GARDENER Journal of the Alpine Garden Society
360 | THE ALPINE GARDENER
VOLUME 88 | NUMBER 2
JUNE 2020
The ALPINE
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VOLUME 88
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NUMBER 2 JUNE 2020
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pp. 126-253
JUNE 2020 VOLUME 88 NUMBER 2 #360 COVER IMAGE: CYPRIPEDIUM PARVIFLORUM by HILARY LITTLE
Contents PLANTS
160 378
TRAVEL
GARDENS
132
144
160
Discover two genera of Australian native plants named after plant-hunting contemporaries.
Joerg Meister and Volker Debus explore the Huascaran National Park in search of alpines large and small.
Connor Smith tells the tale of a spell working at a renowned alpine garden in the Bavarian mountains.
AUSTRALIAN PLANTS
A PERUVIAN TRAIL
SCHACHEN GARDEN
136
174
191
Kana and Jon Webster share their favourite flowering alpines from the AGS Garden in Pershore, Worcestershire.
Hilary and Austin Little visited Newfoundland during a cold July and discovered some special slipper orchids.
Ken Gillanders explains the differences between the diverse group of alpine garden plants often given the name ‘paper flowers’.
AGS GARDEN STARS
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ORCHID TRAVELS
PAPER FLOWERS
420
252
174
136 472 PLANTS
132
FEATURES
144 REGULARS
199
219
240
Chris Lilley offers some handy advice for the successful growing and showing of sempervivums.
Paul Krause delves into the book Helleborus and the Helleborastrum Problem by Will McLewin.
An in-depth look at some of the most eye-catching plants from the last two Society Shows.
HINTS FOR SEMPS
A HELLEBORE READ
SHOW REPORTS
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224
252
Robert Rolfe explains the origins and quirks behind six commonly-grown alpine plants that will be familiar to many members.
Another collection of colourful characters who have been instrumental in the development of the Society over the years.
Former RGBE trainee Alex O’Sullivan used the lockdown as an opportunity to brush up on his propagation skills.
FAMILIAR FACES
MORE AGS HEROES
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LAST WORD
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The international society for the cultivation, conservation and exploration of alpine and rock garden plants, small hardy herbaceous plants, hardy and half-hardy bulbs, hardy orchids, hardy ferns and small shrubs. AGS Centre, Avon Bank, Pershore, Worcestershire WR10 3JP, UK Tel: +44(0)1386 554790 Email: ags@alpinegardensociety.net
Director of the Alpine Garden Society Tony Bryan
Editor Greg Loades Tel: +44(0)1386 554790 Email: gregloadesags@gmail.com
Registered charity No. 207478 Annual subscriptions: Single (UK and Ireland) £36* Family (two people at same address) £39* Junior (under 18/student) £15 Overseas single £38 Overseas family £40 * £3 deduction for direct debit subscribers Printed by Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE. Price to non-members £10.00 Second-class postage paid at Rahway, New Jersey. US Postmaster: send address corrections to AGS Bulletin, c/o Mercury Airfreight International Ltd. Inc., 2323 Randolph Avenue, Avenel, NJ 07001. USPS 450-210.
Associate Editor Robert Rolfe Tel: +44(0)1159 231928 Email: robert.rolfe@agsgroups.org To advertise in The Alpine Gardener please call or email the AGS Centre (details above) Submissions The Editor welcomes contributions of articles and photographs. Please call or email the Editor to discuss relevant formats for photographs before sending. The Editor cannot accept responsibility for loss of, or damage to, articles, artwork or photographs sent by post. The views expressed in The Alpine Gardener do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or of the Alpine Garden Society. The Alpine Gardener is published in March, June, September and December.
© The Alpine Garden Society 2018 ISSN 1475-0449
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Editor’s letter
S
o much has changed since the last issue of The Alpine Gardener but I hope that, amid all the uncertainty of these times, we can at least find solace in our plants, which have the blessing of being blissfully unaware of the current turmoil. The appearance of familiar flowers is perhaps more welcome than ever before, this year. With no AGS Shows for the foreseeable future, we are highlighting a wide range of eye-catching plants from the last Society Shows before the lockdown in this issue and the next, with a special ‘best of’ article on some of the finest show plants ever seen, in the one after that. Despite the lack of ‘physical’ shows to attend, don’t forget that there is still the opportunity to exhibit your plants digitally this year, through the AGS Online Show on our website. After several weeks of extremely limited travel for us all, there is a chance to dream of travelling to different corners of the globe in this issue. Connor Smith takes us on a tour of the renowned Schachen Garden in the Bavarian Alps, Hilary and Austin Little encounter some special slipper orchids during a chilly trip to Newfoundland and Volker Debus recounts an eventful trip to Peru in search of a plant that he is fond of: Krapfia weberbaueri. We all have a soft spot for particular plants and Kana and Jon Webster select their favourites from the AGS Garden in Pershore, while Ken Gillanders picks out and explains the differences between the diverse range of plants that are sometimes given the common name of ‘paper flowers’. If it’s sempervivums
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“There is a chance to dream of travelling to different corners of the globe in this issue” that take your fancy, Chris Lilley shares some handy tips on how to grow them in pots, and how to get them ready for exhibiting, when the occasion arises again. Further hints on cultivation can be found in a celebration of six commonplace alpines (and their variations), that are likely to be found in many of our gardens, to be followed in the next issue by six extremely rare ones that most certainly won’t. Also in this issue, our Associate Editor Robert Rolfe continues his celebration of notable members of the Society, for which grateful thanks must go to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew for their co-operation in providing access to their archives for the article. I hope you enjoy the issue and have a healthy and safe summer. Greg Loades JUNE 2020 131
PLANTS
A tale of two botanists
Hilary and Austin Little look at the contrasting stories of two botanists who explored Australia in the early 1800s and gave their name to two genera of Australian natives
J
PORTRAIT BY CHARLES WILLSON PEALE
ean-Baptiste Louis Claude Théodore Leschenault de la Tour and Robert Brown are both commemorated in the names of Australian plant genera. They were exact contemporaries and, at one point, worked together. The genus Lechenaultia consists of around 25 species in the family Goodeniaceae, found primarily in the southern parts of Western Australia. Most are small evergreen shrubs, but some, such as Lechenaultia tubiflora, are herbaceous annuals. Many of the species bear racemes of showy flowers in strong colours, such
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as Lechenaultia formosa and L. biloba in red and blue respectively, set among heath-like foliage or slim needles, while a mat-forming species, L. macrantha, draws crowds of tourists to Western Australia’s wheatbelt to admire its wreath-like displays. The plants flourish in full sun in acid, sandy soils and cope well with hot, dry conditions. The genus Brunonia contains only one species, Brunonia australis, and was originally the only member of the family Brunoniaceae, but has more recently been moved to Goodeniaceae. Brunonia australis, known as the blue pincushion or native cornflower, is a perennial herb with basal leaves and flowers carried in heads or spikes to a height of around 30cm. It is widely distributed throughout Australia and can generally be found in woodlands, open forests and sand plains. Until their early 30s Leschenault and Brown followed remarkably similar careers. They
were both born in 1773 to middle-class parents; Leschenault’s father was a judge and Brown’s an Episcopalian minister, and studied medicine at university, although both spent a significant part of their education focusing on botany. As a result of their interest in botany, they became acquainted with leading botanists of the day, Leschenault with Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, and Brown with Sir Joseph Banks. Through these contacts, both of them were selected to serve as botanists on separate expeditions to Australia (or Nova Hollandiae as it was then known) at the
BRUNONIA AND LECHENAULTIA turn of the 19th century. Leschenault sailed with Baudin while Brown went with Matthew Flinders and they reached Australia within a few months of each other. While in that country, the two met and although their countries were at war with each other in Europe, they became friendly and worked together on their botanical research. Once their expeditions went their separate ways, the careers of the two men began to follow different trajectories. Leschenault never established a significant presence in French botanical circles and, although awarded the Legion d’Honneur in 1823 for his botanical work, he is acknowledged more in Australia than in France. On the other hand, Brown enjoyed a distinguished career in botany and became a well-known
name in a wider sphere as a result of his discovery of the phenomenon of ‘Brownian motion’, the rapid random oscillatory motion of microscopic particles within organic and inorganic matter. Leschenault’s relative lack of success can in part be attributed to illness and also to a lack of application to his work, a characteristic that had already been noticed by Baudin, his expedition leader in Australia. Soon after the return trip to France commenced, Leschenault became ill and was put ashore in Timor. On returning home some four years later, he deposited his botanical and avian finds with the Museum of Natural History but appears to have made little effort to catalogue his material or produce scientific papers. PHOTO: MIKE ROBINSON-KOSS (OTWAY GREENING AUSTRALIAN NATIVE PLANT NURSERY)
ABOVE Brunonia australis LEFT Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour FAR LEFT Robert Brown
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PHOTOS ON THIS SPREAD : DAVID HASELGROVE
PLANTS
ABOVE Lechenaultia macrantha flowering just north of Mullewa, Western Australia
Although he made further botanical excursions to India, Brazil and French Guyana, primarily in the search for plants that could be developed to produce crops on a commercial scale, his work had limited impact. He died in 1826 aged 53 but his name remains prominent in Western Australia in various landmarks and in the genus Lechenaultia which was named for him by none other than Robert Brown. Brown spelled the name in what he thought was the correct French manner, but omitted an ‘s’, explaining the difference between the genus name and the name of the botanist. On the other hand, Brown flourished after returning from Australia. He spent a number of years documenting and cataloguing his finds and published his material in 1810 to a very positive 134 JUNE 2020
reception. Sir Joseph Banks saw in Brown a natural successor, appointed him as his librarian and on his death in 1820 bequeathed Brown his library and herbarium. Brown subsequently transferred these bequests to the British Museum where he took on a series of major roles until his death in 1857. Brown is remembered for his contribution to science as a whole, particularly for discoveries achieved through his use of pioneering microscopical techniques and his coining of the term ‘cell nucleus’, but he also left a significant legacy from his Australian travels. His cataloguing of Australian flora led him not only to name the genus Lechenaultia but also other genera including Caladenia, Dryandra, Eremophila, Patersonia,
BRUNONIA AND LECHENAULTIA
ABOVE Lechenaultia formosa BELOW Lechenaultia biloba
Pityrodia, Prasophyllum, Pterostylis, Thysanotus and many more. Unfortunately, in the publication of the results of his Australian research, he committed an inadvertent faux pas. James Edward Smith, a fellow of the Linnean Society, had succeeded in gaining approval for the naming of Brunonia in Brown’s honour. Brown used this name as an accepted designation in his work, which turned out to be published before Smith’s paper, meaning that Brown had effectively broken the unwritten taboo in botanical circles of naming a plant after himself. However, both he and his reputation survived untarnished and he remains in every sense a man behind many plant names. WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
PLANTS
Fine alpines from the AGS Garden Kana and Jon Webster look after the garden at the AGS Centre in Pershore and share some of their favourite flowering alpines that feature in it The Society is fortunate to have a display garden which surrounds its headquarters at Pershore, Worcestershire. It is free for all to visit (details of when it is open again will be released as soon as possible) and hopefully be inspired by the diversity and beauty of the wide range of plants that the Society represents. The garden keeps changing and growing, like all gardens should. A new alpine house was added to the garden last year and this is now being planted to highlight the variety of alpines that can be grown under glass. Different zones have been created to group together plants that like similar watering regimes. A rocky landscape and a tufa wall have also been constructed inside the house. In the garden, themed areas have been created in a rocky landscape to show the different ways that alpines can be grown and displayed. Several scree beds recreate the moving alpine landscape, made up of lots of loose stones, supplying enough moisture during summer and importantly the free drainage required during winter. In the crevice bed, rocks stand vertically in lines with free-draining media between. This gives the plants
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the advantage of a deep root run, keeping them cooler in summer and warmer in winter, and allows water to drain easily. A crevice garden is fun to try at home and can look very impressive. Around the edge of the garden there are several beds dedicated to woodland plants. There is a good mixture of bulbs, perennials and shrubs, all growing under dappled shade from several mature silver birch trees. Finally, there are many troughs dotted around the garden which are enjoyable to plant and create a mini landscape in. Here you can get closer to smaller alpines and enjoy them in all their glory.
Gentiana acaulis ‘Rannoch’ What other plant could epitomise alpines better than the trumpet gentian? With its rich blue trumpet flowers, this is probably one of the most iconic and recognisable of all alpines. A native of the European Alps, many forms have been selected. Gentiana acaulis ‘Rannoch’ has darker flowers than others, shown off against its narrow green mat of foliage. At Pershore this thrives in the European bed, and has spread widely over time, flowering well each year in late spring
AGS GARDEN
ABOVE Gentiana acaulis ‘Rannoch’
to early summer. It also thrives in troughs, where you can see the flowers close up. Another reliable form in the garden is ‘Undulatifolia’, raised by Jack Drake.
Daphne calcicola ‘Gang Ho Ba’ Daphnes are a must for any garden and if you have limited space in your garden, these dwarf forms are worth their weight in gold! ‘Gang Ho Ba’ is the stand-out Daphne in the garden due to its beautiful clusters of bright yellow flowers. This plant came from Simon WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
Bond of Thuya Alpines, grown on its own roots. Planted as a youngster in the crevice bed in a protected corner, it has flourished and enjoys the free drainage and extra warmth that the rocks provide in winter. This was a selection from Blackthorn Nursery and along with another called ‘Sichuan Gold’, it is occasionally seen on exhibition at AGS Shows.
Saxifraga ‘Peach Melba’ This is one of Kana’s favourites, mostly due to its most distinctive JUNE 2020 137
PLANTS This European native is covered with star-shaped flowers, which give real impact in the garden landscape. What’s not to love about this plant? The flowers display a range of colours, from pink, red, shades of purple and pure white. The flowers sit above soft, fern-like foliage and the feathery seedheads then help spread these gems throughout your garden. This is planted extensively in the garden and thrives in the open, with full sun and a well-drained situation.
Pulsatilla vulgaris The pasque flower is a showstopper plant in the garden in April and May.
Allium cristophii Also known as the star of Persia, this is the largest of the ornamental onions
PHOTO: ADRIAN YOUNG
colour, which, as the name suggests, is a delicious peachy-pink. This springflowering showstopper is small in nature, reaching around 10cm in height when flowering and around half as much again in spread. Forming a cushion of spiny dark green foliage, this alpine will happily grow in well-drained troughs and crevice gardens, placed in full sun. These are great plants for the show bench as well because they enjoy pot culture and are less tricky than some to start showing with.
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PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
AGS GARDEN
ABOVE Saxifraga ‘Peach Melba’ LEFT Daphne calcicola ‘Gang Ho ba’
and one of the most spectacular, with a spherical umbel made of many individual star-shaped florets. As the common name suggests, this plant originates from Iran and Turkmenistan. In the garden it is WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
planted in the scree beds in full sun. The bulbs will last for many years and flower in June, adding drama to the garden. For us, the seedheads are even more impressive than the flowers as they dry JUNE 2020 139
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
PLANTS
ABOVE Allium cristophii RIGHT Pulsatilla vulgaris
during the summer months, lasting until they are finally blown away by autumn winds. When you plant, leave enough space for the individual beauty of each flower to be fully seen.
Clematis ‘Moonbeam’ On the rock garden at Pershore, it is important to have plants that cover the ground as well as providing a fine 140 JUNE 2020
spectacle. Clematis ‘Moonbeam’ does this to good effect, especially if planted so that it can cascade over rocks or tumble down from a large trough. Flowering in mid-spring, the creamygreen flowers appear in such abundance that they hide the green foliage beneath them. This was an introduction from County Park Nursery, Essex and is still widely available.
AGS GARDEN PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
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PLANTS
ABOVE Clematis ’Moonbeam’
Trillium chloropetalum Woodland perennials thrive in the garden under the dappled canopy of silver birch trees. One of the most striking is the giant wakerobin, Trillium chloropetalum, native to California, USA. This clump-forming plant grows 142 JUNE 2020
best in a woodland situation in semishade with a humus-rich soil. It does take time to build up to a good-sized clump but like most plants, if it is in the right situation it will eventually take off. There is some variance in the
AGS GARDEN
ABOVE Trillium chloropetalum white-flowered (with possible T. albidum introgression)
colour of the flowers of this species and some nurseries sell a ‘white-flowered’ form. If you want something even more WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
distinctive try Trillium grandiflorum, which has pure white flowers that fade to pink as they age. JUNE 2020 143
TRAVEL
The beauty and obstacles of Peru Volker Debus travelled to Peru with his friend Joerg Meister in search of special alpines and tells the story of an eventful trip that involved towering puyas, treacherous bogs, stray dogs and hummingbirds!
