Will the REAL ice plant please stand up?

Mesembryanthemum barklyi

First of all you have to grok* the SCALE of this puppy: it's almost a yard across from leaf tip to leaf tip. As a lover of little plants I ignored these for a while, but eventually couldn't keep doing so. Eventually I came to my senses and began to look at them more carefully.

Somewhere in the thousands of images I took on my recent trip to Namaqualand I have pictures of whole fields full of these. Or maybe I just took mental pictures. Jan is there for scale. And 'cause she's cute.

When you realize most of these are annuals or very short lived, you begin to marvel more at their growing all winter in time to bloom for a month or two in late spring before succumbing to the great heat and drought of the Namaqualand summer 

These have all been Mesembryanthemum barklyi: I wish I'd taken ten times more pictures (just compare this to the first)--it is so variable in different lights!

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum

The former's sister species gets just as humongous, an is (if anything) even more variable. This is the one occasionally grown in gardens--not always easy to do. Rather than the hairs of barklyi, this has the crystalline exudations that give this plant its specific name, and the entire Family one of their best known common names: "Ice Plants". Of course, many genera in the family share the capacity to form icy crystals--especially Drosanthemum and even Delosperma cooperi. But their generic epithet is not Mesembryanthemum! This is THE ice plant! And it does indeed stand up and stand out all over the dry parts of South Africa by the million!

And just a few more shots to show its extraordinary multiplicity of forms. I think I shall need to try and grow this monster--not sure where, somewhere. Soon!

Get a load of this behemoth! Would LOVE to see it in bloom (the flowers are very cool too--but not as cool as the leaves and habit.

 Even in spectacular death they are pretty awesome.

A host of genera have recently been sunk into the genus Mesembryanthemum including (notably) the equally widespread and abundant Phyllobolus. I don't approve of that lumping--much to extreme to my taste.

I'd rather we keep the Genus name restricted to these gentle giants of the Veld.

Oh to go back and see them there, graced with a gentle wind from the Karoo...

*grok: if you've not read Stranger in a Strange Land, it's not to late to do so. I'm not much of a Sci-Fi reader, but this is a classic!

Grok[edit]

The word "grok", coined in the novel, made its way into the English language. In Heinlein's invented Martian language, "grok" literally means "to drink" and figuratively means "to comprehend", "to love", and "to be one with". The word rapidly became common parlance among science fiction fans, hippies, and later computer programmers^[19] and hackers,^[20] and has since entered the Oxford English Dictionary.^[21]

The last quote is from Wikipedia. Since I'm not a Sci-fi fan, a programmer or hacker, I must be a hippie.

The busman's holiday: a mountain retreat in Colorado

"Wildflower Ranch" in Routt County, Colorado

,Most professional gardeners will maintain a pretty nice garden at home. It takes a super gardener like my colleague Mike Kintgen to not only maintain a sizeable public garden (the Rock Alpine Garden at Denver Botanic Gardens), but a gem of a garden at his house in Denver, and then over four hours away in Northern Colorado, he has created a truly epic garden at well over 8000' around his family's montane elevation mountain home. I've had the privilege of visiting a few times over the decades--most recently last July 17 on a trip I took to Salt Lake City.

Primula florindae

Mid July isn't usually a very good time to visit rock gardens (and of course I missed the wealth of saxifrages, androsaces and primulas that bloom for Mike the weeks after snowmelt). But this idyllic spot with spectacular views in all directions enjoys a cool summer--so plants bloom on and on. And gems like Primula florindae are in peak bloom. I'd seen this in Tibet blooming a few weeks earlier in 2019--for me one of the great pleasures of rock gardening is finding the plants I grow in the wild and vice versa! Mike has the added bonus that there are dozens of choice flowers growing naturally on the family ranch. Some of us call this cheating!

Erodium manescavii and Sempervivum wulfenii

These two happen to be two of my personal favorite work horses in my Denver Garden, where I fancied I grew them well: but I never thought to plant them together--and they seem to grow even more happily up in Routt County than they do for me. Grrrrrr.

