The Alpine Gardener June 2012 by gregloadesags

328 THE ALPINE GARDENER

Alpine Gardener the

JOURNAL OF THE ALPINE GARDEN SOCIETY

VOL. 80 No. 2 JUNE 2012 pp. 117-232

ISSN 1475-0449

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

Volume 80 No. 2

June 2012

Alpine Gardener THE

CONTENTS

119 EDITOR’S LETTER 121 ALPINE DIARY

121

AGS funding for a National Collection of saxifrages; readers’ letters; book reviews; Lyttel Trophy citation; name changes in Primula.

ROBERT ROLFE 162 140 Close encounters with garden

visitors and choice plants from Australasia.

162 MECONOPSIS

Evelyn Stevens reports on work to classify the big blue Himalayan poppies.

180 EXPLORATION

Robert Rolfe on a seemingly undescribed Nototriche, discovered during a recent trip to Peru.

212

184 PICTURE PERFECT Results of the 2011 AGS Photographic Competition.

202 PLANT PROFILES

Liz Knowles finds Omphalogramma viola-grandis in western China, and a revision of Crocus speciosus in Turkey and Iran by Jānis Rukšāns.

June 2012 Volume 80 No 2

PRACTICAL GARDENING

148 GROWING IN TROUGHS

Jo Walker enthuses about her collection of troughs and tries an ericaceous experiment.

157 BUILDING A

148 184

RAISED CREVICE BED Paula Mitchell swaps vegetables for alpines.

212 SHOW REPORTS

Last year’s Autumn South and Newcastle shows and this year’s South Wales, Early Spring and Loughborough gatherings. Plus the New Zealand AGS Spring Show. COVER PHOTOGRAPHS

Front: Nototriche sp. in Peru (Robert Rolfe; see page 180) Back: Cyclamen graecum subsp. anatolicum exhibited by Ian Robertson at Autumn South Show (Jon Evans; see page 212) ON THESE PAGES Left: Saxifraga x anglica ‘Amberine’; Meconopsis ‘Mrs Jebb’; Myosotis albosericea at Autumn South Show Right: Jo Walker’s ericaceous troughs; Cypripedium lichiangense; Crocus speciosus subsp. archibaldii

206

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) £28* Family (two people at same address) £32* Junior (under 18/student) £10 Overseas single US$54 £30 Overseas family US$60 £33 * £2 deduction for direct debit subscribers For details of life membership and joint life membership apply to the Alpine Garden Society at the address above. Printed by Butler Tanner & Dennis, Caxton Road, Frome, Somerset BA11 1NE Price to non-members £6.00 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.

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 Advertisement Manager: Julie Slimm Tel: +44(0)1788 574680 Email: adverts@agsgroups.org 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

Saxifraga ‘Laka’ at the Prague Rock Garden Club Spring Show

s members of the Alpine Garden Society, we can be proud of many of our activities, including the 23 competitive shows being staged this year, our international Seed Exchange, the online Encyclopaedia of Alpines and our presence at events such as the RHS Chelsea, Tatton Park and Malvern shows. But from time to time every organisation, no matter how successful, must look itself in the mirror to assess its direction of travel and draw up a plan for the future. That is why the Trustees of the AGS JUNE 2012

Join us in a moment of reflection Editor ’s letter have decided to conduct a strategic review of all the Society’s activities. They will examine every aspect of 119

EDITORIAL the AGS’s operations with a view to improving and streamlining activities, getting the best value for money, making the Society as accessible as possible and increasing the membership. The first stage of this strategic review is to gather the views of every member. Inside the Alpine News that accompanies this issue of the journal, you will find a pull-out questionnaire. Please take a few moments to complete it and return it to AGS Centre. Alternatively, log on to the website to complete it there. Joint members may each fill in a copy of the questionnaire. You will be asked for your membership number purely to avoid duplicate submissions. This is your chance to help shape the future of the AGS. Your views are important, so please let them be heard.

GS members who attended the International Rock Garden Conference last year in Nottingham relished the event for its excellent speakers and for the chance to ‘talk plants’ with so many knowledgeable delegates. Now the Czech Rock Garden Society is offering alpine enthusiasts another opportunity to enjoy four days of unbridled indulgence. The Second Czech International Rock Garden Conference will be held from May 2-5 next year in Tábor. The Czechs have contributed much to the world of alpines over the years, particularly with their breeding of saxifrages and the development of crevice garden techniques. Following the lectures and workshops, 120

delegates will be able to enjoy a five-day tour taking in 20 of the finest alpine gardens in the Czech Republic. For details visit the Czech Rock Garden Society website at www.czrgs.cz.

egular readers of this journal may have noticed that an annual index for Volume 79 – the four 2010 issues – has not been printed. It has been decided by the AGS Publications Committee to discontinue printing a separate annual index and to concentrate instead on updating the consolidated index, which was last revised in 2005. This will be available on the AGS website or on a disc from AGS Centre at Pershore. Ultimately I would like to reach a situation where the consolidated index can be updated online with each issue of The Alpine Gardener. This work is being carried out by volunteers, so please bear with us while the inevitable technical hurdles are overcome.

he plants aside, one of the highlights of this year’s AGS Malvern Show was the spectacular display of embroidery staged by Jean Morris. She received a Large Gold Award for her exhibit of 170 works that had taken 12 years to complete. Jean’s exquisite stitching was widely admired by the tens of thousands of visitors to the show. If her work had been for sale, she could have cashed in many pieces several times over. I am minded to suggest a new accolade just for Jean: a Very Large Gold Award. John Fitzpatrick THE ALPINE GARDENER

ALPINE DIARY

Saxifraga burseriana ‘Mangart’ flowering at Waterperry Gardens

AGS helps fund new beds for saxifrage collection

wo large raised beds have been constructed with the help of funding from the Alpine Garden Society to hold what is expected to be a new National Collection of Ligulatae (silver) saxifrages. The beds are alongside the National Collection of Kabschia and Engleria saxifrages at Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire, which is managed by AGS member Adrian Young. The AGS JUNE 2012

donated £4,900 to buy Canadian tufa for the new beds, which was imported from British Columbia. Construction and compost costs were met by Plant Heritage (formerly the NCCPG), which oversees the setting up of national collections. Adrian first became involved with saxifrages at Waterperry in 1972. For many years the renowned plantswoman Valerie Finnis ran an alpine nursery there 121

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Adrian Young with part of the National Collection at Waterperry Gardens

and had already built up an extensive collection of saxifrages. ‘I was keen on the plants and Valerie was very helpful and encouraged me to progress with the collection,’ says Adrian. National Collection status was granted in 1980. The two new beds will complement existing raised beds at Waterperry, where about 700 of the 1,000 or so recognised species and cultivars of Kabschia and Engleria saxifrages are gathered. Adrian has collected many of the Ligulatae saxifrages for the new beds and hopes soon to be granted National Collection status for those. When Adrian took over management 122

of the Waterperry collection in 1978 it consisted of about 7,000 plants. Most of them were in small clay pots packed into wooden frames. ‘With three other volunteers, I managed to keep the stock going for a few years,’ he says. ‘We soon realised, however, that we had to find a better way of cultivating Kabschias. We were experiencing the usual problems such as cushion burn in the summer and a disfiguring condition that rotted the centre of the rosettes.’ Samples of the rot were sent to a government research laboratory where the problem was identified: Phytophthora. THE ALPINE GARDENER

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The two new raised beds with slatted shading held high above them

‘The scientists said it was caused by cultivation conditions and that we should look carefully at drainage and particularly the type of compost we were using,’ says Adrian. ‘We decided to study the conditions in which saxifrages grow in the wild, visiting sites in the French Alps, the Pyrenees, the Dolomites and Greece.’ These studies led to the following conclusions: wild saxifrages enjoy constant airflow; their growing medium is steep rock or scree; their roots penetrate deep into the rock where cool water and minerals are available; the natural light is very pure, even in shade. JUNE 2012

This contrasted with conditions in cultivation: plants are often grown in containers, severely restricting the roots; they are grown in an alien medium and on a flat surface; airflow is poor under glass; available water fluctuates constantly, even in a sand plunge; light is modified drastically by glass, which may cause etiolation. Adrian decided to abandon pot-based cultivation in favour of raised beds. But he insists: ‘We need dedicated pot growers like Karel Lang in the Czech Republic and David Hoare in Kent to continue showing award-winning saxifrages because raised beds are not 123

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Some of the the existing beds that contain the National Collection of Kabschia and Engleria saxifrages and, below, Saxifraga x edithae ‘Karel Stivin’

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Saxifraga ‘Allendale Ghost’ and the yellow S. ‘Allendale Enchanter’ at Waterperry

portable. It is critical that people are given the chance to see wonderful saxifrages at shows.’ In 2002, the Waterperry collection consisted of three frames with around 2,000 pots in each. Adrian recalls: ‘I decided to dump the frames and all the plants. It is not easy to throw away more than 5,000 saxifrages, but I was determined to start again and concentrate on raised beds with appropriate cover.’ The existing beds are filled with either a 50-50 mix of moss peat and ballast (sharp sand mixed with 20mm gravel) or with just the ballast. Half-buried in this is a substantial amount of tufa, which covers much of the surface area and creates a stable environment for the plants. They have thrived in both mixes. Pergola-like wooden structures over the beds support acrylic sheets to JUNE 2012

protect the plants from winter wet. In summer, the acrylic is replaced with wooden slats to provide shading. ‘The shading system is a throwback to Victorian times,’ admits Adrian. ‘The slats are 5cm wide with a 5cm gap between them. Previously we used Rokolene netting but found that, although it did provide shade, it also trapped heat. ‘The slats offer plants a much cooler environment while still providing adequate shade. The gaps between the slats allow heat to escape and the fact that they are six feet above the beds means there is plenty of airflow around the plants. ‘We included a lot of tufa in the beds because I had come to realise the importance of rock for saxifrages. My trips to the mountains had rammed home the fact that European Kabschia 125

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Saxifraga x irvingii ‘Walter Irving’, part of the Waterperry collection

saxifrages are strongly saxicole: they grow on and in rock. How had I ever thought that a pot containing John Innes No. 2 would offer a satisfactory substitute for a high-alpine cliff ? ‘There is no John Innes in the mountains. In fact the best saxifrages grow on pure rock with their fine roots deep in crevices. It surprised me to learn that the roots can penetrate up to two metres and pull the plants tight against the rock surface, anchoring them firmly 126

in the face of constant winds.’ Adrian adds that the cliffs chosen by Kabschias contain plenty of minerals and trace elements, which can be assimilated by microscopic hairs on the root tips. The good quality light also means that the plants can produce plenty of food through photosynthesis. ‘Since we started using raised beds without loam-based compost,’ says Adrian, ‘the Phytophthora problem has disappeared. We have also seen THE ALPINE GARDENER

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The strikingly coloured flowers of Saxifraga x anglica ‘Amberine’

benefits in root development and water management. ‘Other alpines, too, are flourishing in our beds, including Androsace studiosorum, Primula marginata and many Phlox and Dianthus species. ‘The message is clear: if you want to grow good, long-lived Kabschia plants, get them out of pots and into raised beds.’ Adrian is assisted in maintaining the collection by several volunteers JUNE 2012

including Mike Hall, a former treasurer of the AGS. ‘I’d also like to thank Tim Roberts, Tony Hale, Jan Bürgel and Jirka Novak for all their help,’ adds Adrian. John Fitzpatrick  For information on opening times visit www.waterperrygardens. co.uk or call 01844 339254. Adrian Young can be contacted by email at saxifraga100@gmail.com. 127

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From Steve Lewis-Dale, The Mead Nursery, Brokerswood, Wiltshire.

fter reading the fascinating article about John Innes composts in the March issue of The Alpine Gardener, I felt I had to put pen to paper. My wife and I run a nursery specialising in hardy outdoor alpines and herbaceous plants. We are open to the public and have a garden in which customers can see our plants in situ. We have been growing our plants in peatfree compost ever since we started the nursery 20 years ago. The recipe was given to us by the late Geoff Hamilton, who presented BBC’s Gardeners’ World, and we have adapted it according to our needs. For alpines we now use a mix of 50 per cent coir, 25 per cent Cornish grit, 20 per cent sterilised loam from F.A. Smith near Wells, Somerset, and 5 per cent composted bark. Then we add Osmocote Exact Standard 12-14 months slow-release fertiliser in varying amounts depending on the plants chosen. We also add extra grit for plants that require very sharp drainage. These mixes have been very successful for us. Unfortunately we do not supply plants by mail order or take plants to shows. If AGS members would like any references regarding the quality of our plants, then ask Graham Nicholls, Paul Ranson, Ian Robertson or Dot and John Sample of Parham Bungalow Plants. They are all exhibitors at AGS national shows and belong to the Wiltshire Local Group. 128

Alpines can be grown in peat-free compost Letters I hope we have helped to prove that hardy outdoor alpines can be grown in peat-free composts very successfully. From Tim Ingram, Faversham, Kent.

he article about John Innes composts in the March issue of The Alpine Gardener relives discussions I have had with many AGS members. In the past, in Kent, we were able to get excellent quality John Innes in bulk from a local supplier. This is no longer available, presumably because the use of soil-based composts by gardeners has declined so much. Sourcing good John Innes is now much more difficult. As a nurseryman I always felt it was THE ALPINE GARDENER

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From Stephen Scarr, Exeter, Devon.

wonder if readers would be interested in seeing a photograph of one of my delights of spring. This is my Dionysia ‘Judith Bramley’ with an attendant insect (on the lowest flower), which appeared to have been eating pollen or nectar. The plant started as a cutting taken

important to use composts containing a good proportion of loam because this was what the plants were eventually going to be planted in. But the drawbacks are its weight and often a less than pristine ‘point-of-sale look’ for purchasers. But it is how you look after a plant that is most important, not necessarily how perfect it looks when you buy it. How many, like me, JUNE 2012

on May 17, 2011, and was planted out in my Dionysia sand bed on July 15 last year. The bed was covered with a sheet of corrugated plastic on four bricks at the end of July and uncovered on January 31 this year. Flowering started on February 2 when the plant was subject to direct frost and heavy rain. The flowers are most attractive and encouraging so early in the season. have scoured quite scruffy old nurseries on the lookout for unusual and special plants that just need a caring home? Nowadays peat-based composts and slow-release fertilisers mean that plants can be grown to a uniform and very high standard, which makes them commercially viable. This is hardly likely to change. I have another interest in this in that 129

ALPINE DIARY I worked at the John Innes Institute in the late 1970s, where much of the plant material used in research (in my case peas) was grown in John Innes compost made on site. The aroma of sterilising compost is something never forgotten – and the plants grew beautifully. The huge value of John Innes to alpine growers is brought out in Vic Aspland’s article – it is a long-term growing medium, far more forgiving of neglect than organic materials such as peat or bark or coir, and much closer to what most plants grow in naturally, even many alpines. On the other hand, the successes that many growers have with other composts bear out Vic’s comment (implied) that the secret ingredient is the grower and not the compost. Loam is still added in small proportions to some peat-based commercial composts. At Great Dixter, Christopher Lloyd made his own John Innes, and Ashwood Nurseries in the West Midlands also make their own. For the average nurseryman, though, this is not really viable. Peat seems to have become almost a moral issue, with no notice taken of the detail. John Kelly wrote intelligently about it in 1997 in the AGS Bulletin (vol. 65, page 215), arguing that horticultural use was responsible for a small proportion of peat extraction overall. I suppose you have to judge whether the benefits that accrue to people through gardening are more valuable than the dis-benefits that may occur to the environment. There must be many activities in which we engage that cause considerably greater damage. It would seem wise to take the line 130

of the Swedish plantsman Peter Korn and use such valuable material where it can be seen to be renewable and not cause damage to particularly sensitive environments. However, the fact that large organisations such as the RHS and the National Trust take such a strong stance on this probably means that peat users will always be in a disreputable minority. From Vic Aspland, Stourbridge, West Midlands.

was interested to see the photograph of Primula ‘Wanda’ in Robert Rolfe’s article on Brinkfields in the March issue of The Alpine Gardener. Members may care to note that, in the past five years, Dutch growers have been marketing in the UK a swarm of hybrids which they have labelled Primula ‘Wanda’. These are quite different animals. The flower colour can be anything from vibrant yellow to deep red, and they include plants with a pink-salmon-yellow flower, which is quite revolting. I have tried one or two, out of curiosity, but they have proved to be quite short-lived. Just what some growers like for repeat sales!  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 page 2) or email editor@agsgroups.org. THE ALPINE GARDENER

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A practical guide to intriguing plants BOOK REVIEWS Growing Hardy Orchids by Philip Seaton, Phillip Cribb, Margaret Ramsey and John Haggar, published by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, £12.50. ISBN 9781842461754

his concise but nevertheless detailed and thoroughly practical guide to the cultivation of hardy orchids, written by four well-known experts in various aspects of this fascinating hobby, is long overdue. The increased availability of these beautiful and intriguing plants has led to a dramatic fall in the prices asked for them by commercial growers. As a result of improved understanding of their needs in cultivation and, more especially, the requirements for their successful propagation from seed, interest among gardeners has increased. Even 20 years ago it was unusual and noteworthy to see a well-established clump of all but the few relatively easy Dactylorhiza species of terrestrial orchids in a garden. Now groups of thriving cypripediums are quite often seen as well, and thankfully these clumps originate mostly from plants raised in cultivation rather than having been removed from JUNE 2012

the wild, as was often the case in the past. The early chapters deal with general matters such as why one might wish to grow hardy orchids, the characteristics of the orchid family, habitats, ecology and conservation issues, all of which information is available elsewhere but has been summarised effectively here. The meat of the book is in the chapters describing composts, glasshouse techniques, cultivation in the garden, pests and diseases, and two final chapters, one describing in detail the raising of the four most commonly grown hardy orchid genera (Dactylorhiza, Ophrys, Cypripedium and Pleione) from seed to flowering, the other a less detailed account of the cultivation of a wider range of orchid genera including rare hardy species. Somewhat confusingly the four 131

