Rock Garden

Fashionistas in the garden like those great big blooms with petals thick as petticoats, but there's another way to go: rock-garden plants. Their flowers are small, subtle, and every bit as beautiful as their hefty peers, as Ann Rosenberg of Bryn Mawr discovered around 1985. On a trip to England that year, she delighted in some small penstemons, which sparked an interest in other plants commonly used in rock gardens. "They're so cute!" she says. They're usually less than four inches tall, maybe as tall as 12 inches if you count things like dwarf conifers, another popular rock-garden feature.

Albert F.W. Vick Jr., 90, former owner of Vick's Wildgardens in Gladwyne, who won gold medals for his re-creations of rocky woodlands, died of a stroke Aug. 18 in Arnold, Calif., where he had lived since 1995. In the 1900s, Mr. Vick's ancestors sold seeds in Rochester, N.Y., and later in Philadelphia. Around 1930, his father established a nursery in Glenmoore. Mr. Vick joined his father after graduating from Friends' Central School and attending Franklin and Marshall College. In the 1940s, when a state road was built through the Glenmoore property, the Vicks used the debris to form rock formations and filled in cracks with wildflowers and ferns.

Jim and Cindy Poopert were surprised last month to see the yard of their back-door neighbors moving closer and closer to their own home. First, they say, they saw workmen clearing underbrush, tearing down tree limbs and carting off loads of leaves from a township-owned buffer between the two properties. Later, the Cherry Hill couple noticed crews turning part of the buffer into an extended back yard and putting down an elaborate rock garden. Jim Poopert said he was angry because his neighbors - radio personalities Ken and Elaine Garland - were destroying a part of the natural 90-foot buffer that separates the two homes and were using the township ground for their own lawn.

OOOH, BABY, talk foliage to me. I like it variegated. Betula nigra "Heritage," your exfoliating bark turns me on. Call us prudes if you will, or frumpy old gardeners, but a good number of us here in Philly get our rocks off on rock-garden succulents and wanton perennial borders. Thousands of us turned out for the opening day of the Philadelphia International Flower Show yesterday to swoon over blooms like the passion-pink Miltonia and butter-yellow Paphiopedilum alba you see here.

Be careful what you wish for. You may get the half-acre lot where all of your gardening fantasies are meant to come true. How many apartment dwellers have dreamed of working the same magic outdoors that they do in small spaces, knowing they possess skills that far surpass the limitations of the windowsill and balcony? What a thrill to decide where to put a tree, or what to plant in the vegetable patch. Think of the satisfaction in gazing on an evolving color palette designed to keep flowers in bloom throughout the season.

Dry streambeds can look as old as the hills, and they can turn tricky drainage problems into handsome elements in any garden design. Dry streams are really just above-ground drainage channels lined with rocks and placed to look as though nature had done the work herself. When it rains, water that would otherwise cut a muddy swath through a yard splashes along the stones in a streambed designed to handle the flow. When it's not raining, the dry streambed is a striking decorative feature, a rock garden around which plants naturally thrive.

Founded in 1852, the Klehm Nursery in South Barrington, Ill., has a long and distinguished history of producing a wide range of nursery stock. Here in the East, this family business is known for superior perennials, available to gardeners through its attractive catalogue. Roy Klehm, the fourth-generation owner, will speak May 14 at the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College and on May 16 at the Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill. Klehm's grandfather, Charles C. Klehm, began selecting and hybridizing peonies in the early 1900s.

No one looks forward to getting old until, in the words of that old boulevardier Maurice Chevalier, they consider the alternative. But getting older need not mean giving up on life's pleasures. In fact, there is a simple way to counteract the aches and pains, occasional torpor and depression that can accompany aging: Gardening. Caring for plants and watching them grow celebrates life in the most direct way. We are responsible - at least in part - for something living and beautiful.

Cooking at my house sure isn't like on the Food Network. This thought occurs to me as I am attempting to cook tiger shrimp in a tomato, basil, and white-wine sauce over cappellini. While I stir in the angel-hair pasta, which has begun to stick together, my toddler is asking questions on a continuous loop with his volume control on loud; his 1-year-old brother is babbling something that sounds suspiciously like "BAM!" The dinner came out fine, although the shrimp were a tad tough, the sauce a bit thin.

With the rigors of winter facing them, gardeners have little difficulty imagining daffodils in bloom or the first lettuce harvest, not to mention the first home-grown tomato of the season. Meanwhile, we can augment our imagination with the products and dreams offered in the endless catalogues that appear in our mailboxes. Perennial gardens and herb selections, shrubs and trees, seeds and soil mixes - all are there in brilliant color. As you study these offerings, look for a couple of new plants, highly recommended by two reputable organizations.

Check out winter bloomers. Right now witch hazels, wintersweet, and winter honeysuckle are in all stages of bloom and bud at public gardens in the area. Or make your own display to herald spring: Group several pots near the front door, covering them with decorative burlap or old fabric. Once the blooms are spent, plant these fragrant favorites near entryways for next season's sensual experience. Many have other seasons of interest, like great fall color, especially the witch hazels and wintersweet.