Mike's midsummer gardens are full of happy combiatons like this hybrid Verbascum, a fine Eryngium and a lovely daisy--none of which I can identify by specific name (I'm hoping Mike may be able to provide those--I'd check back in a few days: I have a hunch he can and will!) Clarification from Mike Kintgen: "- Eyngium Big Blue, Helianthus quinquinervis local form, Verbascum hybrid that has shown up several times in my garden from V xanthophoeniceum and something that came as V oreophilum and maybe chaixii (maybe yellow chaixii x xanthophoeniceum makes the most sense."

Here a choice Dianthus is blooming alongside what looks like Sedum hybridum in bud: both of these would be in seed in Denver by mid July: what a treat it must be for Mike to experience multiple springs every year at work and in the mountains!

The garden goes on and on with outcrops if this kind of rock he'd imported from elsewhere here, some tufa over there, a crevice garden on yet another slope. Late July is late for Porophyllum saifrages, but you can see the encrusted Saxies are still blooming away!

I believe this is Aster haydenii, a plant I've not seen in a garden before--growing out of a rock. (M.K.: "ex Bighorns")

Oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum) blooming in the Southern Rockies.

Sensitive fern seems to be very happy in Routt County: found only once in Colorado (by Bill Weber in Douglas County where it's never been found again), I believe Mike brought this back from a relative's property in Michigan (he shared it with me: mine doesn't look quite this robust!) M.K.: "The sensitive fern is a form I found in the Sandhill of Nebraska between Valetine and Therdford  in High School although its very common in the UP.   I should get a form from there and compare."

 

An enormous cushion of Dianthus anatolicus blooming like it never does at lower altitudes. This is absurdly miss-named Dianthus simulans by the few nurseries in the USA that have sold it (the correct name denotes its origins in Western Turkey, while D. simulans is a very small tuffet confined to a small area in the Balkans that never makes these magnificent mats.

I was obviously there in Dianthus season--they were everywhere! I shan't try guessing specific epithets!

I'm tempted to guess this is Dianthus neglectus (a.k.a. Dianthus pavonius-a much prettier and more appropriate epithet) a classic European alpne that obviously likes growing in Routt County!

One of many literal "ROCK" gardens--a whole garden on a rock. In Denver a garden like this would require copious watering, and still not look this good!

I believe this is a form of Paeonia anomala with colorful calyces persisting after the petals fall.  M.K.: "P veitchii var woodwardii from Heronswood circa 1998"

And of course lupines grow at altitude far more happily than they do on the Great Plains!

More danged Verbascums dancing with a lovely columbine: there were so many happy combinations in the garden--how many designed and how many happy accidents?

Geranium x magnificum

Either Geranium magnificum or G. ibericum (I confuse the two)--hopefully Mike will weigh in. M.K. weighed in: it's x magnificum.

Campanula cochlearifolia 'Alba' blooming away--these thrive a few years for me in Denver and fade away--up here I believe more of these classic alpines stick around.

Telesonix jamesii

Blooming in late July just as it does on Pikes Peak. But in Denver it would be over by now.

Saxifrages love growing at altitutude

A few persistent flowers on an enormous tiny Androsace--I believe it's Himalayan. I hope Mike will provide a name! This inspired real envy in me--they don't grow like this for ME. M.K.: M.K.: Androsace muscoidea from Wrightman Alpines

Wonderful combo of purple Lysimachia ciliata and a European columbine (alpina? vulgaris?)

I'm not sure which plant is happier looking, the robust pink form of Saxifraga paniculata on the left of Rhodiola rhodantha on the right. I have to grow the Rhodiola in bog conditions for it to persist in Demver!

Local form of Helianthus quiquenervis. I know I want to grow it (I pity people who dislike DYC's) 

Mike Kintgen: Aquilegia flavescens pink form from the Wasatch collected by Ron Ratko.   Comes fairly true form seed although my columbine has been in close enough proximity that they are forming hybrids and I seem to get less pure seed as time goes on.   I think the hybrids back cross back to the parents.   Until I started getting hyrbids my seed seemed to come fairly true.

