337 THE ALPINE GARDENER
Alpine Gardener the
JOURNAL OF THE ALPINE GARDEN SOCIETY
VOL. 82 No. 3 SEPTEMBER 2014 pp. 238-357
the international society for the cultivation, conservation and exploration of alpine and rock garden plants
Volume 82 No. 3
September 2014
Alpine Gardener THE
CONTENTS 248
Focus on Scotland
239 EDITOR’S LETTER 248 JOHN GOOD’S DIARY
John Good on the influence of Alfred Evans.
266 THE BOTANICS
Robert Rolfe visits the world-class Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
298 PRIMULA REIDII Ian D. Scott solves an identification riddle.
302 KEVOCK
266
GARDEN PLANTS
John Fitzpatrick meets the Chelsea gold medallists.
310 HEATHER RAEBURN
A profile of one of Scotland’s leading botanical artists.
314 WEMYSS CASTLE Robert Rolfe witnesses Erythronium revolutum in profusion in a Fife garden.
340
September 2014 Volume 82 No 3
241 ALPINE DIARY
AGS schools success; letters; obituaries.
PRACTICAL GARDENING
256
256 LEWISIAS
Martin Rogerson offers advice on growing the colourful hybrids of Lewisia cotyledon.
264 HOW TO GROW IT Fritillaria alburyana by Geoff Rollinson.
326 PRIZE PLANTS
This year’s Northumberland, South West, North Midland, Ulster, Midland and Cleveland shows.
340 SOUTH TYROL
Katie Price visits this plant-rich province in northern Italy. COVER PHOTOGRAPHS
Front: Gentiana ‘Braemar’ at RBGE (Robert Rolfe). Back: Gaultheria mucronata ‘Mulberry Wine’ (Jon Evans).
302
ON THESE PAGES
Left: Paeonia ostii; candelabra primulas and Roscoea cautleyoides at RBGE; Achillea clavennae. Right: Lewisia cotyledon hybrids; Ornithogalum sigmoideum; Trillium chloropetalum.
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Published by the
Alpine Garden Society
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 ferns and small shrubs AGS Centre, Avon Bank, Pershore, Worcestershire WR10 3JP, UK Tel: +44(0)1386 554790 Fax: +44(0)1386 554801 Email: ags@alpinegardensociety.net Director of the Alpine Garden Society: Christine McGregor Registered charity No. 207478 Annual subscriptions: Single (UK and Ireland) £32* Family (two people at same address) £36* Junior (under 18/student) £14 Overseas single US$56 £34 Overseas family US$62 £37 * £2 deduction for direct debit subscribers For details of life membership and joint life membership apply to the Alpine Garden Society at the address above. Printed by Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE. Price to non-members £8.00 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.
© The Alpine Garden Society ISSN 1475-0449
Editor: John Fitzpatrick Tel: +44(0)1981 580134 Email: editor@agsgroups.org Associate Editor: Robert Rolfe Tel: +44(0)1159 231928 Email: robert.rolfe@agsgroups.org Practical Gardening Correspondent: Vic Aspland CChem. MRSC Tel: +44(0)1384 396331 Email: vic.aspland@agsgroups.org Custodian AGS Digital Library: Jon Evans Tel: +44(0)1252 724416 Email: jon.evans@agsgroups.org Custodian AGS Slide Library: Peter Sheasby Tel/fax: +44(0)1295 720502 To advertise in The Alpine Gardener please call or email the AGS Centre (details above) 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 four times a year in March, June, September and December.
www.alpinegardensociety.net
ROBERT ROLFE
Erythronium dens-canis at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Around the time that you receive this issue of The Alpine Gardener, the people of Scotland will be voting in a referendum to decide whether they wish their country to remain part of the United Kingdom. I am a Scot but I have no say in this decision because I now live in England. I have my own views about how Scotland should vote but this is not the place to air them. Whatever Scotland decides, one thing is certain to remain constant – the Scottish influence on the horticultural heritage of these islands. In this issue, we offer a timely celebration of Scotland’s horticultural present and SEPTEMBER 2014
A celebration of Scottish horticulture Editor ’s letter acknowledge the enthusiasm and skill of its plantsmen and women, who contribute so much to our understanding of plants. Of course, in the space available here, we can only scratch the surface. The Scottish contribution to alpine botany and horticulture in particular is immense. 239
EDITOR’S LETTER It began in the 18th century with the early plant-hunters such as Archibald Menzies and Francis Masson. It continued through the efforts of such distinguished individuals as Robert Fortune and David Douglas (who died in the field, aged 35). In the early 20th century, legendary figures such as George Sherriff (he almost lost his life in Tibet) and George Forrest made their lasting marks. Their work has been carried on to the present by the likes of Ron McBeath, Peter and Kenneth Cox, Margaret and Henry Taylor, and RBGE staff such as John Mitchell. There is also the remarkable contribution of the late Jim Archibald. Scottish gardeners past and present have grown the plants introduced by these luminaries to peerless standards, and names such as Bobby Masterton, Alex Duguid, Jack Drake and Harold Esslemont still resonate powerfully. The work done by these people and by our sister organisation, the Scottish Rock Garden Club, helps to promote an interest in alpines and associated plants throughout the world. Also, many Scots have played and do play prominent roles in the AGS. This year the Society published Mountain Flower Walks: The Pyrenees and the Picos de Europa written by Margaret and Henry Taylor, whose garden at Invergowrie is a delight. This summer I made a long overdue return visit to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, in particular to see the new alpine house. Its design has prompted, shall we say, much ‘discussion’, but its realisation is a triumph for the gardens, John Mitchell and his staff. To foster an interest in alpine plants 240
among the gardening public it is essential that we find new ways to present them and make them more engaging. The new alpine house, with its integrated tufa wall, does just that. Six hundred planting holes have been drilled in the wall and surrounding rock to provide homes for an eclectic range of alpines and it will be fascinating to study their development over the coming years. I make no apology for devoting a large part of this issue to Robert Rolfe’s feature on these world-class gardens, proof indeed that Scotland’s horticultural light burns very brightly.
O
ne of the many pleasures of gardening is growing flowers to cut for the house or to give to friends. We are spoiled for choice when it comes to selecting the plants we should cultivate for this purpose – annuals, perennials, flowering shrubs and bulbs all come into the equation. Some of the best bulbs for summer cutting are the alliums and, with new cultivars being introduced every year, the choice is extensive. My favourite is Allium ampeloprasum, whose magnificent umbels of pinkishwhite or pure white flowers last for weeks when cut. The densely packed heads can contain many hundreds, even thousands of blooms. There is also the advantage that you can eat this particular Allium before it flowers. It is, of course, the leek. So, should the plants in your vegetable garden bolt, as mine did during this summer of fluctuating temperatures (the usual cause), celebrate the fact and enjoy the flowers! John Fitzpatrick THE ALPINE GARDENER
JOHN FITZPATRICK
ALPINE DIARY
Ross Barbour and Helen Picton in the rock garden at the Old Court Nurseries
A
round 300 schoolchildren took part in this year’s AGS Malvern Show thanks to a project set up by Show Secretary Ross Barbour. At his first attempt at running an AGS show, Ross involved 12 schools from the local area whose pupils exhibited planted troughs and an extensive display of artwork and research about alpine plants. Ross, who is also vice-chairman of the Cotswold and Malvern Local Group, originally came up with the idea of visiting schools to demonstrate how to make and plant troughs. He emailed his proposal to dozens of schools in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Warwickshire, from
SEPTEMBER 2014
Inspiring 300 children to take part in an AGS show pre-school to secondary. Twelve schools took up his offer. He says: ‘I visited each school and gave a presentation about alpines, their origins, how to grow them and how to make a hypertufa trough. Things were kept at a very 241
ALPINE DIARY JON EVANS
One of the hypertufa troughs constructed and planted by children at Malvern
basic level. All the classes were left with the materials to construct their own troughs, including fish boxes donated by a local fishmonger, and all rose to the challenge. ‘The children, aged from three to 14, proved to be really keen on what they were doing. I thought it would be great to have them put on a display at Malvern, and all 12 schools jumped at the chance. The teachers were very encouraging. ‘I only asked them to construct and plant a trough. I was amazed when they turned up at the show with posters, artwork, booklets and essays that they had put together after doing their own research into alpines.’ Ross was helped in the project by his fiancée, AGS Trustee Helen Picton, and they married in July after the Malvern 242
Show. Helen, whose family runs the Old Court Nurseries in Colwall, Herefordshire, said: ‘The project was Ross’s idea. He had experience of working with schools at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire, where he used to be head gardener. ‘It has been wonderful to see children becoming enthusiastic about alpines. When approaching a school, it helps to get your message through to the secretary or to an enthusiastic teacher. If the school already has a gardening club or an ecology group, it makes things easier.’ Ross is now helping Helen to run the Old Court Nurseries, well known for their cultivation of asters, as well as starting his own gardening consultancy. While the children themselves may not THE ALPINE GARDENER
ALPINE DIARY JON EVANS
The extensive display of troughs, artwork and booklets staged by 12 schools at the AGS Malvern Show this summer
immediately become AGS members, the experience will stick with them and some may join later. Also, their teachers, parents and families have been made very aware of the Society. AGS Director Christine McGregor said: ‘This project has been a great way to stimulate interest in alpines among young people, which is a perennial call within the AGS. Members are always saying we must get young people involved. SEPTEMBER 2014
It was heartening to see the children visiting their exhibits during the show and having their photographs taken with their proud mums, dads and grandparents. ‘Ross and Helen have done a fantastic job. It would be wonderful if other shows could follow their example, which brings the added benefits of increased attendance at shows and potential new members for the Society.’ 243
ALPINE DIARY From Diane Clement, AGS Seed Exchange Director
I
n his article about Corydalis in the June issue of The Alpine Gardener, Brian Whitton referred to the ephemeral nature of some Corydalis seed and the need for it to be kept damp before distribution. The AGS seed exchange has in fact received damp-packed seed of several ephemeral species over the past few years. When seed has been offered in this way, particular care has been taken to store it correctly. It is important that ephemeral seed is stored in warm conditions while damp and not in a fridge, which could initiate early germination prior to distribution. In the past few years, I have been very pleased to have been able to distribute damp-packed seed of several genera known to resent dry storage such as Corydalis, Ranzania, Hylomecon, Adonis, Japanese Fritillaria species and Hepatica. I have also been pleased to be able to offer damp-packed seed of several ephemeral species, but being able to do this depends entirely on donors contributing seed that has been correctly stored. Any ephemeral seed we receive is repacked by the seed team into zip-lock envelopes containing damp vermiculite. We then put these into our normal glassine envelopes for distribution, attaching labels so that the person receiving the seed is made aware that the contents need prompt attention. Of course, this has involved extra work for our volunteers, but it is worthwhile because good quality seed from some of
244
How to keep ephemeral seed alive Letters these species is rarely offered. If you able to donate this type of seed, immediately after harvesting put each batch together with damp vermiculite in a zip-lock bag and keep at room temperature before posting to us. The seed team will repack it into appropriate packets for distribution. If anyone would like to contact me directly for advice about ephemeral seed, please email me: diane.clement@agsgroups.org From Vic Aspland, President of the Cyclamen Society
I
t was interesting to read Robert Amos’s excellent review, in the last issue of The Alpine Gardener, of the current legal situation regarding the protection of plants in the wild. I find it scandalous that Turkey can export very large numbers of Cyclamen coum tubers every year, to be marketed through Holland, when they are so easy to raise from seed. There is no justification whatsoever for the import of wild-dug tubers of C. coum into the THE ALPINE GARDENER
ALPINE DIARY MICHAEL BARON
issues of this journal. In the Peloponnese last year I encountered an area that was being planted with almond trees. The preparatory ploughing had brought to the surface tens of thousands of bulbs of Sternbergia sicula, which were gently roasting (and dying) in the sun. It all makes me grumpy! From Martin and Anna-Liisa Sheader, Southampton
I Cyclamen coum in a garden, but how much should be collected in the wild?
UK for sale in the dry state. The market could be satisfied by plants raised from seed in the UK. This is one of the failings of CITES: many well-meaning words but no follow-through in areas where it really counts. You may note that there is steam coming out of my ears. With C. coum in particular, the purchase of dry tubers is a very poor bargain. They can be very difficult to establish. Tubers already in growth and raised in this country establish very well. I have been travelling in mountains since 1986 and have seen enough examples of habitat destruction in the furtherance of the ski trade, road building and agriculture to fill several SEPTEMBER 2014
n the June edition of The Alpine Gardener (A trio of new species from the wilds of Patagonia), the treatment of Viola copahuensis contained a nomenclatural error, which technically renders the name illegitimate. The species therefore requires a new name, which we give below: Viola caviahuensis M. Sheader & A. Sheader, nom. nov. Type: Argentina, Neuquén Province, Volcán Copahue, above Termas de Copahue, 37° 49.2´S, 71° 06.2´W, 2,065m, among rocks, in crevices, sometimes in compacted gravel and ash, flowering December to January. M. & A. Sheader, 6 XII 2010, MAS 10121 (holotype herb. Sheader; isotype BCRU). Replaces synonym: V. copahuensis M. Sheader & A. Sheader (2014: 210), nom. illegit. Etymology: named for the Caldera de Caviahue. The species has been recorded from the margin of the caldera, which includes Volcán Copahue, the locus classicus. The description and images of the viola under its illegitimate name given in the June 2014 article apply to the new species Viola caviahuensis. 245
ALPINE DIARY David Mowle
D
avid Mowle, a retired research chemist, had a boffin-like approach to gardening. He certainly looked the part, with his wire-framed glasses, a slightly unruly hairstyle and a focused demeanour when discussing arcane matters relating to alpines. Underpinning this was a driven curiosity to learn more about the mountain plants he first encountered while hill-walking close to his Lancaster home and on trips to Scotland, then later in the Alps, where he travelled to enjoy, but also to study the flora, and in particular the genus Androsace ‒ an abiding fascination. As a lecturer, as a judge and in conversation he was subtly provoking and left-field, for his imperative was to stir things up to see what surfaced. While certainly not a gossip, he was very convivial. This sociability was challenged when, after a rough crossing over the Irish Sea to judge in Belfast, he was greeted upon arrival late in the evening with his host’s instruction: ‘Come on David, we’re off dancing.’ Unfed and uncomplaining, he obliged. Judging with him was a locking-ofantlers affair. Cast your vote in favour of an entry in the silver foliage class and he would produce from his pocket a 50 pence coin, hold it against the plant under scrutiny and shake his head. In the Androsace classes he would champion the rarest species and, if you tried to advance the rival claims of, say, an immaculate A. vandellii, counter: ‘But if we award this first prize, the benches will soon be awash with them.’ Which some might think a little optimistic:
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Two AGS Vice-Presidents remembered An appreciation of AGS Vice-Presidents David Mowle and Phil Phillips, who both died in August, compiled by Robert Rolfe
David, who had grown peerless examples of androsaces, thought it merely a matter of application and observant experimentation. A man of faith, he always saw the best in everybody. If he ever grew a hybrid (natural ones such as Androsace x marpensis excepted), this was very much against the run of play. His aim was to grow plants in character, as naturalistically as possible – even a pane of glass covering the wintering crowns of Silene hookeri on his main raised bed at Hest Bank he deemed ‘cheating’. In the alpine house different rules applied. He endeavoured to grow his favourite high alpines to superlative standards, using whatever strategies he could devise. He was notably successful with his friend George Smith’s Himalayan introductions (how many others have flowered Gentiana urnula?), and he delighted in exhibiting them at venues such as the Morecambe Show, which he instigated with Dave Riley in the late THE ALPINE GARDENER
ALPINE DIARY 1970s. David devised compost mixtures with all the ingenuity of a John Innes Institute employee, growing both cushion plants and a connoisseur’s selection of hardy bulbs to Farrer Medal standards. He was different from the general run of gardeners: truly, he made a difference.
Phil Phillips
W
hile he was christened George, none of his many gardening friends ever referred to him as such: to one and all he was known as Phil Phillips. Circumspect, hard-working and determined, he will be remembered for his hugely important work as AGS Treasurer during the 1980s, for his meticulously thought-out and presented lectures to Local Groups around the country (where his wife and tireless travelling companion Gwen acted as projectionist and very occasional prompt) and for his phenomenal slide collection (one of the most important in private hands) of plants taken in Europe and North America over 30 years of wide-ranging travel, from the early 1970s until 2004. He had been in post as Treasurer for five years when the Anthony Pettit bequest transformed the Society’s fortunes, literally and figuratively. Accustomed to scrutinising the financial markets on a day by day basis, he was not much impressed by those who advocated splurging the largesse. Instead he consolidated the Alpine Garden Society’s holdings prudently, to lasting effect. One remembers him presenting his annual reports at AGMs, patiently and courteously explaining to those
SEPTEMBER 2014
who advocated a ‘Spend, spend, spend’ strategy why this was inadvisable: ‘Share prices can rise; share prices can equally fall,’ he would counsel when some became excited by paper gains. While digital photography nowadays holds sway, when the Phillips made their annual plant-hunting trips, Kodachrome 25 was the standard choice for keen photographers, an emulsion that has retained its freshly processed vibrancy well. Nonetheless, Phil early on recognised the move to digital technology and meticulously scanned many of his images to create a truly excellent website (www. wildplantgallery.co.uk) where thousands of first-rate images ‒ some of plants seldom if ever hitherto captured on film ‒ are displayed, an endeavour greatly fostered by his granddaughter Kristin. Although one remembers him entering the occasional Ophrys or Orchis at his Lincolnshire Local Group Show (terrestrial orchids were one of his many enthusiasms), and also photographing garden plants occasionally, it was his numerous encounters with alpine plants in their homelands that he prized. So highly did he value his slide collection of these that it was kept in a safe. His lectures involved the use of two screens simultaneously with each plant shown first en masse or in habitat, then in frame-filling detail, and often in closeup after that. Pin-sharp, true to colour and professional in execution, many of his photographs have appeared (and will continue to appear) in The Alpine Gardener. 247
ALPINE DIARY
John Good’s Diary
Alf ’s book on peat gardening is still a treasure today
248
RBG EDINBURGH
Whichever way the Scottish people vote in their independence referendum, there are many of us from south of the border whose great affection for Scotland, its people and its gardens will remain unchanged. My wife Pam and I lived in Bonnyrigg, near Edinburgh, for four years in the early 1970s. During that time we made good friends, some of whom are sadly with us no more. Among the gardeners I got to know and like was Dr Alfred Evans, who for many years was Assistant Curator at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh (RBGE), in charge of the arboretum, alpine and herbaceous departments. Alf, as he was always known to fellow gardeners, was ‘once seen, never forgotten’; a very knowledgeable, ebullient, charismatic figure, always in demand as a lecturer and tour leader. He wrote widely and well, including for The Alpine Gardener (the AGS Bulletin at that time) and for the SRGC journal. Alf ’s chief claim to fame as far as the development of gardening techniques was concerned was the popularisation
Alfred Evans at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1983
of planting in peat blocks, detailed in a highly readable and still very useful book, The Peat Garden and its Plants (Dent, 1974). His technique was inspired by the famous terraced garden at RBGE, constructed with peat blocks in 1939 and based on those created by THE ALPINE GARDENER
JOHN GOOD
Schizocodon (=Shortia) ilicifolius growing in Swedish peat blocks at RBGE
the McDouall brothers at Logan Botanic Garden for their Sino-Himalayan plants a few years previously. A copy of The Peat Garden and its Plants, which he signed for me when he gave a talk to the then newly formed North Wales Group of the AGS in 1978, is one of my most treasured books and one to which I often still refer. I duly created a mini peat bed in my own garden, using peat blocks which were at that time being sold for fuel at a bog in Shropshire. They were so dry when I collected them that I had to soak them for several weeks in a water butt with the lid held on by stones before I SEPTEMBER 2014
could use them. How, as a professional plant ecologist, I felt able to contribute to peat-stripping in this way, I now can’t imagine, but times were different then and the use of peat in horticulture had not become an issue, as it is now. Anyway, many plants thrived in my little peat-wall garden, including cassiopes and other dwarf ericaceous shrubs that just loved rooting into the blocks. No sooner had I planted them in the peaty soil between the blocks than they started migrating into them, so much so that when we moved house and I dismantled the peat bed I was able to take many of the plants to their new 249
ALPINE DIARY home simply by lifting the blocks and putting them in a trailer. On a recent visit to RBGE I was interested to see that the peat beds have withstood the onset of political correctness and are still a feature, although part of Alf ’s original peat garden has been replaced by a ‘stumpery’ (I can just imagine his comments if he could see it!). Indeed the peat garden has been extended to an adjacent area, but using much larger Swedish peat blocks like those I have seen in various other gardens around the UK. Apparently the Swedes are less concerned by the sustainability of the resource than we are, although the Swedish equivalent of our national conservation organisations is worried that important wildlife habitats are being destroyed by cutting peat. Currently I grow most of the plants that I would previously have grown in my peat bed in a raised bed constructed with old railway sleepers. It is filled with a mixture of composted bark, homemade garden compost and composted municipal waste, which is available cheaply from our local authority. It works quite well, but the plants definitely do not like it as much as peat.
