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Trough and Container Miscellany

From: Louise Parsons <parsont@peak.org>

Ooooo, I am feeling like a cat with cream.  My first order of seeds for the
season has arrived.  They are a batch that I ordered from Rogue House Seed,
mostly for the open garden.  But I did get a fun seed to try sowing
directly in my troughs.  During my wildflower trekes in the mountains I
have been charmed by the humorous little Orobanche uniflora whose tiny
flowers on furry stems pop up like curious ostriches through sedums in
rocky places.  I decided to try and get them to do this in a big clay dish
garden that I have with some sedums growing in it.  Plant intergrowths are
fascinating!  At the Leach Botanical garden rock garden Cyclamen
hederifolium flowers spring up through pale grey-green hebe (H.
pinguifolia, I believe, but am not sure), another intriguing intergrowth!
A dish or container garden is the perfect place to experiment with
interesting intergrowths. 

Here in case anyone doesn't have it, is the URL for the most comprehensive
sight on alpine gardening on the 'net.  The site is under "reconstruction",
but if you click on the "Trough Garden" button, it will take you to a
trough page that is a goldmine of information.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/alpines/index.htm


To see some excellent pictures of troughs and learn more about them, also
go to Jane Grushow's website at:


http://users.success.net/jgrushow/troff.html


Jane is a photographer and contributed beautiful work to the new book on
troughs by Fingerut and Murfitt.  This wonderful book is also reviewed on
"The Alpine Garden."  

Here, in case anyone does not have that, is the basic info

CREATING AND PLANTING GARDEN TROUGHS. by Joyce Fingerut and Rex Murfitt.
Photographs by Jane Grushow and the authors. 1999. Price,$21.00. Hardcover,
7" x 10," 180 pages. ISBN 1-893443-000. Color photos, index, resource list,
bibliography.  Publisher : B.B. Mackey Books, P. O. Box 475, Wayne PA 19087

This book is available to members of the North American Rock Garden Society
at a discount.  Visit the NARGS webpage at:

http://www.nargs.org/

Incidentally this page has loads of information about rock gardening and
alpines.  Many of the "Plant of the Month" features (all archived on the
page for browsing) are easy and good for container gardens of all kinds.

A trough can be treated like a dish garden and vice-versa if you keep in
mind that plants that root deeply need a deep container.  I keep an eye out
for colorful and "architectural" (shapely) rocks for decorating and to
create spaces for rock-loving plants.  "The Alpine Garden"  (aka TAG) site
above has directions for making lightweight troughs that look remarkably
like "the real thing".  They can be made from old styrofoam cheapie ice
chests or fish boxes.  If you can get the fish boxes (terrific freebies!),
the fishy smell can be removed with strong vinegar solution or lemon juice
and a thorough rinse in a baking soda and water solution. I suppose a good
blast with Lysol or the equivalent before final rinsing would also help.  

Fish boxes also make nice propagators and plunge boxes for seed starting
and raising bulbs from seed.  You can also grow alpines from seed outdoors
in them by plunging small clay pots with a fine "scree" mix into the boxes
filled with sand and covering the top with an old window screen.  The fishy
odor will attract predators, so it is important to clean them well even if
you plan to use them outdoors.  

On all of the lists, there has been little discussion of indoor miniature
rock gardens.  My 91 year-old mother enjoys gardening a collection of
bonsai, dish gardens, troughs, and pots both indoors and on her patio.  She
has much to my amazement kept a fuchsia on the patio for many years.  It is
now a lovely small "tree". They are a real challenge to grow in
Pennsylvania with the hot humid summers!  She has a collection of cactus
and tropicals indoors and would love to have more dish gardens indoors.  

On this list I hope to learn of more rock-loving plants that will do ok in
the house.  I gave her some of my cheilanthoid "sporelings" (called
miniature lace ferns, bead ferns, or lip ferns) and they are doing fine
indoors.  They do need strong light but don't seem to mind the warmth of
the indoors.  Oregon native Cheilanthes gracillema, an adorable miniature
lace fern, does require a period of winter cold.  However some of those
native to the deeper south and the southwest such as C. alabamensis and C.
covillei and/or C. eatonii respectively do fine indoors.  They thrive when
planted with rocks.  They are forgiving of not being watered occasionally.
Most lip ferns will go dormant if they don't get water, but then quickly
come to life again with new fronds when watering resumes --as long as they
are not completely desiccated.  Make sure that the drainage is good and add
crushed eggshell or oyster shell bird grit to the soil to grow miniature
ferns.  In fact this grit is good for many plants in containers if you are
concerned that the soil will become too acid with time.  Oyster shell bird
grit is terrific for saxifrages too. 

But while I am thinking of lime-loving miniature ferns, Asplenium ebenoides
(Scott's Spleenwort: actually a hybrid, but given its own bot name) does
fine in a trough, either indoors or out.  Indoors, it will not go dormant,
but does not seem to mind that.  Outdoors it is a fine in-scale companion
for mini hostas.  Selaginellas (beautiful feathery Spike Mosses) and
Soleirolla soleirolii (Baby's Tears: tiny adorable round leaves and comes
in all shades of green from bright chartreuse to deep pine green) also go
great with hostas, but are not hardy in cooler zones.  Be careful with
either of them though if you have a greenhouse because they can both be
rampant when unchecked by frost.  


One of my favorite mini hostas for container gardening is 'Chartreuse
Wiggles'.  As is the case with Hosta venusta, if you give it lean (extra
gritty or "stony") soil, it will be even smaller than when grown in the
open garden in richer soil.  Watering has to be watched carefully though
because this type of soil can dry out quickly during hot weather.
"Wiggles" can be a spreader in the garden in warmer climates than mine.
Here in western Oregon our springs and summers are quite cool though and we
have both late frost and cool soil temperatures.  Thus some hostas get a
late start and don't multiply very quickly. 

Hope that this isn't too long-winded ;-)

Cheers,  Louise
Corvallis, ORegon Cool Mediterranean
Highly variable mintemp: USDA zones are for fruit trees! 
--and the fruit tree growers here definitely rate us as zone 7 :;wink::
Volcaniclastic alluvial soil: heavy but terrific for gardening!
p*@peak.org
Siggie Humor...
...The laboratory rat, despite all urging, stubbornly refused to perform
 the assigned experiments. After a while, however, he reconsidered, and
                 ... wended his maze.

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