The Alpine Gardener - March 2014

335 THE ALPINE GARDENER

Alpine Gardener the

JOURNAL OF THE ALPINE GARDEN SOCIETY

VOL. 82 No. 1 MARCH 2014 pp. 1-118

ISSN 1475-0449

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

Volume 82 No. 1

March 2014

Alpine Gardener THE

CONTENTS 42 76

3 EDITOR’S LETTER 5 ALPINE DIARY

Lyttel Trophy winner 2013; readers’ letters; book review.

14 ROBERT ROLFE

Juggling plant names and pollen.

42 MAGICAL MERLIN

Katie Price looks at the invaluable role of the Merlin Trust.

54 PUSCHKINIA KURDICA Jānis Rukšāns describes a new species from Turkey.

62 THE PATAGONIAN EXPERIENCE

Hilary Little takes us on a whistlestop tour of a plant paradise.

76 TULIPS AND IRISES IN THE STANS

54

Peter Sheasby in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

90 PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS

Prize plants from last year’s summer and autumn shows.

102 IVOR BARTON

Robert Rolfe on the diaries of a first-rate gardener.

March 2014 Volume 82 No 1

PRACTICAL GARDENING

22 AUBRIETA

62

Steve Furness on one of the delights of spring.

30 HOW TO GROW IT Saxifraga oppositifolia

by John Good.

32 NOTES FROM HAMPSHIRE

Robin White, in the first of an occasional column, looks at the success of Cyclamen at Blackthorn.

36 UNLEARNING LESSONS

Former nurseryman Peter Summers builds a crevice bed.

COVER PHOTOGRAPHS

Front: Tulipa micheliana in Uzbekistan (Peter Sheasby).

Back: A Farrer Medal-winning Lewisia rediviva exhibited by Alan Furness at Summer Show North (Jon Evans).

ON THESE PAGES

Left: Nigel Hopes with Brunsvigia radulosa; Anemone tschernjaewii; Puschkinia kurdica.

Right: Anarthrophyllum desideratum; Saxifraga poluniniana x dinninaris; Cyclamen graecum subsp. graecum.

14 90

Published by the

Alpine Garden Society

The international society for the cultivation, conservation and exploration of alpine and rock garden plants, small hardy herbaceous plants, hardy and half-hardy bulbs, hardy ferns and small shrubs AGS Centre, Avon Bank, Pershore, Worcestershire WR10 3JP, UK Tel: +44(0)1386 554790 Fax: +44(0)1386 554801 Email: ags@alpinegardensociety.net Director of the Alpine Garden Society: Christine McGregor Registered charity No. 207478 Annual subscriptions: Single (UK and Ireland) £31* Family (two people at same address) £35* Junior (under 18/student) £13 Overseas single US$54 £33 Overseas family US$60 £36 * £2 deduction for direct debit subscribers For details of life membership and joint life membership apply to the Alpine Garden Society at the address above.

Printed by Butler Tanner & Dennis, Caxton Road, Frome, Somerset BA11 1NE Price to non-members £8.00 Second-class postage paid at Rahway, New Jersey.

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

© The Alpine Garden Society ISSN 1475-0449

Editor: John Fitzpatrick Tel: +44(0)1981 580134 Email: editor@agsgroups.org Associate Editor: Robert Rolfe Tel: +44(0)1159 231928 Email: robert.rolfe@agsgroups.org Practical Gardening Correspondent: Vic Aspland CChem. MRSC Tel: +44(0)1384 396331 Email: vic.aspland@agsgroups.org Custodian AGS Digital Library: Jon Evans Tel: +44(0)1252 724416 Email: jon.evans@agsgroups.org Custodian AGS Slide Library: Peter Sheasby Tel/fax: +44(0)1295 720502 To advertise in The Alpine Gardener please call or email the AGS Centre (details above) The Editor welcomes contributions of articles and photographs. Please call or email the Editor to discuss relevant formats for photographs before sending. The Editor cannot accept responsibility for loss of, or damage to, articles, artwork or photographs sent by post.

The views expressed in The Alpine Gardener do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or of the Alpine Garden Society. The Alpine Gardener is published four times a year in March, June, September and December.

www.alpinegardensociety.net

JACK ELLIOTT

Aubrieta in abundance signals the arrival of spring (see page 22)

T

hank you to everyone who responded to the question, raised in the last issue of The Alpine Gardener, of whether the Alpine Garden Society should change its name.

You may recall that John Noakes, a former AGS trustee, suggested that our present name did not reflect the wide range of members’ botanical and horticultural interests. He wrote: ‘It is vital that we should present ourselves to potential new members as more than just an ‘alpine’ garden society.’

The responses I have received are split roughly 50:50 for and against a change of name, with some even suggesting a new name. The matter was discussed at a meeting of the AGS Trustee Board in February. The trustees decided not to

MARCH 2014

Is there a more suitable name for the AGS? Editor ’s letter rule out a change of name provided that a suitable alternative could be found.

Do you agree that the AGS and its wider interests would be better represented under a new name and, if so, do you have an idea of what it should be? The trustees would like to hear from anyone who has a suggestion. Please send ideas 3

EDITOR’S LETTER to me by email or by post to the AGS Centre. They will all be put before the Trustee Board.

O

ne of my tasks over the past year has been dealing with the design and production of the two books on Patagonia published by the AGS. Many of you will already possess a copy of Martin Sheader’s Flowers of the Patagonian Mountains, and this month will see the publication of its companion volume, Hilary Little’s Patagonian Mountain Flower Holidays (see page 62 of this journal). Both authors were supported in their substantial tasks by Christopher Brickell, Peter Erskine, Austin Little and Anna-Liisa Sheader.

Publishing such specialised books is an expensive business and this has to be reflected in the price. In the case of these two books, the price has been kept down thanks to the generous financial support of the Finnis Scott Foundation, the Royal Horticultural Society, the Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust and two anonymous donors.

Martin Sheader’s guide to the plants of Patagonia, as well as accompanying Hilary Little’s book, is also the first in a series of AGS field guides. The second, Bulbs of the Eastern Mediterranean by Oron Peri, will be published later this year.

All those who write books about the plants we love deserve our support.

Many publish at their own expense.

Last year Eric Breed published Going Wild for Tulips, a delightful booklet of photographs of tulips in their natural habitats (www.tulippictures.eu).

Adrian Young, who manages national 4

collections of saxifrages at Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire, has recently published Saxifrages: Porophyllum Cultivars Complete Checklist, an invaluable guide to the names of these plants and their ancestry (available from the AGS book shop).

All these publications add to our understanding and knowledge of plants in the wild and in cultivation.

C

ongratulations to Ross Barbour and Helen Picton, who became engaged while on last December’s AGS tour to Patagonia.

Ross is the head gardener at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire and the new secretary of the AGS Malvern Show.

Helen is the youngest AGS trustee and runs, with her parents, the Picton Garden and Old Court Nurseries in Worcestershire, where she is developing a rock garden. Ross popped the question on a mountain peak – a dramatic start to their life together.

The AGS is fortunate to have young people like Ross and Helen who play an important part in the Society’s activities and we wish them every happiness.

John Fitzpatrick  We’d like to hear your views about articles in The Alpine Gardener, and also about your experiences of growing plants or searching for them in the wild.

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

THE ALPINE GARDENER

ANTONY KELLY/EASTERN DAILY PRESS

ALPINE DIARY

Cecilia Coller in one of her alpine houses in Norfolk

AGS’s highest honour for the queen of the show bench

P

ast winners of the AGS’s highest award, the Lyttel Trophy, include renowned botanists, planthunters, nurserymen and plant breeders.

Cecilia Coller, the 2013 winner, insists that she is none of these. The Reverend Professor Edward Lyttel, however, wrote of the trophy that bears his name: ‘It may be awarded to someone who regularly exhibits at AGS shows or to someone who occasionally exhibits alpines of merit.’ Strike out the word ‘occasionally’, replace it with ‘routinely’ and Cecilia fits the bill perfectly.

MARCH 2014

LYTTEL TROPHY WINNER 2013 She has championed alpine plants for 28 years, delighting and enlightening the public at shows as far apart as Newcastle and Exeter. Often her entries have been the mainstay of an event, particularly the London Show, where she has sometimes staged a third of the plants in the Open Section.

She has promoted alpines to a wider 5

ALPINE DIARY audience, has encouraged newcomers and distributed her plants widely.

Her dedication is astonishing, for she maintains a very large collection of an extraordinarily broad range of plants in pots rather than specialising in any one genus or family. Day in, day out, Cecilia administers to their needs in order to keep them in peak condition, skilfully nurturing plants with the most diverse of requirements. She has plants in flower and ready for exhibition from early spring all the way through to autumn.

She bemoans spells when there are no AGS shows. ‘It’s as if the plants are trying to get to a party and there isn’t one to go to,’ she says.

Despite having to endure what are often hot and dry conditions close to the Norfolk coast, she has, for example, grown Ericaceae such as Kalmiopsis leachiana and Rhododendron keiskei var. ozawae ‘Yaku Fairy’ to the highest standards, just as Japanese woodlanders like Pteridophyllum racemosum and both Old World and New World gesneriads thrive in her care.

She has championed alpine plants from every continent, from Oxalis laciniata and Benthamiella species in southern Patagonia to Clematis tenuiloba and Campanula shetleri in north-west USA. She grows Chinese asarums, for which she has won four of her 15 Farrer Medals, better than anyone else. Her Himalayan pleiones, Turkish veronicas and a highbrow selection of challenging irises have inspired gardeners countrywide.

Her pristine pans of sempervivums are also much admired. ‘A few years ago I started growing them entirely under cover,’ she says, ‘and this has really paid 6

off. They perform much better from not having to cope with winter wet and they do enjoy a bit of shade, but they still require lots of tidying up for the show bench.’

She recalls her first London Show in 1987, which in those days was an autumn event. ‘At the time I was still exhibiting in the B Section, or what is now the Intermediate Section,’ she says.

‘I was approached by Mary Randall, who was then Director of Shows, to be told: “You’ve won the Farrer Medal [for Coprosma petriei].” I hadn’t a clue what the Farrer was.’

Cecilia’s multi-pan entries, often beautifully and sensitively colour coordinated, have become the cornerstone of her showing arsenal (see page 96).

‘I was encouraged by Kath Dryden to enter six-pan classes,’ she says. ‘I was still very much a novice when I put my first six-pan on the bench. Exhibiting plants this way is a competitive risk. If you are awarded a first you do gain six first-place points, but if one plant is deemed not up to scratch you have wasted the chance of winning firsts in other classes with the other five plants.’

Cecilia was presented with the Lyttel Trophy at last November’s AGM. She was unaware that she had been chosen as the recipient, who is selected each year by the former Lyttel winners. ‘It came as a complete shock,’ she says. A few days later her achievement was recognised in her regional morning newspaper, the Eastern Daily Press, which devoted almost all of pages two and three to Cecilia and her plants.

Since winning her AGS Gold Medal she has accumulated 41 Gold Bars, THE ALPINE GARDENER

HELEN EVANS

ALPINE DIARY

London show secretary Jon Evans helps Cecilia and Mervyn to unload her plants

which represents 2,100 first places at our shows – a remarkable record that is unlikely ever to be surpassed. She has won the Giuseppi Cup, for the Open Section aggregate, 18 times.

Taking her plants to shows has necessitated travelling tens of thousands of miles over the years. To begin with, she packed them into a Ford Capri but soon she had more exhibits than it could accommodate. A Ford Escort van was brought into service, equipped with airconditioning and shelving for pots. She is now using her third van.

Her devotion to growing for showing means that much of her garden remains uncultivated. Cecilia propagates many of her plants from cuttings and seed and is a generous donor to the AGS Seed Exchange but she has never tried to raise new plants by cross-pollinating MARCH 2014

her stock. ‘I know little about that side of things – you can’t do everything,’ she says.

Her husband Mervyn has played an important role in her success, helping to load and unload the van at home before and after shows, and carrying often very heavy pots in and out of show halls, having made the long journey from Norfolk. He repairs the odd pane of glass in her three alpine houses and various frames but, says his wife, ‘is not allowed anywhere near the plants!’

Cecilia no longer travels to some of the more distant shows. ‘It’s just too tiring for me nowadays,’ she says. ‘I will keep showing for as long as possible, but when I do decide to retire I will make a clean break and stop altogether.’ When that day comes, it will be met with a heavy heart by all who have relished her exhibits during an outstanding career.

7

ALPINE DIARY

From John Dower, Frodsham, Cheshire

A

re you in the mood to show a plant or two at an AGS show for the first time, but afraid that you may be embarrassed by your lack of experience?

Well don’t be.

The pleasure of seeing your plants do well on the bench more than rewards the little bit of courage needed by a novice exhibitor. Here are a few thoughts that might help to make showing a bit less daunting.  There are classes for all sorts of plants including bulbs, shrubs, rock plants and so on.  The plants may be flowering or not. There are classes for plants with attractive foliage.  The plants may be dug up from the garden or grown in a pot.

If you like a plant there is every chance that the judges – and your fellow competitors – will like it too!

Whether the plant is in a pot or needs to be dug up from the garden and potted, try to observe one or two very simple rules on presentation.  Use a clean pot.  Make sure the pot is of a suitable size, neither too big nor too small. A good balance will set off the plant to its best advantage.  All faded flowers and damaged foliage must be removed. When you do this it may seem that half the plant is disappearing, but the improvement in its appearance will surprise you.  Cover exposed compost with grit or pieces of rock to give a more natural look.

8

Have a go at showing and enjoy the buzz!

Letters

 Label the plant if you know its name.

If not, ask for advice. Don’t leave the plant at home just because you cannot remember its name.

If you are in any doubt or simply nervous about making the leap to the show bench, seek advice from an exhibitor in your AGS Local Group or at the show itself. Exhibitors will be delighted to offer tips on preparing your plants.

Be in no doubt, the buzz from getting a result with one of your plants is well worth the effort.

From Rick Lambert, Weston Favell, Northamptonshire

T

he plant illustrated as Saxifraga fachinii (correctly S. facchinii) in the Plants from our Shows feature on page 466 of the last issue of The Alpine Gardener, and exhibited as such at THE ALPINE GARDENER

ALPINE DIARY

Saxifraga facchinii, above, photographed

by Dieter Zschummel on the Marmolada in the Dolomites. Right, Rick Lambert’s image of S. exarata subsp. moschata in the Rosengarten massif

Summer Show South last year, I now realise is a dwarf example of S. exarata subsp. moschata.

I am grateful to Herbert Reisinger, John Richards and Dieter Zschummel for helping to identify this plant correctly. The plant that I exhibited MARCH 2014

was grown from seed collected from a plant growing close to S. facchinii in the Pordoi area of the Dolomites. S. facchinii has almost stemless, cup-shaped flowers with broad petals which are dull orange to bright red. The plant exhibited has similar foliage with glandular hairs on 9

ALPINE DIARY the leaves but has longer flower stems and narrow petals, which make the misidentification clear.

Seed of the exhibited plant was sent to the AGS Seed Exchange and is No. 4689 in the 2013-14 list. The resulting seedlings should be labelled as ‘ex Saxifraga exarata subsp. moschata’.

From John Good, Penmaenmawr, North Wales

T

he article on the Dolomites by Pete and Jackie Murray in the last issue of The Alpine Gardener was first-rate in every way.

How refreshing it was to see an article that did not just describe the plants growing in an area, although that was done very well, aided by superb photographs, but also provided detailed information on their macro- and microhabitats and an interpretation of how this knowledge could perhaps be exploited when attempting their cultivation.

Of course, this approach reflected the fact that the authors had, as a result of securing an AGS Travel Award, spent six weeks in the study areas rather than the usual few days that most of us can find time for. But, even so, the way they applied themselves to the planning and execution of their study, and subsequently to describing their findings, was exemplary.

Furthermore, I found their ecological interpretations generally convincing and helpful, especially perhaps the difficulty of providing plants in cultivation with anything approaching the quantity and quality of water received in the wild 10

at critical periods during the annual growth cycle. As many have noted before me, the extraordinary thing is that we are able to grow as many of the flowers of the high mountains in the totally different conditions of our lowland gardens as we are able to do.

I hope that this excellent article will encourage others travelling in search of alpines to observe and record as much information as time allows about the conditions in which they are found growing, and then convey that knowledge to us through the pages of this journal.

From Mary Randall, Hampshire

T

wo of the readers’ letters in the last issue of The Alpine Gardener were genuine examples of totally opposite points of view. Vivien Clowes clearly disliked the Cypripedium articles that greatly appealed to Brian and Jo Walker.

However, the former was surely wrong with her comment that cypripediums are not alpines.

A quick trip round the Bernese Oberland would soon disabuse her of that idea. The village of MÜrren is built at 1,645m and a walk round the streets would produce several flourishing clumps of Cypripedium calceolus, unfortunately probably collected from nearby wild sites.

A swift perusal of Phillip Cribb’s wonderful monograph shows cypripediums growing from Alaska to the Himalayas and western China, which should also be considered sufficiently ‘alpine’, in character if not in name.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

DIANA EVERETT

ALPINE DIARY

Tulipa suaveolens flourishing in Diana Everett’s London garden

Monograph that’s also a work of art

I

n recent years, Anna Pavord’s The Tulip (1999) and Richard Wilford’s Tulips: Species and Hybrids for the Gardener (2006), both rightly acclaimed, have given species tulip enthusiasts the kind of information they have been crying out for since A.D. Hall’s landmark publications over half a century earlier.

Appetites were refreshed, nurserymen

MARCH 2014

BOOK REVIEW The Genus Tulipa: Tulips of the World

by Diana Everett, with contributions from Michael F. Fay, Maarten J.M. Christenhusz and Richard Wilford.

