General Alpines

In venturing into new genus / species of fabulous plants, I am needing information on the Calochortus genus. I live in Utah, USA, where the state flower is Calochortus nuttalli. I'd really like to grow any Calochortus since I haven't seen any that are distasteful ;) I generally grow my alpines in troughs but we do have a dry garden as well. Amendind the soil to fit the needs of the plant would not be difficult at all.

Just a brief message to say, HELLO!!! I'm happy to be a member of NARGS, Wasatch Chapter. It all started 20 years ago when I saw a stunning Silene acaulis in the Uinta Mountains of Utah! I have uploaded some of my favorite photos including Penstemon duchesnensis, a field of Penstemon pachyphyllus and Astragalus spatulatus.

We see lots of stunning closeups and vignettes of single alpine plants: but rock gardens are as full of interesting combinations as any perennial border. Maybe we can explore a few...Although my first posting isn't plants you would ever be likely to see combined anywhere except Denver I suspect. It's like a mini United Nations: Bergeranthus jamesii from Tarkastad, East Cape next to Asperula daphneola from Turkey and Eriogonum ovalifolium from Western America: wouldn't it be nice if humans could learn to live together like that?

I'm sure there are many NARGS members who will be very sad to hear of the death of Jim Archibald, one of the most active of seed collectors since the 1960s. Jim, with his wife Jenny, ran JJA seeds and produced seed lists with extensive collection notes regularly enlivened by Jim's sometimes acerbic comments. Many of us have plants with JCA collection numbers. Many of us have plants derived from these original collections.

Thanks to you Jim.

Jim's funeral will be at the Crematorium in Aberystwyth on August 16th.

It's a sad day.

Malcolm McGregor

Forget the 2012 Olympics, the next international event that we rockgardeners and alpine lovers are interested in is the next International Rock Garden Plant Conference... coming up in 2011.These conferences are held every ten years and Interim events have been held in previous times in New Zealand and by NARGS in the USA and I know that many of you will have attended more of these events than you perhaps care to count!

This is one of the cutest flowers you can find in the mountains, "bergveronika" (Veronica fruticans).

I suppose they aren't new to most of you, but I was just out in Portland, Oregon for a Perennial Plant Association meeting and on Wednesday night we had many nurseries selling plants. There were a NUMBER of fabulous nurseries there, and two had an INCREDIBLE assortment of alpine plants.
And They Sell Mail Order!

Do check out Edelweiss Nursery in Canby: http://www.edelweissperennials.com/index.aspx

Since a trip to Switzerland a few years back, I've hankered after an Alpenrose (Rhododendron ferruginium). Actually, they weren't in flower when I was there in August, but they appeared to be one of the "important" flowers of this country. I believe Rhodies in general are not that easy to grow in London, Ontario. However, I continually ordered seeds of this plant from the various seedexes. Mostly there was no germination but this year there are three tiny green "pin dots" which don't seem to be getting any bigger but have persisted for a while now.

I have some annual night-scented Asperula in the garden. This year I try a perennial, Asperula nitida (Rubiaceae). Not floriferous first year but better next year!

It's the first year Acantholimon androsaceum (Plumbaginaceae) flowers here. Not very showy yet but hopefully better next year!
Probably not androsaceum - look further down.