Stoners: What Rock Gardeners Do in Winter

Friday I spent the blustery morning with fellow "stoners," collecting beautiful rock from the Medford Quarry in Westminster, MD, pictured below.   We are members of the Potomac Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society.  Most of our field trips focus on plants, but thanks to Kevin M. and Dick H., this one is all about finding rocks to go with them.  It's our second visit in two years.

As so often happens in quarries,  the deepest portion is now a small lake filled with startlingly blue-green water, probably due to the minerals in the stone.  I used to swim in an abandoned quarry in upstate New York where the water was a similar color.  Does that mean it was similar stone?  I don't know.

This quarry features marble of varying colors -- mauve to pinkish tones, grey-green, tan, and stone with black and white striations. 

John W. combing the area for the perfect rock  

You can appreciate the scale of the place when you see how small we look in comparison to the landscape.  Above, John walks through an expanse of pink marble.

Geologically speaking, marble, a metamorphic rock,  forms when limestone, sedimentary stone, is exposed to extreme heat and pressure.   

John would love to take the big boulder home, if only it would fit in his truck. 

Lynn T. carries one of her treasures back up the hill. 

Like several of us, Janet M. has returned for this second winter excursion to collect rocks. 

Behind Janet, you can see where the gray-green stone buts up again the pink stone. 

Things are quiet at the quarry in winter, with few big trucks coming and going, which is why they let us in at this time of year.  Medford generously allows us to take what we can fit in our vehicles. 

Ken W. collecting 

I'm not sure how this fine, pinky gravel came to be -- is it naturally occurring, left over debris, or manufactured?   In the right garden, it could look fantastic as material for a path.   

   That could be Little bluestem growing at the top of the ridge. 

  Some of the stone includes beautiful calcite crystals like the one above.  The calcite could be what       makes the water such a gorgeous blue. 

Dan S.  and Lynn T.  'Got room in that wheelbarrow?'

  It was considerably colder this year than last.  But with the ground frozen, at least we were spared  the mud of last year and vehicles were less likely to get stuck.  Some of us dared to drive in without 4-wheel drive. 

What will become of my stones?  I will add them to a trough and build more cairns in the garden.

Same time next year, stoners?  I'd go back just to look at the other-worldly scenery.