A prized peony, thanks to Frank’s generosity
In building up a collection of plants, particularly if many of them are hard to find, as is the case with some choice alpines, unusual bulbs and woodland plants, it is almost as important to cultivate friendships 250
with fellow gardeners as to learn how to grow the plants themselves. As a breed, gardeners are generally (but not invariably) generous, sometimes to a fault. I can remember occasions when I have winced with embarrassment as the owner of some treasured rarity has set to with spade or secateurs to satisfy my hesitant request for ‘a little bit to take home’. Our late President, Frank Tindall, was just such a person, generous to a fault whether to the Society or to fellow gardeners. We were great friends but I was always careful, when visiting him and his wife Miriam at their home in Huddersfield, to try to rein in my enthusiasm when going round their garden, which was not large but packed with all sorts of choice plants. At the hint of a show of interest in some particular rarity Frank would ask: ‘Do you grow it lad, would you like a bit?’, and before you could say ‘yes please’ it would be in the bag. If it was the wrong time of year to do the deed (but that of course is rarely the case), he would make a note and duly turn up at an AGS show or at our home, bearing plant, seed or cuttings, often with an aside to the effect that ‘I hope you can grow the b****r better here in the banana belt than I can in the Pennines’. Among many treasured plants that Frank gave me, a number were species peonies, for he loved them as much as I do and we traded plants and seed whenever we had some to spare. About 15 years ago he gave me two seeds from his plant of Paeonia ostii, a Chinese tree peony in the P. suffruticosa group that has been much used as a parent in tree peony breeding. THE ALPINE GARDENER
JOHN GOOD
John Good’s Paeonia ostii, which he raised from seed given to him by Frank Tindall 15 years ago
The bark of its roots has long been valued in Chinese medicine as the source of an anti-spasmodic drug. Two years later a single seedling appeared (peonies generally only produce a seedling root the first year, the first shoot appearing a year later), which was potted SEPTEMBER 2014
up in a slightly richer compost than my usual mix for most plants – one part of composted bark being added to the normal two parts of John Innes No. 2 to one part of sieved perlite. Two years later it was large enough to plant out in a sunny spot in the garden, and two years after that it produced its first flower. As the bud got bigger and bigger... and bigger, my excitement and anticipation of its opening grew and, when this happened, I was not disappointed. The flower was huge, brilliantly white and beautiful. Every year since, more and more of them have graced the April garden. Speaking of Frank reminds me of two 251
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Crocus niveus near the coast at Areopoli on the Mani Peninsula and, above, a high-altitude form that John Good has raised from seed trips that he, Ron and Joan Beeston and I made to the Peloponnese in late autumn to see the bulbs, an area that every keen plantsman should visit at least once in his or her lifetime. We had a wonderful time on both occasions, eating well, drinking far too much and seeing lots of wonderful plants. So many, in fact, that it is difficult to choose what to show you, but I have settled on two crocuses, a Colchicum and a Sternbergia. My favourite crocus is C. niveus, with its huge goblet-shaped flowers that, as my photograph shows, vary between being almost pure white through to shades of pink to blue. I photographed it at a famous 252
location near the coast at Areopoli on the Mani Peninsula, growing on a very rocky roadside bank. Unlike some crocuses, I find it to be a very good grower in a pot kept in a frame but it will not stand heavy winter rain in the open garden. I raised a very nice high-altitude form from seed that Ann Borrill kindly gave me, which is pure white apart from a throat of egg yolk yellow. My second favourite is the so-called ‘Mani White’ selection of C. goulimyi, which as far as I know does not occur on the Mani Peninsula or, if it does (never say ‘never’), is much less often seen there than on the other side of the Peloponnese near Monemvasia. There, at a well-known THE ALPINE GARDENER
JOHN GOOD
White forms of Crocus goulimyi growing by the thousand in a cultivated field near Monemvasia
site on the edge of (but also well into) a cultivated field, it grows in thousands, almost all of them white but with the occasional bluish pink that preponderates elsewhere. I remember the whoops of joy from all of us when we arrived at the location to find the crocuses in full flower and perfect condition. This species will grow in the open garden here in Wales, but its long, very delicate flower tubes make it extremely vulnerable to the winds that often ravage the North Wales coast when it is in flower. Probably the name Colchicum summons SEPTEMBER 2014
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A historic setting for Colchicum cupani, growing in the stadium at Delphi
up for you one of those large-flowered autumn garden bulbs with huge leaves to follow in spring. There are, however, a good many much more delicate species with small flowers, their matching small leaves appearing with the flowers in some cases and afterwards in others. We saw a number of these in the Peloponnese but the one I am picking out is C. cupani, because I love the contrast between the pink flowers and the chocolate brown anthers. My photograph was taken in the stadium at Delphi and I could not help feeling, when I took it, that ancestors of this plant would probably 254
have been growing in this very spot when the stadium was being used by Greek or Roman athletes. To the uninitiated, sternbergias look very much like yellow autumn-flowering crocuses but, in fact, they are members of the same family as daffodils and snowdrops (Amaryllidaceae), whereas crocuses are members of the iris family (Iridaceae) and there is one white-flowered Sternbergia, S. candida. There is a well-known location for Sternbergia sicula on a stony roadside embankment near Alepohori on the Sparti to Tripolis road. When we were THE ALPINE GARDENER
JOHN GOOD
Sternbergia sicula on a roadside embankment near Alepohori
passing that way on our journey back to the airport in 2005, the hillside was ablaze with the golden flowers. This is not a difficult plant to grow in a pot under glass, but while it is quite easy in the open garden in less wet areas than ours, I have never managed to grow it for more than a year or two. Finally, I want to mention a plant that was one of the first to stimulate my interest in alpines. Joe Elliott’s famous Broadwell Nursery was within easy biking distance of my childhood home in Stow-on-theWold, and my mother was friendly with Joe’s wife, Joan (of Dianthus alpinus SEPTEMBER 2014
‘Joan’s Blood’ fame). As a boy I visited the nursery frequently and on several occasions Joe or his father Clarence, who by then was living nearby, would give me a few plants in pots to take home. One that especially took my eye and which I have grown throughout my gardening life was the fabulous Campanula raineri. Latterly I have grown the almost equally beautiful white form and also the hybrid raised by Joe between C. raineri and C. morettiana, C. ‘Joe Elliott’. But it is the clear pale blue chalices of the typical C. raineri that I love the most. 255
PRACTICAL GARDENING
Martin Rogerson is an enthusiastic grower of lewisias and his plants can often be seen gracing the benches at AGS shows. Here he explains how he grows the colourful and promiscuous Lewisia cotyledon and its hybrids, among the most popular and readily obtainable of American alpines
Cheerful plants for the garden and alpine house
T
his article is about how I grow Lewisia cotyledon hybrids. But why, you might wonder, should I not just write about growing the species itself? Well, try to define it. Even in the wild the colour variation of this promiscuous plant is vast. In cultivation most plants will be seed-raised, and while you might know the seed parent the father may well remain a mystery. L. cotyledon will cross with most other lewisias, with the notable exception of L. tweedyi, which probably explains why some botanists separate L. tweedyi into its own genus. Many plants will look like L. cotyledon and could broadly be defined as L. cotyledon x cotyledon, although I’m sure that this is botanically a complete no-no. This promiscuity is excellent for gardeners because it has led to some cracking selections, although not all are to everyone’s taste. Add in the crosses with the likes of L. rediviva and the mystery bits in the creation of Ashwood Nurseries’ Carousel hybrids (I
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LEWISIAS: THE BASICS The native habitat of lewisias is north-facing cliffs in the western United States and Canada. The genus was named for Meriwether Lewis who encountered a specimen in 1806 at Lolo Creek in Idaho in a range that became known as the Bitterroot Mountains. The plants were a food source for the Native Americans who ate the ‘bitter roots’. Lewis’s plant was named Lewisia rediviva by Frederick Traugott Pursh. Most of the 19 species of Lewisia are deciduous, including L. rediviva. L. longipetala is the only semideciduous species. Some species, such as L. cotyledon, are evergreen.
think there’s L. cotyledon in it) and the possibilities are endless. So the safest way to name your plants is L. cotyledon hybrid unless a kind nursery has supplied a clonal name THE ALPINE GARDENER
MARTIN ROGERSON
LEWISIA COTYLEDON
Lewisias bring early summer colour to one of Martin Rogerson’s two alpine houses
or, as you will often see, a strain name (another device now frowned upon) such as Birch hybrids, Ashwood strain and so on. One constant in all the hybrids is that they are evergreen. But what you really want to know is where to get them and how to grow them. At this point I must acknowledge the erudite article which appeared in the AGS Bulletin in September 1988, ‘My Lewisia Year’, by Philip Baulk of Ashwood Nurseries. Read this and you need read no other article on the growing of lewisias. SEPTEMBER 2014
Seed is available from the seed exchanges, commercial seed companies and some specialist nurseries. I sow seed in a 50-50 mix of John Innes No.3 and ‘alpine grit’, both bought from my local garden centre. I tend to do it in January or February for no other reason than that’s the time of year I sow most things. Cold stratification does not seem to be a requirement – indeed some recommend not placing the seed pots where they will be subjected to severe frost – and neither is bottom heat. Some authorities promote the use of lime-free 257
PRACTICAL GARDENING JON EVANS
A Lewisia cotyledon Birch hybrid grown by Alan and Janet Cook
or ericaceous composts but I have not found this to be necessary. The great thing about growing from seed is that you never know what you’re going to get, but you should find out within two years what the flowers are going to be like. Like many plants, the best germination is often from seeds that drop into a sand plunge or, frustratingly, sprout in pots occupied by other plants! The flower stems can vary from being set down among the foliage to 25cm long, and the flowers from a single colour to a striped bicolour. If you’d rather not take a chance and want specific colours 258
or habits, then buy plants in flower from wherever you can get them and don’t dismiss the selections in your local garden centre. If you do purchase these, however, as soon as you get them home repot them into a compost with a bit less peat and a lot more grit. The specialist alpine nurseries, small and large, always have a good selection available, and as so many of them attend AGS shows, these are excellent places to obtain lewisias. I’ve already discussed sowing seeds, so what should you do when they’ve germinated? Seedlings should be potted on into 9cm pots as soon as they can THE ALPINE GARDENER
JON EVANS
LEWISIA COTYLEDON
One of Martin Rogerson’s bicoloured Lewisia cotyledon hybrids
be easily handled (they are very robust compared with the seedlings of most other plants). The most vigorous plants will require potting on again later in the same season. I use the same mix for potting as I do for sowing, irrespective of whether I use a clay or a plastic pot. The compost must be free-draining and plants should have a deep topdressing of grit to stop the top of the caudex (that’s the fat stalk at the base of the plant) and the foliage from sitting in a soggy environment. If you don’t provide this then one day you’ll end up with a sorry looking plant that can be lifted off the top of the pot revealing a soggy and slimy mess that was once the rootstock. SEPTEMBER 2014
Repotting can be done at any time but is probably best carried out in late winter or early spring, just before active growth commences, especially if you use the following method. This is also an opportunity to tidy up the plants. I learned this technique at a demonstration given by Dave Mountfort some years ago at a Loughborough event. Remove the plant from the pot and tease off most of the compost. Now you can see underneath the rosettes and rip out all the dead foliage. Yes, rip. Get your fingers in there and pull downwards – none of that messing about with tweezers. Sometimes, especially with old and large leaves, a sideways 259
PRACTICAL GARDENING JON EVANS
Lewisia cotyledon ‘Alba’ exhibited at an AGS show by Ivor Betteridge
twist is also required along with some brute force. Clearly the robustness of the process is dependent on the robustness of the rosette you’re tidying, but you get the idea. I must confess to using the tweezer technique on some of my larger Carousel hybrids. Then it’s back into a clean pot with fresh compost, a gentle watering and the job’s done. Be wary of overwatering before active growth begins and remember that lewisias are succulents and can cope with a bit of drought. Is this tidying up necessary? If you read some older accounts of growing the genus you will note that removing the 260
dead leaves on L. cotyledon rosettes was frowned upon. This was on the basis that to produce plants looking as they do in nature, where the norm is a plant with a single rosette, the dead leaves had to be left in place. But it is the clue to success if you want flower power. Removing the dead leaves encourages the development of side shoots and produces some of the specimens of 30cm diameter or more that you can see on display at shows. Occasionally, however, this is unsuccessful and I have a number of old plants that stubbornly refuse to branch. I grow all my lewisias in either a THE ALPINE GARDENER
AGS SLIDE LIBRARY
LEWISIA COTYLEDON
Lewisia hybrids growing in a wall at the Bodnant Garden in North Wales
cold greenhouse or covered frames. L. cotyledon and many of its hybrids can be grown outdoors successfully with the not surprising requirement of excellent drainage and a deep collar of grit, but expect losses in our somewhat damp climate. Much of the literature advocates planting in a vertical rock crevice with the plant near horizontal to prevent water gathering in the rosettes, but I’m not sure how necessary or effective this is. I garden on intractable heavy clay in a very damp and shady microclimate and I have succeeded in keeping plants in the garden for two or three years. I know other gardeners with not dissimilar SEPTEMBER 2014
conditions who have plants still alive after ten or more years, so give it a go. But it is pot luck which plants, or even clones of plants, will succeed. Back to the greenhouse. Watering should be regular and reasonably frequent during the active growing phase in spring and early summer, preferably from the bottom (but you will get away with overhead watering at this stage). Don’t overdo it – it is better that the compost is too dry than too wet. Watering should be reduced or even withheld during baking-hot weather. The plants seem to know that heat equals drought and adapt accordingly. Heavy watering in these conditions can be fatal. If you 261
PRACTICAL GARDENING JON EVANS
One of Martin Rogerson’s prize plants – Lewisia ‘Ashwood Ruby’
have the space then put pots outside in summer, allowing the plants to react to the weather, and cooking will be reduced to a minimum. If you’ve just repotted your plants then they shouldn’t have to be fed, but the occasional feed of quarter-strength fertiliser of the tomato persuasion won’t do any harm. Overfeeding can produce overblown rosettes and sparse flowering. Unless you want to collect the seed, I would recommend deadheading for two practical reasons. First, on some selections the dead flowers form a horrible film over the inflorescence, looking like disgustingly coloured slug slime. Second, 262
unless you have lots of space, removing the stalks on plants where the flowers extend well beyond the perimeter of the pot frees up a lot of bench space! Like most plants, watering needs to be reduced in the autumn. Indeed I stop watering altogether from October to February except for the occasional slight damping of the sand plunge or capillary matting in trays, but this is done mostly for the benefit of other plants rather than the lewisias. A word of caution, however: this works for me in a very damp and shady garden where the greenhouses and frames see little or no sun from October to March and evaporation rates THE ALPINE GARDENER
ROBERT ROLFE
LEWISIA COTYLEDON
A Lewisia cotyledon hybrid grown by Norman Davies
are low. A more open aspect may require adjustments to this regime. As far as pests are concerned, the biggest enemy is the aphid. The crafty little beggars tend to set up home right down in the centre of the leaf rosettes, most often those round the bottom of the plant, so you will have to look closely to spot them. Down in there, mechanical destruction (squashing) is not an option so you will have to use a spray. They can also occasionally be found infesting the flower stalks. To avoid indiscriminate spraying I have a good look round the plants every week or so and spray only those plants that are infested. You will soon develop an eye for SEPTEMBER 2014
affected plants. I’ve never found vine weevil grubs among my lewisias, but then I treat all my pots with Provado insecticide twice a year. Plants can be propagated vegetatively. A whole rosette cut off with a very sharp knife, preferably with a short branch of the caudex included, is the normal method. The cut surface should be allowed to dry a little before pressing it down into a mixture of sand and potting compost, gently watered if the compost is bone dry, and placed somewhere light but shaded from the sun. This technique can also be used to rescue bits of plants that have rotted off at the main stem. 263
PRACTICAL GARDENING
HOW TO GROW IT
T
Fritillaria alburyana
his most distinctive and attractive of Turkish fritillarias was discovered nearly 50 years ago by the landmark Albury, Cheese and Watson expedition and is named in memory of Sydney Albury, who took part in the enterprise but died just four years later, a victim of altitude sickness while on a plant-hunting trip in Nepal. Fritillaria alburyana grows at higher altitudes than almost any other of the numerous species that occur in Turkey. It flowers there relatively late, in May or June as the snow melts, rather than in February or March, as is the case with certain of the lowland species from south-west Turkey. In cultivation, however, taxa from both geographical extremes often flower at much the same time, in March or earliest April. Their needs are nonetheless rather different, and you should certainly read the information regarding its habitat (for instance in AGS Bulletin volume 38, pages 367-372) in conjunction with these notes on the way that I grow it. My single bulb was acquired after the death in 1999 of my friend and fellow grower of high alpines, Duncan Lowe. His wife Audrey told me that he had bequeathed to me two plants, the first a sizeable cushion of Raoulia buchananii that I had given him as a small plant a decade earlier, the other this Fritillaria. Over 15 years the bulbs have slowly increased when grown in a compost of one part John Innes No. 3, one part leaf-
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A Turk that enjoys a winter chill By Geoff Rollinson mould, two parts grit and a dusting of bonemeal. At repotting time (mid to late summer) they are placed on a thin layer of fine grit above the compost, half way down the pot, and covered with a further deep layer of pre-washed grit. The original bulb has grown well and, even after giving away several bulbs to friends, I have managed to increase the stock to a present total of 11 flowering-size bulbs. Although this species sometimes produces bulbils, this is not the case with my material, which can be propagated by parting the longitudinally two-chambered bulbs at the base in June or early July at the latest, a slightly risky but usually rewarding procedure. These often flower the following year (or at least the larger of the two segments will do so) but, in a mild winter, they can bloom as early as the end of January. For several reasons, the timing of the AGS spring shows among them, I prefer to delay flowering until March, and after chatting with experienced bulb growers, I started to use the ‘beer cooler’ method. The newly repotted bulbs are returned to the alpine house, not watered directly THE ALPINE GARDENER
HOW TO GROW IT
Geoff Rollinson’s pot of Fritillaria alburyana
but with the sand plunge kept moist. There they remain until the end of October, when the pot is taken out, placed in a soak tray filled with 3cm of water for ten minutes, allowed to drain and then deposited in the beer cooler, where a constant temperature of 3C is maintained. Water is given in the same manner at the end of each month through to January, by when the new shoots are usually pushing through the grit topdressing. At this stage the pot is watered again from below and returned to the sand plunge, where full light and efficient ventilation will keep the plant in character. F. alburyana has remained uncommon in cultivation ever since the first bulbs and seeds were gathered in 1966. Very occasionally it appears in bulb nurserymen’s lists, these more recently representing introductions made by Ole Sønderhausen (OS 881, Cat Geçidi, 2,400m), an HNSEPTEMBER 2014
0212 gathering on the Kop Geçidi, and more recently LST 246/247 (from the 2005 Latvian Swedish Turkey Trip, sometimes dubbed the ‘Long Strange Trip’). Some of these are very dwarf indeed, barely 6cm tall in full flower. The LST collection was from Erzurum Province (Agiacik Geçidi, 2,400m), making sense of the synonym F. erzurumica. Jim and Jenny Archibald collected seed at 2,500m on the Palandoken Dağ in 1986 (JJA 490.500), the plants growing among basalt and rhyolite detritus on open slopes at 2,500m, covered by snow from November until May. They had seen it in flower the previous year and acknowledged that the associated F. armena might account for one or two of the samplings. It has been suggested that the two occasionally hybridise, and that my stock could be representative of this as yet undescribed coupling. 265