I
PHOTOS: VOLKER DEBUS AND JOERG MEISTER
n early summer 2019 my friend Dr. Joerg Meister, told me that he was intending to go to the Cordillera Blanca, Peru. His aim was to see the giant bromeliad, Puya raimondii. It had been 20 years ago since I had visited the Andes so I took the opportunity to go with him. I was hoping to see some smaller alpines in the wild and I was particularly eager to see one of the most attractive members of Ranunculaceae, Krapfia. August isn’t the prime flowering time for alpines in Peru, but in the tropical mountains there is always something in flower. Our journey started in Munich, where we flew to Lima via Paris. We took a taxi to the Antares Inn Hostel, near the Plaza Norte; only 6km from the airport. The traffic was awful. We were only moving forward a few centimetres at a time and sometimes only a few millimetres separated us from the neighbouring cars. We had to negotiate a big roundabout, which was the most chaotic traffic event that I have ever experienced. Every driver was shouting, swearing and using their horn, while trying to struggle through the stream of cars. It took us a quarter of an hour just to cross the roundabout. 144 JUNE 2020
The next morning we went to the bus station at Plaza Norte and headed to Huaraz, a town 400km north of Lima and the gateway to the Huascaran National Park in the Cordillera Blanca. To our surprise we were checked on entering the bus terminal, as if we were travelling from an international airport. To our distress the bus windows were covered so it was impossible to get views of the passing landscape. Eight and a half hours later, we arrived in Huaraz. The town lies at an elevation of about 3,000m. A lot of the 120,000 inhabitants depend on tourism and this bustling town offers activities for all tastes. It was already dark as we arrived at our hotel in Huaraz, which we chose as our base because of its convenient location in the middle of town. The following day we organised our programme for the coming week, which was to be spent in the National Park. It is remarkable in many ways, containing numerous tropical glaciers and glacial lakes and includes a wide range of habitats. At peak flowering time in March/April, the park has many plants in flower. Around 800 can be found in the Park. Asteraceae is the most
PERU
ABOVE Puya raimondii can grow up to ten metres tall
represented plant family, with 164 species recorded, followed by Poaceae with 111 species and Scrophulariaceae with 33 species. For the remaining part of the day we paid visits to cafes and restaurants while trying to shake off the jet lag. The following day we rode on a collectivo, a small bus used by the locals, to get to Catac, a small town 35km south of Huaraz. It took an hour to reach Catac and on arrival we asked a couple of taxi WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
drivers for a ride to the Laguna Queshque, our chosen destination, until a driver with a very old and unreliable looking car offered his assistance. While Joerg put his big backpack in the car boot he must have touched the lock of the rear door because it refused to hold the door down. The young driver seemed to have encountered this problem before because he had some tools at hand and immediately started working to mend it. For a JUNE 2020 145
ABOVE A bofedale with Plantago rigida (inset): a useful stepping stone!
quarter of an hour he tried to solve the problem without success and in the end the door was held down with string. While Joerg choose the back seat, I intended to enter the car via the
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passenger side and was puzzled by the lack of a door handle! But the open window made it possible for me to use the lever inside to open it. These didn’t seem good signs for the trip ahead but to our surprise the journey over a rough, stony and unmaintained mountain road went well, although the 16km journey took an hour. The driver dropped us off close to the Laguna Queshque at 4,250m and left with a promise to give us a lift back in three days. We started walking towards the valley of the Laguna Queshque and immediately had to cross a high mountain wetland, known as a bofedale. I had nearly got through by jumping from one grass tuft to another but one was unsteady and I lost my balance and fell. My legs sank down to my knees in the quagmire. My left arm flailed without success for firm ground in this black pudding, while I was lying with part of my body on a grass tuft. My right hand had found a firm grip but my big, heavy
PERU backpack pressed me down. For a moment I felt panic rising up inside me but immediately I pushed up with my right leg, which had found a firm footing in the form of a grass tuft behind me. Fortunately, I was close to firm ground, which I managed to reach. I was fed up but we carried on for half an hour to find a convenient campsite near a creek, which flowed into the Laguna Queshque. Queshque is the local name for Puya raimondii, which we had already seen a few of at the valley slopes. After setting up camp we were eager to explore the slopes near the valley. Yellowflowering Hypochaeris taraxacoides grew between brown and straw-coloured tussock grasses dominated by Stipa and Calamagrostis. Grassland is an important plant community in the Park, ABOVE Joerg with Puya raimondii in flower BELOW The camp at Laguna Queshque and its components make up at least 50% of the total plant species. Muehlenbeckia volcanica flowered on stone outcrops, very cold. When we got up the next with tiny white flowers near the cactus morning the shores of the Laguna were Austrocylindropuntia floccosa, which covered with ice. We explored the valley hid its well-fortified spines among white further up and were surprised to find hairs. A first group of Puya raimondii populated primitive huts, consisting of with old, black, decaying, flowering low stone walls with grass covered roofs compound racemes was an exciting and protected by dogs. sight for Joerg. The first exciting discovery, On the way back, following a bofedale particularly for Joerg, was a flowering along a creek, we saw large areas Puya raimondii. The inflorescence of covered with non-flowering Plantago this bromeliad extends six to eight rigida and yellow-green flowering metres tall, carrying up to 3,000 Gentianella thyrsoides, with whorled, blossoms and together with its leafy linear leaves, and some blue-flowering two metre long trunk it can reach a Gentiana sedifolia. I learned quickly that height of 10 metres. The ones we saw Plantago rigida serves as a firm cushion were around five metres tall and a to walk on while traversing boggy female giant hummingbird was at work areas! on its flowers. We were in no hurry and Night fell at around 6pm and it turned lay down for half an hour enjoying WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
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TRAVEL
ABOVE A giant hummingbird pollinating a Puya flower at Laguna Jarpococha RIGHT Puya at Laguna Jarpococha with Nevado Pongos in the background
this agile bird collecting nectar. Joerg had a special camera lens with him and was able to take some fantastic shots of the pollinating hummingbird. Scientists speculate that the bird faeces are a significant source of mineral nutrition for the plant while it rests in the bunch of the well-fortified leaves. In some cases, the sharp, recurved marginal spines on the leaves can ensnare a bird and the slowly decomposing body could add further nutrients. This is a destiny some sheep share with the birds when their owners aren’t alert to rescue the trapped animals. Due to the scarcity of nutrients and the harsh climate, this monocarpic plant needs decades – some scientists estimate up to 120 years – of vegetative development until it starts flowering. It takes six months for 148 JUNE 2020
the full unfolding of the inflorescence. With good care in cultivation – as a report from the Botanical Garden at Berkeley, California indicates – Puya raimondii needs less time to produce its flowers. There it produced its inflorescence after 28 years. In nature the populations are often isolated. DNA analysis shows that the genetic diversity is quite low because of lack of gene flow between the different populations. Although a flowering plant produces 8 to 12 million seeds, only a few find suitable conditions for germination and the small heart-shaped seeds lose their ability to germinate after a few months. Because the sharp spines can hurt cows and sheep, this plant isn’t popular with the indigenous population, who try to destroy them. Still, in some cases the
PERU residents use this plant for special purposes. Sections of the trunk are made into stools and the uncooked pith of the inflorescence is eaten. In earlier times, effigies of saints were carved from the trunks, then plastered and painted. The resin produced at the leaf bases has been used for stiffening hats. We carried on northwards along the west-facing slope of the valley until it turned east to reveal a grand view towards the 5,680m high Nevado Pongos in the distance. The northfacing slope of this new valley was covered with the fantastic sight of masses of Puja raimondii. We decided to explore this valley the next day and changed between the Laguna
Queshque and the Laguna Jarpococha sides of the valley. Along the valley floor we saw Werneria nubigena and Paranephelius ovatus in flower. At a dry spot on the eastfacing side of the valley we saw a lot of Lupinus paniculatus with blue flowers and a yellow-orange spot at the blossom entrance. The plant community of a bofedale on this side of the valley, along a creek, consisted mostly of Distichia muscoides, with white-flowering Werneria pumila and Gentiana sedifolia. At 3pm we were back at the camp and not feeling able to embark on any more physical challenges for that day.
TRAVEL
ABOVE Chuquiraga spinosa BELOW Halenia umbellata
We continued to explore on the following morning and were hooked again by the flowering Puya raimondii where two hummingbirds did their service. It is such a spectacle to observe these birds, but we had to carry on. The valley towards the Nevado Pongos with these masses of Puya was absolutely breathtaking, even for somebody like me who is more focused on tiny plants. We found a few more flowering examples but the tallest ones – we estimated these to be around 8m tall – were again past flowering. As we left the Puya area behind, the vegetation changed. It was obvious that the area towards the east got more rain because it looked fresher. Finding our way through the pathless bofedales, tussock grassland and boulder fields was exhausting. Unfortunately there was no way to reach the slopes of the Pongos which looked so close. We saw Halenia umbellata, Senecio canescens, Chuquiraga spinosa and a Vaccinium floribundum with fruits. On the way back, passing an overgrown boulder field, I stepped on a shaking stone, lost balance and fell in between the stones. Fortunately it only cost me a bit of my thumbnail and a bleeding hand. I realised I was tired and losing concentration. Half an hour later I slipped on a slope and my right leg got hooked by a tussock grass tuft while sliding downwards and I overstretched my knee. It was very painful but I was fortunate that I wasn’t badly hurt. Joerg, 14 years my junior, was definitely in better shape but as we reached the camp in the evening we were both happy to have a rest. The next morning we dismantled
PERU our tent and hiked to our meeting point with our taxi driver. This time I handled the crossing of the large bofedale better and waited nervously for our planned 10am lift. To my relief our taxi arrived punctually, at just one minute past! One hour later we were in Catac and at midday we arrived in Huaraz, grateful for the comfort of the Andino House Hostel. After a late lunch we had an afternoon sleep, a good preparation for the hard days we had in front of us. We had booked the Santa Cruz trekking tour with an English-speaking guide, starting at Vaqueria the next day, but things turned out differently. The next morning we were outside our hostel at 5.30am to board the tour bus. At 9am we arrived at Cashapampa instead of Vaqueria. It became clear that we would be doing the hike ‘back to front’, starting the hike where we thought we would finish. In the end it was the better choice. The guide was only able to speak a few words of English but along with a few gestures and some wellknown Spanish words, this was good enough for us to communicate! Some European members of the party had been able to help with translation too. Altogether there were nine people from France, one from Spain, two from Denmark and us two Germans. The luggage and supplies were packed on donkeys and two horses. Together with an arriero for handling the animals WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
ABOVE Senecio canescens
and a woman who was to be our cook, we started our journey at 2,900m. The path wound up through the Santa Cruz Gulch (a steep-sided ravine) along the large Santa Cruz creek. The landscape was gorgeous. Most of the trees on the gulch, consisting of Alnus jorullensis and Salix humboldtiana had been destroyed but those that remained had bromeliads and the hemiparasite Triterix longebracteatus, with brilliant orangered, trumpet flowers, growing on them. Sometimes these were mingled with the red-flowering Passiflora trifoliata. JUNE 2020 151
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ABOVE Caiophora cirsiifolia
We also found yellow-flowering Calceolaria aff. cypripediflora growing together with orange-flowering Caiophora cirsiifolia, which can burn the skin if touched. Our cook and the arriero with the animals had gone ahead of us and as we arrived at a wide, green, flat valley at 3,760m in the afternoon, inhabited with grazing cattle called llamacoral, the kitchen tent and most of the small sleeping tents were already assembled. Soon afterwards we were served a noodle soup and chicken escalope with rice. I never expected such luxury - my congratulations to the cook! Some small dogs somehow joined our party and waited patiently during our supper until they were given some remains. We thought that they belonged to one of the attendants but it turned out that these were stray dogs living on 152 JUNE 2020
trekking scraps. During the night one of these dogs slept side by side with me! When I got up in the middle of the night for a stroll in the bush I had to rouse him, which he answered with a snarl and then vanished but a couple of minutes later as I laid down again I felt him nestle against me. After a 6am breakfast we started the hardest day of the tour. We progressed further up the Santa Cruz, passing the brilliant blue Laguna Jatuncocha surrounded with Polylepis sericea trees. The attractive, peeling red-brown bark gave this tree of the rose family its genus name. ‘Poly’ is ‘many’ and ‘lepis’ is ‘scale’. The bark consists of numerous layers of exfoliating sheets, which can be over an inch thick. The valley broadened as we climbed further up and the stony, sandy soil was only sparsely scattered with plants but a
ABOVE Bromeliads growing in the Santa Cruz valley BELOW The camp at Santa Cruz
remarkable one that we saw often was, Lupinus weberbaueri. This hairy plant, with very pretty, large, pale rose inflorescences, is called ‘taulli’ by the residents. Taullipampa marks the end of the Santa Cruz valley, which gets blocked to the north-east by the mountain Nevado Taulliraju. While the path upwards wasn’t strenuous up to this point, it JUNE 2020 153
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changed as we left the Santa Cruz Valley before Taullipampa and climbed up a side valley towards the Laguna Arhuaycocha. We passed a slope with sheltered boulder fields inhabited by small thickets of Polylepis sericea. Some scientists think that the wider colonisation of the genus could have first started at the end of the Tertiary 154 JUNE 2020
Period from the north of Peru, their origin. But they know for sure that about 30,000 years ago, during a warm and wet period, Polylepis had its widest distribution along the Andean chain, which it never regained. Open, overgrown boulder fields here were filled with Lupinus weberbaueri. The epithet weberbaueri can often be
PERU
LEFT Peeling bark on Polylepis sericea ABOVE Lupinus weberbaueri
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TOP LEFT Ageratina sternbergiana TOP RIGHT Gentianella tristicha BOTTOM LEFT Bidens andicola BOTTOM RIGHT Lobelia tenera
found used for Peruvian plants and commemorates the German botanist August Weberbauer. He spent more than 40 years exploring the Peruvian flora at the beginning of last century. The surrounding grassland was full of low shrubs but was also home to showy plants such as Lobelia tenera, Bidens andicola and Ageratina sternbergiana, a nice white-flowering joe-pye weed. We made it to the Laguna Arhuaycocha at 4,420m by 2pm. It offered good views of the Alpamayo, the famous pyramid mountain which is popular with mountaineers, with one of their base 156 JUNE 2020
camps not far away from the lake. In soil pockets between a boulder field near the Laguna I spotted Bomarea dulcis with its brilliant red hanging flowers. The seeds of this species are covered by a juicy, fleshy sarctotesta, which can be eaten and tastes sweet, hence the name dulcis. We retraced our steps for an hour and a half before turning east to set up our next camp at Taullipampa at 4,250m. We had walked 20km in total. The camp was in a very broad valley, with a short grazed meadow where we found lots of Hypochaeris taraxacoides, but this time
with white flowers. I got up at 6am the following morning and, two hours later, we were already on the way to the Punta Union Pass. Soon the first Gentianella tristicha with rose flowers was spotted in the grassland. I also saw white-flowered Silene thysanodes, Parastrephia lucida, Paranephelius uniflorus and an Oritrophium, which resembled a Celmisia. Higher up in the High Andean vegetation were the last few blossoms of Nototriche obtusa and white-flowered Valeriana rigida. An hour and a half later we reached the pass at 4,750m. It was really cold. After a short rest we changed to the east side, which was fresher and greener. Fifty metres below the pass our guide was shouting “rima rima” and waving a big red flower in his hand. It was Krapfia (= Ranunculus) weberbaueri. It was growing in a soil pocket in a boulder field. I was surprised because I hadn’t expected the flowers to be so big. On closer inspection of the picked flower, the ovary with stigmas and the yellow stamens had been exserted toward the flower entrance by stilt-like plant tissue. The purpose of this seemed to be to bring the pollination relevant flower parts towards the pollinator, which obviously doesn’t like to move in the flower like bees, bumblebees or flies. At the bottom of each stilt-like tissue the flower produced nectar. That structure and the red flowers lead to the conviction that the pollinator can only be a hummingbird. The steep journey down was as strenuous as going up. We passed more flowering Gentianella tristicha, Paranephelius ovatus, Ranunculus praemorsus and further down, Mimulus glabratus and Brachyotum WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
ABOVE The author with a flower of
Krapfia weberbaueri (inset and below)
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ABOVE A local with harvested
stems of Senecio canescens
longisepalum. It took us until 4pm to reach Huaripampa, our last campsite, which wasn’t as convenient as the previous two because it was set up on a lopsided meadow. After lunch we saw a local picking lots of Senecio canescens flowers to use as medicine. The next day we were told that the remaining 6km would be easy but with my sore legs, the two hours walking up and down the hills was enough for me. The end point was the small village of Vaqueria, which we reached at 10am. One hour later we were squeezed into a 16-seater minibus. The dogs, still with us, looked hopefully up to the bus, but nobody encouraged them to jump in. They had to wait and try their luck with another party. After an hour we reached a pass leading again to the west side of the mountain chain towards Laguna Llanganuco. From that 158 JUNE 2020
ABOVE Senecio serratifolius RIGHT Senecio calvus
point the gravel road dropped down dramatically. It revealed a panorama which I already had seen before, from a picture by Harry Jans in The Alpine Gardener Volume 85 Issue 2 June 2017. We stopped to enjoy the grandiose scenery from the top and it was very restorative for my legs! After a quarter of an hour spent admiring the view, we entered the bus and I wasn’t sure what would be harder, sitting in the bus or walking, because it was 3.30pm before we arrived in Huaraz. The next day we needed to rest and made arrangements for the coming days. After one leisure day the following morning another uncomfortable minibus picked us up at 9am for a tour to the Pastoruri Glacier. Together with 12 other tourists we stopped at Ticapampa, and after two
PERU further two stops to see some stands of Puya raimondii, which weren’t as picturesque as the ones we had seen a week ago, we arrived shortly past 1pm at the station of the glacier. Apart from the glacier, the mostly bare, stony ground revealed a few good plants such as Calamagrostis ovata and Xenophyllum dactylophyllum. On the way back, we stopped again in Ticapampa and were back in Huaraz at 6.30pm. This trip was not to our taste, spending most of the time in the bus and restaurants instead of in the field! The booked journey to the Laguna Paron the next day, was of the same annoying kind. We reached the Laguna Paron, a very nice lake at 4,155m but had just two hours to look around. The botanical prey was frugal: just an Ephedra rupestris with nice orange-red seeds and a nice flowering Gaultheria. After a near four-hour trip on mostly gravel roads we were back at Huaraz. This was most unsatisfying, so Joerg and I booked a taxi driver for the next day. Our driver Alfredo was a cheerful man and he drove us in his old Toyota Corolla in race driver manner to the westside of the Punta Olimpica Tunnel, at 4,735m. While Alfredo waited in his car we explored the area with a tiny bofedale housing new discoveries such as Ourisia muscosa and Senecio macrorrhizus. The adjacent boulder fields were home to Senecio culcitioides, S. calvus, S. serratifolius and Xenophyllum dactylophyllum. After two hours we went back to the car and Alfredo drove us through the 1,384m long WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
tunnel to the east side of the pass. The tunnel wasn’t illuminated and the front lights of Alfredo’s car didn’t work properly! Again, the eastside was rewarding and we found Bomarea edulis, Valeriana globularis, V. globularioides, V. rigida and Castilleja nubigena. At 3.30pm we drove back and Alfredo made the return journey in record time, resulting in some rather pale German faces! We then left Huaraz. Joerg carried on to Arequipa but I stayed on for another day in Lima before flying back home. One thing I know for sure is that this won’t be the last time I visit Peru. We are already thinking of returning in spring 2021 if possible. The grandiose, hardly known and rare, Laccopetalum giganteum is still waiting to be seen!
