The Alpine Gardener - June 2014

336 THE ALPINE GARDENER

Alpine Gardener the

JOURNAL OF THE ALPINE GARDEN SOCIETY

VOL. 82 No. 2 JUNE 2014 pp. 119-237

the international society for the cultivation, conservation and exploration of alpine and rock garden plants

Volume 82 No. 2

June 2014

Alpine Gardener THE

CONTENTS 202 160

121 EDITOR’S LETTER 123 ALPINE DIARY

Tackling plant theft; an appreciation of Brian Halliwell.

128 KATIE PRICE

Introducing a new diary column.

160 THE OVERBERG

Fred Pointon reports from a plant-rich area of South Africa.

172 CONSERVATION

Robert Amos assesses the current state of plant protection law.

186 BEHIND THE LENS

Doug Joyce presents the winners of the AGS Photographic Competition.

202 NEW SPECIES FROM PATAGONIA

Martin and Anna-Liisa Sheader share their discoveries.

212 VIOLA LUTEA

Robert Rolfe visits a population of this delightful species in Cumbria.

218 PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS

230

Prize exhibits from the first six AGS shows this year.

June 2014 Volume 82 No 2

PRACTICAL GARDENING

138 CORYDALIS IN THE GARDEN

Brian Whitton passes on his expertise in growing this alluring genus.

212 128

154 HOW TO GROW IT Primula ‘Arduaine’ by Don Peace.

156 CYCLAMEN

GRAECUM OUTDOORS

Tony Goode on how he keeps these plants thriving in the garden.

230 PAEONIA WENDELBOI

Jānis Rukšāns names a peony to honour a great plantsman.

COVER PHOTOGRAPHS

Front: Aristea teretifolia in South Africa (Fred Pointon).

Back: Ixiolirion tataricum white form in Jordan (Peter Sheasby).

ON THESE PAGES

Left: Viola copahuensis; Babiana ringens; Paeonia wendelboi.

Right: Viola lutea; Lilium henryi; Cyclamen pseudibericum shown by Lee and Julie Martin at this year’s Kent Show.

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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) £31* Family (two people at same address) £35* Junior (under 18/student) £13 Overseas single US$54 £33 Overseas family US$60 £36 * £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.

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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

DON PEACE

A calm moment at the Kendal Show in March before the doors opened to a deluge of visitors. Exhibitor Tommy Anderson, who lives close to the venue, carries out stewarding duties in front of a photographic display on Holehird Gardens, organised by show secretary Alan Oatway (Plants from our shows, page 218)

N

othing lifts the spirits more than seeing a mass of wild flowers in full bloom. Where I live on the Welsh Marches, the most impressive display each year is provided by the frothing white flowers of millions of plants of cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) that shroud the verges of the lanes.

Inevitably some seed finds its way into my garden, and while I welcome a few plants around the perimeter, a cull is occasionally required. Rather than use glyphosate, I’ve found that if you grip a plant around the base and pull slowly, the tap root almost always slides out of the ground intact. I have often thought

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Witnessing our evolution Editor ’s letter of potting these up and selling them to chichi garden centres in the Southeast, where metropolitan gardeners are prepared to pay handsomely for something ‘wild’, but then I would probably be in breach of plant protection legislation. I wonder if the dandelions and stinging nettles that some of these 121

EDITOR’S LETTER places also offer for sale are raised from seed or are collected in the wild? Cow parsley has become fashionable with garden designers and featured in the garden that was voted Best in Show at this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival, as it has now been renamed.

As well as a new name, the show’s layout was revamped, bringing the gardens into the centre of the showground. The AGS joined in this spirit of change by introducing a schools’ trough competition to its fourday presence at Malvern. Eleven schools took part, and many also completed projects about alpine plants, with posters, booklets and other artwork accompanying their troughs. It was a delight to see the groups of children visiting their displays, accompanied by proud parents and teachers, and if just one of them develops an interest in growing alpines as a result, this exercise will have been well worthwhile.

Other changes to AGS shows have proved successful this year. The new Kendal Show, which had been well publicised locally, boasted one of the largest attendances at an AGS show for years. At one point there were so many people in the show hall that, from where I was standing in one corner, hardly a plant could be seen. The London Show’s move to a Sunday went exceptionally well, with an increased number of exhibitors, and nursery stalls almost laid bare by closing time. Some of our other shows have also benefited from increased attendance, largely due to wider publicity, and our first Snowdrop Day back in February was a sell-out. It is hoped that the new Bakewell Show this month will also be a resounding 122

success.

The message that comes over very clearly from all these events is that change is a positive force. A few years ago the NCCPG successfully changed its unwieldy name to Plant Heritage, and recently the RSPB has widened its scope to include all wildlife, not just birds. The RHS, now with a record membership of over 400,000, is continually looking for new ways to engage with the gardening public. The AGS, too, must not be afraid to manoeuvre itself into new territory to secure its future.

Any organisation that does not embrace change becomes stale and stagnant, which eventually leads to its demise, just as plants that are unable to adapt to a changing environment will fail to flourish. Change refreshes and reinvigorates. Like the plants we love, the AGS must evolve to survive.

A

pril 12 was a red-letter day for Tim Lever of Aberconwy Nursery. Not only did he win his first Farrer Medal for a beautifully flowered specimen of the South African Sebaea thomasii at the Midland Show in Birmingham, he also obtained his AGS Gold Medal.

As a professional nurseryman, Tim had to obtain the 50 first places required for a Gold Medal in the Open Section at our shows. Normally exhibitors can start out with ten firsts in the Novice Section and 15 in the Intermediate Section, before tackling the daunting task of achieving 25 Open Section firsts.

Congratulations Tim, and thank you for all the wonderful plants that you and your parents Keith and Rachel produce to enliven our gardens and alpine houses.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

JON EVANS

ALPINE DIARY

The alpine house at Wisley, which has been targeted by thieves

AGS members are asked to help combat plant thefts

M

embers of the Alpine Garden Society are being asked to help tackle theft from some of the finest plant collections in the British Isles.

Rare and choice specimens are being targeted and removed from gardens including RHS Wisley and Kew, but the thefts are not confined to the Southeast or to large public gardens. Even those who open their own private

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gardens to the public are not immune, and some owners have decided to opt out of projects such as the National Gardens Scheme after suffering losses.

Snowdrops have become a favourite target for thieves, who are aware of the potential value of some of the more unusual cultivars. Some collections that are not open to the public have also been raided.

At RHS Wisley, theft has been 123

ALPINE DIARY increasing over the past two or three years and every incident has been reported to the police. Colin Crosbie, the curator at Wisley, said: ‘We will prosecute anyone we find stealing our plants. We have lost plants from the alpine house, trials fields and other parts of the garden. They include a wide range of choice alpines, bulbs, perennials, trees and shrubs.

‘Whoever is taking them has a very good and refined taste in plants. The way they are dug up is not rushed or opportunist – care is being taken, so the thieves have good plant knowledge or are being instructed by someone who does. It seems inevitable that whoever is behind it will be a member of some of the well-known plant societies.’

Plants are being taken from Wisley during the working day, but thefts from the alpine house are mainly on Saturdays and Sundays. Measures are being introduced to try to catch the thieves, such as having staff patrolling while dressed in ordinary clothes, not their RHS uniforms. Consideration is also being given to installing CCTV in certain locations.

Colin added: ‘Following a trial of Roscoea, a range of plants were taken after they had finished flowering. The trials plants don’t carry name labels, just numbers, so the thief or thieves clearly knew what they were looking for.

‘A handful of people are depriving the vast majority of our visitors from seeing these unusual plants. We would ask all visitors to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity immediately to a member of staff. AGS members can be 124

of great help when visiting the alpine house and rock garden by looking out for unusual behaviour. On no account should anyone tackle a suspicious person.’

David Haselgrove, President of the AGS and a member of the RHS Council, said: ‘These thefts are despicable acts carried out by a person or persons who have no regard or respect for the important work carried out in our large public gardens.

All AGS members should be concerned about this activity and should do all they can to help combat it.

‘Do you know anyone who seems to be rapidly amassing a particularly choice collection of plants? Or have you been offered such plants for sale from an unlikely source?

‘The problem is not confined to the UK. Harry Jans, the well-known alpine plantsman from the Netherlands, has had plants taken from his garden and has recently lost a clump of cypripediums.’

One of the most widely publicised plant crimes this year was the theft in January of Nymphaea thermarum, the world’s smallest species of water lily, from the Princess of Wales Conservatory at RBG Kew. The plant had been saved from extinction by experts at Kew. At Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire, which holds one of the National Trust’s most prized collections of snowdrops, thousands of bulbs are carefully monitored to deter thieves. A detailed map of the cultivars has been drawn up so that gardeners know which areas are likely to be targeted, and visitors are accompanied by guides.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

ALPINE DIARY

Plantsman, explorer – and baker Robert Rolfe presents an affectionate appreciation of a man who devoted his life to horticulture, helping to forge links between professionals and amateurs and viewing them all with a gimlet eye

B

rian Halliwell, who died in March at the age of 84, was the sort of character that his fellow Yorkshireman, Alan Bennett, could easily have invented. Like that playwright and novelist, there was a slightly wistful timbre to an accent unaltered by a life part-spent in London, and he too habitually wore a sports jacket of the sort found in a traditional men’s outfitters, along with a ‘comfortable’ v-neck sweater, even in summer.

Certainly you would never have guessed from a casual conversation with him that he had travelled very widely indeed – ‘I’m off to the Solomon Islands: not even Brian Halliwell’s been there,’ a correspondent once wrote – nor that he had lived abroad for eight years, in New

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Brian Halliwell during his time at Kew

Zealand.

Unwavering in his opinions, he was not much impressed by popular taste but conversely helped to mould and change it. A bedding scheme using edible plants in the display beds in front of Kew’s palm house; Lewisia cotyledon similarly mass planted, on the flat; the breeding of Heuchera villosa ‘Palace Purple’ 30 years ago (in doing so he single-handedly brought a neglected genus to the fore); the championing of alpines from the southern hemisphere; a wildflower garden at the Chelsea Show, long before this branch of horticulture became modish. By such enterprises, Brian diverted the course of horticulture.

He was fascinated by changes in the fashionability of garden plants. He could view this from a historical perspective, 125

ALPINE DIARY given his library of rare books on botany and horticulture. He once observed: ‘Fashions in all things can be fleeting: they come and they go. In horticulture some last for two or three years and then seem to disappear and are forgotten.’

‘Like so many of my introductions!’ he wrote to me shortly afterwards.

A contributor to several journals, especially those of the AGS and the SRGC, he mused that ‘what one person admires, another detests, as I do the genus Campanula’. He did concede that there were many ‘highly desirable and beautiful campanulas’, but problems over their identification were the source of his antipathy. In similar vein, I once judged with him at an early spring show, where the following exchange took place: (BH) ‘I don’t like plastic pots.’ (Me, following a long pause) ‘But what of the plants growing in them?’ (BH) ‘I don’t like hybrid dionysias and saxifrages. Too many of them.’

Other articles explored such idiosyncratic subjects as ‘Alpines for the kitchen’ (the son of a butcher, he was an accomplished amateur cook, who every year entered the Christmas cake competition at Kew, and regularly won first prize) and Japanese alpines (he participated in the Society’s 1988 expedition to northern Japan).

While of the opinion that there were too many gardening books, he wrote several of these, The Propagation of Alpine Plants and Dwarf Bulbs (1992) the most relevant to this journal’s readership. This was preceded by Old Garden Flowers (1987), Colourful Herbs (1988) and others, some co-authored. His last work, 126

Three Centuries of Garden Lists (2009), returned to a horti-historical theme.

For many years a member of the old RHS Floral ‘C’ Committee – ‘judging all the exhibits that none of the other panels can be bothered with’, he once remarked – his interests in plants were far from confined to alpines, although these he introduced from such varied places as North America, Nepal, Japan, Lesotho and Tasmania. One year, at Chelsea, an exhibit took the form of a towering conical edifice, festooned with white foxgloves and goodness knows what else. Brian wanted to withhold any award whatsoever (‘It’s like a monstrous ice cream cone upturned, with the contents melted over the thing’, he hissed). This sort of trenchant opinion didn’t always find favour with judging chairmen, but Brian was very much his own man, whatever category of plants he happened to be assessing.

I said at the outset that he was like an Alan Bennett character, but his deadpan humour was of the sort that another Yorkshireman, Les Dawson, once deployed. In 1989 he retired as assistant curator in charge of the Alpine and Herbaceous Department at RBG Kew (the RHS made him an Associate of Honour, for ‘distinguished service to horticulture’), moving back north to his Halifax birthplace. During the years that followed, after an AGS show I was sometimes a fellow passenger en route to the nearest railway station with his good friend (and past AGS President) Frank Tindall at the wheel. The latter enjoyed putting his foot down, in both senses of the expression, and would seldom leave THE ALPINE GARDENER

JOHN FITZPATRICK

ALPINE DIARY

Part of the rock garden at RBG Kew, where Brian Halliwell was influential

the fast lane. On one such journey, from the back seat came a slightly alarmed voice: ‘Frank, we’re in a car, on a road – not in a plane, thundering down an airport runway.’ Frank said nothing, but dropped his speed to perhaps just 10mph over the stated limit.

Kit Grey-Wilson, a sometime colleague at Kew, relates that Brian was a firm task-master, in the habit of quizzing his students to test the depth of their knowledge and rather expecting to find it wanting. Just once, an interviewee correctly answered his every question, leaving the interrogator confounded and, it has to be said, a little peeved. Through gritted teeth came the assessment: ‘Very good, young man. But… but, I DON’T like your attitude.’ And off he went, halfpleased, half-thwarted.

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He went out of his way to foster the most promising of his students and formed a famously successful working partnership with Tony Hall. In consequence, the alpine department at Kew went through a veritable golden age during the 1980s and beyond. The AGS has good reason to be grateful to them both, not least for providing large numbers of specimen plants to adorn the Society’s rock garden at the 1984 International Garden Festival in Liverpool.

Following retirement, Brian’s wanderings were confined to the British Isles. But whether garden-sitting for Mike and Polly Stone at Fort Augustus, or organising the planting of crocuses en masse in a park not far from his house, his horticultural pursuits were typically multifarious and accomplished.

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ALPINE DIARY

Katie Price’s Diary Welcome to a new series of diaries written by alpine experts.

Our first diarist is Katie Price, who worked for many years in the alpine and woodland section at RBG Kew and has travelled extensively to see plants and gardens around the world

Finding spring and summer flowers – all on the same day

E

ven though spring is done and dusted in the British Isles, there are still multiple chances to enjoy it in the Northern Hemisphere. In fact, there are plenty of places in Europe where you can experience early spring and high summer in one day. All you need is altitude.

Naturalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Edwin Way Teale describes the phenomenon in his wonderful book, North with the Spring (1950), an account of a 17,000-mile road trip he made following spring as it travelled up the eastern side of America, beginning at the Florida Everglades and ending on Rhode Island.

In the southern Appalachians he wrote that the ‘season was advancing swiftest along the valleys; its high-water mark was lifting little by little up the mountainsides. Like floods of water, the floods of spring follow a lowland course.

They race ahead down the long valleys,

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climb slowly, as though struggling with gravity, up the slopes. In the mountains the streams, the highways and the railroads go through the gaps together.

And with them goes spring’.

Call me slow, but it was a revelation to me when, in mid-June, I took the little cog railway to the famous Swiss botanical garden on the Shining Plateau or Schynige Platte. The railway began at Wilderswil where, at 580m above sea level, roses and potatoes were blooming and the dandelions had blown their clocks. As we zigzagged 7km up the mountain, through the spruce layer, then the pines and out above the treeline, time travelled backwards. When we reached the garden 50 minutes later and 1,500 metres higher, the dandelions were not even in flower and Crocus albiflorus and Soldanella alpina were just emerging through the snowmelt.

It was a lovely two-hour journey back down from Schynige Platte (first THE ALPINE GARDENER

KATIE PRICE

KATIE PRICE

Crocus albiflorus emerging in June at the Schynige Platte Botanical Alpine Garden in the Swiss Alps

the cog railway and then the widegauge) along the lake to Bern Botanical Garden, where the rock garden was in riotous high season. There I saw biennial Campanula thyrsoides, just going over, a full six weeks ahead of its siblings on the mountain, whose rosettes were only just beginning to extend. Similarly, in Austria you can visit the rock garden at Innsbruck Botanical Garden (570m JUNE 2014

above sea level), catch a bus 7km out of the city centre to Igls and take the cable car up the mountain to the Patscherkofel Alpine Garden at 2,000m, winding back the season as you go.

This sort of time-travel is more challenging in North Carolina, say, or Bavaria. From the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill to Trillium heaven in the Blue Ridge 129

ALPINE DIARY

The orginal design for the Munich Botanical Garden with the rock garden circled

Mountains is a good five-hour drive.

(Public transport? Don’t make me laugh.)

The journey from Munich Botanical Garden to its renowned satellite garden at 2,000m in the Bavarian Alps involves a two-hour train-ride to Elmau and then a marvellous four-hour walk up through the spruce layer, pine layer and flowerrich meadows, during which you are overtaken by extremely focused cyclists who you meet a second time as they hurtle back down again.

You can visit the Schachengarten in one day but there are several reasons to prolong your stay. First, the garden is fascinating: it is bewildering to climb a 130

European mountain to find plants from the Himalayas, Andes, Lesotho and the Rockies but, thankfully, they are labelled.

If your visit coincides with the summer exile of Munich’s alpine specialist, Jenny Wainwright Klein, she can tell you all about their propagation, whether they grow better in the mountains or in Munich’s extreme continental climate and so on. Second, the garden is sited in a national park, so botanising and birdwatching outside the garden is equally rewarding. Third, there’s a pub (yes, a pub!) yards from the garden where you can stay overnight (book early if you plan to visit at the weekend), so you also have time to visit the THE ALPINE GARDENER

ANDREAS GROEGER

KATIE PRICE

A summer’s day at the Munich rock garden, which is constructed entirely of tufa

Schachenhaus (King Ludwig’s fantasy shepherd’s hut) and make an excursion to the Meilerhütte, another pub 500m higher on the Austrian border, where the landlord greets your arrival with a glass of schnapps.

The Schachengarten was founded in 1901 by Karl Von Goebel, a botanist with a particular interest in morphology and alpines. By then, high-altitude gardens had already been established in the Austrian Tyrol, at Lautaret in the French Alps and at Rambertia, Switzerland, among others. Von Goebel also established Munich’s second botanical garden, which celebrates its centenary in 2014. He had been director JUNE 2014

of the city’s first botanical garden, which was built just outside its medieval walls in the early 19th century but, by the late 1800s, air pollution made it increasingly difficult to grow anything.