Published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Price £68. ISBN 9781842464816

were encouraged, exhibitors brought more pots of tulips to the benches at AGS shows (despite the difficulties of presenting the flowers in peak 11

ALPINE DIARY

Diana Everett among thousands of Tulipa greigii on Red Hill, near Chimkent, Kazakhstan

condition) and only one thing was lacking: a comprehensive and current monograph.

The gap has been plugged. With Diana Everett’s The Genus Tulipa: Tulips of the World we now have a superb new survey, immaculately produced and jam-packed with the kind of up-to-date information that botanists and gardeners need.

Diana is a tireless traveller and artist, painting tulips in the wilds of Turkey, the Near East and Central Asia. She possesses a rare combination of talents – outstanding ability as a watercolourist and a specialist botanical knowledge.

The result is a volume that brings together detailed information on around 12

78 species, plus a similar number of subspecies and forms, each accompanied by pin-sharp photographs and the author’s accurate and beautiful illustrations.

She also takes account of recently described species such as Tulipa kolbintsevii and Tulipa koyuncui. A putative new species, provisionally named Tulipa bactriana, and the now described Tulipa ivasczenkoae (honouring Anna Ivaschenko, whom some AGS members will have met in Kazakhstan) are also touched upon.

The supporting material to this taxonomic treatment is especially valuable. With their contribution the taxonomists Michael F. Fay and Maarten THE ALPINE GARDENER

DIANA EVERETT

ALPINE DIARY

Various forms of Tulipa eichleri growing in a pistachio orchard in Azerbaijan

J.M. Christenhusz bring classification and species delimitation of the genus into the 21st century.

Of particular interest to the grower is Richard Wilford’s helpful chapter on tulip cultivation.

The appendices include an alphabetical checklist of the genus Tulipa and its many synonyms, a summary of Ben Zonneveld’s ground-breaking classification based on DNA analysis (2009), a list of nurseries stocking species tulips and notes on prominent related authors, collectors and growers. All in all, apart

from a few minor typographical errors (the proof-readers have struggled with the spelling of Tulipa neustruevae, but they are not the first), this is a model of what a really fine monograph should be.

John Page  The Genus Tulipa is available to AGS members at £54.40, 20 per cent off the published price. To order visit our online book shop or use the order form in the issue of AGS News that accompanies this journal.

Irises, tulips and a host of other treasures in the Stans – page 76 MARCH 2014

13

ALPINE DIARY

‘H

e was what is known as a hard nut to crack; some folk called him pig-headed, which meant that he had views and convictions of his own and generally stuck to them. He felt that he was right and there was an end to it, so far as he was concerned.’

This excerpt from The Gardeners’ Chronicle concerns Robert Rolfe – not, clearly, your columnist, but instead his Edwardian ancestor Robert Allen Rolfe.

He spent 40 years at the Kew herbarium as that institution’s leading orchidologist and his passing in 1921 was apparently marked by a cross ‘composed entirely of the most beautiful orchids’, provided by the memorably titled nursery Messrs.

Flong & Black of Slough.

Surveying the synonyms for, say, Cypripedium and Pleione, it is plain that his treatments of these genera have not always entirely convinced subsequent taxonomists.

Taking the latter genus, his coinings for two of the most distinctive species, P. grandiflora and P. yunnanensis, have stayed the course, whereas P. pogonioides and P. delavayi are nowadays subsumed within P. bulbocodioides (an upgraded designation in which he also had a hand). P. pricei survives only as a cultivar group name under P. formosana.

As a result of ongoing studies, Robert Allen Rolfe repeatedly changed his mind, as have those following in his wake. ‘Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes,’ his sometime contemporary Oscar Wilde wrote.

Either taxonomists uncovered specific epithets that took priority over later names, or else the emergence of other

14

Juggling names and pollen – or perhaps you’d rather buy dandelions ROBERT ROLFE evidence caused them to alter their opinions.

I learn that my forebear chose to specialise in Orchidaceae from the early 1880s on the kindly advice of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, at that time Director of the Gardens at Kew. The same Sir Joseph shifted Baker’s 1875 coining Tovaria oleracea into Smilacina. It resided there for around a century, until its present repositioning (from 1986) as Maianthemum oleraceum (Baker) LaFrankie. Liliaceous plants and their onetime allies abound; some are now grouped in Melanthiaceae and Asparagaceae.

Until a few years ago, Maianthemum bifolium was the most frequently grown of a rather small genus in cultivation: its THE ALPINE GARDENER

ALPINE DIARY

Pleione grandiflora, named by orchidologist Robert Allen Rolfe

common name, May Lily, oversells this pleasant but demure, minutely flowered shade-lover.

Then, in 2008, based on a study conducted over 20 years previously, Smilacina was merged with Maianthemum. What had hitherto been a trio of species increased to a total of around 40. I say ‘around’ because, in Central America especially, others have since been discovered. This underscores their much greater significance in cultivation, specifically the introductions made of late by Bleddyn and Sue WynnJones from countries such as Costa Rica and Guatemala (further finds in the high-altitude forests there await precise classification) and also in eastern Asia.

Maianthemum oleraceum (Smilacina MARCH 2014

oleracea in older references) occurs from northern India across to eastern Nepal and south-west China, in some accounts often below 2,500m. But Flowers of the Himalaya, for example, gives a range of 2,400-3,600m and includes the information that young shoots of the closely related S. purpurea ‘make good boiled vegetables’.

M. oleraceum is taller, rearing to at least 40cm and even double that, with thick rhizomes that send up strikingly reddish arching stems clad with alternate, ribbed, dark green leaves, terminating in generous panicles of flowers. Pure white in some examples, pinkish-purple in others, these are like unfeasibly large lilies-of-the-valley, branching rather than singly arched in their deployment, 15

ALPINE DIARY

Maianthemum oleraceum flowers can be pure white or a pinkish-purple hue

with the later bonus of red berries that turn purple with age.

The image shown here was taken in southern England, where the peak performance comes in early June. It rises just clear of the senescent leafage of its earlier-blooming woodland understory – a useful second-tier interlude before the taller lilies confirm that summer has truly arrived. At the tail-end of the month, but much further north, I’ve seen an almost claret-coloured version luxuriating among arisaemas, again with midday shade cast by tall trees all around.

At that time of the year, shade will be very much on the minds of those who grow saxifrages under glass, another 16

genus whose nomenclature has been in transitional turmoil these past 30 years or more. The cooler and draughtier the conditions in your greenhouse or cold frame, the better the majority of these will fare from then until temperatures make a welcome drop in the autumn, and indeed beyond.

Even those that flower in midsummer, with S. cebennensis surely pre-eminent among the ‘mossies’, are susceptible to scorch, especially when their mantle of flower is snipped away and the new rosettes show a vulnerability to bright light and burning temperatures.

This you might expect from a species confined to shady gorges in its few southern French localities, but it’s pretty THE ALPINE GARDENER

ALPINE DIARY

Saxifraga cebennensis, like many of its genus, is susceptible to scorch

much a pan-global trait of this subsect of the genus, officially grouped under the Triplinervium banner.

I recall seeing S. magellanica at well over 4,000m in the Bolivian Andes, S. pubescens decorating the vertiginous rocks of a hanging valley in the Pyrenees, and an easterly race of S. exarata tucked deep in the clefts of a limestone knoll high in north-central Turkey. All conjure up visions of shade from the midday sun and the giddiest of positionings – by preference for the plants, by default when it came to the precarious perches obtained by the man attempting to photograph them.

Occasionally these and their cousins from other sections of the genus forsake MARCH 2014

their cliffside and ravine strongholds to venture onto screes and rock ledges.

Rarely, for the genus overall, where closely related species from these different habitats meet at such interfaces, hybrids have been identified.

The Caucasian Saxifraga x dinninaris, introduced in 1996 but only named (by Vojtĕch Holubec) in 2001, is in my estimation the most horticulturally significant of these for many a year. It is slow-growing, free-flowering and jewellike in the half dozen selections I’ve seen in cultivation. It makes an exemplary alpine house plant, where the tight, tinyrosetted cushions will eventually exceed the 3-7cm diameter parameters cited for the few specimens described from the 17

ALPINE DIARY wild. Both its parents, S. dinnikii and S. columnaris, were put out to stud by one or two hybridists almost from the off to create further novel crosses.

My favourite of these is Karel Lang’s 1999 seedling S. ‘Tromsø’ (=poluniniana x dinnikii), little seen even in specialist collections as yet. It has icily pale flowers, noteworthy for the deeply grooved petals, and an elegantly exserted style that bestows a distinguished individuality when the cushion is fully covered and all a-bristle.

The pollen parent is less reliable with me, except in Milan Halada’s opulent selection ‘Štásek’. It was a revelation after the long winter of 2012-13, when it flowered brilliantly and set an abundance of seed. For this reason I substituted S. x dinninaris, which provided a good crop when used as the pollen parent, but not so much as a single fertile capsule when the reverse cross was attempted.

Ignore the ‘chill after sowing’ business when it comes to fresh seed: sow straight away (in April through to June, depending on the progress of the capsules) and seedlings will pop up within a fortnight, or at most a month if all goes well. If not, expect a decent germination the following spring. This delay was true of my first attempt: sown on 26/04/09, they didn’t germinate until the following spring and took a further two years before first flowering.

Of the dozen grown on, most were pure S. poluniniana, some of them transistorised versions with very slightly pinker flowers (but still simply variants of S. poluniniana from capsules that had selfed, in all likelihood).

Just one was manifestly different, with 18

much greyer-green, far more congested rosettes. Deep pink in bud, its flowers resemble those of S. columnaris and are of a good pink. Unnamed as yet, it gave a very good account of itself last spring and my fingers are firmly crossed that it, and as yet unbloomed successors from a 2011 batch, will justify my efforts. But unlike children, who are brand-named at birth, or within a few days, a christening is often best delayed until the nature of the beast can be sensibly weighed up. A ruthless cull is required when it comes to second-rate seedlings.

Hoping to go one better, I set to work with an artist’s paintbrush last spring.

I attempted to harness the vibrancy of S. x concinna ‘Ben Loyal’ (the pick of John Mullaney’s fortuitous S. cinerea x dinnikii 2000 crop, named after the reputed queen of Scottish mountains, with rich cherry pink flowers on short, blackish stems). But the plants would have none of it, however clever my intent, and stayed resolutely barren.

Experimental crosses are like that; not infrequently, they fail.

Or else, in Herod-like fashion, the batch is felled, without a single survivor.

The earliest Corydalis grouped in Section Leonticoides that I grow under glass, C. popovii, is normally in full flower by mid-February. The four examples presently resident vary in height and in vibrancy of flower. Some last until midMarch, when the Iranian C. hyrcana – more delicate, dwarfer and much more beetroot of hue – once used to join it in bloom.

Having received a corm of this much rarer species, I obtained a generous crop of seed through cross-pollination THE ALPINE GARDENER

ALPINE DIARY

The pink Saxifraga poluniniana x dinninaris and a white sister seedling in Robert Rolfe’s alpine house

with its Central Asian relative as the ‘mother’ plant. The callous cold of early 2011 killed the entire crop of seedlings and the Persian sire as well.

But it’s entirely possible that someone else has made this cross and managed to coax the seedlings through to maturity, when a proportion would MARCH 2014

surely have inherited the greater cold hardiness of C. popovii. Then again, mine might have been a one-off.

For such a handsome species, C. popovii has an extremely dislikeable scent, reminiscent for me of the never to be forgotten stench from a petrochemical plant in north-west Turkey (it 19

ALPINE DIARY was stifling on board the long-distance coach and every window was open: squashed into my seat, I had no option other than to inhale). Others have compared the aroma to that of jasmine, albeit adulterated with the odour from a dung-heap; nobody finds it appealing.

Several of the C. flexuosa alliance provide a faint whiff of that nauseating fug, if you nose around in the proximity of their nectar source. Conversely, at last year’s AGS London Show, Ray Drew exhibited the putative hybrid C. malkensis x bracteata. It had yellowish, longer-spurred flowers than the seed parent and, equally significantly, a pronounced and likeable scent, citrusbased if my memory is reliable.

Despite frequent reports regarding the promiscuity of C. malkensis when grown within pollinator-flight distance of other members of Section Corydalis, with me it has remained chaste, or rather incestuously self-pollinating, for the best part of 30 years. Until last March, when a more upright and taller, whiter, slightly narrower-lipped newcomer made its advent. It can only be the issue of an unplanned but fortuitous liaison with nearby C. solida ‘White Knight’, arguably the most noble of the various forms selected by Willem van Eeden in the Netherlands.

Corydalis malkensis self-seeds reliably, popping up in the least expected of places. Is there anything, early on, that it doesn’t team up with successfully?

One seedling has even established at the foot of my front door step; another has insinuated itself by the main gate post, where it has proved thoroughly at home these past five years or so, despite 20

being part-flattened once or twice by my postman’s size nines. Others elegantly contrive to enhance the pure white of the late snowdrops (still blooming respectably at the beginning of April last year, extraordinarily), or the glistening Chinodoxa luciliae Gigantea Group ‘Alba’, whose waxy flowers, two or three per scape, are fully 3cm across. It looks arguably even better with the blue mainstay of this most useful and easily established species, or else with winter aconites and the first of the primroses, for that matter.

Last year I read a newspaper article that sensibly commended Corydalis (the species involved, singular or plural, was/ were left unsaid) as plants that thrive in paving cracks, along with stonecrops (Sedum), Erigeron karvinskianus, dog violets and hawkbits for later summer colour. It was a pity, then, that the main picture caption read: ‘Corydalis is one plant that grows in cracks in paving that you might want to keep’. The plant depicted was a celandine.

Ranunuculus ficaria is cherished in its multifarious leaf and flower forms by some, while others consider it a pestilential weed. But that cursed category of plants also has a willing (put politely, gullible) market, evidently.

An Essex-based firm has been doing a roaring trade in stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) at £7.99 a throw, and dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) at a bargain price of £3.99. Both sold out within a month.

Weeding is an essential and unavoidable part of gardening. As anyone who has been away for even a week will know, with weeds, as with ‘mug’ punters, there’s one born every minute.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

ALPINE DIARY

Corydalis solida ‘White Knight’ and, right, Corydalis popovii (see also page 79)

MARCH 2014

21

PRACTICAL GARDENING

This cultivar, Aubrieta ‘Hareknoll Red’, was raised by Steve Furness

Aubrieta: a spring delight

T

he sight of cascades of colour tumbling down a dry-stone wall or rocky bank is one of the enduring joys of the rock garden.

Aubrietas provide the first big such floral spectacle each year, proclaiming the true arrival of spring.

The sheer abundance of flowers produced by the humble Aubrieta never fails to impress me and lift my spirits.

This familiar member of the Brassicaceae family provides such a vivid and exciting palette of spring colour that the rock garden would certainly be diminished by its absence. However, only if you are

22

Nursery owner Dr Steve Furness extols the virtues of the humble Aubrieta, an easy plant that brings a glorious splash of colour to the spring rock garden prepared to seek out some of the older and less familiar varieties can you benefit fully from what the genus has to offer.

Although there are about a dozen species of Aubrieta, only the purist would grow these in preference to the cultivars.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

AUBRIETA

Aubrieta adorns a wall, an uplifting sight in spring MARCH 2014

Picture by Barbara Lee 23

PRACTICAL GARDENING

An unusual mix of lilac and white flowers, given to Steve as Aubrieta ‘Bicolour’

While perfectly delightful among the rocks and screes in the wild, in the garden the species are totally eclipsed by the more flamboyant cultivars.

Despite being considered ‘commonplace rock plants’, most species have good alpine credentials, occurring both at altitude and in classic saxicolous habitats. This apparent toughness can be deceptive though, as a goodly number of the species with which I have experimented have rapidly succumbed to the Peak District’s cocktail of cold and damp. In my experience, by far the most reliable species are A. deltoidea and A. gracilis.

24

The majority of cultivars originate from the Aegean A. deltoidea. In nature it is usually violet to purple and very occasionally white, but in cultivation this palette has been expanded and intensified to include rich reds, pinks and even bicolours. There is also a range of double and semi-double forms which, since they are not as readily pollinated, flower for a much longer period and give you considerably more bang for your buck.

Taxonomic confusion abounds among the cultivars. Many appear identical and, over the years, the selling of named seed-grown varieties in garden centres THE ALPINE GARDENER

AUBRIETA

Aubrieta ‘Twinkle’, another of Steve Furness’s cultivars, has serrated leaves

has added to the confusion. Although seed-grown cultivars are much more consistent than they used to be, those grown from cuttings still display the most reliable colours.

Vibrant deep reds always seem to top the list of favourites at the nursery with the best among these being ‘Schofield’s Red’, ‘Red Carpet’, ‘Hareknoll Red’, ‘Bonfire’ and ‘Vindictive’. ‘Red Carpet’, besides its outstanding colour, has the additional advantage of a more restrained growth rate and tidy habit.

Although many varieties bear the name ‘Blue’, true blues are elusive. One of my favourites is a seedling from A. ‘Alba’ MARCH 2014

with the unusual habit of producing an intimate mixture of lilac and white flowers, which came to me labelled as A. ‘Bicolour’. A similarly attractive cultivar, but with distinctive serrated leaves, is ‘Twinkle’. Deep purples are well represented with a plethora of varieties to choose from; ‘Doctor Mules’ and ‘Velvet Giant’ top my list. Good pinks take some locating and the best of a select few are the gorgeous semi-double ‘Bressingham Pink’ and the single ‘Maurice Prichard’.

Although aubrietas are generally considered to be good doers verging on the over-enthusiastic, there are forms that are more compact and even a couple 25

PRACTICAL GARDENING

Aubrieta ‘Elsa Lancaster’, the most diminutive cultivar

that would not embarrass in a trough.

