Thursday, June 19, 2014

Chickweed for a Rockery

Chickweed (Cerastium) grows in my rocky garden. In its first years chickweed grew poorly, suffering from the winter frosts and thaws. Finally, after 3 years it has become a beautiful plant and began to bloom white small flowers.




Maybe you do not know this plant, so I'll tell you about it. It's an herbaceous perennial, gray because of dense pubescence. I like that it forms dense cushions. It has creeping shoots, flower stalks are15-20 cm tall. Lily leaves are small, silvery.




The flowers are white up to 1.5 cm, petals are deeply cut into two parts at the top. In our climate chickweed blooms in May and June 25-30 days. The fruit is cylindrical box with numerous teeth upstairs. In landscape design it is used since 1820.



If you do not want it to spread through your garden, simply remove the new shoots. In my garden it is not spreading but rather can be lost from frost and thaw. I do not cover it for wintering only prune heavily frosted ends of shoots in spring.





Does chickweed grow in your garden? Where do you use it: in a rockery, a flowerbed, or in hanging baskets?

Thank you!

49 comments:

  1. Fair Summer!


    ALOHA from Honolulu
    ComfortSpiral
    =^..^= <3


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  2. This is a new plant to me! I've never grown it but it is beautiful. Thank you for sharing this pretty plant!

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    1. Maybe one you'll see it just near your home, Peter. Thank you!

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  3. Your last picture is wonderful Nadezda. It shows the plant at its best. People often complain that it is invasive but in my garden it is not difficult to control. It can easily be pulled out.

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    1. Here it can't be invasive because it winters badly and depends of the wintry temps. Thank you!

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  4. We know this as snow in summer - for us chickweed is a completely different plant - a weed in fact. When we moved into out house this was all that grew in the garden. The houses had only been built just over a year but is had certainly spread.

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    1. I like this name 'snow in summer' although don't want to imagine snow in warm season! I didn't buy it as well Sue. 'Snow in summer' grew in this place when the cottage was bought.
      Thank you!

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  5. Dear Nadezda,your beautiful garden is always a joy for my eyes!!Such a preety flower!I do not know this plant!
    Thank you for sharing!!Have a nice day!
    Dimi...

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  6. I always learn about so many new plants and flowers through your blog :) I had never heard of chickweed before. It's beautiful.

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    1. I hope Keith your knowledge of flowers will be useful in your new home in Bavaria. Thank you!

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  7. Dear Nadezda, your garden BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!

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  8. Nadezda, your words are very nice.
    Yes. Krakow was the capital of the former Polish. This city was not destroyed during World War II. This is due to the Soviet General Zukov.
    Praise him for it.
    Greetings.
    Nadezda, sorry it was Ivan Konev.
    SORRY!!!!!!!!

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    1. I do think that Marshal Konev decision to keep such a beautiful city of Kracow was very correct. This city deserves it!

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  9. Love this! So pretty with the greyisch leaves, beautiful in combination with otherwise green leafed plants. I have tried it in our garden in the very beginning but it didn't do well and eventually disappeared completely, as with so many plants is the case on our bad soil. Even the hydrangeas, normally doing ok if I water them thoroughly in summer, are now looking so poorly, despite the gentle winter. Maybe the pool they were in all winter didn't do them good. Think I'll grow everything in containers from now on ;) well, I already do actually. I've become so hesitant over the years to plant anything out in the garden after all the disappointments and loosing plants.
    Marian

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    1. You say that your soil is bad, Marian . I can say our climate is bad. We have very low temps now and all plants in blooming stopped and do not grow and flower. To grow in containers is too heavy, you will have to move containers for winter and in spring. Sorry about your hydrangea!

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  10. It is growing beautifully for you. I also have heard Cerastium called snow in summer - chickweed is a new common name for me.

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    1. The both names are of one plant, Jason. Thank you!

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  11. Plants are very delicate and charming.
    I am delighted with them.
    Nadezda, I wish you a nice, happy weekend.
    Lucia

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    1. Thank you, Lucja. Happy weekend to you too!

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  12. Hi Nadezda
    I have this one one spot as well. You certainly have captured its beauty, although it is considered a pest here by most gardeners.