ALPINE DIARY genera covered in the penultimate chapter are also covered in the last, resulting in unnecessary duplication of information. This criticism apart, the information given is excellent and the accompanying illustrations are technically first class, my only complaint being that there could have been more photographs of plants growing in gardens and less of seedlings in flasks. While the latter are useful and important for readers who might intend to grow their own plants from seed, for most of us this is unlikely to be the case. For the majority of gardeners purchasing plants from a nurseryman, quite possibly on impulse at an AGS show, the key question is likely to be: ‘How do I grow it in my garden?’ The book finishes with a useful, wellwritten glossary and a carefully selected bibliography, which will be helpful for those wishing to know more. There is also a list of websites that will enhance the value of the book to those who use the internet to obtain much of their gardening information. If this book stimulates interest not only in growing these charismatic plants but in supporting their conservation in the wild – for many are among the world’s most endangered species – it will have achieved two laudable objectives. John Good  Growing Hardy Orchids is available at an AGS members’ discounted price of £10. To order please call 01386 554790 or visit the AGS bookshop at www. alpinegardensociety.net 132

Ponerorchis graminifolia, which will survive the winter in a frost-free greenhouse, is featured in Growing Hardy Orchids THE ALPINE GARDENER

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Alpines: An Essential Guide by Michael Mitchell, published by The Crowood Press, £19.95. ISBN 9781847972958

ichael Mitchell, the author of this book, will be known to many members of the Alpine Garden Society as the proprietor of Slack Top Alpine Nursery, which is perched 282m (925ft) above sea level on a north-facing slope near Hebden Bridge in the Yorkshire Pennines. After studying horticulture at college, Michael started the nursery in 1986 at the age of just 21. He was, at that time, an all too rare being: a young person with an enthusiasm for alpines who is prepared to make a significant contribution to promoting a wider interest in them. In the intervening years he has amassed a great deal of experience in propagating and cultivating the alpine and woodland plants in which he specialises. The aim of this book is to pass on that experience and to convince gardeners that these plants are not difficult to grow. It must be said that this isn’t a book for the experienced grower of alpines, but that is not a criticism. Indeed the fact that it could be described as a ‘beginner’s guide’ makes it very welcome. The AGS relies on people with a newfound interest in alpines to provide a supply of new members, and any volume that makes this hobby appealing and accessible will inevitably play a part in this process. Experienced growers

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Hands-on advice from the nursery

of alpines can easily forget that at one point in the past, they too knew nothing about these wonderful plants. The book can be divided into two sections. In the first, an opening chapter offers a basic introduction to alpines. It is followed by two chapters on the different ways in which they can be grown, split into traditional and contemporary settings. There are also chapters on planting and maintenance, 133

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Michael Mitchell and his wife Allison at Slack Top Alpine Nursery

propagation, and pests and diseases. All of these are clearly written, well presented and packed with sound practical advice. The second part of the book is dedicated to an A-Z guide covering around 180 species and varieties. While the cultivation advice is excellent, this section is let down by the quality of the photographs, many of which are too small to give any impression of a plant’s habit or character or to assist in identification. Others are too dark and some are blurred. The book ends with a table of flowering times for each plant, which takes up ten 134

pages but could so easily have been dealt with in three or four, freeing space to improve the photographic content in the plant guide. It would be worthwhile addressing this if the book goes into a second edition. Having said that, I would recommend this book to anyone who is in the process of learning how to grow alpines. John Fitzpatrick  Alpines: An Essential Guide is available at an AGS members’ discounted price of £14.99. To order please call 01386 554790 or visit the AGS bookshop at www.alpinegardensociety.net THE ALPINE GARDENER

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An astute academic and a first-rate gardener

n ecologist, by definition, is interested in habitats and the complex inter-relationships of species within them. John Good, a notably active and influential (albeit officially retired) professor of this calling, is himself a fascinating case study, who at different times of the year can be observed in an unusually wide range of habitats. In the winter you might encounter him on a cruise liner (he sports a healthy tan for much of the year). Alternatively, he could be standing on a podium, for he is a popular lecturer whose varied talks include one on dwarf shrubs, the subject of a book in progress. In spring, he frequents alpine plant shows, where his tall, smartly attired frame and resonant voice, but especially his frequent, hearty outbursts of laughter, make identification straightforward. Or you might sit with him on a committee, where he is skilled at gently yet authoritatively dealing with any outbreaks of pseudo-science. As the days lengthen, expect to see him at a cricket ground, particularly if a test match is in progress. Game fishing, another hobby, comes to the fore around this time. And from spring to autumn he might well head for the mountains, anywhere from Bulgaria to Greece (a much-favoured destination), JUNE 2012

LYTTEL TROPHY WINNER 2011 The Lyttel Trophy is the Alpine Garden Society’s highest honour, awarded annually to someone who has made an outstanding contribution to the world of alpines. Here, Robert Rolfe profiles the 2011 winner, Professor John Good the European Alps, the Pyrenees or North America. But if you wanted to track him down reliably, you would journey to the part of coastal North Wales that he fondly refers to as the ‘Costa Geriatrica’, where he spends much time working in his garden at Penmaenmawr. An inspired and skilful horticulturist, as a child he got off to a flying start because his family were friendly with the renowned Elliotts, both Clarence and Joe, who lived nearby. Their influence clearly rubbed off, since John studied for a degree in botany at the University of Aberystwyth, and then a PhD in plant physiology, and has gardened enthusiastically and continuously ever 135

ALPINE DIARY since. The past 23 years have been spent developing his garden at Bod Hyfryd (which translates as ‘beautiful place’). It featured in an early episode of the 1990s television programme The Flying Gardener, which saw the presenter criss-crossing the area by helicopter, swooping down to inspect horticultural hotspots. As those who have had the pleasure of walking round John’s garden will know, listening to its owner describing the plants’ histories in detail and sharing any number of anecdotes, this could not be condensed into 30 minutes, nor could some of the more interesting anecdotes be broadcast! His early scientific training instilled a willingness to experiment and learn from detailed observation. He has described himself as someone ‘who attempts to apply ecological understanding to improve cultivation techniques’. If this all sounds rather high-flown, nothing could be further from the truth, for he knows a great deal not just about what makes plants tick but also how to engage those who grow or study them. Accordingly he has a knack of amassing not just first-rate plants but also associating with first-rate gardeners. The insights gained from them have been melded with what he has gleaned from innumerable research papers, read as part of his work over five decades. This synthesis has inspired many articles, both in a professional capacity and for gardening journals such as this, of which he was at one time Assistant Editor during the reign of Roy Elliott. One of his earliest contributions, spread over six issues during 1974-75, took the title Rock garden plants from seeds. 136

Typically, it was meticulously and widely researched. Some 30 people are listed in the credits, including correspondents from New Zealand and North America, who these days could be emailed in seconds, whereas then letters took weeks to arrive. The end result was clearly structured and intelligible, not mired in academic gobbledegook. All forms of plant propagation interest him, so it is no surprise that when editing the Alpine Garden Society’s revised Handbook of Rock Gardening (1988), he contributed the chapter on this subject. Last year we published a version of his International Conference lecture, Alpines in a changing world. Members of long-standing will recall that 20 years earlier, at the 1991 Warwick Conference, he lectured on A century of alpine ecology, beginning his written version with the telling quote: ‘In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.’ The culmination of this interest to date has been Alpine Plants, Ecology for Gardeners, a book that he wrote with his geologist friend David Millward, published in 2007. For gardeners who want to learn how plants grow in their native habitats, this attractively illustrated work (both authors are accomplished photographers) brings together a lifetime’s knowledge in cohesive, comfortable prose. Mention of the Warwick Conference provides the opportunity to mention that John entered the five-day show and scooped the Farrer and Forrest Medals with his ten-year-old Rhodothamnus chamaecistus, obtained THE ALPINE GARDENER

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Professor John Good, winner of the Lyttel Trophy in 2011

from the Lancashire nursery of another friend, ‘Reggie’ Kaye. He doesn’t exhibit nowadays: ‘No time and little inclination,’ he has crisply written by way of explanation. However, he enjoys judging and assessing plants (he is an AGS representative on the Joint Rock Garden Plant Committee). The beds at Bod Hyfryd were very carefully thought-out, making provision for favourite plants such as Liliaceae in general (Nomocharis holds greatest appeal), rhododendrons, arisaemas (a latter-day enthusiasm) and woodlanders. Artificial hybrids are less evident, though if they are of sufficiently high JUNE 2012

standard – Saxifraga ‘Tumbling Waters’, for example – they are welcomed. A crevice bed has enabled him to grow daphnes and others to a high standard. The phrase ‘his pen was mightier than his spade’ has been used to put in their place writers who overestimate their gardening abilities. John Good, by dint of boundless energy, experience, discriminating taste and wide-ranging research, demonstrates that it is perfectly possible to garden well, write every bit as well and still have time to make frequent trips abroad. This doesn’t happen very often: it’s as well to cheer whole-heartedly when it does. 137

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Four name changes in Primula John Richards, with assistance from fellow Primula specialist Pam Eveleigh, gives details of amendments to nomenclature

othing riles a gardener more than botanical name changes, particularly when, as here, they are made for nomenclatural (for which read ‘legalistic’) rather than taxonomic reasons. As an evolutionary botanist I have considerable sympathy with this point of view. Nevertheless, rules are rules. Pam Eveleigh has undertaken assiduous literature searches through previously inaccessible sources, many of which have become available online only recently. These have solved two difficult nomenclatural questions that were unresolved in my monograph, Primula (2002), and have caused four familiar names to be changed. First, Primula involucrata Wallich (1832). This is one of the names listed in a catalogue, without a description. However, these names are not readily dismissed as most refer to a clearly 138

Primula involucrata is now P. munroi

defined specimen that can be used as a type. That said, without a description they are now definitely regarded as invalid in the Kew Index, so the next validly published name, P. munroi Lindley should be used instead (as it frequently is already). As P. involucrata Wallich is now regarded as a nomen nudum, this frees up the previously invalid P. involucrata Sweet (1839). This is also a catalogue name, but it refers to a figure and description of a plant purporting to be P. verticillata in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, but which came from Egypt via the botanic garden at Berlin, and was not P. verticillata Forskahl from Saudi Arabia and the Yemen. This publication clearly refers to what has been known as P. THE ALPINE GARDENER

ALPINE DIARY

Primula florida, pictured at Da Xue Shan, China, becomes P. blinii

boveana Decesn. (1844) from Sinai, and validates the earlier name P. involucrata Sweet, which is how P. boveana should now be known. The second question concerns the valid name for what we have been calling Primula florida Balf.f. & Forrest. This was published in 1915, the same year as the Frenchman Léveillé described P. blinii, which refers to the same plant. Not actually knowing which of these names was prior, I confess to a rather chauvinistic (although frank) approach when I ‘randomly’ chose the Scottish publication. It now seems that while P. florida was published in April of that year (which I knew), P. blinii was published in January/March and so becomes the correct name. JUNE 2012

Finally, we come to P. euprepres (Smith) Richards, the black-flowered plant from the Zheduo Pass which I raised to specific rank and illustrated in The Plantsman (7: 125-6; 2008). It has come to light that the same species had already been published as P. melanantha (Franchet) C.M. Huin 1994, based on P. nivalis var. melanantha Franchet, an epithet which all the previous monographers of the genus, including me, had overlooked.  Links to the supporting documents

for these name changes can be found on Primula World (www.primulaworld. com) under the relevant species in the photo gallery. 139

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f you have ever had visitors round your garden, then you have surely, just occasionally, had good cause to wish them gone. They stayed too long, or else hurtled round in 30 minutes flat and then were off. They stepped and trampled where they shouldn’t in order to take photographs. Or perhaps they relentlessly asked for ‘spare’ plants (and if you had none, demanded to be put on a waiting list). One such person was unofficially dubbed England’s most accomplished plant-collector, even though he had never once ventured abroad. Or they might have lapsed into one of the categories defined by E.B. Anderson – The Grunter (who fails to say nice things about the star turns in your garden, merely grunting in brief acknowledgment), The Gusher (the opposite problem: every single plant is praised, be it good, bad or indifferent) and The Lepper (the horticultural equivalent of the man who blurts out the punchline of a joke being told by a friend, barging on ahead rather than waiting to be shown a particular set-piece). But what about the foibles of the host? I knew of one greenhouse so dilapidated that only two visitors were allowed within at any time, so that if the structure caved in suddenly, the casualty count wouldn’t run into double figures. And I well remember a generous gardener who offered me as many clay pots as I wanted, wandering off to get on with some weeding while I surveyed a structure sheltering thousands of these. Stacked in the approved manner on their sides, quite a few had broken. 140

These New Zealand plants are the visitors I treasure ROBERT ROLFE Searching for undamaged ones, I came upon half a dozen vodka bottles (all empty), an unopened packet of fig roll biscuits, and a silver hip flask. ‘Wondered where it had got to,’ the owner mused before offering me that as well. In general, in Britain, tea is the refreshment offered. I normally decline, my aversion perhaps dating back to an occasion when the dread words ‘But I insist’ meant that it was necessary to feign sipping from a stewed cupful while the elderly teapot-wielder burst into a truly terrible rendition of Danny Boy. This came to an end (regrettably after a beginning and a middle) and, as we dived for the door, he added ‘If only THE ALPINE GARDENER

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Visitors enjoy the garden of alpine nurseryman Joe Elliott in 1989

these were the worst days of our lives.’ At the time it seemed to me that, as days go, it rated very badly. Yet it could indeed have been worse. A friend visiting another garden around the same time was met by the owner’s notoriously eccentric wife, po-faced and twirling a parasol, with the greeting: ‘I’m Marie Antoinette, how do you do?’ On a tranquil day in late summer, while walking round with an ostensibly mild-mannered owner, I was suddenly grabbed by the arm and given the hissed command: ‘Stand still.’ Stealthily, he bent down, found a stone almost the size of a house brick and hurled it in the direction of a cat that was sauntering across a border some 20 feet distant. JUNE 2012

Fortunately it missed. Unfortunately, it crashed into a prized Daphne retusa. This triggered the most venomous, inventive flow of expletives I’ve ever heard. The cat made good its escape. The rock was retrieved, together with several Daphne boughs. ‘I’ll get at least 30 cuttings from these,’ he muttered, adding: ‘I hate cats,’ before resuming our conversation as if nothing had happened. Rounding off these tales of the unexpected, another time I went on a coach party outing to a part-time nursery. Walking brimful with anticipation down the drive I was surprised to be ambushed by the owner, who then almost frog-marched me to an old greenhouse which had in it just a table, 141

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Notothlapsi australe, a gift that didn’t last long with an irascible garden owner

a cash register and a disorderly pile of cardboard boxes. ‘I’ve to keep a close eye on these visitors,’ he barked, before providing rudimentary instruction in taking their money, packing (hence the boxes) and cashing up at close of play. I saw next to nothing of the garden and very much regretted having brought along a treasured plant as a gift, the more so when I saw the self-same man a few weeks later and was told: ‘That plant you gave me was on its way out from the very moment you left.’ The plant in question was Notothlaspi australe, a dwarfer, cushion-forming relative of the better-known penwiper plant (N. rosulatum) recorded at up to 20cm across in some references, though 142

after five years mine was easily rather more, until I went on a week’s holiday one very hot June. I arrived home to find it among the casualties, along with every one of the cuttings, and seedlings from a different gathering that were notable for their greyish, hoary foliage, quite unlike the glabrous, deep green of the (typical) original raising. Among the other casualties was another scree-dwelling New Zealander from Nelson and Marlborough (but extending further south to Canterbury), Lignocarpa carnosula, once included in Anisotome, or else Aciphylla. John Salmon, the author of the 1968 Field Guide to the Alpine Plants of New Zealand, christened it the ‘grey-leaved pygmy speargrass’ THE ALPINE GARDENER

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The ‘aristocratic’ scree-dweller Lignocarpa carnosula

and wrote of ‘almost succulent plants up to 15cm tall, found among loose stones on screes of the Torlesse Range from 1,200m to about 1,600m. The tiny flowers, 3-4mm across, occur from November to February’. Jim Archibald, whose photograph of it appears here, listed it in August 2000 from a collection made at 1,600m (5,250ft) on Mount Southey on the greywacke screes that harbour many of that country’s choicest alpines. He described it as in effect ‘floating from a deep taproot on loose talus sliding down from steep slopes’, adding that it forms ‘a mounded filigree’ and is surely ‘the most aristocratic of all parsleys and possibly the most difficult to grow, JUNE 2012

though we have seen superb cultivated plants’. Who grows it now? One hears time and again that the present dearth of New Zealand high alpines cultivated in the United Kingdom is attributable to a recent run of unusually warm and dry summers. Assuredly plants that experience around 100cm of rainfall but up to 200 days of fog-cover even in drier areas such as the Torlesse Range in mid-Canterbury and the Black Birch Range in Marlborough, never mind the 700cm (no, it’s not a misprint) or more averaged further south in Fiordland, will not take kindly to low rainfall and high summer temperatures unless kept well-watered and fan-cooled. Yet they 143

ALPINE DIARY survived in large numbers after the torrid 1976 summer. At Hornchurch in Essex – hardly the ideal location for a nursery specialising in New Zealand alpines – Graham Hutchins grew an astoundingly varied collection of them. In the late 1970s and 1980s especially, on the outskirts of London, County Park Nursery, which Graham ran with his wife Margaret, greatly fostered British interest in a multitude of Antipodean dwarf hardy plants (Australian and Tasmanian novelties also featured strongly). In my lifetime, no other British nursery has rivalled its diverse representation of these, greatly enriched by the proprietor’s trips to their homelands. The first took place in 1977, the same year that his stand of New Zealand plants at Chelsea Flower Show was awarded a Gold Medal. Several times thereafter his efforts received the Farrer Trophy for the finest exhibition of rock garden or alpine house plants staged at an RHS Show other than Chelsea during a given year. It wasn’t their artistry that made these displays memorable – the plants were mainly presented in square, black plastic pots, staged in their hundreds on one level, so close that they almost touched. It was the very high standard of cultivation that was impressive, and the opportunity to see – throughout the summer months especially, when other displays of alpine plants were often ‘thin’ – plants that no one else exhibited. An article could be written on his selections of the New Zealand brooms, Carmichaelia; his selections of Coprosma, identified as either male or female to enable purchasers to buy one of each 144

and achieve a satisfactory fruit-set; or perhaps the array of Raoulia (mainly the mat-formers rather than the hirsute hummocks) species and their intergeneric Leucogenes hybrids. Looking through Graham’s 1982 catalogue, one encounters all manner of plants you would have to search for more widely nowadays. These include several species of Chionohebe and of analogously cushion-forming Colobanthus; two forms of the creeping, elfin Lobelia linnaeoides; and a selection of the bead plant, Nertera balfouriana, hardier than the more widespread N. depressa and later given the clonal name ‘Lakeside’. It is illustrated, unfortunately only in black and white, in a 1983 AGS Bulletin (vol. 51, page 314), plastered in near-stemless drupes that were described as bright orange. Graham’s catalogue also included Viola lyallii. Later he offered, in a particularly dwarf form, the white Viola cunninghamii, a floriferous species found throughout New Zealand, often in damp places. I wonder if it’s still around? Delving into the back pages of an early gardening diary, I see that his August 1984 trade stand included, among other things, the ferny-leaved, glossy-leaved Ranunculus gracilipes and its distinguished, grey-leaved relative R. crithmifolius (this was from Mount Dobson but there have been sundry other introductions; it is surely the most successful of the New Zealand scree dwellers in cultivation). And there were several good cushions of Myosotis pulvinaris, one from seed sourced on Mount Moffat especially verdant, another identified as ‘clone THE ALPINE GARDENER