The Botanics
The striking new alpine house at RBGE, with a tufa wall at the rear
Established in 1670, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh boasts one of the finest collections of plants anywhere in the world. Robert Rolfe has made several recent visits to the garden to see this horticultural tour de force at its best
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The old alpine house contrasts with the modernist structure behind
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he Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh lies just a mile north of the centre of the city. Often referred to simply as ‘The Botanics’, it has occupied its present Inverleith site since 1820. Having arrived at Waverley train station, as so many visitors to the city do, on a pleasant day you might choose to walk there from Princes Street in under half an hour. But the return leg of the trip, bearing in mind the lengthy uphill slog along Dundas Street, is perhaps better made by taxi or bus. Of the two public entrances, the main
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one is off Arboretum Place (West Gate), but if heading for the rock garden and the woodland beds, it is more convenient to use the East Gate Entrance. This is set back from Inverleith Row, and since 1996 has been adorned by a pair of latticework steel gates, the rather freely interpreted Rhododendron flowers at least displaying the correct number of petal-lobes, and referencing some of the gardens’ most audaciously showy plantings. Not since 1961 has there been an article in this journal of any great length THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
Trillium rivale, introduced to RBGE by Alf Evans
on RBG Edinburgh (see volume 29, page 30). Fortuitously, 2014 marks the centenary of the construction of Isaac Balfour’s mighty rock garden there and sees the new alpine house, planted up and opened last year, adding its striking presence, overlooking the familiar structure of its 40-year-old predecessor, with the elegant palm house in the background. This, dating from 1858, is arguably the most distinguished building within the grounds. Inverleith House, over 80 years older, has been for two centuries the home of the SEPTEMBER 2014
Regius Keeper, who was until 1956 also Professor of Botany at the University of Edinburgh. It is also 50 years since running water was introduced to the rock garden (a series of waterfalls, cascades and streams runs from top to bottom) under the aegis of Alf Evans, a man who enjoyed life to the full and was very determined, never more so than when locking horns in a judging capacity. Visitors, on their climb up the main north face, can admire the water courses at several junctions while crossing narrow bridges. 269
FOCUS ON SCOTLAND An introductory visit
I was first taken round The Botanics in late March 1990, when Ron McBeath was in charge. He gave up a full day to afford me a guided tour, and I came home with a plant of Trillium grandiflorum ‘Roseum’, one of scores newly divided and bedded out (untimely division some years later decimated the garden’s stock). T. rivale was also much in evidence: Alf ’s legacy is still seen at various points on the rock garden, nowhere more beautifully represented than by the trio of this species that can be admired in early spring opposite the Caledonian Hall, their label showing that he was responsible for their acquisition in 1984. The Hall, built in 1841 initially as a place where fellows of the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society could exhibit plants, is now mainly used for private functions. On a perfect summer’s day last year, I watched a wedding party processing back there after a service in the woodland garden, a kilted piper incongruously blasting out Sir Cliff ’s 1968 Eurovision entry Congratulations for all that he was worth. Back in 1990 in the alpine house, that showiest of rosulate violas, the vibrant yellow V. coronifera, had formed a cluster of healthy rosettes. Nearby several square pans were artistically set with rocks, small plants of Androsace vandellii acting as a distinguished silvery-grey mortar. Even then a grille was in place to prevent visitors from poking fingers into the cushions or, worse still, stuffing the display plants into bags or poachers’ pockets. Ron’s assistant and sometime collecting colleague in the field, George 270
Kirkpatrick, obligingly arranged for the temporary removal of these barriers, enabling me to photograph the weeklychanged display (while some of the plants are resident the year round, the majority are ferried there from the backup collections as they come into bloom). Talking of these reserves, behind climber-clothed walls I was led through a succession of greenhouses and past parallel ranks of frames. Rows of silvery-white Raoulia mammillaris cushions were in rude good health (where else would you find multiple stocks of this distinguished New Zealander nowadays?), and a pure white form of the ordinarily lilac or purplish Himalayan Iris kemaonensis (courtesy of Henry and Margaret Taylor) was in bloom. An unusually albino Fritillaria alburyana had just finished, though an adjacent pot of the ‘ordinary’ pink issue was at its best. One of Ron’s collections of the normally recalcitrant Meconopsis delavayi had formed a lusty clump. This, he told me, had been fully two months out of the ground, a consequence of a severely delayed posting from Kunming. On arrival at Edinburgh, both the top and bottom of the long rootstock had rotted, yet with these excised and the remainder potted up, a new side-shoot soon formed. Flowers followed within six weeks. I was also shown an isolation unit, reached through a maze of paths and corridors, whose vents had been rendered insect-proof. The temperature within was controlled by a sensor that ensured the atmosphere was never stagnant – cold air was pumped in THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
A vibrant spring display in the old alpine house SEPTEMBER 2014
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FOCUS ON SCOTLAND
The spiny seedheads of the Drakensberg native Berkheya multijuga
whenever the temperature reached 50F. There were labels everywhere, with accession dates (a three-month period of isolation and adjustment was imposed on all imports) declaring exactly when large crowns of Primula obliqua, two forlorn mats of Chionocharis hookeri (but with seedlings sprouting from the nigh-dead vegetation) and Gentiana urnula had been received. Two decades on, these remain among the most recalcitrant of alpine plants, for very few gardeners have persuaded them to endure even a few months, never mind flower satisfactorily. 272
The present day
Entering via the East Gate, after walking across a disinfectant-impregnated mat that inhibits the transfer of pathogens, in the shade of almost the first tree you encounter a grouping of heathers. Linnaea borealis provides a sampling of the native flora, although a 1960s experiment, transplanting divots of Loiseleuria procumbens and others from the Cairngorms, came to naught. A five-minute stroll brings you to the foot of the rock garden’s main scree, a suitably sloping lawn-fringed feature that leads in to the dramatic upper THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH ramparts. From the crest there are panoramic views south to Edinburgh Castle, if you can avert your eyes from the multifarious plantings at your feet, at waist-height and up to eye-level and beyond. Signs warn visitors not to clamber over the rockwork, presumably as much for their safety as for that of the plants. On similar grounds, the untutored should avoid contact with pathside colonies of the statuesque Drakensberg native Berkheya multijuga, fiercely armoured with spines overall and almost as dramatic in seed as when its yellow, upfacing, concolorous sunflowers blaze in mid-July. Also from this part of the world, exotic yet fully hardy, specklestemmed Eucomis bicolor juts from clefts in the rockwork a month later – the garden is rich in Drakensberg plants. The alpine gardener will wander from here to the woodland and peat gardens, overhauled of late and largely replanted. Stags’ horn and other ‘architectural’ pieces of bleached wood have been part buried, nicely alluding to the name once given to the upper peat garden – The Rooteries. These afford congenial niches for sundry woodlanders. Dwarf ferns such as Gymnocarpium dryopteris have already settled in perfect accord. Raised peat banks further up the slope have their sides stuffed generously with pleiones and shortias (as at Gothenburg), the level tops occupied mainly by early performers such as Sino-Himalayan Adonis brevistyla, a 1999 accession short of stem and with ice-blue flowers in April. Plants from these regions have long been a hallmark of the gardens, many sent back by renowned collectors SEPTEMBER 2014
Eucomis bicolor, another South African
such as Frank Ludlow and George Sherriff. Latterly there have been other successful collaborative expeditions, those with the acronyms KEKE (KewEdinburgh Kanchenjunga Expedition, 1989), CLD (Chungtien-Lijiang-Dali Expedition,1990), KEG (Kunming, Edinburgh, Gothenburg, 1993) and ACE (Alpine Garden Society China Expedition) chief among them. Raisings from such ventures figure prominently 273
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The dwarf fern Gymnocarpium dryopteris looks striking against bleached wood
in the garden’s plantings. Taking just one example, one of the raised and frequently irrigated woodland beds houses a rich yellow colony of the Chinese Caltha scaposa, half as large again as a celandine and with rather similar leaves, though with markedly raised venation and undulate margins. Flowering surprisingly late (for much of June) for a close relative of a kingcup, it was found growing in Dawu County, Sichuan, on Zheduo Shan at 3,840m in damp areas of mixed forest and bears the collectors’ number KEES 274
70 (referencing the 2010 Kunming & Edinburgh Expedition to Sichuan). Already it has established well, and who is to say that it will not become one of the widely grown and long-flowering dwarf perennials that contradicts the notion of a June gap? (RBG Edinburgh is very much worth visiting throughout this month.) I was on site on a misty day in August 2012 when machinery was gouging out the foundations of the new alpine house, which overlooks its now 40-year-old counterpart. I was there again when the tufa blocks were in place and in the THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
Applying finishing touches to the new curved crevice bed alongside the alpine house
process of being planted the following May, and after that in September 2013 when the final touches were being applied to a curved crevice bed nearby. This has all been done under the watchful eye of John Mitchell, the garden’s Alpine Supervisor. Through his long-standing friend and coexpeditioner Harry Jans, tufa was sourced from Bavaria, plants came in quantity (an RBG greenhouse is now dedicated to the continuous supply of these), and the modernistic structure (imported in prefabricated kit form from Belgium) was agreed upon. It is SEPTEMBER 2014
too early to provide a proper assessment of the planting but already, despite the difficulties of an unusually warm start to last summer, dionysias, Campanula dzaaku, Asperula arcadiensis and Primula allionii have taken hold.
A plethora of primulas and others
In 1928, at the Fourth Primula Conference, held in conjunction with the Chelsea Flower Show, the Hon. Henry McLaren (later the second Baron Aberconwy, RHS President for two decades) declared: ‘Speaking 275
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Tropaeolum polyphyllum, which often colonises steep screes
personally, I should put primulas with rhododendrons, roses and lilies as the four most indispensable genera in the garden.’ He had a point. While roses are used sparingly at Edinburgh, the gardens have long been renowned for the other members of this quartet. There is no prospect of giving the rhododendrons their fair due in this article. A late spring visit will find the majority at their best, and even in the autumn they can be enjoyed for their foliage and form. The shrubbiest act as an occasional support for Tropaeolum 276
speciosum, the scarlet Scottish flame flower, which can scramble to nearly 4m high on some hosts. Vigorous once established, it needs putting in as young plants for preference, then leaving undisturbed to allow the rhizomes to find their proper depth. The same goes for fellow Chilean/ Argentinian T. polyphyllum, more of a sun-lover requiring efficient drainage and often colonising steep screes. This comes earlier, in June. There are two spectacular colonies at the rear of the rock garden, one egg-yolk yellow and THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
Alpine Supervisor John Michell in front of the new tufa wall
just beyond the spread of a 45-year-old Pinus densiflora ‘Umbraculifera’, the other almost orange and more open in its siting. Both clamber through and over almost everything in their path. Lilies and their close relatives are mainly plants of the summer and early autumn, ranging in height from the dwarf Lilium formosanum var. pricei (in the lower woodland beds, where it has been mass planted) to the 3m tall L. auratum, at its best in late August and whose colonies you can detect by their powerful scent before catching sight of SEPTEMBER 2014
them. When first shown in the British Isles by Messrs J. Veitch & Sons, it was viewed by an estimated 52,000 people and caused a sensation. On the lower rock garden the stoloniferous L. duchartrei, sometimes referred to as var. farreri – the clearest of clues to its origin – dates from the early 20th century and has taken hold, headhigh and colonising several areas. At its best in July and August, it is adaptable to both northern and southern gardens. Will Ingwersen, writing in the Gardeners’ Chronicle (August 1934), reported that 277
FOCUS ON SCOTLAND
Cardiocrinum giganteum var. yunnanense
in Sussex ‘it has taken unto itself on one of our smaller sandstone rock gardens, [and] has there multiplied exceedingly’. Shade-loving orange/scarlet L. leichtlinii var. maximowiczii waits until early autumn, gracing the first weeks of September with its exotic, pepperflecked turkscaps. This Japanese/Korean species is a relatively recent addition, in 2007. Back in June, a yellow-flushed form of L. candidum will be in flower, while the same woodland areas are home at this time, and through to July, to the 4m (sometimes taller still, with up to 40 flowers) stems of Cardiocrinum giganteum, in both var. giganteum (with 278
green flower stems and green-tinged cream flowers up to 20cm long) and var. yunnanense (of similar proportions but displaying blackish stems and purplemarked flowers). They require a deep, moist, well-cultivated and well-drained soil, preferably lime-free, with dappled shade and shelter. I saw no sign of lily beetle, an increasingly prevalent pest in many parts of the country, either on this or on a magnificent stand of Lilium x dalhansonii ‘Marhan’, a hybrid involving L. martagon, the latter normally one of the first species that this voracious predator selects to strip bare. Large rhododendrons also provide congenial conditions at their feet for a wide variety of primulas. It is necessary to take to the minor paths that meander extensively through the woodland areas to find some of these. They aren’t signposted or immediately obvious, but it is one of the delights of the gardens to turn a corner and chance upon colonies in full flood. In April, having diverted onto a bark-chip path, you might find at its conclusion a profusion of Primula denticulata, once sold routinely on market stalls, in greengrocers and florists as well as nurseries. It has now been supplanted by, in my opinion, bloated distortions of Primula vulgaris and its proto-polyanthus blighted gaudy offspring. Whoever observed that it was impossible to underestimate popular taste had it exactly right. Not to say that ‘strong’ colours are intrinsically unwelcome, for who could object to various of the candelabra primulas, at their best in early summer? From THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
The exotic Lilium leichtlinii var. maximowiczii, planted in 2007 SEPTEMBER 2014
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Primula denticulata illuminates a woodland glade in April
several sources (ACE 2484 the most recent), orange P. bulleyana is present here in wide drifts, sometimes alongside its countryman, pale lemon Roscoea cautleyoides. Elsewhere, in deep-dug, wellnourished, moist borders, its magentapink subspecies beesiana (formerly treated as a species in its own right) runs riot. Or, on sloping ground, delicate lemon P. sikkimensis holds sway, with taller, more robust P. florindae taking up the baton into high summer and beyond, enduring through to September. In the first half of spring on the rock 280
garden, that eastern European version of the cowslip, P. veris subsp. macrocalyx, with atypically flat-faced flowers, is resplendent. Part of its distribution takes in the Caucasus, whose eastern territories are home to the pink to magenta-purple P. juliae, introduced to British gardens in 1911. Primrose hybrids of this, given the name P. x pruhoniciana, have been reared in every colour from rusty orange, crimson and burgundy red to sulphur yellow, pale rose pink and white: P. ‘Iris Mainwaring’ (described as ‘pale blue, flushed pink’) excels in a THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
Primula veris subsp. macrocalyx and, right, P. x pruhoniciana ‘Iris Mainwaring’
part-shaded border here. I can’t trace any information about the woman after whom it was named, try as I might. Does any reader know of her? The cultivation and the classification of the genus Primula has a very longstanding and immensely significant history at Edinburgh, fostered in particular by Isaac Bayley Balfour (Regius Keeper from 1888-1922), and after him Sir William Wright Smith, who was in charge for a comparable period (1922-1956). Helped by his successor Harold Fletcher, and referencing the many SEPTEMBER 2014
discoveries of a Balfour protégé, namely the Chinese plant-hunter George Forrest, Smith published a series of studies of the genus throughout the 1940s, which laid the foundations for all that has been written on the subject since then. Many of the finest primulas were first described in Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (issued from 1900-1990). Among those now familiar species first recognised in this, one might highlight P. bulleyana (1908), P. calderiana (1915), P. chungensis (1920), P. florindae (1926) and P. ioessa (1937). 281
FOCUS ON SCOTLAND The names of other rather recently cultivated or reintroduced ones such as P. fasciculata (1915), P. optata (1916) and P. petelotii (1932), along with soon-lostto-cultivation imports like P. duthieana (1916) and P. baileyana (1926) also first appeared there. A large number have been grown to the highest of standards at RBGE, but the climate, while generally congenial, is not without its vicissitudes. Hard frosts in the spring can singe the petiolarid primulas, while last July my rail journey north was disrupted by high temperatures affecting the signalling equipment and causing the tracks to buckle. Sprinklers and automated irrigation systems were much in use on arrival at Inverleith. Going back to an earlier RHS Primula Conference held on April 16, 1913, the speakers included the aforementioned Balfour (lecturing on Himalayan primulas), along with Farrer (‘Primula hybrids in nature’) and Gertrude Jekyll talking on ‘Primulas in the garden’. She sensibly ordained that: ’When we consider the many uses of our garden primroses, we find that they fall into three groups, namely those for borders, those for the rock garden and those for boggy ground.’ A few sub-divisions would have helped, for she included Primula allionii in the second set, which is seldom a long-term success even in the most contrived of rockwork niches. It is in the alpine house that it is far more likely to endure. One hopes that the representative samplings, all of known wild origin, sourced in 2005, will settle happily in the tufa clefts and crevices of the new alpine house. Two of the most distinguished 282
Sections within the genus, Petiolares and Soldanelloides, have a long association with RBGE. Of the former, Primula gracilipes was described there in 1917 (it abounds in woodland beds gently contoured with tree limbs). P. scapigera, P. deuteronana and others of lesser garden value were christened the same year, while the Nepalese P. aureata fortuitously cropped up and flowered in 1939 and was described two years later. With regard to the other Section, P. flaccida still produces pagoda-like heads of exquisitely scented flowers in the shade, and under glass the 1934 collection of P. sherriffiae from Bhutan endures, a testimony to the worth of a refrigerated seed bank, from where new stocks were retrieved after a torrid summer felled all the plants in 1990. Photographic evidence attests that P. reidii and its allegedly ‘easier’, often blue-flushed var. williamsii were once routinely cultivated there. No longer! As for others described at Edinburgh, such as P. eburnea (1916), P. umbratilis (1920) and P. wigramiana (1934), these have either seldom been sourced or have died without setting seed after experiencing what those who don’t grow such plants term a ‘good’ summer. A few relentlessly hot days will see them off. Members of Section Muscarioides, not so very far removed from the latter but utterly distinct, are on the whole more forgiving. In particular, P. vialii from Yunnan and Sichuan has been in cultivation since Forrest’s 1906 gathering (Smith and Fletcher provided a definitive description from Edinburgh in 1942) and is often the last of the genus to flower outdoors, still performing well in September. THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
Primula vialii from Yunnan and Sichuan has been continuously in cultivation since 1906 and is often the last of the genus to flower outdoors, still performing well in September
Early autumn
of a similarly impressive assemblage has been gathered at RHS Hyde Hall in Essex, to champion the sterling merits of this under-rated genus. But the collection at RBGE is surely the finest in the British Isles. Even in small gardens, sensible positioning (in the lee of shrubs,
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It is almost 20 years since the last RHS trial of autumn colchicums, held in 1996 at Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk, the success of this impinged upon by the subsequent neglect of the peerless collection assembled there. These notes are published at a time when the makings
