Help me love my alpine garden

[MerylSqueak]

Or at least may I have ideas on what to do with it.

I don't like standard alpine plants, especially the ones which tend towards the succulent side like sempervivum. I can just about see the point in a saxifrage . I had a cistus there which was very happy but I dislike it because it only flowers when I am at work. I know it has flowered because I see the petals but never the flowers. I've moved it to somewhere it'll be happy but I'll mind less.

I like a country cottage style, especially blues and whites. The two things really don't mix. I've been tinkering around the edges but now want to get to grips with it. My heart just sinks at the idea of growing or spending money on plants I don't really like.

My garden is stepped up a hillside. The soil is rather stony with lots of chips of slate, tending to slightly acid but very mixed as to clay etc - I think mainly due to having been 'built' when the levels were put in. South facing. Full sun. Very little frost.

I'll attach a picture of the bed I really want to tackle.

I'd be very grateful. I browse looking for ideas for ages but never come up with something I want to invest time and money in.

Here's the photo.

It has the potential to be fabulous! I love a rock garden. Gentians are the thing that springs to mind, but there are many options. For inspiration, get yourself to an alpine house; there are fabulous ones at Wisley and Kew looking like Aladdins Caves of gorgeousness right now. Whereabouts in the country are you? Perhaps we can suggest somewhere to visit.

Also, the Alpine Garden Society have great pictures on their Facebook page, if you’re on FB, or have a browse on their website.

Other things you might like:

Arabis
Cerastium tomentosum (Snow in Summer)
Aubretia
Pulsatilla (Pasqueflower) - there’s a lovely indigo one.
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides

Campanula would look great there. It's more flowers and blooms than thick succulent leaves and it loves stony soil.

A dwarf Daphne would be lovely. Daphne transatlantica ‘Eternal Fragrance’ is an absolute delight; very floriferous and smells amazing.

Thank you for your suggestions. I'm not familiar with a lot of those. I will look them up

Helianthemum ‘The Bride’ for later in the summer

I'm in West Wales

🥰

The National Botanic Garden of Wales has a rock garden. I’ve never been, but I used to know someone who works there, and it looks like an amazing garden, so worth a visit for some inspiration, if you’re not too far away.

You can put herbs in too
Thyme
Oregano
Rosemary

I have a lot of very similar beds - clay soil, East facing in my case but sun most of the day, on a slope with a wall at the bottom. I tried an alpine style garden with saxifrage and succulents but the weeds took over. I'm having a lot more success with cottage garden style, just the more robust stuff - hollyhocks, valerian, foxgloves, aquilegia, evening primrose, thyme, scabious, rosemary (although that would quickly overwhelm a small bed) and fleabane.

All of those will grow in cracks in the pavement near me so I assumed they're tough enough for a bed! I grow most of it from seed, the foxgloves, hollyhocks and valerian seeds gathered for free from aforementioned cracks in the pavement. Obviously it takes a couple of seasons to come to flower but if you're reluctant to spend then it's worth a go!

Interesting. I have got some fleabane seeds so was going to start those up in the cracks in the walls.

I am still struggling to imagine it. I think it is because the bed is flat and lots of alpines are quite low growing, although I appreciate some of the ones mentioned are not.

Ha! if you're in west Wales you're probably going be too wet for true alpines which like life high, dry and lean. And anyway, why grow stuff you don't like? Go for a cottage garden. Lavender, for instance comes from stony hillsides in full sun: nothing says 'cottage garden' like lavender. Buy a book on cottage gardening and plant what you like. Perennial wallflowers like 'Bowles Mauve', oriental poppies (the white one is 'Royal Wedding') salvias, sweet rocket, Shasta daisies, crambe, foxgloves, aquilegias and many many more cottage plants will love that situation. The possibilities are endless.

Definitely plant within the cracks and some which will spill over the edges . Maybe use some stones to break up and terrace the top too.

If there's good drainage I'd be looking at Agapanthus in that bed also Valerian which grows pretty much everywhere. The Fleabane will soften everything for nine months of the year.

The drainage is good. The bigger problem is the wind.

Alpines love wind.

Interesting. I have got some fleabane seeds so was going to start those up in the cracks in the walls. Do you mean “mexican fleabane” Erigeron karwinsiana? That would look pretty. Also consider Nottingham Catchfly and Wallflower. Yellow fumitory. They are all plants which like growing in walls.

I’d probably treat it as a retaining wall and “normal” border, so plant things that tumble down the wall from the top. Aubretia is the obvious, Snow in Summer works well, as does a prostrate Rosemary.

Yes Mexican Fleabane. Thank you for the other ideas.

I'd love more ideas for small shrubs, if you have any. I was thinking of ceanothus repens but they don't like wind. I am still bearing the ones mentioned in mind.

assuming the bed is well drained, which is likely above a wall, there’s the ordinary non prostate rosemary, lavender, the hardier perennial sages - I’m going through the Mediterranean repertoire here - also grey leaved bushes like santolina, perovskia.

Wonderful. Thank you.

yes, good suggestions, and revisit cistus too- like the rosemaries and lavenders that's also a garigue shrub. Cerastostigma too (nice blue flowers and what about the shrubby euphorbias?

Convolvulus cneorum is another small shrub to try. It dislikes hard frosts, especially when young, but if it’s a sheltered spot and you can get it to establish well, then it would be fabulous.

One of the small Daphnes, like ‘Eternal Fragrance’ would be nice too. They smell amazing.

Thank you very much. I'm going make time this weekend to enjoy figuring it all out. One of the nice things about the previous owner was that they were really good at colour year round. I want to continue that if I can and it needs paper, pencil and time!