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A well-flowered specimen of Myosotis pulvinaris in cultivation

12’, implying that he was propagating from an array of at least 11 other stock plants. The handful of sale plants were soon snapped up, one of them by me, and it grew happily for five years or more, proving straightforward to increase from rooted portions carefully snipped from the edge of the steadily increasing mound. Yet although it flowered off and on during the summer, the stemless white forget-me-nots were small and short-lived. Never did it produce a flush of the calibre illustrated above. My best effort was with Myosotis explanata, a species known only from JUNE 2012

Arthur’s Pass and thereabouts, where it forms leafy clumps up to 30cm tall but more usually only half that height. Said to include a blue phase in its repertoire, all that I have seen, either in gardens or photographs taken in the wild, have been white, the flowers up to 16mm across, funnel-shaped rather than flat as in the former, and held in showy cymes. The foliage is often described as covered in soft hairs: bristly hairy would be much nearer the mark in the version I grew. This came from Stanton Alpine Nursery in Leicestershire, highly regarded throughout much of the 1970s. While its owner, John Kelly, 145

ALPINE DIARY recommended M. explanata for the alpine house, he grew his with only winter cover. For the rest of the year they lived in a slightly shaded stock bed, where they grew so well that I recall John cursing that their pot size made posting them to customers impractical, and that he was forever having to repot. Sometimes he didn’t bother and yanking them from the damp, ashy grit on which they stood brought up a sizeable clod of that material, with more root dangling below the pot than within. Puffing away on a cigar, he asked me to rake over the area before looking for any further items on my list. My purchases were put in a very gritty, humus-rich bed and never allowed to parch. For a few years they thrived. If some of the seed had been harvested, if the leaves that buried them each autumn had been cleared more diligently, their descendants might be with me still. At least one British nursery offers this plant today. Time to try again. John was repeatedly extremely kind – he imported plants from Correvon et Cie in Switzerland on my behalf; introduced me to other nurserymen; telephoned to advise on when, what and how exactly to repot; welcomed me (and fed me) with open arms on those all too few occasions when, still a teenager, I was taken to the nursery. But if the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, or someone annoyed him, it was best to run for cover, as can be divined from his addendum in later catalogues. Under the heading ‘Complaints (if any)’, he snarled: ‘There is a tiny band of sneering patronisers… Would-be swellers of their pathetic 146

ranks will be ignored. For ever.’ Just ask the man who drove over 100 miles to source the easternmost Himalayan/ Chinese Briggsia muscicola, seduced by a catalogue entry extolling ‘one of the rarest, most beautiful and most soughtafter plants we have ever offered’. Plenty of plants were available at the nursery but, in the catch-phrase of television’s Anne Robinson, he left with nothing. Stanton Alpine Nursery closed at the end of 1977. I recall the phenomenal 30cm pots of Primula reidii var. williamsii in the first greenhouse to your left as you drove down the tree-margined drive; the wide array of European primulas in the well-ordered rows of framebeds; the gravel-crunching excursion round the right-hand side of the large house to admire any number of firstrate plants in an ancillary alpine house and attendant frames: these are all but memories, though of the happiest sort. An old sales receipt shows that on one visit I chose the Moroccan Saxifraga pedemontana subsp. demnatensis, Phacelia sericea, Campanula raineri (‘distinguished by its ash-grey leaves with softly hairy margins … and [flowers] of a fabulous blue’, the catalogue promised), Primula forrestii (‘seldom offered and we are delighted to have a good stock as a result of receiving a generous amount of seed’) and Gentiana divisa. Try doing that now! The last of these John never officially listed but the advice he gave concerning another, easier New Zealander, G. saxosa, is pertinent: ‘The same cultural conditions apply as with Asiatic gentians, although this plant will stand a little lime … if the compost contains plenty of THE ALPINE GARDENER

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Gentiana divisa growing in association with Haastia pulvinaris

humus.’ Found at various altitudes up to 1,900m (5,960ft) on South Island, its exceptionally free-flowering proclivity makes it worth trying in cooler gardens. Typical habitats are given in Mark & Adams’ New Zealand Alpine Plants (1973) as ‘windswept, stony or cold sites in snow tussock-herbfield’. Earlier I made passing mention of the Black Birch Range, home to, among others, Haastia pulvinaris. This can act as a nurse plant, trapping gentian seed at its edge or even within its mounds. Given its very slow rate of growth, these stowaways aren’t overwhelmed and coexist very happily, sometimes in variety. JUNE 2012

This is a temporary association in the case of Gentiana divisa, which often dies after flowering. It is potentially a more permanent one in another example: a miniature clustering of Raoulia eximia and Phyllachne colensoi found in association with the Haastia in the Marlborough region, and air-freighted by a correspondent to Roy Elliott, with whom it lived happily for several years. I feel fairly sure that it was spirited away … by a guest who coveted the microcosmic bond between host plant and companions, but singularly abused the unspoken contract between garden visitor and host. 147

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A trough containing saxifrages and a lone Pulsatilla at RHS Garden Wisley

The ideas that have helped to fill 38 troughs 148

love my troughs. I love their neatness and the fact that they can accommodate my very own alpine habitats, albeit in miniature. From a practical point of view, I can sit on a stool with my scissors, tweezers and a very small trowel and do the odd bit of maintenance when required. In total I have 38 troughs, ten of which are being used for a new venture – but more about these later. There is a mixture of sinks and cardboard boxes covered in hypertufa, sand-blasted butlers’ sinks, stone troughs, bird baths, dark brown shallow Victorian sinks and modern resin troughs. If you have the 1988 AGS Handbook of Rock Gardening, edited by John Good, turn to pages 80 and 81 and you will see a photograph of saxifrages growing THE ALPINE GARDENER

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One of Jo’s saxifrage troughs, where the plants are thriving in tufa

Jo Walker, an enthusiastic grower of alpines in troughs and sinks, shares her techniques and reports on an ericaceous experiment in tufa. This was taken beside the living room window of my previous house in Warwick. Due to building work, however, the bed had to be removed. The tufa, with the plants still in situ, was deployed into three troughs. I still have them and they are a great joy every February and March when the saxifrages flower magnificently. Saxifraga x apiculata, S. x boydii ‘Sulphurea’, S. ‘Gina Lollobrigida’ and S. ‘Louis Armstrong’ take centre stage, while S. ‘Karel Čapek’ JUNE 2012

has staked its claim to one corner of a trough and S. diapensioides clings to a vertical surface of one chunk of tufa. S. flagellaris romps all over one side of a trough, landing the tips of its runners in all the wrong places, but who cares? The pieces of tufa were, in truth, a bit large for the troughs that we had available at the time, but that didn’t stop us. A scattering of terracotta pot fragments was put over the drainage holes, the tufa was dropped in, the remaining space was filled with gritty compost and top-dressed with grit. They have been like that ever since. Except for my latest experiment, all my troughs are filled with the same compost mixture, namely John Innes No. 2 combined with a goodly amount of flint grit or alpine grit from a garden 149

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Jo’s trough yard in January 2011, when she feared for the plants’ survival

centre, so that if you squeeze a fistful and open your hand, the mixture falls apart. I add a small amount of Vitax Q4, the equivalent of half a tablespoon to a two-gallon bucket of compost. The bottom of each trough is covered with the crocks of broken flower pots (we always seem to have a lot of these) for drainage, half-filled with compost and then the rock is artfully placed, creating crevices and pockets for the plants. I just use whatever rock is available in the garden at the time. Some of my troughs contain pieces of Westmorland stone, others have sandstone and, of course, some have tufa, which the saxifrages prefer. The plants are then placed in position. When buying plants, don’t be tempted to choose large specimens. 150

Smaller plants tend to establish more successfully. I always open up the root-ball and place plants so that the compost in the trough is at the same level as the compost in the pot. Note that the compost level in the pot will be at a lower level than the gravel topdressing if the plant was bought from a good alpine nursery. In the trough there must be enough room under the base of the plant for a top-dressing. I like to use a good inch of gravel, which must be pushed under the plants so that they feel quite firm if you try to wiggle them about. The type of gravel used is very much a personal choice. I like the sharper horticultural grit that can be obtained from some garden centres. Look around until you find one that appeals THE ALPINE GARDENER

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The troughs a few months later – and the plants have emerged unscathed

to you. One conundrum, though, is who steals the grit? When I go round every spring with my widger to loosen the surface of the grit and check if any weeds have crept in, I always have to top it up. Where does it go? As you can appreciate, 38 troughs take up a lot of space, so where do I keep them all? When we retired, we treated ourselves to a conservatory, which created a lovely large ‘corner’ that, lo and behold, became a trough yard. Ten troughs of various heights and a variety of footprints are placed close together. There is hardly a time between February and the end of November when there aren’t flowers to be seen, from Cyclamen parviflorum and Spiraea japonica ‘Bullata’ to Hypericum aegypticum. There are various species and varieties JUNE 2012

of Oxalis, Androsace, Iris, Fritillaria, Potentilla, Penstemon, Onosma, creeping Campanula, Daphne, Sedum, Phlox and Teucrium, and a couple of slow-growing conifers for stature. I’m trying Geum reptans and Primula minima, which are still nice and green but haven’t produced any flowers yet. I’m ashamed to say I have included in one trough a small rose, which I was told came from China. I don’t normally ‘do’ roses but we shall see how this one fares. I greatly feared the aftermath of the extremely cold winter of 2010-11 but I lost only one plant – a lovely but quite aged and very dwarf form of Jasminum parkeri. I could have cried (but I didn’t). After I’d established the trough yard I realised that the troughs, being so close to one another, could cause a problem 151

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This large and shallow trough at RHS Garden Wisley has been packed with fragments of rock left over from a recently constructed crevice garden 152

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GROWING IN TROUGHS

Oxalis ‘Ute’, one of several of this genus that does well in Jo’s troughs

in management if weeds became established between them, so the ground was covered with weed-control fabric with a good layer of gravel on top. There hasn’t been a problem since. Three troughs accompany the garden bench along the front of our conservatory. A lovely Clematis tenuiloba ‘Ylva’ is creeping around one of these, and Veronica oltensis has been hanging over the side for many years; it is probably fed up with having a haircut but doesn’t seem to mind. Our chickens have a nice selection of troughs along one side of their run. These are full of Campanula, Lewisia and a lovely Ulmus parvifolia ‘Hokkaido’. Beware, though: chickens have long beaks and like green things. We put the troughs too close to the wire initially. Sempervivums make wonderful trough plants and can look spectacular JUNE 2012

together. Twenty-five years ago, a round and elegant bird bath was planted with semps in pieces of tufa. Over time they have flowered, died back, flowered again and still today, after all that time, the same plants are doing their thing with a few new companions. All I do is top up the grit. As before, I’ve no idea where it goes. I have three shallow troughs that are filled with what I call my ‘Czech saxifrages’ – I brought most of them back from the international rock garden conference held there in 2007. These troughs were initially in rather too shady a situation, where the plants sulked. However, due to a reorganisation of the garden, they had to be moved last spring and, wow, what a difference! They have taken on a new lease of life. It’s amazing what a bit of extra light can do. We have an enormous Davidia 153

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The troughs that contain Jo’s ‘Czech saxifrages’

Another of Jo’s Oxalis – this one is O. enneaphylla x laciniata ‘Ione Hecker’ 154

THE ALPINE GARDENER

GROWING IN TROUGHS

The new ericaceous trough yard, with old peat blocks used instead of rocks

involucrata in the garden, which creates a large area of shade when it is in leaf. This area has so far proved very difficult to plant. I was chatting about this with fellow gardeners at an AGS show and said that I had a mind to create a shady ericaceous trough yard. ‘Don’t be silly,’ was the general opinion. Well, what can I say: a challenge. We had several troughs at the bottom of the garden that I had been wondering where to site and how to plant. Problem solved. In April last year the shaded area was given the same treatment as before, with weed-control fabric and gravel, and, hey presto, an ericaceous shady trough yard was born. My husband Brian found some very old peat blocks behind the shed, so I had my ‘rocks’. Into the compost mixer (a cement mixer by any other name) went a large quantity of multi-purpose JUNE 2012

ericaceous compost, buckets of homemade leaf mould and some fine shredded bark. Not wanting the troughs to dry out, I placed nothing other than a single piece of crock over each drainage hole, purely to stop the compost from escaping. No grit was used. Now, what to plant? In the shady alpine house, one or two volunteers were waiting to be rescued. In went four Dicentra peregrina, two x Jancaemonda and a Myosotis pulvinaris, which has loved its new home. Himalayan saxifrages have also been planted. They are still small but are looking good. Brian offered up a couple of primulas, which have taken off. My pride and joy, however, are several Dianthus alpinus ‘Joan’s Blood’. I have struggled with this plant in the past, but a few years ago I acquired a packet of seed. What the heck, I thought: nothing ventured, nothing gained. I sowed them, 155

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Another Wisley trough, with a ‘terraced’ design and a shaded area at the back

they germinated and they potted up to make good plants. However, they started to sulk, so I thought I’d better read up on them. Lo and behold, unlike most Dianthus, they prefer ericaceous conditions. Now they are stunning. Similarly a Dianthus subacaulis subsp. brachyanthus that had been grimly hanging on elsewhere is looking better. Some small rhododendrons are still deciding whether they like it or not. Give them time, a voice in my head keeps telling me. I am a little impatient. Initially I top-dressed the troughs with shredded bark and they looked great. But the following day, disaster! Bark and some of the plants were lying all over the yard. I hadn’t take into account some determined blackbirds who were 156

obviously convinced that the best worms were under the bark. Now, I don’t believe in using swear words but if the blackbirds were listening they are probably very confused about their parentage. I have been forced to put a very thin layer of grit on the troughs. This has solved the problem completely, so the birds are forgiven. I have two works in progress: a 24ft x 2ft (7.3m x 60cm) raised bed made of Cotswold stone along one side of our large alpine house, and a 16ft x 4ft (4.9m x 1.2m) Access frame raised 4ft off the ground. It contains my tufa mountain range, with the Eiger at one end and the Matterhorn at the other. I am still playing with them, so I’d better leave discussing them until another time. THE ALPINE GARDENER

RAISED CREVICE BED

Construction under way on Paula’s crevice bed and surrounding paved area

Vegetables make way for an alpine haven

y husband Terry and I moved to Henllan in the Vale of Clwyd, North Wales, seven years ago. The garden is a good size, with plots back and front. At the back of the house was a fruit and vegetable garden. The first things we did were to build an alpine house at the side of the vegetable patch and move the shed further back, out of the way. There was, JUNE 2012

Paula Mitchell is delighted with her new crevice bed, though its construction is tinged with personal sadness however, a rhubarb bed in front of the alpine house, which obstructed access and made it difficult to put up and take 157

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The bed has been reinforced inside with a layer of blockwork

down the shade netting. Terry could be seen from time to time precariously balancing on a ladder, hanging on with one arm. The kitchen garden flourished and I put in winter-fruiting raspberries. These were lovely but they grew to nearly three metres tall and spread everywhere by runners. In the winter of 2010, we decided that this whole area was too much to cope with, given that it needed regular planting, weeding and cutting back. For a while I had fancied having a crevice garden. On the advice of Vic Aspland, we decided to use slate in a raised bed so that I wouldn’t have to bend to reach 158

the plants. This turned out to be more difficult to find than first envisaged. We went to a quarry in Llangollen, but they only did block slate. When I asked if I could poke around on the scrap pile, I was met with a horrified look and an emphatic ‘No’ – good old ’elf ’n’ safety rules. I was advised that the best bet was to go to a quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog, where they would cut slate to size. This was not the plan nor was it within budget – we wanted scrap stuff! Eventually, we were told that we could look at a couple of large bags of offcuts. These weren’t ideal because the pieces were not as deep as we would have liked; we wanted THE ALPINE GARDENER

RAISED CREVICE BED

The completed bed takes pride of place beside the alpine house

to set them a long way down in the soil. But we agreed to take some – in fact we ordered a tonne. The slate came in a canvas bag full to the brim, which was delivered on a pallet and wrapped up in plastic like a gigantic parcel. It sat in the driveway for the next three and a half weeks. We found a couple of excellent local builders who were full of good ideas. I explained what we wanted: they began by clearing the fruit and vegetable area. I decided to move the rhubarb to a raised bed of its own and to have a path for easier access to the alpine house. We now had room for a 10ft x 5ft (3m x 1.5m) bed raised to a height of nine JUNE 2012

courses of bricks, in which the crevice garden would be housed. The builders didn’t know what a crevice garden was but went along with the plan. The builders put in footings and used an inner lining of blockwork to reinforce the bed. When it was finished I thought: ‘What the hell have I done?’ It looked like a giant sarcophagus! The soil that had been excavated from the garden, however, was great stuff and filled both the rhubarb bed and the base of the crevice bed. Then six tonnes of grit-sand was dumped on top and tamped down. A smaller wall created a boundary around the bed, and the space in 159

