WHILE RESEACHING THIS article, I came across a copy of a rather lengthy message Panayoti Kelaidis wrote on Alpine-L (https://florapix.nl/alpine-l/) in 2008 titled “In Defense of Non-conventional Rock Gardens.” It was a celebration of miniature plants worldwide. He described a garden at his home in Colorado that he loved. He called it a “dryland rock garden,” and he said “Probably half the plants in this garden have never appeared in a single rock garden tome.” Although his descriptions were confined to tiny plants, I agree with his premise, and this is my “defense of a non-conventional rock garden.”
One of the great loves of my life is the University of Tennessee Gardens, where I have been a volunteer for over 20 years. It was recognized in 2013 as the State Botanical Garden of Tennessee with locations in Knoxville, Crossville, and Jackson. Some years ago, when the south greenhouse was completed and placed in operation, the garden’s staff decided to build gardens adjacent to the staff parking lot. A kitchen garden containing raised beds, surrounded by blackberry vines and ornamental bushes was constructed, enclosed by fences painted a lovely lavender color. It is a display garden, a useful teaching tool, and a favorite destination for visitors.
There was an area between the new garden and the parking lot, a slight bank rising between the two areas. It was something of an eyesore and needing to be planted to hold the soil. The staff wondered how to deal with this area, so the bank was designated the rock garden, and boulders were brought in from the Cumberland Plateau, a part of Tennessee known for its beautiful rocks. This is not a traditional rock garden. It is not a crevice garden, and it is not planted with alpines (they probably wouldn’t grow here anyway.) But I think it is beautiful, and thought it was worth describing.
Dr. Sue Hamilton, long-time director of the gardens (who retired this year), is well known to members of the Conifer Society and has served as its president. So, when the rock garden was planted, conifers were featured prominently. Above is a picture of the original planting; in comparison, the picture at the beginning of this article was made in 2019 from the same perspective.
The conifers have thrived; mature now, they are truly beautiful, and they form an effective separation from the parking lot. There are pines, junipers, and arborvitaes along the bank, and a beautiful Cedrus deodara is located next to the stairway from the parking lot down to the path. To the side of the stairs grow common sage (Salvia officinalis) and tiny boxwoods.
Early spring is a colorful time in the garden. Clumps of creeping phlox abound, and Tulipa clusiana has naturalized on the bank in several places. Early blooming Crocus tommasinianus ‘Roseus’ ordered from Jane McGary many years ago had naturalized in my home garden in several locations, so I planted some of its bulbs on the bank.
The large concrete trough was made by another long-time member of NARGS, Nancy Robinson. She and her husband, Hal, gave it to me in 2006 when the Friends of the UT Gardens came to my home for a garden party. It, too, resides in the rock garden and is now planted with Sedum ‘Blue Carpet’. The white quartz rocks originated in the mountains of Monroe County, Tennessee, my home county. Sedum ‘Angelina’ grows on the ground nearby.
My dear friend, Deedee Blane, and I took part in the Adopt-A-Spot program developed by Alice Kimbrell when she was an intern working on her master’s degree at UT, and we “adopted” the rock garden. This program has been very successful, and many volunteers are now maintaining their favorite spots in the gardens. It has become an integral part of the volunteer program at the gardens, and Alice is now the Volunteer Coordinator. I truly regret that I’m no longer able to participate. Working to help maintain the rock garden was an experience I really enjoyed.
Many plants have naturalized on the bank. Among them are Verbascum thapsus (common mullein), Nassella tenuissima (Mexican hair grass), and Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii. The euphorbia has seeded itself all over, but it’s pretty, even after bloom is over. An occasional yucca sends up its stalks of white flowers. Carpets of sedum spill down the bank, and there is even a big clump of cactus (Opuntia aurea).
Cotinus obovatus grows among the conifers at the top of the bank, providing chartreuse color in the line of green screening the view of the parking lot, and shrub roses appear at intervals to provide a splash of color to complement the green of the conifers. Echinacea tennesseensis and Salvia greggii bloom on the bank. Yellow Echinacea paradoxa and Coreopsis grandiflora seedlings are present, as well as various poppies whose seedlings appear each spring. There is a huge clump of Santolina viridis in one location.
At this end of the garden, the path moves away from the kitchen garden and slopes down to a different area of the gardens. The bank is steeper here. Some of the large green bushes at the top of the bank where the path curves are heirloom figs descended from cuttings taken years ago at Mary Ball Washington’s birthplace in Virginia. I have sampled some of them—they’re very good. A large clump of Phlomis fruticosa blooms in front of the figs.
Tall spires of blue Perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian sage) are in evidence here and there and blue Baptisia australis blooms in the spring. Some of the most interesting of the boulders must have originated at the bottom of an ancient lake and are covered with fossils.
This is a very different rock garden than those NARGS members are used to, but it is nevertheless a rock garden close to my heart. Mr. Kelaidis said, “Of course, we pay special honor to the treasures of the highest crags, but I would think that any rock gardener worth his or her salt would bow on their knees to worship bluets in a New England lawn just as fervently.” We have bluets in the mountains of East Tennessee, too, and a bank full of big rocks and conifers that is, I think, representative of our southern Appalachian region.
