Plants for the rock garden

Rock gardens are considered to be particularly easy-care gardens, which can still convince with their very own charm. Without plants, however, this rock garden looks cold and lifeless. Therefore, planting is a key ingredient when it comes to adding personal charm to a rock garden. The planting makes it possible to bring variety to the stone landscape. However, the choice of plants should not be made arbitrarily.
Create the rock garden yourself in the home garden
In a rock garden, an approximately 30 cm deep layer of the mother earth is removed. This area is covered with a fleece. This area is then filled up to 5 cm with a mixture of the mother earth and gravel. The top layer is covered with the desired stones. The type of rock can be chosen according to personal preferences. However, only one type of rock should be selected here.
The selection of the right rock garden plants
A rock garden that is populated with too many different plants can quickly appear restless and chaotic. To prevent this, it is better to select a few plants. In order to liven up the stone bed, these can be arranged in larger groups. In principle, it can be said that the smaller the rock garden, the fewer plants should be selected. In the case of very small rock gardens, a maximum of three different evergreen and year-round plant species should be used. However, bulbs can be combined with this in the spring. When choosing a color, care should be taken to ensure that the colors of the plants match each other. This restricts the selection after a certain color has been selected, but it allows maximum harmony to be created.
With the evergreen plants, care should be taken that they are weatherproof and can overwinter. When choosing plants, however, attention should be paid to which stones were used. For example, in rock gardens in which sand-lime brick or dolomite were used, plants should be chosen that thrive on calcareous subsoil, as these stones often already contain lime. In contrast, for example, granite, sandstone or basalt are acidic or neutral. Almost all plants can be used with these types of rock.
The evergreen plants that are suitable for rock gardens
There is a huge selection of different types of plants that are suitable for planting in the rock garden. First of all, the evergreen plants should be selected. The evergreen plants ensure that the rock garden looks lively even in winter. In addition, the roots of the evergreen plants also protect the soil from being eroded during heavy rainfall. With the evergreen plants, however, care should be taken that they are small woody plants. Even if all of the evergreen plants are quite small when first planted, attention should be paid to the final size. Here, for example, dwarf trees can be used:

• Ball pines are particularly beautiful in rock gardens. They grow bushy and overgrown and can be cut into a ball.
• The nest spruce, which is also easy to care for, is similar to the spherical pines in its round shape.
• With small gorse, a bit of yellow color can be brought into play during the flowering period.
• The five-finger bush can also bring color into play. However, since there are different colored variants, the color should be selected to match the other plants in the rock garden.
• As a hardy plant, the roof root also brings color into play in the months of July and August.
• The color lilac or rose can be brought into play with alpine azaleas.

In addition, the rock daphne, dwarf conifers, the dwarf mountain pine, the hanging willow, the dwarf helmlock fir or the creeping juniper are also suitable for planting rock gardens.
Bulb and bulb plants for rock gardens
Bulb and bulb plants should not be avoided in a rock garden. They can provide a colorful experience at different times of the year thanks to their flowers. Care should be taken to ensure that the plants are chosen so that there are always some blooming. The plants that bloom in spring should be combined with those that bloom in autumn. One such plant is the autumn crocus, but it is very poisonous. It blooms from August to October. An alternative to this is the autumn crocus, which not only looks very similar to the autumn crocus, but also flowers at the same time. In contrast, the winterlings bloom from January to March. Squill, tulips, daffodils, dwarf irises or crocuses can also be used.
The planting of perennials in the rock gardens
Perennials should definitely be combined with other plants in the rock garden. Here, too, there is a large selection of different perennials:
The cat's paw is one of them. This medicinal plant can be combined with other plants that are lilac in color.

• Small groups of lavender, for example, fit in here.
• Cyclamen, primroses, edelweiss, gentian or even bluebells are also suitable for planting in the rock garden.
• Upholstered perennials or stone herbs can also be used.
• Furthermore, the rock garden can be loosened up with grasses such as panicle or bear grass.
• Perennials such as stone herb, rock cress or hunger flower can provide variety in the rock garden.

In addition, the alpine alpine bells, the various sedum species, the hunger flowers or sun rose with their different colors can beautify the rock garden. Particularly with the perennials, attention should be paid to the color selection!
Rare and exotic plants for rock gardens
If you like it more exotic, i.e. you want to equip your rock garden with plants that are not available everywhere, you usually have to dig deeper into your pocket. In addition, these plants are often not available everywhere. One of the rarities is the dwarf scotland, which impresses with its strong colors and beautiful flowers. In addition, beautiful orchid species can be a real visual highlight in the stone bed. Here you can look for special orchids such as the Tibetan orchid or the bog orchid.
Ground cover for the rock garden
Classic rock garden plants are Ground cover, i.e. plants that do not grow very high and rather crawl across the ground. Beautiful ground covers are, for example, the cushion bellflower or the small one Evergreen. Of course there are many more. You can get the right plants or seedlings in everyone Hardware store or in the garden shop. Advice is included here. So you should know whether the plants prefer to withstand the sun or whether a location in the shade is planned.
You can also get the stones in the hardware store or from the farmer around the corner who collected the stones from the field. With great attention to detail, you can then Plan rock garden and plant many rockflowers, blue fescue, or carnation. To set a special highlight between your own rock garden plants, you could think about using bowls or troughs. Then there is one very quickly Bird bath built up or a pot with Spring blooming placed between the stones. Also certain jewelry, like balls or terracotta-Animals look very nice in the well-tended rock garden.
Worth knowing about rock garden plants in brief

1. The plants in a rock garden should not be too big, otherwise the character of the planting will be lost.
2. If there is a lot of space and larger stones are used, the plants can also be a little larger.
3. in the Rock garden no plants should be used that proliferate and spread quickly in an uncontrolled manner.
4. Rock garden plants You can get it in nurseries, but also in the garden market and many suppliers can be found on the Internet.

The following are suitable as woody plants:

• Japanese maple
• Low bell hazel
• Finger bush
• Stone gorse
• Refined Korean fir
• Real blue spruce
• numerous coniferous shrubs and small-leaved rhododendron species
• Cacti are also well suited if they are frost-resistant.

Suitable flowers are:

• small ones Bluebells
• Primroses
• Mountain carnations
• gentian
• different roe root species
• many sedum species
• Pasque flower
• Hunger flowers
• Pillow asters
• Cat paws
• low adipose hens
• Columbine
• Balkan Carnation
• Blue fescue
• Blue pillows
• Spring Adonis
• yellow-leaved dost
• Yellow sun rose
• Carpet phlox
• Flower of gods
• Heather carnation
• Caucasus rockcress
• Cornflower aster
• Pasque flower
• lily of the valley
• Mosquito grass
• Upholstery cloves
• Stone purse
• Ice plant
• Red wound clover
• Rock garden cranesbill
• and many more.

Grasses are particularly beautiful in autumn. They keep their beauty well into autumn and some are still pretty to look at even in winter. However, the grasses must not become too dominant and not too big. In the spring are onion plants, so Spring bloomer an eye-catcher in the rock garden. These shouldn't get too high either, but there are an awful lot of varieties that stay small, regardless of whether tulip, daffodil, Crocus or others.