With von Goebel as developer, a key element of the new garden on open fields next to Nymphenburg Palace was its 1,200 square metre rock garden or alpinum, as you can see from the original plan. The alpinum rises above a lake on a mound of spoil from the area which became the Schmuckhof, a sunken parterre. On this base the alpinum was - and still is - constructed entirely of tufa from a quarry south of Munich.

Munich’s alpine house (dating from 1971), nursery, rock garden and its 131

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eeing plants in the wild gives valuable clues about how to approach their cultivation and it’s worth taking seriously the dictum ‘right plant, right place’, though 132

KATIE PRICE

satellite garden on Mount Schachen deliver a range of cultural possibilities for its alpine collection of more than 3,000 species from around the world. The rock garden is planted geographically, with areas devoted to the Carpathians, the Balkans, Pyrenees, Mediterranean, Caucasus, Himalayas, Rocky Mountains and Southern Hemisphere mountains, including the New Zealand Alps and the Drakensberg. Important genera are Saxifraga (59 species), Dianthus (49 species) and Campanula (42 species) and the peak months are mid-April to July.

Most people will have planned their summer excursions already, but a useful resource for the more impetuous among us is a map created a few years ago by the scientific curator of Munich’s alpine collection, Andreas Groeger. He developed a map of Europe showing the locations of botanical gardens at high altitudes (above 1,200m) or near the Polar Circle (above 64 degrees north), together with gardens at lower altitudes that are dedicated exclusively to alpine and Arctic plants.

This map is available on the website of the Station Alpine Joseph Fourier, the alpine garden at 2,100m on the Col du Lautaret in the French Alps, together with an updated list of contacts for gardens from Iceland to Georgia and down to Mount Etna in Sicily. A link to the map is on the AGS website (follow the link for ‘Our Journal’). Happy plant-hunting, everyone.

Primula parryi in the Schachengarten of course there are always surprises.

Everyone knows Heuchera villosa ‘Palace Purple’, that burgundy-leaved stalwart of the perennial border, but the species is also lovely, with sprays of delicate green-white flowers above neat hummocks of hairy fresh green foliage. In the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina I saw it only in extremely wet seeps but in south-east England it is surprisingly happy in dry part-shade under birch and oak trees, rapidly making quite large but easily controlled colonies and providing longlasting mid to late-summer interest.

This is always a challenge: extending the flowering period of the woodland garden THE ALPINE GARDENER

KATIE PRICE

KATIE PRICE

Codonopsis vinciflora brings colour to the woodland garden in late summer

after its spring high-point and once the leaf canopy has closed, particularly if the soil is free-draining. At Kew, several Asian species dependably provide the wow factor once the Meconopsis, Cardiocrinum and irises such as the wonderful North American Iris fulva have done their stuff in June.

First, Anemonopsis macrophylla from montane woodlands in Honshu, Japan, bears waxy pendulous flowers of palest pink on tall slender stems high above its mound of feathery foliage, flowering in July and August.

Second, from the forests of Sichuan, above 1,800m, comes Codonopsis JUNE 2014

vinciflora (Campanulaceae). In this genus of climbing or scrambling bellflower relatives are species with breathtaking markings inside their bells (C. lanceolata or C. ussuriensis, for example), but on the outside the flowers are subtle greens and dusky pinks, easily missed in the shifting light of a late summer woodland. I often found myself loitering by them, pointing them out to visitors in order to do them justice. By contrast, the star-shaped flowers of C. vinciflora are almost luminous in the shade, held obligingly above their twining stems, bringing a rare blue to the late summer garden.

Even later and an even brighter blue are 133

ALPINE DIARY KATIE PRICE

Aconitum hemsleyanum scrambling over hazel arches

the flowers of Aconitum hemsleyanum, a sturdy, semi-scandent monkshood from the mountains of Yunnan and Sichuan. At Kew it grows to 1.5m over hazel arches, flowering prolifically in late August and September and producing lots of seed, which germinates freely.

Finally, for sumptuous glamour in mid and late-summer shade, you can’t beat a lily. Rhododendron augustinii var. chasmanthum gets a second turn in the limelight with the fragrant large flowers of Lilium longiflorum, from southern Japan and Taiwan, growing through it for support. L. henryi, from mountain slopes in Guizhou, Hubei and Jiangxi, requires a hazel structure to support its large, orange 134

and characteristically papillose flowers on 1.5m stems. The magnificent Lilium sargentiae, from Yunnan’s grassy slopes and thicket margins to 2,000m, has an immensely sturdy stem and needs no help presenting a perfect show of astounding white funnel-shaped flowers, the anthers made prominent by brown pollen, at a height of 1.6m. A caveat: these displays come at a cost and the bulb can be severely depleted, requiring some years to come back into flower, so it’s worth feeding them regularly while in growth. here is nothing as thrilling as seeing plants in their native habitats, but good cultivation can enhance their best features. One of the most important jobs

T

THE ALPINE GARDENER

KATIE PRICE

KATIE PRICE

The Chinese Lilium henryi requires support for its tall stems and large flowers JUNE 2014

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ALPINE DIARY of our public gardens and plant shows is to act as ambassadors for the riches of the world’s flora, revealing the curious, the spectacular and the beautiful in a powerful argument for their conservation.

Two years ago I was lucky enough to travel on a seed-collecting expedition to Tusheti, a region of north-east Georgia that is difficult to access and is separated by high ridges from Chechnya to the north and Dagestan to the east.

Our hair-raising journey took us over the Torgva-Abano Pass at 2,870m into an extraordinary landscape, its sparse population living in so-called tower villages. Overgrazing and a general lack of diversity due to acid soils meant that Tusheti offered us little in the way of seedcollecting.

I found Draba bryoides growing in crevices on south-facing cliffs above a fast flowing river that snaked through a rocky meadow at 2,015m.

The flowering season was over and the tight cushions of this Brassicaceae member looked tired and thirsty. If I hadn’t seen it blooming beautifully in cultivation I would not have looked twice. However, it grows surprisingly well at the southern end of Kew’s rock garden.

Joanne Everson, who manages the rock garden and woodland garden, planted two young 5cm specimens in a south-easterly aspect in 2006. The one planted in gritty soil succumbed to the wet but the one planted into a vertical crevice between sandstone rocks has thrived, flowering well each year, and is now 15cm across.

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any AGS members will know Kit Strange, RBG Kew’s talented bulbgrower and organiser of the AGS’s Early Spring Show at Harlow. Among the diverse collection of plants under her care at Kew is Scilla madeirensis, the Madeiran squill.

On the island of Madeira, where it lives on vertical rock faces, it blooms in September and October. But 1,500 miles further north, by means of clever cultivation, Kit coaxes it into breathtaking displays in November and December, when flowers are few and far between in the Davies Alpine House. Kit grows the Scilla in the warmest of the glasshouses in the alpine nursery, also home to many Southern Hemisphere geophytes. The temperature in the glasshouse is always kept above 5C. Three S. madeirensis bulbs survived in the unheated alpine house for several years, coming into flower much earlier than their nursery counterparts, though their foliage was often severely damaged by frost and they succumbed to the cold in the end.

Kit plants the bulbs on the surface of the compost in terracotta pots, which have been replaced by bigger and bigger pots over the years. Kit says: ‘I try not to repot them every year, only when they really need a serious cleaning up or splitting. I usually feed them with liquid feed during the growing season.’

Repotting is a delicate task because the roots do not die back even during their summer dormancy, so the root ball has to be expertly excavated in order to make room for the fresh compost for these hungry plants. Kit says they are extremely THE ALPINE GARDENER

KATIE PRICE

Some of Kit Strange’s pots of Scilla madeirensis after flowering at Kew

thirsty, too, and respond to regular watering when in growth, developing in a matter of weeks bright green leaves followed by spectacular spikes of purpleblue flowers.

In January, Kit travelled to Madeira to see how and where these plants have evolved.

She says: ‘I saw the plants growing on vertical cliff faces, very high up. Some were facing east but some were also west-facing.

I don’t think that aspect is too much of an issue. The plants were growing in very inaccessible places. In some instances you would have had to abseil above a main road, just to eyeball them – something I was not prepared to do. But I did manage to see one pedestrian squill, only 15 to 20m JUNE 2014

up on an outcrop. The plants are about the same size as the ones I grow in pots and most had the remnants of flowering spikes but not much seed. In the wild they are not common but where they do grow they are plentiful. The major risk for them would be development.’

So did seeing them in the wild give her any new ideas about their cultivation?

‘Having seen them, I am happy with the way I am growing them. They probably like being quite tight in a pot. If they grow in cracks in the rocks, they can cope with being squeezed a little. The secret is to keep them dry while dormant from May to September or October. Then turn on the tap for the rest of the year and watch them go!’

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Brian Whitton has been growing Corydalis in his Durham garden for some 20 years and holds a Plant Heritage National Collection. Here he passes on his experience to encourage others to grow these beautiful plants

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Cultivating Corydalis in a British garden

nthusiasts often grow fine pots of Corydalis in a greenhouse or bulb frame. For the tuberous species of central Asia, this is where they should be from mid-summer until late winter.

Most other species grow equally well in the open garden and many, such as C. buschii, grow much better there, provided that the conditions are right.

Getting things right is becoming increasingly important because of the diverse range of seed, tubers and washed plants that has become available in recent years, not only via European and North American collectors and growers, but direct from China and Japan. European suppliers are increasingly offering plants from unlikely places, including several woodland species from North Korea.

Nursery catalogues, unfortunately, do not always help you to decide how best to grow the plant you have just bought.

Some of the most important things you need to know may not be mentioned, or the guidelines could be incorrect.

This article is intended to help reduce the chances of losing a recently obtained

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CORYDALIS: THE BASICS Corydalis, from the Greek for ‘crested lark’, is a genus of about 470 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants in the Papaveraceae, native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere and the mountains of tropical eastern Africa. They are most diverse in China and the Himalayas, with more than 350 species in China. Some have tubers or enlarged rhizomes, and others are strictly fibrous-rooted.

plant that may have cost a lot. My experience is largely based on building up a collection of about 100 species in northern England, together with seeing more than 20 in the wild. Some species may be more of a challenge for growers in drier regions, whereas the main problem in Durham is the alternating cold and warm wet conditions in midwinter. More information can be found in the book Bleeding Hearts, Corydalis, THE ALPINE GARDENER

CORYDALIS

Two plants of Corydalis tomentella spreading over Brian Whitton’s greenhouse floor

and their Relatives by Mark Tebbitt, Magnus Lidén and Henrik Zetterlund (2008, Timber Press), though these authors live in regions with colder winters.

A few species really must be grown inside for much of the year. This applies to the handsome yellow-flowered forms originating from limestone screes and cliff crevices in parts of Asia, such as C. tomentella and C. wilsonii, which are very easy to grow in the greenhouse.

With the former in particular, a single plant will lead to numerous seedlings on the floor of the greenhouse every year, especially if the floor consists of gravel overlying soil. They are much happier JUNE 2014

here than in pots, so do not be tempted to tidy them all away. Just be careful not to let too much water fall on the leaves and allow their roots to seek out moisture.

C. foetida (don’t worry – no obvious smell) from Yunnan is a very tolerant yellow-flowered annual for the floor of the greenhouse. I have still to find out whether a population can be maintained outdoors.

Species in the section Leonticoides, which originate in Central Asia and adjacent regions and are welcomed at AGS and SRGC shows, must be kept in a greenhouse or bulb-frame from about early June until the latter part of winter, 139

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when most benefit from being moved outside to get as much light as possible.

A few species in this section can be grown in very well-drained sites in the open garden.

A form of C. maracandica bought from the Paul Christian nursery over ten years ago is still thriving in the same bed, though I am not yet convinced it is safe to do the same with all forms of this species. Several books suggest that it might also be possible to grow C. ledebouriana outdoors. As it occurs over a very wide area of Asia and is highly 140

variable, it is quite likely that some forms are much more suitable than others. It would be well worth finding out.

C. solida is by far the most widely grown member of the genus in greenhouses yet most of the numerous forms of this species and some, but not quite all, other species in Section Corydalis grow even better in the open garden. C. malkensis is perhaps the best and easiest of all, so hopefully a tuber will one day cost little more than the price of a corm of a common garden crocus.

C. paczoskii is a tiny species that will seed freely over the moister parts of a limestone rockery, flower in March and THE ALPINE GARDENER

CORYDALIS

Left, Corydalis solida in varying shades of pink among limestone at about 1,580m on Mount Falakro, Greece Right, Corydalis cheilanthifolia in flower together with overwintering plants of the biennial C. heterocarpa

can then be forgotten about for the rest of the year. In addition, there is an everincreasing number of non-tuberous perennials and biennials which have been introduced to garden cultivation.

Several, such as C. cheilanthifolia and C. nobilis, have been grown for many years, in the case of C. cheilanthifolia since 1904 when it was introduced by E.H. Wilson. However, the main influx of Corydalis started with the introduction of C. flexuosa to north-west USA in 1986 and three more selections of this species to the UK in 1989. The vigorous C. omeiana was introduced a few years JUNE 2014

later, though originally under the name C. elata. The largest single source of more species for a number of years (but apparently no longer) was Chen Yi Nursery in China. Not only were many misnamed but, unfortunately, the plants sent under a particular name in different years were not always the same. An English nursery placed a long list of these names in one volume of the RHS Plant Finder, but subsequently few appeared to be for sale, whatever the name, and they were not shown again.

Several of the plants sold by Chen Yi 141

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Corydalis bulleyana subsp. muliensis, provided that it is watered in dry spells and given an occasional fertiliser dose, can flower from late April until early October

are excellent for the garden including C. aquilegioides, C. barbisepala, C. brunneovaginata, C. ellipticarpa and C. bulleyana subsp. muliensis. (They were distributed by Chen Yi as, respectively, C. kiaotschouensis, C. trifoliata, C. quantmeyeriana, C. nigro-apiculata and C. muliensis.) The plants came from Yunnan and Sichuan, though from a wide range of climatic regions.

A warm early summer during their first year makes all the difference to establishing Corydalis successfully in north-east England. C. bulleyana is quite 142

close to C. taliensis, a species imported a number of times and sold by several nurseries, though probably not always identified correctly. Both are part of a complex of quite similar (but highly variable) species, which seed freely and often hybridise. It seems likely that a couple of forms will eventually emerge as winners within the British Isles.

Another species that I have had in my garden for some years and have neither known its name nor been sure where it came from has now been identified as C. acuminata by Magnus Lidén. It is one of the most attractive, producing large THE ALPINE GARDENER

CORYDALIS

Corydalis flexuosa ‘Blue Panda’ doing well in a mixed bed

deep purple flowers in April and May and again in autumn. Now that it has a name, finding out more about how to grow and increase it has moved right up my list of jobs to do.

C. kokiana grows well in several gardens but is apparently not currently sold commercially in the UK. However, it occurs at such a wide range of altitudes in western China and shows such a range of growth forms and flowers of diverse shades of blue that this species has just as much potential as C. flexuosa.

One form I saw in northern Yunnan JUNE 2014

would be ideal for straggling over low shrubs in full sun. However, in general the species does not behave like this and some forms are quite short and compact.

C. adunca is a short-lived perennial that grows in screes in northern Yunnan and adjacent regions, but is best treated in the UK as an annual for very large pots.

At least one British nursery has said it might be able to supply C. calcicola, though this name has not appeared in its catalogue yet. Although plants in nature 143

PRACTICAL GARDENING grow among scree, their roots develop in a very moist soil. Like many, but not all, of the very high mountain species, the upper parts of the roots are very fleshy.

A number of woodland species have been imported for growing in gardens from countries further north in eastern Asia. Occasional introductions have been made over a long period, but the majority have arrived within the past 15 years. Some, such as C. ussuriensis, apparently always have blue flowers, but the two most widely imported, C. fumariifolia and C. turtschaninovii, come in a variety of blues and purples, while C. repens and probably others can also have pink flowers.

It is unclear whether most sites in nature have flowers of only one colour or whether they show the same colour range as stock imported for gardens.

A box of 200 tubers of C. fumariifolia subsp. azurea bought from the very helpful Yuzawa Nursery in Hokkaido, northern Japan, has produced a majority with sky-blue flowers, but some are a rich burgundy or various purples. The catalogue mentions that shades vary from azure to blue-purple and that the tubers are unselected seed-raised stock, so this was not a surprise. However, the sky-blue ones are so eye-catching that I will clump them together in one area.

Unless you can find someone who has had the opportunity to look at a particular species in the wild and started thinking about its ecology while they were there, it can be a challenge to discover the ideal conditions for the 144

garden.

The following notes, based on my own experiences, refer mainly to nontuberous species or ones with small stem tubers or tuberous roots, as there is much more information about C. solida and Section Leonticoides in catalogues and books. There are, of course, many differences within a genus of four to five hundred species and I welcome being told about garden-suitable species which require rather different conditions.

Here is my ten-point guide to growing Corydalis:  Well-dug deep soil. Roots can extend through a large volume of soil.

If you grow a plant in a pot, the larger the pot, the better the plant. Some of the annuals, biennials and short-lived nontuberous species can form miniature plants only a few centimetres high in crevices between bricks or paving stones, yet form huge plants under optimum conditions. C. cheilanthifolia provides a striking example.

The hardier tuberous species sometimes also form very small plants in crevices or other demanding places which seed has reached due to explosive dispersal from seed-pods and perhaps further movement by ants. Robert Rolfe mentioned this for C. malkensis in the March 2014 issue of this journal, while an early spring visit to the garden of Wadham College, Oxford, where there are thousands of the commoner form of C. solida in the main beds, will also show miniature plants in all sorts of strange places outside the beds.

 Plenty of humus. Some species come THE ALPINE GARDENER

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The eye-catching Corydalis ussuriensis from coniferous forest in eastern Siberia

from forest edges or, when occurring in open grassland, an obviously organicrich soil. Most of the species growing among gravel or rocks are also likely to have roots extending to a zone with much organic matter.

 Plenty of lime. Corydalis provides

a paradox. Many species grow in nature among limestone rocks or on soils derived from limestone or other baserich rocks, or with the deeper roots reaching calcium-rich water draining from higher up a mountain. This applies to all the populations I have observed in nature in the eastern USA, northern JUNE 2014

Greece and southern Turkey and most of those in three different regions of China. However, other species in China do grow in non-calcareous soils and a photo sent to me by Chris Chadwell shows a yellow-flowered species in northern Nepal among large boulders of gneiss, so this is very probably growing in a soil with low calcium content.

