The Alpine Gardener - March 2015

339 THE ALPINE GARDENER

Alpine Gardener the

JOURNAL OF THE ALPINE GARDEN SOCIETY

VOL. 83 No. 1 MARCH 2015 pp. 1-119

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

Volume 83 No. 1

March 2015

Alpine Gardener THE

CONTENTS 64

3 EDITOR’S LETTER 5 ALPINE DIARY

46

Harry Jans, the 2014 Lyttel Trophy winner; readers’ letters.

12 JOHN FITZPATRICK’S DIARY Gardening resolutions and the creation of a woodland glade.

46 THE TRAVELS OF JIM ARCHIBALD

Robert Rolfe on a notable life spent discovering plants.

64 ALPINES ON SEA

John Richards visits the plant-rich Velebit Mountains in Croatia.

80 PRIZE PLANTS

FROM OUR SHOWS

Last year’s AGS Summer North, Summer Mid-West, Autumn North, Autumn South, Loughborough Autumn and Newcastle shows.

90 REVIVING AN

EDWARDIAN ROCK GARDEN Adrian Anderson on his work at a unique feature in Yorkshire.

102 AN ERANTHIS RIDDLE

36

Eric Wahlsteen believes that two Chinese species are in fact just one.

March 2015 Volume 83 No 1

PRACTICAL GARDENING

18 GROWING OXALIS

Martin Sheader on how to cultivate these glorious plants.

31 AN ALPINE NOVICE

12 90

Raymond Hurd on his first year’s rock gardening.

36 ANEMONE NEMOROSA

Tim Ingram looks at the various species and cultivars.

108 ROLF FIEDLER

John Watson reassess the Austrian plant explorer’s contribution to horticulture and ponders what became of him.

COVER PHOTOGRAPHS

Front: Oxalis adenophylla (Martin Sheader).

Back: Sempervivum ciliosum var. galicicum exhibited at Autumn North Show by Cecilia Coller (Jon Evans).

ON THESE PAGES

Left: Crocus vernus; Iris sprengeri; a pink-centred variant of Anemone nemorosa.

Right: Galanthus elwesii ‘Moya’s Green’; Colchicum agrippinum; Oxalis perdicaria exhibited by Bob and Rannveig Wallis at last year’s Autumn South 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) £32* Family (two people at same address) £36* Junior (under 18/student) £14 Overseas single US$56 £34 Overseas family US$62 £37 * £2 deduction for direct debit subscribers Printed by Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE. Price to non-members £8.00 Second-class postage paid at Rahway, New Jersey.

US Postmaster: send address corrections to AGS Bulletin, c/o Mercury Airfreight International Ltd. Inc., 2323 Randolph Avenue, Avenel, NJ 07001. USPS 450-210.

© The Alpine Garden Society 2015 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

Iris schachtii entered in the 2014 online show by Kirsten Andersen

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ave you taken part in the AGS online show? Last year the show’s 107 classes received 422 entries from members around the world. If you own a camera and have internet access, there’s no reason not to enter. If every member entered just one photograph, the judges would have around 7,000 to consider!

It’s always interesting to see what members are growing in different countries. The online show is a great opportunity for those who live outside the UK and Ireland to play a bigger part in the Society because they cannot easily enter our 24 shows held here. It’s also a chance for us all to show what we are

MARCH 2015

Let us all see what’s growing in your garden Editor ’s letter growing in our gardens, especially the plants that can’t be dug up for the show bench!

The classes cover a range of situations such as alpine plants grown in an innovative way, the alpine garden in 3

EDITOR’S LETTER autumn, and alpine plants naturalised in a woodland or meadow setting, as well as a variety of specifically alpine and associated plants such as primulas, cyclamen, gentians, pulsatillas and fritillaries.

You can view the last nine years of the show on the AGS website by following the link for ‘Shows & Plant Fairs’ and then ‘Online Show’. So please help to provide the judges with an enormous task this year by entering at least one class in the show. There are even prizes of AGS gift vouchers to be won!

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arrie Thomas of Touchwood Plants in Swansea, who holds the National Collection for Aquilegia, has asked me to warn members about a new and virulent downy mildew which is ravaging her prized specimens.

Carrie has compiled information on her website to inform gardeners and help them prevent, identify and cope with infections. She said: ‘Early discovery is vital. It is my hope that the information on my website will help detection and hence slow or minimise spread. This new disease is killing plants. I do not know if my collections will survive or if I will ever be able to grow aquilegias in the same soil again.’

Carrie urges gardeners to email her if they see any signs of the disease so that she can build an accurate picture of where it is found in the UK and worldwide. It is also important to know which treatment methods have failed, which have seemed to work and why.

Immediate removal of any plant even suspected of having the disease may be 4

the only effective solution. Visit Carrie’s website at www.touchwoodplants.co.uk to find out more.

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here are still a few copies available of the 2014 supplement to The Alpine Gardener, featuring awards given by the Joint Rock Garden Plant Committee.

They can be purchased at £8 per copy, either on our website or from the AGS Centre. The supplement was advertised in the September 2014 issue of AGS News but apparently some members were not aware of this. If you want to know what the Society is publishing and obtain information about forthcoming events, then please read AGS News.

Otherwise things will pass you by and you may miss out on copies of books and other publications because print runs are being restricted to prevent the Society from being left with large stocks of unsold items. For instance, last year’s book by Margaret and Henry Taylor on the Pyrenees and Picos de Europa has now sold out. It’s no longer an option to wait for prices to come down on our new publications. If you want to be sure of a copy, order it when you see it advertised in AGS News.

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he Alpine Garden Society is fortunate to receive from time to time anonymous donations from members. This income is used, for example, to help maintain the garden at Pershore or to develop our website and online encyclopaedia. The AGS is very grateful to all who donate in this way.

John Fitzpatrick THE ALPINE GARDENER

ALPINE DIARY DOUG JOYCE

Harry Jans after being presented with the Lyttel Trophy at the AGS conference last November

LYTTEL TROPHY WINNER 2014

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he tall figure of Harry Jans will be familiar to many AGS members in Britain. His lecturing trips begin with landings at Stansted or Edinburgh three or more times a year. Last November, during one of those trips to speak at the AGS conference, Harry was presented with the Lyttel Trophy, the Society’s highest honour, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the world of alpine plants.

He has also taken long-haul flights to New Zealand and North America to deliver his accomplished presentations.

MARCH 2015

AGS honours the Flying Dutchman This self-styled Flying Dutchman must know the departure gates at Schiphol as well as he does his garden gate in the Netherlands.

As a tour leader, an expedition member or on family holidays, he has 5

ALPINE DIARY journeyed to Iran, the Yemen, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tasmania, Nepal and, in particular, Tibet and western China. His numerous visits to Yunnan and Sichuan were triggered by his participation in his thirties on the second leg of the 1994 Alpine Garden Society Expedition to China (ACE), alongside Chris Brickell, Ron McBeath and other noted botanical travellers, friends from then onwards whose enterprises have rubbed off on him. One wonders when he is ever at home, tending his plants.

Two factors serve to explain why Harry is able to spend so much time away and yet still garden to such a very high standard. The first is that his working life, as a senior road engineer for the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, primarily involves him in winter maintenance (he was once despatched to northernmost Norway to test a new snow plough), so that he clocks up the majority of his hours ‘off season’. Also, when asked to choose between an increased salary or a greater holiday allowance, he immediately opted for the latter. Secondly, he is a techno-savvy sort who has implemented automatic controls in his cleverly designed, part-sunken alpine house to deal with the fundamental problems of watering, shading, temperature control and ventilation. He built the alpine house himself, based on exemplary constructions seen on his travels in Germany and the Czech Republic.

Harry’s interest in alpine plants first awakened during the course of a 1981 visit to the Swiss Alps and the renowned Eschmann nursery. He built a rock garden surrounding his Loenen home in 6

1988, which was substantially enhanced in 2003 when he obtained tufa blocks weighing a ton or more. He judiciously pock-marked these with deep planting holes by the hundred, tenanted with high alpines such as Campanula morettiana, Eritrichium nanum, Paraquilegia anemonoides (a particular favourite), Primula allionii (which he has visited in its Maritime Alps eyries) and Jancaea heldreichii.

All these he has grown to the highest standards, but it was his mastery of Jancaea that first established his reputation as a plantsman of the first order. This Mount Olympus endemic – known to Harry from visits to its Greek home – he has established from seed and distributed to numerous others as young plants. It now self-sows with him outdoors, flowering as freely as in its native haunts.

Having seen many other European alpines in situ, he has made significant introductions of these. They include various selections of Primula allionii such as the diminutive P. a. ‘Tiny Jewel’, Italianate daphnes such as the rich pink D. petraea ‘Corna Blacca’, and a distinguished hybrid with D. cneorum, D. x hendersonii ‘Ernst Hauser’.

On the AGS Iran Expedition in April-May 2003 he saw various species of Dionysia but had already become involved in growing the genus to a high standard around a decade earlier. His wife Hannie and his children Nathalie and Mischa all have Dionysia hybrids that he has raised and named after them, though it is D. ‘Bernd Wetzel’ (a chance D. tapetodes cross from Michael Kammerlander’s 1994 seed) THE ALPINE GARDENER

ALPINE DIARY HARRIE DE VRIES

Harry Jans photographing the yellow Tulipa dasystemon at 2,235m in Semenovskoye National Park, Kyrgyzstan

that has been most widely distributed.

However, it is primarily Harry’s endeavours as a plant explorer and a consummate photographer that have sealed his reputation. His contributions MARCH 2015

to important books and articles on alpine plants are too numerous to list individually. Friends are treated to cards at Christmas and at other times from various parts of the world, typically 7

ALPINE DIARY portraying him and Hannie alongside mighty mounds of Haastia pulvinaris (New Zealand) or Azorella compacta (Peru). On other occasions they have been seen looking up at the towering inflorescences of Dendrosenecio keniodendron on Mount Kenya, gigantic lobelias in the Ethiopian Highlands, Rheum nobile on Chinese screes, or Puya raimondii as witnessed on the March 2014 tour to Peru that he led for the AGS, to be reprised and expanded in 2016. A 2009 self-portrait has the Matterhorn rising up vertiginously behind him and Hannie. In 2014 Machu Picchu performed a similar function.

Harry sets about the business of photography with a minimum of faff, yet consistently achieves much better results than many of those who come armed with a camera bag full of equipment and make a ridiculous, ostentatious hoo-ha of the process. It is impossible to say which of his innumerable portraits are the finest, though those taken in New Zealand (January 2013) and on his visits to China are at least the equal of those taken by anyone else.

This spring he will lead an AGS tour to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan with his long-standing friend John Mitchell of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, having already accompanied him to Kyrgyzstan and goodness knows where else over the past 20 years. You just know that the images taken will be outstanding and definitive.

Harry, a founder member of the Dutch Rock Garden Society, served as its president for six years until 2006, masterminding its 2005 conference and playing a key role in bringing about 8

its present thriving condition. His enthusiasm is infectious, whether on the lecture podium, in conversation or as a tour leader. He has a very broad span of interests in alpines, most notably those from the highest mountains, for all that his home is not far above sea level, and he has either grown or else photographed many of these to nigh perfection.

Some members will remember one of his early visits to the British Isles, when he attended the 1991 International Conference, bringing with him a photo album that bore testimony to his abundant skills. The following year he was back in the country again, this time importing (surely for the first time by anyone) a small plant of Dionysia ‘Monika’, one of the earliest cultivated hybrids and far and away the most widely grown of them to date.

Rare plants and images of these and others from rarefied locations are conjured up from the bags of tricks that routinely accompany him on such occasions. Technology has moved on apace since he first turned his attentions to alpine plants, and he has used it to very good effect in his garden and also in his photography. Readers should certainly view his website, www. jansalpines.com, which houses one of the most comprehensive picture galleries of alpines, taken mainly in their native haunts.

A typical letter from Harry includes the observation: ‘I am convinced that there are still many places to explore and new plants to be found.’ This is no doubt true, and there is nobody more willing to seek them out.

Robert Rolfe THE ALPINE GARDENER

ALPINE DIARY

From Robin White, Blackthorn, Hampshire

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he authors of the article on diseases of snowdrop bulbs in the December 2014 issue of The Alpine Gardener make the point (page 395) ‘that no fungicides relevant to the control of bulb diseases have approval for use in domestic gardens’, an example of having to comply with EU regulations.

Peroxyacetic acid, also known as peracetic acid, is readily available to the public on the internet; suppliers of home-brewing equipment are a good source of small quantities. It is a powerful oxidising agent widely used in the brewing, food, medical and horticultural industries to sterilise surfaces and equipment. It is approved for use by organic growers.

Diluted in water, peroxyacetic acid is active against virus, bacteria, fungi and their spores, but soon breaks down into harmless oxygen, carbon dioxide, water and acetic acid.

Horticultural research has produced a successful treatment for Narcissus bulbs which suffer from basal rots such as fusarium. A five per cent solution of peroxyacetic acid diluted in water to a concentration of 1:200 can be used to soak bulbs for up to one hour, but a stronger solution for a shorter time can be used for infected bulbs.

Given the high price of many snowdrop bulbs and the fact that Galanthus, like Narcissus, are members of the Amaryllidaceae, anyone encountering disease problems might be tempted to MARCH 2015

Home brew to tackle snowdrop diseases Letters

experiment without worrying too much about the Brussels bureaucrats.

From Ian McDonald, Doncaster, South Yorkshire

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ike John Good (The Alpine Gardener, September 2014, page 248) I also have a copy of The Peat Garden and its Plants. The author, Alfred Evans, is enthusiastic about his subject. When I read the book I was keen to grow ‘peatloving’ plants. Peat blocks were not readily available so I bought bags of peat and used it as topdressing.

In 1980 I joined a local naturalists’ society. One of the society’s field trips was to Thorne Moors in Yorkshire, where I saw many interesting bog plants. The moors cover an area of 1,900 hectares but the only part open to the public was a 180-acre nature reserve.

Along with the nearby Hatfield Moors, which were not accessible to the public, 9

ALPINE DIARY they make up the largest remaining raised bog in England. But both moors were being destroyed to provide peat for the horticulture industry.

Seeing the destruction made me question the use of peat in my own garden. As a result I have not used peat as a garden medium since the 1980s yet I still have ericaceous plants from that time and they are doing well.

I feel we need to be clear about what exactly are ericaceous plants, which include heathers, rhododendrons and camellias. They are lime-hating plants, NOT peat-loving plants. This fact seems to have become blurred over time.

Perhaps a more apt description would be peat-tolerant plants.

We do not need peat-based composts to grow ericaceous plants. If we have a garden that is on lime or chalk and we want to grow ericaceous plants, then it is best to grow them in pots. A medium made from our own garden compost and leaf-mould is suitable for this.

The UK Government proposes to phase out the horticultural use of peat by amateur gardeners in England by 2020.

There are also proposals to eliminate peat use by all gardeners and growers by 2030 at the latest by switching to more sustainable peat-free alternatives.  We’d like to hear your views about articles in The Alpine Gardener, and also about your experiences of growing plants or searching for them in the wild.

Please write to the Editor at AGS Centre (address on title page) or email editor@agsgroups.org.

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The conservation organisation Plantlife believes that these time-scales are too long.

If peat is to be phased out for amateur gardeners by 2020, why do anything to protect peatlands now? It takes but a few weeks to destroy a peat bog by drainage and vegetation removal; it takes one year for a peat bog to increase its depth by 1mm.

Peat bogs contain an important historical record of climate due to their ability to preserve plant pollen and seed, and this vanishes with them.

Some progress has been made, with reconstituted garden waste now being incorporated in composts. But at a garden centre recently I noticed a bag of compost claiming to be peat-free, while on the reverse of the bag the contents were listed as almost 50 per cent peat. It pays to read the reverse of compost bags.

How did we manage to grow plants before the 1950s without peat and the aggressive advertising of the horticultural companies? Peat has its disadvantages as a growing medium.

As John Good points out in his article, when dry, it is difficult to re-wet. Perhaps it should also be mentioned that when wet, in pots, it is difficult to prevent it becoming airless.

It is worth stating that to categorise various habitats as peatland, heath, limestone, grassland and so on is simplifying matters. After many years of experience carrying out botanical surveys, it is apparent to me that each habitat has its own assemblage of flora and fauna, yet wildlife in neighbouring habitats may have an interaction that is necessary for their survival. For THE ALPINE GARDENER

ALPINE DIARY

From Stephen Scarr, Exeter, Devon

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wonder if readers might like to see my first spring glory, Dionysia ‘Judith Bramley’, photographed after a light snow flurry on January 26 this year. It was planted as a rooted cutting in my sand bed in July 2011 and has thrived in spite of atrocious weather in the following years. The bed is covered with a sheet of corrugated plastic from August until February each year.

This is the earliest of my dionysias to flower, the rest following a few weeks later. I have suffered some losses but that’s par for the course for anyone who grows these plants! During 2013 I lost eight plants, including six eaten by leatherjackets that came into the bed from an adjacent lawn to shelter from torrential rain. During 2014 I lost four plants. I also dug out two Dionysia aretioides that had outgrown their space.

Currently I have 28 dionysias in the five foot square bed.

example, one habitat may provide a food source for an insect or animal that requires a different habitat for breeding or hibernation. Both habitats are equally important for the wildlife that live in those areas. Remove one and we remove another piece of the jigsaw of habitats MARCH 2015

that make up our fragile ecosystems.

Thorne and Hatfield Moors are now known as the Humberhead Peatlands and are managed for the nation and wildlife by Natural England. The campaign to save them was based on sound science.

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ALPINE DIARY

John Fitzpatrick’s Diary

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f you made New Year resolutions, there’s a fair chance that by now they’ll have been consigned to the scrapheap of good intentions. If they were gardening resolutions, however, they may be intact due to the fact that we are still early in the season. I made three and, at the time of writing in early February, the first has already been acted upon, the second hasn’t been tested yet and the third will depend on how well I keep the second.

The first was straightforward: to get rid of the messy corner. You know the sort of thing – that spot behind the shed or the wheelie bins where you dump items that ‘will come in handy one day’. Old bricks, half-empty bags of compost, stones that you’ve dug up, pieces of timber, sheets of glass – the list goes on. Whenever I see a messy corner in someone’s garden I’m tempted to hang a sign alongside: ‘Slugs and snails welcome – comfortable accommodation and nursery facilities provided by caring gardener.’

So in January my messy corner was cleared and anything useful put into storage in the garage. The garage, of course, is a gardening workshop and the car has never been inside it. Discipline is now required to prevent the development of another messy corner.

The second resolution will be more testing: not to buy plants on impulse.

‘Impossible,’ I hear you cry. But let me qualify this. If I see a plant I’d like to own, I must consider several things

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Can I stop myself from buying plants on impulse? before purchase. Where am I going to place it? Do I have suitable conditions or facilities in which to grow it? Will it look good alongside the plants already in situ? Do I really like it or am I just being caught up in a trend?

