Xeric Garden -The Plants

Below are just a “couple” varieties destined for the new xeric garden.

• Agave parryii ‘Camp Verde’
• Agave havardiana (I know I killed one already, but I will succeed)
• Aster ericoides ‘Snow Flurry’
• Echinocereus reichenbachii v. baileyii
• Echinocereus viridiflorus
• Escobaria orcutti v. koenigii
• Gymnocalycium bruchii
• Hesperaloe parviflora
• Lavandula x intermedia ‘Provence’
• Origanum libanoticum
• Origanum ‘Amethyst Falls’
• Penstemon pinifolius
• Zauschneria garrettii

Xeric Garden -Part 1

I have never had luck growing anything in my gardens that required minimal watering. Not for lack of neglect though! I, like most, subscribe to the kill it 5 times before realizing I can’t grow it club. This attempt is #4.

Much like orchids, the more you fuss over your xeric plants the more difficult they will be to keep alive. I have had a mad fascination the the wood lilies, i.e Agave and Hesperaloe for years. Varieties of both are hardy to zone 5- only not in my portion of zone 6. Apparently the black-thumbed horticulturist can’t keep them alive. However, my lack of experience with these plants might prove interesting fodder for this, my first year of blogging.

I fell for the Agaves when a friend gave me a pup from her Agave parryii, hardy to zone 4. It was a quick death, and wouldn’t be the first Agave slaying. The third and last was a container plant, but the cold, moist winter of ‘06 was to blame. Supposedly hardy, I believe I was sold A. havardiana- marginally hardy to zone 6. That’s my story at least.

I have determined after much research and catalog perusing that I simple must have a xeric garden here in clay-stricken Pennsylvania. I have found a raised area that I believe will be an exceptional location for growing the treats I was once forlorn to grow.

In order to overcome what is believed to be the first of many issues, the soil, I will ensure proper drainage by constructing a raised garden to provide ample drainage from our notably excessive rainfall. By raising the garden bed and filling with a mix of sharp sand, peralite, and mushroom soil or peat, I hope to mimic the naturally low nutrient, high leach soils of the southwest while providing some organic matter to lighten the mix. Once I have determined what I think are the appropriate ratios I will update the xeric project.

Unfortunately the downpours began this afternoon and are scheduled to continue through the weekend. I hope to be able to begin clearing the proposed bed and removing the soil that currently occupies the space next week. The farmer in us knows not to work with wet soil, or the molecular structure changes and viola- rock-hard clumps. So I will patiently wait…

Rosa Colored Glasses

Since before I can remember, I have had an indifference to roses. While, I don’t necessarily dislike their fragrance, habit, flowers or their over saturated market prominence; I could never find a reason to fall in love with the humble rose. To me, the overpriced cut flower marketplace was the only location for roses. A cool dozen, wrapped in tissue, and packed in a box.

Tea roses were the biggest joke, an unnatural combination of a hardy rootstock and a single unsightly bud graft. These roses required more care than tiptoeing through party politics in the primary season. Ensure the bud is protected over the winter, but not too deeply covered. Cut back to 2′ in early winter, and then back to 1′ in early spring. Monitor moisture in the monsoon season of early spring- too much water=death. Monitor insects and diseases since the rose family is afflicted with every disease in the plant kingdom, and some from the animal kingdom. This is the only genus I know of that has a solution to a disease that causes a different disease, but I digress.

In recent months, I have found myself being drawn to roses, and why not? They have a society dedicated to the “enjoyment and enhancement” of roses. Tens of thousands of people can’t be wrong, can they? However, it is not the mass marketed carefree “series” (note to the masses- “series” in horticultural terms means true breakthrough + seconds and thirds=lots of $$) or the more well know hybrid teas that draw my eye, but rather the non-conformist rose, the roses that the hard-core enthusiasts enjoy. The English roses are better known by their most famous breeding house, David Austin.

While browsing the selections, I can’t help but notice the differences between some varieties. The perfect rose is a taller (6-8′ tall), highly fragrant, standard variety that can be used for training on a fence. Heronswood has carried Rosa ‘Glorie de Dijon’, ‘Darlow’s Enigma’, and ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’. Although amazingly gorgeous, they are a little too tall for my shorter growing needs. Although not an Austin bred variety, ‘St. Swithun Climbing’ might be the rose that has the opportunity to alter perceptions, and change the opinions of one lone horticulturist.