GARDENS
A MYSTERIOUS MOUNTAIN GARDEN
PHOTOS: JENNY WAINWRIGHT-KLEIN UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED
Intrigued by the story of a garden surrounded by mountains in the Bavarian Alps at the border of Germany and Austria, Connor Smith jumped at the chance to work in the garden a year later and experience it at first hand
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n a cold afternoon in March 2018 I was sitting with my former boss and his wife in a French restaurant in Perth, Scotland. The ‘Beast from the East’ (a cold weather front which delayed spring) had just passed. I had longed to see the nearby Branklyn Garden and despite darkness falling, I decided to make a phone call and chance my luck to arrange a visit that night. A very kind lady answered and informed me that the head gardener Jim Jermyn lived on site and was happy to show us around. We were met with Jim holding a torch in the darkness. The light bounced from the whites of Galanthus and the cinnamon undersides of Rhododendron leaves. Jim began to tell us a story of a garden surrounded by mountains in the Bavarian Alps, the Schachen Garden. He had worked there as a young man under one of the great alpine gardeners, Dieter Schacht. Since then, Jim and I have stayed in touch and he has become a good friend. Branklyn is one of my favourites and I visit as often as I can. Yet the story of this Bavarian garden in the sky stayed with me. A year had passed before I was offered the opportunity through the Merlin Trust to work at the garden for up to three weeks. I jumped at the chance. En route to the garden There are many great gardens in the alpine world, but few have attained the level of fame that the Schachen has had over its 118-year history. Despite being so well respected, an air of mystery surrounds it. Few have made the journey south of Munich to see the garden in person. The three-hour drive south to Garmisch-Partenkirchen is just the beginning of the trip to one of the most remote gardens in the world. This hidden oasis can only be accessed on foot via a forestry trail. The three-
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SCHACHEN GARDEN hour hike makes reaching the garden, resting at 1,860m, even more special. The hike sounds daunting but one is occupied with rich surrounding flora. Upon arrival, Saxifraga mutata was in full flower. The flower spike reaches a height of 40cm with orange flowers painted on green stars. These were either found growing in groups with the next generation’s rosettes or individual plants growing on steep, exposed hills. Saxifraga caesia and Campanula rotundifolia could be found clinging onto crevices of the rock. Prenanthes purpurea can be seen on the grass verges by the road. Its graceful arching stems, along with Aquilegia atrata, both flower in a vivid purple. As the vegetation changes to the forest plantations of Picea abies into the native Pinus cembra, a small attractive plant I have longed to see in Scotland was found growing under Pinus cembra. Moneses uniflora was growing in a mossy layer of topsoil in a well-shaded position. I was surprised by the diminutive stature because in photos it has always appeared larger, standing PHOTO: HARRY JANS
at only 5-10cm tall. The small pendulous flower hangs low to the grass, nodding approval as you continue towards the Schachen. The Schachen Garden When I reached the Schachen, I was met by horticulturist Jenny WainwrightKlein. Jenny has been based at RBG Kew and has worked in many areas of horticulture including garden centres and nurseries. She has been on many collecting trips to Lesotho - the most recent one co-funded by the Scottish Rock Garden Club and The International Horticulturist Exchange – and the native plant areas of Germany. Thomas Heller, an experienced horticulturist, greeted me at the doorway of the house. He has an excellent knowledge of the surrounding vegetation and the locations of the most 162 JUNE 2020
prized plants. Kenton Seth, a fellow temporary worker from Colorado, USA had joined the team a week or so prior, to learn additional skills for his plans to build the crevice gardens of the future. The garden was started in 1901 by Botanischer Garten München Nymphenburg and is very close to the Schachenschloss of King Ludwig. If the name sounds familiar, it is because he was responsible for building many palaces in Germany, most notably the palace that features in Disney’s famous emblem. The surrounding area is filled with native meadows and mountains (Alpspitze, Zugspitze and Kreuzeck to name a few). Gardening at Schachen If you asked most gardeners what their most used gardening tool is, secateurs, a watering can, or trowel would perhaps
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ABOVE Primula munroi subsp. munroi BELOW Primula reidii var. williamsii LEFT The house for the gardeners at Schachen
be the most common answers. At the Schachen, you prepare for battle. You are armed with a pickle (a pickaxe for very stony beds) and a hackle (a metal hook which is perfect for getting into the small gaps between the rocks to unearth weeds) and a small knife to swiftly deadhead plants to contain their spread. The garden contains plant gems from all over the world. Primula is a wellrepresented genus. If I had to just pick my favourites, I would start with Primula munroi subsp. munroi. This plant was collected in the wild by Dieter Schacht. Its pure white flowers and notched petals are enticing. In the same subsection of Sibirica growing close by is P. munroi subsp. yargongensis with WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
PHOTO: HARRY JANS
GARDENS seed, just in case. I missed the various different types of P. clusiana in flower by being later in the season so I must mention P. sikkimensis, specifically the white form – often with a cream to pale yellow centre – of P. sikkimensis var. hopeana. P. sikkimensis var. pudibunda is also in the garden but is said to be more difficult to grow because it requires stricter alpine conditions than sturdier members. There is a proud tradition of growing Meconopsis in my home country of Scotland. Many spectacular cultivars have been grown and originate from Scotland due to the appropriately moderate climate for growing Himalayan plants. The climate and passion for this group of plants is shared with the Schachen. I always gain a great sense of pride when I see how well our wee country has done, ABOVE Gentiana lutea walking past ‘Huntfield’ in all its glory, a plant obtained by Allan pink to mauve flowers and deeper Jamieson in the Scottish borders. lobes. P. reidii (var. williamsii is a Meconopsis integrifolia subsp. souliei smaller, robust form) is another wonder stayed in flower for the duration of my from Asia, coming from the northtime at the Schachen (two and a half western Himalaya, but was brought to weeks), which is much longer than the the Schachen by Jim Jermyn in the type species. This is more difficult to 1990s. While it is thought to be grow than its woodland edge cousin M. monocarpic (meaning it dies after sulphurea but is equally as beautiful. flowering) or at least very short-lived, it The lovely enveloped yellow flower can has been successfully overwintered in make photographing the beautiful dark the garden. It is always best to keep stigma in the centre difficult. Perhaps
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ABOVE Primula sikkimensis var. hopeana BELOW Meconopsis 'Huntfield'
PHOTO: CONNOR SMITH
some breeding work could be done to further display the floral parts of the species. M. balangensis var. atrata is a beautiful dark purple flower, the colour due to its growing in iron-rich soils. M. racemosa is a lovely light blue which becomes deeper in colour toward its centre, with crinkled petals and deceptively sharp stems. A deep blood red flower of a possible M. staintonii also joins this group, although we are not entirely convinced of this categorisation, due to frequent hybridization and many coloured forms being introduced as M. napaulensis. Regardless it is a lovely not-so-blue poppy. Much to the surprise of many visitors, gentians come in colours other than the characteristic blue, in the form of Gentiana lutea. Despite the WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
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ABOVE Moraea alpina RIGHT Wulfenia carinthiaca (centre) was planted here in 1907
reluctance to include the ‘yellow gentian’ with the rest of the ‘betterlooking’ family, it has been used by herbalists for years (some even say since the second century BC). The fact that it can be made into an alcoholic drink is of great botanical interest. The bitter taste of the drink reaches dizzying heights and its appearance bears some resemblance to something from a wizard’s cupboard. The plant itself is a good addition to an herbaceous border where it typically reaches 1m in cultivation. I have seen it slightly taller in moist meadows, which 166 JUNE 2020
it frequently inhabits. Propagation by seed is advised because the root does not divide or transplant well. Despite having read that the root reached a length of 30cm, having dug them out as they formed clumps in the wrong places in the garden, I can testify that the roots can reach 1m long. As much as I adore the dainty little Campanula pulla, it does pose a danger to its neighbours. Having adapted to strong competition in its native habitat, it can easily become rampant in the rock garden. It is
SCHACHEN GARDEN strongly advisable to contain its spread because its thread-like rootlets will find a home in any available space in the garden regardless of soil type. Don’t be put off growing this reliable species because its little violet-coloured bells are a wonder to see as it meanders in and out of the yellow potentillas and Primula yargongensis. Another species from the garden is the monocarpic species Campanula thyrsoides. It differs from the smaller blues of the typical Campanula with its tall spike of tightly packed cream-coloured flowers to a height of 30cm. A mix of both is C. barbata, which has the height of C.thyrsoides and the typical blue bells but on a more elegant stem. Moraea alpina was wild collected in Lesotho in 2013 by Jenny. The colour is
more intense at the Schachen due to the UV light levels. It grows in basalt rock soils in its native lands, which are kept wet through near daily thunderstorms. A Moraea alpina flower lasts only a day but the corms produce multiple flowers for around 10 days. It sets seed at the Schachen, which is sown at 18C and usually germinates in four to five weeks. Interestingly, it flowered during the day (a nice prize at the end of lunch) with the leaves unlike M.stricta, which flowers before the leaves appear. Castilleja elmeri is a member of the Orobanchaceae (a parasitic group of plants) and will come into flower in three or four years from seed if successfully attached to its host - in this case Erigeron bloomeri. Last year was a good summer at the Schachen PHOTO: HARRY JANS
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'WEEDS' IN THE GARDEN It sounds odd to mention weeds when talking about a garden but the Schachen has no ordinary weeds. Since the garden is surrounded by a protected nature reserve, lots of the native flowers creep into the garden. Considered prized ornamentals almost everywhere else, beautiful plants such as Lilium martagon must be removed. Gymnadenia conopsea, a native pink-flowered orchid (seen here with Phyteuma orbiculare) has sown itself among plants throughout the garden. An observation of the roots of Gymnadenia reveals a swollen hand for a root system (inset).
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because it was not too dry, leading to the production of two strong flowers which it has done again this year. Megacarpaea polyandra is one of the more unusual plants in the garden. This monotypic (the only plant in the genus) oddity comes from China. It will flower in 10 years from seed, forming a large umbel with a rosette of deeply divided leaves. Although plants do not produce much seed, it germinates easily. Wulfenia carinthiaca is ABOVE Nomocharis oxypetalum ssp. insigne one of the true relics of the garden, planted in 1907. The dense mat of purple flowers has engulfed a rock by plant which seems to change its the entrance to the Schachen living patterning from white with pink quarters (pictured, p167). A similar blotches to light pink with deeper plant, Horminum pyrenaicum quickly blotches. I thought I was spoiled for became one of my favourites in the choice within the realms of the garden, garden. Given the sprinkling of plants but a simple step outside revealed that in the protected zone outside of the there was much more to find. garden, it had clearly been another gardener’s favourite. Despite the allure Hike to the Meilerhütte of these exotics, they pose a great threat The Meilerhütte is a large stone to the protected vegetation which building situated at the top of the trail, surrounds the garden. I chose to collect right on the Austrian border and to the some flowers and put them in a vase south east of the garden. It is a gorgeous alongside Pulsatilla alpina subsp. ninety minute hike as you move through alpina. meadows with Gentiana lutea, Nomocharis seems to be a plant that Adenostyles alliariae, Crepis aurea, keeps on giving. Regardless of which Phyteuma orbiculare and into the wind one of the 10 or so species you choose, it torn Pinus mugo. One of the most tends to result in an impressive plant. interesting plants in the meadow was The downward-facing flowers of N. an orchid by the name of Traunsteinera oxypetala were tucked in one of the globosa which seemed to have Himalayan beds. Its pink shade, with a perfected the art of imitation. Mimicry light white streak through the centre of has been used by orchids (and other the petal, is accompanied by the pink/ plant groups) to trick unsuspecting white speckling, unique to each plant. pollinators, in this case a clover N. aperta is the other highly variable (Trifolium sp.) which, at first glance 170 JUNE 2020
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small deposit. Soldanella pusilla, identified by the venation on the leaves, is a delightful small alpine. I wandered slightly off the path towards a patch of snow and was rewarded for my trouble with a Saxifraga oppositifolia in full flower in the middle of July. It is always nice to have a fond memory of home when on your travels. S.oppositifolia (dark form) does not seem to be performing as well in Scottish gardens as in years gone by, likely due to the extra heat we have experienced in summer, so it was satisfying to see this one flourishing. As you near the summit Papaver sendtneri greets you in full flower as you settle in the cabin for some food and a well-deserved pint! PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
works perfectly. It is only when looking closer that you see the difference. Rhododendon ferrugineum can be found growing under pines while R. hirsutum clings to life against the rocks. The pair are easily distinguished because R.hirsutum has hairy foliage which is often a lighter colour of green and smaller in size. The flowers are often in a paler pink while R.ferrugineum is deeper pink. If in any doubt, a simple rub of the leaves of R.hirsutum will release a pungent odour which sometimes reminds me of paint stripper. As I stepped into the new level of the hike, Sesleria varia and Carex sempervirens were the dominant grasses. Dryas octopetala flowed over rocks, while Pedicularis capitata and Androsace chamaejasme could be found poking out of rocky outcrops with Tofieldia calyculata, Gentiana verna and G. bavarica (var. subacaulis in some literature). I found the latter typically darker in flower, but this is a highly variable characteristic. When looking at the leaves, the difference is clear: Gentiana bavarica has small almost sedum-like leaves neatly arranged in a bundle. I found a small patch bursting with Primula farinosa, P. auricula, Pinguicula alpina, Anthyllis vulneraria, and gentians. A plant I never tire of is Silene acaulis, a simple plant which forms beautiful dense carpets covered in light pink flowers. While the Silene found a home on the rocks, Saxifraga caesia could be found tucked away in small gaps in them. Its distant relative S. aizoides also seemed to prefer shadier spots. I had only seen one plant in flower, which was under a step. Its light orange/yellow flowers are strikingly similar to S. mutata found at the beginning of the hike. Kenton, my hiking partner, spotted some soldanellas in flower by some snow in a
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PHOTO: CONNOR SMITH
The Austrian side A week later I found myself curious. Jenny had mentioned that the Austrian side of the Schachen mountain was much warmer, due to the south-facing slopes, allowing different plants to thrive. After breakfast, advice from Jenny on plants and a generous helping of factor 50 suncream to protect my pale Scottish skin, I was ready. I slowly ventured down the steep slope as the small rocks tumbled down with each step. I was attentively watching a couple in front of me to maintain a clear path ABOVE South-facing slopes on the Austrian side down. My plan was to go down to Söller but the path was too steep and, without adequate equipment or to know I was coming and had decided experience, I decided against it and to nibble on the fresh foliage of every continued down the mountain. By doing plant I found! The further hike down to this, I inadvertently added about three the birch forest didn’t reveal anything hours to my total hike time! of great botanical interest so I began Viola biflora was much more apparent the march back up to the garden with on the Austrian side, growing some well-earned sunburn. It was a everywhere but preferring shadier nine hour hike from 1,860m to 2,300m, spots out of the sun. I have a deep to around 800m metres and back. affection for Globularia cordifolia with Back at the garden, in the Southerm its small blue pompon flowers. I found it Hemisphere section, there are some rare as I began the hike down, but my plantings of Zaluzianskya (Z.ovata and descent later brought me to large Z.oreophila), a genus endemic to South clumps. I was also on the hunt for Africa, with flowers which release a arguably the most iconic plant in scent at dusk to attract pollinators such Germany: Edelweiss (Leontopodium as night-flying hawk moths and alpinum). Both have the tendency to rot hummingbird hawk moths. I heard a away in the damp, mild winters of the quote some years ago which has stuck west coast of Scotland. They prefer to with me: ‘History never repeats but it bake in the Austrian sun. The taller does rhyme.’ More than a year after my Asiatic steppe species from Mongolia first evening trip to Branklyn Gardens and China perform much better than where I first heard of the Schachen, I the stricter alpine Edelweiss due to was fumbling about in the cabin, ready summer wet. Sadly, the sheep seemed to embark on another torchlit tour.
