Alpine, Rock, Miniature, Bonsai and Railroad Gardens

Showing 73–80 of 91 results

  • Saponaria ocymoides Rock soapwort Z 4-9

    Small bright pink flowers bloom along dense, creeping branches hugging the ground in late spring into summer.

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    Small bright pink flowers bloom along dense, creeping branches hugging the ground in late spring into summer.

    Size: 3" x 18"
    Care: Sun, well-drained soil
    Native: Spain to Yugoslavia
    Awards: Received England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

    Both the botanical and common names come from the plant’s use as soap, the leaves “yeelde out of themselves a certain iuice when they are bruised, which scoureth almost as well as sope.”  Gerard (1633).  Soapwort is still used today by antique and art restorers for its gentle cleaning: chop dried leaves and roots, boil in water for 5 minutes, and then agitate to make suds.    William Robinson, father of today’s mixed perennial border gardens, praised this as bearing “masses of rosy blooms.”

  • Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’ syn. Sedum reflexum ‘Angelina’ Spruce-leaved stonecrop Z 4-8

    Chartreuse, turning red-orange in fall, needle-like leaves blooming with yellow flowers June-August but the leaves are the feature.

    $9.75/pot

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    Chartreuse, turning red-orange in fall, needle-like leaves blooming with yellow flowers June-August but the leaves are the feature.

    Size: 4-6” x 1-2’ spreader
    Care: sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil.
    Wildlife Value: Rabbit and Deer resistant. Drought tolerant.

    Species grown at America’s 1st botanic garden, Elgin Botanic Garden 1811

  • Sedum spurium ‘Dragon’s Blood’ syn. Phedimus spurius ‘Dragon’s Blood’ Caucasian stonecrop Z 4-9

    Mat-forming evergreen. In spring red encircle its fleshy, green, round leaves. In summer leaves turn bronze and in fall deep burgundy. Small, bright pink, star-shaped flowers.

    $9.25/bareroot

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    Mat-forming evergreen. In spring red encircle its fleshy, green, round leaves. In summer leaves turn bronze and in fall deep burgundy. Small, bright pink, star-shaped flowers.

    Size: 4-6" x spreading 12-18"
    Care: sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Caucasus Mountains
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit; Great Plant Pick

    Franklin Gardens in Big Springs Arkansas sold this in 1948 for 50 cents calling it “a new sedum. . . “Called “a new Sedum that will surely become popular” New and Noteworthy Hardy Plants Spring Flor-Acres’ Perennials 1950 p. 13

  • Sempervivum tectorum Hens and chicks Z 3-10

    Rosettes of succulent leaves

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    Rosettes of succulent leaves

    Size: 4” x 4”
    Care: sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Alps & Pyrenees Mountains

    Grown in gardens for thousands of years.  Sempervivum means “live forever.”  Romans planted Hens and chicks on their roofs to ward off lightening.  As a succulent it holds water and is probably more difficult to catch fire.  “This practice was preserved for historians when Charlemagne (720-814), first Holy Roman Emperor and unifier of a large part of northern Europe, o:rdered that all villagers within his crown lands plant houseleeks on their roofs He decreed: “Et ille hortulanus habeat super domum suam Iovis barbam. (And the gardener shall have house-leeks growing on his house. Capitulare de villis, about 795,  LXX.)”

  • Silene schafta Schaft’s catchfly, Moss Z 5-7

    One of the spectacular late season blooms –clusters of five-petaled, jagged-edge, bright magenta flowers on short mounds, September to October.  Perfect for front of borders or rock gardens.

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    One of the spectacular late season blooms –clusters of five-petaled, jagged-edge, bright magenta flowers on short mounds, September to October.  Perfect for front of borders or rock gardens.

    Size: 6” x Slowly spreading
    Care: full sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Russia
    Awards: England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit

    Introduced from its native Russia in 1844. First described by and probably collected by Johann Gmelin (1709-1755) German naturalist who spent years hunting plants in Russia and authored four-volume Flora Sibirica.  In Greek mythology Silene was a companion of Bacchus who was covered with foam. William Robinson, father of the mixed perennial border, described the flowers of this species as being “very neat tufts.”

  • Sisyrinchium angustifolium Blue eyed grass Z 3-9

    Petite iris-like foliage sporting blue saucer-shaped flowers with bright yellow stamens in summer.

    $10.25/bareroot

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    Petite iris-like foliage sporting blue saucer-shaped flowers with bright yellow stamens in summer.

    Size: 12" x 6"
    Care: Sun in well-drained soil
    Native: North America, Wisconsin native.

    Mahuna Indians of So. California made a tea from the entire plant to expel stomach worms. In cultivation by 1732. Named by Philip Miller, gardener of the Chelsea Botanic Garden, in Gardeners’ Dictionary .

  • Symphyandra zanzegura syn Campanula zanzegura   Ring bellflower, Rock bellflower    Z 5-10

    Flared petal ends of lilac bells on wiry red stems over soft, velvety leaves bloom much of summer.

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    Flared petal ends of lilac bells on wiry red stems over soft, velvety leaves bloom much of summer.

     

    Size: 15” x 15”
    Care: full to part shade in well-drained soil
    Native: mountains of Armenia, Eastern Europe
    Wildlife Value: attracts bees

    Described and published by Ukrainian botanist Vladimir Lipsky (1863-1937) in 1894. Reclassified as a Campanula in 1980.

  • Synthyris missourica Mountain Kittentails Z 5-9

    Spring flowering, true blue short stalks above leathery, evergreen leaves, circular with tooth margins.

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    Spring flowering, true blue short stalks above leathery, evergreen leaves, circular with tooth margins.

    Size: 5-12” x 12” spreading into clumps by rhizomes.
    Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Mountains of northeast CA, Washington, Idaho & west to Montana

    Collected by Meriwether Lewis on June 26, 1806 in today’s Idaho near the headwaters of what they named Hungry Creek. Common name kittentails imaginatively named for the flower stalk and its protruding stamens resembling, if you squint real hard and maybe after taking a swig of whiskey,  fuzzy, blue kitten tails.