My dream garden

My dream garden in Santa Fe*

 *(I featured Sam Hitt's wonderful garden before in Autumn: you may want to compare my midsummer pictures with the autumnal ones  click here to see Masterful Garden in Santa Fe. 

Mammillaria sp.

For some, dream gardens mean English style borders, long allees of trees, fountains and greenery. My dream garden is in Santa Fe: it's different. It has plants one rarely sees in magazines. It's eclectic, only the veggies and greenhouses get much water, and it's elegant as all get out! And it has an enormous Mammillaria in a container that it must be a chore to wheel in and out every spring and fall!

There are SCADS of Acantholimon--like this super A. venustum with deep reddish seeds...

Your average muggle would probably not get too excited, but any native plant wonk worth their salt will salivate over this vast stand of Penstemon ambiguus! I think Sam's plants are better than what I've seen in the wild, except perhaps one summer on Cactus Hill towards Las Vegas, and forty one years ago this fall at the Samalayuca sand dunes in Chihuahua (after torrential Monsoons).

I had a hard time moving past this...

What a cool combo this is!

Naturalistic design is harder than people think: the effortless way that these plant forms are placed together, contrasting and yet combining so well. That takes an eye and yes, some effort!

Bupleurum spinosum

A closer look at the spiny umbel from the westernmost Mediterranean. I have loved and grown this for decades, but have seen it in very few other gardens aside from Sam Hitt's. His is much more effectively staged than mine!

My question is, did Sam PLANT this deliberately? There's something about plantsmen that cherishes even the gnarly forms of fasciation.

Fasciated Echinocereus reichenbachii

As you can tell, I'm fascinated with fasciation!

That's Genista lydia in front with masses of Eriogonum umbellatum behind and Santolina chamaecyparrisus to the right. three of the best xeric plants. Nothing but the best for Sam!

This trough has a great story: Realtors rent it to show off homes they're selling! The houses sell (with the trough's help no doubt) and Sam makes some pocket money. This fellow's clever!

Crevice gardens are all the rage right now, but a few well placed boulders can trump them. Oh no! He's even ruined the verb!

Pretty sure this is Pinus tabuliformis from China. Another exquisite plant one never sees much in muggles' gardens.

The side porch not many people see: like all good gardeners, Sam does this all just for himself, family and friends.

Love this shy vase

He complained about this bed: too many things spread too far! Oh, to have Santa Fe phlox (Phlox nana) spread too far!

That's Liberto (Lefteri Dariotis) of Facebook fame on the right and Sam on the left...Lefteri was in Santa Fe to speak at their wonderful botanical garden.

Another offender--a goldenrod that spreads too far. But looks mighty good, I think!

Not quite hardy for me, Yucca schottii from the Chiracahua mountains looks awesome here.

Another killer trough, made in Pueblo Colorado of all places!

Lots of veggie gardens: for many years, Sam was the greatest supplier of specialty greens to Santa Fe's farmer market. He's retired from that, but not from great gardening (thank Heavens!)...

Echinocereus triglochidiatus in ripe seed...lots of hummers down there!

A late blooming Eriogonum of the ovalifolium persuasion, perhaps...Would love to grow this one!

Part of the extensive rock garden--totally unlike any other and full of xeric treasure.

Sam again, examining the purplish flowered form of carrot...a very useful cut flower for him.

So strange to see sweet peas blooming in mid July: we need this strain bad!

And not above indulging in a current craze: the multicolored Echinaceas are finally developing some good garden forms, and Sam (of course) is testing them.

And part of his impeccable cold frames full of treasures...

He has a market for these gorgeous troughs he creates with his son...

But this gem, with Gypsophila aretioides in bloom and seed is not for sale no how!

More treasures: he foisted some on me and Liberto gratis. We struggled, but gave in.

A trough full of Petunia patagonica in full seed.

Lots of offbeat veggies and even a special strain of wheat!

Not just Echinaceas, he has a row of Rudbeckias--all apparently grown from the same packet of seed!

A champion stand of Scrophularia macrantha. A plant I'm proud to say I introduced in 1994 before the ridiculous restrictions on propagating and sharing rare plants were enforced. Wish I'd introduced more: horticulture is the solution. Stupid regulations are the problem.

As good a place as any to stop! After all, hummingbirds stop here too!