I’ve bought only two plants so far this year, both trees. Acer griseum and Betula utilis var. jacquemontii ‘Doorenbos’ have been planted in my new ‘woodland glade’. This has been developed after I got rid of a x Cuprocyparis leylandii hedge after living with it for 15 years.

The hedge of about 30 trees, which I inherited from the previous owner of the property, formed part of the garden boundary. I had kept it to a height of ten feet but, despite regular trimming, it had reached a width of about four feet and couldn’t be narrowed without wrecking it because, as I’m sure you know, leylandii doesn’t regrow if you cut THE ALPINE GARDENER

JOHN FITZPATRICK

Iris ‘Katharine Hodgkin’ flowering in John Fitzpatrick’s new woodland glade in early February

into the old wood. There was another problem, or two – the hedge wasn’t the only boundary structure. It had engulfed a steel parkland-style fence and, on the garden side, there was a six foot tall painted wooden fence, which had started to rot in places.

So I spent a weekend last summer with an angle grinder cutting out the parkland fence. Then tree surgeons were called in to cut down the leylandii and grind out the stumps. Finally the old fence was removed and replaced with a sturdy new feather-edge fence, which should last 15 years. I’ve swapped three boundary structures that required maintenance for one that requires no maintenance at all. I’ve also gained an extra four feet of MARCH 2015

garden where the leylandii stood, and have incorporated a 14-metre stretch of this into the new woodland glade, which is five metres wide and intersected along its length by a winding chipped-bark path. (Yes, I know I’m mixing metric and imperial, but that’s how I think!)

A few structural plants that were already in this area have been retained.

There’s a twin-stemmed yew that was heeled-in beside the leylandii more than ten years ago, a left-over from a batch of bare-root plants for a hedge in another part of the garden. The twin stems developed by chance and have nothing to do with my nurturing. There’s also a lovely stand of hazel, a Magnolia stellata and Berberis thunbergii ‘Aurea’, 13

ALPINE DIARY

Galanthus elwesii ‘Moya’s Green’ settling in to John’s woodland glade

a deciduous shrub with golden yellow foliage that is useful for brightening up shadier corners of the garden.

My aim is to replicate the conditions in a glade, where every part receives sunlight and shade at some point during the day. The bed faces north-west, so it catches the afternoon and evening sun throughout summer. I’m lucky with the soil – a slightly alkaline friable loam that is easy to work and drains well – ideal conditions for growing a wide range of plants. Nevertheless, the leylandii has impoverished the soil in which it grew, so I’ve dug in copious amounts of garden compost and soil improver while at the same time trying to remove as many of the conifer roots as possible.

To the existing woody plants I’ve added Osmanthus delavayi for its wonderful 14

scent, the striking Ilex aquifolium ‘Ferox Argentea’, which even has spikes on the surfaces of its variegated leaves, and Sorbaria sorbifolia ‘Sem’, with its beautiful feathery foliage that has a pink tinge in spring and good autumn colour, topped with creamy white plumes of flowers in summer. Oh, and Euonymus alatus for its fiery autumn display and bare winged stems in winter.

I’ve also planted Daphne odora ‘Rebecca’ and D. mezereum ‘Rubra’. ‘Rebecca’, with its leaves broadly margined with cream, is particularly appealing. I know that variegated plants aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I like them. A few fastigiate woody plants have been added for good measure, including dwarf yews and a trio of Berberis thunbergii f. atropurpurea ‘Helmond Pillar’.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

JOHN FITZPATRICK

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arden centres do very little to encourage their customers to grow alpines. In my experience, with the exception of the Plant Centre at Wisley and John Massey’s Ashwood Nurseries, the stock is often poorly presented.

Even the easy alpines offered by these outlets can be made to look awful, as my picture above demonstrates. These Cyclamen hederifolium were photographed at a leading garden centre in the south of England in December, when

The preparation of this glade has involved a lot of digging, but in the process I have found no more than a dozen slugs. Each has been escorted to the bird feeding station, where their chances of escape from my resident song MARCH 2015

their foliage should have been in its prime. Instead they look diseased and bedraggled, and no one in their right mind would purchase them.

Just a few yards away, gleaming pots of florists’ Cyclamen were flying off the shelves. Is it any wonder that we sometimes struggle to convince people to grow alpines?

If you see a display like this complain to the plant area manager, as I did. The response was apologetic and if we all take a stance then perhaps things will start to change.

thrushes are nil. The slug population is, I believe, kept under control by the good number of common and palmate newts in the garden, which breed in the pond I dug out 12 years ago. Great crested newts took up residence soon after the 15

ALPINE DIARY pond was completed but I haven’t seen them now for several years.

One wet night just after Christmas I witnessed a pencil-thin smooth newt, which had obviously decided that hibernating was for wimps, squaring up to a large garden snail. Each time the snail emerged tentatively from its shell the newt tried to grab its flesh. Given that newts swallow their prey whole, this was a bit ambitious and I removed the snail – purely to save the newt any further trouble, of course.

I’ve found that the most effective way of dealing with slugs is a late-night patrol by torchlight, removing them from affected plants. If you don’t like wandering around the garden in the dark, there is another simple tactic, which employs the concept of the messy corner to your advantage. Place a few flat stones or pieces of wood around the plants under siege. The slugs will crawl under them before dawn, so just upturn the ‘traps’ in daylight to collect the blighters.

I’ve planted a few hostas in the glade, so this tactic may have to be employed at some point. Other herbaceous subjects include Pulmonaria longifolia ‘Howard Eggins’, which has particularly striking leaf markings, Astrantia ‘Hadspen Blood’ and Geranium phaeum ‘Margaret Wilson’ (variegated foliage again). There is also a good scattering of native ferns.

Last September I returned from the RHS Malvern Autumn Show with bags full of Fritillaria meleagris, Cyclamen hederifolium, Camassia leichtlinii and various reticulate irises. These irises grow happily in semi-shade, as do some alliums. I’ve had Allium cristophii in a 16

shady spot for years and it’s doing very well. Last summer I saw Allium ‘Mount Everest’ flowering in the deep shade of cherry laurels in central London. Plants don’t always read the books.

I’ve planted Trillium luteum to see how it fares, having dug much leaf-mould, grit and garden compost into its site.

Primulas will be added this spring, especially P. denticulata and oxlips grown from AGS seed.

Of course snowdrops have gone in, about a dozen different species and cultivars. I don’t want to add too many more, preferring to avoid monocultures and all the problems they can bring.

I would, however, like to meet up with ‘Angelina’, ‘Fiona Mackenzie’ and ‘Anglesey Orange Tip’. Could I be on the slippery slope?

The entire glade has been covered with three cubic metres of what is sold in my neck of the woods as ‘contract mulch’.

It’s a natural looking blend of wood chips and bark chips in a variety of sizes, and when delivered is already semicomposted. It looks much less obtrusive than bark mulches with graded chips and will serve to keep weeds at bay while the planting becomes established.

The plants I have placed or will place in this bed are not difficult to grow.

That is intentional. I want plants that will succeed and look good, not sulk because the conditions aren’t quite right.

If a plant fails to thrive, it will quickly be removed. Throughout the process I have consciously avoided overplanting. In a new bed or garden it’s one of the most common mistakes, to cram in everything you can get hold of. Then, as the garden matures, you have to take plants out.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

JOHN FITZPATRICK

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t’s always a pleasure to receive emails containing photographs from AGS members on their travels.

I’m grateful to AGS President David Haselgrove who sent me this picture from Patagonia last December.

It shows Cyttaria darwinii, a fungus that parasitises Nothofagus species.

The fungus is common but, according

This disturbs the root systems of the plants left behind so is best avoided by being restrained from the start.

So, to return to my New Year resolutions, the third pledge is to plant out or pot on all newly purchased plants within 48 hours of their arrival at home.

How many plants do you own that are still in their nursery pots? Over the years how many have perished without ever leaving their nursery pots? I’ve MARCH 2015

to David, is not usually witnessed in the quantity he saw on the road from Los Antiguos to Monte Zeballos.

There are several species of Cyttaria and in turn it can be parasitised by flies. Its common name is Indian bread and it was a food source for indigenous people. Nowadays it is used in tinned paté.

visited many gardens and, almost without exception, have seen plants still in their nursery pots, the compost often encrusted with liverwort or moss. This is good news for the nurseries but not so good for your garden or your wallet.

If you see me at an AGS show with a plant under my arm, you can be sure that careful consideration has been given to its purchase and that it is about to be set free from its black plastic prison!

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PRACTICAL GARDENING

Martin and Anna-Liisa Sheader have years of experience in cultivating the plants of Patagonia. Here they pass on their expertise in growing beguiling Oxalis, plants that should have a place in every rock garden

How to grow dazzling Oxalis from Patagonia

T

here are some 800 species of Oxalis worldwide living in a wide variety of habitats ranging from deserts to the humid tropics and from the coast to the high mountains. Found on all continents, but generally absent from polar regions, they are particularly diverse in South Africa, tropical Mexico and Brazil.

Most gardeners have a love-hate relationship with the genus, some of whose members make excellent garden, raised bed or alpine house plants, although a few of the others have become pernicious weeds. Some of these are now widespread in the UK, having used the nursery trade and plant exchanges to spread themselves around the country. Perhaps this is the reason why so many people are often reluctant to try new Oxalis species.

There is, however, a small group of Oxalis which has large eye-catching flowers and is not invasive. This exclusively Patagonian group, classified as Section Palmatifoliae, contains four, possibly five species, and in our opinion represents the crème de la crème of Oxalis currently in cultivation. There

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seems to be an increasing interest in this group as a wider range of forms and hybrids becomes available.

Somewhat surprisingly, considering the difficulties encountered in growing many Patagonian plants, these Oxalis fare quite well in cultivation.

The species There are four species in Section Palmatifoliae: Oxalis enneaphylla, O. laciniata, O. loricata and O. adenophylla.

A fifth species has recently been described, O. morronei, but we consider this to be O. laciniata var. pubescens, a hairy-leaved example of this very variable species. All are rhizomatous perennials, the foliage dying down in winter (and often at other times of year if conditions become unsuitable for growth). The main flowering period is from mid-spring through to summer, though occasional flowers may appear throughout late summer and autumn.

All have sweetly scented flowers.

Oxalis enneaphylla This is the southernmost species in the section, growing in the Falkland Islands, THE ALPINE GARDENER

PATAGONIAN OXALIS

Oxalis enneaphylla, native to southern South America and the Falkland Islands, is known as ‘scurvygrass’ – the leaves have high levels of vitamin C and oxalic acid

Tierra del Fuego and southern mainland Patagonia as for north as about 48°S. Its distribution overlaps with that of O. laciniata and O. loricata, but not that of O. adenophylla.

MARCH 2015

Hybrids are occasionally found between O. enneaphylla and O. laciniata where the two species co-occur. O. enneaphylla grows in a wide range of habitats ranging from coastal sandy 19

PRACTICAL GARDENING

A mountain form of Oxalis enneaphylla

or stony steppe to exposed mountain slopes and ridges, up to around 1,100m.

The leaves have seven to 14 leaflets, and these may be covered in fine hairs in some examples, or hairless in others. In some high mountain forms the leaflets are attractively edged in reddish-orange.

The flower colour is variable. Falkland Island populations are usually white flowered, as typified by the vigorous white cultivar ‘Sheffield Swan’, introduced by Peter Erskine. The local Falklands name for this species is scurvy-grass and, as the name suggests, the leaves have high levels of vitamin C and oxalic acid. They have a pleasant tangy taste – sheep certainly find them 20

palatable and can devastate populations in heavily grazed pasture.

Mainland populations are usually pink or lavender-flowered, though whiteflowered forms are occasionally found.

Flowers often have a well-marked eye, green through to maroon, usually with veins of colour extending along the petals. The thick rhizomes (up to 1cm in diameter) are covered by large fleshy scales, usually white with orange tips, and can eventually form a congested clump. The short rhizome branches appear almost bulb-like. Although in mountain environments plants can be relatively compact, lowland steppe forms often develop into large cushions up to THE ALPINE GARDENER

PATAGONIAN OXALIS

Oxalis laciniata is notable for its incredible colour range

25cm across. We find the high mountain forms more difficult to grow and flower well.

There are a few attractive forms in cultivation (notably ‘Sheffield Swan’, ‘Alba’, ‘Lady Elizabeth’, ‘Rosea’, ‘Rubra’ and ‘Ruth Tweedie’). Some supposed O. enneaphylla forms, on close inspection, appear to be of hybrid origin, usually with O. laciniata as the other parent.

Oxalis laciniata This is a plant of the Patagonian mainland, with a distribution extending further north than O. enneaphylla into the Argentine province of Chubut.

It can be found in a range of habitats MARCH 2015

from sandy steppe to stony hills and mountains, from sea level to about 1,100m. Populations can also be found along the Atlantic coast of southern Patagonia. Leaves have about ten usually narrow leaflets, often with wavy margins, in shades of brown to green. The wavyleaved form was previously known as O. squamoso-radicosa, but there are intermediates between the straightleaved and wavy-leaved forms. Indeed both leaf types can often be found on the same plant at different stages of growth.

Plants in the wild are generally small with only a few flowers open at any one time, but can grow larger and produce more flowers in cultivation. The rhizome 21

PRACTICAL GARDENING

Oxalis laciniata var. pubescens from the mountains of northern Santa Cruz

is similar to that of O. enneaphylla, but much narrower (usually about 0.5cm in diameter). This species is notable for its incredible colour range, the flowers variously white, pink, lavender to blue or purple, often with intricate veining.

In the mountains of north-western Santa Cruz province (the southernmost mainland province of Argentine Patagonia) there is a form with markedly hairy leaves, O. laciniata var. pubescens. This unusual variety was discovered and later described by Swedish botanist Carl Skottsberg during the Swedish Magellanic Expedition of 22

1907-09. Skottsberg, an illustrious figure who travelled widely and published numerous scientific works, was director of the Göteborg Botanical Garden from 1919-48.

There are some excellent forms of O. laciniata in cultivation, such as ‘Seven Bells’, ‘Julia Johnston’, ‘Sweet Sue’ and ‘Miradores de Darwin’. New and attractive clones continue to appear.

Oxalis loricata This is a delightful species, occurring in southern Patagonia from Chubut south to Tierra del Fuego, with a THE ALPINE GARDENER

PATAGONIAN OXALIS

An excellent form of Oxalis laciniata, ‘Miradores de Darwin’

similar latitudinal distribution on the Chilean side of the border. It is almost always found growing in screes below snowmelt, but occasionally descends to lower levels if there is sufficient moisture available in spring. We know of one unusual population that grows among cobbles and shingle bordering Lago Belgrano (Perito Moreno National Park, Santa Cruz), which has its rhizomes (and sometimes also its flowers and leaves) submerged for part of the year.

The leaves of O. loricata are hairless, with five to 12 rounded, fleshy leaflets that are often attractively edged with MARCH 2015

maroon or purple. The flowers are white to deep pink, often with purplepink veining towards the throat.

Populations show little variation in flower colour at any given mountain location, but on different mountains they are often markedly distinct. The branching rhizome is robust (about 1cm in diameter) and covered with red fleshy scales. There are few clones in cultivation and we certainly find this species the most challenging to grow and flower. We have found hybrids in the wild, with O. laciniata var. pubescens the probable second parent.

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PRACTICAL GARDENING

Oxalis loricata almost always grows on screes below snowmelt

Oxalis adenophylla (pictured on the front cover of this issue of The Alpine Gardener) This is probably the easiest plant in the section to grow, reflected in its widespread availability from nurseries and garden centres. It is worth noting that plants from the latter source are often grown in a peat-based or peat-like compost, not ideal in our opinion for cultivation. It is advisable to wash the roots and transfer the rhizomes to an open gritty compost as soon as possible to ensure survival and subsequent establishment.

O. adenophylla has the widest and most northerly distribution of any Section Palmatifoliae species. In Argentina it ranges from northern Santa Cruz province to Mendoza province (Argentina’s main wine-producing area, just to the north of Patagonia proper).

It is also found along the Chilean side of the border. An inhabitant of sandy or rocky steppe, usually close to the 24

mountains where rainfall is higher, it is not a plant of the open, dry, central steppe. Like others in the Section, O. adenophylla can also be found on high mountain slopes and screes.

The leaves comprise 12 to 22 broad triangular leaflets, often with a maroonpurple marking around the margin.

Some forms have plain green leaves, while occasionally plants can be found with a large splash of purple along the leaflet margins, extending to the tip. The flowers are pink to violet in colour, rarely white, usually with a white, pale green or yellow throat. As with O. enneaphylla, low altitude plants (and plants in cultivation) can be robust, while high mountain forms are often small and fewer-flowered.

The structure of the rhizome sets this species apart from others in the section.

It forms a distinct bulb-like storage organ covered in fleshy scales and the remnants of old leaf bases. New ‘bulbs’ are produced around the periphery of THE ALPINE GARDENER

PATAGONIAN OXALIS

The robust branching rhizomes of Oxalis loricata are covered with red fleshy scales

the main rhizome, eventually forming a large and congested clump.

Several clones are available commercially, such as ‘Brenda Anderson’, but many stocks are distributed simply as O. adenophylla and remain unnamed.

Hybrids Most hybrids in cultivation have O. laciniata and O. enneaphylla as parents. An example of this is the widely available ‘Ione Hecker’. Hybrids between O. adenophylla and O. enneaphylla are also available. Some of the named cultivars listed under O. enneaphylla or O. adenophylla seem to be of hybrid origin and an example of this is O. MARCH 2015

enneaphylla ‘Ute’, which clearly has both O. enneaphylla and O. laciniata in its parentage.

A close examination of the rhizome and leaves is generally a good guide to parentage. Hybrids of O. laciniata often have a slightly wavy edge to the leaflets, while those sporting a maroon spot on the leaflet margins are likely to contain O. adenophylla genes. Some plants currently being distributed as O. adenophylla ‘Alba’ have leaves close to O. adenophylla, but the presence of an O. enneaphylla-type rhizome dictates that they are of hybrid origin.

With careful (and not so careful in many instances) crossing and selection, 25

PRACTICAL GARDENING

Tristylous Oxalis: morph one

Tristylous Oxalis: morph two

Tristylous Oxalis: morph three 26

there is the potential for the production of a wide range of good and distinctive forms of each of these naturally morphologically variable species.

Likewise, careful selection of hybrid progeny can lead to attractive gardenworthy forms.

As far as we know, the more difficult O. loricata has yet to be included in hybridising programmes. With its beautiful leaves and delicate flowers, it could introduce some interesting characteristics into the hybrid mix. The fact that hybrids with O. laciniata var. pubescens have been recorded in the wild indicates that it should readily hybridise with other members of the section in cultivation.