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Colchicum byzantinum on the rock garden in early September
under light tree cover, in the middle of open borders or towards their edges) facilitates a brief but brilliant late-season fanfare. Some are tricky to tell apart, but C. ‘Waterlily’ is unmistakable. Its large and fully double flowers number up to 38 narrowish tepals, purplish violet-pink, and very showy en masse, despite sniping criticisms of untidiness. At Edinburgh it is positioned at the base of corner keystones in the main rock garden, joined from the end of August by C. byzantinum. A more extensive group of C. ‘Waterlily’ is located in a long border just above the principal stands of 284
dwarf rhododendrons. Opposite is the C. speciosum seedling ‘Huxley’, raised around 1950, the goblets hoisted aloft on elegantly long greenish-violet infused ‘stems’. It was described by E.A. Bowles as akin to ‘a prize-winning old English tulip, two-thirds of a sphere’. It is hard to resist and harder still to obtain. Wander to the fringes and admire a part-shaded border massed with C. davisii, sourced by Peter Davis from Turkey’s southern Adana Province in 1957, its naming delayed until Chris Brickell formulated a description in 1998. The type material (PD 26938) is THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
The alluring Colchicum speciosum ‘Huxley’
from the fringes of beech woodland at 1,300m, and while the honey-scented, violet, tessellated flowers cannot be championed as the showiest that the genus has to offer, when seen by the thousand they are a sight to behold. The corms increase well, in part owing to their late leafing habit. The finest Colchicum planting of all is reserved until last, for at the very back of the rock garden, edging a border that catches the light from late morning onwards, C. ‘Rosy Dawn’ forms a patch almost 3m wide, buzzing with bees and hoverflies drawn by its scent and the SEPTEMBER 2014
promise of pollen. One of the larger hybrids, distributed by Barr & Sons, it has a pale greenish floral tube, a white throat contrasting with the rich yellow anthers, and purplish-violet, lightly tessellated segments up to 7cm long. Despite its name, the flowers are certain to be closed at that time of the day and are best viewed towards late afternoon, when the sun’s rays illuminate the goblets, making them glow. Head westwards, follow the perimeter path, turn left at the point where the rock garden terminates, and soon an extensive spread of C. speciosum (palish 285
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A floriferous mat of the reliable and easy Persicaria affinis
pink here) comes into view, cleverly sited so that the blooms are backlit and assume an almost silvery sheen. A single corm can issue three (exceptionally four) of these so that, fostered by a freely clumping habit, the fusillade endures a fortnight or more. Even in the wake of a storm (a humdinger brought down trees at Dawyck in the Borders, one of RBGE’s three sister gardens, just two days before my September 2013 visit) a fresh crop arises overnight to carry on the good work of those that have been toppled. Expect other glories at this time of the year, from the reliable and mat-forming 286
Persicaria affinis to the indispensable Cyclamen hederifolium. It can be seen in several parts of the garden but not in abundance, although it revels in dramatically elevated rock ‘pockets’, where the fragrance of scented forms is all the more readily enjoyed. In late October, Saxifraga fortunei provides an end-of-term extravaganza. Berries too add to the general effect, from trees such as a pink-fruited Sorbus hupehensis (Forrest’s 1923 introduction) to lowish-level clusterings of the widely distributed Actaea rubra (sometimes grown under the synonym THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
The bright berries of Actaea rubra add to the autumnal vibrancy in the gardens
A. erythrocarpa). In several places there is the glossy black-fruited A. asiatica, ranging in height from 40cm to well over 1m. It makes a good foil for delicate pink Tricyrtis formosana Stolonifera Group, still in flower when its neighbour is in autumnal mode. Close by, that firstrate Astilbe simplicifolia hybrid ‘Willie Buchanan’ is at its foaming peak in late summer. Actaea, which some older readers will know better as Cimicifuga, is a rather modish and presently underappreciated genus, some of whose members are usefully dwarf. A Crûg Farm Plants selection of A. japonica is SEPTEMBER 2014
under 20cm tall if grown in moist shade and only half that in its native South Korea. One could hardly round off this autumn stroll without mentioning the gentians. A few inhabit the main rock garden, August-flowering Gentiana septemfida most prominently. But it is the lowest sequence of woodland beds that showcases various hybrids and several Chinese species in their full glory during late September and early October. Older raisings like G. x macaulayi (1931) have largely been superseded by 287
FOCUS ON SCOTLAND more recent ones such as Ian Christie’s 1980s pale blue G. ‘Strathmore’ and Ian McNaughton’s Berrybank hybrids (dating from 1999-2003, involving G. veitchiorum and G. hexaphylla in their make-up). Two of these, ‘The Caley’ and ‘Braemar’ (pictured on the cover of this issue), have been planted, the second in a dramatic group marking a floral highlight in autumn. It matters not that the flowers won’t open fully unless the sun shines through gaps in the surrounding tree belt, for their exteriors are vividly blue and white striped, with a rich blue icing-nozzle nose. Mat-forming G. ternifolia ‘Cangshan’ SBEC 1053 (from the 1981 Sino-British Expedition to Cangshan) is also a success, its compact, dark green foliage an effective foil for the deep sky blue flowers, the reverse trumpet stripings outlined with darker borders. This species was described 130 years ago in advance of the better-known G. sinoornata, a wide patch of which (dating from 1990, ref. CLD 1020) occupies the far end of the beds, where the soil never dries out. Even in July, when cracks were apparent on the rock garden heights, attempting to cut across the lawn close by left me ankle-deep in mud.
The troughs and the raised bed
Gentians and Gentianaceae also enliven the long raised bed that forms a border demarcating the old alpine house and its attendant frames and troughs, some isolated but most clustered and integrated at their feet by carpeting and low-growing plants such as thymes, Dryas octopetala, potentillas, alchemillas and acaenas. 288
A summer standby on the raised bed is Gentiana paradoxa, which requires dead-heading to prevent the yellowing spent corollas detracting from the display, as with its Sino-Himalayan counterparts. Almost unknown in British gardens before the second half of the 1980s, this Caucasian endemic’s large bearded flowers are in places juxtaposed with the much smaller, fresh-faced, bright sugar pink ones of Centaurium erythraea, which self-sows throughout much of the bed and its immediate surroundings, delicate enough to do no harm and blooming continuously during July and August. Numerous other plants have established well along the two-metre wide top and the stone wall faces of the bed, which are waist high on the outer stretch but much shallower on the side facing the frame yard, though cliff-dwellers such as Haberlea rhodopensis are as happy here as on the much higher wall immediately below the new alpine house and, indeed, in a similar construction behind the nursery gate. Other cliff-dwellers include that resolute sun lover, the neat and pearly white Linum salsoloides by the steps at the main entrance (long-lived if left undisturbed – it transplants badly); the difficult to please but here very happy Romanian Dianthus callizonus; and Erinacaea anthyllis, at its finest at the top of the rock garden where, in late May, a mantle of delicate violet-blue ‘pea’ flowers wholly obscures its spiny framework atop an edifice, effectively, if rather incongruously, attended by the Chinese Aquilegia rockii. THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
The charming Centaurium erythraea self-sows throughout the raised bed alongside the alpine house
Southern Africans
This diverse contingent forms a prominent element of the display in June especially, reflecting the efforts of just a handful of people. Foremost among them was Bill Burtt, who first went to Edinburgh in 1951 and worked influentially on numerous SEPTEMBER 2014
genera such as Colchicum, old world gesneriads, Zingiberaceae and Ericaceae. From 1964 onwards he teamed up with Olive Hilliard, who trained at Natal University and was made a research fellow there in 1963. They made numerous trips to the high Drakensberg, often on horseback, 289
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Cliff-dwelling Haberlea rhodopensis has several footholds at RBGE
camping under the overhangs of cliffs if no other billet was available. Such works as The Botany of the Southern Natal Drakensberg (1987) and The Manuleae: A Tribe of Scrophulariaceae (1995) are central to an understanding of the region’s flora. A long list of newly described species resulting from their researches could be compiled. For example, they wrote the definitive treatment of the genus Dierama, and in summer the rock garden features the elegant wands of half a dozen species. Or take another important genus, Helichrysum. H. 290
petiolare they described jointly. That acme of alpine species, H. sessilioides, Hilliard named independently in 1973 and it can be found clamped in the vertical crevices of the raised bed and in a trough, small cushions having accepted the Scottish climate. In turn, H. hilliardiae commemorates her work with the genus. Labels bearing the letters H&B indicate their discoveries, an example of which is the monotypic Glekia krebsiana, extensively distributed from the mountains of western Lesotho all the way down and westwards to the THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
The South African Helichrysum sessilioides has adapted to the Scottish climate
Oudeberg, north of Graaff-Reinet. With an upper altitude limit of around 2,150m, it survives most Edinburgh winters and, mainly in mid to late spring, has masses of small white flowers, orange-throated and with purplish reverses. The narrow toothed leaves clothing the rather twiggy mounds are hidden by the Sutera-like bounty. The 1990s were a particularly fertile period for numerous other accessions. In 1994 Mike Hirst from Houghall College, Durham, travelled to Lesotho with Kew student Darren Webster. Their seed collections have led to the establishment SEPTEMBER 2014
of species such as the long-blooming drop-headed Glumicalyx flanaganii. Even if you knew nothing about it, it has the distinct ‘feel’ of coming from that part of the world. Happiest with its rootstock tucked into a narrow crevice, it is an appealing oddity, though nothing like as showy as some of the plants introduced by the Lesotho-Edinburgh-Gothenburg Botanical Expedition (LEG) of 1997, a Dunbar, Harley & Tjeerdsma teaming. These are used freely on the raised bed and the rock garden, in troughs and rarely in the alpine house. It is there that Lobelia vanreenensis (LEG258), like a 291
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Helichrysum retortoides has fetching crimson reverses to its white ray petals
miniature Streptocarpus in flower shape and slenderness of stem, and frequent in damp part-shaded rocky areas of southern Kwazulu-Natal, flowers in high summer (January-July in the wild). In the northern hemisphere, meanwhile, July is when an excellent Hirst & Webster raising, Helichrysum retortoides, presents near-stemless everlasting heads by the hundred above neat silver-grey shoots. Its flowers have fetching crimson reverses to the white ray petals and they close up as soon as the sun goes in. Such pronounced photo-sensitivity is also true of purple-pink Delosperma lavisiae 292
(H&B 19163, dating from 1991), at its peak in late June, and forming bright patches in several troughs, at their feet and in other well-drained sites. On the rock garden, Felicia uliginosa (LEG 235) reacts to cloud by reflexing its Aster-like ray petals to a whirligig repose, yet one of the greatest successes, Macowania sororis (LEG 7), is unfazed and continues to blaze from a rocky eyrie, also revelling in a gravelly bed close to the path. Photographs taken in its native Lesotho and KwaZuluNatal, some showing proteas colonising the same cliffs and boulder-surfaced THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
The showy New Zealander Hebe macrantha tends to be straggly so is given support by neighbouring plants
slopes, seldom capture its extreme floriferousness. Eventually the muchbranched shrublets reach 1m or more across. At RBGE attention is drawn away from its dowdy post-flowering phase by an adjacent and equally substantial SEPTEMBER 2014
capping of lighter yellow Anthyllis hermanniae in July – an inspired piece of staging.
Some other combinations The
last
example
counts
as
a 293
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Saxifraga trifurcata growing through an underpinning of Cotoneaster adpressus
successional planting, but there are innumerable other associations. There are pragmatic ones such as that of another African, Geranium brycei (LEG 106) on sloping beds, its slightly flopping stems supported by yellow-flowered and dark-stemmed Sedum aizoon ‘Euphorbioides’, which keeps pace with the partnering elongation, eventually reaching 40-50cm tall. The showy South Islander Hebe macrantha, described in Mark & Adams’ New Zealand Alpine Plants (second revision 1986) as ‘a rather straggling shrub, 20-60cm tall’, is also grown through companion plants to disguise this failing. 294
With the northern Spanish Saxifraga trifurcata, an underpinning of Cotoneaster adpressus serves as a dark green foil for the bright white flowers of the ‘mossy’ in June, when strident pairings such as brilliant blue Veronica fruticosa next to the new yellow leaves of Spiraea japonica ‘Goldflame’ might well divide opinion. Others are subtle exercises in conservative taste. On a larger scale, what better to stabilise and colonise a rather dry steep slope than tiers of geraniums, waist-high Chinese Euphorbia jolkinii and the Greek Saxifraga rotundifolia subsp. taygetea (or so the label said: THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
A dynamic combination of Veronica fruticosa and Spiraea japonica ‘Goldflame’ SEPTEMBER 2014
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Bulbinella angustifolia contrasts with the spiny leaves of Onopordum acanthium
at 45cm tall, it was almost twice the orthodox maximum height) descending majestically into a bright yellow mass of New Zealand’s Bulbinella angustifolia, with the Scotch thistle, Onopordum acanthium, an architectural foil with its spiny basal leaves? I have barely mentioned some key elements of RBGE’s collections. Much could be said about the Rhododendron beds and the many specimen plants of these (let alone the other Ericaceae) and their histories. There are the New Zealanders, the under-cover collections and indeed the rich array of other plants 296
grown behind the scenes. There is a full catalogue of trilliums, tubers, corms and petalloid monocots, not to mention the immaculately maintained plantings in areas such as the Demonstration Garden and the Native Woodland. This summer, a wild-flower meadow, including poppies to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, was a spectacular success much admired by visitors. Twenty of the garden’s own staff lost their lives in the war. The Regius Keeper of the day, the aforementioned Balfour, commemorated some of THE ALPINE GARDENER
RBG EDINBURGH
A small section of the extensive wild-flower meadow at RBGE this summer
the staff who died by naming plants in their honour. Roscoea humeana for Private David Hume, killed at Flanders; Buddleja fallowiana for Sergeant George Fallow, who died from wounds received at Gallipoli; Syringa adamiana for Private Thomas Adam, killed at Flanders; and Primula menziesiana for Private Alan Menzies, killed at Loos. I encourage you to visit Edinburgh at any time of the year, but from late March to early October especially, and witness for yourself this wonderful garden and all it has to offer. SEPTEMBER 2014
RBGE information The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is open daily (except December 25 and January 1) from 10am. Closing times vary from 4pm to 6pm depending on the season. Admission is free, though a charge is made for entrance to the glasshouses. In the event of severe weather the garden may be closed at short notice. There is a restaurant, cafe and coffee bar. Phone 0131 552 7171 www.rbge.org.uk 297
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O
ne of the highlights of my annual holiday in Aviemore was visiting John Lawson’s alpine nursery at Inschriach. Down the slope, behind the house, the stockbeds always seemed to be in cool dappled shade, even at the height of summer. This was the dwelling place of exquisite alpine treasures. But long before you were there, your senses were assailed by a heavy perfume wafting through the air – the scent of Primula reidii. Strangely, although early writers describe the compact head of ivorywhite flowers, few mention their fragrance. Surely this must have drawn Dr Duthie to the plants, which he discovered in August 1884, at 13,000ft, on wet rocks near to the Ralam valley glacier in Kumaon province, northern India. Dr Duthie was Superintendent of the Saharunpore Botanical Garden and, recognising a new species of primula, he sent herbarium specimens and a substantial quantity of seed to Kew, naming the plant after his travelling companion, Mr Reid. The seed was widely distributed and, in most cases, mature flowering plants were raised. Some growers considered that it was of little horticultural merit because their plants bore few flowers which were small and poorly coloured. Other growers were more enthusiastic, reporting plants with heads of up to nine pure white or cream coloured open-faced bells which were delightfully fragrant. Seed seems to have been produced from these plants with little difficulty and P. reidii has been in cultivation ever since. However, the majority of plants now in 298
Solving the Primula reidii riddle Holidays in Aviemore meant visits to the famous Inschriach nursery for Ian D. Scott, where he first encountered the captivating Primula reidii. However, identifying its two varieties in his Fife garden presented a puzzle
general circulation are either P. reidii var. williamsii, or hybrids between var. reidii and var. williamsii. The blue-flowered form of P. reidii – var. williamsii – was introduced by Stainton, Sykes and Williams in 1954 and probably was one of the most important collections made during their expedition to central Nepal, which was sponsored jointly by the Royal Horticultural Society and the British Museum (Natural History). The plants raised as P. reidii var. williamsii are larger and seem to be more amenable to cultivation than P. reidii var. reidii, yet have the same overpowering fragrance. Nowadays it is possible to obtain both white and blue forms of var. williamsii, but it is difficult to ascertain whether this THE ALPINE GARDENER
JIM JERMYN
PRIMULA REIDII
Blue and white forms of Primula reidii var. williamsii
is the result of crossing with var. reidii or the introduction of a white sport of var. williamsii. It is worth noting that a number of the early growers reported that although their initial crop of plants had flowers which were of a deep blue with a white throat, subsequent generations seemed to be a paler blue and soon they were raising plants which had only a trace of blue around the rim of the flower. Unfortunately I was unaware of this observation when I first purchased my plants at Inschriach, and could not resist the temptation of buying a plant of each colour. I was delighted to see that the plants set seed which germinated easily, but the offspring were of a paler hue than the parent. Still, I was quite pleased and SEPTEMBER 2014
decided that the colour was ‘ethereal’. When the following generation flowered I could kid myself no longer. They were distinctly ‘wishy-washy’. Luckily, it is possible to get back to the deep blue form by growing a large number of seedlings, selecting the best blues, segregating them from inferior colour forms and collecting the resultant seed to repeat the process. After three generations (six years) I have now reestablished a good strain with flowers of a deep blue colour again. My experiences with P. reidii var. reidii have been equally frustrating. Over the past 20 years I have been lucky enough to obtain seed from Chris Chadwell’s Himalayan expeditions on four occasions (CC 1471, 1838, 4624 and, 299
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How to cultivate Primula reidii
I
n the first week of March seed is thinly surface-sown onto a seed tray of compost, gently watered and kept out of direct sunlight in an unheated greenhouse. Commercial peat-based compost is used, which is passed through a sieve to remove the larger fibres, as the next stage is the most difficult part. When the seedlings are still only about 5mm in height, they are individually teased out and transplanted into trays of 15ml cells. Although the growth above ground may be only 5mm, the roots can be 2cm long and divided, so sieving the compost allows the roots to be removed with minimal damage. Soaking the compost from beneath also helps the extraction process. A block of 70 cells (7x10) fits a hole-less seed tray, so the cells now stand in 5mm of water and remain in the shade, which is probably similar to their natural humid and humus-
5308). Each time the seed germinated effortlessly, but the seedlings were prone to damping off or grew but slowly. The best result that I could achieve was three small plants which flowered in autumn of the same year and did not reappear the following spring. This was difficult to fathom as seed of P. reidii var. williamsii, grown under the same conditions, produced strong plants that overwintered without mishap (see above). So I was rather bemused when the 300
rich habitat. The advantages of using plug cells are that a firm root-ball is established without competition from other seedlings; there is virtually no root damage when the seedlings are potted up; and any disease or infection is confined to a single cell. Normally by mid-June the small plants are ready for potting up as their roots are starting to emerge from the bottom of the cells. They are easily pushed out from the plug-tray, using a small wooden peg, and transferred to 7cm square pots filled with a mixture of peat-based compost, sterilised soil and 2mm granite chicken grit (2:1:1) with a little slow-release fertiliser. Finally, the pots are watered and left in the shade until it is obvious (strong new growth) that the root systems have expanded into the new compost. They are then ready to be moved to an outside stock-bed where the pots sit on a layer of moist sand.