Variegated varieties, with their reduced ability to photosynthesise, fall into this category. ‘Golden King’, ‘Doctor Mules Variegata’, ‘Red Swan’ and ‘Downers Variegata’ are among the most reliable.

Some of the variegated forms have such striking foliage in autumn that one of my plants is often thought to be producing a mass of yellow blooms.

A particularly compact and slowgrowing variegated form is ‘Astolat’, which produces a neat hummock and has never outgrown its position in a tufa bed among choice cushion plants.

The honour of the most restrained falls to ‘Elsa Lancaster’. With its curiously 26

convex leaves, it has not exceeded six inches in diameter after over 20 years in one of my troughs.

There are many more varieties and I’m sure to have disappointed somebody by not mentioning their favourite. If I had to recommend just one it would be ‘Kitte’. This relatively new Aubrieta produces a profusion of huge flowers and has the added advantage of being widely available in garden centres.

Cultivation Cultivation is straightforward, but even within a single garden a plant may excel in one location yet fail in another.

Given a sunny, well-drained and THE ALPINE GARDENER

AUBRIETA

Aubrieta ‘Aureovariegata’ is one of the slower-growing golden forms

preferably limey situation, aubrietas should be trouble-free and floriferous for many years. In acidic areas lime can easily be added, with mortar and cement rubble being the most economical material. Like many calcicoles, most aubrietas adore tufa.

Of course they can also perform magnificently in walls, but getting them established can be problematical. It is not sufficient just to stuff the plant into any old crack and expect it to flourish. The two most common causes of failure are a lack of contact with the soil and summer drought. ‘Heads in the sun, feet in cool and moist crevices’ is the rule. Planting at the same time as constructing a wall is MARCH 2014

best. To minimise the effects of drought, plant in autumn to allow the roots time to find their way into the damper nooks and crannies.

Aubrietas need copious quantities of water in the growing season. In the wild, a network of extremely long roots seeks out moisture in the deepest crevices. It may seem surprising but, on the nursery, pot-grown aubrietas are always among the first plants to wilt during a drought.

To ensure healthy and floriferous plants, ruthless annual trimming after flowering is recommended, although this is not essential. Some of my plants have not had a haircut in 15 years and still give good displays of flowers. Much 27

PRACTICAL GARDENING

A profuse display from one of the species, Aubrieta gracilis

depends on their situation and the nature of the soil – the harder you grow them, the less you have to prune them.

Propagation Finding stock for sale that has been grown from cuttings is not as easy as you might expect for such a ubiquitous plant. Many aubrietas in garden centres are grown from seed. Propagation from cuttings is not difficult but it is less convenient and a little more timeconsuming. Timing is important: cuttings taken in late summer and early autumn, with one inch of the brittle stem inserted into an inch of sand overlying good soil-based compost, rarely fail. The 28

rooted cuttings should be potted up in late autumn and, in my case, ready for sale the following spring. Like many crucifers, aubrietas can put on significant growth during winter, even when left fully exposed to the elements.

Pests and diseases In the garden aubrietas are relatively trouble-free. In containers, however, they are particularly prone to root aphids. If a plant fails to flower well and shows a distinct lack of vigour, they could be the cause. Identifiable by a white, cotton wool-like mass around the roots, these pests are easily dealt with by the application of a systemic insecticide.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

AUBRIETA

A male orange-tip butterfly on Aubrieta and, right, a female orange-tip

In a good summer plants may suffer the unwelcome attention of butterflies.

Usually it is the caterpillars of the large white that wreak havoc, but in my garden, situated close to a marsh, it is the orange-tip butterfly that finds both the flowers and the leaves irresistible.

Despite my lack of intervention, due to a soft spot for orange-tips, the plants always seem to recover well.

Once established aubrietas are sufficiently robust to fend off virtually everything nature and the environment can throw at them. In my own garden many individual plants are over 30 years old and, despite shameful neglect MARCH 2014

and a plague of rabbits, they still flower profusely each year. What more could the alpine gardener ask for?  Dr Steve Furness owns The Alpine Plant Centre, Froggatt Road, Calver, Derbyshire S32 3ZD. www.alpineplantcentre.co.uk 29

PRACTICAL GARDENING

HOW TO GROW IT

N

Saxifraga oppositifolia

o alpine garden, however small, should be without at least one form of Saxifraga oppositifolia.

Just meet a few simple requirements and it will provide one of the delights of early spring for many a year.

Furthermore, the purple saxifrage is a British native. It grows in most of the upland areas of our islands including the mountains of Snowdonia, which are only about ten miles as the crow flies from where I live on the North Wales coast.

Here it inhabits chiefly damp northfacing and west-facing rock crevices and boulder screes.

This gives a clue as to its requirements in cultivation. It is not a plant for hot dry places and is easily scorched if placed in a position where it will be exposed to the full heat of the midday sun in summer. If you have no shade in your garden, create some by the use of rocks, perhaps in the form of a crevice garden. This can even be done on a very small scale in a container.

Thus provided for, and growing in soil that is reasonably rich in organic matter but freely drained, you should have no further trouble, provided you water before the soil dries out during dry periods. The plant may well become a bit straggly, but this is its natural form of growth, except in the case of some of the selected named cultivars such as ‘Splendens’ and ‘Theoden’, which are more compact.

Often, if happy with its situation, the stems root as they advance. Rooted

30

Providing a home for a British native

By John Good pieces can be removed carefully, potted up and grown on in a frame, with shading if necessary, until growing away strongly when they can be planted out. If more plants are required, short tip cuttings taken soon after flowering generally root well in a 50:50 mix of grit (or perlite) and peat (or composted forest bark).

Alternatively, plants may be raised easily from seed, which is very fine. For that reason I sow it on the surface of 2-4mm gravel in a pot filled below with a 50:50 mix of John Innes No 2 compost and the same grit or coarse perlite.

Chilling the seed in a refrigerator prior to sowing, by storing it mixed with fine sand in a sealed plastic bag, may speed up germination and perhaps increase the percentage that germinates. This, however, is not essential, especially if the seed is sown early in the winter, when it is likely to receive all the chilling it needs if exposed to the elements.

The seedlings are tiny and I find it best to leave them until they are the size of a pea before pricking out. Make sure you allow the compost to dry out THE ALPINE GARDENER

HOW TO GROW IT

The naturally straggly Saxifraga oppositifolia growing in volcanic tuff in Snowdonia in North Wales. Right, the compact cultivar S. o.

‘Splendens’ in a trough in John Good’s garden

somewhat before doing this because the roots become tangled together and it is difficult to extract them from wet compost without damaging them.

It was fascinating to read Adrian Young’s article in the last issue of MARCH 2014

The Alpine Gardener, in which he recommended that saxifrages grow better without John Innes compost. He has clearly had much success with this.

All I can say is that this method works for me.

31

PRACTICAL GARDENING

Cyclamen seek out their own favourite places

F

or nearly 30 years at Blackthorn Nursery we produced small numbers of the hardier Cyclamen species. In that time, stray seed and tubers, together with some deliberate planting, have enhanced our garden, field and woodland. Somewhere there is a Cyclamen flower to be found in 10 or 11 months of the year. Sue and I never tire of admiring them.

Over the years, reports from our customers suggest that many people struggle to establish C. purpurascens in their gardens. I’ve had failures, too, but these days I am confident I can keep this delightful species happy. I think the key is to shelter the evergreen foliage from the strong summer sun and never allow plants to get really dry. Like most Cyclamen, an open, humus-rich, alkaline soil suits them best.

There is much that can be learned from allowing plants to ‘do their own thing’.

To encourage seed production, most species were grown in our glasshouse, which is heavily shaded from April to October. C. purpurascens and C. repandum lived permanently under the benching, their pots stood on a 5mm layer of sharp grit over heavy, often waterlogged clay. Plants of the former, established from stray seed, remain the best I have ever seen in any situation, superior to those I try to nurture, while C. repandum was almost a weed.

32

Notes from Hampshire The first of an occasional column by former nurseryman Robin White, whose remarkable garden at Blackthorn was the feature of a three-part series in The Alpine Gardener during 2013

Our garden has raised beds, made from railway sleepers, to the north of two large oaks, which provide shelter from hot summer sun. The beds were originally used for stocks of woodlanders, planted out in straight lines, but for the last few years I have encouraged many treasures to break free of this unnatural constriction. I have established a good drift of various C. purpurascens forms here; the oaks do dry them out, so I need to water in summer. I have used their evergreen foliage to shelter the precocious shoots of Cypripedium formosanum from late frosts.

I am also trying to establish Cyclamen libanoticum here, but the large leaves are very vulnerable to damage from both high winds and low temperatures, so THE ALPINE GARDENER

NOTES FROM HAMPSHIRE

Cyclamen purpurascens helps to shelter Cypripedium formosanum from late frosts

they have struggled. However, I intend to put some among the C. purpurascens, whose tough leaves will, I hope, support and protect those of its eastern cousin.

Of course, the winter carpet of oak leaves also gives protection, but I dread a good acorn year; Cyclamen leaves do not cope well with the constant trampling of foraging wood pigeons.

Many years of pot production of perennials has produced a large stack of old potting compost made up of plants past their sell-by date or not reaching saleable quality. The hellebores we grew in two-litre pots were big contributors to this; seed-grown Helleborus x hybridus produce a fair proportion of sub-standard plants.

Among the chuck-outs were two MARCH 2014

pots of Cyclamen pseudibericum, used for seed production and replaced by younger stock. By chance, they ended up near the top of the pile and took a liking to their new home. Weed-killing sprays in summer left them unscathed, since by then their foliage had gone. Such optimism had to be rewarded with a transfer from tip to garden, resulting by chance (like many of my favourite plant combinations) in an association I spend a lot of time admiring each spring: rose/purple Cyclamen flowers, Hepatica ‘Millstream Merlin’ and H. transsilvanica ‘Elison Spence’.

Surely all readers will be familiar with Cyclamen hederifolium and C. coum – no garden should be without them. The former provides foliage and flower for 33

PRACTICAL GARDENING

Cyclamen coum and Primula vulgaris happily spreading under trees at Blackthorn

eight months of the year, the latter offers weather-resistant flowers in colours from white to deep rose/purple in the dark days of winter. They arouse admiration wherever they put themselves – all the conventional sites, plus, to my surprise, rough grassland that gets its last mow at the end of August.

Seeing how well the strays have done, I am planting more in new grass areas.

34

Competition from the grass does slow down the establishment of C. coum in particular, but planting several youngsters close together helps to create an impact sooner.

Our deciduous hedges – hornbeam, hawthorn and blackthorn – have also become home to an increasing population of C. coum. Our moistureretentive clay and the shade the THE ALPINE GARDENER

NOTES FROM HAMPSHIRE

Cyclamen rhodium subsp. peloponnesiacum arrived in waste compost

plants receive in the summer seem to compensate for the drying-out they might otherwise endure; sites on lighter soils might not be so successful. The winter display they give in what would normally be a barren area is very satisfying.

The only problem here is controlling ivy, which smothers the Cyclamen if left unchecked. Barren areas at the base of deciduous shrubs might also be utilised in this way.

Like C. purpurascens, stray seeds from stock plants of C. repandum under the glasshouse benching have given rise to dense drifts of both pink and whiteflowered forms, providing a useful MARCH 2014

source of tubers to put out in the garden.

Like C. hederifolium and C. coum, C. repandum seems happy in grass provided it is shaded from the hottest sun.

We had assumed that C. rhodium subsp. peloponnesiacum would be a less hardy form, but tubers or seed in waste compost that was dug into a northfacing bed of heavy clay has proved us wrong. Several long-lived specimens are thriving. No doubt the tubers are deeply buried, and overhead trees do give shelter.

The brilliant flowers, sadly vulnerable to late spring frost, are much admired in the good years and mourned when the weather is spiteful.

35

PRACTICAL GARDENING

Rubble provides drainage and support for the sides of the bed

Unlearning the lessons taught by my alpine mentors 36

W

hen I was about 12 I lost my prime income. Until then I had been keeping myself in sweets and comics by carting home empty orange boxes from the fruit stall at the local market. My father broke them up for firewood and gave me a tanner a time, but I overdid it and he ended up with more firewood than he could store.

So what could I do instead? Well, alongside the fruit stall was a plant stall where occasionally I bought cacti. Yes, I was already hooked on growing things and was a member of the Cactus and Succulent Society of Great Britain. So I asked for and was given a Saturday job on the plant stall, which was run by East THE ALPINE GARDENER

RAISED CREVICE BED

The soil is a mix of clay, leaf-mould, grit and sandy loam

AGS member and former nursery owner Peter Summers rethinks his approach to cultivating alpines to construct a raised crevice bed in his Worcestershire garden Lodge Gardens of Botany Bay, Enfield, Middlesex. In the 1950s the nursery exhibited alpines at Chelsea and at the RHS shows in the Lawrence Hall in Greycoat Street, Westminster. Using water-worn limestone, I helped to build East Lodge’s table-top gardens at these shows and later manned the stands.

MARCH 2014

Unfortunately it all changed in 1961 after the death of the proprietor, Mr A.E. (Jim) Green. My colleague Anthony Pitt and I continued to run the nursery for a while on behalf of Jim’s partners, but when they decided to grow fewer alpines Anthony and I formed a partnership of our own and found a place at Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, where we could grow rock plants to supply to garden centres.

Soon I was married and building rock gardens of my own, as I moved house a few times. I’d heard about the idea of a crevice garden but had thought it totally alien to everything I’d been taught about how a rock garden should look. I was 37

PRACTICAL GARDENING

The broken slabs are sunk to about half their depth in the soil

curious about it, however, but it was not until I was offered a quantity of broken sandstone paving at a bargain price that my plans began to form.

It was the type of stone you see in crates in garden centres and builders’ yards, which I believe is imported from southeast Asia. It was rather thinner and not as random in width as I would have preferred, but it would do the job for a small crevice garden. I wanted a bed that would take those little gems that get lost in a large rock garden. It would provide better drainage, be easy to weed and keep free of pests, and perhaps even be out of the reach of rabbits.

When we revamped our drive, we 38

removed some large and heavy paving slabs. Some years earlier I successfully made a raised bed using similar slabs, so ten of them have been used to construct the walls of my new raised bed. They are held in place by paving on the outside of the bed and broken rubble on the inside.

This work was done in late 2012, but was hindered by the fact that I had continuously to siphon out rainwater from the bed. My garden is on solid clay and it floods after heavy rain because of the hard surface pan. The raised bed, too, is on clay but it should be high enough to avoid being submerged!

On top of the clay is the supporting rubble and an infill of 50 per cent clay THE ALPINE GARDENER

RAISED CREVICE BED

The gaps between the slabs are ready to be filled with a gritty mix

mixed with leaf-mould, grit and sandy loam. The slabs that form the crevices have been graded for colour and set in about half their depth in this mixture. I had no difficulty in aligning them in a north-south aspect as Titterstone Clee Hill, a Shropshire landmark, is due north, just across the Teme valley.

The first pieces of stone went in very quickly until I realised I had been leaving a gap between them of 2.5 inches instead of 2.5 centimetres, as is recommended in the AGS booklet, The Crevice Garden and its Plants. So that had to be put right.

The gaps between the slabs were filled with a mixture of two parts sandy loam, MARCH 2014

one part grit and one part sharp sand.

To this I added Sincrocell nine-month slow-release plant food at 250 grammes per 80 litres of mix. This is more for the trace elements it contains than as a general fertiliser. The bed was finished with a light dusting of chippings. Back in the 1950s I was taught never to overdo the gravel top-dressing on a rock garden because it can make it more difficult to establish plants.

I did split some of the slabs with a bolster, but not many, so their thickness does not vary as much as I would have liked. This is a little disappointing but I had one or two ‘creative’ moments with a heavy hammer and I will use a few 39

PRACTICAL GARDENING

The completed construction, with a ‘paved’ corner for sempervivums

pieces to break up the somewhat regular crevices as I plant up the bed. I left one corner flat, creating a ‘paved’ surface for my favourite sempervivums.

I still have enough slabs remaining to make another bed of the same size, but perhaps I will be a little more adventurous and do something different.

So what do I think I have achieved?

Well, I have brought up to date the tabletop rock gardens we built at Chelsea, recycled some rubbish into a feature that has at least impressed the neighbours, and I have a structure that, when the plants are all in, will look very pretty.

The plants are being introduced gradually. Imagine the dilemma I now 40

face: having grown easy alpines by the thousands at the nursery, I now want to look for unusual plants that are more difficult to propagate, will grow slowly and will bring a special beauty to our garden. So my previous way of thinking – ‘How quickly can I turn this plant into thousands?’ – has to be changed. But I am endlessly curious about trying new plants and always appreciate the joy of seeing something flourish when I might have expected it to turn up its nose and die.

My enthusiasm is being fired by the many people I have met at AGS shows, alpine nurseries and at my Cotswold and Malvern Local Group. All of them have THE ALPINE GARDENER

RAISED CREVICE BED

The initial planting of Peter Summers’ crevice bed includes ‘temporary’ conifers

been extremely helpful, making this project very rewarding.

One of the initial aims is to break up the starkness of the concrete slabs with trailing plants such as phloxes and helianthemums. This is going to take longer than I had hoped because the plants, in some cases, are growing in the wrong direction. A little forceful pruning will be required.

I have also added a few dwarf conifers, but these will not be permanent. I will propagate new ones when the existing specimens start to outgrow their places. There are even a few temporary ‘fillers’ from my old stock and these will eventually be removed because MARCH 2014

they will become far too big. Adding and subtracting, taking out the old and bringing in the new, is all part of the rock gardening experience.

The Crevice Garden and its Plants by Zdeněk Zvolánek is available from the AGS.

41

MERLIN TRUST

The Merlin Trust, set up by the late Valerie Finnis, helps young horticulturists to visit wild places and gardens alike.