Cultivation For pot cultivation we use the same compost for all four species. This is roughly 50 per cent John Innes No. 2, 20 per cent grit, 20 per cent perlite and 10 per cent gritty sand ‒ not that we ever measure out the constituents. We also grow plants in raised beds, either under cover in elevated Access frames or in the open. Here the compost is a mix of sand and old gritty potting compost. Plants are occasionally watered with quarterstrength high-potash tomato feed when in active growth.

We usually repot our Oxalis every other year, breaking the branched rhizomes into short lengths measuring around 2cm and replanting them 2-3cm below the compost surface. As they grow, the rhizomes often push up through the surface. To protect and cover them, we usually increase the depth of the grit topdressing. Repotting can be done THE ALPINE GARDENER

PATAGONIAN OXALIS

An ‘exploded’ seed pod and its seeds before (centre) and after (right) ejection

whenever the plants are dormant, but the best results seem to be achieved in late winter or early spring.

Watering is reduced when the plants are dormant but the compost should never be allowed to dry out for long periods. O. loricata, being a snowmelt species, may well benefit from a good soaking as it comes into growth in spring.

Seed production These Oxalis species, like most others in the genus, are heterostylous. Their situation is somewhat similar to that seen in most primulas, where plants can have pin or thrum flowers. This is an adaptation to particular pollinators and a mechanism to increase pollination success between the two forms, ensuring outbreeding. Flowers of the same form are often incompatible or have reduced compatibility; solitary flowers are usually self-incompatible.

The system is even more complex MARCH 2015

in Oxalis, where many species are tristylous, meaning they have three different flower forms (morphs).

Flowers have two sets of five stamens (male) and a set of five pistils (female) in the flower tube.

Morph one: the stigmas sit towards the top of the tube and the two groups of anthers are positioned at low and intermediate levels, below the stigmas.

Morph two: the stigmas sit between an upper and a lower set of anthers.

Morph three: the stigmas are low in the tube, with the two sets of anthers positioned at intermediate and high levels.

If, as has been shown for other Oxalis species, the same compatibility mechanisms seen in Primula hold true here, then when hand-pollinating it is advisable to select parents that differ in morph type.

We have found a few isolated populations in the wild that have a high proportion of homostylous individuals.

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PRACTICAL GARDENING

The exposed rhizome of Oxalis laciniata.

It can be readily propagated by dividing the rhizome into pieces about 2cm long

In these, the anthers and stigmas are grouped together at the same level in the tube. For isolated small populations this may facilitate self-pollination. In most populations of Oxalis (Section Palmatifoliae) homostyly is extremely rare or absent.

In the wild and in cultivation various insects, but especially bees and butterflies, act as the main pollinators.

Species within the section readily 28

hybridise, so if different species are grown together you can expect an array of hybrids. To pollinate by hand, either use a fine soft brush to transfer pollen between plants or, as we prefer, gently pull the petals apart, tearing the flower tube and revealing the pistils and stamen. Using a fine pair of forceps, pluck an anther from one flower and apply the pollen-covered anther to the stigma surfaces of a second flower. The THE ALPINE GARDENER

PATAGONIAN OXALIS seed parent should be a plant with a different flower morph from the pollen parent. We mark the hand-pollinated flowers by loosely tying coloured cotton around the pollinated flower stems.

With many plants, a sign that the seeds are reaching full ripeness is that the pods become brown, but not in the case of these Oxalis. Instead, the mature pods are green and the seeds are shed explosively. If a mature pod is split open, it appears to contain immature shiny white seeds. Handle one of these seeds roughly, or attempt to pick it up using forceps, and the outer shiny coat splits, forcibly ejecting the seed, which is whitish in colour with a rough outer surface. This dispersal mechanism, known as spermobolia, results from the cells of the seed’s epidermis taking up water and becoming turgid. As a consequence, opposing forces develop within the seed coat causing the epidermal cells to rupture abruptly, ejecting the seed from the pod. Seeds can be collected by removing welldeveloped pods and dissecting them, or by placing a tiny bag over the developing pod and collecting the ejected seeds.

The seed germinates best if sown immediately, the seedlings appearing the following spring. They also regularly appear in the plunge around pot-grown plants or among the surface gravel in raised beds or troughs outdoors.

The first flowers are often produced relatively quickly, in the year following germination. This is when good forms can be selected and propagated.

Vegetative propagation All four species are readily propagated MARCH 2015

The rhizome of Oxalis enneaphylla

vegetatively by lifting and dividing the rhizome into short lengths of about 2cm. This can be done at any time, but choosing either autumn or early spring seems to give the best results.

The sections of rhizome are planted horizontally in a sandy/gritty John Innes mix, about 2-3cm below the compost surface. The O. adenophylla rhizome forms a compact, bulb-like structure that produces small ‘bulbs’ around its periphery, which are easily detached and planted. The pots are topdressed with a layer of grit and left in a shady spot in the open, in a frame or in an unheated alpine house. Leaves should appear in spring, with flowers possibly produced 29

PRACTICAL GARDENING

The bulb-like rhizome of Oxalis adenophylla

even in the same year, but more likely during the following one.

Pests and diseases Oxalis are usually trouble-free, but in some gardens rust can be a problem.

This attacks the leaves, which eventually wither and die.

In our garden in the south of England, this is a problem from mid to late summer, especially when conditions are wet. We have better results if plants are grown under cover. A general fungicidal spray will usually help control or prevent the development of rust.

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Nowadays it is not too difficult to put together a collection of Patagonian Oxalis, and there is much scope for breeding and selecting new varieties and creating attractive hybrids.

Although occasionally appearing on the show bench, they can be frustrating plants to exhibit. Each flower lasts for only a few days and may refuse to open if conditions are too cool. However, as plants for the raised bed or trough, with the exception of O. loricata, they will provide colour and fragrance over many weeks during late spring and summer.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

AN ALPINE BEGINNER

H

aving been a member of the Northern Horticultural Society from the age of 22 and subsequently the Royal Horticultural Society (when the former was subsumed into the RHS), I have maintained a passing interest in alpines and similar ‘niche’ plants. Retirement in 2010 allowed me time to reassess my garden and to start new projects. Even as you get older, a garden should evolve. It’s not just for sitting down passively to enjoy.

A primary aim was to complete the removal of my lawn, a task started in 2009. Even though it was small, it looked awful on my sandy soil. With an address of Sandrock Drive (the garden was once on the edge of a quarry), there was no chance of ever owning a lush green sward.

I had been growing Thymus serpyllum for some time in various borders and in a gravel bed on the patio at the rear of the house. Lots of self-set plants had become available and if I stopped throwing them away I could have a nice thyme lawn. After three seasons of lifting the turf in stages and planting the ‘selfies’, I have a lawn that doesn’t require mowing! I installed stepping stones so the grandchildren could play and run across it – they are not usually encouraged to chase through the borders and shrubs. During June and July there is a rich purple display with hordes of pollinators eager to carry out their purpose in life.

I first took time to stand back and stare, to give due consideration to growing something new, in the spring of 2013. A sudden rush of blood to the

MARCH 2015

My first year’s journey: the experiences of an alpine beginner Raymond Hurd, an AGS member for just over a year, has thoroughly enjoyed discovering the world of alpines. His enthusiasm is evident in this account of his hard work head and I was contemplating growing Primula auricula. So in June of that year I bought an assortment of young plants for growing on to display in 2014. But where to display them? Another project: an auricula theatre! It was designed and built in a month and, with no possible occupants for another eight months, it would probably stand empty for the winter, which seemed a shame.

I have always liked and enjoyed growing a few sempervivums among the ‘passing interest’ plants previously referred to, so why not buy some for ‘The Theatre’, but from where? Well, a late summer visit to RHS Harlow Carr provided some stock and also spawned another idea.

Whenever we visit RHS Wisley or 31

PRACTICAL GARDENING

The newly constructed plunge bed in Raymond Hurd’s greenhouse, which he hopes may eventually provide some prizewinning plants at AGS shows

Harlow Carr, the alpine houses are always a draw and this visit was no exception. The display was stimulus enough for another project – or two.

Turn part of the greenhouse over to growing auriculas and the whole of one side to the establishment of an alpine bench with a sand plunge to house more specialist plants than I had previously grown. Now for the search for plants...

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I Googled ‘alpine growers’ and among those that popped up was a nursery in Yorkshire. An afternoon’s drive took us from our South Yorkshire home to the hills of West Yorkshire and Slack Top Nursery, run by Michael and Allison Mitchell. It was our luck that it stayed dry long enough to look around part of their garden and most of the sales stock, which allowed me to chat about a few THE ALPINE GARDENER

AN ALPINE BEGINNER

Saxifraga longifolia looking resplendent in Raymond’s garden

suitable plants with Allison before she asked Michael to interrupt his work on the nursery to meet us. I talked with him about constructing a bed for alpines in my greenhouse and he recommended buying coarse sand to use as plunge material. We came away as the skies opened and drove home through the heaviest rain we had seen for weeks.

Back at base the construction of the plunge bench pressed ahead and the Slack Top purchases took pride of place, newly potted in terracotta pots. It looked good! Was I starting to feel a hook sinking into me? I needed more plants, but first I had to redesign the gravel bed on the patio outside the kitchen window.

MARCH 2015

It had become untidy and there was not enough rock to create crevices and small screes.

I removed the few sandstone rocks that were there, along with the plants I wanted to retain. I dug out all the soil to a depth of about two feet below ground level and sieved it for re-use in the re-build. A search of the rest of the garden provided enough sandstone blocks to more than treble the number of rocks in the bed. I used a drainage layer of large pebbles (there’s an infinite supply in my garden) with a gravel layer over that and a compost similar to that recommended in the AGS leaflet on composts, consisting of the removed 33

PRACTICAL GARDENING soil, John Innes No. 2, multipurpose compost, sharp sand and alpine grit.

The back of the bed is about twice as high as the front above ground level. This gives a good slope and the gaps between the rocks provide a variety of planting places. The plants were topdressed with generous helpings of alpine grit as they went in, leaving visible areas of compost awaiting further plants. The view from the kitchen is much improved and there’s easy access for further planting and maintenance.

Allison Mitchell had given me details of other alpine growers with an excellent reputation, and so we travelled with our caravan to Pottertons in Lincolnshire to seek out more plants. Some found a home in the alpine bench while others went straight into the patio bed.

Then my wife Marjorie and I joined the Alpine Garden Society. I was really hooked now and devoured the literature avidly. It certainly stimulated a desire to expand the range of plants in the alpine bed and try one or two more adventurous alpines.

I saw Mendle Nursery’s advert in The Alpine Gardener and paid a visit – it’s the nearest specialist grower to home.

Marjorie and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours talking with Ann Earnshaw and came back with sempervivums, saxifrages and my first ever jovibarbas.

We visited the AGS show at Chesterfield, dragging four of the grandchildren with us. I was surprised by how interested they were. Three of them took copious photographs of every plant that had a splash of colour. It was a really good afternoon and more plants were purchased. The show was well 34

attended and provided more inspiration – could I exhibit one day?

The hunt for knowledge went on.

We took the caravan to Oxfordshire in April and visited Waterperry Gardens, knowing it would be too late to see most of the prized collection of Kabschia saxifrages in flower. I had a long chat with Adrian Young, keeper of the collection, and saw the work being done to refurbish and extend the tufa beds. The saxifrages still in flower were a further incitement to buy more plants.

During May I spent time experimenting with a polystyrene fish box and covering it with hypertufa. I thickened the sides of the box by mounting chicken wire on it and impregnated it with the homemade tufa mix. It looks very realistic and has been planted as a crevice trough.

In June we were holidaying in midWales and I persuaded Marjorie that we should drive up to the National Trust’s Bodnant Garden overlooking the Conwy Valley. It provided a great show of plants for all purposes. Late in the afternoon we visited another grower recommended by Allison Mitchell. Aberconwy Nursery is about three miles from Bodnant, up a twisty narrow lane. Keith Lever was around to give some advice and more stock was added to the collection.

By July the patio bed was largely planted, but ideas were arising yet again, with plans for a second alpine bed on the raised walled area above the patio. Until now this had incorporated a small scree area feeding into a gravel garden.

August saw me complete the hypertufa covering of a large ceramic sink. It was easier than I expected. I was also fortunate to find a supply of the real THE ALPINE GARDENER

AN ALPINE BEGINNER

Raymond Hurd’s redeveloped raised bed is filling up with alpines

thing and bought a piece of tufa that just about fills the finished sink from Steve Furness at The Alpine Plant Centre in Derbyshire. I am still planting this with plants, cuttings and offsets that have root systems small enough to fit into the holes I have drilled.

We visited the AGS autumn shows at Featherstone and Loughborough.

A conversation with Jon Evans might encourage my wife to submit some work for the art classes, while I may enter some plants in the shows in 2015.

Over the winter I’ve been developing another part of the garden in the style of limestone pavement, which we are MARCH 2015

lucky to have in Yorkshire at sites such as Malham Cove, White Scars and Moughton Scars. None of my beds is large but I’ve come to realise that my relatively small modern garden can easily sustain superb alpine displays.

I’ve also recently joined the Chesterfield Local Group of the AGS. So the past 12 months have been exceptionally enjoyable. None of the work has seemed onerous. I’ve just taken my time with everything. I’ve read widely, including back issues of the AGS Bulletin, and am now up to 1936 in the editions available on CD. Here’s to a productive future!

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The allure of the wood anemone Tim Ingram looks at the various forms and cultivars of Anemone nemorosa, one of the delights of the woodland garden in spring

T

he wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa, must be one of the most loved of spring flowers.

In nature it can carpet a woodland floor almost to the exclusion of any other plant, or combine in a rich mix with celandine and bluebells. In Flora Britannica, Richard Mabey describes it as one of the most faithful indicators of ‘ancient’ woodland because it rarely spreads by seed and increases only slowly by vegetative means.

In woodlands the anemone usually occurs in relatively few clonal forms, spreading steadily by its twiglet-like rhizomes. Large stands grow in Blean Woods near Canterbury in Kent but show little variation from the typically white, sometimes faintly pink-flushed flowers. Just occasionally isolated variants occur such as the pink-centred form pictured overleaf, but how stable these might be is uncertain. In gardens

36

Anemone nemorosa carpeting Blean Woods in Kent

the variation is very much greater and more than 70 cultivars are listed in the RHS Plant Finder.

In a definitive article written many years ago in The Plantsman (volume 3, page 167), Ulrich Toubøl listed the most widely grown forms and mentioned that

he grew some 50 distinct clones. Forms that are occasionally found naturally in woodlands steadily add to the range in gardens but few really stand out over time. In 1966 Miles Hadfield wrote in the AGS Bulletin (volume 34, page 142) of the origins of some of the best known MARCH 2015

such as ‘Robinsoniana’, ‘Allenii’ and ‘Bracteata’.

Most variants rarely, if at all, multiply by seed in the garden and presumably have arisen by vegetative mutations in different places. Hadfield says that only one distinct self-sown seedling 37

PRACTICAL GARDENING appeared in his garden in over 30 years of growing different forms. Similarly we have had no seedlings arising from plants in our garden in Kent, though we grow relatively few varieties.

In Denmark, though, Ulrich Toubøl describes beech woods containing between 20 and 40 well-defined clones over an average square kilometre, which indicates that when these do arise in relative proximity they will occasionally cross and result in greater local variation over time.

Latterly John Jearrard on his website (www.johnjearrard.co.uk) gives the most comprehensive account of a wide variety of named forms, in many cases pictured over successive seasons, enabling much better estimation of their garden worth. He also describes a number of interesting selected seedlings raised in his own garden.

Robin White at Blackthorn in Hampshire has similarly raised seedlings from crosses between different varieties.

It seems likely that seed set in the wild has a low rate of success due to strong competition from other plants, whereas with more care in the garden interesting new forms can be raised. One of the problems from which clonal selections of the wood anemone can suffer is a mycoplasma infection that causes abnormal growth of rhizomes and foliage, so the ability to raise new forms from seed could be a great advantage.

Reading descriptions of different clones, and viewing examples on websites, shows how difficult it can often be to assign names to plants in the garden. Some, however, are so distinctive that they do stand out. This 38

Anemone nemorosa ‘Virescens’

is particularly true of aberrant forms where parts of or all the flower have reverted to leafy green bracts, as is often found in other familiar garden plants such as primroses and celandine.

At its most extreme, in Anemone nemorosa ‘Virescens’ the ‘flower’ is converted into a mass of tiny leaflets and the effect is as different from the species as it is possible to be. More attractive is ‘Green Fingers’, in which only the stamens have been modified into leaflets, creating a ‘green ruff ’ in the centre of the flower. In our garden this THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE WOOD ANEMONE

A pink-centred variant of Anemone nemorosa in Blean Woods

is much slower growing than ‘Virescens’ and other cultivars and is often unstable in form from year to year.

Doubling of the flowers is common, just as it is in many other plants prized by gardeners. Perhaps the most beautiful of all cultivars is ‘Vestal’, originally marketed by the German nurseryman Max Leichtlin of Baden-Baden, in which the stamens have been converted into a neat mop of small petals. A fine form, ‘Hilda’, named by Ulrich Toubøl for his wife, has 15 to 20 uniform white petals and a dwarf habit. ‘Bohemia’, a similar MARCH 2015

semi-double from the Czech Republic, is the palest of pink. Another form very like ‘Vestal’, from Shortalstown garden in south-east Ireland, grows in our garden.

As with snowdrops and primroses, a number of interesting selections of the wood anemone have arisen in Ireland.

One such is a curious and very full double which in maturity develops a distinct blue-purple eye in the centre of the flower – hence its name ‘Blue Eyes’. This was introduced by Dr Mollie Sanderson in 1971 and is described 39

PRACTICAL GARDENING

Anemone nemorosa ‘Westwell Pink’, named by Tim Ingram

by Kath Dryden in the AGS Bulletin (volume 68, page 251). H. S. Wacher (volume 30, page 139) found the variety bracteata (now ‘Bracteata’ or ‘Bracteata Pleniflora’) in his Kentish garden in the 1960s. This has semi-double flowers surrounded by greenish bracts, but is often unstable and shows variation in itself. However, an identical form has been known since the 16th century and must have re-occurred in gardens at various times in between. Also at that time a double purple form was described by the Flemish botanist Clusius, but it is now presumed extinct.

The remarkable range of double forms of hepaticas grown in Japan, 40

of celandines and, more recently, of Eranthis shows how horticultural selection can result in great diversity.

Bob Brown of Cotswold Garden Flowers has an intriguing example of a pinkflushed, fully double wood anemone on his website (www.cgf.net) and another named ‘Pink Delight’ looks similar.