latest offering of P. reidii var. reidii (CC 7201) not only germinated but grew into decent sized plants which overwintered without any losses. This seemed to run counter to my opinion that ‘if it’s doing well then it’s var. williamsii, and if it’s looking sick then it’s var. reidii’. In fact it was doing so well that I started to wonder if it had been incorrectly identified. The Soldanelloid primulas are notoriously difficult to identify when not in flower. Even the day before the THE ALPINE GARDENER
JENNY WAINWRIGHT-KLEIN
PRIMULA REIDII
The intensity of blue can vary among plants of Primula reidii var. williamsii
flowers opened it was impossible to name the plant. As the scape was not hairy, P. buryana had been eliminated. Likewise it was not P. wollastonii as the flower buds were cream, but this still left P. wigramiana and P. reidii as possible candidates. Eventually the first bud opened to show that it had been correctly identified as P. reidii var. reidii. But, how do the two varieties of P. reidii differ, apart from the colour of their flowers? We had the two varieties beside each other in our stockbed, where they had overwintered, and both started to produce new leaves simultaneously. However, the leaves of var. reidii were a yellowish-green compared with var. SEPTEMBER 2014
williamsii, and in addition were slightly pointed and not as wide. Unfortunately these characteristics are not diagnostic because I had previously recorded that an earlier batch of var. reidii seedlings had leaves which were of a blue-green colour, and the type specimen of P. reidii (Duthie) in the Kew herbarium has leaves that seem to be similar to var. williamsii. So the only difference seems to be in the flowers. If well grown, both varieties can produce a head of 10 to 12 flowers, with no difference in the flower size, but the flower scape of var. reidii is consistently half that of var. williamsii. This makes P. reidii var. reidii a much more compact plant and well worth growing. 301
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The Kevock story: how a nursery was born
W
hen David and Stella Rankin bought their modernist house near Edinburgh in 1983, they knew that it would allow them to indulge in growing a wide range of plants. Its sheltered garden slopes steeply away from the building towards the North Esk River and faces south-west. The top of the slope consists of well-drained sand, perfect for their rock garden, with underlying clay emerging at the bottom, where it is permanently wet, as evidenced by a thriving colony of Leucojum vernum and a host of bog plants. What they didn’t know at the time was that their home and garden, on the edge of the Pentland Hills to the south of the Scottish capital, overlooks the house half a mile away where the renowned Scottish botanist and plant-hunter George Forrest lived when he worked at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh in the early part of the 20th century. ‘That came as a complete surprise to us,’ recalls Stella. ‘In the evening I often sit looking out over the house, imagining Forrest walking along the lanes, returning from work. It’s as if his house was a magnet that drew us here.’ David and Stella first met in 1966 at the top the Tizi n’Tichka Pass in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco while on separate trips. David was studying chemistry at Cambridge; Stella was 302
John Fitzpatrick drops in on David and Stella Rankin, the owners of Kevock Garden Plants near Edinburgh, who have made the journey from horticultural novices to Chelsea gold medallists a student in London and went on to become an English teacher. Their love of high places has never waned. They have made field trips to study plants in New Zealand, Chile, the Rockies, the Alps, the Pyrenees, Nepal, Sikkim and China, to where they have travelled 11 times, the most recent, in July this year, to Yunnan. The Rankins relish travelling on their own and going off the beaten track. Stella says: ‘On a trip to Shika Shan in Yunnan in 1992, we were told by the locals in a remote area that we were the first westerners to visit since Forrest.’ Their fascination with plants began on camping holidays with their children in the mountains of Europe. ‘We realised that the types of plants changed as you went up and down the terrain,’ says David. ‘We were also inspired by our friends Don and Joan Stead, whose cottage we often visited right at the tip of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula on Scotland’s west coast, where they had THE ALPINE GARDENER
KEVOCK GARDEN PLANTS
David and Stella Rankin beside their Gold Medal-winning exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year, with assistants Elea Strang and Graham Gunn
“his and hers” rock gardens. The cottage still belongs to their family and we continue to enjoy staying there.’ They set about creating their own garden – 140m wide and sloping away 40m at its deepest – and brought in 13 tons of gravel to create drains at the lowest points. Paths have been dug into the slope to create terraced beds. Shrubs and trees feature prominently. David recalls: ‘A specimen of the Chinese Sorbus vilmorinii attracted the attention of Roy Lancaster when he visited the garden, and we worked out that he had most likely grafted it on to its rootstock when he worked at Hillier’s nursery.’ Stella adds: ‘In the beginning we SEPTEMBER 2014
had no gardening skills but we were captivated by plants. We have learned from working in the garden. We don’t have horticultural qualifications but we do have dirty fingernails.’ As their abilities grew, they decided to start a nursery. Kevock Garden Plants began in 1999, occupying a friend’s garden, and moved to the present fouracre site in 2002. Stella says: ‘We had been looking all over the Edinburgh area for a suitable site but ironically we found it a few minutes’ walk from our house, at the bottom of the road. It was just a field but it was perfect.’ Since then their catalogue has burgeoned to include many hundreds of 303
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The nursery’s nine main polytunnels and some of the many shaded frames
plants. Alpines and woodlanders feature prominently, many of them sourced by the couple on their trips overseas. Primulas are a speciality, with almost 200 taxa listed, and have been a key feature in their exhibits at the Chelsea Flower Show. In addition, two bulb catalogues are published annually. For 11 years in a row they have won Gold Medals at Gardening Scotland and the award for Best Alpine Nursery. Their first trip south to Chelsea in 2011 resulted in a Silver-Gilt Medal, but in 2013 and this year they were awarded Gold Medals. They have also received premier awards at the Harrogate Flower Show and intend to exhibit again at all three events next year, despite the hectic 304
schedule that this involves. This year they had just one day at base between returning from Chelsea and setting up at Gardening Scotland. ‘We are training our staff to be able to mount a show garden,’ says Stella, ‘passing on the skills we have learned as well as the skills required to run the nursery.’ There are two full-time and four part-time staff at Kevock as well as work experience students from RBGE and overseas, and the Rankins offer work placements to young people with learning difficulties. Of their exhibit in the Great Pavilion at Chelsea this year, Stephen Lacey wrote in The Daily Telegraph: ‘My favourite… was Kevock Garden Plants, with its THE ALPINE GARDENER
KEVOCK GARDEN PLANTS
Much of Kevock’s stock is grown from seed
little mountain of tumbling white alpine saxifrages, some dashing blue Himalayan poppies, and a miniature bog of multicoloured candelabra primulas. Heaven. And in its mini-dell, a lonely plant of a pale and retiring Primula ambita from China. It is, they told me, the only specimen of its kind in cultivation.’ David explains: ‘P. ambita comes from Yunnan. We were delighted to have it in flower at Chelsea because it’s the first time, to my knowledge, that it has been cultivated. I know of the existence of only two herbarium specimens, in Paris and Vienna. In 2012 Jens Nielsen found half a dozen plants close by a road, the first sighting for nearly a century. But SEPTEMBER 2014
when we returned there this year most of this tiny plot of land had been taken over for growing a few vegetables, and the rest had been washed away by a flash flood. After searching for quite a long time we eventually found another colony of plants, and were relieved to know that it is holding on in that area.’ Much of Kevock’s stock is grown from seed gathered from their own stock plants and garden plants, sourced during their expeditions and sent to them by other contacts worldwide. ‘People also leave their collections of plants to us,’ says Stella, ‘which is a good source of new material. We get surplus peony seed from the SRGC seed exchange and have been given a range 305
FOCUS ON SCOTLAND of Sorbus seed by Ness Botanic Garden.’ There are also the accidental arrivals. During my visit to Kevock my eye was caught by a clump of white flowers in a piece of scrubland at the rear of the nursery. On investigation it turned out to be Ornithogalum sigmoideum, which had established itself on the site of a former compost heap. And the Rankins are cultivating a sport of Cotinus coggygria after noticing that one shoot on the shrub in their garden was growing horizontally. ‘We propagated it and now have a ground-cover Cotinus which we have named ‘Nini’, ’ says Stella. The nursery’s infrastructure has grown over the years and, as well as the office cabin and other outbuildings, there are now nine main polytunnels with smaller tunnels behind them, as well as extensive areas of frames and stock beds. Two tunnels are given over to the design and construction of their show exhibits and growing the plants required for these. A big problem on a nursery this size is knowing what is in stock and where it is. To solve this, David has developed a database that contains details such as a description of every plant, its growing requirements, the number in stock or number of seeds sown, source of seed or cuttings, location on site and the names of customers who have purchased it. Every plant label is printed with its database code. An important part of their business is Stella’s garden design consultancy. She works on planting plans alongside other designers and landscapers and supplies them with plants. A large area of the nursery is dedicated to growing 306
Ornithogalum sigmoideum appeared on the site of an old compost heap
herbaceous stock for this purpose. ‘I like nothing better than having a blank canvas and planting a garden from scratch,’ she says. ‘It’s the big design jobs that keep the nursery running. We couldn’t survive on selling alpines for a few pounds each.’ Modern social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, play an important role in attracting new business to the nursery. ‘It’s how younger people communicate nowadays,’ says Stella. ‘If you want to reach them you must put a big effort into this form of marketing, and it’s paying off for us.’ Their love of primulas has led David, who retired four years ago as Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University, to THE ALPINE GARDENER
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The polytunnel in which David plans and builds Kevock’s Chelsea exhibit
become deeply involved in the scientific study of the genus. He has written several papers for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine and, with Pam Eveleigh and Jens Nielsen, has submitted a revision of Primula Section Bullatae, which will be published soon. He says: ‘Seeing whole populations of plants in the wild and observing them in cultivation throughout the year gives new insights, and few people have the opportunities to do both. That doesn’t remove the need for herbarium work, but it is much more fun.’ Asked to choose some of her favourite plants, Stella struggles – as we all do – to make a selection. ‘One would have to be Saxifraga ‘Anneka Hope’, named SEPTEMBER 2014
after our granddaughter,’ she says. ‘It has tremendously long arching stems of white flowers. It was raised by Matthew Ruane of Brynhyfryd Nursery near Oswestry, Shropshire, who sadly died last year – a chance cross in a tray of silver saxifrage seedlings derived mainly from S. callosa and S. longifolia. We exhibited it at Chelsea in 2011 in the Plant of the Year competition and it was runner-up. It flowers prolifically and many rosettes can flower at the same time, so there is a risk of losing a lot of the plant due to the monocarpic nature of each rosette. But the display is so spectacular that it is well worth growing.’ The aristocratic Japanese woodlander 307
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Primulas feature prominently in David and Stella Rankin’s garden
Glaucidium palmatum is another choice. ‘We were sent a large amount of seed by a Japanese friend,’ says Stella. ‘It’s a plant for the woodland edge, with delicate poppy-like flowers. Everyone who sees it falls in love with it. We now have it well established. Plants increase in size slowly, but patience is well rewarded. There are pink and white-flowered forms.’ That other well-known Scottish plantsman, Jim Jermyn, has described it, perhaps a little unkindly, as the ‘duckbilled platypus of the plant world’, explaining: ‘The flowers remind me of a poppy, the foliage is reminiscent of a buttercup and the seed capsules resemble a lily’s!’ 308
Stella also selects two peonies. ‘Paeonia veitchii, with its smallish single pink flowers and dissected leaves, is a really good doer,’ she says. ‘P. veitchii var. woodwardii is a fine form, somewhat shorter than the standard 50 to 60cm. It makes a wide clump of leafy stems with rich pink flowers, usually two or three on each stem. ‘Paeonia obovata ‘Alba’ is a firm favourite because of its coppery young foliage and simple white flower, which gives way to attractive red and blue seeds. Seedlings can be difficult to bring on so we often don’t have many in stock.’ Daphne wolongensis ‘Kevock Star’ was raised from a single seed found on a THE ALPINE GARDENER
KEVOCK GARDEN PLANTS
Paeonia veitchii var. woodwardii and, right, rows of young Sorbus at Kevock
bush in 1992 in China’s Wolong valley. ‘It was declared a new species by Chris Brickell,’ says Stella. ‘It is more upright than D. tangutica and very floriferous – an excellent plant. Its leaves are bright green on erect stems, giving a shrub that is taller than it is wide. In spring it produces masses of scented flowers, almost white inside but deep pink on the outside. Growing rapidly, it soon makes a feature in the garden. One plant grew so robustly that a branch broke off under its own weight. Within a year it was impossible to tell that it had suffered any damage.’ The black primula, P. melanantha, which was rediscovered in Sichuan SEPTEMBER 2014
in 2005 after being lost to science for a century, is another favourite. Three selections – ‘Stardust’, ‘Moonshine’ and ‘Nightglow’ – are micropropagated for the Rankins by Gentech. So what of the future? David intends to do more scientific writing while Stella hopes to increase the amount of work in her design consultancy. ‘And as long as we can climb mountains we will keep exploring,’ says Stella. Whatever they attempt, their enthusiasm, perseverance and dedication are an inspiration. To see Kevock’s full range of plants, visit www.kevockgarden.co.uk 309
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eather Raeburn is sitting at a drawing board, holding a paintbrush with the most delicate set of bristles at its tip. In front of her is a work in progress, a painting of Nomocharis pardanthina, which she views through a large magnifying glass. Light comes from a skylight window beside her desk which, fittingly for an artist, is located in the garret of her Edinburgh home. The subject, loaned by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, is also viewed through a magnifying glass so that Heather can pick out the nuances of detail. The image is built up gradually by imperceptible applications of watercolour. This is painstaking work, requiring much concentration, so at most she can put in five or six hours a day due to eyestrain and the effort of sitting at the drawing board. To complete one painting takes 100 hours, or one month. She confesses to working with an almost obsessive intensity in order to capture the beauty of plants while they are at their best and this is reflected in the images she produces. ‘I always paint plants from life,’ she says. ‘I always see something amazing in them and that’s what I try to show. I want the viewer to see something about a plant that perhaps previously they haven’t been aware of. Plants have character and elegance and I try to bring that out. As with painting a portrait of a person, to be successful you have to bring out the subject’s personality. ‘The Nomocharis is an exciting plant with frilly edges to its petals and deep magenta spots, and overall it has a very 310
Heather’s panache with plant portraits Heather Raeburn, whose work will be familiar to many AGS members, is one of Scotland’s leading botanical painters. John Fitzpatrick met the artist in her garret elegant disposition. Primulas are childlike, while snowdrops have an innocence and purity.’ One of her favourite subjects was Iris acutiloba. ‘I absolutely loved the plant because of its zebra-style stripes but, due to its unusual colouring, my painting limited appeal,’ she says. ‘I often choose subjects because I’m asked to paint them or, on a more commercial level, because I have a gap for a particular colour of flower in my portfolio. After all, this is my work and to earn an income I have to produce paintings that people want to hang on their walls.’ She is also a skilled portrait painter. Heather lives on the western fringes of Edinburgh city centre. The River of Leith runs along the bottom of her THE ALPINE GARDENER
HEATHER RAEBURN
Botanical artist Heather Raeburn at her home in Edinburgh with her cat Mim
garden, which is a secluded oasis near a busy main road. She admits she has much to learn about growing plants – her favourites include camellias, roses, hydrangeas and sweet peas. When she enrolled as a student at Edinburgh School of Art in her teens it was with the intention of becoming SEPTEMBER 2014
a book illustrator, but her ambitions swerved and she graduated as a glassblower. She ran a glass-blowing factory in Argyll for two years before training as an art teacher. ‘I love teaching,’ she says, ‘but I had to give it up. I worked at a school in Glasgow with more than its fair share of unruly children and I 311
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was expected to administer corporal punishment with the strap. I wasn’t prepared to do that.’ She opened a shop called Splash Designs in Edinburgh’s fashionable Candlemaker Row, selling knitwear and jewellery. But on July 6, 1988, she was dealt a shattering blow when her husband Bill was one of 167 killed in the Piper Alpha oil and gas platform explosion in the North Sea. 312
‘I gave up the shop,’ she says, ‘and eventually went back to work as a designer of corporate identities. Then, in 2006, I returned to teaching. ‘I’ve always loved botanical art so I decided to attend a weekly class at RBGE. I also submitted a portfolio to the RHS, which was accepted for exhibition.’ Recently Heather has been commissioned by Ehrman Tapestries to provide two paintings of roses that THE ALPINE GARDENER
HEATHER RAEBURN
Heather with her painting of sweet peas and, opposite, working painstakingly on a watercolour image of Nomocharis pardanthina
will be used to produce tapestry kits. ‘I also want to paint the inflorescence of a lacecap hydrangea,’ she says, ‘and a gentian.’ Her botanical paintings can now be found in private collections throughout the UK and beyond. Her work is also reproduced as prints and in various other formats and is marketed by the National Trust for Scotland, RBGE and, SEPTEMBER 2014
of course, the Alpine Garden Society. The AGS commissioned her to paint snowdrops and to produce a set of line drawings to be used on merchandise. To learn more about Heather Raeburn’s work visit www.heatherraeburn.com. Calendars, mugs, tea-towels and cards 313
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A spring display unmatched in Britain Robert Rolfe visits Wemyss Castle in Fife, where thousands of plants of Erythronium revolutum, encouraged to proliferate for decades by the owners, are the crowning glory of its gardens
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cotland is renowned the world over for its rich array of castles and for their often splendid gardens. Crathes and Kildrummy (both in Aberdeenshire), Drummond (Perth and Kinross) and Brodick (Ayrshire) are among the best-known: all of them figure on the coach party circuit. Scores of others are justly celebrated, though some are open only on a scattering of days, or in other cases strictly by appointment. A few are closed to the public altogether. Overlooking the north shore of the Firth of Forth, not far east of Kirkcaldy, Wemyss Castle dates back to 1421 and is the principal seat of the Clan chief,
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Michael Wemyss of that Ilk. His abiding horticultural interest is in the many fine trees on the estate, where a 15acre predominantly beech woodland clothes the slopes of the hinterland. His wife Charlotte, on the other hand, like her grandfather-in-law before her, has spent much time developing the underplanting of this area, and over the past 20 years has also restored the walled THE ALPINE GARDENER