Every year the AGS shares, with the Merlin Trust, the cost of funding up to six young people on expeditions around the world. Katie Price looks at the history of the Trust and meets some of the ‘Merlins’

‘T

Cultivating the ‘Merlins’ – our next generation

wo hours had passed since I began the hike down the river. I knew I was getting closer to my awaited reward because I came across a hybrid… Ten minutes later I was proved right, upon the mesmerising sight of a golden, spiralling inflorescence that was confirmed to be the legendary Heliconia xanthovillosa. The thrill, awe and excitement I felt in that precise moment are totally indescribable!’

This short passage captures perfectly the experience of seeing plants in the wild. It comes from a report by Michael Benedito, a Kew diploma student from Madeira, who had travelled to Panama in Central America in 2012. His field trip was funded by the Merlin Trust.

In his report he thanks the charity ‘for giving me this unique life opportunity to travel for the very first time to a tropical country’.

So what is the Merlin Trust and who is behind it? Make a quick visit to its

42

website, www.merlin-trust.org.uk, and you will encounter many familiar and distinguished names from the world of horticulture. It’s fair to say that the Merlin Trust is pretty well connected.

But that’s not surprising, given that the charity’s founder was the renowned plantswoman and photographer Valerie Finnis VMH. Valerie died in 2006 but remains well known among AGS members. She bequeathed her library to the Society and one of her stone troughs was auctioned at last November’s conference. In 1942 she joined Waterperry Horticultural School for Women and, over the next 28 years, developed her expertise in growing and propagating alpine plants and sharing her immense knowledge with swathes of young women.

Her career spanned what garden writer Ursula Buchan, a close friend, calls ‘the golden age of gardening’, when enthusiasm for plants and horticulture THE ALPINE GARDENER

CHARLIE HOPKINSON

MERLIN TRUST

Valerie Finnis, founder of the Merlin Trust, which she named after her husband’s only son, who was killed during the Second World War

cut across wealth and class, and craftsmen gardeners swapped treasures with lords of the realm. Thanks to her extrovert character and her intense curiosity about people, Valerie was one of MARCH 2014

the driving forces behind that post-war blooming of British and Irish gardening.

Chris Brickell, a former RHS DirectorGeneral and a long-time AGS member, knew Valerie as a frequent visitor to RHS 43

MERLIN TRUST Garden Wisley in his early days there. He says: ‘Valerie met her husband, Sir David Scott, when he went to Waterperry for advice on growing alpines – he was a very keen gardener himself.

‘Following his death in 1986, Valerie talked to me, Brian Mathew and other gardening friends to identify some way of helping young people who were interested in a horticultural career. In particular she wanted to help them to broaden their knowledge outside formal horticultural courses and to see and enjoy plants in their natural environments, meaning they could learn about the conditions plants might need in cultivation.’

So Valerie established the Merlin Trust in memory of Sir David and his only son, Merlin, a gifted naturalist, who was killed in the Second World War. The Trust, with Chris Brickell as its first chairman, began to fund travel projects for horticulturists under the age of 30.

B

ulb expert Brian Mathew, who was another longstanding Trustee, says the remit was broad from the start.

‘Valerie favoured the projects that followed the path of plantsmanship, being a good plantswoman herself, but it was seldom that an applicant was turned down.

‘Overall, I think she was most excited by those who chose to travel to see plants in the wild in far-flung places or to visit famous gardens and botanical gardens around the world.’

Her enthusiasm for the exploits of her ‘Merlins’ was obvious. In the first edition of the Merlin Trust newsletter, she wrote: ‘Dear Merlins – Can you imagine 44

the pleasure and satisfaction with which I open my post each morning? Not only is there a growing number of applicants for grants… but also your postcards from all over the world. And then there are the reports, each unique and fascinating.’

Copies of the reports, written by the Merlins as a condition of their funding, are held at the RHS Lindley Library and the Royal Geographical Society Library.

More recent reports can be accessed on the Trust’s website, a growing resource for travellers and gardeners alike.

Fiona Crumley, a current trustee and the first official secretary after Valerie retired, says that she had a very good instinct for a person. Indeed, in the selection of the 600-plus young horticulturists who have received funding, the trustees have shown unerring judgement. Merlins have gone on to become botanists, plant-hunters, gardeners, specialist growers and writers.

Kew’s coffee specialist, botanist Aaron Davis, travelled to Turkey as Merlin No 3; Ursula Key-Davis, director of pelargonium and fern specialists Fibrex Nurseries, went to America; Lynne Dibley, of Dibleys Nurseries, whose Streptocarpus ‘Harlequin Blue’ was named RHS Plant of the Decade 2003-2012, went to South Africa; as did Rae Spencer-Jones, horticultural journalist and author, and Lucy Hart, head gardener at Fulham Palace.

Garden designer Martin Walsh travelled to China and Kyrgyzstan; and Seamus O’Brien, curator of Kilmacurragh Botanic Gardens, near Wicklow, went to China and Nepal.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

MERLIN TRUST

Tim Lever of Aberconwy Nursery, whose Merlin funding inspired him to make further trips to see plants in the wild – here he is in Arunachal Pradesh

To mark the turn of the millennium, the Trust began to offer fully funded places on Alpine Garden Society tours. The two charities share the costs of participation of between four and six young horticulturists each year.

A

berconwy Nursery’s Tim Lever, now a stalwart of the AGS Chelsea exhibit team, joined the AGS trip to Yunnan in 2006, led by Harry Jans and John Mitchell. ‘It was an excellent opportunity to travel in the wild in knowledgeable company and reinforced

MARCH 2014

my interest in alpine plants,’ says Tim. His words epitomise one of the Trust’s great strengths, that of bringing together different generations of plants people, with huge benefits for both sides.

Nicola Starkey, a Kew Diploma student who travelled to Himachal Pradesh in 2011 with tour leaders David and Margaret Thorne, wrote in her report: ‘This was my first time in the mountains and my first experience of botanising.

As one of the youngest members I was inspired by the knowledge, ability and determination of everyone. I hope that 45

MERLIN TRUST in 30 to 40 years time I am scrambling up mountain sides, hopping over boulders, trudging through snow and wading through rivers; you’ve redefined what retirement means to me.’

Bulb specialists Bob and Rannveig Wallis have been joined by Merlins on a number of tours to Turkey and say that they contribute greatly to the dynamics of a group. Bob notes that they have further advantages, often reaching places that others cannot get to. ‘We were in the Palandöken Range near Erzurum,’ recalls Bob. ‘One Merlin was a regular rugby player and was extremely fit, so we gave him a walkie-talkie and pointed to a little col in a ridge high above us, where there was a large patch of snow. Off he went at jogging pace! Eventually, when he was a tiny dot, his voice came on the radio to tell us that he had found Fritillaria alburyana in the snowmelt water.’

A

nother beneficiary of the collaboration between the AGS and the Merlin Trust is Joanne Everson, manager of Kew’s rock garden and woodland garden and a frequent lecturer to AGS groups. In her first year at Kew, she applied – and was shocked to be selected – to join the AGS trip to Bhutan.

She says: ‘We’d been trekking for ten days and we got up to this meadow which was full of Cypripedium himalaicum.

Sitting there, looking way down onto the camp, I literally had to pinch myself.

I had never botanised, had only been in a plane once before and here I was at 3,000m on a mountain in the middle of Bhutan during the monsoon. How on 46

Inspired to pursue a career with plants

N

igel Hopes, the Alpine Area Supervisor at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, benefited from a fully funded place on the 2012 AGS tour to South Africa. Nigel manages the rock garden, alpine yard, winter border, trials garden and a number of plant collections: Cyclamen, Primula auricula, South African bulbs and Streptocarpus. He also organises exhibits such as the spring bulb display, autumn bulb display, a show auriculas theatre and a display of cacti on the terrace during summer.

What was your route into gardening?

When I was around 13 years old, a family friend was taking Fuchsia

earth did I get here?’ She describes it as ‘a very personal opportunity – quite amazing’. Joanne is now the secretary of the Merlin Trust, fielding all the applications (and often mentoring the applicants) for the 20 to 30 trips that are funded each year.

The Merlin Trust now funds THE ALPINE GARDENER

DAWIE HUMAN

MERLIN TRUST

Nigel Hopes with Brunsvigia radulosa on the AGS field trip to South Africa 2012 cuttings and I was interested that he could produce plants for free. He gave me a pot of cuttings to take home, they rooted and I was completely hooked.

From school I did my work experience

at Ashwood Nurseries, which gave me a hunger to learn even more. I went on to work part-time at Ashwood

horticulturists under the age of 35 or in the first five years of their career, playing a vital role in their development. Valerie Finnis is often quoted as saying: ‘For me it used to be plants before people,’ but she said she came to see that ‘it’s really only people that matter’.

Some AGS members might not

entirely concur, but the Merlin Trust succeeds in bringing the two together in a combination that is as powerful as it is enduring.

MARCH 2014

Continued overleaf

 If you would like to support the Merlin Trust please contact Joanne Everson: j.everson@kew.org 47

MERLIN TRUST

VIC ASPLAND

Nigel Hopes tending a Cyclamen display at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens Nurseries and completed a First Diploma in horticulture and National Diploma at Rodbaston College. I joined Birmingham Botanical Gardens as a student.

What was it that inspired your interest in plants and gardening?

At Ashwood Nurseries I would come across new plants on what seemed like a daily basis. The more I learned from the staff there, the more I wanted to know. I became addicted to plants and I spent my wages buying plants to grow in my Dad’s garden.

48

What stage were you at when you applied for Merlin Trust funding?

When I applied for the trip to South Africa I was just about to take over the collection of South African bulbs at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

What did you hope to get out of the trip?

I wanted to learn as much as I could about cultivating some of the beautiful bulbs from the Eastern Cape. I hoped it would give me a fighting chance of being able to grow them successfully THE ALPINE GARDENER

DOUG BROWN

MERLIN TRUST

Beccy Middleton working on the Palm House parterre at RBG Kew back in the UK. I also hoped to come across lots of new plants.

What did you get out of the trip?

The places we visited and the incredible plants made it the trip of a lifetime.

We were blessed for a number of reasons, the main one being our guides Cameron McMaster and Dawie Human, who shared with us their extensive knowledge of South Africa’s wild flowers. Nothing compares to seeing a plant in the wild. One of my highlights was seeing Brunsvigia radulosa MARCH 2014

growing in grassland: it looked just like a firework exploding out of the ground.

You can learn so much by seeing where a plant grows in the wild. This gives you the knowledge to replicate these conditions in cultivation. I now also have a wish list of seed and bulbs that I want to experiment with to enhance the plant collection at Birmingham. Above all, I want to explore and see even more plants in their natural environments.

What are your goals?

My main aim is to continue working 49

MERLIN TRUST

Beccy Middleton studied sub-tropical plants at the Tresco Abbey Gardens hard here in Birmingham, to improve and develop the areas of the garden that I’m responsible for and to nurture the plant collections that I look after.

Not long ago we renovated the cascade in the rock garden. One of my goals is to travel to the Himalayas to improve my understanding of plants from this region and to get some inspiration to develop the rock garden further.

B

eccy Middleton, who trained at Kew, is the Walled Gardener at Inverewe (National Trust for Scotland) in Wester Ross. In 2011 the Merlin Trust funded

50

two weeks of work experience for Beccy at the Tresco Abbey Gardens, Isles of Scilly. Beccy won the Trust’s Christopher Brickell Prize for the best report that year.

What was your route into gardening?

I graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in music and philosophy, but quickly realised that I really wanted to work outdoors with plants. I took voluntary gardening roles and self-employed work before striking lucky with a training position at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

BECCY MIDDLETON

MERLIN TRUST

The walled garden at Inverewe, managed by Beccy Middleton What was it that inspired your interest in plants and gardening?

Both my parents are keen gardeners and encouraged me when I was small.

My great-grandfather was a market gardener in Wakefield and it’s nice to think that one of the family has come back round to growing fruit and veg again!

What stage were you at when you applied for Merlin Trust funding?

Working in Tresco Abbey Gardens had been on the radar for several years, but I finally managed to go in October 2011, while I was doing the MARCH 2014

Kew Diploma in Horticulture. It was a great time to go because I saw many of the plants I was to go on to encounter under glass at Kew. What did you hope to get out of the trip?

I wanted to see temperate and subtropical plants growing outdoors and learn about how to look after them and propagate them. I also wanted to see how the garden had been established in such an exposed coastal location.

Though the temperatures on the Scillies are usually mild, they have some stiff gales and sea spray to contend with.

51

MERLIN TRUST What did you get out of the trip?

My plant knowledge has definitely expanded. Interestingly, many of the plants I saw on Tresco are also growing here at Inverewe, even though it’s 540 miles further north. Having said that, I don’t think we’d get away with king proteas up here! The Abbey Gardens team were great and took time to explain the collections, maintenance and history of the garden. I also explored Tresco and some of the other islands, seeing the famous bulb fields and some of the fascinating native and introduced flora.

What are your goals?

I’m hooked on the west coast now, so I’d like to think I’ll be gardening out here for the foreseeable future. A longterm ambition is to travel to Chile to see the temperate plants. We have so many beautiful Chilean plants in our gardens that I’d love to see them in their natural habitat.

L

uke Barnes, a second-year undergraduate studying molecular biology at Cardiff University, travelled to Southern Laos with the Writhlington School expedition in 2011, supporting the Paksong Orchid Project.

What path did you take to get to this point?

On A-level results day I found myself in the clearing system and called Cardiff University. I was accepted for the course in molecular biology, an impulse decision that was possibly one of the best I’ve made in my academic career.

52

What was it that inspired your interest in plants and gardening?

My inspiration in gardening comes almost exclusively from Simon PughJones, a science teacher at Writhlington School in Somerset, who ran the school’s renowned orchid project. At the time the project was quite small, but we were undertaking the micropropagation of orchids. Being able to see this and how easily it could be applied to conservation was my main inspiration when I was about 12.

What stage were you at when you applied for Merlin Trust funding?

The Laos orchid project aims to protect orchids on the Bolaven Plateau by developing a sustainable trade in laboratory-raised local species to reduce the collecting of wild plants.

We had established links with coffee farmers and our contact had come over to the UK for training in our labs and in the labs at Kew, with Dr Lauren Gardiner. We had bought the laboratory equipment and the Merlin Trust funding enabled me to travel back to Laos to help to commission the laboratory there.

What did you hope to get out of the trip?

I didn’t quite know what to expect from the trip. I did hope that we would get the lab up and running by the end of the week and that we would improve the outlook for conservation.

What did you get out of the trip?

I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and have definitely got the bug for south-east THE ALPINE GARDENER

MERLIN TRUST

Luke Barnes and fellow Writhlington pupil Caroline Albrow in the laboratory in Laos, developing the agar medium on which to grow orchid seedlings Asia. I gained experience in orchid identification and troubleshooting different problems that arise when attempting micro-propagation, such as when your lab gets attacked by moths as soon as it becomes dark!

On a deeper level, I got a real taste for conservation and the very real effects that it can have. By the end of the week we were rescuing plants from a forest that was to be burned and planting them in a new reserve. It showed me quite clearly that, if you work with the right people, anything is possible.

MARCH 2014

What are your goals?

My travels turned my plans of what to do with my life upside down. Before Laos I was all set to go into academia and become a university professor with a research lab, a large salary and five or six PhDs! Now I’ve realised (and keep realising) that there is so much more to do out there. My favourite idea at the moment is to teach. I am only where I am today thanks to one particularly inspirational teacher. Part of me wants to be that teacher for someone else.

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PUSCHKINIA KURDICA

P

uschkinias are closely related to scillas. There are even two species whose names combine the names of both genera: Puschkinia scilloides Adams (i.e. scilla-like puschkinia) and Scilla puschkinioides Regel* (puschkinialike scilla).

In fact these two species are so similar that one can separate them only by checking their flower morphology. In scillas the flower segments are either free to the base or joined for not more than one-fifth of the total length of the perianth, while in puschkinias the perianth segments are united for onequarter or more of their length.

I encountered this fascinating duo in my very early years when I was introduced to my first stock of Scilla puschkinioides, from Chimgan in Uzbekistan. Both species self-sowed in my earliest garden and, at first glance, seemed almost identical, except that the anthers of the Puschkinia were hidden inside the corona. In scillas they are on long filaments.

Until 2007 there was only one officially recognised species of Puschkinia, P. scilloides, although nurseries from time to time offered P. hyacinthoides Baker and P. libanotica Zucc., distinguished by the length and indentation of the corona. Now both of the latter species are regarded as conspecific with P. scilloides because these features are very variable, even within the same population.

I am not surprised that the name P. hyacinthoides was bestowed on certain plants from the eastern Transcaucasus because forms of P. scilloides occur there with very large, dense flower spikes,

54

Turkish mountains yield a new Puschkinia Bulb expert Jānis Rukšāns describes a newly identified species of Puschkinia – P. kurdica – from the Karabet Pass in eastern Turkey resembling wild hyacinths and even surpassing them in beauty.

One such gathering was grown in Gothenburg Botanical Garden, Sweden, for several years, labelled ‘Hyacinthus sp.’, before it was studied properly and the name amended to Puschkinia scilloides. A similar hyacinth-like sample was collected by Dr Arnis Seisums near Mount Aragats in Armenia and named by him ‘Aragat’s Gem’; equally impressive is the accession WHIR 127, collected by me in Iran.

The existence of different specific epithets sparked my interest in the genus Puschkinia and during mountain trips I studied various examples.

Puschkinias grow at relatively high altitudes and, according to the Flora of Turkey, can be found between 1,700m THE ALPINE GARDENER

PUSCHKINIA KURDICA

Scilla puschkinioides and, below, Puschkinia scilloides (WHIR 127) can be separated only by their flower morphology

and 3,500m above sea level. My own gatherings of various puschkinias come from altitudes of between 1,500m (Georgia and Turkey) and 2,900m (Armenia, Iran and Turkey). The only real difference between all but three gatherings was the number of flowers per spike as well as some variation in flower colour.