As the flowers of white clones age they often develop pinkish and purple colorations, as found in other plants such as Trillium grandiflorum. In some cases this results in such a strong colour that the flowers really do stand out. A good form given to us by a local gardener, Mrs Collins, arose in Westwell Woods near Ashford in Kent. We have named THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE WOOD ANEMONE

A montage of anemones accompanied by Dicentra formosa ‘Bacchanal’, which associates well with them in the garden. From top: Anemone nemorosa ‘Virescens’ (green), A. n. ‘Bowles Purple’, A. n. ‘Vestal’ (pure white), A. n. ‘Blue Eyes’, A. ranunculoides (small form) and A. n. ‘Allenii’ MARCH 2015

41

PRACTICAL GARDENING

The lavenderblue Anemone nemorosa ‘Allenii’ Opposite, Anemone nemorosa ‘Robinsoniana’ growing with Erythronium revolutum

it ‘Westwell Pink’ (this is sometimes referred to incorrectly as ‘Kentish Pink’).

Paul Christian’s selection ‘Pentre Pink’ and ‘Swedish Pink’ are similar, but in many others the colour is weaker and less effective in the garden.

True and consistent pink forms of the wood anemone are much rarer. Ruby Baker (The Alpine Gardener, volume 72, page 348) writes of a miscellany of A. nemorosa and mentions that a form ‘Rosea’ from Lismore Woods in Ireland (now listed as ‘Lismore Pink’) opens rosy-pink and slowly fades to white, in contradistinction from many others.

John Jearrard pictures several good pink forms – ‘Marie Rose’, ‘Pink Carpet’ and ‘Tinney’s Pink/Blush’, the latter from G. Mundey. The first, and another, ‘Lucia’, 42

were collected in the Picos by Michael Hoog, as was the distinctive variety ‘Evelyn Meadows’, found by Richard Nutt, which has young reddish-purple leaves, red buds and white flowers ageing faintly pink. A few examples with very dark leaves have been selected from this region, tending towards the remarkable leaf colour of some celandines.

Nearly brick-red forms with no hint of purple have also occasionally been found (for example by C. H. Hammer in northern Spain and Ulrich Toubøl in heathland on the Danish-German border) but these have never been maintained in cultivation. The strength of colour of many of these plants can vary greatly from year to year and probably also with soil pH and fertility, THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE WOOD ANEMONE

but there is scope to select for good pink forms equivalent to the many fine blues.

For many gardeners the most striking of all are the blue and lavender-coloured cultivars such as ‘Allenii’ and the more slender ‘Robinsoniana’. For Toubøl the finest of all woodland anemones is ‘Blue Beauty’, with flowers of true sky-blue and distinctly hairy leaves which he likens to a pulsatilla. Deepest blue of all is ‘Royal Blue’, a more delicate and refined plant.

‘Hannah Gubbay’ is remarkable for its bright red buds and very finely branched and congested rhizomes, giving it an unusually compact and neat habit. Many of the blues, sometimes tending to bluepurple, are among the loveliest of all wood anemones in the garden, compact and free-flowering like the plant MARCH 2015

illustrated overleaf that we grow under the name ‘Bowles Purple’. The names become confused over time in different gardens, and cultivars vary considerably in vigour, so the RHS Trial conducted a decade or more ago at Knightshayes Court in Devon, which has such a fine collection of woodland plants, could well benefit from repetition.

More variation in flower colour and form has come from hybrids between A. nemorosa and the yellow A. ranunculoides, collectively described under the name A. x seemannii. This is a particularly beautiful hybrid when it first emerges in spring with strongly bronze-tinged foliage and softest yellow flowers and raises the prospect that other interesting hybrids could arise 43

PRACTICAL GARDENING

Anemone x seemannii and, right, Anemone nemorosa ‘Bowles Purple’

between selected forms in gardens. A. ranunculoides itself has been long grown for its bright sulphur-yellow flowers in both single and double forms, and more recently has been selected further by Taavi Tuulik from Estonia, with plants distributed by Líga Popova and Jānis Rukšāns in Latvia.

A. nemorosa has a wide distribution across Europe and into Asia and is much the commonest wood anemone grown in gardens, but a number of other species have been introduced, especially in recent years. A. trifolia, from southwest Europe and as far east as Hungary, is distinct for its foliage and more compact habit. It is generally white but a rare pink form is also known.

From Japan and China come a number of species of great interest to the plantsperson: debilis, flaccida, keiskiana, nikoensis, pseudo-altaica, raddeana and udensis. Asia hosts species such as altaica, 44

coerulea, eranthoides, jeniseejensis and uralensis (a Red Data Book plant). From North America are quinquefolia (in the east) and deltoidea, lyallii and oregana, and the rare A. piperi in the west. Very few of these are cultivated and are probably much less garden-worthy than A. nemorosa, but the fact that the central-south European A. apennina has become widely naturalised in the UK shows that the British climate is well suited to many of these plants, and for keen gardeners they have great appeal.

Even though so many cultivars of A. nemorosa are listed in the RHS Plant Finder, far fewer are generally found in gardens. Nevertheless, as garden plants the wood anemones associate perfectly with hellebores and many other sylvan species, and also with later-leafing perennials such as hostas. Especially good plantings occur in gardens as different as Knightshayes Court in THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE WOOD ANEMONE

A woodland tapestry including anemones and fritillaries at Nymans Garden

Devon and Beth Chatto’s in Essex, showing their garden adaptability to varying climate.

They generally flower best under deciduous trees and shrubs in only light shade, or even in open situations when shaded by other perennials before and during their dormancy through summer and autumn. Their twigletlike rhizomes proliferate into congested mats just below the soil surface and are best divided and replanted in autumn while dormant, separating them carefully to avoid too much inevitable damage. While dormant they can withstand periods of quite intense drought, in a similar way to primroses MARCH 2015

and snowdrops. They also succeed well in thin turf and look good in such places with erythroniums, small narcissi and fritillarias. When naturalised in this way, as at Nymans garden in West Sussex, they can form a beautiful tapestry.

All in all the wood anemone vies with that other archetypal spring flower, the primrose, for variability and desirability in the garden, and improves steadily year on year with little attention from the gardener.  My thanks to Robin White, Mike Brett, Keith Wiley and Julian Sutton for their observations on growing Anemone nemorosa in the garden and nursery.

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JIM ARCHIBALD

A plantsman at large: the travels of Jim Archibald

M

y good fortune was to know Jim Archibald for 20 or more years, during which time we met intermittently at AGS and other shows or at his Welsh home, corresponded by letter and had some rather lengthy telephone conversations.

He eschewed emails: when his website was launched, the ‘contact us’ button was the first thing to be removed.

It’s now almost five years since he left us, and as the equally fortunate recipient of some of his finest slides, never before published, perhaps never projected in his renowned lectures nor even taken out of the boxes in which they arrived after processing, my purpose in this article is to bring a selection of these to a wider audience.

A plant-hunter, plant distributor, plant geographer and plant connoisseur of the first rank, Jim was very widely travelled and endlessly informative.

Japan, Siberia, the Himalayas and China were the only significant mountainous areas he didn’t visit, but even these he knew well enough by proxy, repeatedly offering seed garnered from an illustrious set of contacts worldwide. I should have ordered more from his seed lists, and every so often kick myself for the opportunities lost.

‘Couldn’t afford to run my business on £40 cheques,’ he once told me in honest non-recriminatory fashion. Not that

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Jim Archibald, who died in 2010, was one of the most noted alpine plantsmen of the past 50 years. Robert Rolfe selects a portfolio of previously unpublished photographs from Jim’s slide collection, which serve as a guide to some of his many expeditions to destinations as diverse as Iran, the United States, France and Chile he came close to doing so, since large orders would flood in following the distribution of these annual or biannual – once triannual if memory serves – lists, issued from 1983 to 2010.

What follows does not proportionately reflect the lengths of time spent in the various countries he visited. There are several reasons for this, the most compelling being the aim of presenting what he would have dubbed an esoteric range of images. Repeatedly Jim reflected that he was primarily in the field when plants were in seed rather than flower and, in any case, there was little time to spare for taking accomplished photographs. Looking through his thousands of slides, taken over the THE ALPINE GARDENER

JIM ARCHIBALD

Jim Archibald in Iran in 1966 alongside Dionysia bryoides and D. revoluta

course of nearly 50 years, demonstrates otherwise.

Before the seed lists, he mounted a series of subscriber-backed expeditions.

Unlike his later trips, where he would fly out and stay in whatever accommodation was available, in the early years he drove all the way there and back, taking ferries where necessary and bringing with him a small tent, from which he clearly had his money’s worth. A couple of these adventures are recorded in issues of the AGS Bulletin from the 1960s. Others are alluded to in other articles and lecture digests. The remainder were never written up. Jim’s 1966 marathon expedition to Iran with his first wife, Janette, belongs to this third MARCH 2015

group, for all that much information is contained in works such as Kit GreyWilson’s Dionysias: The Genus Dionysia in the Wild and in Cultivation (1970).

Its foreword salutes the input of the Archibalds, ‘whose knowledge of the genus in Iran surpasses that of all others, and whose photographs [published in black and white] are the mainstay of this book’.

Iran

Several years previously Paul Furse, his wife Polly and (separately, as a member of a Bowles Scholarship Expedition) Brian Mathew had explored Iran.

Three decades earlier, in 1932, onetime AGS president Paul Giuseppi and E.K. 47

JIM ARCHIBALD (Edward Kent) Balls had journeyed there and returned with four species of Dionysia, one of which, D. curviflora, persists from this introduction. Jim stayed longer, travelled further and added considerably to his predecessors’ findings. I have some of his maps, annotated but now out of date (charting nowadays is much improved and new roads have been constructed), and a three-page listing of ‘Principal collections of seeds, bulbs, corms and rhizomes, 1966’.

Jim set off with ample supplies to facilitate the adventure. In those days it was considered prudent to buy these in advance, given the uncertainty of being able to procure such items en route.

Tinned mince, Campbell’s condensed soups, salt pills, Skeet-o-Stik insect repellent and 1,000 aspirins (revised upwards from the originally stipulated 500), along with routine items such as fern trowels, sieves, muslin and polythene bags, were all meticulously itemised, the living expenses calculated at £320, with a further £250 for petrol.

A meandering route was plotted, taking in southern Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Lebanon, Iraq and finally Iran, returning via Turkey. Nowadays the flight-time from London to Tehran is just over five hours. His Iranian stay, a lengthy one, principally took in the more northerly and western provinces, focusing on the Elburz and Zagros mountains. There were no leader-led, bespoke botanical tours there in those days and no Flora Iranica for easy reference either. Jim had Per Wendelbo’s 1961 Dionysia monograph, but Volume 9 (covering Primulaceae) of Rechinger’s 48

work, published a year earlier in 1965, appears not to have been part of his armoury.

The finest of his Iranian Dionysia pictures have already been published.

But while in that country he took many others, including photographs of the ancient, c. 515 BC sculpted friezes at Persepolis, some 70km to the north-east of the city of Shiraz. Nearby, on Kuh-iSabzpuchon (Fars Province), he scaled the limestone cliffs to make collections of Dionysia bryoides (JCA 1453) and D. revoluta. Both were introduced successfully to cultivation, the first of these the only representative of its kind until Tom Hewer’s 1976 gathering.

The sole surviving Archibald clone of D. bryoides has narrower lobes with a picotee margin; the most successful Hewer collection is fuller-limbed, with more rounded flowers (the clone ‘Harold Esslemont’ exemplifies this character).

D. odora was only established from a later collection, but on his 1966 trip Jim diverted to its Nawa Kuh homeland, encountering it there on ‘moist, north and north-east facing limestone cliffs in gorge at base of mountain’. The slide published here shows him in typically reflective mood.

There are any number of other genera that one could cite from this time, or from his returns to the country from 2000 onwards: alliums, fritillarias, tulips, anemones, euphorbias and muscaris/ bellevalias make up the majority of these, along with endemics such as the china blue, semi-desert dwelling borage Trichodesma aucheri, surely never offered commercially since. The glaring omission in this roll-call so far, however, THE ALPINE GARDENER

JIM ARCHIBALD

Jim Archibald in typically reflective mood at Nawa Kuh in Iran and, inset, one of his pictures of the sculpted friezes at Persepolis

is the genus Iris, specifically Section Oncocyclus and subgenus Scorpiris (the junos).

Junos figure among the 1966 listings, mainly from Kurdistan, but his appreciation and knowledge of the MARCH 2015

group increased considerably after the turn of the century, reflecting repeated trips to Iran and Central Asia (where he discovered at least one taxon new to science). Rather unfortunately, the one that commemorates him to date, a 49

JIM ARCHIBALD

Iris barnumiae subsp. demavendica in the Elburz Mountains

subspecies of I. narynensis, comes from a part of the Tien Shan that he never visited and is one of the few juno species that he never grew!

Oncocyclus irises were among his most cherished plants. As early as the mid1960s he had a very good collection, as slides of a large bed in a nursery greenhouse at Buckshaw Gardens (Dorset) testify. His 1966 collections formed the basis of far and away the best selection offered and home grown by a British nursery in the early 1970s, and some of the field work informed Brian Mathew and Per Wendelbo’s treatment of Iridaceae for Flora Iranica in 1975. Jim’s discoveries continued when he revisited the country nearly 40 years later, with 50

Norman Stevens in 2005. The collection listed by this Society’s Seed Distribution as 05-215, from Ardabil Province, northeast of Khalkal at 2,000m, ‘among steppe vegetation on open slope’, is followed by an observation that no Oncocyclus species had hitherto been recorded from this north-westerly part of the country, near the border with Azerbaijan.

Some 200 miles to the south-east, where the Elburz Mountains are at their loftiest, not far from Tehran, he photographed (but never offered commercially, apparently) Iris barnumiae subsp. demavendica, a plant that occurs higher than any other ‘Onco’, at up to 4,200m. The colour and extent of the beard on the falls is significant THE ALPINE GARDENER

JIM ARCHIBALD

Ornithogalum arcuatum in Van Province, which Jim grew in his Welsh garden

when it comes to identifying the several subordinate taxa: narrow and pale in this subspecies but comprising ‘dense, short, black hairs’ in forma protonyma (as noted in his listings for material sourced from the Khamsian Pass at 1,585m) and made up of ‘dense, orange-yellow hairs’ in unmistakeably distinct, yellow, very rarely almost white or bicoloured f. urmiensis from the Turkish/Iranian borderlands, east of Lake Van. Cinderella monocots he also championed. Witness his panoramic image of Ornithogalum arcuatum, also from Van Province and seen here at 2,200m in 1992. Much later he found it in Iran’s Bakhtiari Province in a ‘fallow field on a south-facing slope’ and it is MARCH 2015

also known from Russia. Against the odds, it grew easily outdoors in his periodically very wet Welsh garden.

Turkey

The Oncocyclus cross-over just mentioned marks a convenient point to turn my attention to Turkey, where Jim made many important collections, most notably from 1984-88, and afterwards in 1994 (his last visit, with Norman Stevens, was in 2007). Scores have endured.

I must also acknowledged the sustained and vital role played by Jenny Archibald, who first travelled abroad with Jim in the 1970s, accepting the harvesting, packeting and subsequent distribution of seed as a way of life for many years.

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JIM ARCHIBALD

Lilium kesselringianum and, right, Jenny Archibald in Greece She gamely spent a sizeable part of 1986 living in a caravan in south-eastern Turkey with sallies from this base ‘that lasted either a day or several weeks…

It is not a ‘nine to five’ routine, [rather] a ‘dawn to dusk’ one for seven days a week’, Jim wrote.

The Oncocyclus Iris sprengeri, restricted to the central Turkish provinces of Niğde and Konya, he recommended as ‘one of the dwarfest and most beautiful of all’. Typically colonising loose volcanic ash by means of characteristic slender stolons, these have been evocatively described as ‘couchgrass-like’ but are regrettably far less abundant or tenacious in cultivation.

52

He had a penchant for the lilies endemic to north-east Turkey, some spilling over into neighbouring Georgia, where he made his last trip in 2010.

Surely none is more beautiful than the powerfully fragrant (cloying to some noses) Lilium kesselringianum, best known to the Archibalds from a site at around 1,800m on the fringes of Picea woodland in Artvin Province, where the stems were 1.5m tall and the flowers often in double figures, individually up to 14cm across. All around, sometimes a little lower down, in this area of high rainfall grows Rhododendron ungernii, which Jim wryly noted ‘would be greeted with profuse accolades… [if it] appeared THE ALPINE GARDENER

JIM ARCHIBALD

The beautifully marked Oncocyclus Iris sprengeri, one of Jim’s favourite plants MARCH 2015

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JIM ARCHIBALD

Rhododendron ungernii is worth growing for its foliage alone

Acanthus hirsutus, which can be found in Turkey from 800m to 1,800m 54

THE ALPINE GARDENER

JIM ARCHIBALD

A mystery dwarf shrub that might belong to either Macleania or Plutarchia

newly out of China’. Worth growing for its foliage alone, it is offered by just one or two nurseries at present.

Turning from moist woodland to steppe, semi-desert and areas where the summers are unfailingly dry and very warm, it’s worth noting that his few Acanthus introductions, dating from 1985, were runaway successes that continue to beautify gardens in Britain (and no doubt far beyond) 30 years later. In Mersin Province, east of Gűlnar, A. hirsutus (JJA 106.700) was introduced from ‘field margins in stony clay at 800m’, in this locality to 50cm tall, so slightly taller than the 1045cm normally cited, and at the lowest altitude recorded for the species. It gets up to 1,800m in other parts of southern Anatolia and also occurs on some of the islands, typically growing on non-limey strata in abandoned fields on steep MARCH 2015

rocky slopes and at the edges of Pinus brutia woodland. Less ferociously spiny than some of its Turkish relatives, the foliage has been described as ‘dandelionlike’ with inert spines, its shortish inflorescences can be either pale yellow or cream (in this example ‘with close spikes of pale green and white flowers’).

Sometimes it has a suckering habit.

South America

While Jim’s two trips to Chile and Argentina, in 1991 and 1994, by and large introduced more growable plants, the ones further north to Colombia (1978) and Ecuador (1993) were trail-blazing, the material and information brought back of lasting scientific and botanical significance. He drew the attention of his customers to the importance and diversity of Ericaceae at these latitudes, hailing the ‘magnificent’ genus Befaria 55

JIM ARCHIBALD

Idiosyncratic topiary in the garden cemetery at Tulcán, Ecuador

as ‘the rhododendrons of the Andes’.

He was too early in the field to collect seed from these in 1993. Fifteen years earlier he had a similar experience with others (Gaultheria excepted) but by way of compensation he took slides of very seldom-photographed plants such as a mystery dwarf shrub with cylindrical, scarlet flowers that might belong to either Macleania or Plutarchia, at a guess.