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    1. Because of cold and wet winters 'snow in summer' is.not a weed here, it badly survives in my garden.
      Thank you!

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  13. I have ever seen the real plant here. The leaves look 'disappear', we only see the plenty little flowers. So lovely...

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  14. Cerastium tomentosum is a popular plant for rock gardens in our country. It is very nice but did not survive in my moist garden, after three years it had gone. Beautiful pictures.

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    1. Mine badly survives after wet winter as well, Janneke. Thank you!

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  15. Hello Nadezda girl !
    I didn't know that chickweed looked like this ! .. it is so pretty ... I have a thing for gray/silver/white plants ... I love my artimesia "Brocade" for that silver gray colour and of course Lamb's Ears .. there are a lot of gorgeous plants in that colour range that mix in with just about any other colour.
    These little flowers are sweet too!
    I might just think about this one now : )
    Joy

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    1. Thanks for remind me of Lamb's Ears: I wanted to move it in another sunny spot, will do today. I love it as well and think it's great for silver grey color too. Thank you Joy!

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  16. I have not tried Chickweed but I love the looks of yours. The blue mixed in with it is such a pretty highlight amongst it. The foliage is pretty.

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  17. Hi Nadezda! Nice to see your garden blooming so beautifully :)

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  18. Yes, I have that perennial in a flower bed. Happy Mid Summer, Nadezda!

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  19. I have chickweed an the front of one or two borders in small patches. It tends to shrink in winter and I have to prune it hard to make it grow again.

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    1. Yes, Friko! My cerastrium grows the same way. Every spring I see if it survived or didn't.
      Thank you!

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  20. The chickweed that I know is a wild plant, with very very tiny but delicate white flowers and very spindly green stems - and I always thought it had that name because hens eat it. I know the plant in your post as "snow-in-summer" but I imagine that there might well be several common names for it. I think it has a Latin name something like "cerastrium" - it often grows on rockeries etc. In any case it is a lovely plant and looks really pretty alongside a bright mauve aubretia,

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    1. You're right Jenny: cerastrium has many common names as snow in summer or chickweed. Mine grows well with ajuga in a small rockery. Thank you!

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  21. My Snow in Summer has the same flowers as yours but the leaves are a bit different. They are a bit smaller and denser, and it makes quite a mat whereas yours looks like it grows a bit taller and airier - it's lovely! I like mine as a groundcover, even in winter they still look nice. I have chickweed too but it's the weedy one...
    Hope you're enjoying your summer garden!

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    1. This one is a ground cover as well, Ruth. The different names are for one cerastrium but for some varieties. Thank you!

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  22. So lovely, Nadezda! I was thinking as I looked at the photos that our chickweed looks nothing like this, so I googled it to check it out. This is a good example of why botanical names are so important. Here in the U.S. we call Cerastium 'Snow in Summer,' and what we call chickweed really is a weed:) I've never grown this myself, but we have grown it in our Master Gardener display garden. It's in a raised planter which helps to contain it, and it is a lovely edging.

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    1. Yes it's a good edging, Rose especially for a rocky garden, as I grow it near the stones. Google is great!
      Thank you!

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  23. This is so fresh and lovely. We have a chickweed here in New Zealand, but it's just a tiny leafed weed. It can be added to salads. Very different from your one!

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    1. Oh, Juliet we don't eat this plant, I think its common name is snow-in-summer.
      Thank you!

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  24. Like some of your other followers, we call this lovely plant 'Snow in Summer'. I first planted it in neat little clumps, but over the past year it has run all over the garden beds. I have started to pull most of it out, but it's too cold to spend much time in the garden right now. I really like it's dainty flowers and lovely grey foliage. Yours looks so pretty and neat.

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    1. Of course in winter you have take care of yourself and not to work in garden in cold weather. Cerastrium won't grow in winter I suppose.
      Thank you!

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  25. I'm soooo excited to see the Chickweed!! I've never seen it around here. Love the silvery plants especially which prosuce white flowers. So, it's perfect!! Thank you for sharing, I'll serch the one in my area!

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