As a rule, plants from higher altitudes MARCH 2014

55

PUSCHKINIA KURDICA

The flowers of white and green forms of Puschkinia peshmenii

were less floriferous, having only two to four flowers per spike, rarely more. This is a result of the hard growing conditions in nature, because in cultivation they become more floriferous. Among the colour variations, most impressive were the albinos, one of which (from Armenia) was named ‘Snowdrift’

by Arnis Seisums. One white form collected by me in Iran varied in colour from spring to spring in cultivation – it was sometimes white, at other times light blue.

In 2007 Martyn Rix and Brian Mathew described a new Puschkinia species that looked very different from P. scilloides, collected from the surroundings of Lake Van in eastern Turkey. It was discovered 56

in 1974 by Turkish botanist Dr Hasan Peşmen, whose attention was drawn to the unusual green colour of its somewhat pendant flowers, appearing between well-developed leaves that significantly overtopped the flower spikes. In the case of P. scilloides, the flower spikes are usually longer than the erect leaves.

Later, Peşmen’s species was found also in Hakkâri, near Yüksekova, and in adjacent Iran. In gardens, this greenflowered variant is mostly distributed under the collector’s number Rix 1926.

In honour of its original discoverer, the new species was named Puschkinia peshmenii Rix & B. Mathew. It is not the showiest of puschkinias, although the unique greenish colouring of its flowers THE ALPINE GARDENER

PUSCHKINIA KURDICA

The flowers of Puschkinia scilloides and, right, the new Puschkinia kurdica

is an oddity which, of course, makes it of great interest to bulb enthusiasts.

In 2004, during the BATMAN expedition to Turkey, we collected, among others, two samples of Puschkinia out of flower. BATMAN 060 was collected near the Van-Tatvan road, on a steep roadside slope (now there is a new road there), at an altitude of 1,750m. In cultivation it turned out to be very similar to the Rix material of P. peshmenii, and although the flowers were of a much more spectacular creamy-white, becoming bluish with age, the shape of the spike and the placement of flowers were identical to the type specimen of P. peshmenii.

The other sample, BATMAN 250, was MARCH 2014

collected quite far from Van, 18km north of Bingöl, at 1,800m (again, the locality is lost because of a new road). This one inclines towards typical P. scilloides in flower colour, but the placement of flowers on the spike and the position of the spike among the leaves are both referable to P. peshmenii, so this finding enlarges both the range and the concept of the latter species. In my opinion, the best form of P. peshmenii is BATMAN 060 and the most unusual is Rix 1926.

In Peter Sheasby’s beautiful book, Bulbous Plants of Turkey and Iran, published by the Alpine Garden Society, I noticed pictures of an unusual Puschkinia species photographed on the Karabet Pass, just south of Lake Van. 57

PUSCHKINIA KURDICA

Puschkinia scilloides and a cream form in Iran. Below, Puschkinia kurdica near the Karabet Pass in eastern Turkey

The pictures looked so interesting that I decided to visit this locality and see the plants for myself. My first visit there was in 2009, and I returned in 2011.

Our team were there at the peak of blooming, in the first half of June. This Puschkinia was flowering everywhere, following the snowmelt, and really was very special.

The main feature separating it from typical P. scilloides is the shape of the inflorescence, which is somewhat corymb-like. In P. scilloides, the flowers 58

are arranged in long or fairly short but distinctly raceme-like inflorescences, but in this new find the spikes are much shorter and the flowers are crowded in condensed conical inflorescences. Most distinct in the Karabet plants is the corona – it is very short (according to Sheasby, sometimes even absent), the segments with an entire margin; lobes or teeth are completely absent (see pictures on pages 56 and 57).

At anthesis (the period during which flowers are fully open and functional), THE ALPINE GARDENER

PUSCHKINIA KURDICA

Puschkinia peshmenii in its green and white (BATMAN 250) forms

leaves in these plants are much longer than the inflorescence, but they are more or less adpressed to the soil. In P. scilloides, leaves at flowering time are either shorter or equal in length to the inflorescence and they are more or less erect. In flower colour both puschkinias are similar, except that among the Karabet plants there is a greater proportion of very pale-flowered specimens, with a short or a very light bluish midrib, in some cases almost lacking one, but there are also plants whose flower colour MARCH 2014

would be indistinguishable from that of P. scilloides.

Because some botanists have expressed the opinion that this is only a form of P. scilloides from higher altitudes, I did a thorough search at lower elevations, but found no other puschkinias.

The plants from Iran growing at almost the same altitude (WHIR 114) showed all the typical features of P. scilloides. In 2009 it was impossible to explore higher altitudes due to the large amount of snow covering the 59

PUSCHKINIA KURDICA

The Karabet Pass in eastern Turkey, home to Puschkinia kurdica

pass. I returned to the locality in 2011, but in the surrounding area, again we found no plants resembling typical P. scilloides. Following the road, on the adjacent mountain passes we did not see puschkinias at all.

Taking into account all the features mentioned above, I came to the conclusion that the Puschkinia growing on the Karabet Pass warranted its own specific name and decided to call it Puschkinia kurdica after the nationals living in this part of Turkey.

At present, P. kurdica is known only from its locus classicus on Kavusşahap 60

mountain ridge near the Karabet Pass, where it grows at 2,600-2,900m, together with Allium subakaka, Colchicum kurdicum, Corydalis nariniana, Fritillaria crassifolia subsp. kurdica (a very variable population), F. minima, F. minuta and Tulipa humilis.

In cultivation, Puschkinia kurdica maintains its habit and the seedlings are identical to the mother plants even when grown side by side with P. scilloides and openly pollinated by insects. The first seedlings from seed collected in 2010 started blooming in spring 2013.

In a greenhouse at my nursery, all THE ALPINE GARDENER

PUSCHKINIA KURDICA

Puschkinia kurdica photographed in its native Turkish habitat

three species of Puschkinia bloom almost at the same time − in the first half or the middle of April. I have tried neither P. kurdica nor P. peshmenii in the open garden, where P. scilloides grows successfully. Of this trio, P. peshmenii seems to be a little bit more difficult to maintain than the other two species; however, all readily set seed.

Puschkinia kurdica Rukšāns species nova ad P. scilloides Adams similes sed inflorescentia corymbosus similis; foliis sub anthesim adpressus; corona parvus cum margine laevis.

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Type: Turkey, Karabet Pass, Kavusşahap mountain ridge, south of Lake Van, flowering on wet stony slopes just after snow melt. Alt. 2,800-2,900m. Col. Jānis Rukšāns 04-06-2009. JRRK-058A. Holo: GB; Iso: Gatersleben; GAT 23356. * Now more correctly Fessia puschkinioides (Regel) Speta (according to the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, RBG Kew).  Jānis Rukšāns can be contacted at janis.bulb@hawk.lv; website rarebulbs.lv 61

The magic of Patagonia

The Río Neuquén winds its way down to Chos Malal in northern Patagonia.

Left, a splendid specimen of Oxalis enneaphylla, a plant of the far south

Hilary Little, author of Patagonian Mountain Flower Holidays, the companion volume to Martin Sheader’s widely acclaimed Flowers of the Patagonian Mountains, takes us on a whistlestop tour of this plant lovers’ paradise

EXPLORATION

Icebergs from the Upsala Glacier – orchids grow in the hills nearby

‘E

at the Calafate berry and you will return,’ said the estancia owner, offering me a handful of unripe berries. I was two days into my first trip to Patagonia and loving it. I swallowed several berries and, 15 visits later, the magic of Patagonia still thrills and excites me, although these days I choose the softer option of eating Calafate berry jam or ice-cream.

This AGS trip, led by John Watson and Peter Erskine in 1992, enabled me to explore several different regions in Patagonia, from the windswept steppe of the far south to the sylvan uplands of the Argentine Lake District. I was awestruck by the majestic pinnacles of the Torres

64

del Paine and watched enthralled as large blocks of the ice-blue cliffs of the spectacular Perito Moreno Glacier tumbled with a crash into the waters of Lago Argentino, covering bystanders with spray.

I was exhilarated by the remote fastnesses of the Parque Nacional Perito Moreno and revelled in the lush rainforest of the Parque Nacional Los Alerces and the snow-capped peaks of the Argentine Lake District. Everywhere there were exciting flowers in forms and colours that enchanted and captivated the eye but, at that time, most were unknown to me. I soon realised I wanted to get to know them better and THE ALPINE GARDENER

PATAGONIA

Adesmia parvifolia found near the Upsala Glacier

to explore the land that provided their natural habitat.

That was the start of my passion for Patagonia and within a few years I was returning on almost an annual basis.

Early trips were remarkable for dodgy tour operators, unreliable vehicles, unsurfaced roads, painfully slow travel with frequent punctures and limited accommodation. However, since my first visit, Patagonia has developed as a tourist destination and, as a result, its remote wildernesses and the wealth of plants they harbour have become much more accessible, both for groups and for independent travellers.

Patagonia covers such a vast area, forming MARCH 2014

the southern half of both Argentina and Chile, that you can only hope to cover a relatively small part of it in a single visit.

If you are planning a Patagonian holiday for the first time, consider focusing on, say, two centres and use an internal flight to get from one to the other.

Two locations which offer a lot in terms of the richness of the flora and visitor attractions are El Calafate in southern Argentina and San Carlos de Bariloche in the Argentine Lake District, and both have good airports.

Spring reaches the south of Patagonia earlier than the north because the mountains are lower. It is, therefore, better to visit El Calafate in late November and 65

EXPLORATION

Lago Puelo from its southern shore in the Argentine Lake District

early December and the Lake District from mid-December onwards. That said, January is also a good flowering period in the Lake District, especially in the more westerly mountains, and also further north in Patagonia. However, the visitor should note that the holiday season in Argentina begins at Christmas and accommodation is then markedly more difficult to find in popular tourist destinations.

If travelling to Argentina, you will probably fly initially to Buenos Aires.

It is worth spending a couple of nights 66

in this captivating city with its wide boulevards, street cafés, excellent restaurants, green and pleasant parks, European architecture and tango. If you are interested in wildlife, then you may wish to consider a brief diversion to Trelew to visit the Valdés Peninsula on the Atlantic coast.

On my first trip to Patagonia I enjoyed not only whale-watching out in the bay in an open wooden boat but being able to touch both a mother and baby southern right whale as they swam under the boat and gently lifted us up.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

PATAGONIA

AGS authors Hilary Little and Martin Sheader in a close encounter with a tucu tucu, also pictured right, on Batea Mahuida

The area is rich with other creatures, such as Magellanic penguins, armadillos, burrowing parrots, elephant seals (often seen playing games at the water’s edge or lying on their backs sunbathing), sealions and their principal predators, the orcas.

El Calafate and the Far South El Calafate is a thriving, rapidly expanding town with many comfortable MARCH 2014

67

EXPLORATION

The fabled scarlet gorse, Anarthrophyllum desideratum

new hotels. In the surrounding countryside, several estancias provide luxury accommodation and recreational facilities for the visitor. Those situated on the meseta, known as El Balcón, enable the plant enthusiast to explore the hills and find many interesting species. From El Calafate, you can combine botanising with visits to spectacular locations such as the Perito Moreno Glacier, where there are good plants around the lake.

Another splendid excursion is to go by boat from Punta Bandera to Estancia Cristina to see the Upsala Glacier, especially memorable on a calm, sunny day. In the hills round about there are orchids and on the striated rocks near 68

the glacier interesting colour forms of Adesmia parvifolia can be found.

In the far south you will have your first encounter with two of the fabled plants of Patagonia: the scarlet gorse, Anarthrophyllum desideratum, low mounds of which cover the roadside and fields on the approach to El Calafate from the south, and the Chilean flame tree, Embothrium coccineum, which, in December, lights up the hillsides in southern Chile and provides a colourful foreground to the sparkling glaciers and lakes in the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. The park is named after the spectacular granite pinnacles which lie at its heart and there is a magnificent THE ALPINE GARDENER

PATAGONIA

Gavilea patagonica and, right, Chloraea magellanica

all-day walk to the glacial lake at the base of the towers. The park provides a suitably moist habitat for Chloraea alpina, C. magellanica, several species of Gavilea and the pure-white dove orchid, Codonorchis lessonii.

San Carlos de Bariloche The Argentine Lake District, in which this town is situated, is a region of lush beauty with majestic mountains and deep lakes. In the west, the abundant rainfall gives rise to luxuriant rainforest with trees such as Austrocedrus, Luma, Nothofagus and Pilgerodendron. Lichens festoon tree branches in the forests and mosses carpet the woodland floor.

MARCH 2014

Many species of orchid thrive here together with ferns and moistureloving plants such as the scarlet Ourisia ruellioides. Ski lifts provide access to the summit areas of many of the high mountains. These lifts operate regularly in summer although less frequently before Christmas. Below the snow line, the plant enthusiast can find real alpine treasures such as Oxalis erythrorhiza and that most exquisite of buttercups, Ranunculus semiverticillatus, as well as Viola sacculus and V. columnaris.

San Carlos de Bariloche is a large, bustling town. Its civic buildings were designed by a famous Argentine architect, Alejandro Bustillo, who was 69

EXPLORATION

The striking Viola coronifera, one of many Andinium (rosulate) violas

responsible for introducing the alpine chalet style of building in the area. The German/Swiss influence also extends to the local specialities for which the town is renowned, such as chocolate, high-quality leather goods, dried salami sausage and cheese.

Further north, the town of San Martín de los Andes is quieter and more refined.

It is an excellent place to stay, with good access to Cerro Chapelco and Cerro Colo Huincul, where striking plants such as Chloraea virescens, Viola coronifera and V. dasyphylla can be found.

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While both El Calafate and San Carlos de Bariloche provide extremely good bases for floral exploration, you may wish to experience wilder, more remote areas. Happily, Patagonia still offers many possibilities for getting off the beaten track.

For the plant enthusiast the backbone of Patagonia is provided by the iconic Ruta Nacional 40 (RN40) which runs for more than 2,000km from Río Gallegos in the far south, then along the eastern fringe of the Andean chain to the northern border of Argentine Patagonia where it THE ALPINE GARDENER

PATAGONIA

Oreopolus glacialis growing below the Alfredo Glacier at Laguna Azul

crosses the Río Barrancas/Colorado and moves on into the province of Mendoza.

From RN40 it is possible to branch off into the steppe to the east or towards the mountainous regions in the west and get into areas where you often can walk all day without seeing another soul.

The steppe The steppe east of the main Andean chain is the habitat of many fine plants.

In the south, various species of Adesmia, Junellia, Leucheria and Nassauvia flourish, together with golden mats of MARCH 2014

Brachyclados caespitosus and Oreopolus glacialis, as well as numerous cacti.

Further north, different species of Junellia enjoy the aridity, as do species of spiny Adesmia, Chuquiraga and Loasa.

Around the large inland lake, Lago Cardiel, and further north in the vicinity of Río Mayo, the steppe is one of the best areas in which to experience the big wide open skies so characteristic of central Patagonia. There are no towns of any size in this region and places to stay are few and far between. Some of the old, traditional estancias, such as Estancia La 71

EXPLORATION Angostura and Estancia La Estela, have opened their doors to welcome paying guests and their simple hospitality enables you almost to step back to the time of the early pioneers.

Monte Fitz Roy and El Chaltén El Chaltén is a relatively new town, with a tourist industry centred around climbing. The rocky balconies above the Río Fitz Roy to the west of the town offer splendid views of the commanding spire of Monte Fitz Roy and the slender pinnacle of Cerro Torre.

At your feet, you may see several species of Chloraea and Gavilea growing in the tussocky grass. There are several good walks in this area with fine plants, such as the ascent of Loma del Pliegue Tumbado where, on the scree slopes above the tree-line, you may find gems such as Hamadryas sempervivoides, Leucheria leontopodioides and Oxalis loricata. On another walk in the vicinity of El Chaltén you could be lucky enough to see a rare yellow form of Embothrium coccineum.

Parque Nacional Perito Moreno A wild and remote park little visited by tourists is the Parque Nacional Perito Moreno. This park is dedicated to the preservation of native fauna such as the puma, and the shy, small species of deer known as huemul. Herds of guanaco, the local llama relative, roam this area too. Towering over the landscape is Monte San Lorenzo, with imposing, fluted, icy columns on its east ridge.

Although it is not possible to gain access to the mountains in the west of the park, those to the east offer rewarding walks, 72

breathtaking views and flowers such as Benthamiella azorella, Calandrinia caespitosa, Nassauvia lagascae, the magenta form of Oxalis loricata, both pink and white forms of Primula magellanica, Valeriana moyanoi, and the golden-flowered Viola auricolor. The only accommodation is provided by estancias within or just outside the park.

Meseta del Lago Buenos Aires The Meseta del Lago Buenos Aires is a fascinating area, richly rewarding for the plant enthusiast. If you are able to avail yourself of 4WD transport with a driver who knows the area well, then a trip across the volcanic landscape of the Meseta to Laguna del Sello will provide an unforgettable experience.

Staying in Los Antiguos also enables you to explore the outstandingly rich flora of Monte Zeballos and the Zeballos-Jeinimeni valley on the western edge of the meseta, about which Martin and Anna Sheader wrote in The Alpine Gardener of June 2011, pp. 250-265.

From Los Antiguos, it is easy to cross the border into Chile and botanise on the slopes of Cerro Pico Sur or venture into the Jeinimeni National Park.

The Volcanoes of Northern Patagonia You may wish to follow in the footsteps of the AGS tour to Patagonia in December last year which offered the opportunity to explore part of the most northerly region, the land of the volcanoes. The beautiful cone of Volcán Lanín dominates the landscape in the south of this area.

