The colour of this young Knapweed is dark almost purple. As it opens fully it will become blue and then fade as the flower ages. The colour helps Centaurea montana earn its nickname of Mountain Cornflower or perennial cornflower.
01.08.2023 - 15:01 / gardenerstips.co.uk / hortoris
A rock garden is a grand place to display your alpine plants. You can shade them with rocks, provide deep root runs and provide rain cover with perspex roofs
In Alpine conditions plants can shelter behind rocks that give them protection from wind and rain and help with drainage. Try to give your plants similar conditions to there original habitat and they will repay you for your attention to detail.
Plants that grow in this low rockery include spring bulbs, Primulas, Aubretia, Campanulas, Saxifrages and low growing conifers.
A number of stones are placed in a way they can be walked on for access to maintain the Rockery
The careful selection of plants can provide colour throught out the seasons eventhough Spring is seen as the key time for Rockery flowers.
If you are planning to build a rock garden (and I suggest you do need to plan) then here are a few tips that will help you avoid some of the problems I have encountered.
More Rock Garden Tips
Choosing Stone for your Rockery
Design Considerations for a Rockery
See also Rock Gardens in Miniature
The colour of this young Knapweed is dark almost purple. As it opens fully it will become blue and then fade as the flower ages. The colour helps Centaurea montana earn its nickname of Mountain Cornflower or perennial cornflower.
In Yorkshire we are lucky to have several gardens designed using the theme of a Himalayan Garden. The Hut near Ripon at Grewlthorpe is  ‘The Himalayan Garden’ with all the plants you would expect in such a setting including
A call this a rock box as it is one way of displaying rockery plants above ground level.
Now part of this garden is down to crazy paving the Qualcast grass box is needed less and can be put to a different use. It looks like a ‘unibarrow’ has got in on the act to make a feature planter for these pansies.
Ants can be an unsightly nuisance and inspire concern. However they do not directly damage plants but are more a sign that you have another pest problem.
Lily themed week shows some more waterlilies and tips for a happy pond.
White is the second most useful colour in the garden after green. I am progressively increasing the number and variety of white and grey plants that I grow.
Britain has some of the best gardens in the world. The choice of which to visit is far larger than this selective list but at least it gives you somewhere to start planning this years outings.
In the cold wet winter it is a good time to plan where to visit as the year improves. The South West is the obvious place to start your visiting tour of gardens containing exotic plants.
‘The Garden of Reading: An Anthology of Twentieth-century Short Fiction About Gardens and Gardeners’ edited by Michele Slung.
First read the authoritative book ‘The Himalayan Garden: Growing Plants from the Roof of the World ‘ by Jim Jermyn
Your own rock garden does not have to be as large as that at Kew. You do not need to demonstrate every regional zone on the planet. Nor do you need specimen plants that grow in all the range of soil conditions and climates. Better to concentrate on doing one or two things well.