garden, first laid out in the mid-18th century. Such shelter is essential for the sustenance of many of the plantings, given that ferocious, tree-toppling, salt-laden easterlies can roar up the estuary in the winter months. Mulching is also crucial, bearing in mind the frugal 23-inch (58cm) average annual rainfall. Whether bestowed in situ, or SEPTEMBER 2014
by transferring well-rotted leaf-litter over to parts of the garden where trees don’t overhang, this sustains the various spring-flowering woodland plants used extensively throughout, occasionally extending to the feet of the old roses and Clematis montana cascades that delight summer visitors. Here lies the crux, for while open from May 1 to July 31 on weekdays by 315
FOCUS ON SCOTLAND appointment, in most years one of the garden’s finest displays will have finished by even the earliest available opportunity (though not in 2013, an exceptionally late spring). For the woodlands are home to surely the most extensive and opulent stands of Erythronium revolutum in the British Isles. Yet the timing of their peak blooming is unpredictable, with March 14 the earliest date on record, May 7 the latest, and the first two weeks of April a likely but far from reliable ‘slot’ for an optimum display. The castle is a family home, not open to visitors, but the gardens are very well worth the trip. Wemyss can be reached in under an hour from Edinburgh. The weather vacillates between idyllic and dreadful in early spring, when the majority of the other plants, magnolias aside, are sometimes barely awake. It’s far too early for Scotland’s main tourist influx so, for all these reasons, opening the gardens to chime with the stupendous Erythronium spectacle isn’t feasible. When it comes to naturalising erythroniums, E. revolutum is the obvious choice. A few others will increase well in certain favoured gardens, such as the notable non-American, E. dens-canis, and E. americanum among the north-eastern Americans. Its stoloniferous habit helps, but only a few clones in cultivation flower well, as at RBG Edinburgh, though hardly in comparable quantities or anything like as showily. E. californicum, E. oregonum and E. tuolumnense are the alternative choices among fellow north-western USA representatives. But while I’ve witnessed 316
these from time to time present in their high hundreds, or exceptionally low thousands, E. revolutum, when ideally suited and sited, can cover far larger areas if given a helping hand. Three considerations are of particular importance: the selective weedingout of other would-be colonisers; the broadcasting of seed; and a no rejig, no dig policy, since disturbing the ground is detrimental. Hoeing is out of the question, even if the corms are dormant. It would dice the sleeping seedlings and in all probability behead their parents. Seasoned British garden visitors will cite the extensive swathes at Knightshayes Court (Tiverton, Devon), reported as adversely affected by the loss of mature trees there in recent years. Much further north, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, David and Stella Rankin deem E. revolutum a veritable weed in their garden, where it infiltrates numerous of their plants, both in pots and in the open ground, and the seed bank triggered when the weather ameliorates in April is formidable. But who would forfeit a ‘weed’ that goes dormant at the earliest hint of summer (most such garden menaces are in their ascendancy then), can easily be pulled out, doesn’t fling its seeds around recklessly and is undeniably beautiful? Kath Dryden nominated it as her ‘desert island’ choice (adding that of course it wouldn’t relish such a location), thereafter lauding it as her favourite among favourite monocots. She continued: ’It would take a page to list all the sources of the various clones and locations after 30 years of intensive growing here [Sawbridgeworth, THE ALPINE GARDENER
WEMYSS CASTLE AND ERYTHRONIUM REVOLUTUM
Part of the restored walled garden at Wemyss Castle
Hertfordshire]... Most have excellent leaves, [some have been]... given fancy names that don’t come true from seed and they rarely have vegetative offsets; if they do, they are probably hybrids.’ E.B. Anderson, one of her foremost gardener influences, said much the same, but rather surprisingly noted (AGS Bulletin volume 37, page 156): ‘I have found it does well in a well-drained soil with plenty of humus and in full sun... it does not appear to object to lime under these conditions,’ before adding, more conventionally: ‘In a dry area of Hertfordshire it throve in full shade. The corms should be planted as soon as received (or kept in damp peat until this SEPTEMBER 2014
can be done) at a depth of two inches; in a few seasons they will find their ideal level, maybe twelve inches down... It is doubtful whether this species ever increases by offsets, but seed is freely produced, and if sown not later than early autumn will produce flowering corms in four to five years’. One might update this advice by adding that June/ July is the optimum time for replanting, after when fragile new roots will often have emerged. Damage these and next year’s flowering will be impaired. One brilliantly sunny day in late April last year, I was fortunate enough to be driven round the Wemyss estate in an open Gator buggy with Charlotte 317
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Hundreds of plants of Erythronium revolutum cascade down a wooded slope at Wemyss
Wemyss taking the wheel. Her three very friendly dogs acrobatically tumbled in and out of the vehicle, gambolling joyously around before splashing enthusiastically into adjacent ponds at every opportunity. Erythronium 318
revolutum was introduced here in the late 1950s by Captain Michael Wemyss (grandfather of the present chief), source unknown. But establishing them was a slow process, and latterly old age – their introducer lived to the age of 94 – meant THE ALPINE GARDENER
WEMYSS CASTLE AND ERYTHRONIUM REVOLUTUM
Trillium chloropetalum is among many choice woodlanders that thrive here
that they were left to their own devices. Their abundance today is a tribute to the present incumbents - and especially my driver for the day, whose special project they have been for 21 years. She and her husband, who took over in 1993, set to work taking out a number of weak trees, clearing the undergrowth, deliberately sowing in areas hitherto uncolonised and preparing the ground to afford bespoke conditions. The results are spectacular. Within five minutes of leaving the car park, the fringe outliers of the main populations are evident, growing thickly mid-track as we race along, deeper and SEPTEMBER 2014
deeper into the woodland. And here they are, to either side, in countless thousands, massed in at least 20 main groupings, usually on sloping ground but sometimes on flattish sites near to the crest of the first ridge. There is shade here, but in a typical year the woodland canopy is not so far advanced, nor are the bluebell leaves so lush. The drifts glow in glades illuminated by sunlight, with filtered views down to the castle and out to the Firth of Forth. Aside from the flowers, one notices seedlings everywhere, coming up very thickly through the deep leaf-mould and bosky surfacing. It is difficult to avoid 319
FOCUS ON SCOTLAND treading on some of these. Even the most careful approach yields a crackling and a rustling that doubtless frightens off the local roe deer temporarily. These hungrily devour both the flowers and the foliage of the erythroniums and are considered the worst pest. At several points, metal ladders scale the tree trunks. Upon asking their purpose, I was told that these afforded vantage points ‘to shoot the blighters’. Any gardener who has had to contend with deer predation will sympathise and yearn for a similar provision. Charlotte Wemyss fondly refers to the area as a Fairy Wood (there is another of the same name at RBG Edinburgh, where predominantly native plants are used) and has worked hard to foster its development. Of particular importance is the collecting of the Erythronium seed capsules in June. When dry and starting to gape, these are placed in large bags, shaken vigorously and then scrunched to free any seeds that haven’t already been released. Winnowing removes the detritus. The crop is either packeted or sown straightaway in cleared areas around the main stands or in new sites. One of the rides is reserved for stock plants, and up to 1,000 corms per year are routinely sold to a well-known bulb nursery, but with some fallow years, of which 2013 was one. At first glance the drifts look remarkably uniform. Closer examination demonstrates otherwise. In fact the flowers can be anything from 6-10cm across. The individual perianth segments, whose tips flick up appealingly in the way of so many in the genus but curl up in untoward warmth, are 5-13mm at 320
their broadest point, frequently candystriped down the middle of their reverses and with differing amounts of maroon flushing at the bases of the superposed outer three ‘petals’. The throat markings were uniformly yellow (not always the case, most emphatically with the species’ hybrid issue, as will shortly be discussed), frequently with two concentric sets of chevron or bracket-like markings decorating the fount of all six inner surfaces. The overwhelming majority are mid to rich pink, but very occasionally paler or even white variants are present, surely the result of introgression from E. californicum and E. ‘White Beauty’, both present in limited numbers. These tend to produce more flowers per scape. Elmer Applegate, a monographer of the genus, wrote of E. revolutum: ‘Flowers usually one, sometimes two or three, rarely more,’ and this holds true at Wemyss and most other British gardens. Gary Dunlop of Ballyrogan Nurseries in County Down notes that larger forms of the species can reach an ultimate height of 50cm, and these too are often multiflowered. At Wemyss fledgling groupings have also colonised the footings of hedges and infiltrated the enclaves of the imposing walled garden, whose various corners and dividing laterals provide congenial spots for their establishment. Visitors congratulate the chatelaine on her foresight in placing them there, which causes amusement, for it is by the agencies of ants, birds, dogs’ paws, soil transfer and other happenstances that they are deemed to have arrived. There is no flukery, however, in the assemblages of shade-lovers that have THE ALPINE GARDENER
WEMYSS CASTLE AND ERYTHRONIUM REVOLUTUM
A cheerful pig sculpture surrounded by Narcissus poeticus
been clustered in such niches, for here you will find sympathetic gatherings of Jack-in-the-green, mainly white primroses, Dentaria digitata and cardamines, prettily mottled Trillium chloropetalum, along with hellebores, pulmonarias and brunneras. In one corner you might find a tumble of stones into which cowslips have seeded profusely; in another there will be ‘ordinary’ primroses, which have also made large clumps in the open borders. There are oxlips too, echoing the main stands on the edge of the woodland. Some plantings are overseen by statues
and sculptures in stone and bronze: normally features I dislike, but here entirely in keeping, and with a jaunty aspect, whether depicting the head of a titan disgorging a spout of water, a cockerel (also figured in box hedging) or a very happy-looking pig, surrounded by Narcissus poeticus in mid-spring. Charlotte Wemyss is a staunch supporter of Maggie’s Fife, a branch of the nationwide cancer charity, and those supported by the trust are encouraged to spend time in the gardens. Such features have been added with these visitors in mind.
OVERLEAF: A look at hybrids and selections of Erythronium revolutum SEPTEMBER 2014
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DNA weight analysis indicates the influence of E. revolutum in one or two Oregon populations of the narrowly endemic E. elegans (seven populations are known overall, some of these ‘pure’ or with E. oregonum in their make-up). It’s a matter of record that the two are compatible in cultivation. The widespread E. oregonum is a recurrent sire, despite supposedly authoritative assertions that ‘the two species do not overlap’. A correspondent on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, records one locality, Skutz Falls, ‘where E. revolutum melds into E. oregonum in such a way that white turns to pink in about 20 metres’. And in northernmost California, E. citrinum grows in the vicinity of E. revolutum, but records of hybrids between these two in the wild are either obscure or lacking.
Named cultivars in cultivation
Cultivated hybrids, both deliberate and spontaneous, have been around for many years. Their true nature has not always been recognised and they have been distributed as E. revolutum pure and simple. My rather limited personal experience suggests that certain hybrids arise fairly easily, while others (with E. hendersonii, for example, which produced several worthwhile seedlings from a 1989 cross) result largely or exclusively from controlled pollination, even when the parents are grown in close proximity. The most extensive programmes of deliberate hybridisation of the genus overall have taken place in the 322
Erythronium revolutum: some hybrids and selections Netherlands, where the raisings of men such as Willem van Eeden have had considerable horticultural impact, but for the purposes of this article I’ll stick with British efforts. E. californicum ‘White Beauty’, itself once misrepresented as a clone of E. revolutum, has been around for over a century and is widely grown, so its involvement in various hybrids is partly down to availability (until the 1990s, the range offered in nursery catalogues was modest) and ubiquity in Erythronium collections. One or two are only now coming to prominence, though clear evidence of this parentage is sometimes conjectural. ‘Rosalind’, for example, occurred at the Garden House (Buckland Monachorum, Devon) under the watch of Keith Wiley in the first half of the 1980s, the offspring of a late-flowering form of E. revolutum. As with various other such hybrids, it is fertile (I harvested a modest crop of seed last year), and at least two of its seedlings have been named. ‘Rosalind’s Baby’, a dwarf, deep pink selection, has been offered commercially, but some have found it very reluctant to increase THE ALPINE GARDENER
HUGH NUNN
WEMYSS CASTLE AND ERYTHRONIUM REVOLUTUM
Erythronium ‘Harvington Snowgoose’
vegetatively. ‘Rosalind’ first appeared in Keith Wiley’s Wildside Nursery catalogues of 2005 and 2006. Here too were listed ‘Joan Wiley’ (‘purple-pink flowers centred white, carried two or three per stem. Inherits vigour from its ‘Knightshayes’ parent’) and E. ‘Winifred Loraine’ (‘soft pink with a faint red ring’) from onetime National Collection holder for the genus Joan Loraine (Greencombe Garden Trust, Porlock), the site overlooking the Bristol Channel. Once again, E. revolutum and its issue clearly enjoy a sea view, as is repeatedly the case in its natural distributions, among them the type locality, Nootka Sound, an inlet on the west coast of SEPTEMBER 2014
Vancouver Island where it is deduced that Archibald Menzies first collected the species in 1793. The orthodoxy, according to monographer Elmer Applegate, is that, with rare exceptions, it is confined to areas ‘within perhaps 20 miles of the sea coast’. That said, in exile it can establish well further inland. The Vale of Evesham is one such place, where Hugh Nunn has selected plants such as the large-flowered E. ‘Harvington Snowgoose’ (given as a clone of E. californicum, but the tapered stigma points to the involvement of E. oregonum). He followed this with E. revolutum ‘Harvington Wild Salmon’, described as ‘a distinctive plant with graceful salmon pink flowers. Flowers a little later in April than most other erythroniums. Height up to 20cm’. Harveys Garden Plants (Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk) is also developing seedlings selected from the infraspecific cross E. revolutum ‘Hidcote Beauty’ x ‘Knightshayes Pink’. Those displayed at RHS flower shows in 2013 often had 3-5 flowers per stem, varying considerably in size and depth of colour, some almost a man’s handspan across, some deep raspberry pink, others much paler. Applegate wrote of the wild populations: ‘There are certainly no variations worthy of names.’ Well, when it comes to cultivated stocks, various gardeners have taken a very different view. A generous selection are of Irish origin, with Harold McBride’s novel and unmistakable ‘Stargazer’ featured in these pages as recently as December 2012 (pages 360-361). In County Down, Gary Dunlop has amassed an assortment at Ballyrogan 323
FOCUS ON SCOTLAND Nurseries, growing these and numerous other erythroniums in slightly raised woodland beds. Their cultivar names variously denote their striking foliage (‘Dark Dapple’); the name of the nursery that first distributed them (‘Inshriach form’, fairly pale pink and with white, not yellow anthers*); a garden (‘Plas Merdyn form’, which has pale lemon anthers and a fairly solid, unmarked, chrome yellow throat, came from the Holywood garden of Drs Bill and Gretta Lennon); or the precise nature/effect of the internal patterning (‘Lavender Eye’ is as you would expect, ‘Purple Heart’ has narrowish perianth segments and a purplish pink centre, again with a yellow surround, whereas ‘Inferno’ is almost white, the well-marked centre rust red, from which radiate short yellow flares). These are all garden hybrids. (* It is worth noting that although the anther colour for E. revolutum is frequently given as mid to bright yellow, much paler, non-hybrid examples exist.) Gary has also sourced several white forms, distinguished partly by their normally pure yellow but sometimes solid, sometimes broken throat markings. In much the same way as with snowdrops, such variations have an intrinsic appeal where enthusiasts are concerned. Gothenburg Botanical Garden has also sent out seed labelled E. revolutum ‘Album’ in one of its annual lists. Many of the above were originally seedraised but are vegetatively propagated, for as Gary Dunlop notes: ‘Apart from ‘Knightshayes’ (and ‘Knightshayes Pink: I work under the assumption that the former is the deep pink one and the 324
other, more recently named, is paler), I’ve only two good forms of E. revolutum that increase vegetatively, though slowly, both of them tall and large flowered. ‘One, ‘Guincho Splendour’, with silvermottled leaves, is usually the first to flower. It came indirectly to me, courtesy of Nigel Marshall, head gardener at Mount Stewart, from the garden of the late Mrs Frazer Mackie [Guincho references a Portuguese-style house in County Down, the noteworthy 12-acre gardens planted by Mrs Mackie between 1948-79, who reputedly obtained some of her erythroniums from nurseryman Carl Purdy in Ukiah, California]. ‘The other, about as large but later to flower, is the ‘God’s Valley’ one from Kath Dryden [from a location in Clatsop County, Oregon, at about 400ft (120m), not far south of the Columbia river estuary]’. In conclusion, this very selective survey of E. revolutum in the British Isles underlines that it is far and away the best species for naturalising purposes. Few will be able to match the grandeur of its setting at Wemyss Castle, or grow it in anything like the same numbers. But this is an adaptable species, as is shown by the various conditions recommended for its establishment. Applegate recorded stands ‘in openings in forests, margins of swamps and bogs, and along wooded streams’, and the deep, humus-rich soils often recommended accord with this. Yet some North American books state that it prefers ‘soil of fine sand’. There is no artificial irrigation in the woodlands at Wemyss, and the beech roots must make the Erythronium sites there periodically dry in summer, yet THE ALPINE GARDENER
HUGH NUNN
WEMYSS CASTLE AND ERYTHRONIUM REVOLUTUM
Erythronium revolutum ‘Knightshayes Pink’
the dense deciduous shade renders this of no account. Vigorous forms worked up in gardens such as Spinners and Knightshayes are probably best, or increasingly gardeners can opt for hybrids such as E. ‘Janice’ that have a propensity to increase vegetatively, a SEPTEMBER 2014
trait seldom found in their E. revolutum parent. The considerable help of Peter Erskine, Gary Dunlop and Madam Wemyss of Wemyss in the writing of this article is very gratefully acknowledged. 325
MIKE DALE
PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS NORTHUMBERLAND
Cyril Lafong’s Forrest Medal-winning Trillium rivale ‘Purple Heart’ and, opposite, George Young’s Fritillaria tubiformis, the best 19cm pan
T
aking in the tail-end of March and onwards to Easter Saturday (which fell late, three-quarters of the way through April), this report covers this year’s mid-spring displays. As always, an ever-changing cast of thousands, impossible to predict with any precision, took to the stage, or more accurately was staged, by a much easier to predict cohort of exhibitors. The majority of the most colourful plants were accounted for by dwarf bulbs and their close allies that come under the umbrella-heading ‘petalloid monocots’ worldwide, Primulaceae suited to alpine house or else careful outdoor cultivation, dwarf shrubs (the best and the hardiest from the northern hemisphere), terrestrial orchids and the cream of woodland plants.
