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Thursday, January 31, 2019

THE PASSING

Last year the inevitable happened. The mother Confederate Rose agave, in the herb garden, flowered. I think things were getting rather crowded for her and she was making room for her offspring.




You know when you see this starting it means flowering.


The family lived in a hypertufa pot that I had made specially for the pedestal in the herb garden. Not an easy life. For one thing the pot is very shallow, receives the full blast of summer sun and was often left to fend for itself during a brutal summer. I also recognize that I might have helped the group if I had pruned out some of the pups. Instead of which they grew together in a tightly packed group.
When the flowering was over I removed the dead agave( no easy matter) but despite adding one of the larger pups to the void in the center, things never looked good. I decided to remove everything and start over. Sad to say the plants have remained in the greenhouse throughout the winter, waiting for my attention.
I turned my sights to a replacement planting. Something easy care, no water. In my current phase of crevice gardening an idea spring to mind. I took some of the smaller rocks I had gathered for the large crevice garden I had planned and et voilà.


I have just added a couple of small sedums, Sedum lineare 'Variegatum',



and Sedum makinoi 'Ogon' and a couple of seedlings of alyssum. When winter is over I may add couple of succulents. It will be about experimentation.


I am pleased with the result and I think it is worthy of a little limelight.


12 comments:

  1. What a great idea. Change in the garden is sometimes hard when we’re so in love with what we first created. I think your new creation is lovely.

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  2. What a wonderful setting for your new experiment, Jenny. I love how the crevice garden gets pride of place on that pedestal.

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  3. A beautiful little scree garden!

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  4. The new display looks equally good if very different. It's a good gardener who can accept the inevitable and move on.

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  5. Very different but equally compelling as a display. I've always liked that 'Ogon' Sedum but it doesn't want to grow for me.

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  6. Looks great - you've given me an idea for an old birdbath :)

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    1. A birdbath is a perfect place for a crevice garden. So quick and easy to do.

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  7. Sometimes gardening can be bittersweet when we lose a favorite plant, but it can also be a time of renewal. Your new planter is lovely and you still have the offspring of the original agave. It's a win-win!

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  8. It turned out wonderfully! That is sad to loose your agave, but it is fun to experiment, and it turned out truly beautiful!

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  9. How cute! That is a wonderful idea, thank you for the inspiration.

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  10. It was captivating then, and just as much now.

    I like the solitary Agaves best. Dealing with a tangled clump of them is a painful thing. In garden conditions the solitaries will sometimes produce an offset or two--just enough.

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  11. These crevice gardens are all the rage now. I can see why. You have the perfect setting for such gardens. This small one set up where you can see those small alpine blooms will be gorgeous when you find all you want to plant in there. Well done.

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