Alpines are superb plants for the beginner gardener but also for experienced gardeners looking to expand their range of plants. Delicate, diminutive, yet tough and floriferous, once you’ve grown a couple of you’ll be hooked. But which alpines are best for beginners?

In this diary I’m sharing descriptions and pictures of my favourites from my very own garden. For a extended list, John Good’s book Alpine Gardening for Beginners, provides more great alpines for beginners.

Choose wisely and you’ll have a season of joy, with feature plants which will draw your eye and add unique decor to your outdoor space.

1. Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris)

If you’re trying to find a flower to offer you a thrill in spring annually, look no further than the pasque flower. It’s the sort of flower that appears so beautiful that folks assume it must be difficult to grow but they aren’t.

Keen wild-flower enthusiasts venture out each spring to seek out native drifts of those charming flowers in Britain’s chalk downlands. they’re also good-tempered and long-lived during a garden border, rockery or raised bed, meaning they will be enjoyed up-close reception .

Pasque flowers have feathery, hairy foliage providing longer seasonal interest, dying down each winter. However, it’s the violet anemone-like flowers that basically delight. Its common name name relates to its flowering time – in or around Easter – but an outsized clump will present flower spikes over a 3-4 week flowering period. The flowers are followed by pretty whorled seed-heads from which ripe seed are often harvested and sown.

I have do well success with plants bought from specialist suppliers or my local garden centre. this is often where beginners should start too because it takes a couple of years for seed grown plants to succeed in flowering size. I even have tried growing them in pots but they definitely grow stronger on behalf of me when planted within the ground.

Pulsatilla vulgaris in its native form is that the colour of parma violet sweets. Many suppliers also sell named cultivars in varying shades which have performed alright in my new rockery this spring. ‘Pinwheel Blue Violet’ may be a dark purple form. ‘Rubra’ features a crimson flower.

2. wild thyme (Thymus praecox)

Creeping thyme may be a low-growing plant, which as its name suggests will spread and creep across stones and paving. it’s different from culinary thyme that you simply may use in cooking, although this might also grow during a rockery or trough.

Creeping thyme may be a very attractive and straightforward to grow alpine. it’s the advantage of being scented and evergreen but also has pretty flowers in summer. better of all it’ll add many settings within a garden – equally happy during a trough, rockery or maybe nestled within the cracks of crazy paving.

Famously, Charles features a Thyme Walk at Highgrove made from 20 thyme forms, including Thymus praecox. These form an overlapping tapestry of flowering thymes jostling and spreading over stone paving and sets.

The thyme walk idea can easily be incorporated into alittle garden with a sunny paved area. Thymes are often wont to soften the sides of even the ugly or cracked paving. I even have planted thyme at the front of my rockery, where I’m hoping it’ll disguise a number of the sides of the wall . I’m also keen to require cuttings and check out and establish some thymes within the cracks of the steps.

3. Storksbill (Erodium)

The flowers of erodium are charming, especially up close. you’ll notice their resemblance to the flowers of cranesbills (hardy geraniums).

Erodiums slowly spread across the surface of a rockery , raised bed, pot or trough. They usually have evergreen leaves, sometimes feathery in appearance, sometimes more flat and rounded. The flowers are small but extremely beguiling up close and still arrive, in succession from spring into high summer.

This year I even have grown for the primary time a spread called ‘Bishop’s Form’ which features a candy pink flower with cerise veining. I’m also growing ‘Katherine Joy’ which carries its flowers on long stems and has two larger upper petals with deep purple splodges.

4. Saxifrages

A huge array of alpine plants come under the Saxifraga genus including primulas and campanulas. Here I’m getting to describe people who will likely have the catch-all name ‘Saxifrage’ on their label if bought from a garden center. Some saxifrages have succulent-like leaves, others form cushions of leaves formed from tiny rosettes.

The so called mossy saxifrages are an honest place to start out . These will adorn the alpine benches in any garden centre and can be hard to resist in flowering time. White varieties really stand out because the light fades within the evening. I’ve grown a spread called ‘White Star’ which was smothered in white flowers for five weeks. I also grow a pink form called ‘Peter Pan’ which has very pretty rosy coloured flowers. I even have found it slightly less buxum than the white forms.

