Woodies

These are rather common on mineral rich moist or wet soil but they also tolerate drier conditions.

When we think of the Western U.S. we picture two plant comunities most often. The Deserts of the south west with their abundance of cacti and the sage brush steppe dominated by shrubs.
On the sunny, wind swept high deserts of the western US vast stretches of territory are dominated by shrub comunities. Artemisia, Purshia, Cercocarpus, Ephedra, Prunus, Chrysothamnus and Mahonia are very obvious and omnipresent. These and many others hidden throughout these steppes work well in a dryland rock garden as backdrops to the flowering herbaceous plants we cherish.

As I type this we are gettiong 5-10 cm of snow. I managed to take a couple of pictures of the Erica carnea at work (Memorial University of Newfoundland Botanical Garden) before the snow began.

In the first picture there is (foreground to background) December Rd, Anne Sparkes and Springwood White. The rhododendron is Double Dip, a yakushimanum hybrid.

The first rhodo to flower this year as always but two month or so later than last year. The mother is Rh. mucronatum I believe but I don't know the father!

I grow several native Newfoundland willows in my rockery and at our botanical garden. One of my favourites is S. vestita. This species occurs from Newfoundland through to the Rockies, but our forms are much smaller than those of the west. This little willow is wonderful all year. Here is a potted specimen in our alpine house.

OK, the flower is white and the bush is bushy. But for those of us who live in a windswept, godawful Great Plains where the wind whistles and only a few, threadbare strands of barbed wire separate us from the Arctic blasts (I did not make this up, btw), the seemingly subtropical luster of evergreen leaves on this munchkin are as evocative of warmth as Gardenias in Grenada.