Sunday, April 28, 2013

Vistas and vignettes: second walkabout Peter Korn's garden

Porophyllum saxifrage in a crevice garden at Peter Korn's
 A few days ago I featured some of Jan Fahs' images from Peter Korn's remarkable nursery and garden--this is the first of several posts where I will try and show a bit more: we're talking about many acres, greenhouses, gardens everywhere. How does one capture such a multifaceted spot where every view is a vista and every closeup is a precious vignette? Well--you shall just have to scroll through my blogs and try to parallax the truth! Above is typical of the intimate views one gets here and there all over the vast property....the magic of rock gardens!


Saxifraga oppositifolia covered in frost...
We had heavy frost several days in the early morning, and of course the alpines were loving it! Boy, would I love to have a nursery near me selling fat pots of this Saxifrage in my vicinity! Notice the dead foliage of the autumn gentians: the nursery has hundreds of pots full of these that must make a spectacle in the autumn! I'd scarf these up too if they were a tad nearer to me...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    !

Pulsatilla albana in a mini-meadow
 What a luxury to have a garden of a size where you can grow drifts of plants in some spots, and yet have the occasional loner like this looking exactly as it would in nature. Here, covered with hoarfrost, is one of the homelier pulsatillas--but quite fetching nonetheless!


Androsace carnea
 
 This for me is simply sublime: to have a whole bank glimmering with androsaces--not even the Alps could beat this!


Androsace brevis
 Another bank had hundreds of this lovely pink androsace naturalizing...


Androsace brevis
 Another view of the same!

Rhododendron and Polypodium vulgare growing as petrophyte
 In a woodsy part of the garden there are numerous large rhododendrons--here a smaller one growing next to a rock capped with a Polypody...


Crevice garden in alpine house
 Alpine houses here and there--some designed to grow dryland plants like this one...


Fritillaria karelinii in the bulb house at Peter Korn nursery
 The bulb house is just beginning to come into bloom--I was particularly charmed by this fritillary

Spectacular clumps of Arum korolkowii in the bulb house
 And I wouldn't mind growing some of this Arum (I have some korolkowii that should be blooming one of these years--hope mine is as pretty)...

Sebaea sp. in the greenhouse
 Some South Africans here and there--this is one of my favorite gentian relatives...

Glimpse of the tarn at the bottom of the rock garden
 Lift your eyes upward, and grand vistas unfold!


Porophyllum saxifrages ready for the plant sale
And lucky locals can take a bit of the magic home!

(I have posted more pictures on another blog I wrote for Denver Botanic Gardens website)

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