Other images taken at that time depict the vibrant local markets; canoe-like boats ferrying produce along the Atrato river; the then pristine 5,000m peak Nevado El Ruiz (which blew its top catastrophically in 1985); portraits of friends and of Jenny that reprise the 56

famous Angus McBean album cover images of The Beatles, looking down from a stairwell; obscure orchids and bomareas; and images of Colombia’s ornate, entrancing cathedrals.

This endless, cultured curiosity comes across again and again when sorting through his slides. They are elegantly evocative of whichever host country he visited, as portrayed through, for example, the idiosyncratic topiary he recorded in the garden cemetery at Tulcán in Ecuador, encapsulating that city’s Mayan/Inca past, just as a couple of guinea pigs, de-furred but still very recognisable, roasting on vertical spits and ready for carving, illustrate the continuing diet in such parts. I used the THE ALPINE GARDENER

JIM ARCHIBALD

Alstroemeria pallida near Farellones, Chile, at 2,000m

slide in a recent lecture, inducing cries of dismay from an audience used to regarding them as pets, not as an item on the menu.

Jim had a much broader, more inclusive, more realistic concept of alpine (or at the very least upland) plants than most other arbiters. What grows with what, what you come across low down or high up, often confound preconceptions. Repeat trips to mountains the world over tend to ram home that lesson. An early advert for his nursery, The Plantsmen, made it clear that he was as keen on Oncocyclus irises and hellebores as on androsaces and dionysias, and felt a kindredship with those whose ‘gardening inclinations extend the realm of diminutive rarities’.

MARCH 2015

An avid reader, Jim could be dismissive about the work of others but could readily have written monographs on pet genera such as Paeonia, Fritillaria (his good friends Bob and Rannveig Wallis are making progress on this front), Muscari and several others. His extensive travelling prevented this, and when at home the task of transforming a very large garden took priority. As for the evenings, he would come indoors to face a nightly onslaught of phone calls. Jenny vetted these and became diplomatically adept at gently deflecting the majority in order that they could eat their supper in peace.

One monograph that he clearly approved of was Dr Ehrentraud Bayer’s 57

JIM ARCHIBALD

The distinctive and taxonomically in flux Alstroemeria xanthina in Chile

1987 Die Gattung Alstroemeria in Chile, commended as ‘meticulously researched’.

He always acknowledged those who had done what he termed their ‘homework’, while frowning on those who clearly had not. I suppose that, in small measure, this genus’s comparatively late-flowering but summer-dormant growth cycle, analogous (as he pointed out) with the Oncocyclus irises that he cherished even more, had an essentially practical appeal. The protected, planted-out collection in his garden, quite quickly amassed close to the entrance of one of the polytunnels, was phenomenal. This included A. pallida, from 1991 and 1994 Chilean ski resort collections made first near Farellones at 2,000m (as depicted 58

here), then three years later at Lagunillas, rather higher at 2,200m, on exposed ridges and steep, stony slopes. The seed he found germinated readily (if soaked for 24 hours in warm water, then kept in a refrigerator for a few weeks) and could be stored dry and cool for over a decade. He tentatively recommended A. pallida for ‘trial outside in sunny scree in the UK’. Under glass it grows to around 20cm tall, though as little as 5cm in its natural occurrences south and west of South America’s highest mountain, Aconcagua. It has white or pinkish flowers with a yellow palette and was first grown in Britain as early as 1829.

Also repeatedly listed from the 1990s onwards was A. aurea, from selected THE ALPINE GARDENER

JIM ARCHIBALD

Crocus cvijicii on Vermion in northern Greece

Chilean populations at 200m and 1,500m. It is surprising, however, to find that this species nowadays includes in its synonomy the distinctive A. xanthina, described in 1873 (A. aurea was conjured up 40 years earlier, and can be up to 60cm or more in height, whereas its repositioned dwarf amalgam is typically a sixth as tall). When chanced upon, by torchlight, by the Beckett, Cheese & Watson expedition over 40 years ago, at first encounter they compared it to some ludicrously out-of-country Fritillaria, or else a bizarre mix of one of these and a dwarf lily, variously ‘tawny orange and greenish yellow… [flecked] chocolate’, as John Watson recalled in an article in these pages in June 1976. Its MARCH 2015

latterday suggested allegiance is surely not definitive, for only last year (Boletin del Museo de Historia Natural, Chile, 62: 167-201) a more apposite annexation with dwarfer, analogously heavilyflecked A. versicolor was published, which makes considerably more sense.

The rest of the world

Rather a travesty, really, inasmuch as I’m tailing off with just a meagre handful of slides that symbolise the Archibalds’ numerous other travels and plants seen in bloom, or those grown on and brought to the attention of the horticultural community worldwide.

I’ll start in continental Europe, since at one stage, in the 1980s, Jim contemplated 59

JIM ARCHIBALD

Aquilegia ottonis on Chelmos, Greece

a move to the southernmost French Alps, where properties were very affordable and from where he would have been able to make any number of sorties, using this home as his base.

But it’s elsewhere in the country ‒ the Pyrenees ‒ that we make a start. He praised Saxifraga longifolia as ‘certainly the most spectacular of Europeans’, offering seed, in his 1988-89 list, from a well-known locality for the species, the Vallée d’Ossoue above Gavarnie, which he visited in one of the monocarpic species’ boom rather than bust years, photographing it in resplendent flower.

Greece, too, he revisited time and again, from Falakron to many points south and west. Sentiment obliges me to signal his 60

collection of Crocus cvijicii on Vermion.

When we revisited, in June 1996, it was long out of flower and we spent a very arduous few hours searching for dehiscing capsules on the upper slopes.

More gruesomely I recall his anguished shout when exploring a limestone ledge and chancing upon a life-size doll that had been cast over the precipice, in the heat of the moment mistaking it for a child’s body. Not all his finds were fruitful, never mind welcome, but he always made light of any difficulties in the field.

Aquilegias he championed, from north-western North America to China.

It’s problematic to suggest where to obtain true-to-name stocks of the north THE ALPINE GARDENER

JIM ARCHIBALD

A unique white form of the prevailingly yellow-flowered Polemonium brandegei

Italian A. einseliana or A. thalictrifolia (‘a prettier thing’ according to Farrer), Turkish/ Caucasian/Iranian A. olympica (offered in JJA lists from Erzurum Province at 2,400m, with ‘short-spurred blue and white flowers on branching 50cm stems’), never mind scarce northwest American endemics such as highdwelling A. laramiensis or the orangepink and cream-flowered A. barnebeyi.

I could point you in the right direction to obtain bona fide material of Greek A. ottonis subsp. amaliae, another pale blue and white bicoloured species, but I’d struggle to do the same for the concolorous sky or violet-blue type race, beautifully photographed in June 1986 on Chelmos. While growing as MARCH 2015

illustrated in a crevice on an exposed limestone slab, it more usually inhabits part-shaded ravines at 1,300-1,800m, in its higher, cooler eyries reserving its performance until the second half of July.

In Wyoming’s Laramie Mountains, Jim found the Aquilegia named for its type and only locality in granite fissures at 2,280m right up to 3,110m. It was joined on Laramie Peak itself by a unique, pristine white form of the prevailingly yellow-flowered Polemonium brandegei, 450 miles distant from orthodox New Mexico populations. Growing at the very summit, in gritty fissures, its untoward location drew forth the prediction from Jim that he would not be travelling there 61

JIM ARCHIBALD

Calochortus invenustus

again, and so it proved. Scarcely heard of in cultivation for at least a decade, it came as a very pleasant surprise indeed to find it exhibited by Mala Janes at last year’s AGS Cleveland Show.

Never before cultivated, very littleknown plants added spice to the Archibalds’ lists, and often as not were offered nowhere else. Their first northwest USA tour took place from June to September 1987. It was followed by several others of equal scope, with the assistance of correspondents and friends who knew the mountains well, though by dint of experience in the field and sheer slog he made further discoveries, causing various hosts to sit up and 62

take notice. The tremendous, extensive listings of the genus Calochortus, for example, might not have yielded commensurate results in cultivation, but one cannot but salute his thoroughness and his extensive contacts (in the mid1990s most obviously) with the foremost authorities of the time, such as Wayne Roderick, Stan Farwig and Vic Girard.

A 1990 collection of the Californian Calochortus panamintensis, from the Panamint Mountains bordering the western rim of Death Valley, is typical.

This he first encountered in Wild Rose Canyon at 1,350m ‘among grasses and scrub’, up to 60cm tall with ‘immaculate, white flowers’ and bluish anthers. Later THE ALPINE GARDENER

JIM ARCHIBALD

Hymenoxys acaulis var. caespitosa, now re-aligned with the genus Tetraneuris

on, well to the west, in Kern County, a taxon that keyed out as this species was found, rose or lavender-tinged. It has been suggested, however, that this and the type Inyo County populations might be referable to the often dwarfer C. invenustus, sometimes found at twice the earlier altitude quoted, with one to several dark-anthered, lavender-pink flowers, stained deep purple at the eye in most examples but not universally.

I’ll conclude with a USA member of the Asteraceae – Jim photographed and collected seed of other high alpines belonging to that huge family in all the other destinations mentioned.

What he offered several times, from MARCH 2015

collections at Pike’s Peak, Colorado, as Hymenoxys acaulis var. caespitosa has now been re-aligned with the genus Tetraneuris (confirming an 1899 placement).

Synonyms further linking it with the genera Actinea and Actinella support his bemused appraisal of what he called the ‘names game’, and would have afforded him a further opportunity to engage in debate with, as he expressed in a December 1989 list, ‘the specialist amateur grower and… the scientifically orientated [establishment]’, between whom it was ever his quest to foster ‘an attitude and purpose common to both’.

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The picturesque coastal vilage of Jablanac and, inset, Androsace villosa

Alpines on sea

John Richards visits the Velebit Mountains which rise up from Croatia’s Dalmatian coast and offer a wealth of alpine flora

EXPLORATION

T

he flora of the Velebit Mountains on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia has been given brief accounts

by Oleg Polunin in Flowers of Greece and the Balkans and in Lionel Bacon’s Mountain Flower Holidays. Nevertheless, for an increasingly popular holiday destination, it seems to have received much less attention than it deserves and it is hoped that this account will help to popularise a rich and interesting area.

I had long hoped to journey to the Velebit to seek out perhaps the least known of European primulas, the distinctive P. kitaibeliana. This is very little grown in cultivation and relatively few enthusiasts seem to have encountered it in the wild. I am greatly indebted to Sidney Clarke, who had researched some of its most accessible localities and passed the information on.

This strengthened my determination to spend the second week of May 2014 in this area.

These days, visiting Croatia could scarcely be easier. We took an easyJet flight from London Gatwick to Zagreb and spent a pleasant night in a small hotel hidden away in semi-rural streets near the airport. The next morning we hired a car and sped off on the excellent and traffic-free motorway towards the coast.

Our destination, south of Senj (pronounced ‘sane’), was not much more than two hours from Zagreb airport. Having the day at our disposal, we decided to make a considerable detour to visit the renowned beauty spot of Plitvička Jezera. The drive through rolling hills thickly wooded with mixed

66

hardwoods and interspersed with flowery meadows could not have been prettier. The villages are attractive and seem prosperous, while the population is very thinly scattered (fewer than four million people inhabit an area half that of England). However, our proposed visit to Plitvička Jezera, unresearched and made on the spur of the moment, was misguided. It is not possible just to wander here. Rather, for a considerable sum, one is marshalled into buses and then onto boats for a highly controlled tour that lasts several hours. Having neither the time nor the inclination, we made our escape and navigated in a westerly direction towards Otočac.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE VELEBIT, CROATIA

Narcissus radiiflorus, which is common throughout the region, growing with Viola alba Opposite, Orchis purpurea

This road climbs rapidly to a plateau at about 800m and the charms of the district became immediately evident.

Anacamptis morio (green-winged orchid) and Neotinea tridentata occurred in huge numbers throughout the meadows, and indeed they remained abundant throughout the trip. Narcissus radiiflorus was scattered like confetti across several meadows, and this again proved to be common throughout the region. It differs from the pheasant’seye, N. poeticus, by the narrower tepalbases and more deeply cupped coronas, which were often pure yellow, not redtipped. Occasional plants were a pale primrose-yellow and would make a MARCH 2015

delightful addition to our gardens. The lady orchid, Orchis purpurea, appeared on road banks, and some of the dry limestone pastures had scattered plants of Juniperus oxycedrus. In one seminatural area was an unmistakeable group of Serbian spruce, Picea omorika, although it is unclear whether it is native so far to the north.

We stopped for a picnic where a beech forest led down to a meadow and added Helleborus dumetorum, Asarum europaeum, Muscari neglectum, Symphytum ottomanum, Omphalodes verna, Ornithogalum umbellatum and Orchis mascula to the list.

At Otočac we crossed the motorway 67

EXPLORATION

and took a country road past Krasnov and the northern entrance to the Velebit National Park and then down the hill to Sveti Juraj, where we had booked what proved to be a totally delightful apartment next to the sea.

Used to Greece as we are, it had seemed unlikely that this Mediterranean region would harbour an alpine primula.

However, it is only along the steep, island-strewn, karstic coastline that a Mediterranean vegetation develops.

Within a few kilometres of the coast, the land rises rapidly to 1,000m altitude, and here vast deciduous or mixed woodlands and splendid meadows contain a temperate flora comprising 68

a mixture of alpine, central European and Balkan elements. This is very wild country which contains wolves and by far the strongest European population of brown bears, said to exceed 1,000.

The highest parts of the Velebit range lie between Senj and Zadar, where a number of peaks top 1,600m and, in the south, 1,700m.

There are essentially three routes into these highlands. For the northernmost, a road to the National Park headquarters branches off the Sveti Juraj-Krasnov highway. At the headquarters a small consideration will purchase a three-day car permit, and from here it is possible to motor most of the way to the summit of THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE VELEBIT, CROATIA

Gentiana tergestina was seen in vast numbers among Pinus mugo and dwarf juniper Opposite, the dramatic coastline viewed from Karlobag

Zavizan (1,676m). This road continues south along the ridge for some distance, but is closed to vehicles.

About 30km further south, opposite the pretty harbour village of Jablanac, a road climbs up to Veliki Alan (1,406m) and continues, unsurfaced, to Štirovača where it meets a metalled road, mostly afforested, which meanders through much of the hinterland of the Velebit.

The southernmost road is less high but quite as interesting, and runs from Karlobag on the coast south-east to Gospić. We explored each of these roads briefly and will take them in turn.

A walk down through the beech forest from the National Park centre below MARCH 2015

Zavizan revealed no less than three Cardamine (formerly Dentaria) species: C. bulbosa, C. kitaibelii and the very attractive lemon C. enneaphylla. Other interesting plants included Aquilegia kitaibelii (not yet in flower), Primula veris subsp. canescens, Lamium orvala, L. garganicum, Viola alba, Petasites albus and Thlaspi alliaceum. Crocuses were over, whereas gentians and narcissi had yet to flower.

As soon as we started walking from the top car park, spring gentians appeared in vast numbers among Pinus mugo and dwarf juniper. This is Gentiana tergestina with strongly winged calyces, narrow leaves and pointed petals.

69

EXPLORATION

The large and lustrous chalices of Crocus vernus

It seems likely that only this taxon occurs in the Velebit, although some individuals seemed to grade towards G. verna, to which Flora Europaea assigns it as a subspecies. Modern opinion seems to favour specific rank. It is a very fine plant, perhaps the most attractive of all the spring gentians. The other main plant in flower in the alpine grasslands was a local endemic which forms tight mats of quite showy white flowers, the crucifer Cardaminopsis croatica.

Crocus leaves had been abundant, but it was not until we reached a steep declivity that we found large numbers still in flower. This is C. vernus, but to those of us conditioned to subspecies albiflorus, the little white or lilac plant 70

of the Alps, it was a revelation. Large, solid chalices varied from white, striped lilac to a very deep lustrous purple, quite the colour of C. pelistericus. Perhaps the spring crocuses of our parks and gardens originate from a similar region, and many of the wild plants were the equal of the most spectacular cultivated varieties.

In some areas the elder-flowered orchid, Dactylorhiza sambucina occurred in red (‘Adam’) and yellow (‘och Eva’) colour forms. Other plants on the limestone grassland slopes were Daphne mezereum, Corydalis cava, Potentilla neumanniana, the bearberry Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, Petasites albidus and Arabis scopoliana.

Limestone cliffs and edges sheltered THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE VELEBIT, CROATIA several ferns including the holly fern Polystichum lonchitis, Asplenium viride and Cystopteris fragilis.

About a kilometre south of the car park is a botanical garden which has been built round a very large and deep caldera. Much of the habitat is ungardened and apparently untouched and most of the plants lack labels, so it is not clear whether Helleborus purpurascens, Scopolia carniolica and a fine form of Muscari botryoides are native here, although Helleborus dumetorum presumably is. Much of the caldera was still under snow and most plants still dormant, so that the interest is probably much greater later in the summer.

Journeying southwards, the next road into the mountains leads to Veliki Alan.

Here, the interest started shortly after we had left the main road at a very low altitude, probably only 250m. I was amazed to see the limestone gravel beside the road studded with wonderful clumps of sumptuous purple Edraianthus tenuifolius. This lovely plant is similar to the more familiar E. graminifolius, but has bracts with long points which exceed the flowers, and leaves that are hairy to the tip. A second surprise awaited further up this fascinating road.

Huge cushions of a white-flowered Daphne decorated the low rocky cliffs, and, later on, even became abundant on flat rocky ground. Close examination revealed that all the leaves were new and tender, so this spectacular species is deciduous. Clearly, this plant must be referred to D. alpina, but the general aspect was so different from plants I have seen previously in southern France and MARCH 2015

Corydalis cava

Slovenia that I did some research. The monograph by Christopher Brickell and Brian Mathew, published by the AGS, referred to a variety petiolata occurring from Istria to the Velebit which differs from the type by having smaller, more petiolate leaves and longer shoots. This seemed to describe our plant exactly and I would question modestly the status of this taxon, which seems quite distinct from D. alpina to my eyes.

At this level (about 800m), the 71

EXPLORATION

A huge cushion of Daphne alpina var. petiolata and, left, a detail of the flowers

rocky limestone verges were full of interest. Orchids included stately Orchis purpurea and O. ovalis. Genista sericea and G. pilosa, Helianthemum salicifolium, Fumana arabica and Chamaecytisus polytrichus added swathes of yellow. The stunning violet Polygala supina abounded, together with the toxic swallowwort Vincetoxicum hirundinaria and Globularia repens.

Cliffs were studded with the endemics Campanula fenestrellata subsp. istriaca (not yet in flower), Pseudofumaria alba subsp. acaulis and Aurinia sinuata.

