PNW alpine plants that bring the mountains into your home garden

NATIVE TO ROCKY PEAKS seasonally covered in snow, alpine plants shrug off blazing sun, extreme cold, strong wind and poor soil — hardly the cushy conditions found in a home garden. “You’re trying to trick plants into growing at sea level,” says Del Brummet. “Some plants are much more amenable to that.”
 
As head gardener at the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden, Brummet is responsible for tending a vast array of plants in the collection, but alpine plants have a special place in the hiker’s heart. “I think that the reason people are so enamored with [alpine plants] is because they look otherworldly,” he says. “Their large flowers and colors have evolved to attract the scant number of insects at high altitudes.”

So how does one approximate high peaks, intense full sun, brisk/chilly temps? Then there’s the matter of simulating snow cover in winter that melts to a small but consistent trickle in spring and summer. Preparing a well-drained, even rocky, soil is a good start. Most alpine plants are deep-rooted and adapt to dry summer conditions, but might be subject to rot in the rainy season if the soil is too rich in organic material.
 
The good news: Alpine plants are ideal for small, exposed gardens, whether it’s a container on a balcony or a rooftop garden. Container compositions require attentive hand watering; remember, we’re trying to emulate trickling groundwater. Moving a container under the eaves helps mimic dry winter conditions. A rockery or a raised bed is another option, although Brummet advises gardeners to shield plants from the hottest part of the day.
 
The following plants will bring the mountains into your home garden. While some alpines can be hard to source outside of specialty growers, most of these plants are nursery staples.

● Pasque flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris aka Anemone pulsatilla). Divided foliage emerges in early spring, along with numerous silvery buds that open to purple, rose, deep crimson or white blooms. Flowering continues throughout spring, followed by silky seedheads that sparkle in the light and persist throughout the rest of the growing season. Provide full sun and well-drained soil. Removing foliage in late fall helps prevent moisture from accumulating in the crown of the plant.

● Alpine shooting star (Dodecatheon alpinum). Showy umbels of pink blossoms with reflexed petals appear above basal rosettes of bright green leaves in spring and early summer. Native to mountain meadows, this West Coast native tolerates a bit of shade and moisture during the rainy season until, as temperatures rise, the plant goes dormant in summer.

● Mossy saxifrage (Saxifraga × arendsii). Four-inch pots of mossy saxifrage carpeted with cupped blooms in deep pink, rose or white are a familiar sight at most nurseries. Dense buns of bright green foliage have a mat-forming growth habit. An evergreen perennial, mossy saxifrage thrives in full sun to part shade in gritty, well-drained soil. Lifelong saxifrage (S. paniculata) produces rosettes of rounded leaves that slowly spread. Another common name, encrusted saxifrage, references the plants’ distinctive silver-edged leaves encrusted with lime. As the name implies, lifelong saxifrage is exceptionally durable and long lived.

● Siskiyou Lewisia (Lewisia cotyledon ‘Rainbow’). If you like flowers in tropical punch shades of deep pink, tangerine, fuchsia and gold, you’re going to love Lewisia Rainbow mix, a long-blooming strain of a wildflower that’s native to southern Oregon. With evergreen rosettes of succulent foliage, Lewisia isn’t hard to grow but insists on good drainage. The perennial is tolerant of summer dry conditions, but light summer water will extend blooming.

● Trumpet gentian (Gentiana acaulis). The upward facing, true blue blooms of trumpet gentian are spectacular. The nearly stemless flowers emerge from a slowly spreading carpet of pointed green leaves in spring. The plant performs best in a rock garden where the roots can stay cool and moist yet protected from hot afternoon sun.