ILLUSTRATION
Fritillaria reuleri
ARTWORK AND NOTES: RANNVEIG WALLIS
Fritillaria reuteri is easily recognised by its distinctive brown and yellow flowers. Only F. michailovskyi has a similar combination and this does not have the numerous thin leaves on the top of the stem. F.reuteri is endemic to the Zagros mountains of Iran where it grows in large colonies in seasonally wet hay meadows. Often the bulbs are under flowing water at flowering time. The populations in the wild show considerable variation in the proportions of the brown and yellow, fully yellow flowers being particularly attractive. F. reuteri is not too difficult to grow. In fact when we lived in Sussex, it was planted in the garden until an itinerant pheasant ate it! Here in wetter west Wales we confine it to a pot in the greenhouse where it requires little special treatment except for a well-drained compost and copious water when it is in growth. WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
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LAND OF THE LADY’S SLIPPER ORCHID Hilary and Austin Little travelled to Newfoundland during a cold and wet July, where an array of cypripediums lit up the barren landscape PHOTOS: HILARY AND AUSTIN LITTLE
I
f you were asked where you should go to look for a profusion of attractive orchids, probably not many people, even those with a keen interest in plants, would suggest Newfoundland. An island situated off the north-east coast of Canada and lying in similar latitudes to London and Paris, its west coast is cooled by the icy Labrador current sweeping down from the Arctic. Winter lasts for eight to nine months of the year on its north-west peninsula. Hardly a propitious hunting ground for orchids, you might think. However, the weather gods smiled on us because, even in a cold, wet July when it rained on several days and temperatures struggled to reach even the low teens, the weather was fair when we ventured out to botanise. The notorious midges and biting flies were kept at bay and even the most delicate of plants could be photographed in the relatively calm and windless conditions. As a result, we
were able to find 19 different orchids in bloom on the north-west peninsula alone (out of 43 known species on the island). Several of them were showy and attractive, with Cypripedium parviflorum (above, right), a calciphile with golden yellow flowers, standing out as it lit up the limestone gravels and roadside verges, where it grew in thousands. Gros Morne National Park Our trip (with Greentours) in July 2019 started in Deer Lake, on the west coast, where we met our leaders Todd Boland and Paul Green. From there we headed north to the Gros Morne National Park, a wild landscape of barren mountains, sea and forest, designated a World Heritage Site in 1987. On
TRAVEL our first morning we visited a mountainous area within the National Park, known as the Tablelands. Visually, the landscape was striking. On one side bare, rust-coloured hills rose up dramatically; on the other side was lush, green forest. The rusty hills were composed of rock called peridotite, which originated deep in the Earth’s mantle. At the surface, peridotite is unstable and as water from snow or rain seeps through cracks in the rocks, it slowly changes the peridotite to serpentinite. This water congregates in seep pools, which are highly alkaline. Serpentine soils lack many essential nutrients such as calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium but contain high concentrations of magnesium and heavy metals. As a result, they provide challenging conditions for plant growth. Those plants, however, that have been
able to adapt to such conditions thrive. Serpentine endemics include Armeria maritima var. labradorica, Cerastium terrae-novae and Minuartia marcescens, the serpentine stitchwort, mats of which sprawled across the boulders. Certain acid-loving plants also did well, despite serpentine soils having a pH of 6-8, presumably because the soils are low in calcium. These included Rhododendron groenlandicum, known locally as Labrador Tea. This was a neat, evergreen shrub about 60cm in height, with dark green foliage, rustcoloured stems and undersides to the leaves, and clusters of glistening, white flowers with long, protruding stamens. The striking, northern pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea, which favours acid sphagnum bogs, also grew in the seepages on the serpentine. The leaves were hollow and pitcher-shaped, the
ABOVE Rhododendron groenlandicum
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NEWFOUNDLAND pitcher hoods having reddish-brown veins and stiff, downward-pointing hairs. The inside of each pitcher was smooth, containing water to drown insects. The large globular flowerheads were equally eye-catching with five, shiny, reddish-purple sepals and five, large, drooping, wine-red petals. The single style was capped by a five-angled umbrella-like body containing the stigmas. Other plants which flourished on these slopes included the beautiful Cypripedium parviflorum. Its sepals varied from yellow to green or mahogany and the lateral petals, also variable in colour, were usually twisted, while the large, slipper-like pouch was a rich golden yellow. Pinguicula vulgaris grew in the damp spots, as did the fragrant, bright pink flowers of Viscaria alpina, the northern catch-fly, which stood out against the rocks on which it had made its home. Thalictrum alpinum, a dainty little meadow rue about 20cm tall, nestled in damp depressions in sheltered spots. We also found our first specimen of the northern starflower, Trientalis borealis. Each stem had a terminal whorl of five to nine smooth, lance-shaped leaves and bore white, star-shaped flowers with a similar number of petals and stamens. Anemone parviflora had shiny, darkgreen, trifoliate leaves and five to seven petaloid sepals, the hairy undersides of which were attractively tinged with blue. Clumps of the small common asphodel, Tofieldia pusilla, displayed dense, cylindrical spikes of dainty white flowers on short, solitary, leafless stems. Later, we found clumps of the magnificent showy lady’s slipper orchid, Cypripedium reginae. This grows to 80cm in height and the flowers are spectacular, measuring 8x12cm. Sepals and upper petals are white, while the large pouch-like lip is usually WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
ABOVE Sarracenia purpurea
pink to deep crimson. The whole flower is backed by a green bract. Nearby, in open woodland, we found the striped coralroot orchid, Corallorhiza maculata ssp. vreelandii, which is very rare. It is a leafless saprophyte with yellow stems. The flowers, which have pale strawyellow petals and sepals with purpleJUNE 2020 177
brown stripes and a deeper yellow lip, form a dense raceme about 1-2cm long. Walking along the Lomond River Trail, mainly on boardwalk through woodland, we found Cornus canadensis carpeting the ground. This has four large, white bracts surrounding the minute cream-coloured flowers. Growing among the cornus were patches of Viola labradorica, with trailing leafy stems and violet-blue flowers, and the occasional Sisyrinchium montanum, again with violet-blue flowers. Some interesting ferns pushed up their fronds in the damp undergrowth, including three members of Osmundaceae, Osmunda regalis, the royal fern, Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, the cinnamon fern, and Osmunda claytoniana, the interrupted fern. All three have a vase-like crown of fronds at the end of thick rhizomes and the new growth is attractively rustcoloured. The interrupted fern gets its 178 JUNE 2020
common name because the fertile leaflets (pinnae) are produced in the middle of the fronds. They turn from green to black and shrivel after producing their spores, so that a gap is left in the middle of the frond. The following day, still in the Gros Morne National Park, we visited Western Brook Pond, a spectacular freshwater fjord 16km long. Ancient granites, gneisses and schists (metamorphic rocks) of the Precambrian era, sculpted by glaciers in the last ice age, towered 500m above us. These hills form part of the Long Range Mountains and are the northernmost extension of the Appalachian Mountains in the USA. The fjord is landlocked and to reach it from the road we walked nearly 3km to the jetty, where a boat awaited us. We found many treasures in the acid bogs on either side of the track. Kalmia polifolia, an evergreen, ericaceous
NEWFOUNDLAND
ABOVE Cypripedium reginae LEFT The entrance to Western Brook Pond
shrub up to 60cm tall, grew there. Every part of the plant is poisonous and the bees which pollinate it produce a toxic honey. The sensitive fern, Onoclea sensibilis, grew beside a small stream. Nearby was the star-flowered, false Solomon’s seal, Maianthemum stellatum, with short racemes of 3-20 small flowers, each having six white tepals, six stamens and a single tripartite style. There were several members of Rosaceae growing in the swampy areas, including Rubus chamaemorus, the cloudberry, whose yellow-orange fruits WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
are prized by bears and humans alike, Geum macrophyllum and Fragaria virginiana, the wild strawberry. Arethusa bulbosa could also be found in the open, boggy areas. This is a dainty, fragrant little orchid with bright pink petals and sepals and a paler lip which has pinkish-purple streaks and white, fringed crests along the centre. In the wooded areas near the road, Clintonia borealis grew in profusion. Its outwardfacing, yellow flowers have six tepals and six stamens.
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ABOVE An arched rock formation at Arches Provincial Park
Arches Provincial Park Our next destination was the Arches Provincial Park. We stopped on the way to photograph Platanthera aquilonis, known as the northern green orchid, which is unscented, and the very similar-looking P. huronensis, which is a more robust plant and has clovescented flowers. Iris versicolor, the Harlequin Blue Flag, a showy plant with three broad, downward-arching petals and three erect standards, was in damp, grassy areas beside the road. The arched rock formation, which gives its name to the Park, is composed of dolomitic conglomerates of the Ordovician period, sculpted and eroded by the wave action of the sea. Growing among the pebbles were Mertensia maritima, or oysterleaf, with glaucous, fleshy leaves and bell-like flowers which open pink before turning bright blue, and Potentilla anserina, a silverweed with bright green, shiny leaves and yellow, five-petalled flowers. 180 JUNE 2020
There were low-growing specimens of Abies balsamea by the seashore, with new, immature cones and, in the undergrowth, Rubus arcticus ssp. acaulis, the dwarf arctic raspberry, with pink flowers. Also in the grassy areas were two primulas, Primula egaliksensis, the Greenland primula, with white flowers and P. laurentiana, the Laurentian primula, with pink flowers and farina on the stems and the undersides of the leaves. Pinguicula vulgaris was also growing in the really damp areas. Bellburns Barrens On the third day we continued our journey north to visit the Bellburns Barrens. These barrens are composed primarily of limestone and dolomite and have a rich flora. Although the limestone is exposed in places, large areas are effectively heathland and covered in short turf.
NEWFOUNDLAND The day dawned with leaden skies, and initially we drove through thick mist and rain. Miraculously, the rain stopped whenever we wanted to be outside botanising and, on occasion, the sun made a brief appearance. It was cold – the highest temperature reached that day was 6°C – while back at home in the UK temperatures were 30°C or more. Our first stop yielded nice mats of Oxytropis campestris var. johannensis with rich purple flowers and more Anemone parviflora. We were delighted to find another coralroot orchid, Corallorhiza trifida. This had smooth yellow stems and loose racemes of greenish flowers. Most ABOVE Primula laurentiana BELOW Iris hookeri exciting of all were the numerous, splendid plants of Cypripedium parviflorum, including one with nearly one hundred blooms. Rhodiola rosea formed clumps on the gravelly areas. Its glaucous leaves were thick and fleshy and arranged in a dense spiral up the stem. The plants are dioecious. The male plants have yellow-petalled flowers and the female flowers have no petals, just four or five pistils, and are often tinted orange or purple. Two orchids were growing in the damp turf; Platanthera aquilonis and P. hookeri, a rare plant which is only found in this part of Newfoundland. The fragrant, yellowish-green flowers are produced in a loose raceme. A nice little daisy, WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
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TRAVEL
ABOVE A clump of Cypripedium parviflorum with almost 100 flowers
Erigeron hyssopifolius, formed small mats. Rhododendron groenlandicum and Trientalis borealis grew in damp patches in the turf together with Tofieldia pusilla. A good find was Iris hookeri in damp, open grassland near the road. Flowers were composed of three light blue falls and three slender, erect standards. Tanacetum bipinnatum ssp. huronense, a tansy with no ray florets to its flowers, presented its yellow button-heads to the sky while 182 JUNE 2020
Vaccinium uliginosum, the bog bilberry, bore typical pink-tinged, white, urnlike, pendant flowers. In the afternoon, at Brig Bay, we discovered the pink-flowered Primula mistassinica together with the white form, P. mistassinica forma leucantha. On the beach, Lathyrus japonicus formed tangled clumps of leaves and twining tendrils with rich purple, pea flowers. Draba glabella was a typical, small, white-flowered, four-petalled
brassica. Cornus suecica flourished, resembling C. canadensis, but with dark purple flowers in the centre of large white bracts and distinct pairs of leaves. The leaves of C. canadensis are in pairs but so close together on the stem that they appear whorled. A couple of dwarf willows sprawled over the rocks; Salix calcicola with large, creamy-white catkins and S. uva-ursi with reddish catkins. Travelling back to our hotel, one of the highlights of the day was seeing three female moose feeding by the roadside. Clearly the dull weather had made them think it was dusk and time to forage. Port au Choix Heritage Centre and Point Richie Lighthouse Next day we drove to the Port au Choix Heritage Centre. Native peoples had inhabited the area for about 6,000 years and there were various artefacts on display. We followed the Dorset Trail across the site and found various interesting plants including three cinquefoils on the bare limestone, Potentilla crantzii, P. litoralis, a rare species, and P. nivea. In areas of denser vegetation we spotted flowering spikes of Pseudorchis straminea, the vanillascented bog orchid. In the gravelly areas, the bright, golden-yellow, daisy flowers of Arnica lonchophylla stood out. Other plants which thrived there were Arctous alpina with bright green berries, Arenaria humifusa with 10 pink anthers, Comandra umbellata with WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
ABOVE Cornus suecica
small white, five-petalled flowers, Draba incana, Physaria arctica, the arctic bladder-pod, and Saxifraga caespitosa. In areas of shallow water, Menyanthes trifoliata, the bog buckbean, formed floating mats above which rose cylindrical racemes of white, star-shaped flowers. Later, we travelled to Point Richie Lighthouse from where we had good views of minke whales swimming quite close to the shore. Two tame caribou wandered along the beach, seemingly oblivious to tourists and their cameras. Halerpestes cymbalaria, a very tiny, brown-leaved buttercup was found in damp, stony ground. Salix reticulata, a prostrate shrub, was common and there were some good patches of Pyrola asarifolia with rich pink, JUNE 2020 183
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ABOVE Potentilla crantzii BELOW Silene acaulis
bell-like flowers. Campanula gieseckiana, (formerly C. rotundifolia), displayed typical blue harebells. Cape Norman, Burnt Cape and l’Anse aux Meadows We spent the following morning at Cape Norman, a large limestone pavement, over parts of which Dryas integrifolia sprawled in large mats, its white, five-petalled flowers standing out above the dark green foliage. Large cushions of Silene acaulis in good form were also growing in crevices in the pavement, together with small specimens of Saxifraga caespitosa and a few stunted Primula laurentiana. There were some attractive species of dwarf willows including Salix calcicola with very large, erect catkins, covered in pollen. The weather was beginning to improve with 184 JUNE 2020
sunny intervals. However, this also encouraged the midges to appear! One of the most exciting finds was Coeloglossum viride, the frog orchid, its green flowers arranged in a loose, upright spike; its tongue-like lip was a pinky-brown. The purpose of this stop, however, was to search for a rare, tiny member of Brassicaceae, Braya fernaldii. Eventually we located two low, tufted specimens nestling in crevices in the limestone pavement. The plants bore racemes of white flowers which age to pink; the sepals were purplish and hairy. Despite the fitful sunshine, the weather was far from warm, the chill of the air emphasised by the sight of icebergs in the sea. In the rough broken ground beyond the pavement there were some unusual ferns, Polystichum lonchitis - the
NEWFOUNDLAND northern holly fern, Botrychium virginianum, the rattlesnake fern, Actaea rubra and a speedwell, Veronica officinalis, which also grows in the UK. Near the shore, Antennaria pulcherrima ssp. eucosma, the elegant pussytoes, was growing together with Bartsia alpina, a rare broomrape with dark purple flowers. A striking, short-tailed, swallowtail butterfly posed obligingly for photographs and we also saw an Arctic blue butterfly. From Cape Norman we drove on an increasingly steep, narrow, gravel road to Burnt Cape, a limestone barren headland in the far north-west of Newfoundland. There we were very pleased to find Potentilla usticapensis, the Burnt Cape cinquefoil, in the limestone shale. This extremely rare species is known to only grow at this site. Its hairy leaflets had roundtoothed edges and the prostrate flower stems bore solitary, yellow flowers. Potentilla nivea, also a calciphile, had basal, trifoliate leaves covered in fine, silky hairs and golden-yellow flowers. Oxytropis deflexa var. foliolosa, another rare species, exhibited dense racemes of deep purple flowers and was growing so close to the cliff edge that the only safe way to photograph it was by lying flat on the turf with a vertiginous view of the sea breaking on the rocks below!
ABOVE Swallowtail butterfly
Also on the sea-cliff edge was Saxifraga paniculata. Tiered coastal terraces on the headland demonstrated striking evidence of uplift, following the retreat and melting of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age. Saxifraga oppositifolia was growing right under the cliffs of one of these terraces. Although nearly over, there were a few good pink flowers still showing on the cushions. Kalmia procumbens (formerly Loiseleuria procumbens), also grew near the cliffs
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ABOVE Rhododendron canadense TOP RIGHT Galearis rotundifolia
and bore typical, pale pink, urnshaped, pendant flowers. Viola macloskeyi had white flowers with purple veins on the lower petals. Salix jejuna, a tiny dwarf willow with dark rust-red flowers, known as the Barrens willow, formed relatively large mats over the rocks. It is very rare and restricted to the barrenlands of Newfoundland. Nearby, Rhododendron lapponicum, a dwarf rhododendron, less than 45cm in height, sported rich pinkish-purple blooms. A very pretty orchid, Galearis rotundifolia, grew in the grassy areas. On our way to the most northerly town in Newfoundland, St Anthony, a large bull moose with a full head of antlers crossed the road in front of us, moving too quickly for photographs. Next morning, under leaden skies, we drove to Quirpon where magnificent 186 JUNE 2020
clumps of Saxifraga caespitosa were growing on a dripping rock face by the roadside. Nice specimens of Cornus suecica also enjoyed the wet conditions at the base of the rock. A spectacular iceberg was visible in one of the harbours we passed through on the way to the site of the ancient Viking trading settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. Walking along a boardwalk trail to the reconstructed turf-clad huts we found Maianthemum stellatum together with Equisetum sylvaticum flourishing in the bogs. This attractive horsetail has whorls of drooping, delicate branches which are themselves branched, giving the plant a lacy appearance. Although it can reproduce by spores, its main method of reproduction is by underground rhizomes. In front of a large snowdrift, there was an ericaceous shrub with small, pendant,
white bells. This turned out to be Chamaedaphne calyculata. Sibbaldiopsis tridentata with trifoliate leaves and white, five-petalled flowers was growing by the side of the boardwalk. Driving back to Burnt Cape we spotted a delightful patch of mauveflowered Rhododendron canadense. The flowers of this species have 10 stamens inside a zygomorphic corolla, unlike other most other North American species which have tubular flowers, each with five stamens. The narrow, oval leaves open only after the flowers have faded. However, the reason for paying a second visit to Burnt Cape was to find the beautiful Calypso bulbosa, a rare orchid which only occurs in this part of Newfoundland on dwarf, grassy heath over limestone. The solitary flowers are magenta-pink, the inside of the pouch-shaped lip is pale pink and spotted with a tuft of yellow or white hairs in the opening to the pouch. There are two horn-like projections on the outside of the lip. Sadly, all the specimens we saw were still quite firmly in bud. Later that afternoon, we had another boat trip, this time on the open sea. Fortunately, a short-lived, torrential spell of rain had ended and the skies
had lifted to give dry, bright conditions with good visibility. Looking over the harbour pier at St. Anthony as we walked to the boat, we could see starfish in the waters below and the skipper obligingly fished one out in a net so we could view it at close quarters. Soon after setting sail we saw minke whales and then a female humpback whale with her calf swam beside us for a considerable distance. They kept coming up for air and blowing and then diving down, the female displaying
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ABOVE The lighthouse at Nameless Cove
her tail as she did so, although her calf didn’t seem to have mastered the art of putting its tail up as it dived! After an hour or so we reached a large, blue iceberg, the object of our voyage. We then returned to port but the humpback whales carried on. Next morning we had an early start because we had decided to go once more to Burnt Cape to see if the calypso orchids had opened further. Initially overcast, the clouds disppeared and we had a sunny day with blue skies but quite a strong breeze. Temperatures soared, reaching 20°C on occasion. At Burnt Cape, to everyone’s delight, the orchids were more open even though it would be a couple of days before they were at their best. After that we made several short stops to photograph local oddities. The first of these were houses with doors set halfway up the walls but with no steps to ground level, known locally as mother-in-law’s doors! This was a tax dodge, as no tax was payable on unfinished properties. The second 188 JUNE 2020
stop was for one of the numerous log piles by the roadside as local residents are permitted to fell timber for use during the long winter months subject to licence. Most piles were well organised and properly stacked to enable the logs to dry before being hauled. The picturesque wooden sleds on which they were hauled in winter were present close to some of the piles. The third stop was to look at roadside vegetable patches. Anyone can create one, the reason being that at many of the coastal settlements the houses are on bedrock. Further inland the soil is deeper and because the verges are often 5-10m wide, it makes sense to cultivate them. The land is free if you are prepared to put in the effort to create your own patch. The only proviso is that they have to be fenced, otherwise the local moose will eat your produce before you do! The Journey back to Deer Lake From there we cruised up and down the
highway until Todd found the telegraph pole near where Galearis rotundifolia grew. This, a dainty, little orchid with upper petals shaded mauve-pink and magenta spots and streaks on its lower lip, danced around in the wind, making the capture of its image quite challenging. The next stop, further down the coast, was to search for Braya longifolia, an extremely rare endemic. Eventually we located it, much to our delight. We spent some time at ABOVE A bog with Arethusa bulbosa near Cowhead Nameless Cove, where an attractive lighthouse was perched on a tiny island. Walking along the pebble beach pitcher plants, Sarracenia purpurea, we encountered lots of green shells of were exceptionally good and sea urchins. There were good patches numerous and the finest Platanthera of Potentilla crantzii and Vaccinium huronensis (fragrant green orchid) of oxycoccos (cranberry) was growing the trip were close to the car park. along the shore. Parking by the church The final day of the tour dawned on the south side of the bay, we walked bright and sunny with clear blue skies back along the coast to find a and midday temperatures reached fascinating colony of thrombolites on 21°C. We returned to the Gros Morne the shore. These are accretionary National Park, stopping on the way to structures which form in shallow photograph magnificent clumps of the water by the trapping, binding and showy orchid, Cypripedium reginae. cementation of grains of sediment by Once at the park we walked along the micro-organisms such as Burnt Berry Trail around a small lake. cyanobacteria. They have existed on It was an attractive trail, mostly on Earth for about 3.5 billion years, boardwalk through conifer woodland although now they occur in only a few with lots of views over the pond. Yellow places in the world. They are thought water lilies, Nuphar variegata, were to be responsible for much of the initial coming into flower and there were oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. stands of the attractive iris, Iris The final stop of the day was a real versicolor. Close by, a fern which treat as we visited a bog covered in thrived in the wet areas was Arethusa bulbosa (dragon’s mouth Osmundastrum cinnamomeum. Deep orchid). Most of the flowers were deep in the woodland we found Moneses pink, but some were much paler and a uniflora, the one-flowered few clumps were pure white. The wintergreen, its fragrant, solitary WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
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ABOVE Cypripedium acaule
flowers nodding gently in the slightest current of air, and the dainty little Linnaea borealis, the northern twinflower, with pairs of fragrant pink bells at the end of a narrow stalk about 5 or 6cm tall. Its rounded leaves carpeted the ground. In boggy patches, the crimson Sarracenia purpurea flourished. The most exciting find though, and completely unexpected, was Cypripedium acaule, the pink lady’s slipper orchid, with rose-pink pouches and greenish-purple petals and sepals. After lunch we made a short excursion along a narrow, stony 190 JUNE 2020
path to the upper part of Brook Falls where we found Polystichum braunii, Braun’s holly fern, growing beside some steps. Our final walk took us along the Humber River trail where we saw more Cypripedium acaule and Moneses uniflora and swathes of the magnificent, feathery horsetail, Equisetum sylvaticum. As the Humber River flows through the town of Deer Lake, it was a short journey to the airport and the end of a memorable time in a northerly orchid paradise!
