Here’s a few recommendations for plants for a gravel bed or a stone trough. They are in flower with me now on June 1st – but will no doubt be earlier further south.
1) Ranunculus gramineus
Given my daily struggles with buttercups, I’m reluctant to regard them as anything but a weed. However, this is a beauty, with glaucous foliage and a nice stately habit and not in the least invasive. Although it is a plant from southern Europe, it’s hardy with me – although it has the worrying habit of completely dying back once it has flowered. It can be divided at that stage, and comes away again reliably. This description from The Botanical Magazine; Or, Flower-Garden Displayed by William Curtis (1794) does it full justice:
This species of Ranunculus, an inhabitant of the dry pastures South of France and Italy, and a hardy herbaceous plant of ready growth, recommends itself by the earliness of its flowering and the delicate glaucous colour of its foliage. Parkinson figures it with double flowers, though he describes it with semi-double ones only; we have not observed either of these varieties in the gardens about London, they have most probably fallen victims to the rage for novelty, at the shrine of which many a fair and goodly flower is yearly sacrificed.It flowers towards the end of April, and is propagated by parting its roots in autumn.
2) Aster Natalensis
This blue daisy from the Drakensberg mountains of South Africa makes an excellent plant for the rockery. It does appreciate full sun, though – I have one specimen in part shade, and it does not flower so well. It’s evergreen and hardy and spreads very slowly outwards from its central core. I haven’t tried dividing it – I imagine it ought not to be too difficult.
This blue daisy from the Drakensberg mountains of South Africa makes an excellent plant for the rockery. It does appreciate full sun, though – I have one specimen in part shade, and it does not flower so well. It’s evergreen and hardy and spreads very slowly outwards from its central core. I haven’t tried dividing it – I imagine it ought not to be too difficult.3) Iris Setosa var arctica (or ‘dwarf form’)
A native of Siberia and Alaska, this is a lovely small iris. It really likes damp soils, but it would quickly get swamped anywhere round my pond, so I grow it in the scree garden with a couple of handfuls of peat beneath it to absorb the rain and keep it wet. Surprisingly, for a Siberian plant, I find it can be damaged in winter – perhaps Scotland is not quite cold enough for it? There’s a lot of colour variability in the plants you can find for sale – some being a rather nasty washed-out lilac, so if you can find one in flower in a nursery, that’s the best way to be sure you are getting something you like.
4) Rhodohypoxis ‘Hebron Farm Biscuit’
Who could resist a plant called ‘Biscuit’? But quite apart from the name, this is my favourite rhodohypoxis. Simple and beautiful. As the Anxious Gardener’s masterful post on Rhodohypoxis shows, there are many different varieties, but this is among the best. It hates winter damp at its roots, so I grow it in deep gravel, with just a smidgeon of compost. Even so, I have lost it once or twice.
Who could resist a plant called ‘Biscuit’? But quite apart from the name, this is my favourite rhodohypoxis. Simple and beautiful. As the Anxious Gardener’s masterful post on Rhodohypoxis shows, there are many different varieties, but this is among the best. It hates winter damp at its roots, so I grow it in deep gravel, with just a smidgeon of compost. Even so, I have lost it once or twice.5) Anonymous (Edit: mystery solved – it’s erinus alpinus)
I was sold this plant as acinos alpinus – which it most certainly isn’t. Does anyone recognise it? Whatever it is, it seeds itself everywhere into cracks in walls and paving, where it flourishes rather better than in the scree, and looks great. Hardy, no maintenance. I’d love to know what it is. Anyone who wants a few seed heads, e-mail me.
Gardening At The Edge 