What is a good rock garden plant? Depending on the zone and theme of your rock garden, you can use diffeent plants, grasses, trees, shrubs, flowers and bushes. "There are a number of them and it depends...
"There are a number of them and it depends on the zone that you are in," says Laddie Flock, owner of Natural Rock Formations, a company that has been in business for 17 years and has experience in all different styles and themes of rock gardens. Natural Rock Formations is one of the largest distributors of natural stone products on the Pacific coast and has been featured in many publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal to Landscape and Irrigation magazine. Their website can be found at www.natrok.com.
When looking for plants, you will want to check with your local nursery or other garden center and get recommendations from them too. They will know what grows best in your area and can also tell you what is best for your soil type. Many nurseries can actually test the soil for you (some free, some do charge) to let you know if there is anything you need to add to it in order to help your plants grow the best they can.
There are also dozens of nurseries available online or who sell there products through mail order catelogs. These will also be able to give you recommendations for the growing zone you live in and will let you know if plants are good for a certain type of soil, and also if they are sun or shade plants - something you always need to take into consideration. Your plants won't survive if you don't give them the proper amount of sunlight even if they are designed for your growing zone.
Flock described some rock garden plants by saying, "There are some that they call rock roses. There are grasses. There are a number of perennial grasses that would reflect what nature looks like in these settings. In a rock garden, you don't necessarily have to study the nature of a particular zone. Although if you created a theme, that theme generally has trees, shrubs, plants and ground cover, relatively speaking. Have a certain theme element in mind and if your discipline is that you are staying within that theme, select plants that you can use."
In other words, you will want your plants to reflect your theme. If you are designing a rock garden to resemble the pyramids of Egypt, an oak tree right in the middle would not be really appropriate even if it grows well in your area.
Flock also suggests keeping in mind how that plant will grow and how your garden will look after the plants have started gowing. A plant that might work when it is still young and small, may grow to be too overbearing. He says, " The viewing of the plant, tree or shrub in its mature state without having to do excessive pruning is important. The site selection of that particular piece is important. You certainly don't want to put up the stone wall with a lot of detail in it and stick a huge tree in front of it that started off small, but then two months it has grown to where you can't even see your wall."
