TUFA WALL & TUFA COLUMN

Click on title to see photos of the tufa wall.

My inspiration for building has come from a wall made out of concrete and tufa  at the botanical garden in Brno in the Czech Republic. In my opinion such a wall is the best way to grow rare and difficult rock garden plants.

I built my tufa wall in 1990; this has become, at least I think, the best part of the entire garden. The plants are thriving here! The wall consists of four granite posts (curbstones) placed vertically 50 cm(20”) apart. This space has been filled with chunks of tufa. In Brno the tufa was laid up dry, but I cemented them together. This created one large massive wall. If holes had been left in between (as in dry laid wall) the wind would dry out the stones rapidly. My wall has a north facing exposure as well as a southern one resulting in a great variety of plants feeling at home.

The odd shapes of the tufa created perfect planting conditions. Approximately 200 holes were drilled into the stones of a 25mm (1”) diameter. These have been filled over the years with many different rock garden plants. The planting medium I have used consists of potting soil, sharp sand , tufa dust and finely ground peat moss. I also add a small amount of Mini Osmocote.

The north side of the wall houses one of the great eye catchers of the garden: a colony of Jancaea heldreichii. This plant, which is supposedly very difficult to grow, feels quite at home in this wall – so much in fact, that over 40 seedlings have sprouted. Other plants in the tufa wall are: x Jankaemonda vandedemii (2 forms), Daphne petraea, Physoplexis comosa, Ramonda myconi (3 colors), Primula marginata ‘Casterino’, Primula allionii, Saxifraga longifolia, S. hypostoma, S. pulvinaria, Paraquilegia anemonioides (blue and white), Dionysia tapetodes, Dionysia afghanica, Viola delphinantha, Edraianthus pumilio, arenaria granatensis, Saxifraga valdensis, Draba acaulis, etc.

The plants in this wall are doing so well that I have decided to remove an existing hedge of conifers, to be replaced with another wall of tufa.