Exquisite Alpine beauties

GROW:These tiny plants are ideal for those with tiny or non-existent gardens, and contrary to popular opinion they're not hard to grow –- just don't let them get too wet

IN THE WILD, the exquisitely tiny Primula frondosa is a rarity of Lilliputian dimensions that grows in rocky crevices along the mountainous slopes of Stara Planina in north-eastern Bulgaria, where its lilac-pink, yellow-eyed, umbelliferous flowers appear every year in late spring. But to find its even rarer relative, Primula bracteata in its native habitat, you would have to travel roughly 7,000 kilometres, to the provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan in south-western China where this diminutive plant typically grows on rocky cliff faces at altitudes as great as 4,000-5,000 metres. As for the chances of seeing the deep-pink flowered Primula elatior subsp. meyeri in the wild? Well, that would necessitate another trip, this time to Turkey.

So it's fascinating to discover that all three of these plants – as well as many hundreds of others – also grow in the Dublin garden of Billy Moore, a longtime member of the Alpine Garden Society Dublin Group ( alpinegardensociety.ie) and a man who has done his own fair share of plant-hunting expeditions over the years, including trips to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in central Asia, as well as to central and northeast Turkey.

Seeing at first hand the collection of alpine plants that this greatly knowledgeable and experienced gardener has amassed in his long and narrow town garden (many grown in neat lines of small terracotta pots that are plunged deeply into trays of sand), I had to marvel aloud at nature’s astonishing, awe-inspiring but often bewildering diversity of plant species. For example, the Primula genus alone contains more than 400 different species while the Saxifraga genus contains up to 480.

Moore’s Dublin garden contains fragrant daphnes that are native to the foothills of the Dolomites in northern Italy (the pink-flowered D. petraea), some that can be found growing in the wild in Spain, Bulgaria and the Ukraine (D. cneorum), and others that are native to the mountainous regions of China (the bright yellow flowering D. calcicola). Also growing here are blue-flowering gentians from the Caucusus (G. paradoxa), saxifrages from the Pyrenees and the Swiss Alps (S. longifolia) and silvery rock jasmines such as the cushion-forming Androsace vandellii – a native of the Alps, the Apennines and the Atlas Mountains, where the plant grows in rock fissures at altitudes above 2,000 metres.

Moore says that he first became interested in growing alpine plants “well over 30 years ago, when I read something about them that just captured my interest and appealed to me.

“And I liked the fact that they’re small plants, so you can grow an awful lot of different kinds in even a small garden.”

Did he ever find them a little tricky? “It’s a myth that alpines are difficult to grow. Yes, a few can be, but a huge amount are suitable for all gardeners,” he answers firmly, adding that “the cardinal rule is to protect them from the wet. They absolutely hate growing in damp soil, or having water resting on their leaves.” With this in mind, Moore’s alpine plants are grown in pots, troughs or raised beds, in a growing medium that usually contains John Innes compost mixed with copious amounts of horticultural grit and perlite (a lightweight, microporous material made from volcanic rock) to help with drainage. The plants’ root systems are further protected by a generous top-dressing of fine stone chippings. Some plants are kept in pots in cold frames, others in a compact alpine house (like a greenhouse but with added ventilation) while many more grow outdoors.

One recent and particularly interesting addition to this expertly planted town garden is what Moore calls a “crevice bed”. Built with the help of Zdenak Zvolanek, a visiting alpine specialist from the Czech Republic, it consists of thin, tightly sandwiched, vertical layers of sandstone raised to a height of roughly 60-90 centimetres, in-filled with grit and contoured so that they gently slope to ground level.

The result is a rockface in miniature; an alpine garden that cleverly mimics the sharply drained fissures, cracks and crevices of the stony mountain slopes where so many of these plants naturally thrive. “It only took us two days to build but I never worked harder in my life,” says Moore. Measuring only 4 metres x 2 metres, the crevice bed is large enough to be home to 185 different alpine plants. “For anyone with a small garden, it’s a great example of how you can grow a great diversity of plants within a very small space.”

Stone troughs filled with alpines are also a great idea for those with tiny/non-existent gardens, and as Moore points out, there’s no need to go to the expense of seeking out the real thing. When I stopped to admire a beautifully aged and weathered granite trough, he informed me that it was made out of a polystyrene mould over which he’d “buttered” a thick layer of tufa (a mixture of peat, cement and sand) that was then left to harden. As for the alpine plants themselves, Moore rarely buys them, preferring to grow almost all of his from seed in early spring, while he gets others as exchanges/swaps with fellow gardeners. “As a member of the UK Alpine Garden Society [alpinegardensociety.net] and the Scottish Rock Club [srgc.org.uk], I’m given a certain amount of seed each year, which I sow in January. There’s nothing as rewarding as growing your own plants from seed. It pays such rich dividends,” he says.

Having seen his very beautiful, plant-filled, town garden for myself, I’d happily second that.

DIARY DATES

The Alpine Society Dublin Group will be holding its annual show and plant sale on Saturday, April 28th at 1.30-4.30pm in Cabinteely Community School,Johnstown Road, Cabinteely. Admission €3. The RHSI is holding a workshop on plant propagation in St Brigid's Parish Centre, Stillorgan, Co Dublin on Wednesday, April 25th at 10.30am. Admission €7. Tel 01-2353912, rhsi.ie

This week in the garden

* Prick out and pot on young seedlings and begin to harden off young plants, remembering to keep them well watered

* Spray roses against blackspot

* Plant young tomato plants, cucumbers, chillies, aubergines, sweet peppers and melons into your glassshouse/polytunnel