The variety and quantity of columbines all over this garden was spell-binding: 

Ditto here: Mike? HELP! M.K.:The red columbine is either elegatula or formosa,   It came from a source where it could be either.   At one point I had them figured out but I have forgotten

A wonderful cortusoid Primula in a trough: P. polyneura I'm guessing? I saw that species on Shika Shan in Yunnan looking like this. M.K.: The primula thing Is  Kaufmannia semenovii which has lived here too at DBG.  Flowers small and green

More fantastic combos of folkiage and flower: I THINK that's a golden leaf form of Tanacetum vulgare in the middle--presumably not as thuggish as the plain green form? M.K. Yes, Tanacetum 'ISA Gold' is the cultivar; it generally doesn’t flower in Steamboat and it well behaved.

Eriogonum compositum: a personal favorite of mine I just realize I've lost. Grrrr.

I'm guessing this columbine is a hybrid: I'll take it anyway!

Some sexy Himalayan rhubarb on the crevice garden. Not sure which one. Just realized I never got a picture of Mike's Rheun alexandrae that was in bloom elsewhere in the garden! M.K.: Rheum moorcroftiana from Czech seed.  It didn’t like DBG and I am not sure Vail or Yampa planted there I gave them. But Rebecca did in Parker so maybe it lives there.

Mimulus lewisii, that actually grows natively in the mountains to the east of the Kintgen ranch. I forgot to ask if Mike's big colony derives from Zirkel Dome area...M.K.: Mimulus lewisii is form the Sierra Madre the continuation of the Zirkles across the Wyoming border where it paints the roadside ditches some years on battle pass which is a nice paved pass that gets to 9500 feet but feel like alpine in one spot because its so exposed.

 

I believe Mike was the first to build classic Czech style rock gardens in the Rockies (inspiring Kenton Seth in the process--which Kenton acknowledged in the book he co-wrote with Paul Spriggs) and there are lots on this piece of Routt County!

Mike is very much a devotee of native plants--this is defiitely one of the caespitosum/fremontii/viscossisimum agglomeration. Mike should tell us which.  M.K. says Geranium viscossisimum

More crevice gardens....

More rocks in crevices--Calceolaria (filicaulis?) looking very happy here! M.K.: Calceolaria mollissima from Paul Krystoph in BC.

A spectacular clump of a Turkish Tanacetum I would LOVE to have in my garden.

Masses of many kinds of poppies everywhere...There was far more happening than I could capture on my brief visit. Mike escapes the hot Front Range summers most weekends in summer by wafting up to his Routt county aerie...not a bad gig if you can get it!

 Finishing by re-visiting that daisy in a niche: 

Thanks, Mike, for letting me visit! Next time I'd like to come in June or Maybe even May. Or August--heck any time the thermometer surges into the 90's in Denver to be honest!

A few rocky highlights of a banner year....

Jan climbing up onto the Tilden Regional Parks botanic gardens' fantastic crevice garden to examine the plant in the next picture...

Penstemon davidsonii (from wild seed) at Tilden--just about my favorite botanical garden in America...after DBG of course! This is a surprisingly adaptable alpine plant that grows well for us in Colorado as well--PROVIDED you have a rock garden!

A glimpse of a fantastic crevice garden in Berkeley that I have featured before on Prairiebreak before--worth revisiting I think!

I have featured Anne Smith's incredible garden in Boulder before--but I now notice she's expanded the palette of xeric plants considerably...Agave toumeyana var. bella near the center, and lots of ball cacti, Sempervivum arachnoideum and Acantholimon:  all the best stuff!

I have never grown Penstemon rupicola this well--but Anne excels in anything she does. Glad she's on MY team!

A glimpse of one of innumerable treasures at Mike Bone's private garden. I have featured Mike repeatedly in posts, but never done justice to his garden: it would take too long to do it justice! Oh yes, this is a perfectly grown Eriogonum pauciflorum var. nebraskense--one of the best native plants that grows not too far from Denver: this is the only garden (aside from my OLD house where it no longer lngers) where I seen this incidentally--obviously loving crevice garden treatment...

