The Artistry of Zdenek Zvolanek
In spring of 2008 the Berkshire Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society held a Winter Study Weekend. Our guest speaker was the master Czech Crevice Garden builder and plantsman, Zdenek Zvolanek, who wowed us all at the conference with what he was growing in a climate very similar to ours. He happened to be staying with me in Goshen for a week before the next stop on his journey. I mentioned I had imported a collection of brightly colored kabschia Saxifraga during my trip to the Czech Republic and did not know where to site them in my garden. Small little plants, they bloom in early April here, and start my taste for spring.
Zdenek said he would enjoy building me a small rock garden and asked where. I thought the north side of the southeast wall of our property would be perfect. It was backed by a group of trees that would provide a cool area. Saxifraga grow at high elevations and as far up as the Arctic Circle. There was a large Paeonia there that might easily be moved since it was early March. I showed him this shot (below) I took during the previous Spring when looked south over the “whale rock” from the Pollia japonica. (use the head as a reference) towards that area.
So off to work I went one day as he and my husband Rod went round the property and “picked” rocks with a borrowed tractor.
Wow! A big change! It was so much larger than I expected. But I welcomed the planting room.
Amazing. What artistry! Then came the fill. I was so surprised when Zdenek said no soil. He quite favored the crushed granite that was sitting in the driveway for one of Rod’s jobs. I protested that granite was acidic. He laughed. That would happen long after the plants were gone, he said. The one caveat: the crushed stone must be very tightly packed. Steel prybars were needed to compact the granite “soil”.
Thank you to Zdenek and to his partner, Joyce Carruthers, as that was such a lot of hard work as I later learned first-hand. But entirely worth it. His partner Joyce had a lot of experience building with Zdenek in all the various gardens he had created before mine. She also gave me a lot of good tips for “packing”. The Ramonda and Haberlea thrived.
Zdenek also advised planting small evergreens across the top. Maybe a prostrate Daphne, or our native Paxistima canbyi would certainly also work. I did. That next spring I was enchanted by all the shrubs on top.
And of course the kabscia Saxifraga. They are like little bits of fine chocolate – there are never enough.
And next, I added my favorites like Androsace sarmentosa, Gentiana acaulis, Draba, Daphne, and Primula allionii, and the “devils claw” Physoplexis comosa.
Zdenek left me instructions to add a stone path entrance, which I did.
(To be continued…)
Berkshire Chapter NARGS 