Cymbalaria microcalyx, Paronychia kapela and Inula verbascifolia added to 72

THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE VELEBIT, CROATIA

The elegant Orchis ovalis MARCH 2015

73

EXPLORATION

Cymbalaria microcalyx ensconced in a cliffside crevice

a rich chasmophytic flora. The shrub layer included attractive flowering plants of Amelanchier ovalis and Sorbus graeca. Yet more plants seen close to the road included the blue lettuce Lactuca perennis, Bastard Balm, Melittis melissophyllum, and a most attractive white crucifer, Peltaria alliacea, another local endemic.

At the highest point on the road is a mountain hut, Veliki Alan. Broken glass around the fence at the edge of the car park hinted at trigger-happy locals, but provided the ultimate in sharp topdressing for mats of Androsace villosa, smothered in bloom. The slope up to a nearby hill was chequered with 74

white androsaces and the piercing blue of Gentiana tergestina, making an unforgettable picture. Linum alpinum was also starting to flower.

The southernmost road runs in a south-easterly direction (despite enormous zigs) to Gospić from Karlobag, some 50km south of our lodgings at Sveti Juraj. The journey south to Karlobag takes more than an hour; the coastal road is spectacular and well-engineered, but it is a very indented coastline. As the road from Karlobag to Gospić levels out at the summit of the plateau, a small road branches northwards past a large timber yard.

Almost immediately, good plants appear THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE VELEBIT, CROATIA

Iris pallida subsp. cengialtii enjoys a splendid view over the Adriatic Sea

on the bare limestone banks. Here, most of the ground-hugging genistas seem to be the endemic G. holopetala, the golden colour contrasting vividly with the solid violet of Polygala supina.

This is perhaps the appropriate place for a short treatise on the local flag irises, which are abundant. Of these, Iris germanica is the most common, at times clearly an escapee from cultivation, but it also occurs in quantity in the most natural of habitats, far from cultivation. It is the biggest species with brown spathes and rather uniformly violet flowers. In contrast, the smaller, more delicate I. pallida is more local and occurs only in natural habitats of rocky limestone MARCH 2015

grassland. It is easily distinguished from I. germanica by virture of its silvery spathes and bracts, and is endemic to this region. The flowers are usually a mid-blue.

Sometimes the two species occur together and then many intermediates are found, apparently forming hybrid swarms. Some of these are relatively small and delicate plants with flowers of a clear violet-blue and mostly white beards, but which have brown spathes.

These probably conform to I. pallida subsp. cengialtii. On two occasions we found large white-flowered irises in dampish species-rich meadows. These represent the mysterious I. florentina, 75

EXPLORATION

The ground-hugging Genista holopetala

which is probably little more than a selected form of I. germanica.

Other plants typical of these rocky slopes included Euphorbia capitulata, Globularia repens, Potentilla neumanniana. Lamium garganicum, Satureja subspicata, Linum tenuifolium, Daphne oleioides, Convolvulus althaeoides, Geranium sanguineum and Centaurea montana. In more sheltered bushy places, often dominated by Rhus coriaria, we found Orobanche rapumgenistae, Lunaria rediviva, Lathyrus vernus and Melittis melissophyllum.

After an exposed crossroads on a saddle at Dabarska Kosa the road became unsealed, but a few hundred 76

metres ahead we could see the spectacular limestone pillars of Ravni Dabar, through which the track cut, forming a gorge. We were amazed to discover dozens of parked cars. It was the weekend and this is clearly one of the most popular rock-climbing areas in the Velebit. All around us, alpinists dangled from ropes in unlikely poses.

We parked before the gorge and, walking up the track, found the angular Solomon’s-seal Polygonatum odoratum, Hepatica nobilis, the yellow Anemone ranunculoides, Peltaria alliacea, Thlaspi ? praecox, Arabis scopoliana, rosettes of Lilium martagon and lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE VELEBIT, CROATIA

A well-flowered mat of Euphorbia capitulata

On the far side of a cleft, water seeped down the north face of a vertical slab of limestone and this area was stained cerise with Primula kitaibeliana, just going over flower. So we had achieved our goal! These plants were totally inaccessible, but after some searching we found rather less impressive specimens in several shady corners which were within reach. Typically they occurred in earth-filled crevices, often in the shade of, or even under, shrubs. At times it behaves chasmophytically as do its better-known relatives in subsection Rhopsidium, P. allionii and P. tyrolensis.

However, at least some of the habitats were a good deal wetter than those MARCH 2015

occupied by these relatives, and in this it seems to resemble more its third relative, P. integrifolia. Morphologically it falls between P. tyrolensis and P. integrifolia but, unlike the latter, the leaves are covered all over with abundant stalked glands. Often they are completely entire, but some larger leaves can have a few obscure broad crenations at the apex, and in this it is similar to P. tyrolensis. In fact the smaller individuals are probably indistinguishable from P. tyrolensis, but the more robust plants can be twice the size of the largest specimens of the latter.

Several other cliff-dwellers occurred in vertical crevices, notably Campanula fenestrellata and Arabis scopoliana, 77

EXPLORATION

but also Saxifraga paniculata, S. chrysosplenifolia, Inula verbascifolia and Cardaminopsis croatica.

Two more areas deserve a brief mention. Calcareous meadows in general proved to be orchid-rich, but the best of all were found by following a small road to Gozdanici west from Švica, itself the other side of the motorway from Otočac. Here the ubiquitous Neotinea tridentata and Anacamptis morio were joined by the burnt-tip orchid, Neotinea ustulata, together with several hybrids with Neotinea tridentata, and by the pyramidal orchid, Anacamptis pyramidalis, the soldier orchid, Orchis militaris, 78

and the globe orchid, Traunsteinera globosa. There was also a single hybrid between Orchis militaris and Neotinea tridentata. Helleborus dumetorum was accompanied by H. odorus and what may have been H. multifidus. The rich meadows also contained the orange Lathyrus laevigatus, Aquilegia vulgaris, Buglossoides purpureo-caerulea and Pulmonaria rubra.

The Dalmatian coast lies in the lee of virtually continuous strings of linear islands, lying parallel to the coast.

Krk (‘Kirk’) is the most easily visited as it is reached by a fine bridge from Kraljevica. Some 10km onto the island is a series of wetlands which are sadly THE ALPINE GARDENER

THE VELEBIT, CROATIA

Neotinea tridentata x ustulata, one of several hybrid orchids in the area Opposite, Primula kitaibeliana, the plant that John Richards most wanted to see on this trip, typically occurred in earth-filled crevices

and inexplicably out of bounds. When we complained at the Tourist Office we were told that this was to ‘protect their water supplies’, but from what was not made clear.

However, a small dirt road runs just east of here, outside the fence, and here we found stately populations of the laxflowered orchid, Anacamptis laxiflora, and Serapias bergonii. In the north-west corner of the island a little road wound down from Brzac through kermes oak and myrtle scrub to a sheltered cove. It was a surprise to discover Cyclamen repandum still in flower here in the second week of May, while Allium roseum, Teucrium montanum MARCH 2015

and the spectacular Melampyrum hoermannianum occurred nearby.

In conclusion, I would strongly recommend a late spring visit to the Velebit, a delightful region with an abundance of interesting flowers. No doubt an earlier visit would also be rewarding (Crocus dalmaticus and C. malyi flower in March), and a later visit would reveal alpines on Zavizan and elsewhere that were still dormant in early May. I believe that the wellknown Brassicaceous endemics Degenia velebitica and Fibigia triquetra are scarce and not easily encountered in the wild, but such treats as Lilium carniolicum would await a later visit.

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PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS JON EVANS

SUMMER NORTH

Sempervivum arachnoideum shown by Tony Lee, proving that a common plant can win a Farrer Medal Opposite, Tim Lever’s dramatic Saussurea stella

W

ere you to visit an AGS Show for the first time, aside from the remarkable diversity of plants on display, undoubtedly the building chosen to house it, and the locale, would make a strong impression.

Over the years, shows have been held in such distinguished settings as London’s Royal Exchange, the Brompton Oratory and Cheltenham’s Pittville Pump Room.

Some other venues have been, put politely, utilitarian at best. Many people are reluctant to journey to somewhere unenticing in the back of beyond, so the Society is keen to seek out affordable and easily accessible venues that are an attraction in themselves.

One of these, Bakewell’s Agricultural Centre, plumb in the centre of the Peak District, saw the Summer Show North

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Plants at their peak in the Peaks move further south than ever before, to the delight of those who took off on the nearby hiking trails or sourced local food of high quality having crossed the bridge over the trout-filled River Wye to the adjacent small town. This was a popular move, attracting exhibitors from far and wide, even if its timing coincided with the notorious ‘June gap’.

Visitors who had little or no conception of an alpine plant saw them here in good THE ALPINE GARDENER

2014 SHOWS FEATURED: Summer North, Summer Mid-West, Autumn North, Autumn South, Loughborough Autumn, Newcastle COMPILED BY ROBERT ROLFE FROM REPORTS BY: John Good, Robert Rolfe, Robert Amos, Ray Drew and Peter Cunnington

variety. Most, however, recognised the houseleek in its most familiar guise – the greyish-webbed Sempervivum arachnoideum. Tony Lee’s entry, at the peak of its flowering and awarded the Farrer Medal without a quibble, was the best of its kind seen at such gatherings since the mid-1990s. It takes time; it takes timing (the deep pink flowers soon turn a dingy hue); it takes careful repotting to preserve the tightly MARCH 2015

JON EVANS

SUMMER NORTH

aggregated mat without disruption; it takes the right environment (full sun, no c o v e r i n g ) .

If there had been a class for the most unusual-looking plant, Saussurea stella would have won it hands down. Surely the quirkiest of an altogether quirky genus, Tim Lever’s specimen was the size of a dinner plate, splayed like some elegant, multi-legged, pink and purplecentred starfish. Widely distributed in western China and Tibet at altitudes of up to 5,400m, growing in wet grassland, marshlands and bogs, in cultivation it simply requires regular watering when in growth. The plant exhibited is now but a memory, for the species is m o n o c a r p i c .

In mid-July the Summer Mid-West Show was similarly graced with 81

PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS

FARRER MEDAL WINNERS 2014 SUMMER NORTH (Bakewell) Sempervivum arachnoideum (Tony Lee) SUMMER MID-WEST (Tewkesbury) Daphne jasminea (Robin White) AUTUMN NORTH (Pontefract) Not awarded AUTUMN SOUTH (Kent) Cyclamen graecum subsp. anatolicum (Ian Robertson) LOUGHBOROUGH AUTUMN Cyclamen graecum subsp. candicum (Ian Robertson) NEWCASTLE Cyclamen graecum subsp. anatolicum (Bob & Rannveig Wallis)

memorable exhibits: four Certificates of Merit were awarded, a number that could easily have been increased. The Farrer Medal recipient, Robin White’s exuberant Daphne jasminea, was examined in the last issue of this journal, so I’ll divert straight away to Ivor Betteridges’s Frank Badrick Memorial Trophy entry, which included Tulbaghia ‘Purple Eye’ (the plural version ‘Eyes’ is incorrect), a cross between T. cominsii and T. violacea bred by Dick Fulcher.

The genus has gained in popularity over the past decade and more, with numerous cultivars now available. This one reaches around 35cm and repeat flowers if the old stems are cut off at the base once they are spent. Distinct in its dusky purple buds and mascarasmudged eyes, it is reasonably hardy if planted in a sheltered border or a deep trough in full sun. Division after flowering (use a pruning knife, and reduce the onion-scented foliage by at least half) is the best means of increasing 82

s

t o c k s .

Another South African, Alan Newton’s Moraea natalensis, had short-lived, small blue flowers that rallied in a fortuitous flush on the day of the show.

Timed to fade after 4pm, as if tailormade when one considers the closing time of our shows, it normally flowers in the wild from November to January or February, extending as far south as the Eastern Cape, taking in Kwazulu-Natal (as its name dictates), but also occurring extensively in Mozambique, Zambia and Z i m b a b w e .

Dorothy Sample’s Turkish Convolvulus compactus glistened in the sun, clearing enjoying the deep root run of its long tom clay pot. She scored again in the fern class with an immaculate Cheilanthes wootonii (in general this genus likes to be slightly pot-bound and water should be kept away from the fronds), yet it was a younger C. tomentosa staged by Alan and Janet Cook that really shone, for the whitish new fronds THE ALPINE GARDENER

JON EVANS

AUTUMN NORTH

Cheilanthes yatskievychiana exhibited by Tim Lever

Below, Alan Newton’s Moraea natalensis

JIM ALMOND

SUMMER MID-WEST

were at their apogee, contrasting with the splayed, tripinnate, older ones. This sampling was from the Santa Rita Mountains, close to Tucson, Arizona, but the species has a disjunct distribution that extends right across to the Appalachians, sometimes co-occurring with the popular C. eatonii, inhabiting rock crevices at up to 2,400m. An acid or neutral, friable soil is recommended, for all that the species sometimes inhabits limestone areas. Don’t be unduly worried if the fronds die away in winter, notwithstanding its generally evergreen character, if it is provided with sufficient moisture at the root.

Cheilanthes yatskievychiana is arguably the most beautiful of all recent introductions of this distinguished MARCH 2015

83

PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS JON EVANS

AUTUMN NORTH

Cyclamen hederifolium subsp. crassifolium shown by Steve Walters

genus, given to Tim Lever by long-time dwarf hardy fern champion Clive Brotherton five years ago. Grey-green felted and with fronds of moderate length (15-20cm), precisely toothed along the entirety of their densely tomentose subdivisions, it was elegance personified at the Autumn North Show.

Discovered in 1996 but only described ten years ago, it is endemic to the Sierra del Aliso in Mexico, an eminence within the Sonoran desert.

While this was the earliest of four autumn shows, by mid-September a number of plants traditionally exhibited around this time had already long since peaked. On the other hand, Cyclamen purpurascens, its performance often starting to wane by early autumn, was shown by several exhibitors in excellent 84

condition. Peter Hood’s plant was the most appealing, the flowers a really deep pink and fragrant, and Steve Walters’ 36cm potful the most imposing ‒ a close-packed, mighty dome of leaves, some of these fully 10cm long, with the last in a long succession of flowers cheerfully atop.

A stalwart of the Cyclamen Society, but a newcomer to AGS shows, Steve staged a generous range of other species, his 25-year-old C. hederifolium subsp. crassifolium voted best in show and only denied a Farrer Medal because the stems and the petioles of the scarcely developed leaves were deemed slightly etiolated. (‘Give me half an hour, a slightly larger pot, and plenty of topdressing, and I’d soon get round that difficulty,’ a wily exhibitor murmured afterwards). This THE ALPINE GARDENER

JON EVANS

AUTUMN SOUTH

Ian Robertson’s magnificent Cyclamen graecum subsp. anatolicum

taxon from southern Greece and some of its islands (possibly Sicily too) has sturdy flower stems and notably fleshy leaves, their diverse patterns among the most attractive for the species as a whole, from which it can also be separated by a different chromosome count. This example represents a 1999 introduction from Zakinthos by Pat Nichols. Mature plants in what is clearly a sizeable collection (Steve entered various other classes) are grown unplunged in deep clay pots and clearly relish the extra root r u n p r o v i d e d .

Several unusual colchicums were exhibited, notably Dave Riley’s impressive panfuls of Colchicum pusillum, the corms received from Rannveig Wallis long ago, since when they have increased substantially. Alan MARCH 2015

Newton had a lovely C. troodii from a sowing nine years ago, derived from a Mike Salmon collection on Cyprus, with lightly tessellated, pale pink flowers of moderate size, lit by a central clustering of yellow anthers. For preference it is best afforded the shelter of a bulb frame, and it looked remarkably like Don Peace’s C. decaisnei on the bench almost directly opposite. Indeed they are conspecific, the full range including southern Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and Syria, where it typically flowers in October, colonising oak scrub or stony hillsides. Cypriot plants are often wider in leaf and occur at up to 2,000m, associated with coniferous woodland.

There was a tremendous array of mature Cyclamen at the Rainham show.

An entire bench was filled almost 85

JON EVANS

PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS AUTUMN SOUTH

Oxalis perdicaria shown by Bob and Rannveig Wallis Opposite, another Farrer Medal for Ian Robertson with Cyclamen graecum subsp. candicum

exclusively with huge pots of this popular genus. Ian Robertson won both the Saunders Award for best Cyclamen and the Farrer Medal for his stupendous Cyclamen graecum subsp. anatolicum.

On an off-beat note, Bob and Rannveig Wallis exhibited Biarum pyrami, another native of Turkey, as a component of a three-pan class alongside Colchicum baytoporium and Empodium flexile. The rich deep red colour of this substantial and malodorous Biarum (two, perhaps even three times the height of sweetly scented B. marmarisense, which they also exhibited) made it one of the most eye-catching plants on display. More conventionally showy, in a large threepan entry they had a substantial bright yellow blaze of Oxalis perdicaria, perhaps the finest of the autumnflowering species, in favourable years 86

continuing its display right through to November but at its peak earlier in the autumn. South American and South African species (this is from the former subcontinent) increase well but benefit from barely frost-free alpine house c o n d i t i o n s .

Enjoying a similar environment, pleiones are seen in force during April and May, but a few flower in the autumn.

Ian Robertson’s Pleione Confirmation gx, with the parentage P. praecox x maculata, occurs naturally and has been named P. x lagenaria, with a ground colour any shade between white and mauve. This artificial example had been bred by Simon Pugh-Jones, whose pioneering work at his Somerset school has yielded a succession of knowledgeable young orchidologists.

The Loughborough Autumn Show, a THE ALPINE GARDENER

week later, was equally notable for its contingent of veteran Cyclamen exhibits.

One observer suggested that a class for a tuber not less than 21 years old would be a useful addition to the schedule! Here Ian Robertson struck again, his venerable and immaculate Cyclamen graecum subsp. candicum receiving the Nottingham Group Trophy for best Cyclamen and the Farrer Medal. This had its origins in a 1996 Turkish Cyclamen Society trip; Ian took over ownership in 1998. Thereafter it has never been wholly repotted, compost having merely been teased away from the sides of the tuber to around halfway down the pot and fresh compost (based on sieved beech leaf-mould, John Innes No. 2 and Seramis/perlite), lightly t a m p e d h o m e .

He also received a Certificate of Merit MARCH 2015

for Pleione praecox (widely distributed from Nepal south-eastwards to Vietnam) which he grows in a glasshouse more or less devoted to the genus. A compost of pure sphagnum is used. In the growing season this is submerged in rain-water every three days or so, then more or less dried off while dormant. A second such award went to a bicoloured form of the southern Greek Crocus niveus, kept in prime condition on the long drive up from near Shaftesbury by winding down the car window to prevent the flowers from over-reaching themselves. Grown from a packet of seeds received from Crocus specialist Alan Edwards and separated out after a couple of flowering seasons, it is kept under glass all year in a standard alpine mix of one part John Innes No. 2, one part peat and one part Seramis or Sanicat (a clay-based cat litter 87

JON EVANS

LOUGHBOROUGH

PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS JON EVANS

LOUGHBOROUGH

medium), with little or no watering during its summer resting period. Don Peace showed a smaller, more vividly toned example with dark perianth tubes: these and other variants, some concolorous as in the mixed populations seen in southernmost Greece, can be r o u t i n e l y e x p e c t e d .

