Plants for stony gardens

In most of the stony garden options( rockery, alpine slide, terraces) the plants planted here find themselves in specific conditions of existence, determined by the following factors:

good drainage and, consequently, rapid drying of the soil and lack of moisture;

: high solar activity, enhanced reflection of direct sunlight from stones;

high ambient temperature, since the stones keep heat for a long time;

with a small volume of soil and associated lack of moisture and soil fertility;

by strong weathering;increased danger of freezing due to the thin snow cover of the slope and the early maturity of the snow.

All must be considered when selecting plants for a rocky garden. The most promising for rockeries and rock gardens are drought-resistant plants, which suffer a temporary lack of moisture. These species, usually associated with their origin with steppes or dry mountain slopes, are feather grass, carnations, crowns, tulips, bows, liatris, small daylily, Geikher. Prosperous rocky plants, such as rosewood, grits, saxifrage, molodilo, clarifiers, depressions, and plants of dry, light foxes - anemone forest, veronica, rank. More capricious plants that require regular watering, such as primula, astil-ba, host, it is better to plant slides, rockeries, terraces at the foot.

Plants should be undemanding to soil and do not need its high fertility, as the soil volume is limited, and organic fertilizer is contraindicated, as excess organic matter can cause active growth of vegetative shoots, which will lead to loss of elegance, plant specificity. Plants should be photophilous, because stony gardens are usually broken up in open solar areas, and hardy in relation to elevated temperatures. At the same time, the temperature regime on the alpine hill and the hillside of rockaria is formed so that in winter the danger of freezing increases. Therefore, the plants should be sufficiently winter-hardy. The main principle of creating a plant composition of a rocky garden is its constant decorative throughout the season. This means that it is necessary to select plants that bloom at different times of the year and are able to maintain the beauty of the rocky garden with their form, color, and structure of foliage. When creating a composition it is very important to take into account the shape and size of plants.

It is desirable that from spring to autumn on the hill there were flowering plants. Their use in rockeries gives the latter a special flavor, uniqueness, makes it attractive throughout the season. The decorative effect of the flower beds depends on the correct combination of colors in color. Effective contrast combinations. Plants with red, yellow, orange flowers are combined with plants that have white flowers. Look beautiful with a number of species with yellow and purple flowers. But the combination of yellow with orange or blue with purple is not interesting.

For planting among stones, it is preferable to select undersized plants, not higher than 50 cm, with a beautiful, original form of the bush: pillow-shaped, conical, creeping, carpeted with hanging shoots. High plants, especially forming thickets, are not suitable for stony garden, as such plants will close the stone and displace neighboring species. An important factor in the selection of plants is the decorative stability of the species. In rockeries you can plant plants with a short period of decorativeness, which includes most bulbs, but their participation in plant composition is rather limited, they only serve as spring accents, but can not serve as a general background.

Preference is given to plants stably decorative, evergreen, they decorate the hill at any time of the year: molodilo, rhesus, grits, most of the clarifications, etc. The beauty of the leaves, bush is often estimated higher than the beauty of the flower. So, in most rockeries, species of wormwood, woolly wool, various grasses are distinguished, distinguished by unobtrusive unremarkable flowers, but with magnificent silvery foliage.

Plants in a stony garden are placed taking into account their size, timing and duration of flowering, the shape and color of flowers and fruits, etc. In the center of the composition the most intensive and ornamental plants are planted. Beautifully-tuschie, deciduous-decorative, as well as stunted plants with the original branching are placed in the foreground. Plants of one species, form or variety are planted singly or in groups, but not scattered throughout the site. To enhance the contrast in front of the group planted 1-2 small, but original plants. So that the planted plants do not close together with the growth, groups are left between the groups. With a skillful selection and proper placement in a small area, you can imagine a variety of diverse and interesting plants.

When selecting flowering plants for a rocky garden, it is best to follow the time limits of the period of their flowering. This will make it possible to achieve a permanent alternating flowering of species in the created plant composition.