Rock Garden Report - 3

I had a bunch more bookwork things to do this morning, but I split the afternoon between hike stats and the rock garden. Big surprise coming on the hike stats. Stay tuned.

As for the rock garden. Well! All the rain over the weekend made it way easier to weed, and the cloudy, cooler day meant that I could work out on the section away from the wall. See how it looks from the bottom now! I have about 33 out of about 80 spaces weeded.

This is one of my happy finds. This is Sedum ellcambianum. I was sure hoping it was still alive because it fills in nicely, gets about 2 inches tall, and is covered with yellow flowers when it is happy. Despite the complete neglect, there is still a fair puddle of it.

Here's a happy little Sempervivum. I have no idea which species or variety, but I call it 'Roly Poly' because it spreads by breaking off new rosettes before they open. These are little balls that roll to some new location where they take root. You can see three little balls on the lower left that are heading out on their own. I've never seen it bloom. I've also never seen it this happy. I've had this since 1998, and there are now fairly good sized puddles of this in several locations.

This find was a complete shock. Very little that is not a succulent or a bulb has survived. And yet, here was a little patch of something clearly not a weed. I went hunting in my plant records. It's Arabis sturii, Wall Cress. It's supposed to have white blossoms in late spring. Too late to see it this year. I planted it in 2001 in two locations. I haven't gotten to the other location yet. Woo hoo! Maybe next year.

Now for the three new plants I bought before I went hiking in June. Betty babysat them for me while I was gone.

The first one is a Sedum, and I had a small pot of this long ago, but it didn't survive. I'm not sure why, because it should be very hardy. I'm going to try it again. This is Sedum spurium 'John Creech.' There are LOTS of cultivars of Sedum spurium. I had 4 or 5 in the rock garden. I've found tiny remnants of 3. Hopefully, I can make them happy again. Most of them started as tiny bare root sprigs, so there is hope.

This is one of a series of Sedums that are sold under the brand "Sunsparkler." I think it's actually in a new genus Hylotelephium. (Not sure of the differences- maybe these grow more upright- there seems to be a lot of confusion about this.) It's patented as the variety 'Lime Twister." I picked this one specifically because it has some leaves that have a lot of the cream color on them.

And finally for today, this is kind of an odd plant that I'm going to try out. I love the dark color. It's Leptinella squalida 'Pratt's Black.' The common name for this is Brass Buttons, but this variety has very dark foliage and dark tiny balls for flowers. It is supposed to be very hardy, but the rock hill may be too dry for it. However, if it works out, it forms a mat and will fill in a space nicely.

That's all for today. I won't have nearly as much garden time, at least until Friday, so I'm really happy that I got in a lot today.

See Rock Garden Report 2