Lee and Julie Martin garnered a brace of Certificates of Merit for, as part of a three-pan entry, a mighty pan of Allium thunbergii, that purple-flowered beauty from Japan, Korea and China (a whitish form was shown by one or two other exhibitors in the 19cm pan classes). A potting mix based largely on loam with added leaf-mould and grit is required.

Their other certificate was for a large pan of Crocus goulimyi, showing its disdain of the grey, dampish day on which the event 88

was held by not revealing its full splendour: crocuses need slight warmth and sunshine to give of their very best.

Finally, the Newcastle autumn gathering is the most northerly of the Society’s shows, with Ponteland some eight miles nearer the Scottish border than the other two contenders.

Once an island surrounded by marshland, this relatively dry area beside the River Pont (hence the name) provides an opportunity for those from both sides of the Scottish border to attend the last show of the year.

Yet again a Cyclamen took pride of place. Bob and Rannveig Wallis’s splendid Cyclamen graecum subsp. anatolicum (they also showed other examples of the taxon) had nary a spent bloom, despite the mid-October date, by which time the season for this and most other species is THE ALPINE GARDENER

Crocus banaticus ‘Snowdrift’ grown

by Alan Furness

PETER MAGUIRE

NEWCASTLE

Opposite, Lee and Julie Martin’s wonderful pan of Allium thunbergii

well past its peak. They also had Narcissus miniatus, a newish name to circumscribe easterly populations, while its close relative Narcissus serotinus is from the western Mediterranean. In both cases some protection from cold is essential.

The question of identity does not rest here, for it may more correctly be named Narcissus x obseletus, a supposed hybrid between N. tazetta and N. serotinus. The current determination stems from the fact that the hybrid is fertile: thus a new species is born.

Don Peace exhibited some very fine pots of crocuses, among them his

notably floriferous, leafless, lilaccoloured Crocus gilanicus, introduced from its Iranian homeland just over 40 years ago (one for the connoisseur; it will never be a show-stopper). Alan Furness showed the opulent, pristine white version of easternmost European C. banaticus, unseasonably named ‘Snowdrift’, which is among the most vigorous clones selected to date. A vintage autumn allowed these and others to be seen at their very best, and a very creditable turn-out of exhibitors meant that the end-of-term displays rewarded visitors in full measure.

Full show reports and more pictures can be seen on the AGS website MARCH 2015

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A

ysgarth Edwardian Rock Garden has been a well-known feature in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, for more than 100 years, but its status now as a garden freely open to the public is very different from that envisaged by its creator, Frank Sayer Graham. He lived at nearby Heather Cottage and had planned a ‘private rock garden’ – the original sign on the entrance gate remains as testament to his intention.

In January 2012 my wife Rosemary and I became the owners. We faced challenges but also opportunities in managing and developing a true rock garden. Until then our only relevant

90

Bringing a rock garden back to life experience had been growing a limited range of the more common alpines at home on our rockery, sited on a northfacing slope in a village nearby.

Aysgarth Rock Garden is typical of the construction style of the Backhouse THE ALPINE GARDENER

The Aysgarth Edwardian Rock Garden, which was built around 1906

Adrian Anderson and his wife Rosemary purchased a 100-year-old rock garden three years ago. Here he tells how they are carrying on its rejuvenation, started by the previous owners nursery firm of York, with huge waterworn limestone blocks used to create different microclimates and an overall effect of a ‘walk-through grotto’. Within the 0.14 acres, rockwork extends to a height of eight metres in places and MARCH 2015

incorporates rough steps, a cascade, a small rill and two low rock lintels to catch the unwary. In placing the massive rocks no attempt was made to mimic their natural stratification, almost as if the intention was to create a garden 91

AYSGARTH EDWARDIAN ROCK GARDEN

Aysgarth’s current ‘custodians’, Rosemary and Adrian Anderson

where the rocks could be admired just as much as the plants. Outside the rocky structure, at the back of the garden, is a small lawned area with surrounding borders filled with herbaceous perennials and bulbs.

We have been unable to uncover documentary evidence of the Backhouse firm’s involvement in the project but we do know the identity of the man in charge of the construction – William Angus Clark. A local collector came across a postcard written by his son, postmarked August 3, 1906, with the 92

relevant part reading: ‘Father is staying at the (other) house on the other side of this PC building a rockery.’ William Clark was the Backhouse Alpine Manager and the author of Alpine Plants, originally published in 1901.

Furthermore, in the 1907 edition of this book a frontispiece lists individuals for whom he had worked and includes ‘F. S. Graham, Esq., Heather Cottage, Aysgarth’. Plants for the newly completed garden may have been sourced from Backhouse’s extensive alpine nursery at West Bank, Holgate, York. Unfortunately THE ALPINE GARDENER

JOHN DOWER

AYSGARTH EDWARDIAN ROCK GARDEN

AGS member Clare Dower among the dramatic rockwork at Aysgarth

no planting list has survived but there are a few plants that may be echoes of the originals.

As the 20th century progressed, the rock garden continued to be a wellcared for feature within the village. The 1941 edition of Arthur Mee’s The King’s England describes Aysgarth as follows: ‘The village has lovely old houses with creepered walls, but it has nothing more charming than a rock garden by the green-banked wayside, where the grey rocks, looking like crags of the fells, are a dazzling mosaic of colour with MARCH 2015

hundreds of ferns and flowers growing in their crannies.’

Five years after this was written, however, Frank Sayer Graham died and then began a period of decline. The garden passed through the hands of different owners until, in 1988, it was saved from sale for redevelopment by the granting of a Grade II listing, which applied to the built stone structure and the perimeter iron railings. Although safe from redevelopment, the garden gradually turned into what one local person described as a ‘quirky wilderness’.

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AYSGARTH EDWARDIAN ROCK GARDEN Indeed aerial photographs taken around the year 2000 show the rockwork almost obscured by self-sown native trees and brambles.

The saviour proved to be Angela Jauneika who, with her husband Peter, purchased Heather Cottage and the accompanying rock garden in 1998.

Through a chance meeting with Dr John Page of the AGS History of Rock and Alpine Gardening Study Group, Angela discovered that the garden was of national importance in the history of horticulture. There then followed a four-year period of planning and fundraising to secure the £25,000 estimated cost of restoration. In 2002 the target was reached and the work completed over the winter months. On July 5, 2003, the garden was officially reopened to begin the next chapter of its life, freely open to the public throughout the year.

It was our good fortune to have the opportunity to purchase the garden from Angela and Peter in January 2012, and so began our tenure as owners or, more appropriately, custodians.

Visitors to the garden who are aware of its history often ask if there are any remnants of William Clark’s original plantings – a question that cannot be answered with certainty. However, before the 2002-03 restoration a plant survey identified the following possible survivors: the dwarf conifer Picea glauca var. albertiana ‘Conica’ just inside the entrance gate; adjacent to this on the opposite side of the path a specimen of Berberis darwinii; and within the ravine area, further into the garden, Osmanthus delavayi. Towering above part of the rockwork is a large Juniperus squamata, 94

while the highest rocks are clothed in sheets of Bergenia. Close to the entrance gate, within east-facing crevices, several Ramonda myconi flower each May or June – a tantalising reminder of earlier plantings.

Faced with taking over what is, in effect, a public garden posed for us the question of how to manage its maintenance and development with our very limited workforce. A planting list from the 2002-03 restoration existed but it was clear that some plants had succumbed over the years, mostly outcompeted by more vigorous neighbours, especially Campanula portenschlagiana and Asarina procumbens, both of which have the ability to establish successfully in the driest and most inhospitable conditions. I decided to remove much of the more rampant plants but to retain the Asarina. It is often admired by visitors for its cascading foliage and pale cream tubular flowers and is kept in check by weeding out unwanted seedlings and vigorous cutting back at the end of the growing season.

Sited on the edge of open countryside, the garden is a natural target for the seeds of native plants. Colourful Erinus alpinus (fairy foxglove) is gradually spreading across the rockwork. It seems to have originated from a longestablished colony at the nearby Seata Quarry, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve. Few Dales gardens are without Meconopsis cambrica (Welsh poppy) and my approach has been to try to confine it to areas where it can be easily deadheaded and thereby prevent seeding in more inaccessible parts of the garden. Two cultivated varieties of these THE ALPINE GARDENER

JOHN DOWER

AYSGARTH EDWARDIAN ROCK GARDEN

A cascade provides moisture for ferns, Rodgersia and Dactylorhiza

prolific plants have been introduced: Meconopsis cambrica ‘Muriel Brown’ and Erinus alpinus ‘Dr Hahnle’. It will be interesting to see if they also thrive.

During the 2002-03 restoration relatively few trees and shrubs were added because the rockwork itself provides much of the structure and height variation. Specimens of Pinus mugo var. pumilio were planted within the higher sections of the garden – a visual link to several nearby Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine). Cotoneaster horizontalis can be found in several MARCH 2015

places and I have added several less strongly growing cultivars of Potentilla fruticosa to provide continuing lateseason colour. Despite the cold North Yorkshire winters, varieties of Cistus including ‘Grayswood Pink’, ‘Alan Fradd’, ‘Peggy Sammons’, ‘Snow White’, ‘Snow Fire’ and ‘Sunset’ have survived the last two years unscathed within freedraining south and west-facing planting pockets.

One of my aims in further developing the garden was to secure year-round interest for visitors. Early in the season 95

AYSGARTH EDWARDIAN ROCK GARDEN

Snowdrops and winter aconites beneath three Betula ermanii ‘Grayswood Hill’

there is little to do other than watch the garden unfold as different species and cultivars of Galanthus including elwesii, atkinsii, ‘James Backhouse’, ‘Straffan’ and ‘Magnet’ emerge and come into flower.

This is especially so below three Betula ermanii ‘Grayswood Hill’ within the lawned area, which at that time of the year is carpeted with snowdrops and Eranthis hyemalis (winter aconite). The china blue flowers of Primula marginata, of which there are several cultivars, provide some of the earliest colour and thrive within rocky crevices out of the 96

midday sun. Aubrieta are one of the highlights of spring, cascading over the rocks and responding well to hard cutting back after flowering. Recently introduced Aubrieta gracilis ‘Kitte Blue’ is outstanding for its long flowering period. In the area around the cascade a number of primulas also feature at this time of year, in particular Primula denticulata in different colours. Interest continues as the seasons unfold with Primula rosea ‘Grandiflora’, Primula alpicola, Primula vialii and Primula capitata.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

AYSGARTH EDWARDIAN ROCK GARDEN

Anemone ranunculoides ‘Semi-Plena’ and, right, Primula capitata ‘Noverna Deep Blue’

In May the area known as the dell provides a damp and shady environment for the creamy white flowers of Cardamine kitaibelii. Other highlights are the fresh green foliage and bright yellow flowers of Anemone ranunculoides ‘Semi-Plena’, nodding flowers of Erythronium ‘Pagoda’ close to the entrance gate and Fritillaria meleagris adjacent to the rill. Within the last two years I have planted a selection of species tulips. It will be interesting to MARCH 2015

97

AYSGARTH EDWARDIAN ROCK GARDEN

Dactylorhiza fuchsii ‘Bressingham Bonus’ flowering in June Opposite, Asplenium ceterach and Asplenium trichomanes, just two of many ferns that thrive in the Aysgarth Edwardian Rock Garden

see whether they establish as well as the three clumps of unknown tulips already present when the garden was restored.

I have looked to geraniums to provide more mid and late-season interest.

Geranium sylvaticum had self-seeded to all corners and I have had to be ruthless, leaving only a token clump.

Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Czakor’ was positioned high up to provide ground cover in areas that are difficult to weed.

Geranium phaeum ‘Springtime’ was 98

planted in a shady area within the ravine for its attractive foliage, while several cultivars of Geranium sanguineum have found homes at eye level. Well-known Geranium ‘Rozanne’ provides colour into the autumn.

Originally the waterfall was supplied via a header tank, which itself was fed by a spring on higher land beyond the garden. This water supply had dried up long before the 2002-03 restoration and the cascade is now supplied via a pump, THE ALPINE GARDENER

AYSGARTH EDWARDIAN ROCK GARDEN

triggered by a movement sensor sited near the entrance, so that the waterfall runs for a few minutes when the visitor reaches that part of the garden.

A quantity of water is lost to the area surrounding the cascade – bad for the water bill but good for the neighbouring moisture-loving plants, of which special mention should be given to two orchids, Dactylorhiza fuchsii ‘Bressingham Bonus’ and Dactylorhiza elata, which put on a fine show during June.

The damp, shady nooks and crannies in different parts of the garden provide ideal conditions for the many native and MARCH 2015

cultivated ferns, some of which must surely be the progeny of earlier plantings.

Native ferns include Asplenium scolopendrium (hart’s tongue fern), Asplenium ceterach (rustyback fern) and Asplenium trichomanes (maidenhair spleenwort). Old foliage is removed from the hart’s tongue ferns during March to reveal the newly emerging fronds – along with spring bulbs they exemplify the garden’s return to life after the winter. In 2012 I sought the advice of The Fern Nursery of Binbrook, Lincolnshire, in choosing ferns for the very dry and shady area beneath the huge 99

AYSGARTH EDWARDIAN ROCK GARDEN

Lewisia tweedyi, grown from AGS seed, has established in a crevice

juniper. Thus far most have established well, particularly Adiantum aleuticum ‘Imbricatum’, Polystichum setiferum ‘Dahlem’ and P. s. ‘Herrenhausen’. These complement the several specimens of P. s. ‘Plumosomultilobum’ planted elsewhere when the garden was restored, contributing to both structure and yearround interest.

The varying microclimates within the garden provide conditions for plants that I would struggle to grow well in my home garden. Lewisia tweedyi, grown from AGS seed, has established in a southfacing crevice and in the same area can be found a selection of sempervivums, 100

transported by campervan from the Jardin Botanique du Tourmalet high in the French Pyrenees.

I am also trying to expand the range of Cyclamen to take advantage of the opportunity to see these delightful plants at eye level. Thus far AGS seed has provided Cyclamen mirabile, purpurascens and cilicium. Colchicum agrippinum brings an exotic splash of colour in autumn.

It has been trial and error to find suitable positions for the wide range of saxifrages but Saxifraga x ‘Whitehills’ deserves mention because it has flourished through winter frost and summer heat THE ALPINE GARDENER

AYSGARTH EDWARDIAN ROCK GARDEN

Colchicum agrippinum doing well at Aysgarth Below, Rosemary Anderson’s recently published book documents the history of the garden

on an exposed south-facing rock with minimal substrate – if only every plant were as accommodating!

During our three years of ownership we have sought to research both the history of the garden and the range of alpines suitable for planting. Our aim is to ensure that it becomes known to a wider public, gradually evolves and continues to be attractive to visitors throughout the year.

MARCH 2015

Rosemary’s recently published book, Aysgarth Edwardian Rock Garden: A Story of Creation and Re-creation, documents the garden’s history set within the context of the 19th century fashion for rock gardening and also includes a short descriptive guide to the planting. Copies are available from stockists in the local area or from York Publishing Services via a link from our website: www.aysgarthrockgarden.co.uk 101

ERANTHIS ALBIFLORA

A specimen fitting Franchet’s 1885 description of Eranthis albiflora on Erlang Shan

A Chinese Eranthis that suffers from an identity crisis 102

I

n 2007 I was browsing the then quite recently published volume of Flora of China (FoC) incorporating Ranunculaceae at efloras.org. Apart from the well-known Eranthis stellata, another two species are given in this: E. albiflora and E. lobulata. Both are very little-known.

E. lobulata is recorded in the flora with the comment ‘sepals and petals unknown’ (i.e. not seen in flower: from a botanical view this is a striking omission). It is represented by just three sets of herbarium material, one collection identified as the doubtfully THE ALPINE GARDENER

ERANTHIS ALBIFLORA

An undescribed variety or subspecies of Eranthis albiflora with extremely narrow bracts, differing from any known species. It grows with forms that could be attributed to E. lobulata.

Photographed on Gongga Shan (Hailuogou, Sichuan) at 2,700m

Swedish nursery owner and plant explorer Eric Wahlsteen makes the case that two Chinese species of Eranthis are in fact one and the same plant sustainable var. elatior. Knowledge of E. albiflora is equally scant, again with just a few herbarium specimens available, but in these flowers are present.

E. albiflora was described by Adrien Franchet in 1885 from material MARCH 2015

collected in March 1869 by Armand David during his stay in Mouping (now Baoxing), western Sichuan. It is striking that the 1869 collection is apparently the sole record of this species for the next 117 years, until the 1986 accession in Beijing from the 1986 Tohoku University China Expedition. One of the least known species, our present knowledge relies on these two widely separated samplings, the most recent

by Naito et al. The diagnosis in Flora of China (Liangqian and Tamura, 2001) is essentially a translation of Franchet’s 1885 description, as is that in 1979’s 103

ERANTHIS ALBIFLORA

The plant on the left is typical of Eranthis lobulata; the one on the right is an undescribed variant.

Photographed on Gongga Shan (Hailuogou, Sichuan) at 2,700m

Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae (FRPS). The 1986 collection provided information about the tuber which was hitherto missing.

Pictures of the herbarium sheets have for long been the only available images.

A small drawing, probably prepared by David, illustrates the parts of the flower, but is problematic in that the flowers as depicted represent the familiar E. hyemalis rather than the Chinese E. albiflora.

In 1965 Eranthis lobulata was described using material collected in Wenchuan in May 1930. The type collection, W.T. Wang 21018, is represented by a sheet of 19 fruiting and sterile plants. The 104

Chinese floras published afterwards (FRPS and FoC) adapted the diagnosis without revisions. Only two other collections are present in herbaria: G. Schaller 38, representing two sterile plants from Wolong, and a Chinese collection representing fruiting plants determined as the type material for E. lobulata var. elatior, collected in Hailuogou and accepted by FoC. This taxon I find unsatisfactory, for the material designated is an overgrown, elongated specimen collected in midMay. In late spring all Eranthis elongate it’s a seasonal rather than a physiological characteristic.

After my recent travels in western THE ALPINE GARDENER

ERANTHIS ALBIFLORA

Primula moupinensis on Gongga Shan

Sichuan it is now possible to provide a fuller description of the plant and its habitat. E. albiflora was found in two localities, on the east side of Erlang Shan and in the Hailuogou valley on eastern Gongga Shan. In late March and early April, at an altitude of 2,170m, E. albiflora was in peak flower on Erlang Shan, growing together with Primula moupinensis, Chrysosplenium davidianum, Arisaema auriculatum and other perennial herbs. The deciduous woodland consisted of maples, birches and dove trees (Davidia involucrata).