PRACTICAL GARDENING

The slate has been well bedded in, ready for planting

between was paved with slabs. The lads used their cement mixer to mix two tonnes of sand, one tonne of gravel and three-quarters of a tonne of compost. They barrowed it into the new bed. Once this had been done it didn’t look too bad – more like what I had in mind. The builders opened the slate parcel and carried it piece by piece around to the garden (I hadn’t realised that just a smallish lump could be so heavy). Terry climbed on to the bed and began to place the slate in a diagonal line from one corner, digging it in and leaving just an inch or two showing. We thought it looked quite impressive. There was quite a lot of slate left, so the lads came up with an idea for another project behind the fish pond 160

after first removing a laurel bush, which was decidedly lopsided. They constructed a free-standing slate wall, back-filled it with the same mix and made a small crevice garden of their own. It looked great. The area around the main bed seemed enormous. We didn’t realise what a large plot it was until everything had been tidied up. We let it settle for about three weeks then went to Slack Top Alpine Nursery in West Yorkshire and Aberconwy Nursery in North Wales to select our plants. For me, these two are the best growers around and I had great fun choosing what to put in. I also had an old sink that was overgrown, so I removed everything from it, filled it with ‘the mix’, put in THE ALPINE GARDENER

RAISED CREVICE BED

Paula tends the young plants in this year’s unseasonably warm March weather

small pieces of slate and mounted it on bricks in the front garden. I’m determined to make use of all the slate: waste not, want not! The crevice garden came through its first winter relatively unscathed, with only a couple of losses. Even the two Physoplexis comosa are showing good signs of rebirth. I love these plants but find it difficult to keep them going. This may be the answer. Sadly, Terry passed away on December 19 after a five-week illness. He would have been delighted with the results of his labours, and as I look at the plants and pull out little weeds that have had the temerity to sprout in our pristine bed, I want to rush in and tell him what’s flowering. JUNE 2012

I am more than thankful that we have created this bed and done away with the fruit and vegetable garden – I would have been panic-stricken with the thought of having to care for that on my own. I am thrilled to bits with the new bed, which is so much easier to look after and doesn’t involve any back-breaking work. There’s just the sweeping of the paved area and the odd weed to deal with. The bed looks very contemporary, so I bought some black wicker furniture to go on the patio and a stainless steel water feature to complete the effect. It’s something different, at least in our neighbourhood. I would encourage everyone to have a bash at a crevice bed, even if it’s only in a small sink or pot. 161

Evelyn Stevens in her garden near Stirling in central Scotland, surrounded by the pale-flowered Meconopsis ‘Maggie Sharp’ and the intriguing, colour-changing M. ‘Barney’s Blue’

MECONOPSIS

‘Sorting out’ the big blue poppies Evelyn Stevens, who last year received the AGS’s Kath Dryden Award for her work on Meconopsis, reports on efforts by The Meconopsis Group to classify these alluring plants

he big perennial blue Himalayan poppies are a much loved and beautiful group of plants. Meconopsis were introduced into western gardens from their Asiatic homelands from the mid-19th century onwards. Although much larger than the diminutive plants that so appeal to many alpine enthusiasts, there is no doubt that the ‘big perennial blues’ are indeed true alpines. The big blue species introduced from the wild were M. grandis, M. baileyi (M. betonicifolia of gardens) and M.

163

MECONOPSIS simplicifolia. Probably with input from other introduced species, the ‘big blues’ interbred when grown together in gardens, giving rise to a range of hybrid forms, many of which have survived and thrived for decades. These poppies are tall, leafy, deciduous, herbaceous perennials, clump-forming or spreading slowly by means of rhizomes, with several large flowers concentrated towards the apex of the stout flowering stems. By the end of the 20th century it became clear that there was considerable confusion about their identification and naming. True identities were often in doubt. A few hybrids were named while others were not. Written records, descriptions, herbarium specimens and photographs were usually lacking. The Meconopsis Group was founded in 1998 to attempt to resolve these problems. Most of the hybrids were sterile and could be propagated only by division. An advantage of this was that each distinct hybrid was a clone with a unique genetic make-up. This meant that all individuals propagated from a given clone should have identical features and that the goal of ‘sorting them out’ was realistic. The number of hybrids that exist at present has yet to be finally established, but it is between two and three dozen. An important exception to the sterile clones is a fertile hybrid, M. ‘Lingholm’, which produces abundant viable seeds and is therefore more widely grown than the sterile forms. The first meeting of The Meconopsis Group, held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, was attended by 75 164

enthusiasts. A large number of plants were donated at this meeting for an identification trial and were planted in a bed kindly made available by RBGE. More plant donations followed. The plan was to place plants, as far as possible, like-with-like in the trial bed. To sort out identities and names, observations and comparisons would be made by a team of knowledgeable Meconopsis Group members over a number of years. Following on from this research, the Royal Horticultural Society, from 2010 to 2013, is conducting a trial of Meconopsis at Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire to assess plants for the Award of Garden Merit (AGM). Also, each year since 2006, a number of the cultivars have been presented to the Joint Rock Garden Plant Committee with the result that 13 now have RHS awards. The Meconopsis Group’s assessors confronted the following problems: ● Uncertainty about the critical and stable morphological characters that delineate individual clones. They are frequently very similar to one another. ● Two names applied to the same clone. ● A single name covering two or more clones. ● The use of names that were not in accord with current taxonomic practice. ● Plants that were unnamed. Two names in particular have caused much confusion in the past: M. grandis and M. x sheldonii. One problem is that they have often been used interchangeably. Another is that any large-flowered blue poppy was often THE ALPINE GARDENER

MECONOPSIS

The Meconopsis identification trial bed at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

(still sometimes is) given the species name grandis when it is in fact a hybrid. The epithet x sheldonii correctly applies to the cross between M. grandis and M. baileyi. In many cases it is not clear whether the name M. x sheldonii has been correctly applied. Worse than this is the confusing use of x sheldonii for both fertile forms such as M. Lingholm – which very often may have been raised only recently and often show seedling variation – and long-standing sterile, clonal forms such as M. ‘Slieve Donard’. Further, among the sterile forms it has been found JUNE 2012

that several distinctive clones have previously been lumped as M. x sheldonii. The decision was therefore taken to avoid the use of the hybrid epithet x sheldonii and only to use cultivar names for example, M. ‘Slieve Donard’ - rather than M. x sheldonii ‘Slieve Donard’, even though the latter is probably a correct full designation. The use of a cultivar name does not have implications concerning the plant’s origin, whereas the use of a hybrid epithet such as ‘x sheldonii’ does. An important early step taken to help with sorting out the abundance of plant 165

MECONOPSIS

THE BIG BLUE POPPY LIFE-CYCLE The big blue perennial poppies persist as dormant buds at, or just below, ground level during winter. They emerge as rosettes of young leaves in early spring. This stage of the life-cycle is followed by maturation of the leaves and the development of a sturdy flowering stem bearing at its apex a cluster of flowers, and then the formation of prominent seed-capsules. In the case of the sterile hybrids, these capsules contain only aborted seeds. In an extensive collection, the time of flowering extends material submitted to The Meconopsis Group was to devise a naming scheme. This comprised: ● The species. ● Three Groups (formally defined as ‘an assemblage of cultivars, individual plants, or assemblages of plants on the basis of defined similarity’). The three Groups are: Fertile Blue Group, George Sherriff Group and Infertile Blue Group. ● A number of clones so distinct (‘stand-alones’) that it was not necessary or appropriate to place them in one of the Groups. This classification has proved very helpful and has been accepted by the ◄ Meconopsis ‘Slieve Donard’ with rosettes of young leaves, which are useful in cultivar identification JUNE 2012

over as much as ten weeks. This may be from mid-spring into mid-summer, depending on geographical location and variability of the seasons, with the first and last forms coming into flower over a six-week period. The different cultivars can be categorised roughly as ‘early’, ‘mid’ and ‘late’ flowering. Each of the developmental stages provides significant diagnostic features for the range of hybrid cultivars. The most important of these are highlighted in the brief descriptions given in this article. RHS Plant Finder. But it is stressed that it is only a means to an end, and placement in a Group is not sacrosanct. What is important is that, in the final analysis, all the species and cultivars are properly characterised and described so that there is as little as possible ambiguity in the naming. THE GROUPS Fertile Blue Group: In the early 1960s, in a Cumbrian garden, a hitherto sterile plant produced viable seed, as did its seedlings. This is the origin of plants now known as M. ‘Lingholm’. We designated Fertile Blue Group for this and similar fertile plants. The most distinctive feature of this Group is the consistent production of seed-capsules filled with plump, viable seed. M. ‘Lingholm’, the best-known member, 167

MECONOPSIS

Meconopsis ‘Crewdson Hybrid’ (Infertile Blue Group) is closely related to M. ‘Mrs Jebb’

is now widely available. We also have good evidence to indicate that in M. ‘Lingholm’ a doubling up of the normal diploid complement of chromosomes is the reason that it produces viable (fertile) seeds. Phenotypic similarities suggest that the sterile plant that gave rise to M. ‘Lingholm’ was M. ‘Slieve Donard’. I also believe there is evidence that the ‘Lingholm event’ – the doubling of the chromosome number – may have occurred on more than one occasion. George Sherriff and Infertile Blue Groups: These were established to cater for a range of hybrid, clonal 168

plants dating from much earlier – the 1930s onwards. They are sterile, with propagation achieved by division. A split between these two sterile Groups was made because representatives of one set of plants (George Sherriff Group) are clearly closely related. In the past they were often collectively known as Meconopsis grandis GS600, and we believe they are derived from George Sherriff ’s collection of seed in 1934 in East Bhutan (with the collectors’ number M. grandis L&S600 – L&S stands for the famous plant-collecting pair, Ludlow and Sherriff, although it was George Sherriff (GS) who actually THE ALPINE GARDENER

MECONOPSIS

The root system and rhizomes of Meconopsis ‘Barney’s Blue’

collected this particular batch of seed, hence grandis GS600). It would have been unhelpful to lump GS600 plants with the remainder of the long-standing old clones, which are thus classified in a separate, Infertile Blue Group. These exhibit more variability than George Sherriff Group, clearly reflecting a more diverse genetic background. The exact number of distinct and nameworthy clones in either Group has not yet been precisely determined. In George Sherriff Group, the underground root system is both clumpforming and rhizomatous. The young leaves are broad, covered with short, JUNE 2012

straw-coloured hairs, and are notable for an intense red-purple pigmentation suffusing both the dorsal and ventral surfaces, as in M. ‘Huntfield’. The blue flowers are often suffused with a mauve or purplish tone. The value to gardeners is that they bloom a little later than Infertile Blue Group cultivars. The ovoid-ellipsoid fruit-capsules are covered with dense, short bristles. In Infertile Blue Group the underground root-system is clumpforming with an absence of rhizomes. The young foliage is narrower and more upright than in George Sherriff Group. Some lack red-purple pigmentation, 169

MECONOPSIS

Variations in seed capsules, from left: Meconopsis ‘Ascreavie’, M. ‘Barney’s Blue’ (both in the George Sherriff Group), M. ‘Bobby Masterton’, M. ‘Slieve Donard’ (both in the Infertile Blue Group), M. ‘Lingholm (Fertile Blue Group), M. ‘Crewdson Hybrid’ (Infertile Blue Group), M. ‘Willie Duncan’, M. grandis (true species)

Hairy and pigmented leaf rosette of Meconopsis ‘Huntfield’ (George Sherriff Group) 170

THE ALPINE GARDENER

MECONOPSIS

while others are intensely pigmented, especially on the ventral surface of the leaves. The hairs covering them may be very long or short. Flower colour is usually a clear blue, but in some is modified by mauve hues. Capsule shape varies from short-ovoid to longer and narrowly ellipsoidal, with a covering of bristles, in some cases long and whitetipped, in others short. The sutures uniting the carpels may be covered with bristles or be bald, or nearly so. The differing conformations of the styles and stigmas also help in characterising the different cultivars. On the whole, Infertile Blue Group cultivars bloom ahead of those in George Sherriff Group, thus helping to extend the big blue poppy flowering season in the garden. THE CULTIVARS At the start of our studies, apart from the three species, the other names in JUNE 2012

use for the big blue poppies were: M. x sheldonii, ‘Houndwood’, ‘Crewdson Hybrid’, ‘Mrs Jebb’ (incorrectly given as ‘Miss Jebbs’), ‘Ormswell’, ‘Kingsbarns Hybrids’, ‘Branklyn’ (which was awarded a JRGPC First Class Certificate (FCC), but we have not been able to confirm which, if any, of the currently known clones is M. ‘Branklyn’), M. ‘Jimmy Bayne’ and several names for M. ‘Lingholm’. Since then, 23 further cultivars have been identified and named. Of the total big blue poppies, one, M. ‘Slieve Donard’, had already received an AGM, and 13 have been given JRGPC awards since 2006, including an FCC to M. ‘Slieve Donard’. The other cultivars that have been given Joint Rock awards are: Awards of Merit (AM) to M. ‘Lingholm’, ‘P.C. Abildgaard’, ‘Crewdson Hybrid’, ‘Mrs Jebb’, ‘Jimmy Bayne’, ‘Huntfield’, ‘Barney’s Blue’ and ‘Marit’, and 171

MECONOPSIS

Meconopsis ‘P.C. Abildgaard’ (Infertile Blue Group) was raised in Denmark

Preliminary Commendations (PCs) to M. ‘Maggie Sharp’, ‘Bobby Masterton’, ‘Willie Duncan’ and ‘Ascreavie’. All these named cultivars are briefly described in this article. I must add that in my opinion there are a few other fine cultivars to look out for and equally deserving of awards, but which have not so far been recognised, in particular, M. ‘Strathspey’, ‘Mophead’, ‘Mildred’, ‘Inverewe’ and ‘Crarae’. These and others are all present in the RHS trial at Harlow Carr, at Holehird Garden at Windermere in the Lake District, and in my National Collection in central Scotland. Most are 172

in the National Collection at Branklyn Garden in Perth and at Attadale Garden in north-west Scotland, and many are also in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. M. ‘Lingholm’, ‘Slieve Donard’, ‘Bobby Masterton’ and ‘P.C. Abildgaard’: For many gardeners, the plants that epitomise the best big blue poppies are those with bowl-shaped flowers comprising large, rounded and overlapping sky-blue petals. Of the award-winning cultivars, those that most meet these requirements are the more readily available M. ‘Lingholm’ and the Infertile Blue Group cultivars M. ‘Slieve Donard’, ‘Bobby Masterton’ and ‘P.C. THE ALPINE GARDENER

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Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’ (Fertile Blue Group) can be short-lived

Abildgaard’. Although the flowers of all four look very similar, there is no doubt they are distinct cultivars. For each, on any given occasion, the flowers may be nodding or outward-facing. No correlation with any ambient condition has been observed to explain this. M. ‘Lingholm’ (Fertile Blue Group) is a fine cultivar that produces viable seeds, but can be rather short-lived and can be expected to show seedling variation. I also feel that the flowers are often a little less elegant and silky-looking than the other three. M. ‘Slieve Donard’ and ‘Bobby Masterton’ are very old sterile clones. We know that ‘Slieve Donard’ JUNE 2012

was raised in 1935 by Dr. Curle in Edinburgh as a result of deliberately crossing M. grandis with M. baileyi. M. ‘Bobby Masterton’ could possibly date from the same time and even be a sister seedling, but that is only speculation. It is consistently slightly earlier flowering than M. ‘Slieve Donard’ and is a slightly lighter shade of blue. Also, the foliage and seed-capsules possess well-defined differences. M. ‘P.C. Abildgaard’ was raised about 1980 in Denmark and was sent to us by Troels Juhl for identification. It has proved to be a name-worthy sterile clone, very floriferous and vigorous, 173

MECONOPSIS

Meconopsis ‘Mrs Jebb’ (Infertile Blue Group) and its rosettes of emerging leaves

similar in many ways to M. ‘Slieve Donard’, but the petals are slightly less overlapping. M. ‘Crewdson Hybrid’ and ‘Mrs. Jebb’: On phenotypic grounds, M. ‘Crewdson Hybrid and ‘Mrs Jebb’ (both assigned to Infertile Blue Group) are 174

clearly very closely related. Seed of M. ‘Crewdson Hybrid’ was given to Jack Drake by its raiser, Cicely Crewdson, but since 1959 it has been sterile and only propagated by division. Similarities between the two indicate that ‘Mrs Jebb’ is a selection from ‘Crewdson Hybrid’. THE ALPINE GARDENER

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Meconopsis ‘Maggie Sharp’ (Infertile Blue Group)

The deep blue colour of the flowers and the appearance of the foliage and seedcapsules make the close relationship of these two cultivars obvious. The flowers in M. ‘Crewdson Hybrid’ are flaskshaped, the petals having a frilly margin while in M. ‘Mrs. Jebb’ the flowers JUNE 2012

are shallower and saucer-shaped, with broadly overlapping petals. Both are mid-season cultivars. M. ‘Maggie Sharp’: Another award plant assigned to Infertile Blue Group is M. ‘Maggie Sharp’, a mid-season cultivar. This is very beautiful, with pale 175

MECONOPSIS

Meconopsis ‘Willie Duncan, a later-flowering cultivar with distinctive young leaves

blue, flat-faced flowers. It apparently originated at Branklyn Garden, Perth, presumably raised by the creator of that garden, Dorothy Renton. It was bought at Branklyn in 1977 by Maggie Sharp as M. x sheldonii and has always been sterile. It is a little shorter than most 176

other cultivars and is perhaps not quite as robust. M. ‘Willie Duncan’: Scottish horticulturist Willie Duncan raised a single plant from a packet of surplus seed labelled M. grandis in the Scottish Rock Garden Club seed exchange in THE ALPINE GARDENER

MECONOPSIS

The windmill-shaped flowers of Meconopsis ‘Ascreavie’ and, below, the colourchanging blooms of M. ‘Barney’s Blue’, both in the George Sherriff Group

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TIPS FOR GROWING MECONOPSIS

any gardeners find Meconopsis difficult to grow, particularly in the hotter and drier parts of Britain. The big blue poppies thrive better in cooler and damper areas. These plants dislike hot spells with summer drought, but this can be offset by judicious watering. I use overhead irrigation to good effect during dry spells. In my experience they enjoy a sheltered but open situation and well-cultivated, friable soil with as much organic material included as possible. It is wise to divide clumps every few years, either in spring just as they are coming into growth or in late summer, replanting into soil