OOOH, BABY, talk foliage to me. I like it variegated. Betula nigra "Heritage," your exfoliating bark turns me on. Call us prudes if you will, or frumpy old gardeners, but a good number of us here in Philly get our rocks off on rock-garden succulents and wanton perennial borders. Thousands of us turned out for the opening day of the Philadelphia International Flower Show yesterday to swoon over blooms like the passion-pink Miltonia and butter-yellow Paphiopedilum alba you see here.

Fashionistas in the garden like those great big blooms with petals thick as petticoats, but there's another way to go: rock-garden plants. Their flowers are small, subtle, and every bit as beautiful as their hefty peers, as Ann Rosenberg of Bryn Mawr discovered around 1985. On a trip to England that year, she delighted in some small penstemons, which sparked an interest in other plants commonly used in rock gardens. "They're so cute!" she says. They're usually less than four inches tall, maybe as tall as 12 inches if you count things like dwarf conifers, another popular rock-garden feature.

Think of all the tough places people garden: on traffic islands and tree stumps, between pavers and logs, along highways and sand dunes. How about this: a rocky cliff 60 feet high and 120 feet long. Some rock garden! Mark Isaksen and Daniel Walth weren't sure what to expect in 2001 when they went to see the house for sale on Cliff Terrace, a one-block, dead-end street in Wyncote. Turns out, it had what they were looking for - less house and more yard than their place in Germantown - and two other pluses.

Albert F.W. Vick Jr., 90, former owner of Vick's Wildgardens in Gladwyne, who won gold medals for his re-creations of rocky woodlands, died of a stroke Aug. 18 in Arnold, Calif., where he had lived since 1995. In the 1900s, Mr. Vick's ancestors sold seeds in Rochester, N.Y., and later in Philadelphia. Around 1930, his father established a nursery in Glenmoore. Mr. Vick joined his father after graduating from Friends' Central School and attending Franklin and Marshall College. In the 1940s, when a state road was built through the Glenmoore property, the Vicks used the debris to form rock formations and filled in cracks with wildflowers and ferns.

Alice Bucher, who could be described as a perennial at the Philadelphia Flower Show, almost stayed away from the horticulture competition for green thumbs. Luckily for her, she entered - because the Kennett Square 69-year-old snagged first place in the pubescent (that means wooly or hairy) foliage plant, 8-inch or under class Saturday with a siderasis fuscata, commonly known as a brown spiderwort. It was also entered in a houseplant class. For the artistic division's "eternal spring" class, Bucher, who has participated in the flower show for 16 years, will enter today a tiny but dramatic creation of pink mini-springs, a sliver of fern, and specks of rice, all suspended in a lighted box. Bucher, who belongs to the Spade and Trowel Club in Chester County and the Countryside Garden Club in Hockessin, Del., had entered the horticulture division without high hopes.

Coiled above the grotto cave, a sculpted snake will drip venom into a fog-covered pool. A drooling 8-foot dragon will create an awesome waterfall, and a leaping water glow worm will lead children to a tower overlooking a bamboo maze. It's all part of a new indoor children's garden put together by Tres Fromme, planning and design leader for Longwood Gardens. As Longwood marks the 97th anniversary of Pierre du Pont's purchase of the land, Fromme's studio here is filled with sketches and prototypes for new gardens that reflect the founder's desire to showcase the simple, elegant wonders of a garden in a theatrical way. Du Pont, an industrialist and philanthropist whom Fromme described as the ultimate home gardener on a grand scale, combined his love of European gardens and water features with his engineering talent to create a horticultural showplace that's very dynamic and very evolvable, Fromme said.

Dry streambeds can look as old as the hills, and they can turn tricky drainage problems into handsome elements in any garden design. Dry streams are really just above-ground drainage channels lined with rocks and placed to look as though nature had done the work herself. When it rains, water that would otherwise cut a muddy swath through a yard splashes along the stones in a streambed designed to handle the flow. When it's not raining, the dry streambed is a striking decorative feature, a rock garden around which plants naturally thrive.

Cooking at my house sure isn't like on the Food Network. This thought occurs to me as I am attempting to cook tiger shrimp in a tomato, basil, and white-wine sauce over cappellini. While I stir in the angel-hair pasta, which has begun to stick together, my toddler is asking questions on a continuous loop with his volume control on loud; his 1-year-old brother is babbling something that sounds suspiciously like "BAM!" The dinner came out fine, although the shrimp were a tad tough, the sauce a bit thin.

There were tough shots, spectacular plays, and an improbable game-winning shot that will be talked about for years. For once, it didn't come from Reggie Miller. Larry Johnson provided last night's miracle finish, launching a three-point shot with 5.7 seconds remaining in Game 3 of the NBA's Eastern Conference finals. He was fouled on the play, and made the four-point conversion to lift the New York Knicks to a stunning 92-91 victory over the Indiana Pacers in front of a sellout crowd of 19,763 at Madison Square Garden.