Gardens on the Rocks

By Pam WolfeMany an alpine jewel met its demise among English cobblestones in the 19th century. The lust for exotic plants collected in the mountains of Europe was far in advance of any understanding of their needs under cultivation. It wasn’t until the first decade of the 20th century that capable gardeners began to publish sensible guidance for constructing rock gardens and caring for the living treasures planted therein. In 1919 an authoritative, acerbic, and witty text appeared: Reginald Farrer’s The English Rock Gardenquickly became a standard reference for all rock gardeners. Initially modeled after the rock garden at Kew Gardens, rockeries began to appear in public spaces in North America in the 1890s, and the American Rock Garden Society, which later became the North American Rock Garden Society, was founded in 1934.The classic style of rock garden is situated on a slope, with artfully arranged rocks holding the hill and small alpine, subalpine, and steppe plants nestled in, rambling over, and tumbling down. Properties in the foothills of Santa Fe often have native rock on site and a palette of native plants to start a rock garden. Enthusiasts will, of course, develop and enhance the effect by building access paths, experimenting with soil mixes, and adding troughs or containers for fussy or miniature species.Czech-style crevice gardens provide a cool, moist place for roots. They are typically low maintenance. With a judicious selection of regionally appropriate plants, they require little or no supplemental water. Where a slope is lacking, stone can be situated in berms of various heights. Mike Kintgen, senior horticulturalist at Denver Botanic Gardens, has established several crevice gardens on the garden’s three-acre site near downtown.The new, new thing in rock gardening is reusing broken concrete (urbanite) rather than acquiring stone. The result is an environmentally friendly urban garden. The Santa Fe Cactus Rescue Project recently installed a very chic, post-apocalyptic urbanite cactus garden at the Santa Fe Water Conservation Office, off West San Mateo Road.Situated between the Great Basin to the west, the Great Plains to the east, with the Rocky Mountains to the north and the Chihuahuan Desert to the south, Santa Fe has an ideal climate for a diverse array of plant material. But it is high, and it is dry. Robert Nold, who gardens in Denver, has provided an indispensable compendium of experience and wry humor applicable to our growing conditions. His book, High and Dry, gives information on soils, siting, maintenance, and plant selection. A full chapter (140 pages) is dedicated to descriptions of rock garden plants.Rock garden enthusiasts tend to be interested in, or perhaps obsessed with, plants that are difficult to grow and impossible to find. But there are many easy-to-grow plants among the saxifrages (literally “stone-breakers”), sempervivums, astragaluses, campanulas, sedums, gentians, cacti, and of course, penstemons that find their way into rockeries.“I want to admire plants, not minerals.” writesRobin Magowan, chair of the Santa Fe chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society (NARGS). When asked what advice he would give beginning rock gardeners, Magowan responded, “Read.”So, I read. But meanwhile my rock garden consists of three rocks and a cactus atop a low berm that slows the runoff from a cut bank.Look for a follow-up article by Kathy Haq on Robin Magowan’s Santa Fe rock garden in the October issue of the SFEMG Newsletter.References and ResourcesBohl, Lorrie. Thriving between the cracks(Digger, July 2015)Higgins, Adrien. This unusual garden style could be a sustainable solution for urban landscapes(Washington Post, June 5, 2019)Nold, Robert. High and Dry: Gardening with Cold-Hardy Dryland Plants(Timber, 2008)North American Rock Garden Society, The History of Rock Gardening in North AmericaNorth American Rock Garden Society, Intro to Rock GardeningRudberg, Peggy. Rock Gardens(SFMGA Newsletter, October 2016.