Loving My Miniature Plants

I am so pleased with my hypertufa plants this year.

The plant choices I have made these past years have really turned out to be good choices ( for the most part). And I have loved how most of them have spread and enlarged so that I will have many more to divide into new troughs for the new year.

It is hard to explain to someone who doesn’t garden in “miniature” how much you like it. Maybe it is something like playing with a doll house when you were young. If I plant miniature plants in my troughs, it is like I am creating a garden but my garden is only a 12 or 18 inch circle. Or a 1 foot square or rectangular trough.

I used to plant some of these in my giant T Rex Trough or the large fire pit saucer I made from hypertufa. Loved them all. And they are doing well still because I took all  the plants with me when I moved, even though I had to leave the big hypertufas behind.

During these past summers, the plants in my largest trough seemed to be thriving and spreading. Some were even spilling over the sides. I love that.  I have posts about the Erodium reichardii which has become a favorite.  I have brought that one into the house this year, since it didn’t survive outside. Labeled as zone 5 , though.

And I understand there are many more varieties which I will watch for and snap up when I see them. I may need to order them from an internet source if I cannot find them locally. Those plants bloomed all summer and looked lovely.

The best thing about hypertufa gardening is that there is not much work involved in caring for these plants. The ones I have chosen are not fussy, and have hardly needed watering. They survived on rains. But I did water them from time to time, just a little, because I just love that comfortable feeling spraying from the garden hose.

Below here is a close-up from the above picture. [easyazon_link identifier=”B0177ZJTTS” locale=”US” tag=”thehypegard0d-20″ cloak=”n” localize=”y”]The little Erodium climbing on the rock[/easyazon_link] looks as if it is an insect of some kind. You have to admire that little workhorse. It has spread widely from such a small clump. I had big hopes that it would come back in the spring. But it is doing fine inside and I will have it to plant around and share. Keeping fingers crossed!

Here is a picture of this trough as closely as I can match this view. See how well everything has grown?  I tried to capture the similar angle in that dotted box. The plant in the lower right corner was a rockfoil, and it slowly died out on me. Only when I searched out the information on it did I realize I had chosen a plant which likes it moist and a little shady. And that rockfoil was a pretty plant, so I will find it again, and plant it in a more suitable garden planter perhaps on the shady side of the house.

I need a new T Rex II now for the shady side of the garage! Woot woot!  I am so making that! I want to put a lot of the big ones over on the shady garage side of the house.

So do you plant miniature plant varieties? What are your favorites? Do you have any new ones to recommend to me? I always like to hear about one that I don’t have yet.