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Trillium tops a fine display by Cyril This digest looks at some of the most notable, most eyecatching and more unusual of these. Members in a position to do so are encouraged to visit a show and witness the full range for themselves. We start in Northumberland, where a varied array of mature plants in large pots could be admired. Several of these belonged to Cyril Lafong, who might well have won the Forrest Medal for his 36cm pan of Tecophilaea THE ALPINE GARDENER
2014 SHOWS FEATURED: Northumberland, South West, North Midland, Ulster, Midland, Cleveland COMPILED BY ROBERT ROLFE FROM REPORTS BY: Don Peace, Jim Almond, Diane Clement, Billy Moore, Dave Riley, Robert Rolfe
cyanocrocus ‘Violacea’ but instead took the award back to its spiritual home with a similarly sized Trillium rivale ‘Purple Heart’. He also showed a very floriferous Pulsatilla vernalis of the order one very occasionally sees in cultivation yet seldom, if ever, in the wild, where clumps with flower stems in double figures are exceptional. Of equal note was Cyril’s vibrant mature cushion of Dionysia aretioides, large examples of which appeared regularly SEPTEMBER 2014
from the 1970s through to the end of the 20th century (I’ve a slide showing seven of these in a single class from 1991). Another Iranian (borderline in this case, for it is known only from a few high limestone mountains in that country and adjacent north-eastern Iraq, flowering at snow-melt), Fritillaria poluninii is arguably the most diminutive member of the genus, sometimes only 4cm tall, with one or two (rarely three) whitish and green-veined campanulate flowers. Now accorded species status, it was discovered by Oleg Polunin during his 1958 Iraq expedition and originally classified as a subspecies of Fritillaria crassifolia. Dr Lafong’s panful of 11 spikes had been amassed from a sowing made in 1996 and subsequently given standard bulb treatment – a rich gritty compost 327
DON PEACE
NORTHUMBERLAND
PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS
FARRER MEDAL WINNERS 2014 NORTHUMBERLAND (SRGC Forrest Medal) Trllium rivale ‘Purple Heart’ (Cyril Lafong) SOUTH WEST Narcissus obesus ‘Lee Martin’ (Lee & Julie Martin) NORTH MIDLAND Draba longisiliqua (Frank & Barbara Hoyle) ULSTER Trillium chloropetalum ‘Bob Gordon’ (Billy Moore) MIDLAND Sebaea thomasii (Tim Lever) CLEVELAND Fritillaria affinis (George Young)
kept moist (including occasional halfstrength high-potash feeds) in spring, then dryish during the summer. Much the same regime had benefitted George Young’s F. tubiformis, eight years older and with dusky purplishgrey flowers conversely measuring among the largest of all fritillarias, at this early stage held so low that they touched the gritty topdressing (they subsequently rear up to a height of 20cm or more). The exhibit won the Sandhoe Trophy for the best 19cm pan. Staying in the Open Section, Tom Green’s sphagnum moss-dressed Primula vulgaris was the best of its kind seen in recent years, while the same surfacing displayed to full effect David Boyd’s brilliant Oxford blue clump of Hepatica x media ‘Millstream Merlin’. Don Peace had a number of Fritillaria exhibits, a six-pan made up of these alone, though his other small six-pan boasted a lovely Dionysia gaubae, one 328
of the most appealing of all the many Iranian species (yet another of which has been described this year) but prone to sudden collapse, so that a healthy plant can transmute to a corpse within a few days. Turning to a far more reliable family member, Peter Hood’s pristine white mound of Primula x loiseleurii ‘Aire Mist’ received a Certificate of Merit. Frank and Barbara Hoyle showed a very large, phenomenally flowered Draba longisiliqua. The crucifer’s rich yellow mantle was four-fifths fully out but, viewed from the back, a substantial fringe of unopened flowers was evident. As a rule, by the time that any such late buds break, the earlier complement will be shedding part-bleached petals by the hundred. Fortuitously, a relatively cool interval between then and the following week’s North Midland Show allowed a reappearance at its absolute peak. The main rival for the Farrer Medal, a similarly weighty D. acaulis of comparable age THE ALPINE GARDENER
DON PEACE
NORTHUMBERLAND
A beautifully flowered pan of Primula vulgaris shown by Tom Green and from the same exhibitors, was every bit as accomplished but in truth rather less showy, though with the advantage of very short flower stems, whereas those of D. longisiliqua formed a 10cm wide aura (the number estimated at around 1,700!). Getting the plant on to the bench necessitated a strenuous lift and a tricky journey from the car boot. Hug the heavy pot too close to your body and some crumpling of bloom is inevitable. But I’m getting ahead of the sequence of events, for on the same day as the Northumberland Show, down in Devon the South West Show returned to West Exe Technology College – a well-supported event, and with no stairs to struggle up while carrying heavy pots! Having been overlooked at SEPTEMBER 2014
Rainham a week earlier, Lee and Julie Martin’s Narcissus obesus ‘Lee Martin’ now received its proper due, 21 years after the first Farrer Medal went to this opulent clone, purchased from a Local Group sales table in 1985. This latest representation had been devised in 2011, when a sizeable handful of pea-sized offsets was potted up and grown on in equal parts of loam, leaf-mould and grit. The name Paul Voelcker will conjure up in some readers’ minds a handsome double clone of Helleborus torquatus, but this Hampshire gardener is also linked to the unusually parchment-coloured Scilla peruviana ‘Paul Voelcker’, shown by Julian and Sarah Sutton, which has a coloration surely unique within the genus. 329
PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS
JON EVANS
SOUTH WEST
JIM ALMOND
SOUTH WEST
Lee and Julie Martin with Narcissus obesus ‘Lee Martin’ and, left, Dick Fulcher’s Tropaeolum azureum hybrid
Dorothy Sample’s Certificate of Merit-winning Primula ‘Janet Aldrich’, raised by David Philbey, has ties with the same English county and first bloomed in 1995, its seed parent being P. ‘Lismore 79/26’ and the pollen parent thought to be P. x pubescens ‘Harlow Car’. Another slow-growing European hybrid, the puzzlingly named Primula ‘Purple Emperor’ (it blooms before that butterfly is in flight and is of a different hue) was raised by Ken Wooster in 1949, using P. allionii and P. ‘Linda Pope’. Eric Jarrett exhibited the first of several plants seen during 2014 after 330
THE ALPINE GARDENER
JON EVANS
SOUTH WEST
The unusually parchmentcoloured Scilla peruviana ‘Paul Voelcker’, shown by Julian and Sarah Sutton of Desirable Plants nursery in Devon
too long an absence from the show bench. It is not a plant to be hurried (heavy feeding is counter-productive) and is best grown in a sharply drained compost (Cornish grit, perlite and sharp sand in equal measure, with 30-40 per cent John Innes No. 3 in this case). Fritillaria graeca subsp. thessala is hardy in the open but thrives under glass – witness Cyril Dart’s Certificate of SEPTEMBER 2014
Merit-winning pan. Obtained as a single bulb some seven years previously, it had increased reliably since then in a mix of 50:50 John Innes No. 3 and grit without the need for supplementary feeding. Another local grower, Dick Fulcher, brought along an unusual Tropaeolum azureum hybrid, the reddish buds opening a delicate orange then turning cream with age, rather than the true blue 331
PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS HEATHER SMITH
ULSTER
Saxifraga ‘Marsyandi’ grown by Carole and Ian Bainbridge
of the seed parent. Now that a number of allied species are in cultivation, such chance and deliberate hybrids are fairly well-known, with special mention here for Rosemary Wilson’s pioneering efforts. Over in Ulster a week later, Val Keegan reminded show-goers what typical T. azureum looks like at its best, its reappearance something of a relief, for last year no top growth was evident, as can sometimes happen. Clearly the plant had enjoyed its sabbatical, saving its performance for this, the 75th Anniversary Show of the Ulster Group – and the 29th organised by our longestserving show secretary, Pat Crossley, who also masterminded the evening celebrations in the Stormont Parliament Buildings. 332
Carole and Ian Bainbridge, over from Scotland for the weekend, had several notable wins, including a large threepan that was awarded the Festival of Britain Trophy. The starring role went to a distinguished Saxifraga ‘Marsyandi’, this name denoting its Nepalese provenance (the spelling ‘Marsyangdi’ is often used nowadays for that high Himalayan valley) and side-stepping the debate over its precise identity, which has continued over the 30 or so years since its introduction. S. andersonii is the usual guess, although the names of several other species have been advanced, with the possibility of interspecific introgression also mulled over. It needs to be grown outdoors in a gritty humus-rich compost that never dries out. Under glass, in the summer especially, it THE ALPINE GARDENER
HEATHER SMITH
ULSTER
Primula ‘Peter Klein’, part of Harold McBride’s large six-pan entry
etiolates and suffers from heat exhaustion. Equally better off in the open right through to flowering time, Primula ‘Peter Klein’ is also of Himalayan stock (P. clarkei x rosea is the accepted parentage) but was raised in the USA almost 50 years ago. Harold McBride had increased his plants by division shortly after flowering to yield a lovely grouping, the plumb component of his AGS Medal-winning large six-pan entry. A well-fed and well-watered regime is much to the liking of various trilliums, which perform better in certain Irish gardens than almost anywhere else. Bob Gordon’s Portglenone acreage comes under this heading, and a self-sown Trillium chloropetalum with yellowish flowers, given as one of a clump of SEPTEMBER 2014
seedlings to Billy Moore some seven years ago, had been potted up the previous late summer, sunk in friable ground to rim level over the winter, then sheltered from February onwards to fend off wind or mollusc damage. Similar forms have been found in the wild in California not far from San Francisco. On to the North Midland Show, where it was heartening to witness first-rate plants throughout, the Novice Section included. Many will fondly remember Mike Bramley, a previous joint North Midland show secretary, who specialised in showing beautifully flowered half-pans of Tecophilaea cyanocrocus, a skill passed on to his grandson Adam, winner of the Nottingham Junior Challenge Trophy. 333
DON PEACE
PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS NORTH MIDLAND
DON PEACE
Primula ‘Lindum Limelight’ shown by Brian and Shelagh Smethurst NORTH MIDLAND
Barry Tattersall’s Diuris orientis 334
The attractive Primula ‘Lindum Limelight’, shown by Brian and Shelagh Smethurst, bears a passing resemblance to the more commonly seen ‘Wharfedale Village’ and is presumably of similar parentage, yet it has more dainty, less furled creamywhite flowers on a rather more compact plant. Raised by Martin and Doreena Thompson, who have prefixed this and many other raisings with ‘Lindum’ (an ancient word for Lincoln, their home town), it was one of at least four such hybrids seen at the April shows. Barry Tattersall, who specialises in terrestrial orchids, won a Certificate of Merit for the Australian Diuris orientis, which can form large colonies among grass in dry sclerophyll forest, restricted to Tasmania and the Nadgee-Timbilica THE ALPINE GARDENER
AGS judges at work in Chesterfield: from left, Vic Aspland, Clare Oates, John Richards, Geoff Rollinson, Dave Riley and Lionel Clarkson
region of Victoria, New South Wales and flowering well in the wake of forest fires. Barry’s clump bore ten spikes of multiheaded flowers which each have two long protruding lateral petals, giving rise to the common name of donkey ear orchid. He grows it alongside a selection of Mediterranean orchids and claims the magic ingredient in his compost is a form of clay granules sold as ‘Sophisticat’ cat litter, mixed with perlite and coarse grit, and John Innes No. 2 or 3. The Ralph Haywood Trophy went to Lionel Clarkson’s Daphne petraea ‘Lydora’, one of the deepest-coloured selections distributed by Peter Erskine. This was perhaps the largest plant exhibited to date, occupying a 36cm black plastic pot, and densely flowered overall. Of similar age, but smaller and SEPTEMBER 2014
a more delicate pink, Ian Kidman’s Rhodothamnus chamaecistus was one of a batch raised by a friend and offered for sale on an AGS members’ table at a reasonable rate but with no takers at close of play. Considering how seldom this most distinguished member of the Ericaceae is listed in nurserymen’s catalogues, it’s astonishing that the stock wasn’t sold out in the first five minutes. Don Peace once again had a diverse range of fritillarias, including the novel cross F. whittallii x grandiflora, darker and more ample of bell than its seed parent, while his F. tuntasia, an 18-yearold stock of almost black, coolie hatshaped flowers, held well to reappear at Knowle the following Saturday, where the 19cm pot received the Midland Challenge Cup. Among other very good 335
DON PEACE
NORTH MIDLAND
PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS JON EVANS
MIDLAND
Sebaea thomasii won a first Farrer Medal for Tim Lever
Opposite, Ian Robertson’s Cyclamen rhodium examples of rarely shown species, a second Greek islander, George Elder’s F. theophrasti, was notable in a seedraised class. Until its 2000 coining this was known as F. pontica var. substipelata, but it is more alluring than almost any manifestation of that species, with large, pale green flowers stained brownishpurple on the interior of the slightly flared bell and externally along the rim. The same exhibitor’s large pan of the Californian Erythronium helenae was just a day or so past its prime. Nonetheless, the brilliant white flowers with their bright yellow centres were dazzling, not least on account of their size, half as large again in comparison with typical material. A new Kew monograph on this ever more popular genus has recently been published. 336
Aberconwy Nursery’s Tim Lever has brought some beautifully grown plants to shows up and down the country in recent years. At the Midland Show his Sebaea thomasii was awarded the Farrer Medal (echoing his father’s similar success some years ago), this form with notably broad-petalled flowers. The only member of its fairly large and predominantly yellowflowered genus to have settled down in cultivation, this Drakensberg native is clearly suited to the North Wales climate, for it is also prospering outdoors in a crevice bed at Aberconwy. Unusually there were no entrants in the small six-pan class, but two heavyweight contenders vied for first place in the Open Section. Ian Robertson’s winning THE ALPINE GARDENER
entry had three large Cyclamen along its back row, of which C. rhodium subsp. vividum in a form with particularly wellmarked leaves also received a Certificate of Merit. The front three continued the Turkish/Greek theme of the entry, for both fritillaries were from the first of these countries, while Iris attica (which some mistook for a garden hybrid on account of its showily bicoloured white and lilacpink flowers) was of Greek provenance. The vintage run of Fritillaria exhibits more or less came to an end at the Cleveland Show, where George Young’s F. affinis provided a fitting grand finale. North American species are less widely grown at present than in their late 20th century heyday, and indeed in all the years since Eric Jarrett took the Farrer Medal with the same species at SEPTEMBER 2014
JON EVANS
MIDLAND
the 1999 London Show I hadn’t seen a clump to rival his multi-flowered and tallish selection. Nor, apparently, had anyone else, for George’s entry was unanimously voted best in show. This was a less lofty, less speckled, less frilled version, with often one, occasionally two flowers on each of the plentiful 30cm stems. But it has the same habit of increasing well from offsets, those bulbs set to flower the next year, or the one after that, sending up a particularly ample basal leaf by way of a promise. With Easter Saturday falling near its latest possible date this year, the range of plants included a number that typically peak in May and later – examples included several cypripediums, scores of lewisias, Tulbaghia cominsii and Daphne x whiteorum ‘Beauworth’. Another 337
PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS ROBERT ROLFE
CLEVELAND
Alan Spenceley’s albino form of the shortlived Primula yuparensis
noteworthy performance: Peter Bland’s x Jancaemonda vandedemii was surely the best-flowered since the one exhibited at the old East Cheshire Show in 1987 but represented a re-creation of the cross, made in Scotland by Brian Wilson, rather than the original Swiss miscegenation. Tony Stanley won two of the three trophies in the Intermediate Section with a small-flowered example of Androsace vandellii, the cushion almost the size of a tennis ball, but his best plant (the flowers had better substance, and were both broader-lobed and larger) was in the small-pan Open Section. Here two other white-flowered plants drew attention. Alan Furness’s prostrate Iberis from Kaz Dağ in north-west Turkey had been introduced by Josef Jurášek in 2010. Shown as I. pygmaea, 338
the validity of this name has been disputed but, if indeed it is best assigned to I. sempervirens, then it is an unusual microform, differing most obviously in its flattish heads of virginal candytuft flowers and the incurved clasping leaves that clothe the short stems top to bottom. Alan Spenceley’s albino form of Primula yuparensis, a far-flung P. farinosa relative from Hokkaido’s Mount Yubari, was first grown in Britain (in its more typical purplish-pink phase) just over a century ago. The whitish farina on the reverse of the small leaves, the sparse umbels of two to three flat-faced flowers per head, and their generous size (to 15mm) are all diagnostic. It is selfcompatible and breeds true, so stocks of this short-lived perennial are reasonably straightforward to maintain. THE ALPINE GARDENER
Also of Japanese origin, Trevor Harding’s Phyllodoce nipponica var. oblong-ovata (shown under its pseudonym P. tsugifolia) was a delight, compact and covered in tubby white crinolined bells, though a spot of stewarding was necessary to rescue it from a position eclipsed by towering Pieris japonica clones, far more robust fellow countrymen best planted out in the garden and in need of radical pruning on the evidence supplied! Among the numerous Ericaceae exhibits, it was rivalled only by a plant labelled Rhodothamnus chamaecistus (the third fine example this season).