Batea Mahuida, on the Chilean border, has a broad summit ridge with THE ALPINE GARDENER

PATAGONIA

Calandrinia affinis can be found around the active Volcán Copahue

many excellent plants including Oxalis adenophylla and Rhodophiala andicola on the lower slopes and, further up in the screes, Viola cotyledon flourishes together with good groups of Loasa nana and isolated patches of Calceolaria pennellii. On the slopes, tucu tucu burrow in the sandy soil.

Another rich area for plant enthusiasts is to be found around the active Volcán Copahue near the small town of Caviahue. Several good walks can be undertaken, all with interesting plants, including Calandrinia affinis, Jaborosa volkmannii and Viola copahuensis on the upper slopes of CajÓn Chico, and good cushions of Maihuenia MARCH 2014

poepiggii in the Araucaria araucana (monkey puzzle) forest near the Cascades. The amphitheatre above the thermal spa and ski centre of Copahue contains Calandrinia colchaguensis, C. graminifolia, Oxalis adenophylla, Olsynium frigidum and Perezia fonckii.

Continuing northward, you reach the town of Chos Malal, a convenient centre from which to explore Volcán Tromen and Cerro Wayle. Dangerously fierce winds can blow you off your feet on these slopes, as I have experienced at first hand, and the presence of lenticular clouds, indicating strong winds, should not be treated lightly. Above 3,000m on the eastern ridge of Cerro Wayle, Viola 73

EXPLORATION

Viola sp. aff. congesta is found at Las Lagunas de Epu Lauquen

atropurpurea can be found. Westward from Chos Malal, you pass through Andacollo to Las Lagunas de Epu Lauquen where Viola sp. aff. congesta and Euphrasia chrysantha grow. Moving further north still, you reach Volcán Domuyo, the most northerly volcano in Patagonia, where you may be rewarded by finding Chaetanthera villosa and wonderful forms of Viola atropurpurea, (or is it V. skottsbergiana?), some with black falls, others with beards; the names of these violas can be a little uncertain!

All the areas described above offer good plant-hunting opportunities, but they are far from the only locations worth visiting in Patagonia. About 74

two years ago Chris Brickell suggested that our group of six regular travellers should make our combined knowledge of Patagonia and its flora available to others. The result of this has been the production of two complementary books.

Flowers of the Patagonian Mountains, for which Martin Sheader was the lead author, is a comprehensive guide to the mountain and steppe flora of Patagonia, and Patagonian Mountain Flower Holidays, which will be published this month, focuses on providing detailed information on where to find the choice plants, how to get there and where to stay.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

PATAGONIA

The town of Caviahue with Volcán Copahue smoking quietly in the background

You do not have to be particularly fit, or a strong walker, to enjoy a visit to Patagonia. Patagonian Mountain Flower Holidays contains something for everyone, from the keen plant-hunter who wants to spend all day walking in the mountains to the car traveller who is looking for interesting routes where high-alpine treasures can be found within easy reach of the road.

As the title indicates, this book is about holidays, so some places of more general interest are included, such as La Trochita, featured in Paul Theroux’s Old Patagonian Express; the hideout of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; and the cave of the painted hands – La Cueva de MARCH 2014

las Manos Pintadas. The inner person is not forgotten either with locations for excellent ice-creams, local beer and Welsh teas.

Armed with these two books you should have a really enjoyable trip to Patagonia. As for me, I’m continuing to eat the Calafate berry jam to make sure I go back again.

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EXPLORATION

Above and left, Iris bucharica

Irises, tulips and a host of other treasures in the Stans 76

THE ALPINE GARDENER

TAJIKISTAN AND UZBEKISTAN

Iris rosenbachiana in Tajikistan’s remote Rommet valley

T

here are parts of the world that few of us will ever visit, either because of their remoteness, lack of facilities for tourists or their difficult terrain. Those of us who love seeing plants in their natural habitats are fortunate that there are tour companies, including AGS Expeditions, which will overcome these difficulties by organising trips to such areas.

Two years ago, in April 2012, I was one of five people who joined a Greentours expedition to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

It was the first time that Greentours had arranged a trip in this area, but the leader, Chris Gardner, had carried out

MARCH 2014

Peter Sheasby journeys to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia, where spring bulbs provide spectacular displays – if you get there before the flower pickers a reconnaissance the year before. Our adventure started from Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.

At this time of the year most of the plants in flower are ‘bulbous’, with significant representations of tulips and juno irises. We journeyed to the 77

EXPLORATION

Gymnospermium albertii, a member of the Berberidaceae 78

THE ALPINE GARDENER

TAJIKISTAN AND UZBEKISTAN

Karatag valley, where the hillsides were dotted with Iris bucharica, the first of the junos we would encounter. Fritillaria bucharica, Bongardia chrysogonum, an unusual member of the Berberidaceae, and magnificent specimens of Corydalis popovii added to the interest.

The next day was spent in the remote Rommet valley, where Iris vicaria and Iris rosenbachiana were the star attractions, but other bulbous species such as Bellevalia atroviolacea, Colchicum kesselringii and Crocus korolkowii were seen for the first time.

Gymnospermium albertii, another member of the Berberidaceae, was common, as well as pale blue forms of Scilla (= Fessia) puschkinioides and the variable Corydalis ledebouriana.

We had lunch in the headman’s MARCH 2014

The gleaming Crocus korolkowii and, below, Corydalis popovii

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EXPLORATION

An abundance of Crocus korolkowii in the Anzob valley

house in a tiny Tajik village high in this remote valley, and our meal turned out to be a feast. A spread of local nuts, dried apricots, sweets, fruits and nutty shortbread was laid out, followed by meat and rice, local bread and green tea. After such a lunch we struggled to photograph a fine colony of Iris rosenbachiana on a very steep and slippery hillside!

The next day we visited the Anzob valley to the north of Dushanbe. Again Iris vicaria and Iris bucharica were present, together with the occasional hybrid, but the highlight in this valley was Fritillaria eduardii. This is similar 80

to F. imperialis but is leafier, has fewer flowers and is widespread in the valley.

Unfortunately it is picked by children to be sold at the roadside in large bunches.

This means that the most accessible areas are cleared as soon as the plants flower, but a local guide was hired to take us up a side valley where the Fritillaria was also known to grow.

As we climbed, two boys came down with great bunches of the flowers in their arms. We found that they had stripped the valley of all the accessible flowers, leaving just one rather poor specimen on a steep cliff.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

TAJIKISTAN AND UZBEKISTAN

Anemone bucharica photographed in the Nurek area of Tajikistan

The same fate is met by the local tulip, Tulipa praestans, so both are difficult to find in situ. It is a great shame because most bunches collected will not be sold and will just be thrown away – a common problem with showy plants in these areas. High up in the pass, which was almost blocked by snow, the few snowmelt areas supported large patches of golden Crocus korolkowii.

An unusual law in Dushanbe is that vehicles are not allowed to be muddy or dirty. The penalty is an on-the-spot fine by the local police. As there is a policeman at every intersection and each MARCH 2014

will stop and fine a driver, it can be an expensive business. Thankfully there are car-wash stations on every road into the city – our journey on rough mountain roads certainly required their services.

Our final day in Tajikistan was used to visit the Nurek area, which boasts an important new reservoir. This excursion yielded two beautiful anemones, red Anemone bucharica and pink Anemone tschernjaewii, with more Bellevalia atroviolacea and Iris bucharica. Near the reservoir, the hills were dotted with bushes of Cercis siliquastrum in a very deep pink form.

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EXPLORATION

The beautiful and delicate Anemone tschernjaewii 82

THE ALPINE GARDENER

TAJIKISTAN AND UZBEKISTAN

The new reservoir in the Nurek area

On then to Uzbekistan. Moving across the border is complicated because it involves passing through eight separate checkpoints for passport, immigration and customs control. These are spread along a half-mile stretch of road so, as vehicles are not allowed to cross the border, our luggage had to be carried through all these checks. Fortunately it was a fine day. A guide with a replacement vehicle was waiting for us on the other side.

On the route to our first base in Uzbekistan, the town of Shakhrisabz, we saw a very fine form of Tulipa micheliana and the more widespread Tulipa montana in its red form. On just one hillside was an amazing pinkMARCH 2014

flowered Eremurus, which I understand has not been identified yet and may be a new taxon. It was about 60cm tall, had flowers all the way down the stem and grew on very dry slopes.

From Shakhrisabz our plan was to travel to Samarkand, expecting to cross over the magnificent Amankutan Pass.

When we reached the entrance to the pass, however, we were told by police that it was closed because of a landslide on the far side.

Failure to go up the pass would have meant missing some very important plants, so a great deal of negotiation took place between our guide and the police.

Eventually this led to the agreement 83

EXPLORATION

The scarlet Tulipa fosteriana and, left, a pink-flowered Eremurus, as yet not ascribed to any of the known species

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THE ALPINE GARDENER

TAJIKISTAN AND UZBEKISTAN

Iris warleyensis and, right, Iris magnifica

that we could go up the pass for one hour only. This barely gave us time to reach the top, but four hours later we came back down and crept past the police, hoping not to be recognised!

In this time we had enjoyed a brief picnic lunch and seen lovely specimens of Iris magnifica and Iris warleyensis, together with Tulipa fosteriana, Tulipa turkestanica and Tulipa biflora. At the top of the pass Primula fedtschenkoi, Corydalis maracandica and Anemone petiolulosa were all in good flower.

The white, purple-veined Colchicum MARCH 2014

kesselringii was again present near melting snow.

It is interesting to note that where we found Crocus korolkowii, any Colchicum growing in the area was always C. kesselringii. In contrast, where we found Crocus alatavicus, the only Colchicum nearby was C. luteum. This seems to be replicated on the other side of the Tien Shan mountains in the Djabagly area, where again Crocus alatavicus is found with Colchicum luteum.

We took the long diversion to Samarkand, a city on the ancient silk 85

EXPLORATION

Colchicum luteum and, right, a blue-tiled madrasah (Islamic school) in the Registan area of Samarkand

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THE ALPINE GARDENER

TAJIKISTAN AND UZBEKISTAN

Tulipa biflora in a high valley in Uzbekistan

route and famous for its blue-tiled mosques, which are indeed magnificent.

Most are no longer used as mosques but are preserved and maintained as national monuments and we spent a whole day visiting them.

Our final stay was at the resort of Beldersay in the Tien Shan mountains near Tashkent. This area hosts another juno iris, Iris tubergeniana, together with Fritillaria stenanthera, Fritillaria sewerzowii, Gymnospermium albertii, Eranthis longistipitatus, Scilla (= Fessia) puschkinioides, the occasional Tulipa kaufmanniana and Crocus alatavicus.

MARCH 2014

This grew in snowmelt areas with the yellow-flowered Colchicum luteum.

Eremurus robustus was present in great numbers but was not yet in flower.

On the final day a local mountain guide took us high into the Tschimgan valley area. The main valley was blocked by snow, but a parallel valley was more accessible.

Here, high in the valley, we started to find tulips – Tulipa biflora first and then a colony of Tulipa dubia growing in crystalline granite scree.

In an area nearby, along a high ridge, we found Tulipa x tschimganica growing 87

EXPLORATION

Tulipa dubia thriving on a crystaliine granite scree.

Below, Tulipa montana and Primula fedtschenkoi

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THE ALPINE GARDENER

TAJIKISTAN AND UZBEKISTAN

Yellow and red forms of Tulipa x tschimganica

in limestone scree in red, yellow and orange forms. Fortunately the sun was shining and the tulips were open wide.

On the way back to the hotel, near a local reservoir, we found Eremurus lactiflorus in full flower together with a few bright red Tulipa greigii.

This was a most productive trip in what is a fascinating area.  For a full list of Greentours’ holidays, visit www.greentours.co.uk or see the company’s adverts in this issue of The Alpine Gardener. Greentours also runs holidays specifically for AGS members.

Details are in the copy of AGS News that accompanies this journal.

MARCH 2014

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PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS JON EVANS

SUMMER NORTH

George Young’s Arenaria hookeri var. desertorum and, opposite, Stachys candida shown

by Martin and Anna-Liisa Sheader

I

f the early shows of 2013 had to contend with sometimes unseasonable wintry weather, those of summer and autumn were affected – sometimes advantageously, on other occasions adversely – by high temperatures. The Summer Mid-West Show at Tewkesbury coincided with a heatwave and it was a relief for plants and exhibitors when the whistle was blown mid-afternoon.

The Indian summer that followed led to a ridiculously late leaf fall, a truly vintage crop of berries and equally notable performances from plants whose flowers, outdoors, are often knocked about by heavy downpours but this time came through unscathed.

In mid-June, Summer Show North hosted the best collective display of silver saxifrages in years. Tony Lee’s magnificent, multi-rosetted, multiplumed plant labelled Saxifraga longifolia (but in truth a perennial hybrid inheriting

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A vintage display of silver saxes that species’ best characters) won the heavily contested large Saxifragaceae class (ten entries, all of them good).

In the 19cm classes, two exhibitors entered plants labelled S. valdensis − as with the preceding, neither were quite what they purported to be − but both were excellent hybrids that one hopes will be propagated and handed on to a nurseryman. The first, shown

by John and Clare Dower, had short, well-filled panicles of flower, more substantial than S. valdensis, the rosettes THE ALPINE GARDENER

JON EVANS

SUMMER NORTH

SHOWS FEATURED: Summer North, Summer Mid-West, Autumn South, Loughborough Autumn, Newcastle COMPILED BY ROBERT ROLFE FROM REPORTS BY: Dave Riley, John Fitzpatrick, Robert Rolfe, Brendan Wade, Dave Mountfort

attractively grey with stubby leaves. It is possibly a cross involving S. callosa.

A few feet further on, George Young entered another pretender with narrower, silvery leaves, beaded along their margins, identified on this count

by John Richards as a cross involving S. crustata. He knew that the exhibitor once grew the genuine species, received as a gift from Eric Watson. Later questioning revealed that the plant had appeared as a chance seedling. ‘I haven’t taken much notice of it,’ George shrugged, MARCH 2014

before adding (in view of the interest it had engendered), ‘but I will from now.’

The same exhibitor won the AGS Medal for six pans of rock plants in pans not exceeding 19cm (there were several fine entries in this category countrywide in the second half of the year). His Arenaria hookeri var. desertorum, sown in 2008 from Alplains seed, was a floriferous example of this seldom exhibited, semi-desert Utah miniature, its spiky tuft massed with abundant clusters of white flowers. Potentially long-lived, as with various North Americans (A. kingii var. glabrescens is another, like the above sometimes placed in the genus Eremogone) one wishes it was more widely grown.

This show was narrowly denied a Farrer Medal in 2012 but this time round there were several contenders, among them flawless examples of the Greek Stachys candida and the 91

PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS

FARRER MEDAL WINNERS SUMMER NORTH Lewisia rediviva (Alan Furness) SUMMER MID-WEST Ozothamnus plumeum (Eric Jarrett) AUTUMN SOUTH Pterostylis coccina (Tony Jenkins) LOUGHBOROUGH AUTUMN Cyclamen graecum subsp. anatolicum (Ian Robertson) NEWCASTLE (Forrest Medal) Cyclamen graecum subsp. graecum (Bob & Rannveig Wallis)

Peruvian Nototriche macleanii from Martin and Anna-Liisa Sheader.

The winner was Alan Furness’s Lewisia rediviva (pictured on the back cover of this issue), raised from seed sown almost 30 years ago. It was a superior selection of this wide-ranging, often showy plant, for the petals were broad, even (rather than with ragged margins, as happens occasionally) and forming an unblemished dome of soft pink. Over the years Alan has raised numerous examples of this species, one of the finest of the genus, and one that doesn’t take up too much space in the alpine house, for the girth of its caudex after all this time is no more than that of an average cucumber, with a surprisingly small root system to boot. Routinely it can be lifted from its container when at rest in August, provided with fresh compost, then returned to the same pot.

And so to Summer Mid-West: well entered, well attended early on and sweltering for much of its duration.

Flowers in their prime when judging commenced had often wilted or 92

collapsed altogether by lunchtime. Some plants from regions accustomed to such temperatures revelled in the conditions, none more so than Eric Jarrett’s Asyneuma pulvinatum, a Macphail & Watson 1977 introduction (Mac & W 5880) that has clung on tenaciously, and is occasionally grown outdoors in a sun-struck trough, although it does best in a raised frame or alpine house. Only once previously have I seen it flowering really well in cultivation (its capricious reputation in this respect is deserved), so to witness a very generous covering of the pale sky-blue, narrow-petalled flowers was a rare event, and a Certificate of Merit recognised the achievement.

Some plants are not so much coaxed into such performances as only capable of giving them very intermittently, with many fallow years in between. As was loftily said of a fine Ozothamnus selago once presented in flowering mood: ‘Credit the plant, not the owner.’ Yet these whipcord, onetime helichrysums certainly respond to sympathetic ownership, filling in well at their woody THE ALPINE GARDENER

JIM ALMOND

SUMMER MID-WEST

Eric Jarrett with the Farrer Medalwinning Ozothamnus plumeum and, below, his pan of Asyneuma pulvinatum

bases, gleaming with good health and living to a ripe old age. From certain of New Zealand’s South Island mountains, northwards to the Two Thumb Range, the greyish, downy-haired O. plumeum was first offered by Jack Drake’s Inshriach Nursery 40 years ago. A 1974 catalogue supplement has it down as: ‘A must for the alpine house. A wonderful silver with its tiny woolly leaves.’

