Mountain Harebell

In the spring I delivered new troughs to a member of my rock garden club near Morristown, NJ.  She was kind enough to give me a selection of alpines that she had grown from seed from the NARGS seed exchange.  She had flats and flats of self-sown treasures; I was in awe at her prowess.

In the group that she gave me was campanula lasiocarpa, a plant new to me.  It's also called mountain harebell, or Alaska harebell.  

The foliage is a small tuft, with the delicate purply flowers held by long, thin stems, making it difficult to photograph.  

The remarkable thing is that it's been in bloom continuously since the spring, usually with 5+ blooms.  It's one tough customer.

Portable Landscape

This is a little trough that I cast and planted this spring.  It's been looking great all summer long.  The upright evergreen is juniperus communis 'Compressa'.  The silver mat in the back left corner is antennaria dioica 'Rubra'.  In front is sedum cauticola.  Sempervivums are sprinkled throughout.

The view from above.

Sedum cauticola flowers

Plants with Plans

Aster ericoides has slowly filled in around a deciduous holly (not shown) in a round planter over the last five years.  It makes a nice white necklace for the trough in September.

This variegated agave squirted a pup out of the planter's drainage hole.  

Both plants have a manifest destiny all their own.