You don't need a lot of space for a rock garden - a small garden corner is perfectly adequate. In addition to various ground covers, grasses and low perennials, small trees complement the interesting landscape.
The boxwood is a typical rock garden tree
These trees are suitable for the rock garden
Preferably evergreen and hardy conifers thrive in a rock garden, which together with thrifts, gentian, lavender, blue cushion, stonecrop and other typical rock garden plants create a harmonious overall picture. The following suggestions fit particularly well into the planned design.
Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens)
The boxwood is very undemanding, easy to care for and extremely durable. The evergreen deciduous tree grows densely branched and can develop into a small tree up to eight meters high when old. Boxwood is easy to trim and is particularly well suited for topiary.
Dwarf Hemlock 'Nana' (Tsuga canadensis)
With its moderate growth, the loosely built, picturesque crown and the overhanging branch tips, the Canadian hemlock is one of the most beautiful conifers. Your hemispherical dwarf variant 'Nana' grows to a maximum of one meter high.
Globe Pine 'Pug' (Pinus mugo)
This dwarf variant of the mountain or crooked pine grows spherical to slightly cushion-shaped and reaches a height of up to 150 centimeters. The very dense, short twigs point upwards and are fitted with long, stiff, dark green needles. The species is robust and very adaptable.
White Pine (Pinus parviflora)
In particular, the blue-needled form of the Japanese white pine, with its loose, irregular structure, is one of the most beautiful pine species in the rock garden. In addition to the 'Glauca' variety, the attractive 'Negishii' variety is also very suitable. It grows erratically and bizarrely. Within 15 years it only gets a little taller than a man.
False cypress (Chamaecyparis)
The Hinoki cypress 'Nana gracilis' is particularly well suited for rock gardens, which initially grows irregularly spherical and later broadly conical. This variety grows up to three meters in height and about one and a half meters in width. The somewhat smaller and narrower 'Nana Aurea' also scores with golden yellow colored needles. The species Lawson's cypress also offers many varieties suitable for the rock garden with green, blue or golden-yellow needles. for example 'Minima Aurea' or 'Minima Glauca'.
Dwarf Birch 'Nana' (Betula nana)
The dwarf birch is widespread from northern Europe to Siberia. It occurs primarily in raised and intermediate bogs and in dwarf shrub communities on nutrient-poor soils. The dainty species with its often prostrate branches is only 0.5 to one meter high. In the garden, the dwarf birch finds an appropriate place in rock gardens, but also in heather and water gardens.
tips
Those who like the vitamin C-rich fruits can also cultivate the native sea buckthorn (Hipphophae rhamnoides) in the rock or gravel garden. This is a deciduous shrub or small tree up to 10 meters tall that can develop numerous stolons.