In spite of the typical conditions in nature, many species grow well in gardens with non-calcareous soils, even if they can also grow well in a garden soil with plenty of lime. Whether or not the extra lime makes any difference for some species is uncertain, but my advice 145

PRACTICAL GARDENING would be to ensure there was plenty of lime in the soil used for trying out a little-known species if nothing is known about its requirements in nature. Why there should be this difference between nature and the garden, no one knows, but my guess is that it is something to do with how the plant acquires phosphorus in nature. (This is based on my observations of the algal genera growing close to Corydalis in wetter areas, which often typically make use of organic, rather than inorganic, phosphate.)

C. cashmeriana has been my particular challenge. Because of advice in books to grow it in acidic conditions, this is what I did with four cultivars, but all died within a year or so. However, a Google search showed three regions where this species occurs in the wild and all are close to limestone mountains. There is no way of checking how close these plants are to the limestone, but it made me decide to test the effect of lime. Of four plants bought in 2013 from Jānis Rukšāns’ nursery in Latvia, the two with more lime in the compost mix grew more vigorously than the other two and flowered in May this year. This is hardly a proper scientific experiment, but I hope it will encourage others to experiment with the best way of growing it.

 Plenty of fertiliser. The genus as

a whole seems to favour a high level of nutrients and I have yet to encounter a species which responds adversely to relatively frequent additions of dilute fertiliser solution.

I have seen a number of populations 146

of both C. solida (tuberous) in northern Greece and several non-tuberous species in China growing close to stinging nettles (Urtica dioica), a plant well-known to be associated with nutrient-rich soils. Even where there are no stinging nettles, the area where C. solida is most frequent on Greek mountains is often near where there have been many cattle during the summer.

Based on traditional approaches to other genera, I usually add a nitrogenrich fertiliser mix at the beginning of the growing season and a phosphateand potassium-rich mix towards the end of the season. However, there is no real evidence to confirm that there is an advantage in making such a shift.  Take care with the roots. The roots are very fragile throughout the genus, so much care is needed when transplanting, especially for plants growing rapidly. It is best to avoid transplanting seedlings when in growth. Neither roots nor stems have much woody tissue, so treat shoots carefully as well.

 Planting out. Leave them in the pot

until the plant is in a resting condition.

Pots of many species, such as the blueflowered ones sold in garden centres just as they are coming into bloom, are best planted out later in the season, unless you are confident about having the right conditions and how to treat the roots. The same applies just as strongly to the small pots of tuberous species sold by nurseries at spring shows. I have several times been told about sad losses by people who had gone home and THE ALPINE GARDENER

CORYDALIS

A seven-year-old plant of Corydalis nobilis and, left, a close-up of its inflorescence

 Moisture requirements. This can

immediately transferred a plant from its small pot to the open garden. It is much better to add dilute liquid fertiliser to the pot and leave transplanting until the shoots have disappeared for at least a month.

JUNE 2014

be a challenge because Corydalis come from a wide range of rainfall regimes.

Although most non-tuberous species resemble the tuberous in requiring a very well-drained soil, often they prefer this soil to remain moist during the main growing season. However, there should never be any risk of waterlogging in winter, so it is best to keep at least one pot of any high-mountain species in your collection inside the greenhouse over winter.

147

PRACTICAL GARDENING C. chaerophylla, one of the species that requires especially moist conditions during the growing season, does very well in a deep pot of well-drained soil with the base of the pot in a very shallow depth of water. Nevertheless, make sure there is no standing water in winter.

Some of the woodland species from monsoon areas of China disappear underground in our gardens in summer, typically from mid-June to midSeptember, though others such as C. barbisepala and C. kokiana persist until about August and then do not show again until the spring. For none of these should the soil be allowed to get too dry during late summer. Even if you cannot see anything above ground, water occasionally. I suspect that failure to do this is the main reason many people lose the C. flexuosa plants they buy at garden centres. Queries about such losses are a frequent topic of phone calls and emails sent to me as a Plant Heritage collection holder.

Many Corydalis require their seed to be kept slightly moist and a few specialist companies are starting to store and post the seed under suitable conditions.

(Perhaps one day this will be possible with the AGS Seed Exchange!) If the seed of many species is allowed to dry out, germination will often be poor or non-existent.

A schoolteacher in Aomori, Japan, assured me (via the excellent translation of a Japanese friend) that the part of the deciduous forest where we were standing turned blue in spring with Corydalis, just as bluebell woods do 148

in Britain. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask him whether all the plants were of a similar blue and I am still unsure whether the species in this part of Japan is C. fumariifolia or C. ambigua.

This conversation was followed by the promise to collect and send seed. This he did for several years, but the seed was never posted until the end of the school year and never kept moist, in spite of my pleading. Only one seedling ever grew and that was eaten by a slug. However, I have found that the occasional seed of some Leonticoides species stored dry for a year will germinate two, three or even four years later after being planted near the soil surface and subject to the usual annual cycle of treatment used for growing the adult. There have apparently been no clear-cut studies to establish whether a cold-temperature period is essential for any of this Section, though studies have been reported on other species.

The seed of annual, biennial and most short-lived perennials does survive dry conditions, sometimes with still quite a high germination rate two years later. This applies, for instance, to the relatively large, yellow-flowered C. heterocarpa and C. pallida, which can be found in many seed lists, though often named incorrectly as C. magadanica and sometimes as C. nobilis. (The true C. magadanica is a cream-flowered tuberous species sold by Jānis Rukšāns, while C. nobilis is a long-lived perennial.)

 Adequate light. If the moisture

conditions are right, most species grow THE ALPINE GARDENER

CORYDALIS

The dark red of Corydalis cava from Bulgaria stands out among other Corydalis in pots, including a pale yellow C. cava from the lower edge of a beech forest at Pisoderi in northwest Greece

well in full sunlight in the British Isles, even if they grow in more shaded conditions in their native countries.

Evidence that some tuberous species grow well under higher light conditions than their normal forest habitat comes from observations in Greece and Turkey, where plants are quite frequent on slopes where the forest has been cut 20 or more years previously, much as occurs with woodland species like Anemone nemorosa in Britain and elsewhere. The tuberous woodland species, such as C. solida and C. cava in mainland Europe and the Near East, and C. ambigua, C. woroshilovii and similar blue-flowered JUNE 2014

species in eastern Asia, mostly grow in the more open parts of forest, flower in spring and then disappear underground.

The majority probably live in deciduous forest, but some also grow in coniferous forest.

Many moisture-loving species are, however, best grown in semi-shade if there is a risk of them becoming too dry in full sunlight. So far, none of the forms from open screes in the high mountains of Asia with their roots in extremely moist conditions have been assessed properly for cultivation, but they include some of those with the most striking inflorescences. C. calcicola seems one 149

PRACTICAL GARDENING of the most likely to do well. C. hamata is especially handsome, but in nature its roots grow where the sub-surface water is actually flowing.

 Temperature.

Low temperatures have so far posed little problem for me.

(Temperatures in Durham drop to about -6C a few times during most winters and occasionally considerably lower.) Many species from intermediate altitudes in Yunnan and Sichuan, including some cultivars of C. flexuosa, maintain strong leaves throughout winter. A sharp frost leads to the leaves drooping but, within a couple of hours of being above freezing, they look even more vigorous – not a hint of the previous frost. In fact some species have among the most handsome winter leaves of any perennial in the garden.

I have, however, wondered how far cold resistance applies in a few cases.

One is C. siamensis, which is the southernmost species in mainland Asia.

The mountainous limestone forests where it occurs in northern Thailand are well south of any risk of frost, but the Crûg Farm Plants catalogue assures that their stock for sale is fully hardy, though my attempts in a slightly colder climate have failed. A few species, especially C. macrocentra and cultivars of others of the central Asian Leonticoides in pots, suffer if moved outside in January and there is then a long period of snow, though most cultivars continue without any problem.

Shoots of a few Leonticoides species can also suffer slightly if there is a late severe frost.

Knowing from where a C. solida stock 150

originated in nature can also be a help in deciding whether it is ideal for your garden, with the high mountain forms being more likely to thrive if you live at higher altitudes in northern parts of the UK. Quite likely there are a number of reasons for this, but, based on observations in northern Greece, I suspect one is the general tendency for the bracts of C. solida to become increasingly more divided with increasing altitude. A divided bract traps less water to freeze overnight and form ice, with a consequent risk to the shoot. Forms with the most divided bracts are referred to subsp. incisa, but it will require strong (molecular) evidence to convince me that this is anything more than an adaptation which has probably occurred many times.

 Pests. Fungal attack can be a problem

for young seedlings, but slightly older seedlings seem largely resistant to fungi, though probably not until the second year for the tuberous species with only a single leaf during the first year. Similarly, slugs and snails are only likely to be much of a problem with small seedlings. I have seen greenfly on only a couple of species and then only relatively few.

Bigger animals can pose much more of a threat. Deer in winter will eat all Corydalis showing above ground, but rabbits seem to avoid the leaves of most perennial Corydalis with prominent leaves during winter. However, the fleshy basal rosettes of C. heterocarpa, and also C. pallida if grown as a biennial, are a great attraction to rabbits during warm spells in winter and must be protected. Should disaster occur, do not discard the chewed remnant THE ALPINE GARDENER

CORYDALIS

Corydalis in pots several hours after a heavy frost in mid-February

because the fleshy roots usually permit the plant to recover fully, especially in the case of C. heterocarpa. Although my experience suggests that rabbits normally (but not quite always!) avoid the leaves of tuberous species, they will certainly eat the inflorescences. The earlier flowering cultivars of C. solida are especially vulnerable.

Damage by smaller rodents such as field mice is the biggest risk for the shallower tuberous species such as C. solida. C. cava tubers should be deep enough to avoid attack. Plants in pots are more at risk than those in the garden, but the latter are far from safe. An attack can happen whether JUNE 2014

the shoots have recently emerged or nothing is yet showing above the surface.

This has been a serious problem for me only once, when about 20 pots and three garden plants were lost within a couple of nights while I was away. A short-term loan of a pet-safe rodent trap solved this problem, though this is not something I would like to adopt routinely.

Not important enough to be included in my ten key topics, it is worth noting that the stems of a few species can be damaged by strong winds. Plants that are particularly susceptible originate from two different types of environment: 151

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A developing stem bulbil on an unidentified species from Chen Yi Nursery

sheltered woodlands and rocky slopes.

Woodland species prone to damage include some C. angustifolia and the occasional C. solida. In nature, the latter occurs at sites ranging from forest edges to highly exposed mountain regions.

However, people buying tubers for their garden are seldom told enough about this to consider what might be the impact of strong winds. Unless there are particularly attractive forms of C. solida you are keen to maintain, it may be simplest to let natural selection eliminate the lines mostly likely to be damaged. The other susceptible species are those growing in nature in soil covered by boulders, where the stems emerge in gaps between the boulders. This applies to several of the Leonticoides species such as C. erdelii and C. rutifolia, but probably also to some non-tuberous species in the Himalayas 152

and high mountain regions of China.

In addition to these suggestions about dealing with species for sale in pots, as tubers or seed, there is another possible method for distributing some species.

Many from the forests of mountain regions in western China form fleshy bulbous structures in late summer or early autumn and these usually root if placed on a humus-rich soil and kept slightly moist.

In some species the fleshy structures are the means by which the original plant overwinters, as shown in the photograph of C. brunneovaginata. In such cases, each whole fleshy base needs to be separated from the rest if you want to start new plants.

In other species bulbils form towards the ends of stems that fail to produce flowers, but rot, flop and bring the bulbil into contact with the soil.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

CORYDALIS

Corydalis brunneovaginata in flower in spring and, left, in late August with fleshy leaf bases already well developed for the following season

Detached fleshy structures can be kept healthy for a few weeks, provided that they are partially wrapped with moist tissue. This provides a very easy way for plants to be posted from one garden to another. The one problem found so far JUNE 2014

is that the fleshy structures form much better in warmer summers. This also applies to the overwintering bases of most of the Chinese species from monsoon and adjacent regions, even those not forming distinct bulbils. This might be a problem if there were several years in succession of cool and cloudy summers. The need to maintain one plant in a well-drained pot over winter to avoid the risk of all the stock rotting in a wet winter is especially important for all those species developing fleshy leaf bases in late summer, though there is no need to keep the pots covered.

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HOW TO GROW IT

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Primula ‘Arduaine’

ver since I first obtained a plant of Primula aureata I’ve had a long and lasting fascination with primulas belonging to the section Petiolares. Having fallen for the yellow flowers and heavy farina of P. aureata and its derivatives, I then saw photographs of their blueflowered relatives, which were even more beguiling. The fact that they originated in Nepal, Bhutan and China simply added to the appeal.

Primula bhutanica is, for me, the most desirable of this small and closely related group but my first plant proved very difficult to keep and was quickly lost.

Opportunities to obtain plants from this alliance are always brief and unpredictable, so when I spotted P. ‘Arduaine’ on a nurseryman’s stall at an early AGS show some years ago I snapped it up. The literature told me this was a chance find in a Scottish garden and is believed to be a cross between P. bhutanica and P. whitei.

The fact that this plant was a hybrid as well as a ‘garden plant’, albeit from a Scottish garden somewhat different from my own in north-east England, suggested that it might be a little easier to grow than P. bhutanica. That has proved to be the case, since I have not only been able to keep the plant for many years but have managed to propagate it regularly and bulk up my stock.

I believe that the key to growing P. ‘Arduaine’ – and indeed the other petiolarid

154

Success with a ‘light and fluffy’ mix

By Don Peace primulas – is to use a very light and airy compost. Articles in past issues of the AGS Bulletin, particularly those written by John Dennis, a well-known and successful grower of Asiatic primulas and the petiolarids in particular, make reference to this requirement. My own preference is for a mix of equal parts of leaf-mould, perlite, vermiculite and a proprietary ericaceous compost. Under no account must plants be ‘firmed in’ when potting up. Leave the compost ‘light and fluffy’.

Note the complete absence of grit or loambased compost (the staple ingredients of my Primula allionii mix). In fact the regime could not be more different, since P. allionii are given a very firm packing whenever repotted. In further contrast with P. allionii, the petiolarids enjoy overhead watering in summer. The one requirement they do share with P. allionii is the complete absence of direct sunlight.

I have never felt inclined to try growing ‘Arduaine’ in the garden because I would not expect my heavy clay to be even remotely to its liking. However, given its origins, this would be worth trying by THE ALPINE GARDENER

HOW TO GROW IT

Primula ‘Arduaine’ grown by Don Peace

those who are blessed with conditions more akin to the ‘light and fluffy’.

P. ‘Arduaine’ has proved easy to propagate by pulling apart an established plant to provide single rosettes that are then used either to make rooted divisions or trimmed with a short stem to make cuttings. These will soon establish and grow on if kept under a simple propagator lid.

In spite of the literature stating that ‘Arduaine’ does not set seed, I have propagated from seed several times, although, to date, none of the seedlings has proved as easy to manage as the parent. On all occasions, seed has been set following my intervention with a small steel needle charged with pollen from another petiolarid species (usually, but not always, P. bhutanica). Plants have never set JUNE 2014

seed without my help. Of course I cannot guarantee that seeds are not the result of self-pollination since I understand that this can be inadvertently induced by the act of introducing alien pollen to the stigma.

In my experience ‘Arduaine’ will happily increase and, relatively quickly, produce a multi-rosetted crown, but it is difficult to grow into a big plant because the central rootstock rots away after a few years, usually leaving the outer ring of rosettes to continue or, in my case, to serve as the next generation of divisions or cuttings.

I find that ‘Arduaine’ suffers little from pests and diseases, although my stock is watered with Provado (thiacloprid) a couple of times a year and the cuttings or divisions are sprayed with a proprietary fungicide. These precautions may well explain my trouble-free experience.

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I

n 1990, at one of the first AGS Norfolk Group meetings I attended, I won a seedling Cyclamen graecum in the raffle. There were just two leaves in a tiny pot but it was the start of a fascinating journey of discovery.

Initially I kept the plant in a pot and, when another single leaf appeared, I moved that second seedling to a separate pot. For several years I grew leaves, more and more of them as the tubers grew larger, but never a flower. What was I doing wrong?

By this time I had learned that this species likes to have a deep root run, dry and warm in summer but with some moisture at the base of the pot where the fine, fibrous roots amass.

The Cyclamen Society website tells us: ‘Cyclamen graecum is a very variable species with a wild distribution which includes the southern parts of the mainland of Greece, most of the Peloponnese, the Saronic Islands, the Sporades, the islands of the eastern Aegean, Crete, Rhodes, the south coast of Turkey and part of the north of Cyprus. It is at home in stable screes and other rocky habitats and is happy growing both in deep pine-needle litter and the hardest of conglomerates. Its altitude ranges from sea level, where it can be found within a couple of metres of the high-water mark, to 1,200m.’

Many of the photographs that I have seen of it in the wild show it growing between rocks, where the tubers will be dry and baked in summer. The fleshy roots, however, extend far below the surface, allowing the fine fibrous roots

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Finding the right place outside for Cyclamen graecum AGS member Tony Goode tells how, by trial and error, he has found a way to grow this notoriously fickle species successfully in the open garden

that grow out of them to find moisture at depth. I tried deeper pots, partly buried in a sand plunge, and was rewarded with a few flowers, but my routine was not getting the results that expert growers obtain. I now believe that these potted Cyclamen, keeping company with summer-dormant bulbs, were simply too dry in summer.

In desperation and inspired by seeing C. graecum flourishing planted out in a cold frame in the garden of master bulb grower Alan Edwards, I planted one of my plants in a covered bulb bed in an ancient and poorly ventilated steel-framed greenhouse. The bed, about 30cm deep, is constructed over THE ALPINE GARDENER

CYCLAMEN GRAECUM

Fine flowering specimens of Cyclamen graecum in Tony Goode’s garden

the natural soil and was filled over the years with used gritty compost from my large collection of potted bulbs. The result was spectacular! The plant put on a prodigious spurt of growth resulting in a tuber about 20cm across in just a few years – and hundreds of flowers every year.

At around this time we became parents and the time available for plant care suddenly shrank. While some plants in pots suffered, the C. graecum in the greenhouse bed continued to thrive.

Never watered in summer, rarely in winter, what was the secret? Clearly the roots were accessing the groundwater reserve, just as they would do in their JUNE 2014

natural habitat.