PAPER FLOWERS
A selection of paper flowers Ken Gillanders shares some selections from the range of plants referred to as ‘paper’ or ‘straw’ flowers, many hailing from Australia and South Africa
T
he common names ‘everlastings’, ‘paper flowers’, or ‘straw flowers’, are normally given to helichrysums but also to an assortment of other genera which have paper-like bracts surrounding the flowers. Lasting in good condition longer than many other flowers, they are excellent plants for a sunny place in the garden. Many Australian helichrysums have been reclassified to other genera recently, with botanists revising members of Compositae
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
(Asteraceae) in recent years. The compact flowerheads of these plants are surrounded by attractive papery bracts. When providing dimensions of flowers, I have included the flower and the bracts. I garden in Tasmania, Australia which seems to suit many of these plants because there is plenty of sunshine but the southern areas of mainland Australia are also suitable. Xerochrysum bracteatum (below), an Australian native found in most
PHOTO: HARRY JANS
PLANTS
ABOVE Helichrysum marginatum RIGHT Helichrysum sessilioides
states, is very well known. It can be annual or in a few cases perennial. It is also variable in flower colour, with flowers in white, pink, red and yellow. Yellow is the most common but all are too tall for the rock garden. The cultivar ‘Diamond Head’ from New South Wales has golden flowers and is possibly the lowest grower but in my garden it is a short-lived perennial. South Africa is home to a large population of helichrysums, varying from prostrate ground cover plants to quite large shrubs. The following are forms that I have personally grown and that are suitable for the rock garden. Before travelling to South Africa some years ago, I applied for a collecting 192 JUNE 2020
permit but this only permitted collecting on roadsides which was certainly limiting. On applying for a permit in Lesotho I was permitted to collect anything anywhere. The only restriction was not to collect seed of Agave americana, a native of Mexico and the southern USA. One of the lowest growing helichrysums is H. sessilioides, which forms a dense mat of small rosettes. The leaves are deep green, with a scattering of silvery hairs, and the reverse is covered with a dense mat, which protrudes at the edges, giving a white-edged appearance to the leaves. The white ray florets are produced singly and are almost stemless. It grows
PAPER FLOWERS
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H. milliganii is a beautiful Tasmanian endemic, which grows in moist sunny areas. Its rosettes of green leaves are quite fleshy, and the 20cm flowering stems each hold a 3cm white flower which is red on the reverse and opens to white, often with a pink flush. Xerochrysum bicolor is found on the east coast and some inland areas of Tasmania. It forms a small clump of green leaves and will stand drier conditions than the previous species mentioned. It can be perennial or annual and the 3cm white flowers are PHOTO: HARRY JANS
very well in a rock crevice. Another low grower is H. milfordiae, which has a heavy covering of silverywhite hairs on the leaf rosettes. Its 2.5cm flowers are on single 8cm upright stems and are shaded reddishburgundy on the backs of the ray florets, and white on opening. I have had some difficulty in keeping this plant happy over time. It is endemic to a small area of Lesotho near the Sani Pass, where I saw many excellent specimens. I also saw another similar prostrate plant, with larger, intense silver leaves and white flowers but have been unable to get an identification. Can anyone shed any light on this? H. marginatum has grown very well from seed, which we collected in Lesotho. It forms large prostrate mats up to 1m across. In some forms, the foliage is green and in others a silvery-grey. The numerous 8cm flower stems each hold one white 2.5cm flower. A similar plant from the same Drakensberg area is H. bellum with long, narrow leaves growing in the same way, with similar flowers. Requiring a moist soil, H. pumilum is a Tasmanian endemic which grows in very moist, peaty conditions, forming a loose prostrate mat of narrow foliage. The flower stems of up to 10cm each have a 2cm white flower on each stem, the flower, flushed with red. It requires similar conditions in cultivation to its natural habitat. This plant and H. milliganii are found on mountains at an altitude of around 1,200m.
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PHOTO: HARRY JANS
PLANTS
ABOVE Rhodanthe anthemoides
burgundy on the reverse. Xerochrysum subundulatum is found on mountains on the Australian mainland as well as Tasmania. It can be quite vigorous and form a large mat of green foliage. The numerous flowering stems can be 20-25cm, and each holds a 3-4mm golden flower. Another species that is widespread from mainland Australia is Chrysocephalum baxteri. This is a small shrub that grows to around 30cm x 30cm and produces a mass of white flowers in spring. It will tolerate dry conditions and, like all these everlastings, it loves the sun. Coronidium scorpioides from mainland Australia and Tasmania is a clump194 JUNE 2020
forming perennial with blue-grey foliage. Its numerous 10cm stems each hold one golden flower. It is locally known as the ‘button everlasting’, referring to the shape of the flower. A very popular plant in southern Australia, Rhodanthe anthemoides is ideals to grow where it can spill over a wall because some forms have a trailing habit. The fine foliage is grey-green, and the white 3mm flowers open from deep-pink buds. Its common name is ‘chamomile sunray’. The last three Australian plants I will mention are Argentipallium dealbatum, a very widespread species which has white flowers flushed reddish on the
PAPER FLOWERS
PHOTO: HARRY JANS (ABOVE); KEN GILLANDERS (RIGHT)
ABOVE Xerochrysum subundulatum BELOW Anaphalioides bellidoides
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PHOTO: KEN GILLANDERS
PLANTS
ABOVE Helichrysum eclonis
back, that are produced singly on 10cm stems. I have noticed that they flower profusely in areas that have been burnt by bushfires. This may be due to more sunlight reaching them after the tree canopy is lost. Leucochrysum albicans is widespread on mainland Australia and also to a lesser extent in Tasmania. Known as the ‘hoary sunray’, it is a vigorous herb with its flowering stems up to 30cm, each with a bright yellow flower. It will tolerate quite dry conditions. There is an endangered form of L. albicans var. tricolor, which is white with some bracts a deep pink. L. albicans subsp. alpinum is a beautiful plant with silvery-white woolly foliage and 3cm pure white flowers on 10cm stems, which is endemic to the high mountainous areas in Victoria and New South Wales. Anaphalioides bellidioides is a charming cascading plant from New Zealand. It has small green leaves and looks fabulous hanging over a wall with its profusion of greenish flowers surrounded by pure white bracts. Back to plants from Africa, 196 JUNE 2020
Helichrysum argyrophyllum is a beautiful, dense trailing ground cover plant with intense silver foliage and a profusion of 2cm golden flowers in the winter months. H. retortum has the same growing habit, flowering in the spring, with its silver leaves and white flowers. It is not so dense in its growth, but both are surprisingly frost hardy. Helichrysum sutherlandii, from the Drakensberg, forms a small plant 30cm tall, with woolly grey leaves, heavily felted on the reverse. Its profusion of white flowers are held in rounded panicles. I found it at 800m or higher, growing in abundance between rocks and crevices. I was excited to see numerous plants of Helichrysum ecklonis in the Catberg area of south-east South Africa. There were thousands of them in full flower, with their deep rose 20-30mm flowers held singly on stems up to 30cm. This perennial herb has a heavy coating of white woolly hairs on the leaves and stems. A plant that everyone seems to want on seeing it is Edmondia pinifolia. This shrub, with its fine, pine-like foliage, prefers sandy, well-drained soil and will produce a mass of crimson flowers throughout spring. They last well on the plant and can be picked and dried out by hanging them upside down for a period, after which they can then be used in dried flower arrangements for years. When in Cape Town, I saw bunches of E. pinifolia flowers being sold in the markets. It is endemic to
PHOTO: KEN GILLANDERS PHOTO: KEN GILLANDERS
ABOVE Helichrysum sutherlandii BELOW Edmondia pinifolia
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PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
ABOVE Phaenocoma prolifera
the western cape. Another similar plant from South Africa is Phaenocoma prolifera with deep-pink-to-red 4cm flowers and strange knob-like leaves. It perhaps grows rather too tall (1.2m) for most rock gardens. A new Helichrysum that has recently become available in Australia is H. x amorginum ‘Red Jewel’. I am at a loss as to whether it is a selection or a hybrid. H. amorginum is a white-flowered plant, found growing on limestone rocks on islands in northern Greece. Several 198 JUNE 2020
selections have been made, among them ‘Blorub’, ‘Red Cluster’, ‘Ember Glow’ and ‘Pink Sapphire’. ‘Red Jewel’ is a good garden plant, with pubescent silvery-white stems and foliage. The many-flowered clusters of ruby red buds vary in intensity of colour with the amount of direct sunlight the plant receives. These open to bright, golden flowers, which are enclosed with a multitude of pink involucral bracts which fade to a creamy-white with age. It flowers all summer.
COMMONPLACE ALPINES
HOW TO GROW SIX FAMILIAR FACES Robert Rolfe looks at the origins, quirks, variations and growing needs of six species of alpine that have become 'part of the furniture' in many domestic gardens
PHOTOS: ROBERT ROLFE UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED
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GARDENS
W
ithout much in the way of an introductory flourish, I’ve rounded together half a dozen thoroughly reliable species that are widespread both in their native lands and in gardens. I’ll follow this up in the September issue with six others that are quite the opposite; narrow endemics that are relatively or extremely localised in the wild, and typically very uncommon indeed in gardens. The intention is that Members might pick and choose from these two opposite camps, even if only in their imaginations, relishing the broad
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church from which of late – and for many years to come, we hope – they have been able to make such choices. As a general rule of thumb, the higher the altitude at which a plant occurs, the more difficult it is to cultivate. But numerous plants that we broadly term 'alpines' are not from such lofty elevations but instead grace the very foot of the mountains, or the plains. LEUCOJUM AESTIVUM None of the snowflakes occur on high, and Leucojum aestivum, by tradition the Summer Snowflake (which can flower until June in the wild but in gardens
COMMONPLACE ALPINES
ABOVE Leucojum aestivum PREVIOUS PAGE Leucojum aestivum 'Gravetye Giant'
from mid to late spring; Augustblooming L. autumnale better fits the bill) is from 1,300m at most, with 1,000m the usual limit. More generally it colonises flood plains, where the water table is high in winter and spring, seasonally damp woods, water course margins and areas that occasionally flood to leave the deep, silty, fertile soils it relishes. After it dies down, drier conditions are tolerated. The only clone of note, ‘Gravetye Giant’ (a 1924 William Robinson selection), was a success in the chalk garden at Highdown, and can WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
also be seen in quantity at East Ruston, almost as far east as you can travel in low-rainfall Norfolk without switching from very dry to very wet and ending up in the North Sea. Leucojum vernum is deemed nonnative to Britain, those believers aside who celebrate its long-standing, individual Dorset and Somerset enclaves. But there is a wider acceptance that L. aestivum is a British native, along parts of the River Thames, from Oxford to Maidenhead, and eponymously along a tributary, the JUNE 2020 205
GARDENS
ABOVE Leucojum aestivum subsp. aestivum for sale at a British supermarket
Loddon in Hampshire, which has given rise to its other common name, the Loddon Lily. The Withymead nature reserve, between Goring-on-Thames and South Stoke, has a spectacular population, and Berkshire has further strongholds. Here it is represented by the subspecies aestivum, as also in parts of Ireland, though throughout the British Isles, from the Channel Islands to Scotland, subsp. pulchellum can also be found. This is typically a slighter plant, with 1-4 (rather than 2-7) flowers and other minor differences, the most obvious of these being the smoothedged flower stems. Run a finger along the stem edge: if it’s roughish, you can ascribe the plant to subsp. aestivum, if smooth to subsp. pulchellum. This said, stature depends much on the fertility of the soil and the water supply. L. aestivum ssp. aestivum is widely 206 JUNE 2020
represented from Europe to the Caucasus, and south of the Caspian in Azerbaijan and northern Iran. It has also naturalised in a few parts of the USA, Australasia and Japan, this roll call not presented as exhaustive. It can cope with competition if the timing is right, occupying reed beds that do not leaf until after their occupant’s main above-ground lifecycle is complete. A nuanced adaptation: the mature capsules inflate and bob along, waterborne, facilitating the species’ downstream spread. The species has become increasingly popular as gardening with native/ neo-native species has gained popularity. All to the good, but those baskets of half a dozen supposedly compatible congeners are sometimes badly-chosen: why on earth would anyone interplant with lavender, a
GARDEN ALPINES
ABOVE A mixed display of Primula denticulata
bedding pansy, cowslips and rosemary (as offered in a well-known British supermarket, pictured left) and anticipate a happy outcome? Studies carried out at Budapest University in 2006 confirmed what might very much be expected. In common with Narcissus, and afterwards Galanthus, Leucojum aestivum can be twin-scaled and micro-propagated. What is surprising is that the leaves too are capable of forming small bulbils at their bases under laboratory conditions. Eucomis I knew about, and Lachenalia as well. Ornithogalum has also ‘worked’, for all that the timing is crucial. PRIMULA DENTICULATA From shoots to roots. One longestablished method of propagating Primula denticulata is by 2cm long root WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
sections, taken in the autumn (if it can withstand vine weevil subsoil deprivation, this further trimming is less traumatic) or, if you want to select a particular form, taken at flowering time. If it is deemed a cottage garden plant, as this and others are so frequently, rather sentimentally bracketed, it is also one I’ve seen in botanic gardens, RHS gardens, on council estates, grand estates and (in childhood especially, back in the 1970s) massed on market stalls as a spring bedding plant. Belonging to a small subsection of the genus, its ubiquity in cultivation is mirrored by its overall distribution, which stretches from eastern Afghanistan (you might be surprised to learn) to SW China, in Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou, 3,000 km further east. No other springflowering member of the genus, bar JUNE 2020 207
GARDENS the British native P. vulgaris, comes close, or is more widespread in gardens, the ephemeral, gaudy ‘Polyanthus’ tribes aside. Flowering in March or early April in the British Isles, it is best deployed as an illuminating presence, in quantity, in dampish woodland glades, rising up through Anemone nemorosa and erythroniums. It is also sometimes formally lined out with Bellis perennis and Myosotis sylvatica in prim but daily-tended front gardens, conveying a BELOW Primula denticulata col. S,S&W
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very different, stiff, formalised setting more suited to municipal plantings than to private garden deployments. Popular gardening takes various forms, some of them widely popular, a few an acquired taste. Nepal was the first source of material, 200 years ago. While in all probability none of these early sendings have survived, an accession from the 1954 Stainton, Sykes & Williams trip has been maintained all these years since, presenting a spectacular performance en masse in the lower woodland beds at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh,
COMMONPLACE ALPINES where it is more graceful and quite distinct from any of the popular garden, ‘drumstick’ selections. These can now be had in anything from white through all shades of lilac-mauve to deepest rose-purple. Offerings at present including ‘Bressingham Beauty’, ‘Glenroy Crimson’, ‘Karryann’ and ‘Rubin’. A heavy, continuously moist (whether by local weather or by irrigation) loam suits it best. Under such conditions, as with many of this genus, the leaves expand greatly after flowering, and respond to supplementary feeding. If
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kept moist, it doesn’t succumb to summer heat – unlike so many others, which fade away irreconcilably when the mercury rises. Watt (Sir George Watt, of distinguished Soldanelloid Sikkim/ Burmese Primula wattii association) related its occasional dominance in the wild: ‘I have seen miles of the country, from March to May or June, literally rendered blue with its lovely heads of flowers in its higher altitudes… it may be got in flower as late as August’. None of its closest relatives (P. atrodentata, P. cachemiriana, P. erosa etc.) have
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ABOVE Aurinia saxatilis (centre), with an Erica (left), Aubrieta (right) and Erysimum (top right)
taken anything near as well to garden conditions. Asiatic primulas have a mixed reputation in gardens, from the Petiolarids (and others) that are all too frequently ephemeral, to the early summer candelabras that romp away in a moist, rich soil. This always rewarding stalwart bridges the gap. AURINIA SAXATILIS Could there be a more emphatically entry-level ‘rockery plant’ than Aurinia saxatilis, offered over many years on market stalls, by the bucketload in garden centres, sometimes in hardware stores and supermarket outlets, and just once in a while from wild seed? Geoff Rollinson, who over the years has grown far more bona fide alpines than most, once reflected: ‘You start off by growing Aubrieta and you end up 210 JUNE 2020
growing Aubrieta’: the same holds true of its often co-planted relative. For a splash of strident colour in mid-April, provided by an – in most guises gaudy – trouper that will redouble its performance annually without much attention bar an enthusiastic cutting back in early May, most other alternatives are eclipsed. Its natural distribution is extensive, from central (Germany and the Czech Republic) to easternmost/ southernmost Europe and Turkey. On occasion it can be witnessed in spectacular population sweeps that rival a rapeseed (Brassica napus) field, not just on the crag ledges and cliff faces where it is seen to best advantage. More prosaically, it is found in rubbly abandoned pasture, on waste ground, and as a garden escapee everywhere
COMMONPLACE ALPINES from parts of the United States to the British Isles, Belgium and beyond. Some of these alien occurrences have been documented. It arrived in Switzerland, for example, around 1916, and has happily consolidated its presence there in a few cantons, intermittently from 700-1,300m. More frequently it is a lowlander from under 1,000m, as such not an alpine (or even a subalpine) partisan. This doubtless explains why I’ve encountered it only once, to the best of my recollection, abroad rather than at home. This was in southern Greece, on Gióna, where there are records just short of the 2,510m summit, which – a little-known fact – exceeds that of nearby, far more revered Parnassos (2,457m). I didn’t think much of the encounter at the time but now it resonates. Due south, across the Gulf of
Corinth, Killini and a trio of nearby mountains in the Peloponnese foster a dwarfer affiliate, Aurinia moreana, which I doubt anyone reading has grown. The official species count for this onetime Alyssum subgenus, now independently ranked, is 10 (some restrict the number to 6). Aurinia saxatilis is the only one of any horticultural significance, and likely to stay that way for quite some time. I give this prediction in the knowledge that it has been in British gardens for the best part of three centuries, certainly grown by Miller in his Chelsea garden around 1731 (from a Crete sending) and possibly elsewhere from another source dating back to 1710, though this is unclear. One reads that in some summer-torrid parts of the BELOW Aurinia saxatilis 'Compacta' PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER GREY-WILSON
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GARDENS USA it is treated as a spring bedding plant that cannot survive, however well-watered, through to autumn. This surprises, given its many occurrences in Mediterranean countries, and the enduring nature of plants throughout the British Isles, which last at the very least a decade, and typically much longer. Half a dozen selections are presently available to British gardeners, and rather more to those in the States especially, such as the creamy-orange ‘Sunny Border Apricot’. The oldest of all, ‘Dudley Nevill’, references the Burley BELOW Euphorbia myrsinites