MARCH 2014

Show secretary Eric Jarrett’s eight– year-old shrublet was one of the healthiest seen on the showbench, liberally capped with orange-yellow, powder-puff flowers, likeable from afar but with a musty smell when viewed at close quarters. Best propagated from semi-ripe cuttings, the side shoots taken with a heel, it sets seed for the owner, but this has never germinated. It is happy in a mix of around 70 per cent aggregates and 30 per cent John Innes No. 2 and should be kept slightly drier than other New Zealanders (doubtless why it is still around, when many of its countrymen have failed). Confined to a 25cm pot for the past three years, this root-bound state promotes flowering, although it will also grow well outside in tufa.

Other plants from the southern 93

PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS

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SUMMER MID-WEST

Lionel Clarkson’s Primula tibetica

grown as a grouping of seedlings, which flower in their second or third year.

No primulas, unsurprisingly, at the Rainham Autumn Show South in the last week of September, but Primulaceae in abundance, if you take the orthodox position that Cyclamen is best placed there, rather than in Myrsinaceae. The bench immediately below the stage was impressively massed with, in the main, large pans of Cyclamen. Equally notable was the fact that almost all had somehow been fitted into and later painstakingly extracted from just three car boots, belonging to Joy Bishop, Pat Nicholls, and Bob and Rannveig Wallis. Two species, C. hederifolium and C. graecum in its several guises, predominated.

During the 1980s, Joy ran what was at THE ALPINE GARDENER

JIM ALMOND

hemisphere were well represented, one of the most fetching (and the most entertaining, if you listened to various worthies struggling to provide a satisfactory identification for a taxon they clearly knew next to nothing about) shown as Ledebouria cooperi.

Subsequent investigation indicates that it is probably L. ovatifolia, a member of the Asparagaceae from the Eastern Cape to tropical Africa and even Sri Lanka in stony grassland at up to 1,980m. The flat, glossy, ovate leaves, often faintly speckled or with purple spots, certainly fit the bill. And unlike some of the squinnier, less colourful members of the genus, the attractive and prolific flowers are nodding, pink to purplish green, with recurved tepals.

Like so many bulbs from this part of the world, it flowers quickly from seed.

More surprisingly, owner Alan Newton keeps the pot outdoors and unprotected all year, where the bulbs increase well in a gritty compost. One to watch.

High temperatures crucify the general run of dwarf primulas, most of which have long since flowered by mid-July.

But Lionel Clarkson brought with him from Blackpool a tuffet of Primula tibetica, surely the highest of all alpines on display, for Hooker collected it in 1849 at up to 5,700m on a pass between Sikkim and Tibet, while it has subsequently been found at up to 6,000m, sometimes forming, according to John Richards, ‘vivid carmine mats’.

Despite repeated introductions, it comes and goes in cultivation, but this typically 5cm tall, Section Armerina relative of the more often seen P. munroi is worth persevering with. It would look well

JON EVANS

AUTUMN SOUTH

Pat Nicholls’ unusual Cyclamen hederifolium selection attracted much attention

that time the only AGS autumn show, held in London at Vincent Square.

Back then she showed C. cilicium to a superlative standard not matched by the few plants at the Rainham event, and an accession of C. graecum from Mount Hymettus with around 40 flowers – the benchmark for the species at the time. Nowadays two or three times that number are routinely coaxed.

The latter species has now been split into three elements. Even those with memories not stretching back as far will recall a singular example of C. graecum subsp. candicum, shown almost annually by Pat Nicholls at the Horsham Show in the 1990s and beyond, with elegantly slender flowers exhibiting the dark sinuses that constitute one MARCH 2014

of this segregate’s hallmarks. It was in rude good health at Rainham, earning its owner the Saunders Spoon.

The same exhibitor’s smaller, almost leafless, purple-indigo selection of C. hederifolium, richer and brighter still than the eastern German raising ‘Rosenteppich’ and traceable to the Green Ice (Netherlands) nursery run

by Jan and Mieke Bravenboer, attracted much attention. Blooming not in a frantic flush, but sequentially over the course of a month or more, it is best in part-shade (the flower colour bleaches in full sun).

Some 80 per cent of seedlings come true; judicious selecting is required.

Cecilia Coller also pulled out of the bag a deepish pink, generously flowered Cyclamen hederifolium, acting as a 95

JON EVANS

PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS AUTUMN SOUTH

Cecilia Coller’s exquisite small six-pan exhibit

beacon in her superlative small six-pan entry - one of the finest at an autumn show in decades. Alongside was a seedraised, eight-year-old C. intaminatum and an astonishingly abundant, buttercup yellow Oxalis perdicaria (shown as O. lobata, this synonym still pervasive). It is arguably the prettiest of the autumnal species, if not the largest-flowered. This trio was teamed with a well-flowered, blazing beacon of Sternbergia lutea, a nicely bloomed Hyacinthoides lingulata (still often listed as Scilla lingulata, echoing the Oxalis duality), and a glorious Colchicum alpinum, yellow of stamen and white of style, which she had noticed in the garden the year before, thought ‘That’ll do nicely’, dug up during its dormancy and then nurtured.

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Bob and Rannveig Wallis either showed, or had given to others who were now exhibiting them, most of the other exemplars among a particularly good range of colchicums, large and small, though none approached the stature of C. ‘The Giant’ in the Intermediate Section. Having witnessed the elegantly chequered Colchicum macrophyllum slightly past its best 300 miles further north the week before, I was delighted to see it in its prime at this show. Sensibly sited, who cares that the leaves can reach 35cm tall, given their elegant pleating and the bountiful floral display in early autumn?

This under-appreciated species comes from Rhodes and Crete as well as the Turkish mainland, whereas C. cilicicum, as its specific epithet denotes, is from THE ALPINE GARDENER

JON EVANS

AUTUMN SOUTH

Colchicum macrophyllum shown by Bob and Rannveig Wallis

further southern parts of that country and is mentioned here because Jon Evans’ handsome potful had been obtained from Rannveig’s Buried Treasure catalogue, listed as: ‘A freeflowering species. Usually a few weeks earlier than the other large colchicums.

This is a good dark pink form.’

Another week, and at Loughborough things were different again. Precious few orchids, for all that Tony Jenkins’ Pterostylis coccina (it has vacillated between this genus and Diplodium several times recently) had won the Farrer Medal at Kent. This time it was Ian Robertson’s turn. Unable to make the Kent gathering, he had brought a formidable number of very large, very heavy pots northwards. He told me that on his first trip to this show, he arrived MARCH 2014

too late to secure pole position, close to the entrance door, almost incurring a hernia carrying his entries indoors.

Nowadays he secures a preferential parking slot. Just as well, for the mighty Cyclamen graecum subsp. anatolicum that received the Farrer Medal and the Nottingham Group Trophy would have crippled many over the short distance from boot to bench, as would another weighty pan of the same subspecies – with darker, smaller flowers on appealingly short stems – that received a Certificate of Merit. Grown in a sand plunge and not watered after the leaves die down, a dunking in water in late July kick-starts their appearance.

Bob and Rannveig Wallis followed up Cecilia’s Rainham flourish with a tour de force small six-pan incorporating a 97

JON EVANS

PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS LOUGHBOROUGH

Cyclamen graecum subsp. anatolicum exhibited by Ian Robertson JON EVANS

LOUGHBOROUGH

The tricky Narcissus miniatus 98

strikingly deep coloured Crocus goulimyi, a swish grouping of the southern Greek/ Turkish, stoloniferous Colchicum boissieri and, most notable of all, a Certificate of Merit-winning Narcissus miniatus. This eastern Mediterranean, from Turkey, Greece and various islands, Crete among them, is tricky to flower with any reliability, never mind as abundantly as it was here. The bulbs are planted deep, towards the bottom of the pot, and not disturbed. As such they become decidedly crowded, which aids flowering. Instead of an annual repot, spent compost is removed from the top third or more of the pot and replaced with a freshly mixed infill. The bulbs remain in situ for up to three years, with the first watering given in mid-September after the sort of dry summer that THE ALPINE GARDENER

JON EVANS

LOUGHBOROUGH

David Charlton’s Allium callimischon subsp. haemostictum suits numerous Mediterranean bulbs.

In years past they have also exhibited forms of Allium callimischon from much the same areas. This time, however, the outstanding pan of subsp. haemostictum, in a dwarf form barely 10cm tall, was shown by David Charlton. Raised over ten years from a single bulb, it filled its pan with a profusion of small, rather papery greyish-white flowers flecked with red.

During the summer what appear to be dry sticks remain above the surface. It is from these that the autumn flowers are produced – hold off with the scissors!

The Wallises were also a mainstay of the year’s final show, held in Ponteland a week after the Loughborough event.

Their best of several Cyclamen graecum subsp. graecum, in full leaf but with the flowers still held aloft (sometimes at this MARCH 2014

stage in the season they can be submerged or else compete with the foliage) was the clear winner of the Forrest Medal. Its nearest rival, a mature example of forma alba, received a Certificate of Merit.

Assessing the several versions of Graeco/ Turkish Galanthus peshmenii present, their vigorous clone ‘Kastellorizo’, from the Greek island of that name, was the showiest, with slightly larger flowers than usual, freely produced. Frequent repotting is beneficial, one successful exhibitor using a mixture of two parts John Innes No. 3 to one of grit.

This show is graced by plants brought down from Scotland by SRGC members.

Shortias might do well in certain favoured gardens much further south, but north of the border they are in broad terms more suited to the climate, and notable 99

PETER MAGUIRE

PLANTS FROM OUR SHOWS NEWCASTLE

Cyclamen graecum subsp. graecum won the Forrest Medal not just for their attractive flowers early on, but for their autumnal foliage.

Shortia uniflora ‘Grandiflora’ (exhibited

by Carole and Ian Bainbridge), some 20 years old and grown outside in an ericacaeous compost, should never be allowed to dry out all summer long. Only repotted when absolutely necessary, removal of any dead leaves and a humus-rich top-dressing every year replace that procedure. From August, if placed in full sun, the previously green leaves acquire reddish tints, frequent turning ensuring even coloration.

Its late season flourish exemplified the turnout at the Newcastle Show.

As Director of Shows, Ray Drew travelled tirelessly to superintend many of these events, with never a day 100

when he wasn’t involved in sorting out the endless complications that a calendar of this complexity invites.

We are very lucky indeed that people of his calibre voluntarily take on this burden. In his retirement we wish him fewer phone calls at all hours of the day, fewer meetings to attend at shows when he would much rather be enjoying the plants, and more time to attend to his own considerable collection, its constituents exhibited to widespread admiration year in, year out.  In the Plants from our Shows feature in the September 2013 issue of The Alpine Gardener, a plant exhibited as Saxifraga ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ by Mark Childerhouse at the Northumberland THE ALPINE GARDENER

PETER MAGUIRE

NEWCASTLE

Show was reported as probably being S. ‘Emil Holub’. This assertion was based on an image of a plant in the journal of the Prague Rock Garden Club. We now know that the image in the Prague journal was wrongly captioned, so we are happy to set the record straight and agree that Mark’s plant was indeed S. ‘Leonardo da Vinci’.

PETER MAGUIRE

Carole and Ian Bainbridge’s Shortia uniflora ‘Grandiflora’ NEWCASTLE

Galanthus peshmenii ‘Kastellorizo’

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

101

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES

Colchicum autumnale in Ivor Barton’s alpine meadow in September 1973

The life of the gardener, traveller and diarist who planted ‘The Cleavage’ 102

T

he Alpine Garden Society’s past presidents form a select but surprisingly diverse group. They include a brace of RHS treasurers, an overseas general manager of a multinational company whose son is one of England’s best-known modern-day painters, Lord Mountbatten’s physician, the wife of a former Governor-General of Canada, a railway executive and a retired wing commander.

Our current president, David Haselgrove, was in his working life the managing partner of a law firm and is one of several solicitors who have held the office. One other was Ivor Barton, a resourceful and obdurate Yorkshireman who served from 1974-76, by which time he was semi-retired.

THE ALPINE GARDENER

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES

Narcissus bulbocodium en masse in the alpine meadow at RHS Wisley

Ivor Barton, who died in 1986, was the AGS president for three years from 1974. Robert Rolfe has been given access to his gardening diaries and slide library, which record the successes and idiosyncracies of an outstanding plantsman For many years he gardened at High Hanger in Wimborne, East Dorset, leaving there to live briefly in Coombe Bissett, south of Salisbury, in the late 1960s. Then, in 1970, he moved to Musbury near Axminster in South MARCH 2014

Devon, spending the remaining 16 years of his life developing a notable garden at Hartgrove House with his second wife Helen. Here he had space for an alpine meadow, in which Colchicum autumnale formed a large patch. His meadow was inspired by the one at Wisley, where the famous displays of Narcissus bulbocodium were of vintage quality.

He also built a Mediterranean House ‘to keep the growing medium dry and hot throughout the summer, when the... [bulbs] would naturally be dormant’, of which more later.

He first went abroad in search of alpine plants in 1939, the year before he joined the AGS, and 35 years later became its president. There’s a black and white photograph of him in AGS Bulletin 103

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES volume 42 (1974), page 5 (reproduced here), sporting one of his trademark buttonhole flourishes – Cyclamen hederifolium on this occasion, although numerous other flowers occupied this left lapel throughout the year.

As his diaries testify, he took considerable pride in these. Other choices included the pinkish selection of lily-of-the-valley, Convallaria majalis var. rosea (worn at a Ladies Dining Club ball in May 1968), Viola hederacea (‘quite successful’), a dark purplish Helleborus x hybridus (‘burned stem and split it – kept firm’), Persicaria campanulata (which he knew as Polygonum campanulatum and picked from his woodland garden; it ‘caused much comment’), Sternbergia sicula (which he grew very well with cold-frame protection in pots, alongside Cyclamen cilicium), Convolvulus cneorum (‘not much good’; the flowers failed to remain open and soon shrivelled) and, as Christmas approached, Narcissus romieuxii. They were emblematic of the astonishingly wide range of plants he grew conspicuously well. Alpines, dwarf bulbs, hardy orchids and daphnes were firm favourites, but he also cherished numerous trees and shrubs, lilies, sweet peas (which he would pick to brighten his office) and candelabra primulas, among many others.

He photographed whatever took his interest. While some of his slides have faded badly, others are still vibrant after 40 or so years and illustrate this article.

Certainly he photographed rare plants, but he was just as likely to direct his lens towards a patchwork of Thymus serpyllum colour forms or a mass of 104

Tropaeolum tricolor, forgiving its freespreading proclivity under glass.

Barton had a wide interest in natural history, with an expert knowledge of butterflies and moths. There’s an image taken in southern Greece of a scarce swallowtail resting on his wife’s sleeve, and another of an even more exotic tropical species, blackish overall but with neon-yellow patterning, that he photographed in Uganda. Gardening and plant-hunting were his main interests, though he also enjoyed fishing.

An entry in his diary from July 1966 reads: ‘Hotter than ever – glorious day fishing in Poole harbour – no gardening!’

This quote has relevance in that the Royal Horticultural Society has long produced a Gardeners’ Five Year Diary (or record book). I have Barton’s copy from 1964-68, containing the detailed entries he made almost every day throughout that period. These are almost illegible, for they are written in a very small, spiky, cursive hand, with up to three lines crammed into each space that the ruled pages show was intended to bear just one. Yet what can be deciphered is a record of a man whose life revolved around his garden, as exemplified by the day in June 1968 when he attended a silver wedding anniversary from 11.30-15.30, returned home, changed his clothes straightaway, weeded a large border and some frames, watered the occupants of these, put in an hour’s work with the hoe, harvested a crop of runner beans for supper and ate this close to midnight.

An earlier Amateur Gardening diary from 1962, also in my possession, has far fewer entries and is chiefly notable THE ALPINE GARDENER

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES

Thymus serpyllum forms photographed by Ivor Barton, pictured below in 1974

for Arthur Hellyer’s rather sententious introduction: ‘No year passes in the garden without its highlights and its tragedies, its new lessons learned and its old beliefs confirmed. The most valuable feature of a garden diary is to provide a permanent record of such facts and events for future guidance.’

There are, though, scraps of information to be gleaned, as in a record for January 28 that lists what is even now, never mind at the time, an impressive array of crocuses already in flower – C. sieberi subsp. sublimis f. tricolor, C. veluchensis, C. cyprium, C. carpetanus as well as C. chrysanthus in five or six forms. It also records Barton’s attempted cross between Iris histrioides MARCH 2014

105

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES ‘Major’ and I. danfordiae, two years after E.B. Anderson’s I. ‘Katharine Hodgkin’ first flowered.

Barton grew the rarer crocuses – C. biflorus subsp. nubigena from Lesbos and a notable form of C. laevigatus from Imittós (Mount Hyméttus) he had introduced personally – in cold frames. Here he also maintained C. hartmannianus, raising batches of seedlings, and this narrowly endemic Cypriot remains one of the rarest species in cultivation.

The easier ones established well outdoors, among them good clumps of C. etruscus, C. speciosus (‘magnificent’ according to an October 1967 record, in a large bed often referred to by the acronym DLH in his diary but never spelt out in full) and C. banaticus, shaded by a large Rhododendron ‘Loderi King George’. The latest of them all, C. cambessedesii and C. laevigatus ‘Fontenayi’, were targeted by mice in some years and failed to open in bad weather: ‘A perfect beast of a day,’ he noted on one such occasion.

Here was a man who, on Christmas Day, preferred gardening vouchers to any other present and would always make time to leave the house to admire Viburnum farreri in full flower (1964).

By New Year’s Day, having noted that Ranunculus calandrinioides was looking good in a cold frame, with Galanthus fosteri (a Lebanese stock) in bud nearby, he busied himself sowing seed, pruning ash trees at the top of the garden and steadfastly transferring lily bulbs from pots to the open ground. Prone to bouts of insomnia, his timing of such activities was not always conventional. One 1964 106

log states: ‘Before breakfast finished potting up, including 20 pots of Crocus and as many of Iris.’ Such crack-of-dawn bouts of gardening were fairly typical.

