A few glimpses of a Santa Fe gem of a garden

Pelargonium quercetorum

Our hosts, James David and Gary Peese, are two of the most passionate gardeners I know: James is a renowned landscape designer--and Gary is the master of the potager (not to mention a lover of tall bearded iris, dahlias and Japanese chrysanthemums--none of which were deigning to bloom for us during our visit. Their impeccably maintained garden (I was thrilled to find a single weed!) is primarily conceived of as a series of garden rooms designed for aesthetic impact (and of course the veggies and orchard trees are designed for the table), they have accumulated an astonishing range of rare plants that would be the envy of any mere plant nerd like myself.  The pelargonium above being emblematic: confined to a small area near Hakkari in Southeastern Turkey, I am sure not more than a handful of gardens in America can boast this giant of hardy pelargoniums.

don't have a clue what species of thyme this could be--but growing so compactly--and blooming in late July--I think it's one to seek out and treasure!

A delicious large monocot in bloom--I'm not even sure what genus it should be in. I wish I'd photographed the dozens of magnificent specimen cacti and rare bulbs that summer on a patio next to their greenhouse and cold frames.

A stunning blue hardy Agapanthus cf. campanulatus: possibly 'Wild Blue Yonder'? I wish MY agapanthus had this many flower stems!

Somehow James or Gary got a hold of the brand new Teucrium 'Harlequin's Silver' that was obviously well established well before the Plant Select program promoted the plant. They never miss a sale in Denver where rare plants are sold...the troughs around this are just a tiny fraction of their trough collections--all full of fantastic specimens.

This gives perhaps a bit of a taste of the wonderful plant combinations throughout the garden--the purple hybrid sedum on the far right echoes the Knautia macedonica on the left and contrasts with the yellow (dotted with scarlet) flowers on Hypericum cf. prolificum in between. There are hundreds of vignettes like this in room after room of this garden.

Pimpinella major 'Rosea'

I believe this is the rosy form of the scarlet Pimpernel--a striking cloud of rose pink in the border...

Late July is, of course, peak season for Asteraceae--Helenium and Rudbeckia here--sunflowers in general are the royalty or midsummer gardens.

Salvia cf. przewalskii

A lusty clump of a Chinese sage: this wafted me back to the eastern Himalaya where the salvias in this section occur in amazing variety.

The Koi in this pond are truly enormous...

One of dozens of containers--the autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora) looking very happy [as it never does for me] along with a large clump of Allium cyaneum and Sempervivum.

More troughs--with Delphinium tatsienense in the foreground, and the OTHER hardy Pelargonium (endlicherianum) behind. James and Gary insist they're only focused on the big picture, on design, vegetables and large showy flowers (in Gary's case at least)--but they nevertheless have gathered and acquired hundreds of plant gems--many rare and unique--that thrive in the many microclimates or their garden! It's time they gave in and admitted they are consummate plantsmen as well!

Veronicastrum virginicum

A fabulous clump of Culver's root...

Verbascum chaixii (or a white form of V. nigrum?)

I am chagrined I haven't photographed the many mulleins (one of my favorite genera) that dot the garden: Verbascum olympicum is especially magnificent right now--but then I'm only showing a smattering of things I photographed randomly: I made no attempt to capture the many vistas and large combinations--the harsh light of mid day when I was photographing wouldn't have done them justice.

Lupinus polyphyllus

I love lupines, and admired the rusty red color of this specimen. 

Lilium 'Citronella'

The garden is full of lilies--mostly past bloom. But this graceful classic (which looks almost like a wild lily to my eyes--I love the species) is one I intend to buy and include in my garden henceforward!

x Mukgenia 'Flame'

I was delighted to see a thrifty specimen of this intriguing bi-generic hybrid between Mukdenia and Bergenia. I just realized my own has gone A.W.O.L. dammit!

Ephedra minima

I have never seen this Himalayan alpine joint-fir grown so elegantly. I am going to copy this!

Helichrysum trilineatum

A typical tableaux of foliage combos--they actually had several specimens of the South African curry shrub planted here and there in their garden--one of the most overlooked and useful Plant Select shrubs.

Escobaria sneedii var. leei (on left) and Austrocactus bertinii on the right

I tried to sneak this picture into my talk I gave last Saturday to the Midwest regional Cactus conference--and it showed up upside down (my punishment for last minute editing!). The glistening white escobaria is a very rare plant that only grows in Carlsbad Caverns in nature--but has proved a stellar hardy cactus across the country, but the Austrocactus has been a devil to tame (in my experience)...I finally found a little corner of my crevice garden where mine seems happy--but THEIR plant is much larger, happier and bloomed like crazy--in a POT! There is no justice...

I hope I have proved once and for all that in addition to being masters of hardscape, artful landscape design and so much more on the large scale, James and Gary are masters of the miniature and plant collectors par excellence! I feel so privileged to know them and have watched this remarkable garden evolve over the last decade! Some day, I hope I can post a blog that does justice to the big picture aspects of the garden: the fantastic trees, shrubs and massed borders--not to mention the most robust vegetables on the planet and Gary's pampered specialty mums, dahlias and tall bearded iris.