(Hampshire) gardener who picked it out in the 1930s, on account of its ‘soft golden-buff flowers, with leaves broadly margined silver’. This received an RHS Award of Garden Merit in 1969, and ‘Goldkugel’ (an improvement on ‘Compactum’ (= Gold Ball’), with ‘dense heads of sweetly-scented, brilliantly golden-yellow flowers over neat, silvery foliage’) has also endured. Another 1969 AGM was given to the fulsomely double ‘Plenum’, which you might well now find difficult to source. If in search of subtlety, ‘Citrinum’, with ‘cool lemonyellow flowers’ and recommended in
COMMONPLACE ALPINES one catalogue for interplanting with Phlox subulata ‘Lilacina’ and now presumably defunct Aubrieta ‘Lancashire Beauty’, is indicated. They all do best in sun-drenched, vertiginous positions, among rocks, and are not invasive. They root easily from early summer cuttings, which will establish easily in their first year and are best planted out in early autumn, when well-rooted. EUPHORBIA MYRSINITES Euphorbia myrsinites comes to prominence at the same stage in spring (late March and April) when Aubrieta is at its best, looks well in similar situations (a low retaining wall or one of those front of house, narrow raised beds marking the boundary between plot and public pavement) but performs, as is the way of the genus, much longer. It will also self-seed moderately in a gravelly border. Our second image was taken at Pershore HQ last April, when large clumps of Gentiana acaulis and clumps of Muscari set it off to a tee. Whether you are able to offer a substantial acreage or only a small balcony, there’s a spurge suited to almost any aspect and niche conceivable, from
Euphorbia palustris in permanently damp areas to E. characias in the gravel garden; from vibrant E. epithymoides ‘Bonfire’ (syn. E. polychroma) in the spring border to astonishingly perpetual-flowering, southern Italian/ Sicilian E. ceratocarpa or, under cover in the alpine house, E. clavarioides from the shales and slopes of the Drakensberg. But you need to know the nature of the beast that you might otherwise unwittingly invite into your Eden. Some are alarmingly invasive. Step forward E. amygdaloides var. robbiae, a NW Turkish spin on the British native Wood Spurge, listed in one old catalogue as ‘invaluable in the right place’, yet: ‘A vigorous ground cover for sun or deep shade which will compete with and vanquish any other plant within reach of its running roots’. If it suckers enthusiastically, beware! Euphorbia myrsinites is also in part (European) Turkish, though with a much greater distribution throughout southern Europe, from the Balearics to Crete, north to Bulgaria and eastwards to the Ukraine, the Caucasus and central Iran. Be reassured that it is clump-forming and well-behaved. If some introductions have proven tender, this will be down to their provenance: with an overall altitudinal range from near sea-level up to 3,600m. What else would you expect? It is widespread in Greece, and on some of its islands. I’ve seen it adorning a traffic island in the northern Pindhos, lending an air of sophistication in stark comparison with the transient displays of polyanthus primulas and pansies that give British equivalents their gaudy spring flourish. The evergreen, glaucous, densely-set leaves are of longer-lasting appeal, densely cladding almost prostrate stems that sprawl from a central root stock. I haven’t noticed dramatic variation from one planting to JUNE 2020 213
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ABOVE Euphorbia myrsinites with Muscari in the AGS Garden, Pershore
another, except to say that Elizabeth Strangman’s Hawkhurst nursery offered in the 1980s/1990s ‘a particularly fine form, with heads of colourful greeny-yellow flower bracts, attractively flushed with orange’. This has happily endured and been accorded the clonal name ‘Washfield’. You might also grow another close relative (also grouped in subsection Myrsinateae), E. denticulata, from Turkey, Iraq and Iran, from oak woodland, steppe and rocky slopes. This more exuberant close relative can produce flower heads with crimsonbrown-tinted bracts, enjoying similarly 214 JUNE 2020
really well-drained, droughty, frugal conditions. HYPERICUM OLYMPICUM The hypericums, as is the fashion with sundry other large genera, are now accorded their own family, Hypericaceae. Before that they came under the Guttiferae mantle, no longer extant. I’ve seen them both north and south of the Equator, from Hypericum laricifolium in the páramo of central Ecuador to the part-British St John’s wort H. pulchrum, well-named but little grown (seed only offered once in a while). But for sheer bravado, reliability
COMMONPLACE ALPINES and rock garden compliance, H. olympicum is unbeatable. If flowering coincides with heavy rain, the flowers bruise and become irrevocably soggy. By way of atonement, a follow-up succession of three or four per cyme soon restores the splendour, which typically reaches a peak in the first half of June. When it finishes, I trim it back by around a third, fancying that this helps to rejuvenate the clumps. At the same time, any weeds that have infiltrated around the base (the alpine strawberry is an habitual offender) are cleared away, the peripheral area top-dressed, and a light liquid feed administered.
Leave a few seedheads – no need to do much more than this, because the plants will self-sow and you can then weed out any of their offspring that turn up where they aren’t wanted. The two most successful ones in my garden both arrived in this manner; one at the edge of a bed filled with ericaceous compost and fine grit (crucially, its trunk is wedged in the sandstone wall); the second in a much drier spot, on the flat, where the endlessly useful Blackthorn hybrid Euphorbia ‘Blaze Haze’ flowers before, during and long after its neighbour. I started off with what were simply labelled H. olympicum and the clone ‘Citrinum’, and the intermix has BELOW Hypericum olympicum
GARDENS proven a pleasing, subtle one. A few nurseries also have a variegated option. Having seen it just once, admittedly out of flower, covetous I was not. Hypericum olympicum has been in British gardens since the early eighteenth century, in all likelihood firstly at Chelsea Physic Garden, even before the reign of its almost five decades in office (1722-1770) curator Philip Miller. The initial introduction was from ‘the Levant’ (the eastern Mediterranean in the geographical terminology of the time and as such not revelatory, given that the overall distribution is from Serbia and Montenegro down the Balkan peninsula, including much of Greece and various of its islands), Bulgaria, NW Turkey (‘olympicum’ refers to Ulu Dağ =
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the Bithynian Olympus), again in the SE Turkey, and Syria. Miller found that plants failed in bad winters, and that seed didn’t always ripen before cooler autumnal days set in, despite the Chelsea location being an obvious mild/hot spot, by the edge of the Thames. Summers thereabouts and almost nationwide are warmer these days and hardiness is less of a bugbear, those we grow demonstrating the survival of the fittest. If, however, you were presented with new collections made on the one hand at sea level in Kefallinia or Ikaria, at the other extreme the taxon f. uniflorum from over 2,000m in NE Greece, very likely their compatibility with the British climate would differ depending on their provenance.
COMMONPLACE ALPINES CAMPANULA CARPATICA In recommending Campanula carpatica, I feel it equally necessary to warn against planting another eastern European, C. poscharskyana, which is sometimes praised in print, naively, presumably by those whose gardens aren’t subjugated by this Balkan bandit. ‘Useful ground cover’ my foot: groundsmother is what you will end up with. Turn your attention instead north and north-east to the Carpathians, where C. carpatica can be found intermittently along much of their mighty arc, from Slovakia through south-eastern Poland and Ukraine, before terminating in Romania. Either a neutral or an alkaline standard ‘alpine’ compost will serve in cultivation, but it is very much a limestone plant in its native lands. In
LEFT
Campanula 'Samantha' can flower from June through to autumn if dead-headed
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some localities it keeps the most distinguished company – in its westernmost sites with Daphne arbuscula, in Romania with D. blagayana, and more widely with D. cneorum, even inhabiting the same rockface in adjacent crevices. There is a tendency to regard the most transistorised and graceful expressions of any species as ‘the wild form’, when often there are myriad forms. Records demonstrate that in flower, C. carpatica can reach anything from 15-50cm high, all of these genuine wildlings, from which clones have been chosen over some 250 years. Selective breeding, after giving rise to such popular plants as ‘Pearl Deep Blue’, ‘Blaue Clips’ and ‘Weisse Clips’, has now gone into overdrive, witness the output of Schoneveld breeding (located in Wilp, The Netherlands). Campanula carpatica is one of the largest-flowered of the dwarfer bellflowers, and this propensity has been harnessed to bring about the Florentes Avida series, launched in 2017: white and blue offerings at first, and now darker blue and white flushed blue additions. Grown in huge quantities under glass, these can be forced into bloom as early as March (i.e. four to five months earlier than usual for the season). I imagine that before long, they will join C. portenschlagiana and be induced as flowering pot plants for the Christmas market. For those who might find this rather too much of a good thing, older, excellent clones such as ‘Bressingham White’ and ‘Hannah’, along with the relatively small ‘Ditton Blue’, are still around but might take some tracking down. A relative newcomer, C. ‘Samantha’, has met with an enthusiastic reception, for if dead-headed it will flower prolifically from June through to autumn. Bred at Collectors Nursery JUNE 2020 217
PHOTO: ANDREY KORZUN
ABOVE Campanula carpatica
in Washington State, it is of hybrid origin, with a generous serving of C. carpatica in the mix. The scent of the flowers, often remarked on, isn’t detectable (well, not by me) unless a kneel-and-savour position is adopted. I’ve seen it doing well in the sunny, gravelly border, where it was enhanced by a vibrant ‘3D’ effect made up of Dianthus deltoides in shades of pink with a few whites, scarlet Delphinium nudicaule (sometimes sold under the name ‘Red Cap’) and Diascia barberae ‘Blackthorn Apricot’. In such positions, high summer to autumn-flowering purplish 218 JUNE 2020
Hylotelephium cauticola (still down as a Sedum in some catalogues) would work well as a foil, along with Origanum ‘Emma Stanley’, with perhaps, the at most, knee-high Verbena bonariensis ‘Lollipop’ or archly-named ‘Little One’ at the back. It also copes with semi-shade – indeed in gardens with a continental climate, is better situated there – with Astilbe ‘Wille Buchanan’, and Beth Chatto’s introduction from the USA to British gardens almost 40 years ago, Symphotrichum ericoides var. prostratum ‘Snow Flurry’ bringing the performance to a close.
HELLEBORUS AND THE HELLEBORASTRUM PROBLEM
The problem with hellebores Paul Krause discusses the book Helleborus and the Helleborastrum Problem by Will McLewin
I
n his book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, Charles Darwin provided a foundation for evolutionary biology that also undermined an establishment view that ‘species’ were separately created and unchangeable. Instead, he argued that natural selection had been the key agent of change with variations accumulating over time to form new ‘species’. What is most remembered is that Darwin explained (except for the details of genetic mechanisms) the continual evolution of species via natural processes as opposed to through the hands of a divine creator. What tends to be forgotten is that variation among populations is a corollary of his theory, and that he was unclear in his own mind as to what defined a ‘species’. In Chapter VIII of the book there is some discussion of the concept of species being supported by the infertility of hybrids. However, he observed that this is certainly not the case with plants and not universally the case with animals. At the end of that chapter he concludes: “Finally, then, the facts briefly given in this chapter do not seem to me opposed to, but even rather to support the view, that there is no fundamental distinction between species and varieties”. Note
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also that the full title of the book refers to “the preservation of favoured races”. Thus, we have the interesting situation that although Darwin’s challenge to the (religious) establishment view of the divine creation of species is widely recorded, there is less recognition given to the implied question about the stability and semantics of the binomial naming system, Genus species, credited to Carl Linnaeus from a century earlier although introduced early in the seventeenth century by Gaspard
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BOOK REVIEW Bauhin. This leaves us with two major challenges for both the classification and identification of plants. Firstly, the boundaries of variation are not always well-defined (sometimes, not even possible to define). Secondly, the concept of species itself is not welldefined. The latter has given rise to a scholarly industry of species’ definitions. Which one works essentially comes down to the perspective of the scholar. Most plants-people would recognise the taxonomic perspective, defined by Cronquist in 1978 as “the smallest groups that are consistently and persistently distinct, and distinguishable by ordinary means”; Mayr, in 1942, took a perspective of reproductive isolation; more recently we are seeing a focus on ‘internal morphology’, primarily from the perspective of genetic ‘similarity’ (whatever that might mean in practice). Will McLewin discusses the difficulties with the species concept in some detail as this is the heart of the ‘Helleborastrum Problem’. Generally, these issues are of little concern to gardeners, even alpine gardeners (another category which challenges any precise definition). For sure, and rightly, hellebores are gaining a higher profile among gardeners, although mostly through plants that are becoming as distant from their wild relatives as shrub roses are from theirs. However, for those with an interest in hellebores, the problem does come face on. Among many alpine gardeners, species are cherished for their natural beauty and lineage is of interest (sometimes passionately so). We rely on well-defined classifications of plants to be sure that we are talking about the same concept when we use a specific name. Those expert in taxonomy will pride themselves on being able to accurately identify a plant down to 220 JUNE 2020
species level. However, with hellebores both classification and identification become difficult. The problem is not with Helleborus as a genus. Will McLewin points out that the unusual and distinctive asymmetric arrangement of flower sepals is in practice sufficient to reliably identify a hellebore: “Sepals 1 and 2 overlap outwardly on both sides. Sepals 4 and 5 overlap inwardly on both sides, and sepal 3 overlaps outwardly on one side edge and inwardly on the other”. Because of its importance, and for ease of repeated reference, he gives it a name: ‘Helleborean’. Thus far we are on safe ground. The genus can then be divided into six sections: four are monospecific; one (Chenopus) contains the closely related argutifolius and lividus; the sixth, Helleborastrum, contains ±16 species. This last is the taxonomic problem, and the section which prompted Brian Mathew in his 1989 monograph to despair that “it is now clear to me that there is no absolutely foolproof system of classification”. Will McLewin agrees that Brian Mathew’s monograph is still the definitive statement on all bar section Helleborastrum and so for completeness, with thanks to the AGS, the text of that monograph is included in his book in its entirety with the exception of one or two small additions and deletions (although in rather challengingly small print for reasons of space). Five of the sections of Helleborus demonstrate the rather overlooked trait of the evolution process that leads to a degree of homogeneity among members of a species. However, the putative members of section Helleborastrum do not separate easily into homogenous clusters. Instead, they demonstrate an expansion of diversity that indicates evolutionary processes where many morphological features
PHOTO: ROBERT HUNDSDORFER
HELLEBORUS AND THE HELLEBORASTRUM PROBLEM
ABOVE Helleborus niger demonstrates a range of variation
are, or have been, somewhat unconstrained by selection pressures. This leads to the heart of the ‘Helleborastrum problem’. It is probably best here to quote McLewin directly: “The classification problem arises because the major characters used (and others) vary greatly in continuous colonies and the variability itself varies between distinct colonies”. This is not to say that there is no variation in the other clusters. Helleborus niger (section Helleborus), for example, demonstrates a range of variation that takes it well outside the selection that decorates Christmas tables, yet all are easily attributable to the concept ‘Helleborus niger’ without ambiguity. In contrast, the plants attributable to section Helleborastrum demonstrate such variability in WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
morphology as to lead some authors to conclude that Helleborastrum is itself the group that is “consistently and persistently distinct” and no finer delimitation can be accepted. Nevertheless, again to quote directly from McLewin, “there are plants that are so clearly undeniably very different from each other… that to give them the same name… is both unhelpful and misleading”. The taxonomic challenge here is an extreme one, but certainly not an isolated one in the classification of plants – especially when one starts to study extended populations rather than herbarium type specimens whose selection may owe more to happenstance than carefully considered representativeness. So, the species problem that McLewin JUNE 2020 221
BOOK REVIEW
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discusses in some detail in Section 2 of his book is indeed of general concern. Equally, the partial solution he proposes in Section 3 should be of interest to any plants-person with a keen interest in plant taxonomy. The proposed resolution of the species problem is covered in Part 3 of the book, and there is clearly insufficient space to discuss it in detail in this review. The essence is to be explicit about the concept of species that is being used to inform a classification and accept that different concepts of species may lead to differences in classification for certain plant groups. 222 JUNE 2020
McLewin proposes that each concept be prefixed by a label to designate the specific concept being used in a classification. For example, a ‘t-species’ is one where external morphological (EM) features are used in a classical taxonomic sense to delimit a range of variability so that a group of plants can be clearly identified as distinct from others but within a well-defined range of variability themselves. In order to achieve this in section Helleborastrum, the EM characters must be more tightly defined than before now in order to ensure there is no overlap. The obvious corollary of this is that there will be some (well, many individual) plants that
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importance of studying plants at the population level (and perhaps also documenting variation over extended timescales). These are both lessons which should make the book of interest to any botanist. The extensive photographs provide both an important scientific documentation of section Helleborastrum, but also a celebration of the natural beauty of these herbaceous perennials. Although only two paintings by Margaret Walty were included, these do act as a reminder of the scientific and aesthetic importance of botanical illustration of the highest quality. Finally, the inclusion (with slight updating) of Brian Mathew’s 1989 monograph provides a very welcome re-issue of what is still the definitive (with the exception of Helleborastrum) text on Helleborus. PHOTO: JIM ALMOND
remain indeterminate (at a finer level than subsection Helleborastrum). Part 4 of the book proposes a revision of section Helleborastrum following the methodology discussed in Section 3. There are no major changes in the names in this section. Rather, it brings a clarification and tighter delimitation of the species concepts. The ‘t-species’ are first grouped based on simple choices of easily observable characteristics (flower size, flower colour in terms of green or otherwise, number of leaflets). This provides 6 groups. The orientalis group, for example, is characterised as: “large flowers with free carpels; few leaflets”. The corresponding t-species are then: orientalis, with flower colour green-white to white to yellow-white; guttatus, same colour range but “markedly spotted inside”; abchasicus, flowers pale greenish-pink to dark pink to purple-pink. This brings clarity, but at the expense of a rejection of “total speciation” with there almost always being plants in a population that are indeterminate (as t-species), and that there may be representatives of more than one t-species in a population. Many field botanists may find this a somewhat liberating experience as a generalisable statement. Overall, the book has a profound beauty. It is the apotheosis of over 30 years of fieldwork and study of plants grown from wild collected seed by McLewin and his collaborators. As well as the important critique of the concept of species, it also emphasises the