Also worth mentioning during this section may be a saxifrage commonly referred to as ‘London Pride’, Saxifraga x urbium. This has rosettes of fleshy succulent leaves forming large rosettes. it’ll spread and creep through broken paving or at a border’s edge. The flowers are borne on long wiry stems above the ground-level roestter.

Look closely at the flowers and you’ll see pink and yellow spots on the white petals. I’ve grown this during a pot successfully although the subsequent year the plants lacked vigour. i feel it’s happiest in open ground.

5. Primula

Posting on the Alpine Garden Society’s Members Facebook Group I used to be surprised what percentage of members recommended these for beginners. Many described primulas because of the plant that first got them hooked on alpines.

At first sight, Primula marginata with its greyish leaves edged in silver, looks so dainty that I assumed they need to be tricky to grow. Apparently not. I even have seen these growing happily in tiny rock crannies. they appear charming growing during a trough or alpine bed. A hybrid of Primula marginata called ‘Linda Pope’ is particularly attractive. The leaves of the many primula gain a white flowery substance on their surface called ‘farina’ which adds to their delicate appeal.

Beginners beware, most primulas are easy to grow but some, like the allioni group, detest winter wet and wish growing in an alpine frame or house. stick with marginata, denticulata or a number of the straightforward alpine auriculas for your first raid alpine primulas.

6. Sedums

This is another group with a huge array of plants, many of which are ideally suited to beginner growers. My book on alpines by Anna Griffiths says that nearly all sedums are “doggedly good-tempered” so are an honest place to start out for the alpine first-timer.

I have grown a couple of sedums for 3 or four years and have yet to lose one. Over the years they need spread fairly quickly over my alpine troughs, usually in an irregular but attractive shape, gently curling over the stone edges and between rocks.

One of the simplest to start out with is Sedum spathuliform ‘Cape Blanco’ which has small grey fleshy rosette resembling little french knots. In early summer it develops yellow multiheaded flowers which aren’t terribly attractive.

My second favourite is Sedum pachyclados, which spreads by means of pale green rossettes and has frothy pink star shaped flower clusters in summer.

7. Dianthus

I have dianthus, of an unknown name, which thrived in an alpine trough whilst my children were very young. it had been neglected and whilst many of the opposite plants around it failed, it never gave up. Watered or not, through cold or wet winters then dry or overcast summers, it survived. this is often a sure sign of simple to grow a plant. Now transplanted to my rockery it’s spread to make a cushion 40cm in diameter bearing white and dark maroon miniature flowers.

Dianthus, like garden pinks and carnations, have an unmistakable pleasing scent when in flower. The fragrance drifts down teh rockery to my terrace within the sunshine.

Another great dianthus to undertake – referred to as the maiden pink – is Dianthus deltoides. this is often also a simple first alpine to undertake from seed and that i grew 20+ plants from one tiny packet from the Alpine Garden Society Seed Exchange.

8. Campanula

If you would like tonnes of flowers in high summer on a simple to grow alpine then campanula may be a good place to start out. The bell-shaped flowers are available in a good range from white, through pale blue to dark purple.

Described by John Good as “common but indespensible” Campanula portenschlagiana may be a purple flowering variety with an extended summer flowering season.

Most campanulas have green leaves but I even have added interest to my rockery with a golden green leaf color called Campanula Garganega ‘Dickson’s Gold’.

9. Alpine Bulbs

Many bulbs and corms are suitable for alpine gardens and grow well at the sting of borders or in rock gardens. Most also had best in pots. For the last two years, I even have grown some in terracotta pans for a spring display. Their ability to grow in pots makes them great for a tabletop display on a balcony or during a courtyard garden. they will flower year after year if repotted but I prefer to plant mine call at the garden once flowered and refresh my pots annually. within the garden, they supply much-needed color in early spring.

The list of suitable bulbs would come with Galanthus, Iris reticulata, Crocus, dwarf Narcissus, Chinodoxa, Scilla sibirica and Cyclamen coum.

Bulbs and tubers of those are available by mail-order from specialist suppliers, or from garden centres within the autumn.