Propagation, Planting, and Peter Korn's Garden

Day 2 was another busy day. Johan showed me the cold frames and propagation beds where most of the plants grown for the collections are started. We discussed the ways in certain seed should be sown including soaking, stratifying and scarring. Some bulbous plants take many years to grow from seed where as other alpines can take a a few weeks before they are potted. 

Cold frames where seed is started outside

Johan then pulled a few pots from the alpine house that needed to be re-potted. I learned that some plants such as Draba or Dionysia can be easily damaged and killed due to their roots clinging to the pots. To avoid this, the clay pot is broken with a hammer on the side where one can then peel the clay carefully from the roots. After that, a larger pot is slightly filled and then the plant is placed carefully in the center and filled around the edges making sure the plant is sitting slightly above the rim of the pot. Small grit or gravel is then sprinkled around and under the bun for better air circulation and to avoid watering from splashing the media out. Finally, pots are placed in a bin of water to be soaked until the grit turns a darker color.

Soaking newly transplanted pots

I also had the chance plant in the tufa house. The techniques used for planting are not dissimilar to what I do in Betty Ford's alpine house. Plants destined for the tufa house are grown in very small pots so as to keep the roots from getting too big. The soil is then washed from the roots and then placed into a hole and back filled with sand. Elin who helps take care of the alpine house and I discussed techniques and issues concerning liverwort and insect problems.

After work, Johan and I drove about 25 minutes outside of Gothenburg through Pinus sylvestris logged forests and hilly terrain. We pulled up and saw Peter and Jonathon who looked like they had a full day of work under their belt. As we walked up to his house I looked out on what I first thought was an open field but quickly realized this was no ordinary sight. I stopped in my tracks, mouth wide open and muttered something I won't repeat. I had come to a Noah's ark of rock gardens.

Why call it Noah's ark? Well let me begin with the fact that he mostly built this garden by HAND using nothing more than a wheelbarrow and shovels. No tractors, no machines, just pure human stamina.

Peter, Jonathon and Johan

Peter has recently moved to a new home down south and the gardens were just waking up. He had not been there since October so naturally there was a lot to do but that did not distract me from the plants, design and work that went into building this garden.

Crevice gardens everywhere

 It soon became apparent that sand was the theme. I had known a little about this technique but when I saw just about every kind of alpine or rock garden plant growing happily in sand outside, I was completely blown away. Maybe even converted.

Tufa crevice with cushions of Phlox, Dianthus, Gentiana and countless taxa growing in pure sand

You'll have to excuse me for not using many close up shots of plants. It would require a small website to host that many photos and since many of the labels have been removed, I would probably get half of them wrong.

As we descended to the lower back part of the garden we made our towards what looked like a quarry. This area was once a small hill with several trees and top soil. Peter literally dug until he found bedrock and then kept digging to form this rock garden. Most of the rock garden you see in this picture was rock he found under feet of top soil. The ponds and small stream soon formed after doing this.

As we made our way closer to the large rock garden, we walked over a small land bridge where the wind picked up. Peter pointed out that this area is where he grew plants that especially need windier and colder conditions such as Eritrichium, Phlox and Papaver. Micro-climates are everything in a rock garden and Peter knows this better than most.

As if a mountain top was literally placed in the middle of Sweden

A very blue seedling of Pulsatilla grandis that we all oohed and ahhed over 

Looking down on the rock garden and the rest of the property. Tens of thousands of plants. 

Yes, this too was dug out to expose the rock face

Peter and I - for scale

Cushion Myosotis 

More crevice gardens using local rock

An older section the rock garden in which Johan helped build with Peter

 After a face melting tour of the gardens, we looked through the old greenhouses and cold frames where all the plants were/are grown specifically for this garden. There was still many plants in pots and some had just made it their home. One of the most amazing feats of this garden is that Peter grew almost all these plants from seed that his brother, a botanist, collected while biking around the world for 10 years.

Saxifraga cuttings grown in sand and grit

To simply put feelings of inspiration into words would not do this experience justice. From growing in pure sand, building an entire rock garden by hand to growing everything himself is nothing short of incredible. I have a million ideas of my own now and can't wait to try some of them when I get back to Colorado. Peter has created a little slice of heaven for himself and rock gardeners around the world and seeing this garden in person has been life changing. To learn more about this garden buy his book "Peter Korn's Garden - Giving plants what they want" or visit his site Here.

No sand rock gardener has time for compost. They just burn it

Thanks for reading such a long post. I will post my experience of visiting Henrik Zutterlund's garden and seeing thousands of Hepatic nobilis growing wild very soon.