the miserable gardener

Fendlera rupicola.

I tried to show the beautiful pearly pink buds (one at upper right, with a seed pod from last year next to it). It’s not having the greatest year ever; I’m not sure why.

This shrub is quite scarce in Rocky Mountain regional gardens, but Farrer knew it, mentioning it in My Rock Garden published in 1907.

I understand that there are a couple of other species in the genus Fendlera, linearis from west Texas and points southwest, and a few species in Mexico. Also F. wrightii which may just be a form of F. rupicola.

The common name is said to be “cliff bush”. Cliff bush. In some places, where the imagination is set free, and poetry reigns supreme, the plant becomes “cliff fendlerbush”.

Just in case there might be some confusion.

All wrapped up and ready to grow. I’m such an artistic person, huh?

I have a lot of burlap on hand. Though–I hasten to add–I’m so not one of those people who hordes things, thinking “they just might come in handy some day”.

Out-of-focus rhododendrons, left, ‘Windbeam’, right ‘Pioneer Silvery Pink’. (I only grow the lepidotes.) Self sown Daphne giraldii right, Pinus contorta ‘Taylor’s Golden Sunburst’ (thanks, Allan!) lower left, with the trunk of Cupressus bakeri in the back.

“But what if it rains?”

What if a herd of elephants jumps over the back fence?