What Would Farrer Say?

It gets hot in Michigan. Sometimes melt-your-face-off hot. It’s almost never a dry heat, either. Heat and humidity breed a special sort of misery for us here. Working outside in the sun you feel your skin burning at 90–95 degrees at the same time you’re swimming through air with 95–100% humidity (yes 100% humidity and it’s not raining!). So you can imagine an alpine plant growing here, whining and complaining, attracting every airborne fungus and disease known to exist. Enter artificial shade.