Having found a successful approach that suited my busy lifestyle, I planted a number of other C. graecum across a large part of the bulb bed. I had raised a selection of forms from Cyclamen Society seed, a few of which I grew on in pots in the greenhouse, this time kept in a plunge that was watered regularly during summer. In both cases I was now getting very pleasing results as most of the plants flowered well each autumn.

One should never be complacent when gardening. Just when you think you have mastered the art, a new challenge or crisis can present itself. In 2010, the UK experienced the coldest December 157

PRACTICAL GARDENING since Met Office records began 100 years earlier. This extreme freeze, early in the winter, decimated my collection of bulbs and Cyclamen in raised plunge benches in an unheated greenhouse. Almost all the C. graecum in pots were killed outright.

The few survivors were plants that had escaped a recent watering and were thus much drier at the root.

In cold frames the losses were few. These pots were in contact with the ground, which helped to moderate the freeze. In the bulb bed I lost a few C. graecum where the poor condition of the greenhouse had allowed the rain in, but most of the plants survived to flower as well as ever the following autumn. Once again the ‘dry at the surface, moist deep down’ regime had proved the most suitable.

In 2012 a new challenge presented itself when the battered old greenhouse reached the end of its useful life and was removed.

I was quite sure that the C. graecum would resent the root disturbance if I attempted to move them into pots, but what should I do to protect them from the elements?

Many years ago, AGS stalwart Phil Phillips had advised me that the secret was protecting the plants with glass in summer because this would allow the tubers to be warm and dry, encouraging flower production. As it happened, life got in the way and I did nothing! Much to my surprise, the plants have continued to flower well despite being exposed to the elements all year round. Each summer we have had a week or two of very high temperatures but there has been no summer drought.

So it seems that C. graecum can succeed outside when given a planting site that 158

allows the tubers to dry out quickly yet gives the roots access to moisture at depth. In my garden in Norfolk the ‘compost’ in the raised bed is at least 50 per cent grit while the natural soil below is free draining and sandy. The site, facing south-east, is sheltered by a high wall to the north.

I have also flowered C. graecum in a sand bed in the open garden. This plant survived the big freeze of 2010 as did the other seedling from that raffle prize long ago, which is planted up against the southfacing back wall of the house. I think that this combination of ‘local factors’ must contribute to the current success.

For many UK gardeners, some protection will be necessary as in Alan Edwards’ garden, where I saw C. graecum flourishing under a glass cold frame at the edge of a raised bed largely given over to summer vegetables.

C. graecum is a beautiful plant both in leaf and in flower. Given the right conditions it can be long-lived and floriferous both in pots and in the garden. A deep root run, free-draining soil or compost and that all-important combination of summer warmth while keeping the deep roots moist will bring success.

Vic Aspland writes: It would seem that Tony is not alone in having success with this species outside. In a garden I visited recently, I saw three plants of a large size in a sand bed raised perhaps two feet above the general level of the garden. I was told they had been there for many years, although in that case flowering was poor.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

CYCLAMEN GRAECUM

Cyclamen graecum thriving outdoors in Tony Goode’s garden in a very gritty mix on top of free-draining soil

John Massey planted out specimens in his garden at Ashwood Nurseries several years ago. In the winter of 201213, temperatures fell to -19C and they survived. The key in his case seems to be a warm, sunny aspect at the base of an JUNE 2014

old sandstone wall and, of course, good drainage. While I would not recommend that you should plant out your very best C. graecum, with the perhaps less desirable (is there such a thing?) or some seedlings, it is well worth a try.

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A captivating corner of the Cape Floral Kingdom

A view across the Agulhas Plain in South Africa’s Overberg and, left, Romulea rosea

Fred Pointon shares his fascination with South African plants by taking us on a visit to the Overberg, an area to the south-east of Cape Town which boasts a rich floral heritage.

Photographs by Fred and Janet Pointon

EXPLORATION

The endangered Moraea elegans, above, can be found in the vicinity of the small town of Napier

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THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE OVERBERG

Bartholina burmanniana, the spider orchid, has a widespread distribution

T

he Overberg is that part of the Western Cape Province of South Africa which lies to the south-east of Cape Town. It is an area less well known to visitors from the UK but, within its varied landscape of vast agricultural plains, mountains and seascapes, there are magnificent wildflowers to be seen, particularly in the spring.

This short article cannot reflect the total range of plant species in the Overberg but, by looking at some of its gems, readers may be inspired to

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include it in any visit to the Western Cape. The predominant habitat is fynbos, the natural shrub and heathland vegetation. It is found throughout the Overberg, often in areas unsuitable for large-scale agriculture. In some localities it is harvested commercially by landowners with the resultant unique flowers, such as proteas and leucospermums, finding their way to retailers here in the UK. Of particular significance is an area of limestone fynbos in the vicinity of Bredasdorp which hosts a number of endemic 163

EXPLORATION

Gladiolus debilis near the summit of Grootberg at 400 metres

species.

The whole region is highly attractive to farmers due to the soil types, topography and climate and this has led to massive loss of habitat for wild flowers, which have also been threatened by the introduction of invasive species including acacias and the Port Jackson willow, a wattle from Australia originally imported to stabilise sand dunes along the coast but which has spread rapidly inland. Wattles produce thousands of seeds that are stimulated into growth by frequent fires, a feature of the fynbos habitat.

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The Overberg has, however, several nature reserves, both private and those managed by CapeNature (the Western Cape Nature Conservation Board).

Additionally a number of farmers and committed individuals are proactive in protecting threatened species.

On one such farm near the small town of Napier can be found the geophytes Moraea elegans and Aristea teretifolia, together with the spider orchid Bartholina burmanniana.

The first named, which is on the South African Red Data List, is a member of the Iridaceae and is said to be extremely easy THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE OVERBERG

The rare Aspalathus rosea, a relative of the rooibos tea plant

to grow under glass provided it is protected from frost and prolonged cold. The plant illustrated was found growing conveniently on the verge of a minor road despite being restricted to just a few remnants in the area between Napier and Caledon. Individual flowers last for only three days but a succession of blooms are produced over a period of a month between mid-August and September (the South African spring).

Aristea teretifolia (pictured on the front cover of this issue), another endangered member of the Iridaceae, favours stony sandstone habitats that experience very dry JUNE 2014

summers. In the same locality is found the endangered recumbent Aspalathus rosea.

It is taxonomically related to Aspalathus linearis, the source of rooibos tea, which grows to two metres, thus illustrating the wide variation that can be found in plants of the same genus.

Bartholina burmanniana is not confined to the Overberg but has a widespread distribution. It is found here in some numbers and is distinguished by having one small round leaf that lies close to the ground. The flowers repay close examination because the lower lip is much 165

EXPLORATION

The flowers of Gladiolus liliaceus start off brown and then turn mauve in colour 166

THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE OVERBERG

Gladiolus bullatus prefers sandstone and plants are often solitary

divided, giving rise to its common name, the spider orchid.

Also in this locality are two particularly attractive species of Gladiolus – G. bullatus and G. debilis. Both grow in sandstone habitats and tend to be rather solitary plants, often growing at the side of roads.

G. liliaceus is also found here. Its flowers open as brown or russet but towards evening they turn mauve in colour and give off a very strong fragrance, presumably to attract nocturnal pollinators.

The southern limit of the Overberg is the Indian Ocean and along its coastline are two notable reserves, De Hoop and De Mond. De Hoop is by far the larger JUNE 2014

at 340sq km and is the most varied topographically. It contains a wealth of plant life including limestone fynbos and is an excellent place from which to view southern right whales, which visit the coast to have their calves in August and September.

The approach road to the reserve offers many interesting plants but they do need seeking out. Among them are Lapeirousia pyramidalis and Freesia fergusoniae, the latter being particularly fragrant. The broad plain that lies behind the extensive coastal dunes contains species of Lachenalia, Babiana and many annuals but is subject to frequent fires, which has reduced shrub 167

EXPLORATION

The Indian Ocean seen from De Hoop Nature Reserve and, left, Felicia aethiopica on a dune path at De Mond

growth. Nearer the sea, however, can be found Agathosma serpyllacea, a shrub with liquorice-scented pink flowers, and Massonia pustulata, a member of the Hyacinthaceae, which grows almost at the water’s edge.

The De Mond Reserve is much less frequently visited than De Hoop but rewards those who search it out, with lovely walks on paths through dunes to some of South Africa’s most spectacular beaches. The flora here is less diverse 168

THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE OVERBERG

Romulea rosea, one of several members of this genus found in the Overberg

than at De Hoop but careful examination reveals some lesser known plants such as the orchid Disperis villosa and the more common Felicia amoena subsp. latifolia and F. aculeata.

As you move southwards along this coast towards Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa, you cross an extensive plain on which, in the moister areas, grow droseras of considerable size and colour intensity, together with interesting varieties of sand-loving plants such as species of JUNE 2014

Babiana, Romulea and Oxalis, including O. obtusa.

The most common Drosera to be found is D. capensis, well known to enthusiasts of insectivorous plants. It comes in broadleaved and narrow-leaved forms, with some plants being evergreen and others red.

The main feature is, of course, the sticky hairs which are the capture mechanism.

D. cistiflora, with its bright pink flowers, is also found here.

One of the more interesting babianas is B. ringens. This is a fairly common plant but 169

EXPLORATION

Babiana ringens is pollinated by sunbirds attracted to its nectar 170

THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE OVERBERG

The vivid flower of the insectiverous Drosera cistiflora and, below, Oxalis obtusa

is distinguished by the fact that its central stalk is used as a perch by pollinating sunbirds, attracted to its nectar. The bright red flowers appear at ground level and it is a striking sight.

The Overberg thus offers a variety of habitats and exquisite plants. It is served by excellent roads, has a good tourist infrastructure and is an extremely rewarding area to explore for the plant lover, particularly in August and September. If you are travelling to South Africa, it should not be missed.

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Protecting plants in the wild should be a subject that concerns all AGS members. Here Robert Amos, secretary of the AGS Bedfordshire Group, examines the pros and cons of the current law covering wild plants. Robert studied environmental law at Swansea University before completing a masters degree in environmental law and policy at University College London (UCL). He is currently a research assistant at UCL’s Centre for Law and the Environment. In September he will begin studying for a PhD, ‘The Protection of Plants in Law, Theory and Practice’, at Sussex University

Sowing the seed for better protection for wild plants

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ature conservation law and policy, particularly at an international level, can be fairly accused of failing to treat the protection of plants with the same sense of urgency as they do animals. In many ways, however, it can be argued that protecting plants is more critical. If polar bears were to become extinct tomorrow, as tragic as that would be, the ecological impact would be relatively small compared with the loss of any one of the thousands of endangered plant species that form the building blocks of the natural world.

We must ask, therefore, whether the current legal framework for plant conservation is fit for purpose, which leads to the question: what alternatives are there? This article does not aim to provide 172

conclusive answers to these questions, but hopes to offer a better understanding of how the law seeks to conserve plants, some of the issues with the current approach and some of the radical options for reform which, if pursued, would challenge our relationship with both plants and the natural world.

Legal protection of the natural world at a global level is by no means a new phenomenon.

Some multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), such as the 1940 Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation in the Western Hemisphere, predate the United Nations and contain what were, at the time, innovative features that have become hallmarks of conservation law.

The system of modern environmental law (including conservation law) that exists today, however, primarily evolved during THE ALPINE GARDENER

JACK ELLIOTT

CONSERVATION

Sternbergia lutea, seen here in the Peloponnese, is listed in CITES Appendix II

the 1970s. The first Environment Action Programmes in the EU were produced and, in the UK, the Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act 1975, the first statutory protection for plants, was enacted. It was also at this time that the number of MEAs increased dramatically, building on negotiations at the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.

Perhaps the best known treaty is the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), but this addresses only the impacts of trade. It has no mandate over issues such as climate change and pollution.

In brief, CITES operates through a JUNE 2014

three-part listing mechanism. The level of protection varies according to whether a species is listed in Appendix I, II or III. CITES operates these appendices because amending the main text of the treaty is a lengthy process. Typically at least a two-thirds majority of signed-up states must agree to propose a change, a similar threshold has to be met before it is adopted and then each state must express its consent. The CITES appendices, on the other hand, can be amended by a simple two-thirds majority vote.

Species listed in Appendix I are threatened with extinction and CITES prohibits their international trade except when the purpose is not commercial, such as for scientific research.

Appendix II lists species that are not 173

CONSERVATION necessarily threatened with extinction but may become so unless trade is closely controlled.

Appendix III is a list of species included at the request of a country that already regulates trade in the plants but which needs the co-operation of other countries to prevent unsustainable or illegal exploitation. These restrictions apply only to specimens originating from the country in which the species is protected, so its effectiveness is questionable.

At the 2013 CITES meeting, Malagasy rosewood and ebony were upgraded to Appendix II because regulation under Appendix III had failed. Given the sophistication of the black market in wild animals and plants, coupled with the globalisation of markets, I doubt whether Appendix III by itself will ever be able to address properly the impact of trade on particular species.

Despite this, CITES is believed to be one of the most successful conservation treaties. One of the reasons for this is the precautionary approach in Appendix II. A species does not have to be threatened with extinction before it can be listed. All that is required is that it ‘may become so unless trade … is subject to strict regulation’. Appendix II also provides for the listing of ‘like’ species – those that are similar to a listed species and are regulated to prevent its trade.

Listing whole genera, for example, makes it easier for customs officials to identify specimens that must be accompanied by a permit. Cyclamen corms are easily recognisable, but it would be impossible for a customs official to distinguish 174

between the corms of different species in a box of thousands.

Cyclamen are not the only plants favoured by alpine growers to be listed in Appendix II. Species of Galanthus and Sternbergia, for example, were listed in 1989. The countries party to CITES meet every two or three years to discuss proposed changes to the appendices and other relevant matters. Any state, regardless of whether the plant in question is found within its territory, may propose to add or remove it or to reclassify it (for example, downgrade it from Appendix I to II).

Removing a species is rare, however, because strict criteria must be met. Not only must it be shown that the plant is no longer at risk from extinction due to international trade, but also that its removal from the list will not result in it becoming so, and that suitable measures to control trade are in place.

An interesting discussion taking place within CITES at the moment is about the merits of allowing a small amount of controlled trade in endangered species.

At first this seems perverse. If trade is part of the problem, how could it be part of the solution? However, the theory behind the suggestion is sound. Making a species commercially valuable can be a powerful incentive to ensure its survival.

In their book Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus, Matt Bishop, Aaron Davis and John Grimshaw make this point: ‘Wild-collection of bulbs renders their natural habitat commercially valuable; if the practice is discontinued there could be pressure to convert the land to agriculture or commercial forestry…’

THE ALPINE GARDENER

PETER SHEASBY

CONSERVATION

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yclamen coum, pictured above near Abant in north-west Turkey, is one of the hardiest and, perhaps not coincidentally, one of the most popular Cyclamen to be found growing in Europe and the Middle East. This means that it is potentially at risk from the effects of international trade because demand will at least in part be met through the collection of wild specimens.

This is exactly the type of situation that CITES is designed to regulate.

A common method used by countries to implement CITES is to impose quotas. Deciding on these quotas annually allows countries the flexibility to take new scientific information and changes in circumstances into account.

For example, in 2003 Turkey set a quota of 300,000 C. coum tubers for export. This steadily increased

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How Cyclamen quotas can vary to a maximum of 750,000 in 2007 and 2008, before being reduced to 600,000 in 2009, where it has remained since, according to the CITES Trade Database. As is the case with virtually all international environmental law, such quota systems will work only if there is effective national enforcement in place. To date, however, CITES has not raised any concerns with Turkey over its quotas for C. coum.

The main importer of C. coum is the Netherlands, which imported more than 200,000 corms in 2012, around 117,000 of which had been collected from the wild (CITES Trade Database).

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CONSERVATION The strongest counter-argument – there are many others – is that this legitimises the taking of populations that are still strictly controlled. Ultimately, I think such decisions will have to be taken on a case-by-case basis following and, more importantly, followed by careful analysis of the status of the populations in question.

However, despite the obvious risks, any proposal that could improve the attitudes of those responsible for exploiting and removing species from the wild should not be dismissed out of hand.

CITES is typical of the approaches to conservation that were favoured at the start of the modern era of environmental law. It deals with each issue individually and treats each species in isolation. By the 1990s, however, it was clear that a more holistic approach, one that reflected the interconnected nature of the environment, was needed.

The response was the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro. This resulted in three important treaties: the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Framework Convention on Climate Change, both adopted in 1992, and the Convention on Combating Desertification, which was adopted two years later. For our purposes, the most relevant of these is the CBD, which is the primary instrument for global conservation.

In terms of the protection of alpines, the most significant provisions of the CBD are Articles 8 and 9, which deal with in-situ and ex-situ conservation – respectively conservation in the natural environment 176

and outside it, for example in zoos or botanical institutions. Article 8 imposes a range of duties on countries, including creating a system of protected areas, restoring ecosystems and co-operating in the provision of financial support for such work. But Article 8 is fatally undermined by the qualification ‘as far as possible and appropriate’. In other words, there is no obligation to achieve results and the wide discretion afforded to states makes enforcing the provisions of Article 8 all but impossible.

Such weak language has one important advantage, however. The minimal impact the CBD has on state sovereignty has arguably encouraged near-universal participation, with 193 countries currently party to it. Whether the obligations of a treaty should be weakened in order to promote wider participation is a debate that will undoubtedly continue.

Article 9 is more interesting. It calls on countries to ‘establish and maintain facilities’ for the ex-situ conservation of flora and fauna, as well as for measures ‘for the recovery and rehabilitation of threatened species and for their reintroduction into their natural habitat…’

This has the potential to act as a catalyst for more innovative mechanisms for the protection of plants – mechanisms that are not provided for in legal frameworks.

For example, a treaty calling for the establishment of national seed banks, similar to the scheme operated by Kew, could be a short-term measure to guarantee the survival of plants most at risk of extinction.

I do not believe the CBD is capable of bringing about such changes on its own, THE ALPINE GARDENER

CONSERVATION

PETER SHEASBY

Galanthus collected by the million in Turkey

G

alanthus were listed in Appendix II of CITES in 1989.

One of the most commercially popular is G. elwesii, which can be found growing in south-eastern Europe and is pictured here at Gembos Yayla in southern Turkey.

In 2013 the quota set for the number of bulbs of G. elwesii that could be exported from Turkey was 5.5 million wild-collected bulbs and a further 1 million cultivated bulbs, according to the CITES Trade Database.