1980. This excellent late-season standalone cultivar is clearly NOT M. grandis, but a unique, vigorous and beautiful form, named M. ‘Willie Duncan’ in Willie’s honour in 2001. The firmtextured pale green young foliage, the handsome mature foliage, the large, deeply bowl-shaped flowers and the seed-capsules are all highly distinctive. It regularly sets just a few viable seeds per capsule, but must be regarded as a clonal cultivar and if seedlings are raised they must be clearly labelled “ ‘ex M. ‘Willie Duncan’ ” to avoid confusion with the original fine clone, which alone should bear this name. M. ‘Jimmy Bayne’, ‘Huntfield’, ‘Ascreavie’ and ‘Barney’s Blue’: Six cultivars, so far, have been recognised 178

enriched with garden compost or well-rotted manure. If a plant seems to be ‘going back’, it can invariably be saved by lifting it, carefully splitting it up, selecting healthy pieces, and potting these up individually into a good compost and keeping them in a frame or cold greenhouse until new roots fill the pot. Meconopsis can cope with a fair amount of winter rainfall as long as the ground is not waterlogged for long periods. If soil is liable to waterlogging, merely raising its level a little above the surrounding water-table, achieved by adding extra friable soil, is often all that is required. as members of George Sherriff Group. They are all late-season plants, flowering usefully later than most of those already described. Four have been given awards. M. ‘Jimmy Bayne’ and ‘Huntfield’ are very similar with handsome, bowlshaped flowers comprising rounded, overlapping petals. In some gardens M. ‘Huntfield’ appears to be exceptionally vigorous, but reports indicate that it is not so successful in others. The Group often exhibits purplish shades and can also display the most beautiful deep blue. The reasons for colour differences are obscure and cannot be discussed here. Some gardeners prefer the skyblue cultivars while others favour the more subtle purplish shades. Two very different cultivars are M. THE ALPINE GARDENER

MECONOPSIS

Meconopsis ‘Marit’ is the best of the white or near-white cultivars

‘Ascreavie’ and M. ‘Barney’s Blue’. In M. ‘Ascreavie’ the foliage and flowering stem are more lax and the flowers are attractively windmill-shaped rather than bowl-shaped. M. ‘Barney’s Blue’ is distinctive in several ways. The young foliage is not strongly red-purple pigmented and emerges significantly later than other George Sherriff Group clones, but then rapidly catches up. A plant in full flower produces a bicoloured effect as flowers consistently open a deep purple-pink colour, and then progressively lighten to blue from the centre outwards. M. ‘Marit’: This is not blue but a pale creamy white. M. ‘Marit’ was named after Marit Espejord who raised it in Tromsø in northern Norway in about JUNE 2012

1980. It was sent to us in Scotland by Finn Haugli in 2000. It was one of three seedlings resulting from crossing M. x sarsonsii with purported M. grandis (this was probably M. ‘Lingholm’). From the small division received from Tromsø, this cultivar has become firmly established in Scotland. The flowers are bowl-shaped with broad, overlapping petals. In our collections there are several other large-flowered white or near-white cultivars, but M. ‘Marit’ is the best in habit, quality of flower and constitution.  For much additional information, visit The Meconopsis Group website at www.meconopsis.org. 179

EXPLORATION

t doesn’t appear in any of the guide books on Peru. But Macusani, a small town tucked high up in southeastern Peru, with the snow-capped peaks of the Cordillera Vilcanota rising to more than 6,000m (19,700ft) to the west, and those of the Cordillera Carabaya to the east, is an ideal place to stay if you wish to see the country’s high alpine flora in relative comfort. There is a hostel-grade hotel, apparently. Alternatively you could stay some 50 miles to the south (but still alongside the excellent, twolane, recently upgraded main road) at San Antón, where I recall a brightly painted establishment that we passed at speed. More such overnight stops might well become available over the next few years because, quite apart from its numerous existing mines, the area is attracting foreign investment on account of substantial uranium reserves. One dearly hopes that such activities will not extensively scar this majestic, comparatively little-visited region. Heading northwards, and having left the main Arequipa-Puno-Cusco motorway at Calapuja, the route progresses through a series of immense valleys, occasionally meandering where these are part-blocked by huge, pyramidal rock edifices that would surely repay investigation. That said, although maintaining a base altitude of around 3,900m (12,800ft), this level is still too low for the majority of Peru’s true alpines, which are at their finest some 300 to 1,000m or more higher. The scenery apart, things start to pick

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Seeing red in Peru: a day of discovery Robert Rolfe, who visited southern Peru in March this year, describes an exciting plant he chanced upon at high altitude in the north of Puno Province. It is pictured here and on the front cover of this issue of The Alpine Gardener up three hours north of the city of Puno (where I was based), after a dogleg left turn from Antauta. Suddenly, the landscape becomes wilder, offering occasional glimpses of the snowy heights (until now the mountains, while lofty, have been craggy but on the whole rounded at their summits), and the plant communities are palpably different. The slopes either side become progressively steeper, with either scree platforms and mighty sweeps predominating, or else high alpine turf, sometimes saturated, sometimes parched, in which nestle sundry THE ALPINE GARDENER

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The vibrant red and seemingly undescribed Nototriche found by Robert Rolfe

hummocks and also angora-clad mounds. The latter were the widespread high-altitude cactus Opuntia floccose, which I had seen further north, also devoid of its orange to sealing-wax red flowers, though it was infiltrated and ornamented on that occasion by a dwarf, mid-blue Solanum. On my return to the UK, another cactus was immediately identified from my photographs as Austrocylindropuntia lagopus by Martin Sheader, a South American specialist who grows the plant, the type specimen from a little further north and at an even higher altitude (4,686m, 15,374ft). It looked JUNE 2012

very much like a vegetable sheep from a distance, and I at first imagined it might belong to the New Zealand, Haastia-paralleling genus Mniodes, for M. aretioides has been described from the neighbouring mountains. The biggest mound of them all – or rather an agglomeration of several, centuries-old plants – was seen on a west-facing slope and earmarked for photographs on the return leg of our all too brief trip. At over 5m across, it stood out from all the many others, which have been fittingly described as ‘recumbent sheep’, with reference to their size and fleecy appearance from 181

EXPLORATION a distance. The small flowers, just emerging, were yellow, while the spines, although numerous, were pale brown, short, not hooked and mercifully inert. Typically, the roadsides were drained either side by thigh-deep, v-shaped, concrete-slabbed culverts, a very generous stride across. The usual means of traversing them was to place one foot on the opposite side, then lunge upwards, clinging on to what scant vegetation was around, or else hope that momentum would do the trick. There was a rubble-sided, deeply incised streambed going off at rightangles to one of these culverts, to which I gave no thought whatsoever. Then Ronald, my driver and very observant guide, called me back, shouting: ‘Turpa. A red turpa.’ This is the native Quecha word for Nototriche (also given as ‘thurpa’), and is worth quoting to local people whenever you are trying to track down the genus. Being colourblind, and with my mind focused on the slopes beyond, I had not given what lay at my feet the least consideration. The precise altitude was 4,580m (15,025ft). It’s the stick insect phenomenon: tricky to see at first, but once you get your eye in, you find them pretty much everywhere. They grew both on the steep, rocky sides of the miniature valley and on the sparsely vegetated, gravelly flats either side, where the most conspicuous cohabitant was a subshrubby Astragalus with whitish flowers, forming billowing mounds to 50cm or so across. We saw perhaps 50 Nototriche plants, but had no time to explore further, so the true extent of the population, chanced upon just a 182

few seconds’ walk from the edge of the road, is anybody’s guess. As for a name, I strongly suspect that it is a spanking brand new addition to the 150 or so species recognised to date. There are two obvious candidates for what it might be. Nototriche vargasii was described from slightly further west (closer to Cusco, in Prov. Espinar, at 4,500m, latterly also found in Puno), but crucially differs in its narrowish, deeply pinnatifid leaves. N. flabellata, more widespread in adjacent Bolivia, but also known from several nearby localities in Peru, has similarly velvety-tomentose foliage, but this is more coarsely segmented, sulphur-coloured, and the flowers have an almost tubeless corolla, the petals irregularly toothed. Those of the plant seen had a very broad throat and were uniformly untoothed. Peru harbours more red-flowered species than anywhere else in the entire length of the Andes: none provide a satisfactory match. N. coccinea, an endemic of the Cordillera Blanca in Ancash Province, far to the north, has a quite different growth structure, and flowers only 1cm long, so they are palpably smaller than the plants seen, whose flowers could also be pale to lipstick pink, or pillar-box to orangered, and up to 3cm long. N. epileuca is also from Ancash Province, the flowers blood red, the leaves, however, ‘laxly rosulate’. N. cupuliforme, described in 1953 from material found at 4,360m in nearby Carabaya Province, has acutely lobed, glabrous foliage and smaller, winecoloured flowers. N. stenopetala, which THE ALPINE GARDENER

PERU

A pinkish form of the undescribed Nototriche. Orange-red forms were also present

despite the records certainly does occur this far south, has much fernier, non-rosetted foliage, and the flowers are more accurately described as redtipped, with a paler basal extent, like some Mediterranean anemone. There aren’t many other species from which to choose. In the plant I found, the sometimes single, always tightly agglomerated, greyish-silver and podgy-fingered rosettes formed huddled mounds at most 10-15cm across, and were in early flower: there were plenty of buds to come. Foreign visitors to Peru are obliged to sign a document undertaking not to bring back any plant material whatsoever, so precise JUNE 2012

details, other than the photographic evidence, are lacking. But thanks to my guide’s wristwatch, which doubled as an altimeter, a more precise study, timed in mid-March, wouldn’t be difficult. The general area has been surveyed botanically: it seems astonishing that such a vibrant, showy plant has so far escaped the attention of those who have enumerated the flora of these uplands, which at first sight seem barren but on closer inspection prove to be very floriferous indeed.  A fuller account of Robert Rolfe’s short visit to Peru will appear in a future issue of The Alpine Gardener. 183

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

he AGS Photographic Competition gives members the opportunity to share their talents, whether deliberate or fortuitous, with an appreciative audience. The competition has evolved over 18 years to attract a wide range of photographers, whether they prefer to capture their subjects as travellers, show enthusiasts, gardeners or general naturalists. The judges look for photographic excellence rather than the rarity or otherwise of the subject matter. Travellers may find professionally guided tours run by companies such as the competition’s sponsor, Green Tours, an ideal platform for their photographic adventures, since much of the work involved in discovering sites and interesting plants has been done for them. AGS shows offer ample opportunity to view, discuss and record some of the best pot-grown alpines in a more controlled environment, though indoor ‘hall photography’ presents its own challenges. Photography in the garden or ‘studio’ is also encouraged, both in natural and artistic formats, the latter requiring the more advanced computer skills favoured by the creatively curious. And a class is reserved for the naturalist in us all, where entrants record the animals that are often encountered by people who spend a lot of time in gardens or in wild places. The competition is open to all AGS members who might have one or several favourite images lurking in their digital cupboards (though slide-film is still accepted). No long-standing experience 184

Nature’s wonders captured through AGS lenses Doug Joyce presents the winning entries in the 2011 AGS Photographic Competition, with appraisals of the top three in each of the five classes is necessary and no specialist equipment needed, just a good photographic image. And there is prize money to be won, too. Of the 2011 entrants, 13 shared the 15 prize-winning places. Between 40 and 50 images were entered into each of the first four classes and half that number in class five. The cameras used ranged from simple compacts to more advanced digital SLRs. The skill of the photographer should never be underrated. Technology ► First, class one: Incarvillea mairei near Litang, Sichuan (Hilary Birks) THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Second, class one: Ranunculus glacialis, Swiss Alps (Roger Brownbridge)

enables one’s perceptions to be realised, it does not create them. You do not have to own expensive equipment to be a successful photographer. For the technically minded, wherever possible camera make, model and type have been listed here with the actual lens focal length setting, and in parenthesis the equivalent focal length (EFL) in a standard-frame 35mm SLR film camera (or full-frame DSLR). The latter value (EFL) enables a direct comparison of the picture angle across all camera models, thereby instantly distinguishing wide-angle (<35mm), from standard/ 186

normal (35-85mm) or telephoto scenes (>85mm), the diagonal viewing-angles equating to greater than 63° for wideangle scenes and to less than 29° for telephoto shots. CLASS ONE: An alpine or rock plant in a natural (wild) landscape, with both plants and landscape featured. First: Hilary Birks, Bjørndalstræ, Norway. Incarvillea mairei near Litang, Sichuan Province, China; July 2011. Camera: Pentax *ist DL2 (DSLR), lens THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Third, class one: Corydalis hamata, Hong Shan, China (Joan McCaughey)

at a focal length of 18mm (equivalent 27mm), exposure 1/45sec at f22, ISO 400. Hilary Birks has been a steadfast supporter of this competition for many years and has rewarded us with numerous photographs from her travels abroad. Her vivid image of Incarvillea mairei growing on an open plain in Sichuan Province, China, cannot fail to catch the eye. By moving in very close to her subject and using a wide-angle lens, she has exploded the plant into the foreground while retaining all the elements and interest of the landscape JUNE 2012

beyond. For me, incarvilleas always look too extravagant for an alpine setting, but Incarvillea mairei is a popular and fine garden plant that requires a welldrained but not too dry, humus-rich soil in a fairly open site. Second: Roger Brownbridge, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, UK. Ranunculus glacialis at Diavolezza, Engadine, Switzerland; June 2011. Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ28 (compact), lens at a focal length of 4.8mm (equivalent 27mm), exposure 1/640sec at f8, ISO 100. 187

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION Roger Brownbridge is a relative newcomer to this competition but has clearly demonstrated in this photograph, and also in a later one of an ibex, just how versatile a compact camera can be when in capable hands. Roger’s simple composition of Ranunculus glacialis in the Alps has all the features that the alpine enthusiast is seeking: exquisite beauty juxtaposed with uncompromising landscape. This delicate buttercup is defying the snow and rock, mountain and glacier, to eke out a living, with its floral faces surveying the scene around and beyond. Although one of the more desirable icons of the alpine world, R. glacialis is a challenge to keep in cultivation. It does appear on the show-bench from time to time and is definitely a plant for the alpine house. Third: Joan McCaughey, Ballinderry Upper, Lisburn, N. Ireland. Corydalis hamata in the Hong Shan at 3,700m, south of the Sichuan border, China; June 2011. Camera: Canon PowerShot G12 (compact), lens at a focal length of 6.1mm (28mm equivalent), exposure 1/1000sec at f4, ISO 500. In her notes Joan McCaughey tells us that her subject was photographed in the ideal situation for this plant – by the side of a fast-flowing stream – but on a dull grey day. This says much about the modern compact camera and accompanying software, for even on such a day with poor lighting, the skilled photographer is able to capture a vibrant image, full of highlights and colour. 188

With conventional film this would have been difficult to achieve without the use of flash. Joan has portrayed her subject in a much reduced landscape but it still offers enough detail to tell the story. Corydalis hamata is reputed to be one of the showiest species of its group in nature, sometimes attaining 40cm in height. Perhaps because of its preference for growing in wet alpine screes, however, it is not widely cultivated. CLASS TWO: Portrait of an alpine or rock plant in the wild, featuring the entire plant. First: Liam McCaughey, Ballinderry Upper, Lisburn, N. Ireland. Cypripedium lichiangense in the ‘Blue Moon Valley’, Lijiang, China; June 2011. Camera: Canon EOS 600D (DSLR), lens Sigma 17-70mm macro-zoom at a focal length of 40mm (equivalent 60mm), exposure 1/6sec at f20, ISO 200. Together with his wife Joan, Liam McCaughey shares some of the spoils of this year’s competition with a delightful portrait of Cypripedium lichiangense. It was spotted growing in deep woodland close to a tourist track, where presumably the flower’s camouflage colours had protected it from unwelcome attention. The dim lighting conditions persuaded Liam to use his tripod and remote release to capture all the colours, textures and patterns of the plant in ► First, class two: Cypripedium lichiangense at Lijiang, Yunnan, China (Liam McCaughey) THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Second, class two: Viola biflora at Petit Mont Cenis, France (Bill Raymond)

minute detail, while avoiding any hint of camera shake. The species featured here is available in commerce and can be seen on the show-bench, where it always commands a great deal of admiration. Second: Bill Raymond, Iwerne Minster, Blandford, Dorset, UK. Viola biflora at Lac de Savine, Petit Mont Cenis, France; June 2007. Camera: Canon PowerShot A95 (compact), lens at a focal length of 7.8mm (equivalent 38mm), exposure 1/40sec at f4, ISO 50. Bill Raymond seems to have the ability 190

to elicit the best from both his modest equipment and subjects with a keen photographer’s eye. His portrait of Viola biflora is such an example. Many photographers might have been tempted to take a ‘straight-on’ shot of this unpretentious alpine, but by tilting the viewing angle the composition is immediately improved and flows across the page. By ensuring that the quartzlike rock behind his subject is both sharp and highlighted, Bill adds an even greater substance to the visual story. Viola biflora is a delicate and pretty little mountain violet although it is seldom seen in gardens. Most frequently THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Third, class two: Cyclamen creticum at Lefka Ori, Crete (Alan Pearson)

abounding in woodland, it also colonises moist rock crevices, sometimes at high altitudes, and is in full flower in early summer. Third: Alan Pearson, Gilesgate, Durham, UK. Cyclamen creticum at Lefka Ori, Crete; April 2007. Camera: Olympus E300 (fourthirds DSLR), 50mm 1:2 ED Macro lens (equivalent 100mm), exposure 1/125sec at f4.5, ISO 100. It is often said that sometimes less is more, and Alan Pearson’s simple composition of two single blooms JUNE 2012

of Cyclamen creticum goes some way to illustrating this point. Alan has chosen to isolate his portrait by blurring both foreground and background, leaving just the closely matched floral subjects as the centre of our attention. As both are in the same focal plane, Alan has significantly reduced the depth of field by choosing a wide aperture, thereby rendering only the pale and delicate flowers in sharp relief. Cyclamen creticum is perhaps not the most flamboyant member of the genus, but it is certainly worth growing in the alpine house along with its showier cousins. 191

