• Due to the scarcity of insects in alpine regions many alpine flowers are self-pollinating.
 

Alpine Garden

This garden mimics the Alpine Region of the mountains, which is often treeless and encompasses a variety of terrain - craggy cliffs, rocky slopes, moraines, bogs and meadows. Cold winters and snow abrasion, cool summers with a short growing season, strong winds, intense sunshine and low moisture contribute to a harsh environment that only vegetation with specific adaptations can survive. Alpine plants typically have dwarf, ground hugging growth to escape strong winds. Fine hairs on leaf and petal surfaces reduce evaporation and trap heat and light coloured foliage helps reflect intense sunshine. Alpine plants often have long taproots to access moisture deep under the surface of the terrain and succulent leaves further serve to store water. To deal with short growing seasons alpine plants generally flower earlier and set seed faster than lower region plants.

Collection Highlights

The alpine collection includes various species of saxifrage, draba, silene and gentian.  A wonderful attribute of alpine plants is that they seem to have ridiculously large flowers for the size of the foliage and plant.  Because alpines have such a brief growing season they are heavily invested in attracting pollinators as quickly as possible.  Loud, voluptuous blooms seems to get the job done efficiently!


Alpine Soil Mix

Since alpine plants are so adapted to dry infertile conditions they may not thrive in typical garden soils.  Many alpine plant growers will create a special soil mix for their alpine collection.  These soil mixes usually contain some percentage of peat moss, grit, horticultural sand and very little mineral soil.  Creating this soil mix is a way of mimicking native growing conditions.  Often the soil surface is also mulched with grit or small pea gravel.  This prevents the leaves of alpine plants from sitting on moist soil, causing rotting.