Love all your creative planting ideas dirtdorphins! The ones growing in the rocks look pretty good after a long winter.

Thank you!
Yes, they are amazingly rugged little plants!
(I had to add some soil to that geode dish because it was tilted for drainage and lost quite a bit good thing they are so tough!)

and I love rocks, too they are indeed the one thing that I can successfully 'grow' in this desert and they always look cool (even when my experiments don't work out so well)
I wish I could do the moist-woodland-acidic-rock-thing, Mark's stuff is truly in another league of inspirational! but alas, I am not blessed with that environment...

Yes, the two poles of rock growing.

Dirt, you are a genius with rock garden planting! Thanks so much for the wonderful pictures! I had to laugh when I saw the geode with a plant in it. I happen to have a few ugly geodes around here somewhere, that we dug when we lived in Utah, so if I can find them, they'll finally have a purpose in life besides just sitting there looking not pretty!

Thanks so much for taking the time to share all of those pictures!

Lynn, thanks for the photo of the cinder block bed! That is exactly how I had it pictured!

These photos are from last year -- we did move the rocks to create my new (and pretty raw looking) semp. bed, but they are all home grown. I'm putting these up to remind myself that they are still there in hiding...



"Rollers from Hirta..."

I love those rollers! Was laughing over how cute they are, when I was on Chris' site! Love the description of them rolling off and rooting wherever they land.

How deep do the roots go on these plants? Is it different for various plants, or pretty close to the same for all of them?

It is different for various plants. Some are quite shallow rooted, others can have quite extensive roots systems.

Thanks Lynn! I've got more reading to do!

Dirt, I always love those little peaks of your rock garden. Your semps look like they are doing fabulous there, happy campers for sure.

Thank you Connie
You're welcome Natalie--genius? oh no! incorrigible fool! I can't even begin to tell you all the epic garden disasters I've created and the precious little plants I've tortured and killed--the sempys are not immune to my ignorance but they are pretty darn tolerant like I said

Interesting on the extent of the roots...is there a resource that details which kinds have which roots??
Thinking back on it...the only ones I have noticed to have what I would term shallow root systems are those grown either with consistent moisture or in poorly draining soil...I have always been particularly impressed and shocked by the extensive root systems that they can develop under and in-between and in rocks--even the little rollers can have relatively extensive root systems when I've attempted to extract them from some interesting places... And I'm just guessing, but I'll bet that those little arachnoideums have some surprisingly extensive roots into that shale.

I still think you are a genius, dirt! You have a good eye for things. Much better than mine! I'm usually like this...

I agree dirt. Conditions can force the roots to greater depths looking for moisture.

I visited a hydroponic strawberry farm once and was interested in what they showed us about training roots to go down by watering from below. I don't know if it mattered, but I did try to water my seedling pots from the bottom before they went into "hibernation." We'll see -- if any have survived this winter, hopefully they will remember to send their roots down for moisture when they are set out into the garden!