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION CLASS THREE: Close-up detail of an alpine or rock plant in the wild or in cultivation, with leaves included as appropriate. First and overall 2011 AGS Photographic Competition winner: Annika Korsten, Dunedin, New Zealand. Meconopsis grandis at 2,056m in the Lautaret Alpine Botanic Garden, France; June 2011. Camera: Canon EOS 400D (DSLR), lens at a focal length of 60mm (equivalent 96mm), exposure 1/200 at f6.3, ISO 400. The opportunities for shooting in closeup are wide and varied. Fortunately even the most basic compact cameras have a close-up facility with a minimum focal distance of just a few centimetres. The secret is to choose an interesting subject and then to ensure that the point of focus is exactly where you want it to be because there may be very little leeway as regards depth of field. Annika has chosen to display a dorsal view of one of our most symbolic alpines, the Himalayan blue poppy. She has carefully selected the base of the ovary as her main focal point and then allowed petals and stem to melt away in a suffusion of colour by opting for a modestly wide aperture. Although a seemingly simple composition, it carries great impact, particularly when viewed on a large screen. ◄ First, class three, and overall winner: Meconopsis grandis at Lautaret Alpine Botanic Garden, France (Annika Korsten) JUNE 2012

Second: Cliff Booker, Whitworth, Rochdale, Lancashire, UK. Ophrys speculum in Portugal; February 2009. Camera: Nikon E995 (compact), lens at focal length of 25.7mm (equivalent 122mm), exposure 1/75sec at f4.5, ISO 100. Most of our terrestrial orchids are difficult to photograph with any degree of satisfaction because a whole-plant portrait of a single specimen seldom does justice to the remarkable amount of detail in the individual flowers. For this reason close-up images are much to be preferred, and Cliff Booker’s intimate view of Ophrys speculum allows us to ponder over the wonders of nature. This particular orchid has been christened the mirror orchid, on account of its prominent blue speculum or mirror, and the addition of a generous ‘gilt-frame’ completes the illusion. The clinging droplets of water give this particular image an enhanced artistic quality. For those who wish to grow such orchids at home, they are by and large more suited to the alpine house and frame than the open garden. Third: Celia Sawyer, Oxford, UK. Pulsatilla vulgaris (covered in fine mist) in the photographer’s garden; March 2011. Camera: Nikon Coolpix S8000 (compact), lens at a focal length of 16mm (equivalent 89mm), exposure 1/320sec at f4.4, ISO 200. Few of these competitions pass by without featuring one or other of this delightful genus. In colour, shape and texture they make interesting subjects 193

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Second, class three: Ophrys speculum in Portugal (Cliff Booker)

and Celia clearly appreciates such alluring attributes. A greater softness to the composition has emerged from a coating of fine mist, which under closer inspection can be seen sparkling in the 194

spring sunlight. Not a bad photograph from one of the slimmest compact cameras on the market. Pulsatilla vulgaris is a rare British native usually found growing on dry, calcareous, grassy THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Third, class three: Pulsatilla vulgaris in the photographer’s garden (Celia Sawyer)

slopes in southern parts of the country. It can make a good rock-garden plant, seeding around freely. CLASS FOUR: Alpine fauna in the wild, in a mountain landscape or in association with alpine plants. First: Tony Hughes, Malvern, Worcestershire, UK. Mating pair of black-veined white butterflies (Aporia crataegi) on marsh thistle (Circium palustre); Austria, June 2011. Camera: Pentax K10D (DSLR), 50mm JUNE 2012

focal length macro-lens (equivalent 75mm), exposure 1/60sec at f13, ISO 400. In many ways butterflies are the ‘pulsatillas’ of the animal world: rich in colour, detail and texture. While black-veined whites are far from colourful, their strong outline and bold veins make them ideal subjects for close-up shots. What makes Tony’s photograph special is his discovery of a wonderfully balanced composition of two individuals at ease on the head of a marsh thistle. The black-veined white became extinct in the British Isles in the 195

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

First, class four: Black-veined white butterflies, Austria (Tony Hughes)

early part of the 20th century, but its cousin the green-veined white is quite common. Second: Bill Raymond, Iwerne Minster, Blandford, Dorset, UK. Milkweed bugs (Tropidothorax leucopterus) in the Jura Mountains, France; August 2011. Camera: Canon PowerShot S95 (compact), lens at a focal length of 15mm (equivalent 70mm), exposure 1/80sec at f4, ISO 80. 196

Bill Raymond’s melee of milkweed bugs resonates with colour, energy and, moreover, danger. Bill always employs his compact cameras to good effect and in this example combines pin-point focusing with intense colour saturation and contrast. Any soft areas of focus result from the movement of the insects themselves and not from the camera, and rather than detracting from the composition this adds to the feeling of vitality. The intense red and black livery confirms danger as the bugs THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Second, class four: Milkweed bugs in the Jura Mountains, France (Bill Raymond)

feed on plants such as Vincetoxicum and Asclepias and they are likely to be toxic to a number of potential predators. Third: Roger Brownbridge, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, UK. Capra ibex above Gornergletscher, Zermatt, Switzerland; July 2011. Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ28 (compact), lens at a focal length of 68.7mm (equivalent 387mm), exposure 1/400sec at f6.7, ISO 100. The versatility of compact digital JUNE 2012

cameras is well demonstrated in the second of Roger’s prize-winning entries in this competition. The Panasonic DMC-FZ28 features an 18x optical zoom range, meaning that it is possible to progress from a wide-angle to telephoto view at the press of a button, without having to fumble about changing lenses. Compared with a DSLR fitted with an external lens of a similar optical range, there is a small penalty to pay in terms of overall image quality but the results are still quite impressive. Even from 197

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

tens of metres away, Roger’s ibex is bright and well-focused with only a low level of softening in outline and detail. The good news is that technology has already advanced, providing compacts with 35x optical zoom. CLASS FIVE: The Art Gallery – a photographic work of alpine artistry, using advanced software techniques to create an artistic image. First: Steve Clayton, Ripponden, Halifax, Yorkshire, UK. ‘Queen of the Alps’ – an abstract of Eryngium alpinum. Camera: Nikon D700 (full frameDSLR), Nikon VR 28-300mm lens at 198

a focal length of 122mm (equivalent 183mm), exposure 1,000sec at f11 (-1 EV), ISO 400. Digital enhancements made in Photoshop CS. This strikingly tri-tonal (three-coloured) digitally enhanced image of an ‘alpine sea holly’ is a simple yet strong composition. Steve adopted a series of well-executed steps to create his vision of the ‘Queen of the Alps’. The process involved using layers in which the original photograph was reduced to monochrome before enhancing contrast; using the Find Edges command to give a black and white outline to the flowers; blending layers together using the transparency mode; adding a tritone effect using black-blue, pale blue and a very pale yellow; and finally erasing THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

◄ Third, class four: Capra ibex at Zermatt, Switzerland (Roger Brownbridge) ► First, class five: ‘Queen of the Alps’ – an abstract of Eryngium alpinum (Steve Clayton)

any intruding background elements and making minor adjustments in contrast. Second: Tony Duffey, Southport, Merseyside, UK. Jacobean lily (Sprekelia): palette knife abstract. Camera: Pentax MZ7 (SLR film), original film image taken in the studio JUNE 2012

on Kodak Elitechrome Extra Colour and scanned to computer. Digital enhancements made in Photoshop Elements 9.0. It is not necessary to own a digital camera to participate in the art of digital manipulation – film images can be used once they have been scanned. With the appropriate equipment, this 199

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

◄ Second, class five: Sprekelia abstract (Tony Duffey) ► Third, class five: ‘Anty Meridian Mirage’ ex Conanthera urceolata (John Watson)

can be done at home or commercially, and your most precious images need never be swept away on a tide of technology. The process can be easy, provided the film is undamaged and free from dirt, fingerprints, scratches and fungal contamination. From his 200

original image, Tony has cut-out and layered his floral portrait of a Sprekelia on to a textured abstract background, before applying a palette knife filter to create an ‘artistic’ effect. He has completed the transformation by using levels and adjusting for colour. THE ALPINE GARDENER

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Third: John Watson, Los Andes, Chile. ‘Anty Meridian Mirage’ ex Conanthera urceolata. Camera: Nikon D80 (DSLR), lens at a focal length of 135mm (equivalent 202mm), exposure 1/500sec at f5.6, ISO 180. Digital enhancements made in ACDSee 8.0 software. John admits that he likes to fiddle about with images for his own amusement and relaxation, and thought it would be satisfying to share some of his experiences with a wider audience, rather than just friends and family. This entry represented one of his more recent self-consciously deliberate, multi-stage attempts at creating effects. JUNE 2012

He began by choosing a promising model – the neat tree-like form of the tiny Conanthera with its tidily packed bells and accompanying ant, but found the original colours rather dull and the background confused and uninspiring. The latter was corrected by exposure manipulation resulting in a paler, otherworldly version, but one which needed stronger colour highlights. By now the image had taken on a desert-like appearance so John added a sun spot and water effect to simulate a mirage. The Conanthera had transmuted into a fanciful willow tree rooted somewhere between terra-firma and an ethereal lake. 201

PLANT PROFILE

Over the past 20 years or so, a creditable number of adventurous AGS members have travelled to the high mountains of western China in search of the plants made famous by Delavay, Franchet, Farrer, Forrest, Kingdon Ward and other pioneers. Liz Knowles has followed in their footsteps: her encounters with a plant ascribable to Farrer’s Omphalogramma viola-grandis are introduced with background notes by Robert Rolfe.

un-seekers and those who spend torrid evenings charcoaling steaks on a barbeque define poor summers as those during which rain falls frequently, sometimes torrentially, and weather reports fail to start with that greatly over-used phrase: ‘Phew, what a scorcher.’ ‘Poor’ summers, on the other hand, certainly cheer those gardeners who strive to cultivate plants that struggle and shrivel when challenged by drought and sweltering conditions of any duration. Many Sino-Himalayan plants come into the reckoning on this score, their tenure in cultivation threatened periodically by heatstroke more than any other factor. True, the British climate (more accurately climates, and only some of these) gives gardeners greater scope than that which Mediterranean France would afford the woman who, upon seeing splendid clumps of Meconopsis and Nomocharis at a flower show, announced a determination to grow them in the garden of her villa close to Nice. However, even in favoured areas such as the Scottish Borders, temperatures can exceptionally soar to over 30C. One

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On the trail of the holy grail in China such occurrence is all it takes to put paid to the best efforts of even the best gardener. This is the principal reason why repeatedly reintroduced genera such as Omphalogramma, first cousins of Primula and with flowers that have been likened to opulent pinguiculas and singleflowered Streptocarpus among others, tend to peter out even in the most suitable gardens. That said, in Scotland, historically their most favoured exile, one or two grew so heartily that the orthodox advice was to split huge clumps to induce freer flowering. Sampson Clay wrote of their ‘ramping triumph’ and ‘luxuriance THE ALPINE GARDENER

OMPHALOGRAMMA

Omphalogramma viola-grandis photographed by Liz Knowles at Da Xue Shan

in Perth and Edinburgh’, while older gardeners recall that once they were field-grown (let’s not get carried away here – more accurately thriving rows were cultivated in the open ground, kept well fed and watered) and offered at a reduced rate if bought in quantity. In the 1969-70 catalogue of Jack Drake’s Inshriach Alpine Plant Nursery JUNE 2012

at Aviemore, Omphalogramma minus (the species most often available from that source, certainly until 1992) was listed at three shillings and sixpence each, or ten shillings for three. Jack recommended it ‘for a cool peaty soil in semi-shade’. This was the second cheapest price band – humble Dianthus deltoides cost the same. For comparison, Nomocharis 203

PLANT PROFILE saluensis would have set you back all of five shillings, and dwarf rhododendrons around twice that figure. By 1978 the ominous word ‘rare’ had been added to the Omphalogramma minus description, though it was still offered at a discount if you ordered three. In Jack’s autumn supplement that year it was joined by O. vinciflorum (spellings vary, vincaeflora or vincaeiflora sometimes being preferred: vinciflorum is the Flora of China listing). Its ‘spectacular rich violet bloom’ was likened to ‘an enormous violet’. And three years later three species were listed, all at a single price which was, reflecting the inflationary 1970s, 15 times the 1969 price. The newcomer was O. elegans from Xizang, north-west Yunnan and north Myanmar, described thus: ‘Spectacular violet trumpets in spring. Not easy in the south but worth every effort.’ Around the same time Edrom Nurseries of Berwickshire was surely the other most constant commercial outlet for would-be cultivators. Jim Jermyn’s 1984-85 catalogue (he took over from the renowned Alex Duguid, who retired in 1978) listed all three of the foregoing. Jim advised that they ‘do best in a peaty soil, or ... at the base of a peat block in part shade. ‘They die back completely in winter and generally all that can be seen is a small resting bud near the surface of the soil. It is wise to protect these in winter with a cloche or perhaps a handful of dry larch litter. The exotic flowers are almost reminiscent of a Gloxinia but more refined!’ In Jim’s spring 1984, autumn 1985 and spring/summer 1986 lists they 204

were also for sale, though never en bloc thereafter. Instead he tempted his customers (1992-93) with a Nepalese reintroduction of O. elwesiana EMAK 663, ‘from steep slopes around 4,300m’, and then (1994-95) O. delavayi from the Kunming-Gothenburg Botanical Expedition to north-west Yunnan of 1993 (KGB 800). Since he was asking £7.50 a pop for the latter, one can understand the enthusiastic catalogue entry, though it has been termed relatively ‘second rate’ and ‘a rather dingy pink’ by others familiar with the genus in the wild. Thereafter plants were fitfully available from nurseries such as Glendoick Gardens, Perth. In their 1995-96 list O. delavayi can be found, along with O. vinciflorum, described as ‘perhaps the easiest species’, echoing a long-held opinion in this regard. Well, all things are relative. The number of gardeners still lucky enough to boast that they grow it by the yard can surely be counted on the fingers of one hand, not necessarily using up that quota. ‘Easy’ seems a rather glib adjective, as does ‘common’, an assessment sometimes given in relation to the occurrences of the most widely distributed of the genus, O. vinciflorum. It is most often cited as from north-west Yunnan and north and west Sichuan, though Reginald Farrer, for example, back in 1914 found it in Gansu. It also extends its range into east Xizang (Tibet), colonising damp meadows and shrubberies at 2,200-4,600m (7,20015,100ft). As the following account by Liz Knowles attests (her beautiful THE ALPINE GARDENER

OMPHALOGRAMMA photograph gave rise to these notes), such reports of its being ‘common’ are somewhat exaggerated: ‘We found omphalogrammas in two separate locations on the road from Zhongdian to Da Xue Shan in early June. Our first stop was only about 30 minutes out of Zhongdian, when we noticed Thermopsis smithiana beside the road in scrubby bush, alongside Rhododendron hippophaeoides and, a short walk back over a stream, Podophyllum hexandrum and that encouragingly

‘

On a steep, well-drained, south-facing scrubby hillside we found at most 15 omphalogrammas

’

successful garden plant Corydalis pachycentra. ‘Just beyond, I chanced on the first of two omphalogrammas, a “holy grail” for me, for I had failed to find any on previous trips to Yunnan and Sichuan, even though I had been there at exactly the same time of year. ‘After these two mediocre specimens, we discovered far better plants an hour’s drive beyond Wengshui and 700m (3,000ft) higher up than the first group. As we drove up the road to Da Xue Shan, we stopped at a bend at 3,800m (12,500ft), just after witnessing a bank covered with Androsace rigida. We recorded five primulas in the immediate vicinity: Primula involucrata JUNE 2012

subsp. yargongensis, P. bryophila, P. secundiflora and P. sikkimensis were closer to the road in wet seeps, while a fifth (P. minor var. graminifolia according to some authorities) was also in fine form. In wet places the wide-ranging marsh marigold, Caltha palustris, was abundant, while on a steep, well-drained, southfacing scrubby hillside we found at most 15 omphalogrammas.’ George Forrest introduced Omphalogramma vinciflorum, along with O. elegans and O. elwesiana, his collections enduring for many years, though in all likelihood bolstered by those made later by Frank Ludlow and George Sherriff. Farrer was less fortunate, for he came upon plants of O. vinciflora sensu lato ‘late upon its final scene . . . the four or five last capsules lingering on the mountainside, with the seed lying loose in its saucer, at the mercy of any moment’s flow of wind or dash of hail’. Neither the plants dug up, nor their fugitive seed, came to anything. But along with his co-collector William Purdom, Farrer coined the name O. viola-grandis, precisely descriptive but unjustly cast aside into synonymy. It relates to versions of the amalgam O. vinciflorum that are relatively short, densely downy of leaf, and of scape, too. The broadly notched corona can be as much as 5cm wide and well deserves the description ‘splendid’, for all that Sampson Clay considered it a ‘little’, ‘dry ground’ ecotype.  The authors are grateful to Dr Christopher Grey-Wilson and Professor John Richards for their kindly advice. 205

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rocus speciosus was described by Marshall Bieberstein in 1800 from material collected in the central Caucasus. At present it is the most widely cultivated autumnblooming Crocus, which as well as being very attractive is also adaptable to various conditions. It is widespread from Crimea (Ukraine) throughout the Caucasus and into Turkey and Iran. In the late 1980s an isolated population was found in a very disjunct location (altitude 500m, 1,640ft) in Fokida, Greece, far from any other known populations, but no living material was obtainable for further research and at present it is not possible to judge the taxonomic status of these outliers. Another reference to C. speciosus in Greece (in Ipiros) was made by Brian Mathew in his 1983 taxonomic survey of the genus in Greece. Plants from Fokida seen by the author looked quite distinctive, with a pure, even glistening white flower tube, and in this aspect strongly resembled the specimens from another population found by a team from Istanbul University in the central Taurus Mountains of Turkey. In order to determine their status, DNA research was needed. When compared with 45 various samples of Crocus speciosus (from the whole range of distribution of this species, starting from Crimea through to Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey) and all the known cultivars, none had a comparably coloured perianth tube. In all the other forms, including the very rare albinos, the flower tubes were creamy yellowish or

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A revision of Crocus speciosus in Turkey and Iran Jānis Rukšāns, the author of the 2010 book Crocuses: A Complete Guide to the Genus, describes a new taxon from Turkey, Crocus speciosus subsp. ibrahimii, and gives a new description of Crocus speciosus subsp. archibaldii dirty white, variously speckled, striped or shaded grey or purple. Crocus speciosus generally occurs from 800m (2,600ft) up to 2,350m (7,700ft). It is a plant of moist meadows, preferring somewhat sheltered positions near trees or sparse scrubland where it flowers magnificently in deep grass and in more open spots. I have seen it growing abundantly under large trees (on Tschatir Dağ, Crimea; near Tbilisi, Georgia; near Lake Abant, Turkey) but it also thrives in open places, for THE ALPINE GARDENER