ROBERT ROLFE
CLEVELAND
George Young’s Fritillaria affinis, which increases well from offsets Ian Leslie had raised it 14 years ago from seed distributed by Josef Halda, but on checking the relevant list for 2000, only the closely allied Turkish R. sessilifolius is present. Tony Hall has been in contact to say that a plant exhibited as Iris galatica (page 221, June 2014 issue) is undoubtedly I. stenophylla subsp. stenophylla from north-west of Ermenek, well away from where I. galatica occurs
Full show reports and more pictures can be seen on the AGS website SEPTEMBER 2014
339
The land of ‘peaks like frozen flames’
Main picture: The Dolomites above Wolkenstein (Selva) and, inset, Primula halleri
Katie Price journeys to the northern Italian province of South Tyrol to witness hundreds of species of plants in flower in a variety of habitats. Photographs by Katie Price and Andreas Groeger
EXPLORATION
A typical alpine meadow in the mountains of South Tyrol
T
he Italian province of South Tyrol is a day’s journey from the UK and home to one of the best loved, most visited and most rewarding mountain groups for the alpine plant enthusiast – the Dolomites. But there are other ranges in this fascinating region that also offer up treasures if you are able to drag yourself away from what Reginald Farrer called ‘a land of magic, enclosed by peaks like frozen flames’. In mid-June this year, the chairlifts and cable cars were just beginning to reopen after their two-month inactivity at the end of the ski season. I travelled there
342
with Andreas Groeger, the scientific curator of the alpine collection at the Munich Botanical Garden. We knew of the wealth of plants that lay in the crevices, outcrops, screes and meadows above us, but our questions were variants of those that are always asked when a trip to the mountains is planned – are we too early to see ‘x’ (Potentilla nitida)? Will the flowers of ‘y’ already be gone (Primula minima)? Will we discover ‘z’ (Eritrichium nanum)? First we stayed for a week in the Dolomites, in the valley of Alta Badia, the heartland of the Ladin people who THE ALPINE GARDENER
SOUTH TYROL
The dramatic pinnacles of the Sass de Putia
have lived there for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. Then we travelled to the other side of the province to visit the balmy spa resort of Meran (awash with the powerful scent of Trachelospermum jasminoides) and even further to visit the mighty mountains in the national park of the Stilfs (Stelvio) Pass. Before bounding up the slopes of the Dolomites in search of plants, it’s worth reflecting on the reasons for the diversity and richness of the flora. Geology, climate and human intervention have combined to create this plantsman’s paradise. The astonishing complex of SEPTEMBER 2014
peaks, escarpments, plateaus, gorges and lakes lay once (more than 250 million years ago) at the bottom of a wide tropical sea, dotted with coral atolls and the occasional volcano. It’s hard to imagine – except in terms of apocalyptic blockbuster movies – how this vast seabed fractured and rose skyward when Africa detached itself from the supercontinent of Pangaea and tilted towards Europe. And, looking out over those massive, apparently immutable mountains, it’s hard to believe that you are watching the continuing process of weathering and glaciation that has, 343
EXPLORATION over millions of years, sculpted this monumental landscape. But the marks that humans have made are very obvious. Forest clearance began in the Neolithic age and the harvest of strong, dense spruce underpinned the thousand years of the Venetian republic – both literally, as piles driven into the soft sediments of the city’s lagoon, and metaphorically, as the construction material for its mighty navy. Trees were felled for fuel and shelter, but even greater areas were cleared at higher elevations as seasonal mountain pasture became an integral part of mountain agriculture. Lower down, around the traditional Ladin settlements known as ‘viles’, crops were cultivated in open fields, and terracing can still be seen. The relentless expansion of tourism – particularly skiing – since the mid19th century has had a dramatic impact but, while we may be anxious about the habitats destroyed, the excellent roads, lifts and cable cars take you to within a few hours climb of the highest peaks. Finally, 100 years since it began, there are poignant reminders of the misery of the First World War. An Austrian fort, barracks and trenches once guarded the strategic Passo Valparola against capture by Italian forces. Nearby, towering above the ruins of a field hospital, the side of the Castelletto outcrop was blown to pieces. Pathetically, more lives were lost to the harsh winters than to the fighting. Tectonic activity means that all the underlying rock has been pushed together and jumbled up. To one side of a pass, pale limestone cliffs soar above their silver skirts of scree. To the other 344
side, smooth green contours indicate igneous rock and the likelihood of plants that avoid lime. This means that in one day, without haring about for hours in a hire car or hitching a ride with a leatherclad biker (there are a lot of them about), or even really giving your calves a good stretch, you can see a swathe of different ecosystems and the plants that have evolved with them. In general, the preferences of the plants for particular aspects and habitats were clearly delineated. (I was surprised to see the elegant powder-blue flowers of Clematis alpina cascading over an exposed rock in full sun, but on closer inspection I found the base of a felled Arolla pine, Pinus cembra, in whose shade the climber would first have become established.) So I’m grouping them loosely according to the habitats in which we saw them and mentioning just a handful – some well-known, some less so – of the hundreds of species that we saw in flower.
Cliffs and outcrops
L
et’s start at the top, at around 2,200m, with cliffs and outcrops. We pick our way up a gritty path through a dense layer of the dwarf mountain pine, Pinus mugo, punctuated here and there by Arolla pine, Pinus cembra, and larch, Larix decidua. On outcrops above the coarse limestone scree, the pretty glaucous grass, Sesleria sphaerocephala, has pale tufts of flowers and would make a nice addition to a trough. Large colonies of Rhodothamnus chamaecistus, with its baby-pink and saucer-shaped flowers, sometimes tumble through the THE ALPINE GARDENER
SOUTH TYROL
The dwarf alpine rose, Rhodothamnus chamaecistus, is found on scree or with other plants in crevices
scree, sometimes find purchase with other plants in crevices at the base of the salmon-coloured west-facing limestone cliffs of the Kreuzkofel (Sas dla Crusc in the Ladin language). Here too, and only in such volume at this location, we find what Will Ingwersen called ‘one of the glories of the high screes’ – large silvery mats SEPTEMBER 2014
of Potentilla nitida, both in scree and on cliffs. Perhaps we are early, as there are only a few of the almost sessile pink flowers, and then only on the cliff dwellers. At a similar altitude, as we walk along the more golden south face of the Setsas from Passo Valparola, there is the crevice-loving Veronica bonarota (the 345
EXPLORATION
Veronica bonarota (syn. Paedarota bonarota) emerging from a vertical crevice 346
THE ALPINE GARDENER
SOUTH TYROL
Thlaspi rotundifolium, which is easy to cultivate on tufa in an alpine house
toothed leathery foliage is quite similar to that of the nearby Physoplexis comosa, which we are too early to see in flower). For some reason – perhaps because it is hard to cultivate – I had never heard of this eastern Alps endemic, syn. Paedarota bonarota, but with its drooping terminal clusters of twisting tubular blue flowers it could be a lovely subject for a piece of tufa. We encounter only one specimen of Phyteuma sieberi, tucked under an overhang in a crevice in a huge golden boulder in the beautiful alpine pasture of Col Raiser above Wolkenstein (Selva), its many globular heads of blue flowers held proud above its arrow-shaped SEPTEMBER 2014
leaves. Coming back down on the cable car we meet charming Italians from Bolzano who are completely obsessed by Downton Abbey. Walking southwards up from the Passo Pordoi at 2,239m we leave the dramatic limestone cliffs and swing east on the Bindelweg, an ancient trading route that traverses the smooth volcanic Padon Chain under the icy gaze of the glacier-clad Marmolada (at 3,343m, the highest peak in the Dolomites). The dense turf covering this lime-free zone looks monotonous and unpromising, but growing on turf edges are clumps of scruffy yellow Vitaliana primuliflora. And, on the large grey granite outcrops, 347
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The King of the Alps, Eritrichium nanum, referred to by Reginald Farrer as ‘the gardeners’ classic failure’
among scrappy Minuartia and muted Saxifraga, are the unmistakable blue flowers and ‘gleaming silver-fluffy leaves’ (Farrer) of Eritrichium nanum, ‘the gardeners’ classic failure’.
Screes
At above 2,100m on the screes, which Farrer calls ‘the lonely shingles’, we 348
discover, alongside crippling vertigo, several plants that are rather rare in cultivation. Thlaspi rotundifolium is a fragrant, lilac-pink flowered Brassicaceae whose olive-green cushion looks far too delicate to survive in the coarse unstable scree, but it is obligingly easy to cultivate on tufa in an alpine house. I have also grown the THE ALPINE GARDENER
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Ranunculus seguieri and, right, the nodding heads of Anemone baldensis
charming Ranunculus seguieri in a very open gritty mix in the alpine house. Its elegant pure white flower-cups, the size of a thumbnail, and finely cut leaves emerge from a thick, surprisingly short rootstock. We walk for several hours around the dramatic Peitlerkofel (Sass de Putia) before we find an east-facing grey scree at 2,000m, where snow still lies, scattered with the delicate nodding heads of Anemone baldensis. The white flowers with their yellow eyes are held above finely cut leaves. After such a hike, we SEPTEMBER 2014
imagine it to be a rare species, but days later we find it yards from the bikercrowded coffee houses of the Passo Pordoi. Finally, Valeriana supina forms very attractive cushions of various sizes, with compact mats of inrolled bright green leaves and rosy buds opening to pale pink flowers.
Stabilised scree and poor rocky meadow
Still at 2,100m or so, a similar palette comes from the gorgeous Daphne striata, which meanders happily through thick 349
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Daphne striata meanders happily through thick turf on steep slopes Opposite, The pretty pale pink flowers of Valeriana supina and, below right, a flat cushion of Minuartia sedoides
turf on steep slopes, and from countless cushions, large and small, of Silene acaulis, whose flowers seem always to open in succession – presumably to maximise the chance of attracting pollinators – so that it’s hard to capture a perfect display on camera. Handsome flat cushions of Minuartia 350
sedoides make plate-sized pools of midgreen on stable scree, very like a flowerfree Silene acaulis. Closer too, you see the curious green flowers, which Will Ingwersen is rather sniffy about: ‘Nice as a cushion plant, if you ignore the blossoms,’ he says. Here also is a lovely lousewort, Pedicularis rosea, with dark THE ALPINE GARDENER
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purple fern-like foliage and stiff clusters of deep pink flowers. The bright pink flowering spikes of its flamboyant clump-forming cousin, Pedicularis verticillata, are further down the slopes in the high pasture. In contrast, the toothed silvery foliage of Achillea clavennae can be lost against the pale shining scree but this small and easy plant, with its white rays around buttercream flowers, would make a fine addition to a trough. Starting from the Passo delle Erbe on our six-hour circumnavigation of the Peitlerkofel (Sass de Putia), we had a relentless 200m climb up a gully still SEPTEMBER 2014
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Pedicularis rosea growing among Potentilla nitida Opposite, Achillea clavennae, an easy plant that would do well in a trough
filled with snow. As we reached the top, gasping and flopping onto the benches at the Forcella di Putia (2,357m), a man of advanced years slipped on his skis and zigzagged effortlessly back down. Once we had caught our breath, a further 30m up on a north-facing slope, we found the first startling-pink stemless flowers of Primula minima, at 2.5cm across far larger than their scrolled and toothed brilliant green leaves. This striking plant, with a deep notch at the end of each long slender petal, grows happily in rocky acid turf. Here it associates with the twiggy mats of Loiseleuria procumbens, 352
its red buds opening to pink flowers, and the deep pink and white-eyed Primula hirsuta. This has larger and fleshier dentate leaves than those of its little cousin and we only come across it in lime-free areas on the western side of South Tyrol, climbing high in the mighty Ortlergruppe. It is only at 2,700m in the Ortlergruppe that we find Primula glutinosa, Farrer’s ‘lovely jewel’. We had traveled to Sulden, a ski resort at the foot of the brooding Ortler (at 3,905m the highest peak in South Tyrol, as far west as you can go in the province). The snow lay thick and THE ALPINE GARDENER
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it would still be some weeks before the west side of the valley would become accessible so we take the chairlift at Kanzel to begin our exploration of the Vertainspitze. The walking is tough up a zigzagging stepped path, passing beautiful clumps of Primula minima – always on small soil cliffs without any competition, rather than the steep turf where we saw it as we walked around the Peitlerkofel. Primula glutinosa is scattered over a gentle rocky west-facing slope that has only recently lost its snow cover (right by the Düsseldorfer Hütte at 2,721m). SEPTEMBER 2014
Named for the stickiness of its serrated leaves, the flowers are held in dense clusters well clear of their rosettes. The most remarkable character is their colour – bright violet deepening at the centre and set off by shiny deep maroon calyxes. The lower slopes are covered in billowing pink shrubbery, the dense colonies of Rhododendron ferrugineum indicating that this is country for calcifuge flora.
Summer pasture and mountain meadow
The charming bird’s-eye primrose, 353
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Reginald Farrer’s ‘lovely jewel’, Primula glutinosa Opposite, the Asparagaceae member Paradisea liliastrum and, far right, Astragalus alpinus, an obliging plant in the rock garden
Primula farinosa, is frequent in the high wetter meadows, as is Primula halleri, with slightly bigger flowers of the same pink but with far longer corolla tubes and held in clusters to one side of the stem. Edelweiss, Leontopodium alpinum, is scattered in turf, its silvery leaves and star-shaped blooms much smaller and more attractive than the ragged large plants sold in pots on the passes. Although these higher areas are less 354
influenced by human land-use, they yield many treasures, and it is the astonishing floral wealth of the meadows that makes the greatest impression. Every homestead has a two-wheeled pedestrian tractor for haymaking – perhaps this is subsidised, in order to maintain these exquisite landscapes. There are fat globular flowers of Trollius europaeus as far as the eye can see and swathes of spidery seedheads THE ALPINE GARDENER
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of Pulsatilla alpina in the undulating pasture at Utia Vaciara (2,025m). Further down, where the meadows are at their flowering peak, the legumes make a great contribution to the beauty – candy-striped spikes of Onobrychis viciifolia (said to be challenging to cultivate) and the clusters of blue and white pea-flowers of Astragalus alpinus (straightforward on the rock garden). Other blues come from the whiskery bells of Campanula barbata and the domed heads of Phyteuma orbiculare. Slightly lower down, bright splashes are supplied by the large golden suns of Arnica montana and the smaller brilliant orange Crepis aurea. Lower still, in a wet and sunny dell above a small lake, is a deep purple haze of Dactylorhiza SEPTEMBER 2014
majalis. Then in the steep ungrazed slopes we find the exotic rich orange blooms of Lilium bulbiferum, often close to the much larger plants of Lilium martagon (still in woolly bud). Travelling north from Meran towards Austria, on the south-facing switchbacks just below the Jaufenpass (2,100m), there is extremely diverse long grass with elegant white Paradisea liliastrum, frequent but singular, among an array of plants, including butterfly, man, vanilla, fragrant and round-headed orchids.
In the valley
The floor of the Etsch valley around Meran could not be more different from the open rural landscape of Alta Badia. 355
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I
t was only on my return that I found time to read two excellent authorities on the Dolomites – Jim Jermyn, who devotes to them a section of his 2005 Alpine Plants of Europe, and, of course, the rumbustious Reginald Farrer, whose 1913 The Dolomites: King Laurin’s Garden can still be found in online bookshops (alongside a 1985 reprint by Cadogan Books in their Plant Hunters series for those of us on a budget). Jim Jermyn brings great clarity to the different habitats, their typical flora and their choicer species as well as providing excellent commentary on their potential in the garden. Reginald Farrer, meanwhile, waxes lyrical about the landscapes, the hostelries and the peculiarities of Edwardian tourists, and the names of ranges, massifs, valleys and ridges are bewildering unless you have a map in front of you. But he is absolutely inspired when he writes about plant hunting – he conjures up the desperate drive of a true addict. Here, he has encountered Eritrichium nanum on the Bindelweg, just where we found it: ‘I was hot and rather cross with the exactions and the floral dullness of the climb… And then on a heap of stone by the very path-side I saw some splashes of blue, and suddenly thought I was going mad. For there was Eritrichium nanum. ‘How light-foot did I run up the slopes and cliffs of the black Belvedere overhead! And even from afar those somber cliffs were tinged with a faint veil of blue from the
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Unforgettable Eritrichium turquoise cushions of Eritrichium with which they are spattered and strewn. Never was there so riotous a sight of glory… I scrambled and tight-roped along the ridge in blind and perfect bliss… A succession of blank precipices falls beneath one’s feet, and for the most especially magnificent tufts of Eritrichium you always have to make traverses across the most terrible rock-faces, or skirt the most awe-inspiring gullies… And the broken rim of the mountain is a sort of loose conglomerate of rounded pebbles, which gives way at a touch, and plunges into the depths with the roar of a cannonade, in a cloud of somber dust. ‘As I had no wish to make part of that fusillade, or be used as a projectile upon the innocent fields beneath, I had to look to my movements with double attention, prodding every stone before I could trust it, and never venturing on a hold unless certain of another to fall back on. Even so, and after a score of trials, I could do no better than scramble up and just poke off some fragments of that clump, in the faint hope that I might succeed in striking them. Vain and stupid delusion!’ Our encounter with the King of the Alps was disappointingly free of heroics – the only crisis was simultaneous exhaustion of both camera batteries – but just as thrilling. Once seen, never forgotten.
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The resplendent terraced gardens at Trauttmansdorff Castle
The foothills of the mountains on either side are dotted with lovely little castles, but the fields below them are forests of concrete posts, wire, automatic irrigation and shading. Here is apple growing on an industrial scale, producing a quarter of Europe’s apples from 16,000 hectares of land (as well as a good proportion of Europe’s apricots). The apple magnates fund the spectacular gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle, where the terraces and pavilions focus on the glories of the Mediterranean flora. But most interesting for us, fresh from the Dolomites, is the arena in SEPTEMBER 2014
which the different rocks of the region are set out on a map, an opportunity to make sense of the dizzying geology underpinning the beautiful and diverse flora of South Tyrol. I can’t wait to go back. We used Gillian Price’s Shorter Walks in the Dolomites (Cicerone Press) to plan our excursions, always adding a couple of hours to her estimated times to take account of multiple prostrations in front of plants and dithering on the screes. 357
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