Delosperma 'Red Mountan FLAME'

The best of all Delospermas--bred by David Salman, an inexplicably missing from several billion gardens on this planet--what's WRONG with people. It's not missing from Bone's rock garden however--photographed in late summer.

I have grown this too, for many decades: but never this well. Kenton planted Euphorbia spinosa at Kendrick (which I have featured an awful lot). Capturing it in full bloom was a red letter day for me: my rock garden where I have this growing is way too shady for it to do this well. I shall get some rooted cuttings and put it in my new, not sunny rock garden where it will one day rival this: wait and see!

Eriogonum ovalifolium var. depressum

I'm guessing on the varietal name on this--but it sure looks like that subspecies as I've seen it on the White Cloud peaks and on Idaho's Malpais (pronounced "Malapi" if you wish to show how clever you are at mispronouncing Spanish). My talented colleague Brooke rooted lots of this and I have three or four on my crevice garden--thank you Brooke!

One of innumerable enviable and fantastic plants in the gardens of Cathy and Bill King in Salt Lake City--a buckwheat to die for.  I have NEVER seen an E. ovalifolium this big. It's verging on being wrong.

And check out the King's Eriogonum kennedyi...I'll bet they never get this big in nature. If you want to try this in your garden, I'd suggest growing it on an even rockier substrate, however: they can get away with murder in SLC.

If you've been properly following Prairiebreak, you'll recognize these shots from Mike Kintgen's high mountain rock gardens: I don't know why anyone who lives above 7000 grows anything but rock plants!

A sole Zauschneria poking out of a crevice in Robin Magowans' Santa Fe extravaganza: here he seems to have re-created a Mycenean citadel--what a garden! And a single eloquent flower says it all...

Here's what is sold in California as Teucrium ackermannii looking simply splendid in Robin's garden--even out of bloom. A similar plant is sold in England--only there it has green leaves. Something's amiss...

Rock gardens don't have to be sunny and hot, of course. Ray Radebaugh's garden (which I have featured repeatedly) proves it!

Ray doesn't stick to woodlanders--he grows alpines in suitably sunny spots, like this perfect Edraianthus pumilio..

Dwarf iris are one of my man obsessions: I must find a spot to grow Iris setosa var. canadensis once again! Here it is in Ray's garden.

Another of my favorite gardens, Sam Hitt's in Santa Fe. This year I hit it spot on for peak bloom on his Penstemon ambiguus. Hooray for me!

This is a trough at Sam's I will surely copy this coming year--talk about great colors...and just LOOK how Sedum nevii (endangered in nature) grew for him!

I've not shared this on Social media or elsewhere: me on the left--John Stireman center and Tony on the right. I think those two are the greatest gardeners in the world. And that's an understatement! What a treat to see them again.

What a treat to see Agave utahensis var. kaibabensis in bloom at John's: I think this was even taller than I've seen it at the Grand Canyon, where I've been lucky to see it many times....I have featured the Stiremans in this blog--but following them on Facebook is the best way to get a taste of their garden. In fact, it's just about the BEST reason to be on Facebook!

Opuntia debreczyi 'Potato'

I have featured the garden where this was taken (Summerhome) before. I visited it this fall--and it exceeded all my memories of it--if you come anywhere NEAR Colorado, go see it--it's sublime. And of course it features a rock garden...

If you haven't figured out yet, this post is designed to achieve several ends:

1) Show you a very few of the highlights of my garden visits this past year: to do the year justice I'd have to show a hundred times more pictures...but the ones I showed reveal that rock gardens are where my heart is--and where yours' should be too! They are so incredibly varied and possess such enormous power as landscape features and jewel cases to show off the world's saxatile gems....

2) If you do not already belong to the North American Rock Garden Society, I'd do so pronto: you can still get in on the Seed Exchange if you do. Just click on the highlighted link in the last sentence and a form will pop up for you to give yourself a Christmas Present! Merry Christmas!

3) This post is also a TEST: I'm curious if I'll have more blog visits by having a person (namely Jan Fahs--my mate) on the cover page. Ideally, she should have had a red sweater...I've always been curious as to why some posts have more hits than others...let's see if my hypothesis works! I keep track of these things, I want you to know!