Alpine Meadows

[cohan]

My meadow today. My Achillea becomes at the most 30 cm.
Sorry, no sun

lovely! your bulbs have several months more to grow than they do here, very different indeed!

[Ed Alverson]

ed--good thoughts on achillea; i assumed it would vary over its large range, but i had assumed those plants i have seen in the mountains here (not at the altitudes you mention, though) would grow normal height down here--they may not be sufficiently high clones to be shorter, but i may give them a test run..
i may have ordered another achillea species from the alps, too, would have to check....
[/quote]

I should also note that there is a recent paper on the evolution of Achillea in North America that provides DNA evidence that the native North American members of the Achillea millefolium aggregate should be recognized as a separate species, Achillea borealis.  Achillea borealis is apparently a relatively recent arrival in North America over the Bering land bridge (during the last 500,000 to 1 million years) but in that time it has rapidly diverged into many different ecotypes over a broad range of habitats.

Ed

[cohan]

I should also note that there is a recent paper on the evolution of Achillea in North America that provides DNA evidence that the native North American members of the Achillea millefolium aggregate should be recognized as a separate species, Achillea borealis.  Achillea borealis is apparently a relatively recent arrival in North America over the Bering land bridge (during the last 500,000 to 1 million years) but in that time it has rapidly diverged into many different ecotypes over a broad range of habitats.
Ed

borealis has a nicer ring to it, maybe i'll start using it prematurely
are there any different flower colour forms that you know of?

[ian mcenery]

My meadow today. My Achillea becomes at the most 30 cm.
Sorry, no sun

Franz your meadow gets better every year

Cohan this is Alpine turf under the Eiger north wall

[Luc Gilgemyn]

It's a yearly treat to see your meadow Franz !! Cannot get enough of it ! 

Ian,
Lovely shot !!

[Ragged Robin]

Franz your photos of your meadow are magical in that light, a carpet of treasure, thanks for sharing it 

[Lori S.]

your climate is very different than mine, so perhaps your clover behaves differently--here it is among the most rampant plants in our existing  grassy areas, and one of the most difficult weeds to keep out of any planting,though it is far too abundant to eliminate it; here, i think, it would be much too vigorous to leave in a planting of small bulbs, though perhaps with very tall plants it could  be managed, though i'm not at all sure of that..

Cohan, bulbs will come up through other plants without any problems.  I'd be more concerned about tall brome grasses that will cover over lower plants, making them hard to see, and also reducing their light.

[hadacekf]

Thank you all together for the kind comments.

[gote]

I try to do the meadow thing but I am far far behind Franz.
My strategy is to cut the meadow in late August before the Crocus speciosus start.
The hay is left a couple of days if the weather is dry in the hope that any seeds fill fall out.
It is then carted away as fodder to his cattle to the guy who keeps most of my land.
I never fertilize since this tends to increase the amount of non-flowering plants.
All around is a path that is moved with a lawn mover.

Problems:
Deer eat the crocuses in the spring.
Voles eat the corms/bulbs.
I get Scilla siberica which I know will take over.

Cheers
Göte

 

[Lesley Cox]

Of course if one want's a "lawn" without grass, there is the old thyme lawn thing with additions such as Mentha requienii and many others; flat-growing plants which are loose enough to permit little bulbs to grow through them. I think one could also do an area of just pine or other tree bark with whatever leaves blow onto it, and the bulbs coming through that. The bulbs could be for every season and the bare parts among them would be clean and tidy if the weeds were controlled at the beginning.

Or a similar area with a sandy/gravelly topping.

[Lesley Cox]

I don't think I'd want to include clover in a planting of this type. I find it is all-strangling of other plants and will cover to the exclusion of everything else. It's great fodder for sheep though, and smallish plants in my newer part have been chomped by rabbits. This only seems to make the clover grow morer strongly.

[cohan]

Cohan this is Alpine turf under the Eiger north wall

thanks ian, lovely spot;
at that season the grasses are not very prominent, any ideas how much that changes later on?

lori, i'd tend to agree on that, and think that full/tall grass here would just outcompete the bulbs overall--shade and crowding, probably..
which is the reason for looking at other sorts of companion plants in the first place--i think i like the look of grassy foliage with the bulbs, but something low, and not necessarily actual grass!-i don't need to walk on it--i have plenty of places to walk

[cohan]

I try to do the meadow thing but I am far far behind Franz.
My strategy is to cut the meadow in late August before the Crocus speciosus start.
The hay is left a couple of days if the weather is dry in the hope that any seeds fill fall out.
It is then carted away as fodder to his cattle to the guy who keeps most of my land.
I never fertilize since this tends to increase the amount of non-flowering plants.
All around is a path that is moved with a lawn mover.
Problems:
Deer eat the crocuses in the spring.
Voles eat the corms/bulbs.
I get Scilla siberica which I know will take over.
Cheers
Göte

i like the look of this a lot--are these just regular grasses that get tall later on? not too much shade for the bulbs?
my favourite grasses are always when they are dry in offseason...lol not  a big fan of bright green expanses... fresh green shoots in spring i love, but once everything is green its boring...

[Lvandelft]

Franz, nice to see your “meadow” in spring again.
Almost unbelievable to see all these flowers flowering in the same place where I was standing with you in last summer.
Servus
Luit

[Lesley Cox]

In NZ at least, grass as such, is not really an option for a meadow-type planting in the garden as it grows very fast as soon as there is a hint of spring warmth and crocuses and the like would be over grown and swamped in no time at all, way before they'd finished flowering. I don'r fancy letting in the neighbour's cattle and sheep to keep it down, nor his newly acquired llama who looks about 3 metres tall, is very haughty and makes the most appalling noises.