Late Summer Colors in the Rock Garden

I'm working my way through the third complete weeding of the rock garden. I got the most difficult places done (the steepest, with fewer good places to put my feet).

I'm really pleased with a few areas of contrasting colors and textures. This one has (front to back) Blue Fescue, 'Vera Jameson' Sedum, 'Sparkling Bright' Sedum (past blooming this year), and Sedum Sexangulare beyond that. A couple of Sempervivum below.

This space seems to make my colorful list quite often, but it's working very well. Lamb's Ear (left), 'Wildfire' Sedum (center), and Hylotelephium 'Rosenthaller' in bud (right). Various bits of greenery around the edges- Moss Phlox and the Bloody Cranesbill.

The central area in this picture is Sempervivum 'Gold Rush,' which takes forever to turn goldish, but apparently it got around to it for the last couple of months of the season. In front of that is a patch of the Bronze Ajuga which has beautiful blue flowers in spring but these nice dark leaves the rest of the year. Blue Fescue for texture. Behind it all are violets, Sedum 'Angelina,' and a mess of stuff that needs weeding yet. The top center patch is Sedum 'Weihenstephaner Gold' which bloomed in June.

Here's another space that is looking really good this year, most of the season. The center is 'Firecracker' Sedum, with 'Gold Nugget' Sempervivum above it. It's just not as gold as the advertising pictures show it, but it did get orangy much earlier than the 'Gold Rush.' Behind that is more Lamb's Ear, with a spray of the blue-green 'Blue Spruce' Sedum.

The 'Red Heart' Sempervivum is red, although it's never gotten as dark as when I bought it. Still, it's much better than 'Ruby Heart,' which is hardly red at all. I like the way it looks with the 'Thundercloud' Sedum which still has quite red edges on the leaves making it look pink. It's in bud. Some Moss Phlox up in the top right, and a few other green sprigs of things.

Finally, I'll show you a Sedum all by itself. It isn't a big enough patch yet to contrast with something else, but the color is great. This is basically just a Sedum spurium tricolor, but instead of pink it has a more orange tone. It's named 'What a Doozie.' It was unhappy where I put it last year but didn't die. First it got too much shade. Then something ate it. I also think it prefers to be where the roots get a little crowded. A few weeks ago, I moved it into a small space by itself, and it seems to be responding well. I hope the colors stay true. The tricolor ones sometimes revert to just green and white. I have three patches of tricolor, not counting this, and each is slightly different with the reddish hue varying from pale pink to dark red.

Hopefully, given a few more years, the rock garden will have lovely spaces like this anywhere you look!

I worked hard today at various jobs, including cleaning up the house. They never do seem to clean themselves.

See Late Summer Colors in the Woods