Although this is a considerable number, it is much more sustainable than the 175 million bulbs that were exported from Turkey in the period immediately before their listing (Bishop, Davies and Grimshaw, 2006).

One of the primary markets for G. elwesii is the Netherlands. In 2012

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Turkey exported around 4 million bulbs to the Netherlands, 3.5 million of which had been collected from the wild. There is also increasing demand for Galanthus bulbs in other regions. In 2010, for example, 10,000 wild-collected bulbs were exported from Turkey to China (CITES Trade Database).

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PETER SHEASBY

Oncocyclus irises, such as this Iris acutiloba subsp. lineolata in north-west Iran, are unprotected by CITES despite many being rare and endangered 178

THE ALPINE GARDENER

CONSERVATION however. Article 9 is also qualified by ‘as far as possible and appropriate’, although the individual obligations are phrased in more imperative language. More problematic is the fact that Article 9 makes it clear that ex-situ measures should be used to complement those is Article 8, rather than act as ends in themselves.

There is no doubt that protecting flora in its natural habitat should be the priority, but there is a failure to appreciate the immediacy of the threats facing certain species, such as alpines that are rapidly losing their habitat because of rising temperatures. Botanical institutions and other groups, including the AGS, can play an important role in the shaping of this new type of conservation instrument. Their first-hand experience of effective conservation techniques is an invaluable resource that should inform the development of any future laws concerning plants. This is something that to date has not been explored in any great depth from a legal perspective – an oversight that I intend to address.

Since the CBD came into force, there have been a number of additional agreements to further its objectives, although the majority are non-binding.

One of the most relevant for alpines is the Programme of Work on Mountain Biological Diversity, adopted in 2004. This is operated under the CBD and funded by its signed-up states. The programme is divided into three elements: Direct Actions, Means of Implementation and Supporting Actions.

An important goal under Direct Actions is to take specific measures to conserve endemic species, particularly ‘narrowly JUNE 2014

distributed taxa’. An explicit recognition of the fact that some plants have limited distribution should be welcomed, particularly if they are found in areas that countries are keen to develop for their tourist industries, but again these aims are non-binding. What has been agreed are aspirations, not obligations.

Another important programme under the CBD is the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. A central element of this is a number of non-binding targets. Target 5, for example, calls for: ‘At least 75 per cent of the most important areas for plant diversity of each ecological region [to be] protected…’ Specific targets such as this have the advantage of being easy to measure, allowing progress to be tracked and changes in strategy to be considered.

They are notoriously unreliable, however.

In 2006, the EU set itself a target of halting biodiversity loss by 2010. A midterm assessment recognised ‘intensive efforts’ would be needed if the EU was ‘even to come close to achieving this objective’ (A Mid-term Assessment of Implementing the EC Biodiversity Action Plan, 2008). Unsurprisingly, no such efforts were made and in 2010 the EU admitted defeat (The 2010 Assessment of Implementing the EU Biodiversity Action Plan, 2010). To their credit they set a new target of 2020, but I have yet to find any strong indication that the EU will succeed second time round.

These two programmes reflect one of the current debates in nature conservation law. Species, habitat and issue-specific MEAs, such as CITES, allow for particular factors to be taken into account but often 179

CONSERVATION JIM ARCHIBALD

fail to recognise the interconnectedness of the natural world and the widespread nature of environmental problems. The CBD and its holistic approach was a deliberate response to this. However, this comes at the cost of the more ‘tailor-made’ approach often needed to ensure effective conservation. Finding the correct balance is the challenge for everyone interested in this area of the law. In my view, the CBD is the correct model, but too many of the more specific agreements are nonbinding, making it difficult to hold states to account for failing to take the necessary steps to conserve flora.

The 1992 Rio conference also had implications for the regional protection 180

of plants and biodiversity. The discussions that took place there and the instruments it produced were a major influence on the development of the EU’s 1992 directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (the Habitats Directive). Before this the only specific conservation legislation the EU had passed was the 1979 directive on the conservation of wild birds, the scope of which was limited to important wetlands and endangered and migratory birds.

The central mechanism for both of these instruments is designation – the setting aside of areas of land and protecting them for conservation reasons. Under the Wild Birds Directive, Special Protection THE ALPINE GARDENER

CONSERVATION PETER SHEASBY

Crocus abantensis, found near Abant in northwest Turkey, is a very localised species, as its name implies.

The Convention on Biological Diversity is concerned with protecting ‘narrowly distributed taxa’ Opposite: Sternbergia clusiana, seen here in southern Turkey, is listed in CITES Appendix II

Areas (SPAs) were created on the basis of ornithological criteria. For example, some sites are used as rest stops by migrating birds and others are important feeding grounds.

Areas designated under the Habitats Directive are called Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and these may host important species or represent particular types of habitat. The Wild Birds Directive was criticised for being too narrow, although this is arguably unfair because at the time the EU did not even have competence in environmental matters (it did not gain this until the 1986 Single European Act). The Wild Birds Directive was instead passed under the internal market provision on the basis that rules JUNE 2014

on the hunting and catching of birds needed to be harmonised for economic reasons, and it was only ever intended to cover wetlands.

A more valid criticism was based on what William Adams, in his book Future Nature: A Vision for Conservation (2003), calls ‘island theory’, arguing that the SPAs were too small and isolated to be capable of supporting viable ecosystems.

The Habitats Directive goes some way to address this. It envisages the creation of Natura 2000, a network of conservation sites across the EU connected, crucially, by ‘green corridors’. This broader application takes greater account of ecological reality but, as will be seen, has come at the cost of a lower standard of protection.

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Furthermore, although significant progress has been made in establishing Natura 2000, so called because it was supposed to be in place by 2000, the network is far from complete.

Although any benefits to plants in the Wild Birds Directive were incidental, it is necessary to mention it here because of the impact it had on the development of the 1992 Directive. In a series of case law, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) blocked all attempts by member states to avoid listing sites, or parts of sites, for economic reasons; for example, to allow for the expansion of a port. The only grounds that were considered to outweigh the conservation objectives were public health and safety.

In other words, the court was blocking economically and politically important developments for environmental reasons.

As a result, when the Habitats Directive was being negotiated countries insisted on more flexibility. It therefore permits the loss or damage of a protected site provided there is no alternative for the proposed project, there are overriding public interest considerations, including those of an economic or social nature, and mitigation or compensatory measures are put in place. The only exception to this is where the site hosts a ‘priority’ species or habitat, meaning that a significant proportion of its natural range is within the EU, such as Aquilegia pyrenaica. In these circumstances, only reasons based on public health and safety are legitimate, unless an opinion is obtained from the European Commission.

At first glance the protection afforded

Aquilegia pyrenaica

to priority sites appears to mirror the situation that existed under the Wild Birds Directive – only health and safety concerns can ordinarily be relied on by countries seeking to undermine the protection of such sites. But research by the environmental lawyer Professor Ludwig Krämer reveals a systematic failure by the Commission to assess properly whether the justification put forward by a state for damaging a priority site is sufficient to outweigh the public interest in conserving it. Of the 11 opinions that had been given at the time of his research in 2009, all but one allowed a project to go ahead. In one case the short-term negative THE ALPINE GARDENER

PETER SHEASBY

CONSERVATION

Fritillaria michailovskyi, native to north-east Turkey, is widely available in cultivation but export of its bulbs from Turkey is not covered by any conservation agreement

effects of closing a mine in Germany were considered sufficient to allow the mine to be enlarged, even though the Commission also acknowledged there might be greater long-term benefits if the mine was closed and the workforce relocated.

This example, as well as the others discussed by Krämer, reveals obvious differences between the approach of the Commission and that adopted by the CJEU in the earlier case law. When I asked Krämer why he thought this was the case at a recent seminar at UCL, he suggested it was because of the nature of the proceedings. When preparing an opinion, the Commission will often consult only the JUNE 2014

state in question. In comparison, in a case before the CJEU there will be opposing arguments and greater opportunity to challenge evidence. It could also be attributed to politics. As well as being charged with the enforcement of EU law, the Commission also has a central role to play in the legislative process. In order to carry out these functions the Commission needs good working relationships with the member states. It will therefore be wary of blocking projects that have huge national significance.

Taken together, these factors lead to concerns over how the Commission enforces EU conservation law. If the 183

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Commission is unwilling properly to enforce the Habitats Directive when what it considers to be the most important sites are threatened, the chances of the regime working for lower priority plant species and habitats are slim.

What then does the future hold for alpines in terms of legal protection? In the short-term nothing is likely to change.

During this age of austerity, tougher environmental regulations will definitely be off the political agenda. However, even before the economic crash in 2008 little was being done to further the protection afforded to plants or indeed the wider environment.

The past 20 years, while not exactly lacking progress, has not advanced environmental policies in the same manner that was seen in the 1970s. Law and policy-makers have been content to rely on the designation of habitats and species as the key mechanisms to protect nature and although, as the Habitats Directive shows, improvements are being made to their operation, the law is still a long way off an accurate reflection of ecological reality.

This is not the end of the matter, however. Alongside the developments in the law there has been a latent debate on more ecocentric approaches to protecting the environment. In 1972, for example, Professor Christopher Stone published the first version of Should Trees Have Standing? In this and more recent iterations of his work he calls for natural objects to be given legal rights and, crucially, the ability to enforce these rights in a court of law via a guardian.

Such ideas can be traced back even

further. The ecologist Aldo Leopold, writing in the late 1940s, advocated the ‘land ethic’, which placed humanity on an equal footing with all natural objects, both living and non-living. Although ideas such as these appear radical, perhaps bordering on extreme, it is worth stopping and thinking about them. As Stone points out, it would have been just as radical when it was first suggested that other nonTHE ALPINE GARDENER

CONSERVATION PETER SHEASBY

Orchids are particulary vulnerable to exploitation such as Ophrys lacaitae, right, pictured near Siracusa on Sicily, and Ophrys kotschyi, left, at Akrotiri, Cyprus. Both species are listed in CITES Appendix II

humans, such as corporations and trusts, should be given rights.

How rights for plants would work in practice is something I am only beginning to explore. What would it mean, for example, for those of us who grow alpines in order to exhibit them at shows?

Suddenly neglecting the watering carries far greater implications than the loss of a red sticker! What is clear, however, JUNE 2014

is it would require a completely new understanding of our relationship with the natural world and the alpines we enjoy seeing and growing.  Robert Amos welcomes comments and feedback by email at robertamos13@hotmail.com 185

Picture perfect: our photographic winners

A mass of Ranunculus keupferi in the French Alps, photographed

by Tony Hughes.

See overleaf for the results of the 2013 AGS Photographic Competition.

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Doug Joyce presents the results of the 2013 AGS Photographic Competition, sponsored by Greentours, with the winning entries in each of the five classes. There are new opportunities in the 2014 contest, which offers cash prizes for the winners

A

s co-ordinator of the AGS Photographic Competition, it is always a great joy for me to receive entries from members from across the globe.

Photographs arrive either on disks or by email, and the feeling of anticipation on opening them is somewhat Previous pages Class 1: First Tony Hughes, Malvern, Worcestershire, UK. Ranunculus keupferi on the summit of Col du Granon, near Briancon, French Alps. July 2013.

Camera: Pentax K-30 (DSLR), lens at a focal length of 18mm (equivalent 27mm). Exposure 1/60 second at f22, ISO 100.

akin to the good old days of film, when photographs came back from processing. I am privileged to be able to preview all the entries at my leisure and each year a new direction becomes clear.

In 2013, for example, the overall quality of images was better than ever before, with newcomers more than matching the talent of regular entrants.

It would appear that photographers are growing more comfortable and confident in their own and their camera’s digital capabilities. This, combined with advances in digital technology, has empowered photographers with a greater flexibility in pursuing their objectives, even when under pressure outdoors from the elements – particularly rain, wind and poor light.

Also evident was the fact that not all classes in the competition are equally popular or well supported, and rule changes must always be considered.

F

or the technically minded, wherever possible camera make, model and type have been listed here with the actual lens focal length setting and, in parenthesis, the equivalent focal length (EFL) in a standard-frame 35mm SLR film camera (or full-frame DSLR). The latter value (EFL) enables a direct comparison of the picture angle across all camera models, thereby instantly distinguishing wide-angle (<35mm), from standard/normal (35-85mm) or telephoto scenes (>85mm), the diagonal viewing angles equating to greater than 63° for wide-angle scenes and to less than 29° for telephoto shots.

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Class 1: Second Liam McCaughey, Ballinderry Upper, Lisburn, Northern Ireland.

Aster diplostephioides at Yak Kharka, 4,050m, Nepal.

July 2012.

Camera: Canon EOS 600D (DSLR), 17-70mm lens at a focal length of 44mm (equivalent 69mm).

Exposure 1/197 second at f22, ISO 800.

Since its introduction in 2007, Class Five for digitally manipulated images has been of minority interest, attracting fewer than a dozen or so entries annually. So this class will be revised in future to accommodate any aspect of JUNE 2014

alpine imagery not included in Classes One to Four.

The new brief will be to submit a photograph with some unique alpine appeal or association. The image may be natural, the result of serendipity, or contrived and digitally enhanced.

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PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Class 1: Third Bill Raymond, Iwerne Minster, Blandford, Dorset, UK. Gentiana clusii at Pic d’Anie, Pyrenees. June 2013.

Camera: Canon PowerShot S95 (Compact), 6-22.5mm lens at a focal length of 6mm (equivalent 28mm). Exposure 1/79 second at f8, ISO 80 (vivid colour mode).

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A catch-all class, if you will: animal, vegetable or mineral, but with an alpine flavour. For full details of the 2014 Photographic Competition, visit the AGS website at www.alpinegardensociety.net and follow the link for ‘Images’.

And finally, while on the subject of rules, I would encourage the less experienced entrants to examine carefully the specific requirements of each class. I usually receive a few entries THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

that do not qualify for their intended classes but would be eligible for alternative classes. If you are still unsure about any judging criteria, either refer to previous results in back issues of The Alpine Gardener or contact me directly at photographiccompetition@agsgroups. org. Also, please pay particular attention when cropping images because going in too tightly can adversely affect a composition in the judges’ eyes.

Class 2: First Tony Goode, Norwich, Norfolk, UK. Pulsatilla alpina subsp. apiifolia above Saas-Grund, Switzerland.

July 2013.

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ38 (Hybrid super-zoom=digital ‘Bridge’), lens at a focal length of 29.7mm (equivalent 167mm).

Exposure 1/200 second at f5.6, ISO 100.

Class One: An alpine or rock plant in a natural (wild) landscape, with both JUNE 2014

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Class 2: Second Zeng Gang, Sichuan Alpine Ecology Study Centre, China.

Habenaria glaucifolia at Balang Shan, Sichuan Province, China. June 2005.

Camera: Nikon F5 (SLR) with Nikkor 200mm micro lens.

Exposure 1/200th second at f5.6 with Fuji film at ISO 100.

plant(s) and landscape featured. Care should be taken to feature prominently a plant or group of plants in an alpine setting. The scenery should support and not dominate the composition, but convey a sense of context and 192

geographical location.

The clear winner of this class was Tony Hughes with a magnificent view of Ranunculus keupferi taken near Briancon in the French Alps. This image works at THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

every level from the choice of the subject matter, the composition to the technical expertise needed to combine perfect exposure with maximum depth of field.

This landscape also has that undefinable ‘wow factor’ – oh to be transported to the French Alps right now.

In second place, high in the mountains of Nepal, Liam McCaughey’s portrait of Aster diplostephioides conveys a harsher and less subtle atmosphere than the softer mountain pastures of France. His choice of a portrait composition suited the tall habit of the Aster and allowed it sufficient presence so as not to be overwhelmed by the mountain scenery, JUNE 2014

Class 2: Third Liam McCaughey, Ballinderry Upper, Lisburn, Northern Ireland.

Oxygraphis glacialis at Baima Shan (c. 4,800m), Yunnan, China. June 2011.

Camera: Canon EOS 600D (DSLR), lens at a focal length of 62mm (equivalent 97mm). Exposure 1/128 second at f11.3, ISO 400.

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Class 3: First Chris Hansen, Lamplugh, Workington, Cumbria, UK. Primula aureata in the photographer’s greenhouse. April 2013.

Camera: Nikon D90 (DSLR), exposure 1/125 second at f16, ISO 200.

which was, regrettably for Liam, partially hidden by cloud.

Third is Bill Raymond’s delightful ‘collage’ of trumpet gentians, Gentiana clusii, scattered among the herbage 194

and rock debris of a Pyrenean hillside.

The success of this composition lies in Bill’s choice to focus on and maximise the foreground elements and allow just enough of the background to relate to the mountain scene beyond. Pulling back from the view would have weakened the impact.

Class Two: Portrait of an alpine or rock plant in the wild, featuring the entire plant. In this class the essential element is to feature a plant more in the manner of a botanical study, including all flowers, leaves and stems. The immediate scenery need only suggest the feeling of a wild place.

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PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Tony Goode’s prize-winning portrait of Pulsatilla alpina subsp. apiifolia is a magnificent example of the artistry of the composition exceeding the inherent magic of the plant. Despite the poor weather, when most of us would have tucked our cameras away and headed for a warmer sanctuary, Tony has conquered the elements (without the aid of flash) and produced a vibrant and inspiring image. The hairiness of the plant has trapped raindrops to add a silhouettestyle quality to the image.

Zeng Gang was awarded second prize for an equally ‘difficult’ portrait of Habenaria glaucifolia, a small ground orchid on Balang Shan in Sichuan JUNE 2014

Class 3: Second David Morris, Caton, Lancaster, UK. Soldanella alpina at Cirque de Troumouse, Hautes-Pyrenees, France. June 2013.

Camera: Nikon D300 (DSLR), fitted with a Sigma 105mm macro lens (equivalent 157mm). Exposure 1/4,000 second at f5, ISO 200.

Province. The subject appears to have been taken in a rather shady position and possibly on a dull day, a challenge for any photographer. Despite this Zeng, like Tony Goode, has distilled another 195

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Class 3: Third Jon Evans, Farnham, Surrey, UK. Epimedium leaves in the photographer’s garden. May 2013.

Camera: Canon EOS 500D (DSLR), 17-70mm lens at a focal length of 70mm (equivalent 110mm).

Exposure 1/40 second at f16, ISO 400.

vibrant image from an unpromising start. By choosing a shallow depth of field he has exaggerated the details of the pale flower against a diffuse and dark background.

