spring Open Nursery and Garden this year got to see the amazing Trichocereus ‘Irridescent Watermelon’ (bred by local cacti specialist, Mike Papay) in full flower (hardy so far to 7 degrees F). Offsets are almost non-existent, so we decided to grow some from seed. Each plant will be different, but all should be quite nice. So, if we offered these as a seed strain, would you purchase some, knowing each will be slightly different?
We hope you’ll be able to visit during our final open weekend for summer, Saturday July 15 (8-5) and Sunday July 16 (1-5). The gardens are looking quite fabulous, especially our new crevice garden. The greenhouses are also quite full of an assortment of perennial treasures!
Many of the changes you’ll see when you visit the garden next time are driven by Anita’s suggestions to open up many of the overgrown garden spaces around the sales area. This new section is where 150′ of Nellie Stevens hollies were removed last fall/winter. Despite only being in a short while, the plants are beginning to settle in. The wonderful rock work, was done by our Research and Grounds horticulturist, Jeremy Schmidt. Here’s a fun seep area in the same space that Jeremy dreamed up. We hope you’ll check out these and more new additions when you visit during our upcoming July open nursery and garden.
Here’s today’s view of our first alpine berm garden installed in 1997. Even within a small space, you can have incredible plant diversity. One of the many features you’ll enjoy when you visit Juniper Level Botanic Garden during one of our open days.
Here’s a vignette from our Southwestern garden, which gives the feel of a Southern California landscape.Here is one of our rain gardens that captures 5 acres of water runoff from both nursery irrigation as well as surface runoff. This makes a perfect place to grow many of the water iris (Louisianas and blue flag) which are in flower now, soon to be followed by the Japanese iris.
