Paradise redux (Rock Alpine Garden part 2)

Telesonix jamesii

The Rock Alpine Garden has gone from strength to strength under Mike Kintgen's baton: I shared pictures from early May in a previous blog post--but this Spring was so gentle, protracted and wonderful I couldn't stop snapping. The garden contains thousands of taxa--I seem to be doing more vignettes and vistas than usual. Hereby follow a lot of pix I took on May 28--a time I've always thought was "peak bloom" here. The Telesonix is in a trough: the garden operates on every level! 

Overlooking the "Limestone Cliff" bed from the top of the garden...

Welsh poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) and a moss saxifrage paint a wonderful picture on one of innumerable crevice beds.

Iris spuria ssp. halophila in a wonderful pale yellow form.

I believe this is Dianthius neglectus on one of the many crevice oiutcrops.

A gypsophila? Mike has added so many plants--I need to visit more often!

I think I captured Echinocereus reichenbachii va. baileyi at its very apogee of bloom...One could specialize in nothing but various forms of the lace cactus. Oh yes, Jeff Thompson's done that!

I recall a time when lemon lilies (Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus) were seen in gardens all over the Front Range. This is the only clump I know still persists.

A wondeful ensemble near the entrance to the garden: that Verbascum is apparently a sterile hybrid. There is no justice in the world!

Next to it the putative Salvia "heldreichiana" reigns supreme. Apparently sterile, it's probably a hybid. Wish I knew the parentage.

On the dry north beds of the garden a Phlomoides, gas plant and Geranium make a wonderful combo.

More Mediterraneans looking very happy indeed.

Polygonatum humile running rampant beneath the giant white fir.

A froth of Saponaria ocymoides (a dwarfer form than most) paints wonderful swaths of pink and white in early summer.

Caught weeding, Mike not oversees this incredibly complex garden, but seems to be everywhere in the summer months doing outstanding field botany. I believe the pink in front is Dianthus cruentus. 

A closer at the pink...

A white flowered Saponaria ocymoides decided to perch on a boulder rather than soil...                                 

I love the sempervivums providing a perfect foil for the Alyssum and other heat tolerant groundcovers..

Dictamnus albus has definitely settled in!

Zizia aurea

As have the Golden Alexanders--which go back to my day!

Daphne oleioides

I wish I could take credit for the monster daphnes--but I am pretty sure ike put these in...he has been Curator for over 2 decades!

Some wonderful silver Saxifrages around the corner.

Packera aurea

And he's established a great patch of this Eastern Senecio in a shady spot near the Gardens' entrance.

Another couple of remnants from my day--a wonderful patch of Genista (sagitallis) delphinensis blooming yellow, and a Yucca harrimaniae that thinks it has permission to become a tree...

An enviable patch of Physaria in another new crevice garden near the entrance. He told me the name and I forgot. I'll bet he'll tell me when I send the link to him...

I could and should go on: this acre was not only my entree to my career, it has been a kaleidoscopic laboratory where I've watched thousands of taxa come and go--and spent some of the most enchanted moments of a lucky life here. To watch as this remarkable gentleman raises it to new heights--what can I say? It's one of the greatest blessings of my life.