The soil, a rather heavy and seasonally wet clay, had a pH measured at 6.5-7.

In the Hailuogou valley, by contrast, MARCH 2015

E. albiflora was found inside the nature reserve beside the footpath connecting Camps 2 and 3 at an altitude of 2,700m. With it grew Primula sonchifolia, Anemone flaccida, Corydalis sarcolepis, Primula moupinensis and Chrysosplenium davidianum.

The woodland comprised Betula utilis, Abies fabri and several maples, with an understory of Viburnum nervosum, Berberis sanguinea, Fargesia sp. and Rhododendron calophytum. The soil pH matched that on Erlang Shan but its structure was sandy moraine with traces of sparkling shale.

Having seen the variation within the white-flowering winter aconites in the 105

ERANTHIS ALBIFLORA

Anemone flaccida on Gongga Shan (Hailuogou, Sichuan) at 2,700m

Luding-Tianquan area, it is obvious to me that only one species is involved, E. albiflora, albeit with some variation.

Recent observations on these variations are supported by overlooked herbarium material collected by Potanin in 1893, kept at LE (01010239). These clearly show the variation within the species, some specimens with minute, dissected bracts, others with broader lobes. It is also striking that the basal leaf blade is often broadly lobed, whereas the bracts of the same plant are finely dissected. E. lobulata might well reflect an extreme sampling, whereas the Potanin collection appears to be more representative of a typical population.

E. albiflora forms a globose tuber and grows to 10cm tall with five or six 106

bracts, lobed and divided to the middle.

In March small flowers (around 15mm in diameter) appear, the translucent white elliptic or oblong sepals encircling four or five sometimes funnel-form, bifid petals resembling those of the Japanese E. pinnatifida. The flower has ten stamens with linear filaments and orbicular anthers, followed later in spring by four to five follicles, each housing three or four seeds.

Eranthis albiflora description: Rhizome tuberous-globose, circa 8-12mm across, blackish-brown with white roots. Scape 4.5-16cm tall. Basal leaves with 4-5 leaf blades. Leaf blade glabrous, tripartite, segments 0.5 to 0.3 of total length, obovate to cuneate.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

ERANTHIS ALBIFLORA

This form on Gongga Shan is closer to Eranthis lobulata, with shallowly lobed bracts, and keys out as such in Flora of China.

Corydalis aff. sarcolepis is seen in leaf

Involucre consists of 5-6 bracts, glabrous, tripartite with obovatecuneate segments, divided to midway, unequally lobed. Each lobe linear or ovate-obovate with an acute to obtuse apex. Pedicel 4-5 (-7)mm, glabrous.

Flower white, 1.2-1.5cm in diameter, shortly stalked. Sepals white, elliptic or oblong, obtuse at apex. Petals 4 or 5, obcordate-funnel-form, emarginate on the exterior, bifid inside; stalks long, subequalling the blade. Filaments circa 10, linear. Anthers orbicular, pale yellowcream. Follicles 4-5, sessile, narrowly oblong, 8-10 × 2.5-3mm. Persistent style 3-5mm. Seeds 3 or 4, flat-globose, 1.82mm across.

Distribution: China, western Sichuan.

Recorded from the counties of Baoxing MARCH 2015

and in Tianquan on the east side of Erlang Shan, 1,700-2,170m, and in the county of Luding (Hailuogou) at 2,700m.

Habitat: Recorded in open mixed forest and in grass at margin of forests and alpine meadows.

Phenology: Flowering March-April, fruiting May.  Eric Wahlsteen runs Borealis, a nursery specialising in unusual garden plants, and teaches at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He has written a number of articles and two books, and posts information about Eranthis on the internet via the-genus-eranthis.blogspot.com 107

ROLF FIEDLER

Ipheion uniflorum ‘Rolf Fiedler’, grown by many AGS members, was named for a plant explorer who was fascinated by the flora of South America. A recently rediscovered letter from Fiedler led Chilean-based John Watson to reassess the Austrian’s contribution to horticulture and ponder what became of him

O

n a quiet Saturday in February at our home in Chile, on an uncharacteristically cloudy and cool summer’s day, my wife Anita Flores happened to be searching through boxes of photographic negatives. She was looking for a shot taken in 2000 of Calandrinia skottsbergii as a possible illustration for a botanical paper we’re co-authoring.

The most exciting event of the day so far had been an FA Cup match when Manchester City had for once managed to beat Chelsea (City’s manager Manuel Pellegrini is a highly respected Chilean, a true gentleman and scholar). I was embedded once again in the major task of revising our field guide, Plantas Altoandinas en la Flora Silvestre de Chile (the football having ended), when, with an air of mystery and suppressed excitement, Anita handed me a flimsy, faded and stained airmail envelope addressed to me when I lived in Kent.

She had no idea how it happened to be among her photos but was fascinated by the opening paragraphs of the letter inside. ‘It was 1975, and you were already an expert on rosulate violas, cariño,’ she exclaimed, with affectionate wifely mockery. That comment, together with the border of the envelope, gave

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A letter from Rolf Fiedler – and the mystery of his disappearance me a good clue to the identity of the writer. As I began to read through it and then glanced at the final signature, my guess was confirmed: Rolf Fiedler, an Argentinian resident, amateur botanical explorer and seed-collector.

The name Rolf Fiedler has important connotations for AGS members, both historical and current. Perhaps the most resonant of these will be Ipheion uniflorum ‘Rolf Fiedler’, a delightful soft mid-blue form which gained an Award of Merit from the Joint Rock Garden Plant Committee and has featured regularly on show benches.

Despite its reputation as slightly less than fully hardy when planted out in many gardens, it is gloriously THE ALPINE GARDENER

JOHN WATSON

ROLF FIEDLER

A vibrant clump of Ipheion uniflorum ‘Rolf Fiedler’ in John Watson’s garden in Chile

irrepressible for us here in central Chile.

A few years back we dug up what remained of an unsuccessful edging of it, which was being swamped by vigorous competitors. The surviving Ipheion were rescued in the dormant stage. When dried out everything was passed through a fairly fine sieve. The loose soil was sifted and scattered along the margin of one of our wide earthen MARCH 2015

walkways, leaving many small white garlicky-smelling bulbs, along with some stones and clods. As we already had enough Ipheion in containers, and a colony established in the ground elsewhere, they served as ‘swapsies’ for a generous Chilean nursery friend.

That was supposed to be the end of that particular story. Not a bit of it. The following year leaves appeared from 109

ROLF FIEDLER among the sievings and 12 months after that there were flowers. Now we have a dense patch bordering the path.

It blooms at the end of our winter of skeletal trees, reflecting the sky like a pool of water. Somehow or other, too, odd flowers will appear as if by magic here and there on any remote bare spot, even on the most trodden thoroughfares.

The species Ipheion uniflorum is native to the pampas and hills of Buenos Aires, surrounding Argentinian provinces and most of Uruguay, reaching 1,500m.

It has escaped elsewhere in the world and has become a weed in places. The cultivar originated as bulbs brought from South America by Fiedler and donated to Kew. It then expanded from Kew into British horticulture. Finally, to complete a full circle, it arrived back in South America from British horticulture via ourselves – coals to Newcastle!

If the Ipheion is Rolf Fiedler’s most apparent long-term contribution to horticulture, it’s certainly not his only one. Fewer people may be aware that he also introduced the attractive and showy Sisyrinchium macrocarpum, whose only slight drawback is for its leaf-tips to become browned-off (actually more like blackened-off) at times. It used to be a best-seller during my short and misbegotten spell as a nurseryman in the 1980s! Despite its often imperfect extremities, S. macrocarpum has also gained a deserved Award of Merit.

Fiedler must surely have one of the highest ratios ever of plant awards to collections made for horticulture by any individual or collective expedition.

As those who have the Alpines ’81 Conference Report on their bookshelves 110

may witness, Rolf Fiedler flew over to England and presented, as an illustrated lecture, the first ever detailed personal review of the alpines of his adopted country. It was entitled ‘Plants of the Argentinian Andes’ and was subsequently printed in the Conference Report. There had only been two limited forerunners: Mrs Ruth Tweedie’s accounts of her introductions in the 1950s from the immediate surroundings of her remote southern Patagonian estancia, and Bob Woodward’s 1973 second-hand reverential appreciation in AGS Bulletin volume 41 of Harold Comber’s mainly Argentinian explorations in northern Patagonia, with information drawn from his field notebook and fleshed out.

Fiedler sent back seeds for a period during the 1970s and early 80s, then disappeared suddenly and mysteriously without trace. No one heard anything further from or of him. Once, when travelling in Patagonia, we met a local Argentinian family keenly interested in their region’s flora and who had known him personally. They intimated he had suffered some terrible personal trauma, perhaps in connection with a relationship, and had lost interest in everything, apparently even existence itself, for they hinted that he may have taken his own life. That is pure hearsay, which we can in no way confirm. I have been unable to discover more.

Having provided this background, Anita and I feel his letter of 1975 may be of sufficient part-biographical interest to reproduce in a slightly cut version, which is intended to retain the insight it offers into Fiedler’s very warm and human appreciation of wild flowers.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

JOHN WATSON

ROLF FIEDLER

Ipheion uniflorum ‘Rolf Fiedler’ has taken hold in bare and trampled ground in John Watson’s garden, the result of sieving a clump of bulbs but failing to remove every last one!

Importantly, it coincided with the first parts of my extended account for the AGS Bulletin of our own, then recent explorations in Chile, ‘Andes 1971 and 1972’. I have included a few clarifying notes in square brackets: MARCH 2015

‘

Dear Mr Watson, As I had heard from members of the AGS that you were an expert on rosulate violas, I had been trying to get hold of your address and it had just reached me when the first part of your 111

ROLF FIEDLER

ANITA FLORES

Viola fluehmannii, described by Rolf Fiedler as ‘the most exciting thing’

article appeared in the AGS Bulletin...

I read your article with a great deal of excitement and interest, knowing from my own experience the circumstances attending a trip in the Andes... [He went on to provide identities for one or two of my Bulletin photographs. Taken as a whole, those names have stood the test of time remarkably well.]

Now the most exciting thing is your Viola fluehmannii. This is very close to the one that I found near Lago Ñorquinco (at about 1,800m), of which I am sending you four slides. It is a bit variable in colour, some having quite pronounced green spots on the lip petal.

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Some are light mauve to nearly lavender, and some are bordered with a slightly purplish pink when they have just opened. The plant itself is of the same shrubby habit [as mine in the Bulletin].

The twigs are quite branched off, and the leaves, as you say, almost resemble needles. Yes, the lip petal is often ‘pinch-folded upwards’ and is densely dark violet stippled back into the throat.

I found them among the pernettyas [now gaultherias] and also alone, quite low-growing and in some parts carpetforming. Added to their extreme beauty, they have the most marvellous and quite strong perfume, fresh and thrilling, not THE ALPINE GARDENER

ANITA FLORES

ROLF FIEDLER

A clump of Viola escondidaensis and, inset, a close-up of one flower MARCH 2015

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ANITA FLORES

ROLF FIEDLER

Viola montagnei, which Rolf Fiedler probably mistook for Viola canobarbata.

Opposite, Viola volcanica, also recorded by Fiedler

at all like the Viola odorata, but at least equally exciting.

In the Darwinion Institute [Buenos Aires] where I take my pressed plants for identification, nobody had ever seen them, and so the specimen was sent to Dr Sparre in Stockholm. His verdict was: V. escondidaensis! This was among several new violets from the Andes collected by H.F. Comber in 1925-1927. I read the description of it [in Kew Bulletin, 1928] but by some 114

way it does not fit the specification. The leaves are not pale green and are not whitish hairy, etc. Of course, the Kew description was drawn from the dried plant and not from the fresh one. What I do not understand is that Comber did not appear to be wildly excited about the plant. Regular botanists are sometimes quite indifferent to the beauty of nature.

Many of them (certainly not Comber) prefer pressed plants to the fresh ones.

They may be deeply interested, but are THE ALPINE GARDENER

ANITA FLORES

ROLF FIEDLER

unable to see the charm and beauty. The scent is seldom mentioned. Well, I am a chemist as well as a botanist, and at least to me perfumes mean a very great deal, and I would like to have your ideas about this.

I also found a completely black [-flowered] rosulate viola, and the description in Sampson Clay’s The Present-day Rock Garden of V. canobarbata seems to be the nearest I could trace. [Latest field evidence indicates V. conobarbata as being a synonym of V. montagnei.] Another two I came across seem to be V. volcanica, but while one has absolutely green leaves, the other’s leaves are strangely MARCH 2015

brownish in different shades and not at all green – although both had the characteristic purple short stripey marks [glands] on the underside of the leaves.

The more one sees of the rosulate violas, the more one is fascinated by their strange and interesting forms and their beauty. Is there any more literature available about them? [At the time, Sampson Clay was also my only source of published information on section Andinium, the rosulate violas.] Out here exact identification of plants is quite a difficult problem. There is very little literature at hand and there are very few botanists with all-round knowledge.

[That situation has improved 115

ROLF FIEDLER dramatically over the intervening four decades, although unevenly still.] They are usually specialists in one or two families, but know next to nothing about other plants. Of course there are many more families than botanists – that is the trouble!

Before I came to the Argentine (I am Austrian), I was quite familiar with European plants, particularly alpines, but was rather lost here at first. Since then I have made botanical excursions in many parts of the Andes from Mendoza to beyond Esquel.

As I can only take my holidays during February and early March, it is bad for seeing the violas in flower, although better for the AGS seed collections (you will probably have noticed my contributions in the annual seed lists)! [More than that, his name and achievements were already very familiar to us, not least due to our own involvement with the South American flora. His final paragraph went on to describe future hopes and plans for advancing his involvement with the Andean flora of Argentina.]

With best wishes and looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely, (Dr) Rolf Fiedler.

‘

With the letter he enclosed four slides of Viola fluehmannii as well as one of Chaetanthera villosa, another of the choicest southern Andean alpines.

Sadly, and with continuing deep regret, I failed to reply to this gracious and detailed letter. A serious setback had recently hit me hard, which was indirectly affecting my family as 116

well. Consequently, at the time I was confronting my own demons, struggling to cope with negative effects and barely managing with great difficulty to continue churning out the Andean series I was committed to for the AGS Bulletin.

General correspondence suffered collaterally. So to some extent these words represent an atonement for that hurtful but unintentional neglect; a better-late-than-never reply, as it were.

At least I can not only provide the answer to Rolf Fiedler’s main inquiry, but am able to update it with interest.

Yes, his discovery was indeed Viola fluehmannii. In fact until very recently his was the first record of that species for Argentina, and was entered as such in Flora Patagonica Part 5 (1988).

As a relevant aside, our late colleague and friend, the Argentinian botanist Ricardo Rossow, who in fact studied and entered the genus Viola in Flora Patagonica, related to us that on encountering one of Fiedler’s specimens he was unable to find anything remotely like it in the botanical literature or herbarium cabinets of Argentina. He was fully convinced he had hit upon a new species. In fact he was on the very point of describing and publishing it when, by chance, he turned up the original Chilean botanical paper containing V. fluehmannii and realised it was one and the same. Almost the entire range of V. fluehmannii is located in southern Chile, where it has been recognised and familiar since being made known to science in 1892.

Fiedler wrote that his specimen was sent to the Swedish botanist and Andean Viola specialist of the time, Benkt THE ALPINE GARDENER

PETER ERSKINE

ROLF FIEDLER

Chaetanthera villosa, one of the choicest southern Andean alpines

Sparre (later the author of the standard monograph on Tropaeolum), who identified it as Viola escondidaensis.

Fiedler added that on reading the original description of the latter, he was extremely sceptical of Sparre’s determination (and rightly so!). His scepticism has never been shared by other professional academic botanists far more experienced than himself, who ought to have known better. For one, Ricardo Rossow also admitted to us that his failure to enter V. escondidaensis in Flora Patagonica was due to a combination of being given far too little time to research the genus and his believing its description MARCH 2015

to be so unlikely that he felt it might be erroneous. (Impossible! It was written by Wilhelm Becker, the greatest authority yet on these violas.) This led him to the conclusion it would be safer to omit the species.

This decision had lasting negative knock-on effects in standard flora lists for Argentina by the country’s own botanists. Until very recently corrected by ourselves, the absolutely distinctive V. escondidaensis was listed as a synonym of V. fluehmannii, with the latter even portrayed exclusively by photos of the former. Until coming upon and re-reading Rolf Fiedler’s letter, we had no idea that this gross mistake 117

ROLF FIEDLER PETER ERSKINE

Viola fluehmannii, which grows on volcanic soils among low vegetation

may perhaps have originated from that misidentification in Sweden by Sparre.

As a further stroke of irony, five years later (1993) Ricardo himself happened to chance upon actual V. escondidaensis growing in the wild. We have a duplicate specimen in our herbarium collection that he generously gave us. He would certainly have written it up for publication in an Argentinian botanical journal had he not died shortly afterwards.

The AGS can feel pleased and proud that its own very recent guide, Flowers of the Patagonian Mountains by Martin Sheader and five others (only one an 118

academic botanist) has V. fluehmannii and V. escondidaensis accurately defined and illustrated when the relevant trained academics of the country where both these violas occur are still groping around in the dark!

How the opinion on ‘cold’ science versus aesthetics that Rolf Fiedler solicited would have been answered by me at the time, I’m not really sure now. Maybe not too differently from my present perspective, even though that’s more detailed and sophisticated as a result of considerable study and experience.

In essence I consider science to be THE ALPINE GARDENER

MARTIN SHEADER

ROLF FIEDLER

Viola escondidaensis as seen in the AGS’s Flowers of the Patagonian Mountains

lessened without aesthetics and vice versa. Put the two together (intellect plus sensory reaction) and the result becomes more than their sum.

Besides, appreciation of natural beauty inevitably has its roots in science, which tells us every feature evolved through interaction with surroundings and other organisms over time; that it usually has, or has had, a specific purpose, and may be a positive or negative influence on future survival and adaptation.

Such awareness can greatly deepen and heighten our pleasure and sense of wonder. Science should learn from aesthetics by asking questions about MARCH 2015

such purposes – for example, the functional whys and wherefores of colours, scents, forms and textures that we ourselves may subjectively find attractive, repellent or uninteresting.

Science in turn can also teach us the most valuable lesson of all – that in nature nothing at all is truly uninteresting.

We simply lack the time, capacity and insight as individuals to discover at best more than a minute fraction of what is on offer, and as a rule that tends to be the most immediately appealing.  Note: some authorities now include Ipheion within Tristagma.

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ISSN 1475-0449