Alpine Planting Style

Alpine planting is characterised by drought tolerant plants that thrive in the dry, rocky and exposed conditions found in the Alpine region. There is a wealth of colour and form on offer with this planting style and due to the natural conditions these plants hail from, they also tend to be very hardy.

It is important to be clear however, hardy as the the plants are, they won’t tolerate persistently damp or waterlogged soil. If these condition persist in you garden then maybe this planting style isn’t suitable.

Alpines flower in large swathes of dramatic pinks, purple, blues and yellows, carpeting the full stretch of the plants. Species like Campanula characterise this well, with its delicate bell-shaped blue flower. Sedum is also a commonly found plant in alpine planting that has small star-shaped flowers that make up an umbellifer in a large floret of colour.

Alpine borders are lead by the planting and the effect that it creates. The rocks protrude out of a mat of foliage and give a sense of a more dramatic landscape, an idealised recreation in a miniature scale.

In the UK, Alpine planting is commonly found in a rock garden or rockery, where large rocks and gravel are used within the overall composition. Low growing plants spread out amongst unshaped rocks creating cushioned mounds and a spreading carpets of foliage. Different shaped and coloured foliage is often to great effect. Species like Helichrysum amorginum and Santolinas are used to pick out patches of silver-leaved definition within a composition, whereas the mound-forming Saxifrage has a bright green, almost, fractal-shaped leaf.

This type of border design is perfect for soil that is already sandy and full of rubble and is particularly effective on a slope.