Richard creates an alpine haven

Growing alpines is often considered a difficult job, but Dr Richard Armstrong of St Georges in Telford dispels that statement.

Richard has been growing alpines for a while in different containers and believes it is the answer for those with small gardens who want the minimum amount of work.

“Covering the soil with a plastic sheet, then with gravel and standing some pots or containers on it is very labour saving,” said Richard.

“Garden centres have various lightweight alpine containers but when filled with compost and watered they are heavy and can break when moved.”

Richard makes his own containers which can be done with old tyres, edged with wooden edging or by coating old sinks, plastic troughs, sections of sewer pipes, old fish boxes or other unwanted containers with a suitable cement mixture.

“I cover the containers with fine mesh wire and then make up a mixture of one part fine peat, one sharp sand and one cement and enough water to make it workable. This is then applied to the container and left to set.”

Richard sets these up off the gravel for good drainage and adds a compost of two parts gravel, one part John Innes No 2 and one part sand. He often groups different sized containers together or sometimes places alpine pans in front of raised ones.

Richard finds many alpines are easy to grow and his containers are planted with Phlox subulata, Primula denticulata and P. sieboldiana, violas, dianthus and androsacae. One delightful plant covered in blue flowers and hardly 2in tall is Anchusa caespitosa.

As a member of the Alpine Garden Society he is able to choose seeds from up to 6,000 species, some of which he obtains each year and germinates in his unheated greenhouse.

He also specialises in Lewisias and alpine auriculas, which he grows in his greenhouse, and these provide wonderful spring colour.

He propagates these from offsets. Richard even grows some small climbing and spreading clematis including the prostrate C. “Moonman”.

“Lewisias do well outside but are best planted on the tilt to keep their crowns dry,” he said.

Behind the greenhouse Richard is developing a rock garden and hopes soon to start on a slate crevice rockery. Plants like lithodora, Oxalis depressus, Arenaria caespitosa and campanula are flourishing.

Meanwhile his wife Ann looks after the rest of the garden and her own greenhouse where she grows a variety of streptocarpus, cymbidium and phalanopsis orchids and several unusual pot plants.

Outside, Ann has a collection of pot-grown acers in a shady part of the garden, an ornamental pool and several mixed-flower borders.