Greetings all: Joe, here...a retired transplant from Virginia to the pacific northwest. We've built a new home on Camano Island and are preparing to start landscaping. We have our major plant list planned out and I'll be looking to fill-in the spaces with interesting plants and groundcover. I'm particularly interested in figuring out which plants to use for the rock retaining wall. I'd like to identify various plants to tuck into the crevices and give the wall a living persona. The attached photo shows the wall, and large clump of rocks in the middle of the slope is a cascading waterfall that I put in this past fall. I'll be lurking and reading on the site here and, of course, will be happy to accept any recommendations and ideas for plants! Cheers!
Hi there and welcome to the Stew ! Your pics are not showing up so can`t see thhe waterfall ! Try again please ! We have members in your area and I am sure they can help ! I am in Texas and do not think our plants would work there !
Gosh Joseph, you have a lovely spot there! Cascading rosemary (also known as trailing rosemary) might work on your wall. It is a Mediterranean plant originally, and can survive poor soil and heat. Rosemary, as you know, is perennial so once in, always there. Mosses just wouldn't like all that sun. Let us know what you decide, please.
Funny difference, I suspect you do not have a continental climate. You might even mirror Australia. They can grow eucalytus and here in Alabama even in my zone 8a I cannot.
It is certainly a different climate here. Rather temperate and with occasional extremes in temperatures, rarely above the upper 80's and below the upper 20's. Coming from Virginia, I like the change.
You have a maritime microclimate and will be able to get away with some cool stuff. The 8b zone may delinate avg lows but a real killer is the heat, which is moderated where you are unlike me in zone 8a continental. I can have 125f surface temps on grass when its a hot dry summer here. You will not see that and your plants can have more consistent moisture too.
Hi Joe, Depends on what you like, and how much work and money you want to put into it. I like the idea of Trachycarpus palms. I think they would grow there - I have them in Battle Ground, WA. I had one in Vancouver WA and it is 22 years old now, quite nice. For ground cover, you can't beat trailing sedums. A few years ago they sold them as square foot "tiles" at the big box store. I bought some, cut them into four smaller "tiles" and planted them about six inches apart. I also added some containers of sempervivums. They filled in nicely. Until they did, I had planted bunches of Rose Moss which is similar but annual and has more showy flowers. You could add some larger growing (18 inch clumps) sedums too. They do very well here, low maintenance, no diseases, no pests. The Sedum Tiles look like this (actually they look better than this) There are sedums in all sorts of colors - greens, green with yellow, burgundy, blue-ish, grey-ish.
Hi, Joe, and welcome to the Stew. I'm gonna sit on my fingers and avoid sharing my favourite plants since I'm on the Norwegian north-west coast. Looking forward to following your landscaping. Please post photos!
Welcome Joe Enjoy creating your new space Sedum and Periwinkle are two of my favourtie rock garden plants. I love the colour of the flowers of the Periwinkle. I don't have a problem with it's spread because I have a cooler climate - though it may be something to be mindful of for you. It does prefer a bit of shade , but cascades wonderfully and of course it's periwinkle blue
