Chelsea show

Garden designer, photographer, fellow plant geek, and neighbor Barbara Bour graciously asked me to cast a couple planters for her show of garden photos at her hair stylist's space in Chelsea.  Barbara even picked awesome material for the planters.

The show is up through Friday 6/21: 

Chrystoph Marten Salon

511 West 25th St. Suite 606

New York, NY 10001

Rise Up!

The Semp Army rises.

A Small Thing

In the midst of a horrible week, I noticed this in one of the troughs...one of the tiny sedums bravely blooming away.

The Small Things

Helianthemum 'Wisley Primrose'

Erodium x variable 'Flore Pleno'

Kalmia buds

Phyteuma scheuchzeri horned rampion

Passalong echeveria

Crevice Trough Planted

I finally planted the crevice trough that I cast early this spring.  It's filled with a 50% gravel, 25% grit and 25% topsoil mix.  I planted it with a mix of sunny, free drainage-loving plants like lewisias, verbascum, dianthus, arabis, orostachys, and pulsatilla.

The small lewisia at the bottom of the crevice will have a chance for a nice, cool root-run while keeping its collar dry.  

The top of the trough is dressed with a thick layer of grit to slow evaporation, stop rain splash, and keep plant crowns dry.

Fingers crossed that it's happy down there in the crevice.

I. Love. This. Plant.

Asperula gussonii, a Sweet Woodruff relative, has slowly spread into a nice mat in this trough.  It seems to love its free-draining, hot location.  It's super tough and woody...

but blooms so daintily.  It's a quiet beauty.

Trough Season

A group of troughs on our deck.

Yes, our neighbor's house is ten feet away.  It can lead to uncomfortable moments when we're both on our decks.  Luckily our most recent neighbors on that side seemed to despise their backyard.

Silene caroliniana is gorgeous this week.  The gnome appeared in the trough one day when my young son was out with the neighbors at a nursery.  

Gnomes happen.  I'll get over it.

A Home Depot saxifrage.

One of my favorite sights in spring: the dwarf conifers pumping out fresh growth.  This one is hemlock 'Cole's Prostrate'.

The doublefile viburnum is booming right now, despite the drizzle.