Third prize was awarded to Liam 196

McCaughey for a delightful close-up, albeit a portrait, of Oxygraphis glacialis growing high on Baima Shan in Yunnan Province. Here, on a windswept site, the challenge was accurate focusing and an adequate depth of field. Liam chose THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

an aperture of f11 to ensure that all the essential elements of his composition were kept in sharp relief while allowing the background to fade into soft shapes of colour.

Class Three: Close-up detail of an alpine or rock plant in the wild or in cultivation, with leaves included as appropriate. Here the photographer’s objective should be to reveal the more intimate beauty of alpines by emphasising any features of special interest, such as individual flower(s), groups of leaves or floral structures.

Chris Hansen was awarded first prize for what might be described as a straightforward image of Primula JUNE 2014

Class 4: First and overall competition winner David Morris, Caton, Lancaster, UK. Danaus chrysippus (plain tiger butterfly) on Daucus carota (wild carrot) at Col de Sevi, Corsica.

September 2012.

Camera: Nikon D300 (DSLR) fitted with Sigma 105mm macro lens (equivalent 157mm). Exposure 1/500 second at f5.0, ISO 200.

aureata. The judges were attracted by its clean simplicity, a group of flowers surrounded by leaves with unspoiled farina. Balance in the composition 197

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Class 4: Second David Morris, Caton, Lancaster, UK. Lepus timidus (mountain hare) at Howden Edge, Howden Moor, Peak District National Park. April 2012.

Camera: D300 (DSLR) fitted with Nikon 70-300mm lens at a focal length of 240mm (equivalent 360mm). Exposure 1/250 second at f6.3, ISO 200.

has been achieved by selecting an odd number of flowers.

Equally simple in composition but stark in contrast and content is an umbel of 198

Soldanella alpina just piercing through the ice and snow. This photograph by David Morris was awarded second prize as much for the sparkling patterns of ice crystals as the enigmatic display of flowers. Third place was awarded to Jon Evans for his study of an Epimedium leaf.

Jon has chosen a well-known subject but his composition allows us to appreciate its beauty more fully.

Class Four: Alpine fauna in the wild, in a mountain landscape or in association with alpine plants. Wild flowers are always accompanied by fauna, from the large to the minuscule. The majority are a welcome distraction and are popular subjects for many photographers.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Class 4: Third Tony Hughes, Malvern, Worcestershire, UK. Lucanus cervus (male stag beetle) on a bracken frond on the lower slopes of Mount Olympus, north-east Greece. June 2012.

Camera: Pentax K10D (DSLR), lens at a focal length of 50mm (equivalent 75mm). Exposure 1/45 second at f8, ISO 400.

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This year’s winning entry by David Morris simply thrilled the judges and was also adjudged to be the overall winner of the competition. As subjects, butterflies are mostly photogenic, but David’s image of a plain tiger butterfly on the flower head of a wild carrot is quite magical. The clean and bright colours of the butterfly contrast well with the sinister complexity of the carrot inflorescence. The composition has no distractions to draw our attention away from these main elements.

David was also awarded second prize for a quite different composition, this time featuring a much larger subject, a mountain hare. Here our attention is focused entirely on the hare, nervously 200

Class 5: First Celia Sawyer, Oxford, UK. Paris polyphylla in the photgrapher’s garden.

Manipulated in Photoshop Elements 9 using FilterAdjustments-Invert. Camera: Nikon D80 (DSLR), lens at a focal length of 105mm (equivalent 157mm).

watching and waiting, partly concealed but framed by the heather. The use of a long focal length lens (equivalent 360mm) has allowed David to shoot at some distance from his subject yet has enabled the hare to fill the frame. While perspective and depth of field have both been compressed, the critical elements, the face and the eyes, are beautifully THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Class 5: Second Jon Evans, Farnham, Surrey, UK. Cypripedium formosanum, exhibited

by Ian Robertson at the Kent AGS Show in 2012.

A close-up of a single flower was copied and rotated to form a geometric pattern.

Camera: Canon EOS 500D (DSLR), 17-40mm lens at a focal length of 46mm (equivalent 72mm).

Class 5: Third Celia Sawyer, Oxford, UK. Physoplexis comosa in the photographer’s garden.

Manipulated in Photoshop Elements 9 using Filter-Artistic-Coloured pencil.

Camera: Nikon D80 (DSLR), lens at a focal length of 105mm (equivalent 157mm).

detailed and sharp.

In third place is Tony Hughes’ photograph of a male stag beetle on the lower slopes of Mount Olympus, a crisp close-up of this rather fearsome-looking insect.

Class Five: The Art Gallery – a photographic work of alpine artistry using any advanced software techniques.

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W

hen travelling in far-flung parts of the globe, it can often be a challenge to identify the wide array of plants that present themselves and, invariably, undescribed species are found.

Without a good knowledge of the flora, these may go unrecognised. In the case of Argentine Patagonia, the flora is not generally well known to most plant enthusiasts but is documented in a fairly comprehensive work – Flora Patagonica – consisting of eight substantial volumes in Spanish, not exactly portable in the field and with limited availability.

This prompted us, with the help of Christopher Brickell, Peter Erskine and Hilary and Austin Little, to put together a photographic guide to the flowering plants of the region, Flowers of the Patagonian Mountains, published last year by the Alpine Garden Society. In so doing we recognised a small group of species new to science, three of which we describe here.

Two of these fall into the ‘not so new’ category. Perhaps surprisingly, one of these, Junellia coralloides sp. nov., is already in cultivation and has been exhibited successfully at recent AGS shows and is available from at least one specialist alpine nursery.

The second, Viola copahuensis sp. nov., although no longer in cultivation, has performed even better, a substantial plant of it having been awarded a Farrer Medal in 1995, although at the time it was incorrectly identified as V. dasyphylla. The plant originated from a Jim Archibald seed collection.

The third species, a beautiful little

202

A trio of new species from the wilds of Patagonia Martin and Anna-Liisa Sheader describe three species encountered during their many trips to Patagonia member of the iris family, Olsynium skottsbergii sp. nov., was a surprise find on our trip in January 2013.

Junellia coralloides sp. nov.

There are about 40 species of Junellia (Verbenaceae). This is a genus of shrubs and subshrubs endemic to South America, occurring in Argentina, Chile, Peru and Bolivia. Very few are in cultivation. The genus was recently revised and split into two distinct genera, Junellia and Mulguraea, based on DNA studies and flower morphology (Peralta et al., 2008, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 95: 338-390; O’Leary et al., 2011, Systematic Botany 34: 777-786), though this change has yet to be widely adopted in the botanical literature.

The new species we are describing has previously been confused with, and THE ALPINE GARDENER

NEW PATAGONIAN SPECIES

Above, Junellia coralloides sp. nov. displaying its branching habit and, right, Junellia patagonica

included within, Junellia patagonica (Speg.)

Moldenke, which is recorded from dry steppe habitats in all mainland provinces of Argentine Patagonia. J. patagonica was JUNE 2014

originally described from southern Santa Cruz province (Cerro de los Caracoles, Rίo Santa Cruz) in the extreme south and we have found the typical form only in this province. It characteristically forms grey203

NEW PATAGONIAN SPECIES

The flowers of Junellia coralloides, which performs well in cultivation

green, tight cushions to about 10cm high and 30cm diameter. The small rosettes are formed of leaves 1-2 x 1-2mm, entire and with silver-white appressed hairs and a characteristic tuft of long silky hairs on the underside of the leaf base. The flowers are typically white, often ageing to deeppink, and are arranged in compressed spikes of up to twelve on branches around the cushion margin, giving a tonsured appearance with a halo of flowers setting off the tight central foliage. On the windy Patagonian steppe, to attract pollinators it is advantageous to be strongly scented and J. patagonica is intensely, sweetly verbenascented.

J. patagonica is barely in cultivation but 204

has appeared on the show bench. It is very slow growing but will flower from seed after about five to six years and remain in character. It thrives in a well-drained compost (50 per cent John Innes No. 2 and 50 per cent perlite and grit). Propagation by cuttings is difficult – shoots are extremely short and the foliage hairy, making them very prone to rot. Seed is a better option, but the species requires cross-pollination, so two distinct clones are needed. J. coralloides sp. nov. is considerably more vigorous and better suited to cultivation.

This new species is described on page 210. As well as the location given in the description, we have also recorded it in Parque Nacional Laguna Blanca (Neuquén THE ALPINE GARDENER

NEW PATAGONIAN SPECIES

A form of Viola columnaris showing a low-growing habit

Province) and near the coastal town of Comodoro Rivadavia (northern Santa Cruz Province).

Although close to J. patagonica, J. coralloides differs in several important respects, notably in growth form, leaf morphology, flower colour and structure, inflorescence size and flower scent.

Differences in scent, not generally used in taxonomy, indicate adaptation to distinct groups of pollinators. The spermatic scent of J. coralloides flowers is similar to that of certain fritillaries, where wasps are considered to be the main pollinators.

Its growth form is very distinct. Instead of the tight cushion characteristic of J. patagonica, it has spreading, often contorted main branches with short JUNE 2014

branching sideshoots giving rise to densely ‘cushioned’ stems. These often trap fine wind-blown sand and plants may be partly buried. J. coralloides has taken well to cultivation, growing much more rapidly than J. patagonica and flowering in one to two years from seed. After a late spring blooming, a few flowers continue to be produced off and on throughout summer. The same compost used for J. patagonica is also successful here. Plants can be propagated by cuttings or seed, though two clones and hand pollination are required for successful seed set.

Viola copahuensis sp. nov.

Rosulate violas (Section Andinium) 205

NEW PATAGONIAN SPECIES have always been a highlight of our Patagonian trips; they seem so unlikely with their typical viola flowers arranged around something akin to Sempervivum rosettes. Only two species, Viola auricolor Skottsberg and V. sacculus Skottsberg occur in the southernmost mainland Argentine province of Santa Cruz, with the number of species remaining low in Chubut province (V. sacculus and V. columnaris Skottsberg), but increasing markedly northwards into Río Negro and Neuquén provinces. The taxonomy of the group is complex and problematic and there are several new species currently being described by John Watson and Anita Flores.

We have never been convinced by Rossow’s concept of Viola columnaris in Flora Patagonica (1988) or, more recently, its treatment by Watson and Flores (Rock Garden Quarterly 2012, 70(4): 297-308).

Carl Skottsberg, a pioneering Swedish botanist who was instrumental in founding the well-known Gothenburg Botanical Gardens, undertook an expedition to Patagonia in 1908-09. It was on this trip that he collected and later described Viola columnaris from the border area between Chile and Argentina at a latitude of around 44° 28´S (Skottsberg, 1916. Br. Kungl.

Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar 56(5)).

The precise location of the border at that time was a little uncertain. The type material was collected from the Valle Frias area, now definitely on the Chilean side, at an altitude of 800-1,000m on a dry meseta and on the slopes of Cerro Cáceres, both in Aisén province. He also recognised that the same species occurred above Lago 206

Gutiérrez on the Cerro Catedral massif in Río Negro province.

When type material of V. columnaris was destroyed during the Second World War, it was replaced using material (the isotype) collected at Lago General Vintter in the Argentine province of Chubut, about 45km north of the locus classicus. Here it grows on flat or slightly sloping sandy steppe around the lake at an altitude of 920-1,100m, at a similar elevation to that of the locus classicus.

We have seen and photographed V. columnaris at Lago General Vintter (Chubut province), Cerro Catedral and Sierra de la Ventana (both in Río Negro province) – plants are similar at all locations, closely fitting Skottsberg’s original description. Argentinian literature for the Cerro Catedral area is confused, listing the viola found there as either V. columnaris, V. cotyledon Gingins or as a mixed population of both species. Becker in 1925 further added to the taxonomic confusion by describing herbarium material collected by Spegazzini in 1898 from the Nahuel Huapi area as Viola petraea W. Becker. Watson and Flores (2012) consider V. petraea to be a ‘good, stable and scarcely variable species’ whereas we consider it to be V. columnaris at its northern limit.

Viola columnaris, as its specific epithet suggests, sometimes has columnar stems with tightly imbricate leaves, but it seems well adapted to burial by wind-blown sand or volcanic ash and in such habitats the ‘column’ is often very short with most of the lower part of the leafy stems buried. When growing among rocks or in compacted THE ALPINE GARDENER

NEW PATAGONIAN SPECIES

The Viola copahuensis holotype at Copahue and, right, four variations in its flowers

gravels, stems form upright ‘columns’ with conspicuous annual growth ‘zones’ along the stem. Both the tall columnar and low ‘buried’ growth forms occur together in the same area – apart from stem height, the leaves and flowers of the forms are JUNE 2014

indistinguishable.

Individual plants have mid-green, olivegreen or brownish leaves and branch from the caudex to give rise to loose clumps of one to eight stems. Flowers are large relative to the rosette, extending beyond 207

NEW PATAGONIAN SPECIES the edge of the outermost leaves of the rosette, with up to about eight pale violet to white flowers open per rosette at any one time. They close at night, opening by mid-morning, a characteristic this species shares with Viola cotyledon, but not with our new species.

Rossow (In: Correa N.M. (ed.), 1988.

Flora Patagonica, 5: 171-189) and Watson and Flores (2012) also ascribe a more northern population to V. columnaris; this site is about 350km north of Cerro Catedral (the most northern location known for Skottsberg’s species) at Volcán Copahue in Neuquén province. We consider that this population represents a new species which differs significantly from the southern V. columnaris of Skottsberg and we describe it on page 210.

Viola copahuensis occurs well to the north of the locus classicus of Skottsberg’s V. columnaris. It is an altogether more robust plant with larger rosettes forming more substantial clumps. Flowers are larger and usually glabrous, and have a much shorter spur than V. columnaris.

The median lobe of the style crest is much larger that of V. columnaris, where the lobe is tiny and represented by a minute papilla.

Olsynium skottsbergii sp. nov.

The third species we are describing was an exciting find from our trip to Patagonia in January 2013. We visited Monte Zeballos on the south-west corner of Meseta del Lago Buenos Airies in Santa Cruz province (Argentina), an area we have botanised several times over the last few years. As we climbed the slopes above the Zeballos-Ghio Pass, at about 1,700m, we came across a population of this new 208

diminutive species of Olsynium.

Currently there are three dwarf Olsynium species recorded from southern South America: O. frigidum, O. bodenbenderi and O. chrysochromum. A fourth species, O. aff. chrysochromum, has been recorded from Neuquén province, Argentina, and is awaiting description. Our new species has affinities to each of these; all are small, low plants with sessile or subsessile flowers and had previously been placed in the genus Chamelum. The new species occurs at least 1,000km to the south of any of these four taxa and is described on page 211.

O. skottsbergii differs from its four closest THE ALPINE GARDENER

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The flower and, left, the entire plant of Olsynium skottsbergii on Monte Zeballos.

Below, O. aff. chrysochromum, left, and O. bodenbenderi, right

relatives in several respects. All, including O. skottsbergii, are high mountain alpines associated with snowmelt. O. frigidum has flattened grooved leaves, with sessile or subsessile spathes enclosed by two or three large, flat, sword-like bracts; four or five cream to pale yellow flowers are produced per spathe and seed capsules are JUNE 2014

above ground. It occurs in the Argentinian province of Neuquén and the central southern cordilleras of Chile at 1,8502,800m.

O. bodenbenderi is recorded from the Argentine province of Mendoza, with a recent record from northern Neuquén, at a height of 1,800-2,800m. Like O. 209

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FULL BOTANICAL DESCRIPTIONS Junellia coralloides M. & A. Sheader species nova Type: Argentina, northern Santa Cruz Province, Ruta Provincial 16, 46° 10.3´S, 68° 41.5´W, 750m; in dry sandy steppe, flowering November to January. M. & A. Sheader, 18 XII 2008, MAS 08121 (holotype herb. Sheader; isotype BCRU).

Etymology: refers to its coral-like growth.

Description: Grey to grey-green subshrub to about 10cm high, 30cm across; main stems arching or decumbent, branching, with congested branches along the stems. Leaves fleshy with a revolute margin, silver-white appressed hairs on both surfaces and a tuft of long hairs at the base on the underside, heteromorphic; leaves of the main stems 3.3mm long, 3.7mm wide, trifid, central lobe 3.3 x 0.9mm, oval, entire, lateral lobes 2.1 x 1.1mm; leaves of the side branches 1.8mm long x 1.5mm wide, oval, entire. Inflorescence axillary, towards the end of the main branches, forming a compressed, globose spike with up to 40 flowers, each sessile flower in a bract axil; bracts 2.1mm long x 1.3mm wide, oval, entire. Flowers pale yellow to creamy-white with a green or maroon throat, and with a distinctive spermatic scent; calyx 7.7mm long x 1.9mm wide, tubular with triangular lobes, outer surface with antrorse pubescence; corolla tube 13.2mm long, outer surface with retrorse pubescence. Flower zygomorphic; petals spathulate with the upper petal notched, 5.9 x 5mm; lateral petals 5 x 4.7mm, emarginate; lower pair 3.9 x 3.4mm, emarginate, all petals with margins revolute.

Anthers at 2 levels, 2 above the stigma, 2 below, all included within the tube.

Viola copahuensis M. & A. Sheader species nova Synonym: V. petraea W. Becker; V. columnaris sensu Rossow (pro parte) (holotype herb.

Sheader; isotype BCRU).

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).

Eytmology: named for the locus classicus, Volcán Copahue.The species has been recorded from the margin of the Caviahue Caldera, which includes Volcán Copahue.

Description: Glabrous, evergreen, rosulate perennial. Axial rootstock to c. 20cm long.

Caudex simple or branched, giving rise to a mound of up to 55 rosettes, with aerial dimensions to 6.5cm across and to 7.5cm tall, slightly concave on the upper surface. Foliage arranged spirally on the shoots, imbricate; stipules absent; pseudopetioles 4.6-11.5mm; leaf blades suborbicular, 4.5-4.6 x 5.2-5.8mm, leathery-succulent, usually brown but also olive-green to mid-green, apiculate; margin pale, cartilaginous, 0.5mm wide. Flowers solitary

skottsbergii, its spathes and seed capsules are below ground, but its deep pink or white flowers are much larger (up to 6.5cm long), with up to three flowers per spathe and its thick, leathery, grassy leaves are much longer, to about 12cm.

O. chrysochromum is a rarity from Santiago province in Chile, growing at around 2,000m. The 30-40mm long, golden yellow, funnel-shaped flowers are 210

produced from underground spathes, each bearing several single flowers on short pedicels. Leaves are shorter than the flowers and are hairy. The northern Patagonian species described here as O. aff. chrysochromum is close to this species; it also has underground spathes, but has smaller flowers and much longer, barely hairy leaves, and may well be a new species.