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HISTORY
SOCIETY HEROES AND THEIR PLANTS Robert Rolfe continues his celebration of notable Society members from history, and their trademark plants, to mark our 90th anniversary PHOTOS: ROBERT ROLFE UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED
F
or Rear Admiral Paul Furse, a love of plants and travel was in the family blood. His great aunt, the botanical artist Marianne North, created the template, while his mother spent most of her childhood years in the Swiss Alps. The Navy provided ample opportunity for travel,
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yet it was when he retired in 1959 that a new life began. In 1960, RHS editor Patrick Synge invited him on a trip to Iran, gathering plants for the RHS and herbarium material for RBG Kew. Three other trips followed, at two year intervals through to 1966, all in the company of his wife Polly. They journeyed overland in their first Land Rover dubbed 'The Persian Rose', and its successor 'The Afghan Rose', with reference to the country in which they soon realised ‘there were a great many plants, but… they took a lot of finding’. Travelling extensively in Iran and Afghanistan with Polly, they are best known for their monocot introductions but had a much wider remit, and the genus Linaria crops up again and again in the collections. From the 1966 Iran and Afghanistan Expedition, PF 8031 (found on the Salang Pass) had reddishbrown, narrow cones, while PF 8707 from granite slopes at the same location had broad leaves and lavender flowers. On rocky slopes at 2,700m, PF 8817 had narrow leaves and orange flowers, while PF 8487 from the Hajigak Pass grew at up to 3,400m, with narrow leaves and large flowers. Their discoveries are even now being described as new species over 50 years
SOCIETY HEROES later, with two junos, Iris furseorum (2014) and I. paropamisensis (2019) to the fore. They were responsible for numerous other juno introductions, yet it is another Salang Pass discovery from June 1964, I. afghanica, long considered a juno but more recently ascribed to Section Oncocyclus, that is their lasting testament. Strikingly, it has the same
attenuated, loping elegance as an Afghan hound. In cultivation, a plant with half a dozen flowers open in synchrony is cause for celebration but in the wild, it can form substantial clumps, the dwarfest representatives just 15cm tall, others over twice that height. Other localities in Katachan Province have been reported. Ten PHOTO: JON EVANS
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HISTORY Pass in the Elburz Mountains, he encountered Dionysia aretioides. The clone christened in his honour by Jim Archibald caused quite a stir when it appeared at the 1969 AGS Main Spring Show, nurseryman Jim following up in his next list with the advice: ‘If you want the very best, this is it!’ A pin-eyed selection, it was later crossed with other forms and today is seldom seen true to name. Another Persian find, Fritillaria raddeana, takes us further east to Mazandaran and the Golestan hunting reserve, where at 1,200-1,500m PF5162, PF 8953 and others were made. It is also known from over the border, in Turkmenistan. This elegant, pale greenish-yellow crown imperial is now sold in the Dutch cut flower trade, and evidently bulked up by that country’s nurserymen. Last April, at RHS Harlow Carr, I saw from a distance what looked
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years ago, Jim Archibald sold off some of his stock plants at a generous £70 a pop (‘Your chance to acquire some… ex 3 litre pots, or wait another 40 years’, he wrote, while musing to friends: ‘Given the price of a single snowdrop bulb, if anyone complains about the price, sod ‘em!) En route to their destinations, Paul Furse would make various ‘grabs’ – collections often chanced upon – such as an excellent form of Turkish Fritillaria aurea that I’ve grown for some 40 years, which came to me with only the ‘PF’ part of its accession number. Also from that country, on the Kop Dağ, at 2,700m and growing in ‘sliding stone scree’, with Synge he introduced Lamium armenum (Furse & Synge 870), then again, independently, in 1962 (Furse 3820), this time from near Erzincan. That same year, having reached northern Iran, on the Gulduk
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SOCIETY HEROES like a mass of this species on a newly-developed area, growing among boulders, and closer inspection confirmed my guess, though who would have thought it would grow outdoors by the hundred in North Yorkshire? A CURIOUS COLLECTOR Paul Furse wrote occasionally for this journal, as did another contemporary ‘great’ among plant-hunters, Peter Davis. On account of his monumental Flora of Turkey, Davis is overarchingly associated with that country but he also made collecting trips to Morocco (1970), Algeria (1971), Iran (1974), north Africa (1975) and Brazil (1976). His early journeys were written up in issues of the AGS Bulletin from the 1930s an apprenticeship at Ingwersen’s East Grinstead alpine nursery had galvanised Davis’s initial alpine plant enthusiasm. These were illustrated by his travelling companion Edward Gathorne-Hardy, who enjoyed a similarly colourful life and was ostensibly in search of insects and mammals for the British Museum. His earliest excursion was to Crete, in the company of Dr A.Q. Wells and his wife, the trip occasioned by an impulse to find in Europe ‘a mountainous country where grew plants still WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
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unknown in English gardens’. His keen eye and sense of curiosity made him an excellent collector and writer, whose humorous contributions put the turgid prose of certain others of the time to shame. Crete, he complained, was JUNE 2020 227
HISTORY PHOTO: RBG EDINBURGH
‘the mecca of all prickly plants. You cannot sit down safely’, with curious traditions such as the local bagpipe relative (a sheep’s bladder [with]… five painful notes… the sheep in its original state has only one’). Curious beliefs too - in the White Mountains, he entered a village in which ‘bottles of pickled baby mice, preserved in olive oil, hang at cottage doors as a cure for earache’. At altitude, it was sometimes so cold at night that he slept in his day clothes, mackintosh included. Despite contracting
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ABOVE Fritillaria davisii ABOVE LEFT Peter Davis BELOW LEFT Anchusa cespitosa
malaria, he managed to gather Anchusa cespitosa. Three plants survived the journey home (their progeny enduring through to the present) after he left Athens in late August with ‘a five-foot sack of uncleaned seeds, boxes of bulbs and three fat flower-presses’. This haul also included seven species of Fritillaria from Crete and various Greek Islands, members of the genus in his estimation ‘the darlings of the alpine-garden snobs’. He exhibited these at early AGS Shows, along with (for example) Dionysia michauxii from his 1939 Iranian trip, which flowered in April 1944 (it had earlier been collected by Paul Giuseppi, along with D. bryoides and D. curviflora). WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
Plants that take his surname include southern Greek Fritillaria davisii, Turkish Colchicum davisii, Primula davisii, Ricotia davisiana, and Cretan Biarum davisii (PD 114), found in leaf and described by Dr William Bertram Turrill. Davis ‘dug it up out of curiosity, and the tubers bloomed this autumn [1938]. The flowers appear in November before the leaves, and sit flush with the soil’. This was re-introduced in 1980 by Chris Brickell and Brian Mathew, who found it in great abundance, on a steep limestone hillside near the village of Gonies. Other important discoveries included T. densum subsp. amani. It was first identified as Achillea PD 16366, then JUNE 2020 229
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Chrysanthemum haradjanii, after that Tanacetum haradjanii). The yellow button flowers are of little account but the plant has alluring foliage. Joe Elliott – among the first nurserymen to list it – thought ‘Each leaf like a silvery-white, finely cut miniature fern, and might be the exquisite work of a silversmith’. Verbascum dumulosum PD 15477 from Termessos was not re-introduced until 1984, and followed his Cretan V. spinosum sending. Two other narrow endemics, Lamium sandrasicum (from Sandras Dağ) in far south-western Turkey and Rhodothamnus sessilifolius from the far north-east (Davis & Hedge D.29974), underline the breadth of his endeavours, amounting to around 70,000 specimens in total. His views on molecular-based taxonomy were sage and based on long 230 JUNE 2020
experience: such work, he once observed, ‘is very interesting, and very important; but I believe it loses sight of the whole plant, its community and its place in nature’. Hear, hear! He was an inveterate collector of many things other than plants. Among them Wemyss-ware pottery, contemporary art, friends, and sporrans, which he kept in his downstairs lavatory, having first made the ‘acquaintance’ of their erstwhile owners. In 1959, the same year that preparations for the Flora of Turkey got underway, the film Carry on Nurse was released. Regarding sporran-related matters, the alarmed squawk of 'MATRON!' from Kenneth Williams resonates. For many years, RHS Wisley staged exemplary displays of alpine plants at the RHS Westminster Shows, held at
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HISTORY Vincent Square. I’ve just mentioned Kenneth Williams. While certain Kens and Kenneths are beyond reproach, others are of an acquired taste, from the comedian Ken Dodd to the manoeuvring politician Ken Livingstone. Ken Aslet, RHS Wisley rock garden superintendent from 1961-1975, was, however, universally admired. I BELOW Cassiope fastigiata 'Mike's White'
met him, along with the equally laudable Ken Hulme (Director of Ness University of Liverpool Botanic Garden from 1957-1989, one-time AGS Director of Tours and trail-blazing recycler of York paving stone slabs, sourced from redeveloped Liverpudlian streets and train stations), at one such fortnightly event, just over 50 years ago.
SOCIETY HEROES A SOCIETY PIONEER They in turn introduced me to the, by turns extraordinary, occasionally exasperating but unarguably indispensable, AGS Secretary Michael Upward, who dedicated most of his adult life to the Society’s service. I’d little idea who he was at the time, though as a follow-up he sent me a copy of a recent AGS Bulletin – the December 1969 issue – annotated with judiciouslyrecommended nurserymen such as Joe Elliott (Broadwell) and Jim Archibald of The Plantsmen fame. Both figure later in this list, in their own right. Michael, like Peter Davis, was a collector, though of Goss china, old gardening books and anecdotes – he was endlessly entertaining – but seldom of plants from the wild, an activity of which he, by and large, heartily disapproved. An exception to this rule was the Society’s first seed-collecting trip, to Sikkim in 1983, with matriarch Kath Dryden the President and presiding overseer of the enterprise. The two parties sent there had to contend with the chaos of Delhi airport, reckless drivers who conveyed them to and from Darjeeling at alarming speed, the most intense monsoon for many a year, leeches, the disease Oriental Sprue and other ailments. Fellow-traveller (and unwilling host of the last-named) Brian Mathew afterwards wrote: ‘Every evening was taken up beneath a moth and mosquito-infested Tilley lamp, preparing the day’s catch, the plant presses then placed over a crude construction housing a paraffin stove in order to dry them out before decay set in’. A holiday it was not. Not all AGS Committee members were impressed by the fruits of the endeavour. In particular, when a decidedly proud Kath afterwards in Committee enquired: ‘Where shall I send my boys next?’, later to be President Frank Tindall snarled in his WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
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best Huddersfield holler: ‘Whorrabout MAARGATE?’ (for the benefit of non-British readers, Margate is a seaside resort in Kent). That said, some first-rate introductions were made, including an exemplar of widespread Cassiope fastigiata dubbed by coexpeditioners ‘Mike’s White’ on account of its uniquely virginal, non-pinkinfused bells, from near Dzongri. Regrettably, it has not endured. For the record, the Society fostered a further three (or to be precise, three and a half, similar expeditions). The first two, Japan in 1988 and Yunnan/ Sichuan in 1994, were under Michael’s aegis. Afterwards, Bill Simpson having taken office from mid-1996, further teams were sent out to northern Greece in 1999, and to Qinghai/Gansu/Sichuan the following year– this the half count, for the Chinese authorities JUNE 2020 233
HISTORY
ABOVE Verbascum x 'Letitia' RIGHT Cypripedium calceolus
inscrutably withdrew hitherto ‘guaranteed’ permission for the planned second September/October follow-up to collect ‘reasonable quantities of seed’ and the project was abandoned, with around 16 accessions from the initial foray. Michael travelled very widely, not just in Europe but from Nepal to western China, from South Africa to the Falklands, but he was never happier than when in Switzerland, where he led tours to the Valais and the Bernese Oberland many times. Above Wengen, he would conduct participants to Biglenalp in order to admire the sizeable population of Cypripedium calceolus, whose slippers look down on the Lauterbrunnen in late June. He was still at the Society’s helm when an imaginative scheme was rolled out for members to grow on seedlings of Yorkshire descent, a Sainsbury Foundation initiative. Orchidologist 234 JUNE 2020
Phillip Cribb was involved in this, and from time to time dined with Lord Robert and Lady Sainsbury at Turville in Buckinghamshire, his appetite not helped by Francis Bacon’s gargoyle paintings of popes staring menacingly down from the dining room walls. Phillip was one of Michael’s many friends present on the Monday of the 2012 Chelsea Flower Show, when a surprise party was held to celebrate his 80th birthday. Hosted by the Skelmersdales on their Broadleigh Bulbs stand, it was attended by a firmament of horticultural stars, with an entertaining address delivered by former AGS editor Christopher GreyWilson. He had to raise his voice above the hubbub, for close by Sir Cliff Richard was being interviewed by Alan Titchmarsh, with a large voluble press pack present. Some of us suspected the latter were simply jockeying opportunistically in order to filch a
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PHOTO: JON EVANS
glass of Albariño from the bottles intended for Michael’s guests. A constant guard was mounted to ward off these chancers… and also a certain well-known songstress, sent away with a flea in her ear! Michael had a long association with Chelsea Flower Show. It was here that he was interviewed for the post of the Society’s secretary in 1961, and eight years later helped lead the team who constructed the first AGS show garden. This instigated a long tradition. Michael’s coup de théâtre came in 2000 with the Magic of the Mountains extravaganza on the Rock Bank, crested with celmisias, beneath which was a sizable torrent of Saxifraga ‘Tumbling Waters’ and a veritable lawn of Rhodohypoxis baurii. When interviewed on television and asked where the last were native, he matter-of236 JUNE 2020
factly replied ‘The Drakensberg’, following up (when asked which country) with a throwaway ‘Try South Africa!’ Returning to the influence of Ken Aslet, it was he who introduced Anagallis tenella ‘Studland’ from the Dorset naturist haunt. Michael wangled his only Farrer Medal with this, in 1978 at the Woking Show. At close quarters a heady scent is emitted by the pretty-inpink cacophony of miniature cups. Ken was also responsible for Verbascum x ‘Letitia’ (V. dumulosum x spinosum), featured in Michael’s 1983 book An Illustrated Guide to Alpines, where he informatively noted that it could be increased from root cuttings and was best suited to ‘sandy, well-drained soil in full sun and is an excellent plant for the alpine house’. A sense of the ridiculous was Michael’s
SOCIETY HEROES leitmotif. Two examples will suffice. When the bequest from Anthony Pettit was made to the Society in 1988 – which enabled it to build the AGS Centre – a meeting of the great and good was held in order to determine how best to use the money. Some of the suggestions were bizarre. One party, having declared that, while new to alpines, he knew a great deal about breeding budgerigars, suggested an out-of-theway location for the proposed new centre on the strength of the caged bird shows that he had attended there. Michael, eyebrows raised just a fraction, thanked him for his contribution and steered matters in a surer direction. A little over 20 years later, I travelled to Kath Dryden’s funeral with former Society Director of Shows Mary Randall at the wheel, with Michael navigating
from the back seat. We traversed much of Essex in consequence, only narrowly beating Kath to the crematorium. ‘They must have built new roads,’ he shrugged. In 1991, soon after the construction of the AGS Centre at Pershore, Michael established a border next to the car park in which to house plants left over from Chelsea exhibits. He also constructed a border near the side of the building, using Cotswold stone donated by Joe Elliott. A RAISER OF CHOICE ALPINES Joe and his father Clarence have already been mentioned. They constitute one of several important twentieth-century alpine nurseryman dynasties, alongside names such as the Ingwersens, the Strangmans, Hillier
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ABOVE The courtyard at Joe Elliott's Broadwell Nursery RIGHT Erinus alpinus var. albus
& Sons of Winchester and Robinsons Hardy Plants. Joe Elliott’s Broadwell Nursery, near Moreton-in-Marsh, was founded in 1958, and by the time that he retired in September 1985, its owner reckoned that around 20 million plants had been sold. The final catalogue was very much along the lines of its predecessors, with listings of Campanula morettiana in both typical blue and albino alternatives (who else has offered them reliably over several decades) and Arenaria purpurascens ‘Elliott’s Variety’ (collected pre-war in the Cantabrian Mountains… flowers of much deeper colour than the type’). Also Dianthus alpinus ‘Joan’s Blood’ (named for his wife, with ‘brilliant blood-red, blackcentred and blue-pollened’ flowers, Paraquilegia grandiflora (‘surely one of the most supremely lovely of all alpines’) and some distinguished clones of 238 JUNE 2020
Primula allionii. The nursery was one of the few to list them in the 1970s including ‘Crowsley’, a ‘blind’ collection by Roger Bevan made the year before the AGS came into being. The core listings were European, but with surprising additions (for a nursery in an area of limestone) such as Gentiana farreri (‘it grows in the ordinary garden loam perfectly happily if some peat is added at planting time’) and Saxifraga lilacina (‘often quoted as a lime-hater but it seems very content with my limey soil and water’). Time spent in New Zealand awoke an interest in that country’s alpine flora, and some older members of the Society will fondly remember his Epilobium ‘Broadwell Hybrid’, a spontaneous hybrid involving E. glabellum and E. chlorifolium (= “kai-koense”) with ‘a summer-long succession of creamy, funnel-shaped flowers, flushed with pink’. I doubt it is
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still around, whereas what Joe championed as ‘one of the best and most adaptable of alpines’, Erinus alpinus var. albus, continues to prosper. It was one of the constituents of a cliff-mix-confetti of decorative, easy-going alpines that he mischievously sowed along a nearby Cotswold road cutting, at its best in June and pleasing many motorists with its colourful display, though not some conservationists, whose reaction echoed the brouhaha in 1932 when A.K. Bulley’s head gardener open-broadcast seed of Asiatic primulas and Meconopsis on Snowdon. Delighted by the kerfuffle, the perpetrator reasoned: ‘That’s why I did it’. This impish sense of fun and enterprise has, I hope, come across in the antics of those I have so far depicted. It most certainly characterises the eight still to come. JUNE 2020 239
PLANTS
HIGHLIGHTS FROM SOUTH WALES SHOW Robert Rolfe picks out star plants and exhibits from two more AGS Shows, starting with impressive six-pan displays Only five shows could be held this spring, and it was touch and go regarding the first and the last: Caerleon because of extensive flooding; Kendal because of the mounting pandemic alarm. Our coverage has 240 JUNE 2020
had to alter in the light of this. We will deal the South Wales and the Pershore Shows here, the next three in the September issue, and then look back to some highlights from years past in December.
