ALPINES GROWN IN WALLS

I realise I am mentioning alpines quite often lately but there are a number of things that I want to share from my visit to the RHS Alpine House at Harlow Carr in March.  Not only did I peruse the various plants within the house but also, just outside, the Royal Horticultural Society has planted several alpines into walls.  This always brings back memories of a past garden of mine.  That garden sloped down from north (south-facing) to south (north-facing); from Sunny and dryish to shady and damp.  It was split into three levels as the land also sloped from west to east.  That sounds like a dreadful situation but actually it worked because it enabled me to grow a great variety of plants.  One of the first things I did was build a low dry sandstone wall in which I stuffed many a little alpine and as they grew, little plantlets would break off and find another place to grow within the wall quite on their own.  I also planted into the cracks in the crazy-paving around the pond.  You can see how healthy the plants are.

My garden - late 1980s-mid 90s



At Harlow Carr, they have built sample walls of different materials in which they have planted alpines, below.  I believe the rocks are limestone but the others looked like concrete roof slates to me!

Possibly old roof tiles:

Alpines in slate walls