CROCUS SPECIOSUS

Crocus speciosus subsp. speciosus from Crimea, Ukraine

example, in Iran. The greatest variability occurs in northern and western parts of Turkey, through to as far south as Antalya Province (Tahtali Dağlari). Crocus speciosus is variable but the cultivated forms closely resemble the large-blooming forms distributed mostly in the Russian Caucasus with a mid lilac-blue colour and a muchbranched, very prominent orange style. Several cultivars were raised by Van Tubergen in Holland and in recent years by some amateurs (L. Bondarenko in Lithuania and Z. Basmajyan in Armenia), mostly as selections from wild forms. Excellent illustrations are given by George Maw in his JUNE 2012

monograph (1886) where he recognises two forms of Crocus speciosus based on the stigmatic branches, differentiated by drooping ends in forms from near Tbilisi (Georgia) and erect ones in other populations. Actually, this feature is very variable and in some populations you can observe forms with all manner of stigmatic branch position. The pistil was characterised by Maw as branching at the tips of the anthers and with the stigmatic branches well overtopping the anthers, the throat glabrous (white), the anthers yellow to orange and papillose. Crocus speciosus was known only from the type subspecies until the 1970s. 207

PLANT PROFILE In 1972 in Turkey, A. & T. Baytop collected small-flowering specimens on Ilgaz Dağ with a much less branched stigma (6-8 branches) that usually was exceeded by the anthers. A different variant was discovered in 1979 by Mertens, Pasche & Richter in Sinop Province with a deep yellow throat and a much-branched stigma positioned below the tips of anthers. These forms were described by Brian Mathew in his 1982 monograph as subsp. ilgazensis and subsp. xantholaimos. In 2008 I collected a few Crocus speciosus corms in several locations on the Kuhha-ye-Tales mountain ridge in Ardabil Province in north-west Iran. When these flowered, surprisingly they had a very unusual pattern of colouring, being predominantly white on their exteriors but with minutely branched, comparatively wide lilac stripes longitudinally. Open flowers showed a bright yellow throat as in subsp. xantholaimos although slightly lighter in shade. The stigma was less branched than in the type subspecies and resembled that of subsp. ilgazensis. This combination of features allowed me to describe this Iranian population as a new subsp. archibaldii in my 2010 monograph. Recent DNA research carried out on Crocus speciosus subsp. archibaldii by Dr Doerte Harpke at Leibnitz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Gatersleben, Germany, produced surprising results. Six sequence divergences were identified between C. pulchellus and C. speciosus (sampled in Gatersleben) and in three positions subsp. archibaldii corresponded to C. 208

Crocus speciosus subsp. archibaldii

pulchellus and, in another three, to C. speciosus. So this subspecies could be of hybrid origin or it might also be the progenitor of both species. The natural occurrence of such a hybrid is impossible, for the two taxa are separated by more than 1,000km (620 miles). In the first season of growing under garden conditions the stigmatic branches of Crocus speciosus subsp. archibaldii were positioned below the tips of anthers but in the following years they exceeded them. Presumably this was a result of the interruption in the normal development of flower parts during the rest period due to the early collection of corms in the wild. The development of the next season’s flowers starts after the end of vegetation and depends on the temperature regime during the dry summer rest. For this reason the original description of subsp. archibaldii is corrected here. In the first description it was stated that THE ALPINE GARDENER

CROCUS SPECIOSUS

The seeds of Crocus speciosus subsp. ibrahimii, left, and C. pulchellus

subsp. archibaldii forms its leaves in autumn soon after the end of flowering. This feature cannot be used to separate it from the type subspecies as some forms (cultivars) of subsp. speciosus under favourable conditions (a long and atypically warm autumn) in cultivation form leaves in autumn, too. Therefore a new corrected Latin diagnosis is needed for this taxon. Crocus speciosus subsp. archibaldii Rukšāns subsp. nova, subsp. xantholaimos (fauce intense lutea) similis autem styli ramis paucis (atque subsp. ilgazensis) sed antheras multo superantes et flores colores ordinatione diversa (fasciatus non venosus). Typus: Iran, Kuhha-ye Tales, between Nav and Khalkhal, steep mountain slopes just before pass, 2,080m. 2008-27-04, Rukšāns, WHIR-129 (GB, holo, ex culturae in Horto Jānis Rukšāns, 2009-09-15) Ic.: Crocuses. A complete guide to the Genus (Portland, OR, 2010), plates 25, 26; The Alpine Gardener, 2012, pages 208-209. JUNE 2012

n its more western areas of distribution, Crocus speciosus is replaced by C. pulchellus, included by Brian Mathew (1982) in the same series, Speciosi. Their close affinity is confirmed by DNA research and by the fact that both hybridise quite easy in cultivation. C. pulchellus is smaller in size than its closest relative C. speciosus and with a pale, clearer lilac-blue base colour of the flowers. The most important morphological differences are the dark yellow, even orange throat (C. speciosus subsp. xantholaimos is rather similar, but paler), the hairy filaments (papillose or nude in C. speciosus) and the white anthers (yellow in C. speciosus). The flowers of C. pulchellus have pronounced delicate veining but they are never speckled or dotted on the outside as is common in C. speciosus. In 2006 an amateur botanist, Ibrahim Sözen from Istanbul, took pictures of 209

PLANT PROFILE an interesting Crocus in several localities of Turkey-in-Europe which at first (judging by the white anthers, hairy filaments and yellow throat) seemed to be Crocus pulchellus. However, the general appearance of the flowers - the size, petal colouring, branching of the stigma and its position compared with the anthers - more resembled those of C. speciosus. So there was conjecture that these represented a natural hybrid between C. pulchellus and C. speciosus, but no specimens of typical C. speciosus were found even after a thorough search of the vicinity. I conclude that they represent a new subspecies of C. speciosus, hitherto unknown to science, which I here name in honour of its discoverer as C. speciosus subsp. ibrahimii. It is quite widespread in nature, and is found in several localities starting from around 60km (37 miles) west of Istanbul and as far as the Bulgarian border. It would not be surprising to learn that it grows in Bulgaria, too. Most likely it was simply overlooked and regarded earlier as C. pulchellus on account of the colour of the anthers and the pubescent filaments. The main features separating this newly described C. speciosus subspecies from C. pulchellus are the much-branched orange to red stigma distinctly overtopping the anthers (never evidenced in C. pulchellus); the outside of the perianth segments

dotted and feathered as in C. speciosus (such a colour type has never been observed in C. pulchellus); the yellow colour in the throat less bright than in C. pulchellus, sometimes pale yellow or with a darker, diffused greyish-yellow zone at the edge of the throat. In cultivation this new crocus always blooms in synchrony with other C. speciosus forms, well before C. pulchellus. The seed coat colour is also different: in Crocus pulchellus and other subspecies of C. speciosus it is distinctly reddish brown but in subsp. ibrahimii a much paler, buff or yellowish-brown coloration is typical. The hairy filaments and white anthers as well as the geographical isolation clearly separate it from other forms of C. speciosus. Crocus speciosus subsp. ibrahimii Rukšāns subsp. nov., a subsp. specioso antherae alba quam filamenta flava hispida, semina bubalinus differt. Typus: Turkey, Yildiz Daģlari, near Çanakça, 2008-10-12, alt. 100 m, I. Sözen (GB, holo ex culturae in Horto Ibrahim Sözen, 2011-12-10). Ic: The Alpine Gardener, 2012, pages 209-211.  I would like to thank Ibrahim Sözen for giving me the information about this Crocus and for the kind permission to use the pictures taken by him in the wild, Dr. Doerte Harpke for her DNA research, and David Stephens for sharing with me the information about Crocus speciosus in Greece.

References: Mathew, B. 1982. The Crocus. A Revision of the Genus Crocus (Iridaceae), B.T. Batsford; 1983. The Greek species of Crocus (Iridaceae), a taxonomic survey. Annales Musei Goulandris. Vol. 6: 63--86. Maw, G. 1886. A Monograph of the Genus Crocus, Dulau & Co. 210

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CROCUS SPECIOSUS

Crocus speciosus subsp. ibrahimii at Canakca, west of Istanbul JUNE 2012

211

AUTUMN SOUTH SHOW

Golden flowers lift the premier award SEPTEMBER 24, 2011 Report: Mary Randall Pictures: Jon Evans

he first of the autumn shows was blessed with bright sunshine throughout the day, bringing welcome light to both plant and photographic exhibits. The show relied fairly heavily on the ‘background’ foliage plants and the well-supported bulbous classes. Several exhibitors commented that the season had been very difficult for both gentians and Cyclamen, although looking at Ian Robertson’s excellent specimens of the latter, one would not have known. His Cyclamen graecum subsp. anatolicum, a Farrer Medal contender, was awarded

the Saunders Spoon for the best of its genus (it is pictured on the back cover of this issue of The Alpine Gardener). The premier award went to a magnificent pan of golden Sternbergia greuteriana shown by Lee and Julie Martin. This started life as three bulbs bought from that doyenne of the AGS, the late Kath Dryden, some seven years ago, and is repotted every other year in one part loam, one part leafmould, two parts grit, half a part of coarse sand and perlite, with a dash of garden lime. By 2011 it had increased to give a display of around 300 flowers, a figure unprecedented on the show bench. Also of interest was Lee and Julie’s pan of the same species in the seed-raised classes, grown from seed of

Three specimens of Cyclamen mirabile shown by Cecilia Coller in a seedraised class displayed lovely colour variation

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Sternbergia greuteriana won a Farrer Medal for Lee and Julie Martin, with many of the 300 or so flowers still in bud

the main stock sown in 2005. As with so many seed-raised plants, there were minor differences between parent and progeny. In the small-pan Open Section seed class, a trio of C. mirabile, grown by Cecilia Coller, displayed entrancing mixtures of greens and contrasting rose-pink edgings. Bob and Rannveig Wallis staged a lovely C. graecum subsp. graecum, derived from a Melvyn Jope collection (MELJ 9056) made near Rhodopou, Crete. The plant had chubby, mid-pink flowers and heart-shaped leaves with minimal internal markings but thinly outlined with a deep reddish margin. Bob and Rannveig showed their usual eclectic mix of interesting bulbous material, including a huddle of Biarum marmarisense which was awarded a JUNE 2012

Certificate of Merit. Each dwarf, creamy, candle-like spathe had a brown wick within the throat. This species has pleasantly scented flowers. Close by, basking in the sunshine, were the rich velvety maroon and much longer floral fantasies of B. pyrami, their fairly vile smell providing an unwelcome contrast with the former. The same exhibitors showed a pot of Narcissus elegans, elegant by name and elegant by nature. The snowy-white petals, slightly green streaked at the centre, surrounded light khaki coronas. This North African endemic is often shy-flowering and is best disturbed as little as possible. It is rarely repotted, and instead its top layer of compost is gently removed down to the bulb tops and replaced. Predictably, a warm dry summer suits it best. 213

AUTUMN SOUTH SHOW

Biarum marmarisense won a Certificate of Merit for Bob and Rannveig Wallis

The Keith Moorhouse Trophy for the best plant in a 19cm pot was won by Ian Robertson’s beautiful pan of another dwarf daffodil from the same general region, Narcissus cavanillesii. This was not the same pot shown last year, but instead a dozen or so bulbs separated from that clump had burgeoned spectacularly and were flowering more generously still. It was part of a small six-pan entry that also included a remarkably even group of Crocus mathewii seedlings from a sowing six years ago, all with that pleasing contrast between the vibrant violet throat and white perianth segments, though they had peaked the day before. Many crocuses are only at their best for a few days, even if you ‘cheat’ and put them in a refrigerator. Reflecting the season, as they do at any autumn show, were the entries in the class for a plant ‘in cone, seed, fruit 214

or showing autumn-coloured foliage’, several of them excelling in the last of these categories. The winner was a delicate, multi-hued but predominately reddish Aruncus dioicus ‘Noble Spirit’, brought from the Isle of Wight by Ivan Pinnick. In a keenly contested three-pan cushion class, Paul and Gill Ranson exhibited Myosotis albosericea (pictured on the inside front cover), showing softly silver-tipped, grey-green leaves, the exhibitors observing that they had never before grown such an immaculately hemispherical specimen. A rarity from the Dunstan Mountains of Central Otago, New Zealand, it produces lemon-yellow flowers in May and June, but like most of the genus is relatively short-lived. Collecting the frugal amount of seed typically set is imperative. Fortunately, this germinates THE ALPINE GARDENER

The autumn colour of Aruncus dioicus ‘Noble Spirit’, grown by Ivan Pinnick

both readily and quickly, the plants relishing the sort of gritty mixture these expert growers use for dionysias. Positioned in a drier part of the alpine house, it is nearly as striking in foliage as in flower. Gaultheria mucronata ‘Mulberry Wine’ is an RHS Award of Garden Merit plant and Clive Dart’s beautifully furnished specimen fully endorsed this recommendation by covering itself in fruits of all sizes. The newly formed berries were tiny green dots, gradually changing hue from pale to deeper rose-pink. Grown in equal parts of fine grit, perlite, John Innes No. 2 and leaf-mould, it is a plant that needs to be grown outdoors (perhaps with slight shade in southern England) rather than under glass and is better lifted for exhibition rather than pot-grown from year to year. JUNE 2012

Gaultheria mucronata ‘Mulberry Wine’ 215

NEWCASTLE SHOW

Ensure that silvers and greys aren’t too green OCTOBER 8, 2011 Report: Don Peace Pictures: Peter Maguire

his show alternates between AGS and SRGC rules, and this time the event was under Scottish jurisdiction. A total of 50 exhibitors descended on Ponteland from the far north and the deep south (and some from a little nearer), with the Forrest Medal plant travelling a mere 35 miles south from Powburn in Northumberland. David Boyd has shown us several nerines in recent years and his Nerine humilis was a very worthy winner, shrugging off the almost inevitable questioning of its hardiness. Anything from 10-40cm tall in the wild, it is a Cape lowlander, very convincingly masquerading as an alpine. While there was a good quantity of colourful flowers on the benches, primarily from crocuses, cyclamen and gentians, autumn shows often provide greater emphasis than usual on foliage and form, represented by cushion plants, sempervivums, ferns, conifers and autumnal coloration. The classes for ‘silver or grey foliage’ (and conversely those that exclude silver or grey) often cause lively debate at judging time when trying to decide if entries are sufficiently silver or grey. Otherwise excellent foliage plants 216

Nerine humilis, which won a Forrest Medal for David Boyd

can be relegated for being more green than silver. Opinions differ about the dividing line between silver/grey and non-silver/grey, but an easy rule of thumb would be ‘the more silver/grey the better’. John Bunn demonstrated a good combination in the three-pan class for silver or grey foliage – all sufficiently the right side of borderline to please the judges. The Millennium Trophy for the best foliage plant was won by Celmisia longifolia (Brian and Shelagh Smethurst), THE ALPINE GARDENER

Celmisia longifolia won the Millennium Trophy for the best foliage plant for Brian and Shelagh Smethurst

an exhibit with no concerns about its silver credentials, which were needed to win its class although not a requirement for this particular trophy. Conversely, in a class for foliage excluding silver or grey, George Young showed Brachyglottis bidwillii ‘Basil Fox’. Its previous tag of Senecio bidwillii is probably more helpful in determining its place within the plant kingdom. A compact evergreen shrub from New Zealand, this has yet to flower for the exhibitor although this may be of little consequence since it clearly performs well as a foliage plant and the flowers are often devoid of ray florets. The brownygreen felted leaves can be difficult to keep pristine: George reports that if they get scuffed or nibbled by pests, the damage is nigh impossible to repair. Forms of Saxifraga fortunei are often JUNE 2012

seen at this show since they are reliably autumn flowering. Their foliage, however, can often be striking, as Saxifraga fortunei ‘Silver Velvet’ (Stan da Prato) demonstrated. Perhaps these rather dark and sombre-leaved plants are only noticed on a second or third pass of the show hall but once they do come into focus their value as foliage plants becomes clear. Edrom Nurseries have sometimes listed it. Petrocosmeas have become popular in recent years despite mutterings about adequate hardiness and this show now has a Gesneriaceae class to accommodate them. A plant of Petrocosmea sericea won the day for (joint) show secretary Alan Newton, prompting others to obtain this species from the Aberconwy Nursery sales stand. Darren Sleep exhibited several small 217

NEWCASTLE SHOW

Brachyglottis bidwillii ‘Basil Fox’ exhibited by George Young

Christine Boulby’s Primula scotica 218

plants of Massonia pygmaea subsp. kamiesbergensis. Like the petrocosmeas, this genus enjoys increasing popularity but often creates similar concerns about its hardiness. The plants were obtained from the South African Bulb Group exchange several years ago and had survived their leaves being frozen on numerous occasions. However, frost is generally excluded from the greenhouse. The Kamiesberg is one of the colder parts of western South Africa and the higher areas frequently experience frost and snow, so this taxon should have a good degree of frost hardiness. Cultivation is straightforward using equal parts of John Innes No. 2 and lime-free grit, although pH levels are not crucial. Christine Boulby won the trophy for the most points in the Intermediate THE ALPINE GARDENER

Sue Gill’s Cyclamen mirabile was judged the best plant in Sections B and C

Section and I was particularly taken with her plant of Primula scotica. This won her a first prize and would surely have also won the prize for smallest plant in the show had there been one. As a short-lived species that does not bulk up, this is usually exhibited as several seedlings planted together in a larger pot. This tiny plant forced onlookers to enjoy the individual splendour of this native species instead of the overall impression afforded by a mass planting. As expected there were several impressive Cyclamen in the large-pan classes but it was the small pans that carried off the trophies. Sue Gill won the Newcastle Trophy with a lovely plant of Cyclamen mirabile, while Derek Pickard won the Ewesley Salver with his Cyclamen graecum. A new cut-flower class for ‘five JUNE 2012

varieties of alpine plants in fruit, cone or seed’ attracted three good entries, but two of these were deemed to contain material from plants that were not sufficiently alpine. Accordingly, only a first prize was awarded. Judges never like to disregard entries but in this new class it was felt important to establish the ground rules. An outstanding display entitled A Walk on the Wild Side put together by the North East England AGS Group was given a Gold Award. Those who remember a similar display from the same team at the Northumberland (Hexham) Show in the spring, which was given a Large Gold award, may think this decision was a downgrade. Not so, since Gold is the highest award under the Scottish system. 219

SOUTH WALES SHOW

Vibrant bulbs shake off a blast of winter FEBRUARY 18, 2012 Report: Graham Nicholls Pictures: Jon Evans

fter a relatively mild January, a blast of authentic winter came just a week before the show, moderating to damp, windy conditions on the day of the event. This topsyturvy weather discomfited many plants and most likely gave show secretaries Bob and Rannveig Wallis a few sleepless nights. They need not have worried: the car park, which I expected to find fairly empty, was nearly full.