Attempts to cultivate members of THE ALPINE GARDENER

NEW PATAGONIAN SPECIES

from leaf axils, outwards facing, forming a ring around the edge of the rosette and part obscured by the outermost leaves. Peduncles shorter than leaves, 6.8-7.1mm long, with 2 linear, acute, hyaline, basal bracteoles, 6-6.2mm long. Calyx 7.8mm long; sepals unequal, narrowly triangular, acute. Corollas white to cream, rarely tinged pale violet, faintly to intensely veined with violet, usually on the lower and lateral petals, but occasionally also on the upper petals; reverse veined violet; throat of lower petal with a yellow longitudinal band.

Petals usually glabrous, occasionally with white filamentous hairs on the inner surface of the lateral petals; upper petals narrow, linear, 8.5-9.5 x 2.7-2.9mm, recurved; laterals obovate, apex rounded, 10-10.3 x 4.3-4.6mm; lower petal triangular, subcordate, with small point in apical sinus, 10.9-11.2 x 6.9-7.1mm; spur stout, cylindrical, apex emarginate, 1.5-1.6mm long, 1.8-1.9mm wide. Anthers and style conspicuous, projecting downwards over the lower petal. Anthers c. 1.2mm long, lowest pair with filiform nectaries; connectives equal to the length of the anthers; connective appendages 1 x 0.7mm, deep orange, conspicuous. Style geniculate, clavate above; crest 3-lobed, the two lateral lobes vertically flattened, triangular, acute, patent or recurved, the median lobe gently rounded, occasionally emarginate. Fruit unknown.

Distribution: Volcán Copahue, Salta del Agrio and Cordon del Cajon Chico, 17km south-east and 17km east of the locus classicus respectively. Also at 1,800m near Primeros Pinos (Neuquén).

Olsynium skottsbergii M. & A. Sheader species nova Type: Argentina, Santa Cruz Province, Monte Zeballos (Zeballos-Ghio Pass, Ruta Provincial 41), 47° 00.7´S, 71° 47.6´W, 1,700-2,000m, on slopes of volcanic sand/gravel, flowering December to January. M. & A. Sheader, 4 I 2013, MAS 13011 (holotype herb. Sheader; isotype BCRU).

Etymology: named for the botanist Carl Skottsberg, who led the successful Swedish Magellanic Expedition to Patagonia (1907-09) and botanised on and around Monte Zeballos, from where he described several new species.

Description: Plant 50-60mm long, emerging about 20mm above soil level. Rhizome 2mm wide, to 10mm long, oblique or horizontal, with fleshy, fibrous roots; 1-2 stems per rhizome.

Leaves 50-60mm long, 2mm wide, cylindrical, linear, ridged, glabrous, prostrate, 2 (-3) per shoot. Spathes 30-40mm long, 1-3.5mm wide, 1-flowered, membranous, subterranean, shortly pedunculate; the 2 hyaline valves are partly covered by bracts, 20-24mm long.

Flower 35mm long, 20mm diameter, pediculate, funnel-shaped, white with a yellow throat surrounded by a ring of magenta dashes; pedicel 2.1mm. Tepals oblanceolate, fused at the base for 12-13mm, 12mm long, 6mm wide, Staminal column 19mm; anthers oblong, 1.6 x 0.6mm, erect, yellow. Style 19-20mm; style branches 6mm; stigmas apical, below the anthers. Fruit unknown.

this group of small Olsynium species have proved unsuccessful to date. Seed germination is poor and it seems difficult to provide the right conditions to ensure prolonged survival of those few seeds that do germinate.

Although Olsynium skottsbergii is probably ungrowable using standard methods, the other two plants we describe here are worth trying as they become JUNE 2014

available. Viola copahuensis is likely to be a challenge but possible, given a deep root run and a very open compost. Junellia coralloides is already proving its worth in cultivation and should become an alpine house favourite for the show bench.

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VIOLA LUTEA

A view from Winton Fell with Viola lutea abundant in the turf

The remote Cumbrian fell where Viola lutea thrives in many guises 212

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tter the name ‘Winton’ and straightaway most older AGS members will call to mind Winton Harding, an unfailingly courteous man who lived in Goring-on-Thames. Author of a useful book on saxifrages (published by the Society in 1970 and reprinted in 1976), he also raised a number of novel Saxifraga hybrids. S. ‘Lemon Spires’ (‘Edgar Irmscher’ x marginata ‘Sorrento’) and S. ‘Citronella’ (which has the same parentage, and dates from 1990) are both first-rate.

Winton is also the name of a quintessentially English hamlet in Cumbria, reached by turning off the A685, passing meadows that are bright yellow with buttercups in late May and hemmed in by dry-stone walls. Just after the pictureTHE ALPINE GARDENER

VIOLA LUTEA

The typical form of Viola lutea on Winton Fell

The flora of the British Isles, while modest compared with that of the Alps, has its highlights, particularly in early summer, when sea cliffs, downland, dales and upland slopes are at their most floriferous.

Robert Rolfe visited a little-frequented fell in Cumbria which is home to an assortment of wild flowers, including Viola lutea postcard cottages that surround the village green, a narrow lane leads up to Hartley, reaching a dead end on the slopes of Winton Fell.

This is ideal hiking country, though on a breezy but bright day in late May, just two ramblers were seen, close to the village.

Apart from muffled booms from quarryblasting lower down, the only sounds were JUNE 2014

those of the local bird population. Skylarks were in fine voice, lapwings were displaying close by and the curlew, a typical bird of the Yorkshire uplands, could be heard repeatedly.

I had been taken there in order to photograph the mountain pansy, Viola lutea, which as the specific epithet dictates is often yellow – much the same shade 213

VIOLA LUTEA

Brian Burrow crossing Winton Fell, where yellow gorse is plentiful

as those hybrid saxifrages, in fact – but can also be entirely violet or, as here, both of these colour forms and assorted permutations. While soft yellow was the dominant colour phase, with patches a metre or more across where the ground was damp enough (usually on the relative flat, at the foot of a slope), at one extreme a few almost white flowers were found, the very pale foliage suggesting a mineral deficiency.

At the other extreme, they were almost purple, but nearly always with a yellow eye and blackish guide lines on the lower three petals.

Some mimicked V. tricolor in their twoup, three-down violet on yellow block coloration. The most unusual had either a 214

wash or a feathering of violet, contrasting with the ground colour of the upper two petals (in a few, this took the form of a dark, oval blotch). The overall effect was evocative of a mass of butterflies settled on the short turf, the flowers fluttering in the fairly balmy breeze. However, it made photography tricky, especially near the ridge of Little Longrigg Scar, which was reached after negotiating a tall, rickety stile with a gate atop, designed to prevent even the most determined sheep from clambering over.

A week of very warm weather and the nibbling that had taken place – insects rather than sheep were the culprits – made it necessary to wander from one patch to THE ALPINE GARDENER

VIOLA LUTEA

A bicoloured form of Viola lutea and, right, a form with blotched upper petals

another in search of the most photogenic specimens. In doing so, various other plants were found. Some, like Helianthemum nummularium and the showy Gentianella campestris, we were too early to find in bloom. But Hippocrepis comosa (horseshoe vetch) and Anthyllis vulneraria (kidney vetch) were both already noteworthy, for all that their displays were eclipsed by another family member, gorse, whose massed stands stained the hills deep yellow, whether you looked west towards the Lake District or in the direction of famously flowery Upper Teesdale, just 15 miles north-east.

Sometimes the mountain pansy was joined by the common dog-violet, Viola riviniana, or the bright blue of Veronica JUNE 2014

chamaedrys, which one sometimes sees in gardens, unfortunately, often as not, in a variegated form saddled with the clonal name ‘Miffy Brute’. On a steep, exposed grassy slope, half a dozen good stands of Orchis mascula were largely just past their best: fine spikes, up to 35cm tall, with the occasional cowslip still in flower alongside.

I was in the company of Brian Burrow, who many readers will know as a skilled hybridist and propagator, though they may not appreciate that he is also a very experienced field botanist. ‘Our’ discovery of the hereabouts somewhat localised Antennaria dioica (a single female plant) was his, not mine.

It was on a train down to Cornwall that I first heard about Viola lutea. A 215

VIOLA LUTEA

A large stand of a purple form of Viola lutea

schoolteacher sitting in the opposite seat began talking to me (ten years old but already intent on turning the family holiday into a fortnight of plant-hunting) about a visit with her class to Hadrian’s Wall, when she rashly offered a cash prize for anyone who could bring her a picked flower of the mountain pansy, supposedly rare in that area. Of course, every single child presented her with a bloom. These days her purse would be lighter still, for such activity could well incur a fine.

Fast-forward 15 years and a roadside colony of a deep violet form, somewhere close to Ambleside, was my first sighting of the species in the British Isles. I’ve also seen it in Derbyshire’s White Peak, colonising 216

fields made hazardous by half-hidden shafts associated with iron and lead mining above Monsal Dale. This is another very picturesque place, for all that the meadows are sometimes heavily grazed, barbed wire crests the stone walls and sizeable crowds congregate around the Monsal Head Hotel.

I’m told that large-flowered forms are frequent much further north, in Scotland (it’s the county flower for Selkirkshire), though I’ve also viewed images from Ireland (where it is more localised), and have encountered it in the western Alps above Mürren in the Bernese Oberland.

This last meeting was a frustration, for I had read that Viola calcarata could be found here in yellow forms, whereas my strong suspicion is that a misidentification THE ALPINE GARDENER

VIOLA LUTEA

This form displays a feathered pattern on the upper petals

had occurred. Unlike in Italy and parts of the French Alps, the latter varies in shade but not very much in hue (just the very occasional albino) wherever it is found, sometimes growing, without exaggeration, by the million.

Articles come thick and fast lamenting the loss of the British countryside and the adverse effect of ‘prairie farming’, where fields of oilseed rape supplant downland, upland, ridge and furrow meadow, and other wildflower havens, and where Sites of Special Scientific Interest represent mere scraps of what used to be 50 years or so distant. There is much truth in this, but the rehabilitation of such sites can take place encouragingly quickly, given careful management. On the North Downs in southeast England, orchids abound in areas where ten years ago they were present in vestigial JUNE 2014

numbers. Given the right conditions and a helping hand, re-colonisation can occur in just a few years. Across Britain, if you go to the right place at the right time, you can see similarly spectacular displays, from Armeria maritima on Cornish cliffs or Parnassia palustris on Anglesey, to Dryas octopetala and dactylorhizas in profusion in northernmost Scotland.

While in the main in this journal we portray the floras of truly mountainous regions the world over, it is as well to show that the British Isles can still provide impressive floral pageants.

So take a trek off the beaten path in the various uplands, where you will enjoy breathtaking views and, in all probability, be left breathless not only by your physical efforts but also by the sight of so many beautiful wild flowers.

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PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS JON EVANS

SOUTH WALES

Ian Robertson’s pan of Crocus sieberi ‘Ronald Ginns’ and, opposite, the Farrer Medal-winning Iris hyrcana shown by Bob and Rannveig Wallis

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arden plants, one and all, start out as introductions from their native haunts. Whether they had their origins in Cornwall, Crete, Canada or Kyrgyzstan makes not a jot of difference. Over centuries, and up to the present day, amateur as well as professional plant-hunters have added much to our collective knowledge of alpine plants the world over. Without their discoveries and expeditionary endeavours, even the most thorough of regional floras (those of Turkey and China, for example) would be much the poorer.

Blindingly obvious, you will say, but at a time when the legality ‒ never mind the legitimacy ‒ of adding to this legacy is under scrutiny, with even domestic hybrids made from parents of known wild origin being considered for

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Bulbs start the season in fine form regulatory control, it’s as well to celebrate the diverse and devotedly maintained collections amassed by exhibitors.

Sometimes stretching back decades, these have almost all built on the foundations laid by past members who equally cherished sendings of seed from abroad at a time when it was permissible (indeed was seen as a mark of diligence) to gather this by the pound or kilo.

Specialist gardeners are seldom profligate, doing their utmost to propagate and pass THE ALPINE GARDENER

JON EVANS

SOUTH WALES

2014 SHOWS FEATURED: South Wales, Early Spring, Loughborough, Kendal, Kent, East Lancashire COMPILED BY ROBERT ROLFE FROM REPORTS BY: Tim Lever, Angie Jones, Eric Jarrett, John Richards, Kit Strange, Dave Mountfort

on their best plants. It is this ethos that underpins and continues to foster the Society’s shows, which got off to a flying start in 2014.

For those living in the British Isles, January either saw part of your garden under water (submerged plantings on the whole survived, and in some cases clearly benefited); pretty much frostfree (many plants came into bloom long before their usual date, and their flowers were spent weeks before the JUNE 2014

first show), or only fleetingly covered in snow (though a widespread hard frost in mid-March put paid to many a potential Ericaceae exhibit).

Plants in the early months are apt to rush into (and out of) flower, especially those that in the wild awaken the minute the snow melts. Late winter and springflowering crocuses are often of this order, and a good representation was on display at the South Wales Show at Caerleon.

A Paul Christian lilac Crocus sieberi sampling (PJC 215) from mainland Greece earned show secretaries Bob and Rannveig Wallis the Crocus Spoon.

Sometimes (although not on this occasion) we are treated to entries of the very distinct Cretan race with more or less white flowers, part-purple flushed on its exterior surfaces, once sensibly given the distinguishing name var. heterochromus.

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FARRER MEDAL WINNERS 2014 SOUTH WALES Iris hyrcana (Bob & Rannveig Wallis) EARLY SPRING Corydalis verticillaris (Bob & Rannveig Wallis) LOUGHBOROUGH Fritillaria stenanthera (George Elder) KENDAL Cyclamen pseudibericum (Frank & Barbara Hoyle) KENT Not awarded EAST LANCASHIRE Not awarded

This was purposely interbred by Crocus specialist Ray Cobb some 30 years ago, giving rise to the handsome infraspecific hybrid ‘Ronald Ginns’, named in memory of the Northamptonshire bulb specialist who once presided over AGS shows, and shown at Caerleon by Ian Robertson.

Staying with Iridaceae, several Iris were in first-rate condition at the South Wales Show, and a distinguished representation could be admired at AGS shows up to late April. These take us east to Turkey, and after that into Iran and Armenia, where for almost two decades amateur and ‘official’ botanical exploration has added greatly to our knowledge of the Scorpiris (juno) and Hermodactyloides (reticulata) species, much of which was gleaned some 50 years ago in a previous golden age for such studies.

Iris reticulata is presently cultivated not just in its popular hybrid clones but 220

in a variety of generally smaller ‘wild’ forms. The aforementioned Wallises contemplated staging an exhibit of these in almost every shade of purple, violet and blue, but their estate car was already full to capacity, so they settled instead on a tremendously floriferous 19cm potful of I. hyrcana, named for the Hyrcanian forest region around the Caspian Sea where it grows on stony slopes in full sun. It will increase slowly when grown in a well-drained compost with a dry summer, watering recommencing, frugally at first, in September.

These irises are at their best fleetingly and this exhibit had been held back by a combination of careful watering and keeping it cold. Moved to a warmer and sunnier part of the polytunnel, it raced into full flower just two days later. The star component of a small six-pan entry, it received the year’s first Farrer Medal.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

SOUTH WALES

JON EVANS

Two more fine exhibits from Bob and Rannveig Wallis: Corydalis verticillaris and Iris galatica

DOUG JOYCE

EARLY SPRING

An honourable mention goes to the same exhibitors’ I. galatica in an alluring form that would win over even those who ordinarily shun green flowers.

Elsewhere in the hall, Peter Taggart’s unusually late-flowering, watery blue I. histrio (sometimes in flower at Christmas under frost-free glasshouse conditions) was of southern Turkish rather than Syrian or Lebanese descent, from another Wallis introduction.

On a different note, Section Leonticoides Corydalis were outstanding overall. A JUNE 2014

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Bob and Rannveig Wallis showed two superb specimens at Harlow.

Predominantly Turkish C. erdelii vaguely shadows the easterly drift of Iris histrio, stopping short in the Anti-Lebanon mountains. Allegedly one of the less attractive members of the section, it can be transformed if given time (seedlings take five or more years to get into their stride) and congenial conditions, forming a delicate pink haze above a compact mat of crisply-cut glaucous leaves. Flowering stems radiate from the tuber and emerge at some distance. In pots this effectively means around the edges, unless steered into a central positioning by a subsoil funnel or smaller, inverted pot with its base knocked off, put in place at repotting time, in mid-autumn.

The Wallises’ pan of the more obviously attractive C. verticillaris was in swashbuckling condition and was awarded the Farrer Medal. Stocks now grown, all of quite recent introduction (earlier examples having long since faded away), are mainly from the northwestern Elburz through to the Iranian 222

EARLY SPRING

Talysh and on into Azerbaijan, and several colour forms are established in specialist collections. It really is one of the finest of its subsect, a valuable addition to the usually seen range of early-flowering exhibits.

The same can be said of another child of the sixties, Fritillaria gibbosa, now grown in larger numbers than at that time and setting good amounts of seed in exile if dexterously hand-pollinated.

Lee and Julie Martin brought along a trio, sown in 2009, and as such only on their second flowering, where one spike was orthodoxly pink but the others were fetchingly apricot. These are also of Iranian ancestry, the heartland of THE ALPINE GARDENER

DOUG JOYCE

fortnight later at the Early Spring Show Peter won the Greenfield Award with a sextet of these. Almost all of the two dozen or so species are in cultivation, but obtaining them other than by exchange or gift is another matter, for just a handful of nurseries currently offer a small selection. Stored seed is worth a gamble, for while it is true that sowing fresh from the pod is preferable, even 18-month-old packets have germinated well.

JIM ALMOND

LOUGHBOROUGH

George Elder with his Farrer Medalwinning pot of Fritillaria stenanthera Opposite, Lee and Julie Martin’s Fritillaria gibbosa displaying different colour forms

this sophisticated species, although its full range stretches from Armenia to Afghanistan and Baluchistan.

At Harlow these were joined by stalwarts such as that showiest of winter aconites, Ray Drew’s Eranthis hyemalis Tubergenii Group ‘Guinea Gold’ (a fortnight later, at the Kent Show, Lee and Julie showed JUNE 2014

an excellent clump of the much subtler Japanese E. pinnatifida), dwarf Narcissus by the score and the first wave of Primula allionii exhibits that contribute powerfully to the so-called ‘pinkification’ of the benches in early to mid-March.