SHOW REPORTS There were several highlights of a very different deployment works the South Wales show at Caerleon. better, in this case predicated on a An extensive photographic display beautiful clump of Crocus cvijicii front of AGS Show plants from 2018-2019 of house, with Rhinopetalum fritillarias that received a Large Gold Medal, providing balance on the left and right outstanding hepaticas, the range and back row. Other arrangements would high standard of the dionysias, and four doubtless have worked, but perhaps very accomplished six-pan entries. not quite as effectively: stewards please You can be very sure that having half note, when moving entries at the last a dozen plants of suitable size and minute before judging begins! standard doesn’t have much to do with It is paramount that the plants luck. Some will need to be held back, should be cultivated to a good, ideally others perhaps brought indoors and exceptional standard, although it is left in a slightly warm, importantly dark easy for judges to get carried away on room overnight once or twice to hasten this front, and become hyper-critical. their blooming. Bulbs must be potted in At the show under discussion, all the containers of suitable size the previous entries were of a high standard. Each autumn, or double-potted so that they included the sort of eye-catching, more or less match the 19cm uniformity slightly esoteric elements that betoken of the entry’s other components. an exhibitor’s particular skills and It used to be the case that no more strengths, from Ian Robertson’s than two of any one genus were hallmark Cyclamen and Crocus; Eric allowed, a stricture that was dropped Jarrett’s accomplished Dionysia to encourage more exhibitors to termeana and that first-rate Gagea, participate. At that time, judges G. fibrosa; the Ransons’ full of flower preferred a grouping to be as Dionysia tapetodes ‘Brimstone’; and multifarious as possible (not just the Wallis’s elegant, dwarf, unnamed different genera but from different seedling of Galanthus plicatus ‘Trym’ families as a counsel of perfection) but (or rather a group of these, presumably exhibitors will naturally want to enter ‘chipped’). their best plants rather than make up The last two sets of exhibitors turned the number with others. Besides, some up with appreciably different six-pans of us actually enjoy the chance to see at Pershore a week later (and reversed different members of a genus grouped the first and second prize places). It’s an together, as with Paul & Gill Ranson’s enjoyable discipline, and when all goes three of a kind dionysias and clones of well, a very satisfying one. Be under no Primula allionii (pictured left). illusions – it’s not a pursuit for the idle! Artistry also plays an important part, for as with an end of term school photograph, a FARRER MEDAL WINNERS 2020 degree of marshalling is SOUTH WALES SHOW required. The standard arrangement is two Corydalis nariniana (Bob & Rannveig lines of three, in parallel, Wallis) but as demonstrated by the aforementioned PERSHORE EARLY SHOW and Bob & Rannveig Ypsilandra thibetica (Diane Clement) Wallis’s winning six, WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
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PLANTS Crocus etruscus (Peter Furneaux)
Crocus etruscus (Peter Furneaux) A very few slug-chewed perianth segments, if you look really closely (it always pays to scrutinise your entries once more, before judging) but what a belter of a clump. It’s no great shakes to tame, either in its longestablished clones such as ‘Rosalind’ or ‘Zwanenberg’, or other NW Italian imports, but is by and large very reliable, despite its low altitudinal range (300-600m, perhaps over twice this, exceptionally). Described as long ago as 1860, it has a lineage that long pre-dates the present surge of new taxa, some convincing, others not. Iris winogradowii (Robert Rolfe) Not just unmistakeable but surely also the Caucasian queen of her subsect, whose realm spreads from Turkey to Central Asia, and to the south from Israel to Iran. Turkish I. danfordiae is also yellow, but much brighter, never 242 JUNE 2020
(to date) anything like as elegantly pale, and scarcely even half as largeflowered. Some affiliates require the driest of summers, whereas this resents such conditions. In a well-drained, fertile soil, it can be watered with impunity all summer long. Lift every second or third year, in August, and don’t set the bulbs too closely (aim for 5-6cm apart), or the flowers will be too crowded and poorly displayed.
Cyclamen alpinum (Peter Furneaux) Most exhibitors, having taken along one of the best plants in the show, only to end up with a second prize, might have felt decidedly cheesed off. The winning entry was rarer, probably older, and difficult to master – but these technicalities aside, was its overall performance truly superior? Under glass protection, the flowers last around a month, their sweet scent better savoured there, and their waning signalled by a slight fading and a failure
SHOW REPORTS Iris winogradowii (Robert Rolfe)
to shed pollen when the pot side is gently tapped. Expect to wait a decade or so for such a bonanza.
Hepatica japonica ex Tessin (Bob Worsley) Cyclamen alpinum (Peter Furneaux)
Never before have so many permutations been available to gardeners – a far cry from the mid-1980s, when even unselected representatives were novelties. Cultivars can be difficult to verify: we
PLANTS Hepatica japonica ex Tessin (Bob Worsley)
have not found it possible to trace the precise origin of an entry in the 2012/13 SRGC Seed List, given as ‘Tessin’ but
Dionysia ’Judith Bramley’ (Paul and Gill Ranson)
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with no obvious Swiss (Ticino) linkage. No matter; this is dark beetroot-red, like no other. Not easy to split, though
Iris avromanica (Bob and Rannveig Wallis)
achievable in the case of a desirable cultivar, they are reliable from seed, sown fresh. Anticipate a three year wait for the seedlings to reach flowering size.
Iris avromanica (Bob and Rannveig Wallis) Studies regarding subgenus Hermodactyloides (Iris reticulata and its clan) have recently burgeoned. Until a few years ago there were 12 members. Now, with subspecies upgrades and discoveries, it’s at around 20, with more to follow. In this instance a redetermination from one week to the next: what was labelled I. zagrica at this show was rebranded I. avromanica at Pershore, which is from further north in Iranian Kurdistan (also probably just over the border in Iraq), at over 2,000m between Marivan and Nowsud. Discovered in 2008 and described last year, it differs from its close relative in intimate details: very slightly broader, deep green leaves; light to whitish-blue standards and non-triangular style lobes. Dionysia ‘Judith Bramley’ (Paul and Gill Ranson) On a dank, drenching day – conditions the genus loathes – dionysias were to the fore and spectacular (the Ransons
devised a sheltering canopy to convey their numerous exhibits from car park to show hall and back). The first 90th Anniversary Award went to this chance hybrid between D. afghanica and (probably) D. tapetodes, named by Michael Kammerlander in 1998. Mike & Ju (Judith) regularly visited family near Stuttgart, taking the opportunity to drive north and visit him at Würzburg. Difficult to recall a finer specimen; it also automatically bagged the Mary Byng Award for best plant in a 19cm pot.
Galanthus ’Acton Pigott no.3’ (Roy Skidmore)
PLANTS
Corydalis sewerzowii (Bob and Rannveig Wallis)
Galanthus ‘Acton Pigott no.3’ (Roy Skidmore) The main phalanx of snowdrops performed two to four weeks earlier: Fritillaria sewerzowii yellow form (Bob and Rannveig Wallis)
numbers were as such reduced at this show. A few noteworthy exceptions, to the fore this deserving-of-a-bettername handsome selection, from around 1993, one of several seedlings from G. plicatus ‘John Long’ to please Margaret Owen, a no-nonsense Shropshire gardener. The Patch, her domain, held a connoisseur’s collection of snowdrops, the one most associated with her, named for her husband, G. elwesii ‘Godfrey Owen’, was found at Wrentnall, 10 miles further west.
Corydalis sewerzowii (Bob and Rannveig Wallis) These veteran show secretaries have long excelled in the cultivation of Section Leonticoides species. They have encountered them extensively in the wild, in Turkey and Central Asia, and won a slew of Farrer Medals with various species, including Corydalis nariniana on this occasion. Of the generous selection they exhibited, above is one of the relatively few yellow-flowered species, more compact than most and represented in cultivation from NW Tajikistan. It also occurs in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, at no more than 1,700m, but is reliably hardy under glass.
SHOW REPORTS
PERSHORE EARLY SHOW Photos: Jon Evans
Dionysia ’Mike Bramley’ (Paul and Gill Ranson)
Fritillaria sewerzowii yellow form
(Bob and Rannveig Wallis) Sufficiently unlike any other Fritillaria to be initially placed in the monotypic genus Korolkowia, this species is capable of producing large bulbs and spikes up to 60cm tall with as many as 20 flowers. (If you can achieve half that count you will be doing well.) These are typically a rather dull green, better when purplish-brown - witness the clone ‘Black Bear’, and best of all as seen here, a good, rich yellow. Such material dates back 20 years, the introduction made from the Mogoltau in NW Tajikistan. WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
Dionysia ‘Mike Bramley’ (Paul and Gill Ranson) A useful opportunity to compare and contrast two sister seedlings (see D. ‘Judith Bramley’ on p244, MK 98/01/4 in that selection, MK 98/01/18 in this). Influenced by their D. afghanica parentage, these typically flower very early and are as a rule fading by the start of the show season. The sharp-eyed will be able to distinguish between the violet coloration of the foregoing and the ‘pale blue-lilac’ of this option. For snowdrop fanciers, attuned to what some deem inconsequentialities, making the distinction should be child’s play. JUNE 2020 247
Lapeirousia oreogena (George Elder)
Primula allionii BB05/12/3 (Brian Burrow)
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AGS REPORTS Lapeirousia oreogena (George Elder) The only widely available Lapeirousia, summer-flowering, salmon pink L. laxa, doesn’t qualify: it’s now filed under Freesia. This leaves 41 predominantly South African affiliates, several dwarf and attractive, for example soft blue L. montana. None more striking than L. oreogena, from the Bokkeveld Plateau east of Nieuwoudtville, sometimes forming dense patches in open areas between dolerite outcrops. Seedlings mature in three to four years, blooming in British greenhouses from December onwards, each salvo of brilliantlycoloured flowers lasting three to five days. It requires a free-draining, gritty soil and a dry summer, watering resuming when new growth emerges. Primula allionii BB05/12/3 (Brian Burrow) Enthusiasts traditionally celebrated March 1st as the day this species’ flowering reached peak Primula ’Joan performance Hughes’ (Mark in their alpine Childerhouse) houses. The Loughborough Show routinely had up to a dozen entries in the small three-pan Primula allionii (including hybrids) class, twice as many in the single pan category, and one year a large display of this species alone. Milder winters have led to January or earliest WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
February displays. According, just as ‘Praecox’ was chosen for its precocious timing, those at the other end of the span need identifying, such as this unnamed ‘thrum’, raised by the exhibitor 15 years ago.
Primula ‘Joan Hughes’ (Mark Childerhouse) Several good primulas with the parentage P. allionii x ‘Linda Pope’ were raised in the mid-twentieth century, but virus infection has put paid to once-reliable clones such as ‘Beatrice Wooster’. Happily, some stocks of Jack Drake’s ‘Joan Hughes’ are as good as ever. When really well grown, as in the Certificate of Merit specimen portrayed here, the flowers are richly coloured (annual replenishment of the potting compost helps) and so abundant that they must be snipped off as they fade, both to prevent the plant from expending further energy and to prevent botrytis from taking hold.
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Crocus sieberi x veluchensis (Ian Robertson)
Crocus sieberi x veluchensis (Ian Robertson) This Crocus must involve what was once ssp. sublimis, now accorded specific rank, with two other elements, ssp. atticus and ssp. nivalis, similarly treated. Claim to the name sieberi is restricted to pervasively white, Cretan representatives. C. veluchensis often remains chaste, even in the company of other species. However, a few Greek mountains act as crucibles, notably Parnassos, where large populations of hybrids with C. sublimis occur. These are surely fly pollinated – the air was
Pleione Riah Shan gx (Steve Clements)
alive with them on a hot day in June when your compiler witnessed the spectacle.
Crocus vernus hybrid (Bob and Rannveig Wallis) Novel hybrids are cropping up in increasing numbers. Too early to provide a sensible survey but among unlikely progenitors, C. cyprius has proven surprisingly fecund. Any owner of a substantial Crocus collection knows that the opportunity for annexations that could never occur naturally is facilitated, by design or by default. An analogous comparison is German Dirk Schnabel’s C. ‘Rainbow Gold’ (C. cvijicii x veluchensis). In this brazenly yellowishbronze arriviste, circumstantial evidence also implicates C. cvijicii, in flower shape, underlying colour and the fertile presence of the species in the owners’ collection.
Crocus vernus hybrid (Bob and Rannveig Wallis)
Pleione Riah Shan gx (Steve Clements) Hitherto Pleione humilis has done sole duty for the genus at the earliest shows: April and earliest May are when most come into their own. But now a newcomer, a 15-year-old Jan Berg cross between autumn-flowering P. maculata and vernal P. bulbocodioides, made its appearance. Envisage an elfin a third the size of the luxuriant Shantung 1970s output, when the hybridisation of the genus was in its infancy. Parentages are far more complex now: in 2016, a backcross to Ian Butterfield’s P. Orzaba gx was registered. A coarse bark compost is used, the pseudobulbs occasionally sprayed but cautiously watered and Crocus tommasinianus ‘Silver Lining’ (Sue Bedwell)
WWW.ALPINEGARDENSOCIETY.NET
never subjected to sustained sub-zero temperatures.
Crocus tommasinianus ‘Silver Lining’ (Sue Bedwea`ll) This most accommodating and naturalised of garden crocuses has distinctive clones such as ‘Bobbo’ and ‘Pictus’, dating back a century to E.A. Bowles’s discerning selections. Dark reddish-purple ‘Claret’ is another stalwart, traceable to one-time AGS President Oliver Wyatt and of at least 60 years standing. In the Intermediate Section, a firsttime exhibitor showed a neverbefore seen in public, much more recent addition to the ranks, the fine mauve lines on both the inside and outside of the silvery-cream petals both unusual and eyecatching. JUNE 2020 251
The last word... Alex O’Sullivan has been using extra time at home to take cuttings and increase his alpine collection
A
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rosette-forming alpine plant, without the use of rooting hormones. The first is a 5-12mm pumice which is used at Gothenburg Botanic Garden. It is quite chunky and full of air pockets, which seems to help plants root quickly. The other is a 2-8mm white Icelandic pumice which again retains moisture and encourages quick rooting. I cannot decide which is better but I would expect at least 80% success for each. Through this tricky time, I have found solace in my alpines, with the added plus of managing to bolster my alpine collection from seed and cuttings. I have spent so much time in my greenhouse, frames and shed that my family keep thinking that I have done a runner!
PHOTO: ALEX O’SULLIVAN
fter the nationwide call to keep to our households, I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to brush up on my propagation skills and experiment. I have been a member of the Society since I was 12 but last year was the first in which I felt confident enough to collect seeds from my own plants to donate to the AGS Seed Exchange. I received my own order from the Exchange and sowed immediately, in early January. I had also sown other seeds bought elsewhere and passed onto me in mid-November. By the time isolation came around, the 100 or so pots of sown seed were beginning to come alive, so there was plenty of work to get stuck into. I was glad to have stocked up on my essential ingredients for potting: John Innes no.3, pumice, perlite, vermiculite, chick and hen grit. With a strange winter down south and a wet start to the New Year, I have been pleasantly surprised with my germination success. I began the process of potting up seedlings, quickly running out of 6cm pots. Those potted look strong and I think, that like many plant enthusiasts of my generation, I will soon struggle to find space for all my plants! I’ve also been taking cuttings. I am always over-cautious with rare and beautiful plants such as Nototriche macleanii and Raoulia mammilaris, but this year I have found the courage to take cuttings from them. Using delicate scissors and sharp tweezers, I took 10 cuttings of each. The cutting media I use has been very successful with any
ISSN 1475-0449
SEMPERVIVUM CALCAREUM ‘MRS GIUSEPPI’
Sempervivums are popular, drought-tolerant plants to grow in pots and on p73 Chris Lilley offers advice on how to grow them to perfection for exhibition, with guidance on re-potting and feeding. This plant was exhibited by Ron and Hilary Price.