The usual large Dionysia and Cyclamen exhibits were reduced. Instead the swathes of colour came from many vibrant spring bulbs, demonstrating that nature often comes to the rescue when all seems lost. The Farrer Medal went to a magnificent clump of Galanthus plicatus ‘Sophie North’ staged by Don Peace. Championed by Evelyn Stevens (see page 162), it was taken to an RHS show in 1996 and immediately entranced snowdrop experts. At that time identified as G. plicatus subsp. byzantinus, it was subsequently named

Cyclamen alpinum forma leucanthum won a Certificate of Merit for David Richards 220

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in memory of a girl killed in the Dunblane Primary School tragedy. A sturdy snowdrop of short stature, with distinctly broad, glaucous leaves and large flowers, it is an outstanding clone. Ian Robertson reliably brings along excellent Cyclamen to this show. A large Cyclamen coum, smothered with flowers, demonstrated his patience and skill. Grown from seed listed with the qualifier ‘Nymans’ in the Cyclamen Society’s seed exchange, it had been sown in October 1995. He covers the bottom of the pot with 1-2cm of pumice, topping up with a mixture of John Innes No. 2, perlite and composted beech leaves, with a little bonemeal. The top of the tuber is positioned 2-3cm below the surface, which is topdressed with grit. The pot occupies a sand plunge, but is removed from time to time and dunked in a ‘bath’ of water up to the level of the tuber’s base, JUNE 2012

Don Peace’s Farrer Medal-winning pan of Galanthus plicatus ‘Sophie North’

especially at flowering time. A quarterstrength solution of Tomorite is given twice, in March. The leaves are removed as they turn yellow. In early July, the top layers of grit and compost are removed to two-thirds the way down the tuber and replaced. And that’s all there is to it! Another Cyclamen that caught my eye was staged by David Richards in the small-pan section and was awarded a Certificate of Merit. Cyclamen alpinum forma leucanthum grows in southwestern Turkey and surely could never be as floriferous in the wild as it was here. Seed collected from another of David’s plants was sown in 2002 and cultivation is similar to the regimen employed by Ian Robertson. The compost used is 50 per cent John 221

SOUTH WALES SHOW

Colchicum kesselringii, another fine exhibit from Don Peace

Crocus reticulatus subsp. reticulatus 222

Innes No. 2 and a 50 per cent mixture of vermiculite, bark, leaf-mould and pine needles. Watering is very carefully carried out with the pot stood in a tray for ten minutes when the plant is clearly thirsty. Extra care is necessary in winter, for if kept too wet the roots rot off. A very attractive grouping of Colchicum kesselringii was exhibited by Don Peace and received the show’s other Certificate of Merit. Obtained from Jānis Rukšāns as a single tuber, it proved very slow to bulk up, resulting in a long wait for a good potful. Grown in Don’s basic bulb mix of two parts John Innes No. 2 and one part grit, it has white, sometimes pink-suffused flowers (several per corm) in February and March, each tepal distinctively blazed with a purple median stripe. Narrow leaves provide a delicate foil. THE ALPINE GARDENER

The rare Iranian native Dionysia viva was shown by Eric Jarrett

As with all the spring-bloomers, it needs good drainage and full sun. Its habitat is montane steppe in Central Asia. A plant rarely seen on the showbench, Crocus reticulatus subsp. reticulatus, was staged as a non-competitive exhibit by Robert Rolfe. Of Serbian origin and with wispy-tipped flowers of good size, feathered blackish-purple on their exteriors, this 1988 find multiplies well under glass. It comes from an altitude of just 150m (500ft) and is happier indoors than outside, allowing its fragrance to be savoured. Known from localities as far apart as northern Italy and the Caucasus, its flowers, white in this form, can also be various shades of lilac. The aforementioned Jānis Rukšāns, one of the few nurserymen to list stock, has a bright lilac-blue, heavily striped version from Moldova. JUNE 2012

In the new and rare classes, Dionysia viva, exhibited by Eric Jarrett, reminded me of D. aretioides (it appears to be unrelated), the first species I grew when trying – and failing – to master these plants. Originally collected, under licence, by Dieter Zschummel on the T4Z 2002 expedition to the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, it remains rare in cultivation, despite being one of the ‘easier’ species. Considered by Magnus Lidén to be closely related to D. bornmuelleri and placed by him in Section Dionysiopsis, it differs in being smaller and less hairy and is also wellseparated on floral characters. Grown in an alpine house in a compost of 80 per cent grit, perlite and coarse sand, mixed with 20 per cent John Innes No.2, this was surely its most distinguished public appearance to date. 223

EARLY SPRING SHOW

Corydalis falls just short of a Farrer MARCH 3, 2012 Report: Mary Randall Pictures: Jon Evans and Doug Joyce

ardeners, like fishermen, are often accused of exaggeration when the topics of the weather or their plants’ performances crop up in conversation. That said, the early months of this year were clearly difficult for exhibitors, as evidenced at Harlow. A mild start in January led to precocious partial flowering, of dionysias in particular. Whereas in favourable winters these early blooms last for weeks in good condition, adding significantly

to the total when the main flowering takes place, this year a widespread, very cold snap finished off many of them. Not since the early 1980s has there been an Early Spring Show when no Farrer Medal was awarded. Nigel Fuller’s otherwise excellent Dionysia ‘Monika’ (a large mound; a weighty pot), while full of flower, was marginally affected by the climatic sequence just mentioned. The other contender, Corydalis darwasica, shown by Bob and Rannveig Wallis, stood out among a number of other first-rate examples of the genus on account of its compact and floriferous nature. Even when shown again the

Galanthus ‘E.A. Bowles’ exhibited by Monksilver Nursery. What price on eBay?

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Corydalis darwasica, shown by Bob and Rannveig Wallis, was voted ‘best in show’

following week at Loughborough, it was barely 6cm tall, and on this occasion was just above half that height, whereas Lidén and Zetterlund, in their 1997 monograph of the tuberous species, give an ultimate height of 10cm for wild plants in Central Asia, before tellingly adding ‘(to 18cm in cultivation)’. Awarded a Certificate of Merit and voted best in show, it was quietly attractive, the neat, blue-grey foliage subtending creamy-white ice cream cornets, tipped outside with grey-green striations, with lilac-maroon inside the open lips. Few nurserymen offer stocks at present, but at one time Norman Stevens (Cambridge Bulbs) offered an introduction from Uzbekistan. Double-potting might have emphasised its sterling merit, but would have taken the pot size over the 19cm limit, ruling JUNE 2012

out this plum component of Bob and Rannveig’s AGS Medal-winning small six-pan entry. The rival entry, from Ian Robertson, included a good pan of Fritillaria carica (one of the few exhibits of this species in the hall) and a lovely form of Tulipa cretica with flowers more pink than those of surely any other cultivated material at present. Also creating much interest was Monksilver Nursery’s potful of Galanthus ‘E.A. Bowles’. While speculation as to its value on eBay was rife, in the wake of record snowdrop prices attained through bids just a few days beforehand, this was tempered with admiration for the almost ‘Augustus’-like texture of the 30 or so pristine flowers. Most of the better-known Galanthus devotees have a bulb or two in their collection but it will be some years until this G. 225

EARLY SPRING SHOW

Dionysia ‘Tess’ exhibited by Bob Fenwick in the Intermediate Section

plicatus seedling becomes widely seen. Iris kuschakewiczii, with two open flowers, shown by Ruth and Alan Jones, was eye-catching in the class for a plant rare in cultivation. A compact, almost stemless plant with markedly wiry roots, its flowers have a dissected/toothed crest and a more or less parallel-sided haft to their falls. A native of arid habitats in foothills, it is not easy to maintain in cultivation and doesn’t form offsets readily but will produce fertile seed if hand-pollinated. Flowering takes up to seven years from germination. The plant exhibited had typically silvery-edged leaves bearing flowers with standards of a watery silk blue background, underlined with a lemon flash. The falls had darker blotches either side of a palest lemon beard. 226

As ever, Paul and Gill Ranson brought an excellent range of dionysias. D. termeana, one of the more recent introductions, received a Certificate of Merit and had masses of bright goldenyellow florets that obscured the dome of soft green, slightly dentate leaves. Showgoers of longstanding will recall Bob Fenwick’s exhibits in the 1980s. He has recently returned to the fray and exhibited some excellent dionysias in the Intermediate Section, including a rudely healthy Dionysia oreodoxa. This Iranian, from Kerman Province, is another product of Dieter and Rosi Zschummel’s 2001 expedition: another party found it at a slightly higher altitude (1,900m, 6,200ft) the following year. Remarkably, the mysterious D. sawyeri apart, all Iran’s dionysias are now being grown, including recent finds such as D. THE ALPINE GARDENER

Don Peace’s Primula allionii ‘Anna Griffith’, one of the most distinctive clones

zetterlundii and D. tacamahaca. Bob also showed an excellent form of Dionysia aretioides, which latterly seems to have fallen out of favour, whereas D. ‘Tess’ is increasing in popularity and availability. Remaining with Primulaceae – and good old varieties – Don Peace showed a nigh-perfect Primula allionii ‘Anna Griffith’. It displayed the neatest sugar-pink dome of serrated petals with barely a leaf showing. One of the most distinctive among the hundreds of named clones, it isn’t particularly difficult to maintain, but bridles when conditions are substandard, with undersized flowers or a patchy covering of these, too lush or chlorotic leaves, and the loss of groups of rosettes. The eye-catching Iris kuschakewiczii JUNE 2012

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LOUGHBOROUGH SHOW

Dionysia termeana is the largest yet shown MARCH 10, 2012 Report: John Richards Pictures: Jon Evans

fter a benign and balmy week, show plants had progressed rapidly, enabling 84 exhibitors to stage 640 plants, an excellent total for so early in the year. Loughborough is one of the few shows whose geographical position is such that it attracts exhibitors from all corners of England and Wales (even, on this occasion, Harry Jans from the Netherlands), so it is unsurpassed as a meeting place and general forum. Winter-flowering plants such as Trevor Harding’s Ranunculus calandrinioides were still in fine form, so too the last of the snowdrops, but the weather was palpably spring-like (and the following week temperatures reached decidedly late spring-like levels). It was apparent that my perception that the mild dry winter had done no favours for the survival of Asiatic primulas, nor the flowering of saxifrages, was shared by many, although Tommy Anderson’s Saxifraga ‘Allendale Grace’, the plant of the show for many onlookers, belied the latter generalisation. This formed a perfect dome more than 20cm in diameter, so evenly covered with large, lilac-rose, darker-centred flowers resting on the cushion that not a leaf could be seen. Ray Fairbairn’s many Porophyllum 228

Ranunculus calandrinioides exhibited by Trevor Harding

saxifrage raisings, dating from a decade or more ago, have been of great significance and are widely exhibited. The Farrer Medal was hotly contested, and a peerless Iranian dionysia, D. termeana, pipped Tommy’s saxifrage to the post. A relative newcomer, it is likely that this good form with wellshaped golden flowers is the largest individual of this scarce species that has yet been exhibited. Its grower, Eric Jarrett, enjoyed a successful show, also taking the American Trophy with a THE ALPINE GARDENER

Eric Jarrett’s fine double: Dionysia termeana and Trillium nivale

first-rate Trillium nivale, so large of flower that some reckoned it a hybrid with the larger T. ovatum. Sometimes the pure white blooms are narrowpetalled or ruffled: this was the most JUNE 2012

attractive selection seen for some time. Not surprisingly at this early date, bulbous species figured largely, allowing a fascinating comparison to be made between Narcissus x incurvicervicus, the 229

LOUGHBOROUGH SHOW

Anne Wright’s Narcissus ‘Andy’ (N. triandrus x cyclamineus) and, right, Geoff Rollinson’s Primula allionii hybrid, ‘Lepus’

hybrid between the ‘Angel’s Tears’ daffodil (N. triandrus) and the little jonquil N. fernandesii (shown by Anne Wright), and a very similar plant labelled N. triandrus ‘Isabella’, named by Kentish exhibitor Mike Chadwick after his granddaughter. Although the latter differed in its erect, slightly more robust leaves, it seems likely that it contains some hybrid sap. Anne Wright exhibited several other Narcissus hybrids she had raised, along with her increasingly popular ‘Jim Lad’, who has now reached his Majority, having been sown in 1991. Possibly her very compact and as yet unnamed cross between N. rupicola and N. triandrus will win the most hearts and minds, though the multi-flowered, cream-coloured N. ‘Andy’ (triandrus x cyclamineus), sown ten years ago, ran it a very close second. A 230

novel cross between N. cyclamineus and N. watieri, closer to the pollen parent but with faint yellow median striping, was also on display, and showed promise. Those interested in the minutiae of tulip nomenclature would be baffled by the juxtaposition of two apparently identical yellow species in which the outers were backed green and the inners were striped dark green. This attractive plant seems to be T. neustruevae from the Fergana Mountains of Central Asia, as labelled by John Bunn. T. dasystemon, the other name given, is in cultivation but has an entirely yellow flower and is closer to T. tarda. More controversy surrounds the name of an attractive little bulb that originates from the high mountains of Crete. Populations of this, the only European Chionodoxa (or Scilla if you THE ALPINE GARDENER

prefer) tend to be variable in colour and stature, and so encompass all three names sometimes employed within the island: C. cretica, C. albescens and C. nana. The latter tag is prior, so plants labelled C. albescens (Bob and Rannveig Wallis) are now often named C. (or S.) nana. Ideally, this is a plant to select when in flower, for the name C. nana can be very apposite, and the tiniest of examples will not be to all tastes. The benefit of introductions through small quantities of responsibly collected seed was made evident by the benching of a form of the central Nepalese Saxifraga lowndesii with distinctly larger flowers than those that resulted from forays by the late George Smith and Ron McBeath up to 30 years ago. This particular newcomer arrived seven years ago with the seed collectors’ moniker 854/05. Nowadays, such introductions can only be made from Nepal under special licence. Summer JUNE 2012

heat is its principal downfall, and those who live in cooler parts of the country, or who install fans in their alpine houses, generally succeed best. Primula allionii and its hybrids were at their peak and no one grows them better than Geoff Rollinson. His pot of the especially slow-growing P. ‘Lepus’ (a hybrid involving P. ‘Joan Hughes’, bred by John Dixon) won the Richard Regan Trophy for the best plant in a 19cm pot. Another exhibitor entered what amounted to the National Collection of this cultivar, with seven plants plunged in a large pot – the only way that a 25cm panful is attainable in the course of an ordinary lifetime. Geoff also showed P. allionii ‘Pinkie’, one of the older clones and equally slow to reach any size. Of the more recent seedlings, Brian Burrow’s pale P. a. ‘Sandra Burrow’ and the almost raspberry pink, whitecentred P. a. ‘Judy Burrow’ stood out. 231

NEW ZEALAND AGS SPRING SHOW SEPTEMBER 17-18, 2011 Report: Ann Cartman

antabrians had a traumatic year in 2011, with earthquakes, aftershocks and the heaviest snowfalls in Christchurch for decades in the weeks leading up to the show. All these events challenged our members but they staged an excellent 480 entries. Fritillaria affinis var. tristulis exhibited by Ann and Joe Cartman was judged the premier plant of the show and won the NZAGS Trophy for champion cut flower. The award for most points in the show went to Louise Salmond, as did the Cora Ault Memorial Trophy for the premier native plant, Luzula crenulata. Louise was also awarded the Gala Plants Trophy for the best bulbous plant with Iris sari and the Otago Alpine Garden Group NZAGS Silver Salver with Dionysia aretioides ‘Bevere’. Clematis paniculata shown by Nedra Johnson received the Ina Mumberson Trophy for best woody cut bloom while Cassiope lycopodioides ‘Beatrice Lilley’ shown by Stuart Murray took the Tweedy Trophy for the best woody shrub. The New Zealand natives class

PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS Page 119: Zdenĕk Zvolánek. Page 121: Adrian Young. Pages 122, 123: John Fitzpatrick. Pages 124-127: Adrian Young. Page 129: Stephen Scarr. Page 132: Phillip Cribb. Page 134: Slack Top Alpine Nursery. Page 137: John Fitzpatrick. Pages 138, 139: John Richards. Page 141: Robert Rolfe. Page 142: Alan Porrett. Page 143: Jim Archibald. Page 145: Robert Rolfe. Page 147: Jim

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Quakes fail to deter exhibitors included Celmisia viscosa with three flower buds, Celmisia gracilenta (leopard leaf daisy) with beautiful speckled silver leaves, Celmisia spedenii with three shiny silver rosettes, and a lovely softgrey Ozothamnus (Helichrysum) plumeum. None of these won awards but were excellent examples of their species. The New Zealand hybrids class contained 39 entries, a considerable increase on past years. Plants of note were Celmisia alpina x semicordata, Celmisia angustifolia hybrid, Celmisia semicordata hybrid and x Leucoraoulia loganii. Louise Salmond and Stuart Murray exhibited many of the 20 entries in the saxifrage class. First-rate specimens of the yellow Saxifraga x boydii ‘Aretiastrum’, S. federici-augusti and S. x boydii ‘White Cap’ were shown. Archibald. Page 148: John Fitzpatrick. Pages 149-151: Jo Walker. Page 152: John Fitzpatrick. Page 153-155: Jo Walker. Page 156: John Fitzpatrick. Pages 157-161: Paul Mitchell. Page 162: Jim McGregor. Pages 165-179: Evelyn Stevens. Pages 181, 183: Robert Rolfe. Pages 184-201: photographs credited individually. Page 203: Liz Knowles. Pages 207-211: Jānis Rukšāns. Pages 212-231: photographs credited on each show report.

THE ALPINE GARDENER