Gardeners who want to simulate the feeling of a Sierra Nevada landscape in their backyard can create rock gardens including plants resembling those that grow in mountainous terrains. A colorful mix of flowers, shrubs, ground cover and grasses can give rock garden a warm color scheme, softening the rugged look of boulders and stones. Many of these plants are ideal for U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 8 to 10.
Numerous species of stonecrops (Sedum) create flowing color in rock gardens with small, colorful, star-shaped flowers that grow in large clusters. The S. ewersii and S. spurium “John Creech” brighten rock gardens with pink flowers. Basket-of-Gold plants produce dense clusters of blooms in hues of yellow; the perennials blossom in single or double flowers. The many varieties of common aubrieta (Aubrieta deltoidia) add a splash of color to rock gardens with fuschia, purple and blue-violet flowers with four petals.
While saxifrage (Saxifragaceae) are popular as rock garden plants in the Pacific Northwest, several species also grow in Mediterranean climates. The creeping perennials spread by runners of round green leaves with pink undersides and white veins. The S. umbrosa also offers tiny pink flowers on red stalks while the S. stolonifera has white flowers. Epimedium plants include low-growing perennials that fare well as ground cover in rock gardens, forming a low mass of leathery leaves with heart-shaped leaflets. The tiny waxy flowers of epimedium range in color from hues of white and yellow to pink and red. Wild ginger (Asarum caudatum), a West coast native plant, suits rock gardens with a lot of shade. It has heart-shaped leaves and grows well in foggy areas. The fragrant plant fills gardens with a scent resembling ginger.
Lavender (Lavandula) shrubs provide rock gardens with fragrant plants that are useful in potpourris, dried flower arrangements and as an herb. It grows as green spikes, some as high as 4 feet tall, topped with spires of densely-packed lavender flowers. The African boxwood (Myrsine africana) is a slow-growing evergreen with that grows up to 8 feet tall and produces glossy rounded leaves. Several species of juniper (Juniperus) give rock gardens shrubs in various shades of green and blue-green. The Angelica Blue Juniper (Juniperus chinensis “Angelica Blue”) produces dense bushes of blue-green needle-like foliage and grows up to 6 feet tall.
Adding grasses to a rock garden provides motion as the plants sway in the wind and offer a visual break between flowers and shrubs. Feather grasses (Stipa) grow in clumps of wispy needle-thin grass. Mexican feather grass (S. tenuissima) is bright green with a delicate appearance growing up to 3 feet tall. Feather reed grass (Calamagrostis) has a similar shape to feather grasses and grows to the same height. The variety C. acutiflora “Karl Foerster” produces delicate pink flowers at the top of its stalks. Blue Oat Grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens) has blue stalks and wheat-colored blooms, growing to about 3 feet high.
- Fine Gardening: Creeping Sedums
- Sunset: Saxifraga Stolonifera
- Sunset: Saxifraga Umbrosa
- Sunset: Aurinia Saxatilis
- Sunset: Aubrieta Deltoidia
- Sunset: Epimedium
- Sunset: Asarum Caudatum
- Sunset: Lavandula
- Fine Gardening: Stipa Tenuissima (Mexican Feather Grass)
- Fine Gardening: Calamagrostis X Acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' (Feather Reed Grass)
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