Three New Rock Garden Plants

Two of these are not new, new. I did buy them this year, but was waiting to test their survival before posting.

The other one was recently given to me by author friend, Jean. This is Sedum kamtschaticum 'Variegatum.' At least I'm pretty sure that's what it is. I'll know more certainly after it blooms next year. It stays low to the ground, while another of the S. kamtschaticum's - ellacombeanum, gets a little taller. I have a lot of the second one, and it's one of my favorites. This one is supposed to spread easily, so that will be good. The leaves aren't particularly colorful, but the buds are orange, opening to yellow flowers. Sounds good!

I moved a patch of 'Dream Dazzler' over one space and replaced it with this one. I previously had two purple ones too close to each other. I spend a lot of time trying to decide where things should go to look good in the long term.

On this topic, when I visited Dow Gardens a few years ago, I was astonished at how well the plantings were planned. The designer had to be able to envision how various trees were going to look together after 100 years. And they succeeded!

This one isn't really a rock garden plant, but I wanted something taller near the retaining wall in this space that really doesn't show up well. And I needed something that will hide that cable.

This is Yarrow 'Cerise Queen' which will have magenta blooms if it decides it's happy there. The location is part shade and part hot sun with the heat bouncing off the retaining wall. But so far, it's at least growing. I've killed a few things that can't take those interesting conditions.

I'll end today with a tentative sharing of a plant that I'm trying for the third time. It should absolutely be happy in my rock garden. But I've killed two of them in the past. I don't want to jinx it by sharing. (Wink) This is Mt. Atlas Daisy, or Garden Gnome, Anacyclus depressus. I got it just before I went away in June, and things got pretty dry. But it survived that and is growing. If it lives, the flowers are great! The buds are a deep red, but when the flower opens, the petals are white on the inside. Anyway, I'm hopeful, and I didn't spend very much on it, so it was worth another shot. And the leaves are an interesting texture too.

I edited, I worked on volunteer stuff, I spent a huge amount of time on some marketing materials, I got back to a project of my own since the ADK data is done (well, I still have some files to upload, but I'll putter at those.) Just a few things to get ready for the vendor event tomorrow at Cadillac.

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