Unsurprisingly for someone who set himself such a pace, Barton was something of a taskmaster when it came to his paid helpers. His detailed instructions included when best to apply manganese sulphate to the borders, which peonies and lilies to spray with a fungicide in order to stave off Botrytis, and how often to edge the lawns. Standard pesticides included Derris and DDT (dubbed ‘Don’t Do That’ in these pages long ago, as its toxicity became increasingly clear), while tubers of everything from dahlias to terrestrial orchids would be dusted with Captan to combat rotting.

What he described as ‘monumental rows’ resulted when the work didn’t reach the required standard, for all that his relationship with gardeners identified as ‘B’ and ‘M’ was clearly harmonious overall. Trips to the Iberian peninsula, Greece, Turkey, Kashmir, East Africa and the Seychelles meant that he had to leave the garden in their hands. Right up to the last minute, lists of tasks to be completed in his absence would be compiled. ‘Make frame behind greenhouse. Put up wires for beans,’ one page-long schedule finishes, with the very next sentence reading: ‘Off in an hour to Lesbos, flying to Athens, then sharing a cabin on the sea crossing.’

As a seasoned lecturer and lecturegoer he was also decisive: ‘Slides superb; delivery not so good,’ is the wry note after a less than accomplished performance. But when praise was due, he gave it in full measure: ‘24 November THE ALPINE GARDENER

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES

Crocus etrucus was among many of the genus grown by Ivor

1964. Off to the RHS – Chris B[rickell]’s lecture excellent, including a dozen or so of my slides. Quite gratifying.

Evening Horticultural Club dinner, followed by Admiral Furse on his trip to Afghanistan. A wonderful day.’

In the next few years he came to know Paul Furse well, visiting him in Kent the following year (‘An amazing collection of plants, superbly grown’) and hosting him in turn when Furse lectured to several Dorset gardening clubs.

Nor was he always impressed by judging decisions – a commonplace condition among exhibitors. A September 1964 MARCH 2014

jotting reads: ‘Zephyranthes andersonii [= Habranthus tubispathus] superb (30 flowers); should have won its class and perhaps an award at the RHS – damn!’

Yet on the whole he enjoyed such occasions very much indeed, as the following two entries underline: ‘9 October 1965. Left office about 11.40 for London – wonderful day.

Excellent [RHS] show; autumn colour and nerines from Borde Hill (£1 apiece).

Slides shown at the Lily Group meeting

by V[alerie] Finnis using a Rolleiflex camera really beautiful. Very good talk.

Take saxifrage cuttings now.’

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IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES ‘29 March 1966. Up at 4.25; away for just after 5.00. A scattering of snow by the roadside beyond Basingstoke.

Vincent Square by 7.25, waited until 8.00 to unload the boot and stage [This was the first day of what was then called the AGS Main Spring Show]. A first for Fritillaria obliqua [he grew this southern Greek, blackish-belled rarity extremely well; coincidentally Jack Elliott brought along a large non-competitive exhibit of fritillarias, many from recent expeditions to Turkey and Iran] and also Narcissus rupicola – nearly left behind as it was only just opening. [Harold] Esslemont got everything for his Paraquilegia grandiflora [the inveterate Scottish exhibitor had travelled down on the night train to London from Aberdeen with this and five other plants, winning the Farrer Medal]. Ended with an excellent party (champagne).’

Barton won a Farrer Medal in September 1969 with what was, at that time, a little-grown plant – the predominantly southern Greek Daphne jasminea. This had received the RHS Award of Merit at Chelsea Flower Show in May of the previous year (Barton was equally delighted by a close encounter with Princess Margaret and the Duchess of Kent), when the plant under scrutiny was rather modestly adorned, for this species has a marked tendency to bloom in several flushes over the summer. By way of confirmation, in his diary it is recorded from early August 1968 as being ‘a mass of flower’.

He was one of a number who reintroduced material from above Delphi – others given in Brickell and Mathew’s Daphnes (1976) included 108

Hugo Money-Coutts, Ken Aslet, Eliot Hodgkin (responsible for the first of the re-introductions, in 1954) and the authors themselves. Barton’s stock dated from 1964 and he advocated the deployment of soft tufa round the neck of the plants, with a sprinkling of old mortar rubble and bonemeal added to the compost.

Often he selected D. retusa stocks for grafting, though he also trialled D. mezereum (in both pink and white selections, the latter all too little grown) with some success, using a mist propagation unit. Several times this faltered, a problem he succinctly diagnosed as ‘bunged up’. The Farrer Medal came towards the very end of his show-bench career. After taking on the large garden at Hartgrove House the following year, there was no time to spare for such a pursuit.

Instead he turned his energies to taming this Devon garden 600 feet above sea level, writing: ‘It is not the soft climate one might expect. The natural soil is very light, stony and slightly acid, and strong winds and about 40 inches of rain a year, with exceedingly brilliant sun – when it shines – make growing under glass a bit of a problem.’

Magnolias of all kinds did very well – he certainly had the space for them – as did rhododendrons. A grassy walk downhill between two borders of these he christened ‘The Cleavage’.

A sunny raised bed he referred to as ‘The Battlement’ following a remark to this effect by a visitor soon after its construction, before the planting had softened the outlines. A very dwarf form of Osteospermum ecklonis was THE ALPINE GARDENER

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES

Daphne mezereum forma alba in March 1984. Ivor propagated daphnes using a mist unit

a particular success. Such nicknames appealed to him, for he had also created a successful scree bed which he called ‘Brighton Beach’, referencing that pebbly part of the English coast.

Visiting other gardens and notable nurseries was second nature to him.

Leonardslee Gardens in West Sussex, MARCH 2014

with a Pulham rock garden dating from the Victorian era, are mentioned again and again. Jermyns House in Hampshire, set in the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and with a now celebrated avenue of mainly Magnolia soulangeana that had only recently been planted when Barton first went there, was another favourite, as 109

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES

A dwarf Osteospermum ecklonis adorns ‘The Battlement’ at Hartgrove in 1973

much for the noteworthy winter garden and its peat garden. Trips were made to places such as Broadleigh Gardens, where he took photographs of the stock beds, to Westonbirt Arboretum and to noted gardens such as E.B. Anderson’s at Lower Slaughter. A much-prized purple Helleborus x hybridus came from a visit in October 1965, as did Corydalis cashmeriana, which visitors recall selfsowing not just in the garden but down the lane. ‘Went to EBA’s for lunch; came away with many most interesting things,’ Barton wrote upon his return.

He also journeyed further afield to Scotland, where the famous Himalayan woodland garden at Crarae in Argyll (the trip was timed to coincide with the 110

flowering of Embothrium coccineum Lanceolatum Group) and Jack Drake’s Inshriach Alpine Plant Nursery near Aviemore figured on the itinerary.

In July 1969 he photographed Lilium macklinae in massed flower at the latter establishment.

He greatly admired lilies of all sorts, the more refined hybrids included, and grew them in pots or in his woodland gardens, where the exotic and heavy scent of Japanese L. auratum would signal its presence on a humid August day, with the elegant, trickier to please L. canadense at its best a month earlier.

Other slides show a substantial colony of Lilium martagon var. album in a woodland border, the seedlings planted THE ALPINE GARDENER

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES

Ivor’s picture of stock beds in their spring glory at Broadleigh Gardens MARCH 2014

111

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES out in their third year, and dozens of pots filled with L. longiflorum in full flower, these grown in a screened-off area that provided both dappled shade and shelter from blustery south-westerly winds.

This enclave was also home to candelabra primulas en masse, both seed-raised plants and divisions, kept there until their first flowering had finished, whereafter they would be planted out in the autumn. There were riotous hybrid swarms in all shades of pink, purple and red, with occasional whites. A deep, rich yellow stock of Primula prolifera (which Barton knew as P. helodoxa, the specific epithet translating as ‘frequenting marshes’) was also maintained, the strongest spikes up to a metre or more tall and carrying optimally six umbels of fragrant flowers.

These, the most colourful of all primulas for mass planting, require an unstinting supply of moisture to keep them happy.

Tolerant of slightly drier conditions, but at its best in a rich, leafy loam that doesn’t parch, even in high summer, P. denticulata was another success. At High Hanger in Dorset, Barton devoted an entire border to this alone. His was a mid-pink form, analogous with what Inshriach once sold as ‘Rose and Red Strain’ (the usage of ‘strain’ has since been proscribed: it had it uses, nonetheless) rather than the same nursery’s more intensely coloured ‘Inshriach Carmine’.

His appreciation of the genus was sometimes more highbrow. From Jack Drake came Primula wattii. His was the only nursery where this member of Section Soldanelloides from the eastern Himalaya was listed repeatedly. Dorset 112

isn’t somewhere you would expect such a notoriously choosy species to live for long, but Barton flowered it quite well.

That it has seldom been photographed makes it the more regrettable that his slides have, like their subject matter, faded away.

Back in southern England, he often went to RHS Garden Wisley. One slide, taken in April 1969, is of the Petiolarid Primula whitei bedded out on the peat banks, echoing exemplary plantings in several Scottish gardens where these highly desirable species have been grown to the highest standards since their earliest introductions. The first hot summer soon put paid to Wisley’s experiment.

Long before then, Barton had become friendly with Ken Aslet, superintendent of the rock garden at Wisley throughout the 1960s. And so one reads: ‘To Wisley with a load of plants for Ken; spent a very pleasant afternoon in the gardens (K. in committee early on), then a delightful time with Ken, Letitia [‘Letty’, his wife] and John Tomlinson [another important figure from the Society’s past who, like Barton, had a keen interest in rare bulbs, taking him to Turkey and Iran with Brian Mathew in 1965].’

Barton’s affection for primulas stayed throughout his life. One of his last slides, taken in the cold greenhouse at Hartgrove in 1986, is of P. auricula cultivars and P. x pubescens occupying a broad swathe of the plunge.

As has been mentioned, he visited gardens up and down the country.

He also received a large number of distinguished horticulturists at High Hanger and subsequently at Hartgrove THE ALPINE GARDENER

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES

A fine clump of Lilium martagon var. album and, right, L. canadense at Hartgrove

House. One of gardening’s happiest traditions is the exchange of plants on such occasions and he was both a benefactor and a beneficiary of this custom. When Valerie Finnis called for an afternoon in September 1967, she brought with her enough plants to keep him busy potting them up over the following four days.

A month later Sid Lilley, at the time one of the most successful cultivators of cassiopes and other dwarf Ericaceae, spent a morning at High Hanger. Along with a boxful of these, he imparted his reputedly foolproof ericaceous mixture, MARCH 2014

which comprised one part loam, one part coarse sand, one part sifted leafmould and half a ration of sphagnum peat, with added flowers of sulphur.

Barton used this ever-afterwards, and little wonder when one reads that luxuriant mats of Epigaea gaultherioides over 40cm in diameter resulted, or that Arisaema wallichii and A. sikokianum (in 1968, a decade or more before their popularity ‘took off ’ in the British Isles) were settling down well.

Already he was growing Meconopsis to a high standard, grouping what he referred to as M. baileyi, not M. betonicifolia 113

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES (correctly, as has subsequently been confirmed) in quantity along with Euphorbia griffithii and a fringe of dwarf gaultherias. A surprise log from 1968 records: ‘Planted Meconopsis delavayi after lunch according to the Lilley recipe’ – where he obtained this rarity isn’t mentioned.

Other difficult alpines with which he had success included Ranunculus glacialis (from the same year, when it flowered well in a frame) and Eritrichium nanum. In May 1964 it bloomed so well in one of his troughs that friends such as the Blanchards were invited over to witness the event, and the precise number of flowers, 41, was counted.

He also grew Thlaspi rotundifolium in ‘Brighton Beach’, though in its usual pink form, not the unusual white variant he photographed on a trip to the Alps in 1963.

Open days were held but not always well timed, as a terse scribble in the diary on May 10, 1968, suggests: ‘Forecast for tomorrow – thunder, hail, rain, wind, colder. What a day to choose for the opening of the garden!’ Among the plants he had wanted visitors to see at their best in the wood were a deep purple form of Glaucidium palmatum (it must have been a cold spring, for it would ordinarily have finished blooming), Viola sororia ‘Albiflora’ and Trientalis europaea. The latter, of British provenance, he dug up and took to the Chelsea Flower Show a couple of weeks later, where a Preliminary Commendation was awarded despite his misgivings that it might be ‘too pink and too tiny’ for the committee’s tastes. Most of the wild populations are in Scotland, 114

Thlaspi rotundifolium in the Alps in 1963

although it occurs spasmodically as far down as Lancashire and Yorkshire, and was once known from isolated sites in Norfolk and Hampshire.

Perhaps his greatest successes involving difficult plants came with hardy and near-hardy terrestrial orchids at a time when methods of propagating the majority were in their infancy.

Indeed, the name Dactylorhiza romana subsp. bartonii was conjured up in 1967 for a Portuguese race characterised by an orange zone at the base of the lip, tenuous at best and now deemed a synonym of D. insularis. As others have found, this genus is apt to seed around in gardens, so that a Spanish plant akin to D. elata produced ‘seedlings about an THE ALPINE GARDENER

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES

Viola sororia ‘Albiflora’ in Ivor’s woodland

inch high... [that] were sturdy flowering plants two years later’.

His article in The World of Rock Plants International Conference Report (1971) is well worth reading, for it dispels a good deal of the mystique that surrounded their cultivation at the time, insisting that they are ‘certainly no more difficult than many other plants that are grown with reasonable success’. As in his Dorset and Devon gardens, Barton divided them into two categories. The first set (including Ophrys, Orchis and Serapias) were ‘from calcareous ground... where the ground is warm and dry, at least when they are dormant’. The second, the woodlanders, required ‘cool, shady situations’.

MARCH 2014

Even species from the Mediterranean were grown outside, most successfully on an orchid bank where Cyclamen persicum also established at the margins and Anemone pavonina seeded liberally.

He also advocated growing orchids ‘in banks, screes, sinks, or wherever good drainage can be secured’, the more southerly ones protected from northerly and easterly winds, with light overhead protection in frosty spells. Even those grown in pots were often left outdoors until just before Christmas, the moisture and buoyant atmosphere helping to ward off the blackening of the foliage so often experienced.

But try as he might, some of the plants he came to love from his travels to the 115

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES

A Spanish hillside populated with viper’s bugloss, Echium vulgare

Mediterranean wouldn’t grow outdoors for long. For these he had built what he considered the lazy gardener’s greenhouse, the ‘Med house’, based upon models dating from the early 1960s that another past president, Henry Hammer, and another learned plantsman friend, Richard Gorer, had developed. Its occupants were many and varied, for he was not snobbish in his tastes – a favourite slide, taken in central Spain, depicts a hillside coloured purple with viper’s bugloss, Echium vulgare – though such liberal tastes meant that some plants swamped their slow-growing neighbours.

The Med house was on a concrete 116

base, with insulating Thermalite blocks forming raised beds either side of a central pathway. It had no heating. The several frames that were added later, however, were covered with cocoa matting in really cold weather, while Cyclamen rohlfsianum was protected by an inverted wooden box ‘with some newspaper or a piece of expanded polystyrene’ stuffed within.

Drainage came courtesy of builders’ rubble and flint stones gathered in the garden, with inverted turves above this layer, a good layer of light loam laced with garden lime and bonemeal, then a surfacing of pea gravel. No watering was carried out from spring THE ALPINE GARDENER

IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES

Muscari macrocarpum relishing the conditions in Ivor’s ‘Med house’

until a thorough soaking was given in late August, following a scattering of bonemeal, sulphate of potash and hoof and horn. This was clearly to the liking of some recipients, for Cyclamen graecum grew to 30cm across (nowadays we are accustomed to such specimens; then they were exceptional). Muscari macrocarpum also romped away, and Iris attica in several colour forms did very well for a few years, before signalling the need to divide its clumps and provide fresh soil by dwindling when such requirements weren’t met.

Barton was at heart an experimental gardener, who recorded in meticulous detail (if not in meticulously neat MARCH 2014

writing!) his gardening efforts on a daily basis. At a time when travelling abroad often took far longer than it does today, he set off with scarcely a second thought – his Kashmir trip in June and July 1967 involved changing at Brussels, Rome, Tehran and Delhi (‘a furnace!’), flying over Samarkand and Moscow on the return journey. And he was enthusiastic about new introductions, whether his own or those of others: ‘29 November 1966. Consignment of fascinating plants arrived from [Sydney] Albury [these would have been from the landmark Albury, Cheese & Watson Turkish expedition] – arranged distribution on Saturday.’

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IVOR BARTON’S DIARIES

Cercidiphyllum japonicum in its autumn splendour at Hartgrove House

His methods could be unorthodox (attempting to lift a mature Daphne arbuscula, as he did at Wimborne, is often doomed to fail) and present-day readers may well feel uneasy about the sources of his terrestrial orchid collection. That said, in general he instructed that ‘owing to the rarity of some and their slowness to propagate, orchids should not be collected or their flowers picked, regardless of place and species’.

He didn’t segregate his plants but mixed them together at every opportunity.

Cyclamen cilicium thrived under a very healthy Cercidiphyllum japonicum 118

(clearly quite a sight when the tree was in full autumn colour) and a very catholic range of plants was brought together in the woodland garden that he developed after visiting noteworthy examples throughout the British Isles.

He distributed his best plants widely and disapproved of anyone reluctant to act similarly – ‘decidedly stingy’ he wrote of a correspondent who saw fit to spare only one small bulbil of a purpleleaved Lilium martagon.

Ivor Barton lived a life largely dedicated to gardening, as his diaries – by turns amusing, wry, candid and observant – confirm on every page.

THE ALPINE GARDENER