My own mother (may she rest in peace) never believed in Mother’s Day. She was a pleasantly cynical woman, who believed the whole thing had been dreamed up by a greeting card company as a way to sell more cards. She was right, of course, but my mother-in-law is not a cynical woman and I think she would be hurt if I didn’t remember her on her “special” day.

The creation in the above photo is my gift to her this year. Instead of buying something ready made, I went to my favorite nursery for inspiration. I bought a rectangular hypertufa and several plants from their extensive and irresistible alpine collection.

I first created a better drainage layer by adding sand, then soil. These are the plants I used:

Aubretia “Dr. Mule’s Variegata” (purple rock cress)

Orostachys “furusei“

Armeria maritima “Rubrifolia” (sea pinks)

Raoulia australis “hookeri“

Erodium x variabile “Flore-Pleno” (Heron’s Bill)

Muehlenbeckia axillaris (wire plant)

Here’s another view from above:

I tucked them all into their new hypertufa home and watered them in with Superthrive. She’ll love this. Mission accomplished!

I wonder how long it’ll take her to kill them………