Brian Burrow and Nigel Fuller had the pick of these, some of the finest raised by the first-named, who showed a generous 223

PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS DON PEACE

KENDAL

The beautiful flowers of Iris pamphylica shown by Cyril Lafong

range over the following few weeks.

At the Loughborough meet, another famed cultivator of this quintessential alpine house plant, Geoff Rollinson, conducted his first competitive campaign of the year. Given his peerless track record, he is an automatic first choice when it comes to trialling Brian’s latest seedlings and he showed several of these, but struck most decisively with a P. a. ‘Pinkie’, so vigorous that some old showgoers doubted it was the same rather weakly plant raised by Ken Wooster in 1951. Tricky to grow to any size, it won the Richard Regan Trophy for the best plant in a 19cm pot. Brian, meanwhile, 224

received one of the several Certificates of Merit for the white-eyed, deep rose pink-petalled P.a. ‘Judy Burrow’, one of his several superior raisings along these lines.

Staying with this part of the spectrum (though it can vary to lilac-blue in Kazakhstan, and near white in some variants), George Elder’s Fritillaria stenanthera set the seal on what proved a vintage spring for the genus. When was such an extensive range last shown in such excellent condition? Asked afterwards by a skilled cultivator what he had done to achieve such results, George answered: ‘I followed your advice and THE ALPINE GARDENER

DON PEACE

KENDAL

Frank and Barbara Hoyle’s splendid cushion of Dionysia aretioides

gave it plenty of water from late winter onwards, as often as every other day in mild, breezy spells,’ to which came the incredulous response: ‘Seedlings apart, ours are kept on the dryish side until growth is well under way: but not any more’. The uniform stock exhibited had been grown from Jim Archibald seed sown in 2001 (the October 2000 list had material from a rarely accessed locality, Balkh in north-central Afghanistan) in a mixture of four parts John Innes No.3, one part grit and one part sand. Not always regarded as the most exciting member of the Rhinopetalum subgenus, this unprecedented clump was accorded first the Royal Bank of Scotland Award for JUNE 2014

the best bulbous exhibit, despite strong competition from Mike Chadwick’s veteran pan of Narcissus alpestris and others, then the Farrer Medal.

Dionysias were less abundant at Loughborough than of late, the pick of them Alan and Janet Cook’s D. ‘Bernd Wetzel’. Of the plethora of Dionysia hybrids, it is surprising that, to date, only one (arguably two) is recorded as having D. tapetodes as the seed parent. Raised by Harry Jans in 1994, very likely the other parent is D. aretioides. A challenging plant to grow really well, it tends to be rather loose in habit, but here formed a perfect and firm dome, solidly flowered, that was in contention for the premier 225

PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS DON PEACE

KENDAL

award.

Rosina Abbiss received a Certificate of Merit for her lovely clump of the fairly recent hybrid Hepatica japonica x yamatutai, not yet accorded a bi-specific epithet. It had substantial flowers of rich indigo blue. The full range of hues present in its parental genes has been transmitted to other versions, which ideally should be bought in flower, or else recreated by those keen to explore the further potential of this elegant debutante.

Concerns have been expressed that some shows have suffered modest attendance figures in recent years. However, as a pleasant small town with many tourist facilities on the edge of the Lake District, Kendal offers an attractive replacement 226

for the Blackpool Show, and clearly the organising committee had worked hard to attract local support (it was also rather easier to reach for a strong contingent of very welcome Scottish supporters).

A further Rhinopetalum representative, Don Peace’s Fritillaria ariana x bucharica, was flowering for the first time from seed sown in 2007, and the many seedlings, intermediate between the two attractive parents, were surprisingly uniform. He has four potfuls of this cross, so it will doubtless receive limited distribution in years to come. Relatively few hybrids in this large genus have been recorded, either in the wild or in gardens, but the number is increasing steadily, by accident and, as in this case, by design.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

JON EVANS

KENT

Eric Jarrett’s Townsendia exscapa fell foul of show rules and missed out on a Farrer Medal

Opposite, Saxifraga ‘Coolock Gem’, grown

by Mark Childerhouse, in its ‘four pots’

Cyril Lafong made one of his occasional southerly incursions, bringing along several plants that nobody else had to hand, most notably a seed-raised clump of the very seldom offered ‘reticulata’ Iris pamphylica with several times as many flowers as have been mustered by any previous exhibitors. This most distinctive, most westerly of the subgenus, from Antalya province, now justified all the plaudits, whereas excitement over other previous, few-flowered appearances has been, put politely, overheated.

Turkish plants were at the fore time and again at Kendal, the Farrer Medal going to Frank and Barbara Hoyle’s Cyclamen pseudibericum with a growth habit reminiscent of a magnified C. coum.

JUNE 2014

Handed over by Mike and Christine Brown six years previously, with the instruction that it should continue to be exhibited, the tuber rests on a compost of sterilised garden soil and brackenmould, topdressed with grit and perlite.

As the leaves start to appear in winter it is watered with a dilute solution of seaweed extract. The first flowers open in February. Kept frost-free, under cold glass, it remains in prime condition for a number of weeks as successive flowers open. When the foliage dies down in late spring, the pot is placed under the bench in a cool spot, with the plunge kept just moist.

Frank and Barbara’s equally substantial Dionysia aretioides received a Certificate 227

PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS JON EVANS

KENT

Iris nusairiensis x caucasica subsp. turcica from Bob and Rannveig Wallis

Opposite, Geoff Rollinson’s immaculate pan of Primula ‘Crusader’

of Merit (in the late 1980s large and abundantly flowered examples of this species were routinely shown). Another Certificate of Merit went to Mark Childerhouse’s equally substantial and dazzling Saxifraga ‘Coolock Gem’, which atoned for an overall muted display of ‘kabschia’ saxifrages at this and other early shows.

the compost is moist to half its depth or more.

To restrict root damage when potting on, Mark carefully cracks the sides of the pot so that the roots can grow through the fissures. The plant on show had three earlier pots hidden within! After removal of the flowers, the pot is left to stand in a liquid feed of Chempak 8 until

A slightly smaller-flowered but much deeper pink, white-at-the-mouth version of Cyclamen pseudibericum shown by Lee and Julie Martin was much-admired at the following week’s Kent Show. This was held on the same day as the gathering at Whitworth in Lancashire, where its alterego, victorious previously at Kendal, was

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Local exhibitor Tommy Anderson, who lives within walking distance of the Kendal venue, made his home advantage pay off by winning the Open Section aggregate and the large and small six-pan classes.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

considered still better than any of its rivals, and as such a Farrer Medal could not be conferred. Given that there were several heavyweight rivals, this seems unfortunate, just as the lack of this award at Rainham reflects misleadingly on a very creditable gathering.

In the heat of the moment, exhibitors sometimes enter plants in the wrong class.

Stewards (and judges, for that matter) should bring this to the attention of the person running the show at the earliest

JIM ALMOND

EAST LANCASHIRE

opportunity, so that the plant can be moved to a more appropriate class. Eric Jarrett’s Townsendia exscapa, a distinguished tuffet representing a 2008 sowing, fell foul of an oversized-pot ruling, and while nevertheless adjudged best in show, it paid a heavy penalty. Repotted annually in a mixture of two parts grit/perlite/sharp sand intermixed and one part compost, it has proved soundly perennial positioned in the sand plunge of a north-facing alpine house, kept well-watered in spring and summer, then just moist for the rest of the year.

Full show reports and more pictures can be seen on the AGS website JUNE 2014

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PAEONIA WENDELBOI

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n the summer of 1978, Professor Per Wendelbo, director of the Gothenburg Botanical Garden, returned to Sweden after several years in Iran, where he had been supervising the creation of the Ariamehr Botanical Garden and the Botanical Institute of Iran in Tehran (known respectively post-revolution as the National Botanic Garden of Iran and the Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands).

Per was a great plantsman and had a large collection of live plant material and herbarium specimens. In an enthusiastic moment he invited Henrik Zetterlund into his office to show off a wonderful peony (27809) that he had collected together with his colleague Mostafa Assadi in early May. He was unsure whether this was P. mlokosewitschii, not previously found in Iran, or a new species. Henrik gained the impression that he was in favour of the first possibility.

As it turned out, Per never did name the herbarium specimen. One thing of which he was in no doubt, however, was that ‘this plant must be introduced in cultivation’. On Per’s request, Mostafa returned to the site on August 31 of the same year to make a seed collection (M. Assadi 30834) that Per later passed on to Henrik. The seeds were planted and germinated in the spring of 1980, with the first flowers appearing in the spring of 1983. Unfortunately, Per Wendelbo died in 1981 and never saw his peony in flower in cultivation. Since then this peony has been distributed from the Gothenburg Botanical Garden.

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An Iranian peony to honour Per Wendelbo Jānis Rukšāns, bulb expert and nursery owner, and Henrik Zetterlund, the horticultural curator at the Gothenburg Botanical Garden, describe Paeonia wendelboi, a new herbaceous species from Iran From the early days of horticulture, peonies have played an important role in gardens. They were first grown as medicinal plants and are still used as such in some cultures. They are popular garden plants due to their beauty and longevity and are divided into three sections: the Chinese section Moutan (the ‘tree peonies’), whose members have a limited hardiness in northernmost Europe; the American section Onaepia, with the frost-hardy P. brownii and the tender P. californica; and the Eurasian and northwest African section Paeonia, which includes the largest number of species.

Yellow flowers occur in some members of section Moutan but these are of little value in the far north. Until recently, THE ALPINE GARDENER

JĀNIS RUKŠĀNS

PAEONIA WENDELBOI

The brilliant yellow Paeonia wendelboi, in its typical rocky habitat in Iran, is proving to be a good garden plant

when the intersectional (Moutan and Paeonia) ‘Itoh Hybrids’ were raised, there was no hardy cultivar of tree peonies with really yellow flowers that could be grown at Jānis’s nursery in Latvia.

Within section Paeonia, four Caucasian species are cited as yellowish to yellow – P. wittmanniana, P. macrophylla, P. mlokosewitschii and P. tomentosa.

JUNE 2014

The flowers of P. wittmanniana and P. macrophylla start off white or very pale yellow. P. tomentosa remains an enigma for the authors but is probably white-flowered. Only P. mlokosewitschii, described from Lagodekhi National Park in East Georgia, has pale lemon yellow flowers. The most visited population shows a remarkable variation of pinks and yellows, as is also found in P. lagodechiana 231

JĀNIS RUKŠĀNS

PAEONIA WENDELBOI

The widely available and popular Paeonia mlokosewitschii growing in the Gothenburg Botanical Garden

and P. x chameleon. Perhaps this is a result of P. mlokosewitschii mixing with P. caucasica (P. daurica subsp. coriifolia).

Like most members of section Paeonia, P. mlokosewitschii hybridises with its cousins so that plants grown from seed collected in the garden are liable to result in individuals with non-yellow flowers.

Here we want to cite the late Jim Archibald’s seed list, in which he notes: ‘…in the wild the colour-forms are mixed 232

and [the fact] that what we grow in cultivation is a garden selection has been substantiated by Dr Michael Almond, who has visited this colony in flower (on steep, densely wooded slopes) and has sent us photographs showing the considerable colour variation from white and pink to yellow’. It is a typical forest plant that grows in some lighter spots under large deciduous trees and at the forest edge.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

JĀNIS RUKŠĀNS

PAEONIA WENDELBOI

The team guided by Jill White explores a slope covered with Galanthus transcaucasicus and other bulbous plants near the Paeonia wendelboi locality

P. mlokosewitschii is quite tall, reaching as much as 1m in height. A few other species regarded as ‘yellow’ were most likely described from herbarium specimens, where white turns yellowish during the drying process. In gardens, P. mlokosewitschii is known as Molly-thewitch, but regardless of this somewhat unfavourable nickname it is one of the loveliest and best tempered of herbaceous perennials. P. mlokosewitschii prefers vernally moist, humus-rich, well-drained soil. It tolerates most pH values but will not put up with waterlogging or drought.

On July 17, 1975, Per Wendelbo and Mostafa Assadi drove up to Kuhhaye Tales mountain ridge in Iran, from Asalem to Khalkhal, where they found JUNE 2014

a Paeonia species (18544) growing at 1,900-2,100m. Hong De-Yuan, in his monograph Peonies of the World (Kew), places this collection under P. daurica subsp. tomentosa. The locality is noted as ‘above Sefid Poshteh’, a village that we couldn’t find on the map.

As mentioned earlier, Per Wendelbo and Mostafa Assadi took the same road in May 1978 and found a second species (27809) ‘after [the] pass near Khalkhal’.

Our team, guided by Jill White (WHIR), drove along the same road on April 27, 2008. We made several stops and the first one was at an altitude of 1,970m between Nav and Khalkhal, where steep mountain slopes were covered with 233

PAEONIA WENDELBOI countless Colchicum speciosum, Fritillaria kotschyana subsp. grandiflora, Galanthus transcaucasicus, Puschkinia scilloides and Crocus archibaldiorum. On the right side of the road were dense shrubs and a partly cut forest, but many large trees were left intact. On the left was a village, most likely the locality from where sample 18544 had originated.

According to Hong De-Yuan, Paeonia tomentosa (P. daurica subsp. tomentosa) is known from several localities in four districts. The northernmost is in Talysh, in the vicinities of Lerik and Lenkoran, from where several gatherings are known.

In the last days of April 1987, a team from Latvia (J. Rukšāns, A. Seisums and A. Zobova) observed this species in Talysh, where it was growing among low trees and scrub and in small clearings of Fagus forest at an altitude around 1,500m (gathering RSZ 8712B). We didn’t see any specimens in open situations. The gathered sample is still growing well in the National Botanical Garden of Latvia at Salaspils.

All specimens seen by us had whitish flowers that we could not describe as yellow or even yellowish. All the gatherings by other botanists at Talysh (with habitat descriptions) had also been collected in forests.

In Iran P. tomentosa has been registered at three sites (Hong De-Yuan). Two of those are on the Kuhha-ye Alborz ridge in the Chalus Valley in Mazandaran (in the west) and in the Golestan National Park in Gorgan (in the east), where it was collected from 1,830-2,740m. The third is in Gilan near the road from Asalem to 234

Khalkhal, as already mentioned.

Some 10km further along the road, in completely different ecological conditions, our team (WHIR) made another stop at an altitude of 2,0602,100m near sun-baked steep stony slopes facing south-west. These were sparsely covered with very dwarf and spiny shrubs and an incredibly bright yellow peony in full bloom, growing in cracks in the rock. This was the species collected by Per Wendelbo and Mostafa Assadi (27809).

Its colour was so unusually deep yellow that at first glance Jānis didn’t believe that it could be a herbaceous peony.

Compared with the white-coloured peonies in the vicinity, the leaves of the yellow-coloured plants were much more glaucous, with rounded segments and pubescence on the underside. In the white specimens, the leaves were darker green, distinctly pointed and acute.

This peony grows in full sun and is of dwarf habit, not exceeding 30cm in height while forming large flowers up to 7cm in diameter (in the wild). We spent a long time searching for seeds from the previous year and Jānis tried to collect a few very small seedlings, but this was extremely difficult because they had an unbranched and thickened root going deep down into the rock.

Surprisingly, two of the three collected plants (WHIR 133) sprouted the following spring in spite of the fact that they had been collected at flowering time, the worst possible time for replanting peonies. This species turned out to be an excellent grower both in the garden and under cover.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

PAEONIA WENDELBOI JĀNIS RUKŠĀNS BOB CHARMAN

Two images of Paeonia tomentosa

A seedling of this yellow peony raised from Jim Archibald’s seeds was planted in the open garden by Jānis. It survived several winters and flowered for the first time in June 2013. The weather conditions in Latvia are quite harsh and moist, unlike those in Iran, but it seems that this peony is very tolerant of low temperatures in winter and moist soil and humid air in summer and autumn.

Although it received sufficient moisture and fertiliser, its height in the garden did not surpass 35-40cm (it was planted in a partially shaded spot, therefore it was somewhat lanky). It set seeds after handJUNE 2014

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BOB CHARMAN

PAEONIA WENDELBOI

pollination in the greenhouse as well as in the garden.

The white-flowered peony from the same roadside can be regarded as P. tomentosa, but this name cannot be applied to the yellow-flowered plant collected in 1978 (27809). Although growing only some 8km distant in a straight line, both of them (the white one and the yellow one) are so different in all their features and ecology that they cannot be regarded as the same species, therefore the yellow peony certainly represents a new species.

In the trade this new species has been offered as P. mlokosewitschii, Paeonia sp. nova mlokosewitschii aff., and later as P. iranica, but we decided to name it 236

Paeonia wendelboi after Per Wendelbo, who did much work for the fundamental Flora Iranica and who was the first to discover it.

Paeonia wendelboi Rukšāns & Zetterlund species nova similia ad Paeonia tomentosa Lomakin et P. mlokosewitschii Lomakin sed differt floribus aureis, staturis minoribus (herbae ad 30 cm longas) et habitatione diverso.

Type: Iran: Azerbaijan: Asalem to Khalkhal after pass near Khalkhal, 2,000m, May 5, 1978. P. Wendelbo & M. Assadi 27809. Dominating the whole mountain slope. Obviously not eaten by sheep. Flowers sulphur yellow, stamens yellow, leaves glaucous. Holo: GB, Iso: THE ALPINE GARDENER

PAEONIA WENDELBOI BOB CHARMAN

Paeonia wendelboi, left and right, is yet another jewel in Iran’s rich floral heritage

TARI. The exact type location might be: prov.

Ardabil, Kuhha-ye Tales mountain ridge, some 10km before Khalkhal on a roadside from Asalem after the pass, sun-baked, steep, south-west-facing stony slopes with sparse vegetation, 2,060m. 37.35.286 N; 48.38.877 E, where the living plants were found (Ruksans, April 26, 2008).

Distribution: At present it is known only from its locus classicus.  We express our thanks to Dr Reinhardt Fritsch (Gatersleben) for checking our manuscript and the Latin diagnosis.  Jānis Rukšāns can be contacted by email at janis.bulb@havk.lv JUNE 2014

Editor’s note: In the March issue of The Alpine Gardener, Jānis Rukšāns described a new Puschkinia species which he named P. kurdica. The manuscript, received on November 29, 2013, was published on March, 13, 2014. On March 4, 2014, Turkish botanists published the same species online under the name P. bilgineri (the manuscript was received by the publisher on January 1, 2014).

In accordance with the rules of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants, priority belongs to the earlier published name, so this Puschkinia correctly must be named P. bilgineri, but P. kurdica may be regarded as its synonym.

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