Haut Chitelet Alpine Garden (France)

[Philippe]

Update August 2013, part  3




Codonopsis ussuriensis

Another very lovely Codonopsis from far eastern Asia, an unavoidable genera for bigger rock gardens. This dark brown/reddish hue is just unbelievable. Only one has to give the plant some kind of support on which it can clamber and wrap around ( what I didn't do soon enough, so the plant is lamentably trailling on the soil now...)




Gentiana hexaphylla

Just the perfect flowering time for this gentian, as it fills the hole in August, when the other carpeting chinese gentians are still waiting to open ( G.farreri first and then G.sinoornata at the end)

Into the european Alps now with 3 well-known plants of the bellflower family to begin



Campanula cenisia.

Perhaps it has found now its place and will thrive happily for a while in this dedicated trough. Untill now, I grew it in pot, but it always came a time during summer when the plants would suddenly collapse, being almost completely yellowish, with the fear to loose the plant totally as it didn't recover before winter. Since it is in this trough, the problem seems far less, and it looks like the Campanula is strengthening now. There is still this yellowish-stage at mid-summer, but this time it is only transitory, and a lot of new shots and leaves have come meanwhile. Flowers are also produced from time to time.




Campanula raineri also has its dedicated trough for the moment, though it would be a marvellous scree dweller in a bed. Unfortunately not the least seed is produced. I really wonder what is pollinating the flowers in the wild...




Physoplexis comosa.

Completely careless here in this granite stone-wall. The plant doesn't seem to have any wish or need, and is growing stronger year after year. However the more hairy type with fleshier leaves lingers in pots in the propagation area and refuses to get just one flower.

[Philippe]

Update August 2013, part  4

 

The southern hemisphere bed is probably one of the most interesting place in the garden in late summer, because of late flowering species from SouthAfrica for example, but also because of the beauty of plants from NewZealand, even when non-flowering ( Raoulia, Helichrysum, Hebe)




Raoulia subsericea.

Beautiful but really stinking when flowering




Raoulia australis

This cushion is about 4 or 5 years old, measuring not more than 20/30cms across. It feels good between the 3 big rock pieces facing south, and I hope it will still grow here for a long time.




Aciphylla squarrosa.

This young plant settles down gently since 2 years now in the southern hemisphere bed. A most architectural plant, but quite dangerous as the leaves are very hard and prickle. Fortunately no weeding needed there!




Carex berggrenii

Even the grasses and similar are pretty in NewZealand...Does anyone know why many native grasses or carex ( or even other plants) show this bronze tinge??? This color is quite unusual in alpine flora of most of the rest of the world.

Still in the southern hemisphere bed, the south african plants are well worth a look too!




Helichrysum milfordiae

Can't stop looking at that part of the bed whenever I pass by, and showing you then the majestic Helichrysum milfordiae here on the forum, even if you have already seen it in the previous update, sorry !

[Philippe]

Update August 2013, part 5




Helichrysum albobrunneum




Helichrysum basalticum




Diascia barbarea




Tulbaghia acutiloba

[Philippe]

Update August 2013, part  7

To finish now, some views of the propagation area, one of my prefered place in the garden.



I am kind of "sad" when I look at this part of the bed. I love taking care of the plants at this stage, and these are the last pricked out species of the season. It's too late now for newly germinated species to be pricked out, even if the weather is fine and warm, the nights get longer and more fresh, and the light amount is reduced with the rapidly shortening days now. And as these are mainly little plants which would rapidly be scorched by the sun, shading is obligatory by the actual weather, even nearly all day long, which makes the light even less for the plant to develop well.

By a normal summer/weather, this plants would be constantly sheltered from rain with glasses, and only watered manually when needed, but rain shelter is here of no use anymore it seems...



Once the pricked out species are 3/4 weeks old, they leave their secure rain/sun constant shelter, and join the other bed nearby, where the plants go on growing with less attention: no rain shelter at all here, the plants are generally big enough now to endure a thunderstorm shower, and shading is only put when heat and sun are together ( what is nearly always the case this summer, as you will probably have understood now, after my many complains about it)

I will try to make an update in september again, according to what will be flowering meanwhile

[Maggi Young]

Another exceptional report Philippe.   

Your descriptions of the weather will have echoes with other places  and, as you say, likely to continue in this vein in future years, giving growers more problems to cope with.

I love your photos  - the close-ups of the individual flowers are telling and atmospheric and it is most instructive to see the developments of the various areas in the garden.  Your feeling for the beauty of the plants and your affection for the garden comes across so well- every report you make is a pleasure to read - I will look forward to September.

Thank you!

[krisderaeymaeker]

Update August 2013, part  4

Helichrysum milfordiae
Can't stop looking at that part of the bed whenever I pass by, and showing you then the majestic Helichrysum milfordiae here on the forum, even if you have already seen it in the previous update, sorry !

Never saw it before  like that Philippe ... What a great plant ! Such a mound of flowers .....   
Here we have sometimes (if we have extremely luck ) one or two flowers ...And then we say , good that he is flowering again ... because it is not flowering each year ...
I understand that you could not resist this part of the bed .

So the trigger for more flowers must be the climate and the extra UV-light  your plants get overthere ? 

Thanks also for the overview . Like al the pictures ...   

[Philippe]

I would not give any interpretation of what makes Helichrysum milfordiae flower, because I simply don't understand its blossom behaviour.
I don't think however that UV plays any role. I have seen it at the Schachen alpine garden in Bavaria, and at the Lautaret in the french Alps, both gardens above 1800masl, with more UV radiation, but the plants were struggling to live it seemed ( probably then because of climatic differences). From the Schachen, I know it almost never managed to flower there.

Both garden have a very long snowcover, lasting untill late May or early June, and it may be that the plants need more time in spring to build up and produce more flowers before a sooner fall by mid/late august.

However, here, where the snow is generally away by early May and not rarely on mid-April, and appart from the fact that there are years of more generous blossom and years of less one for most of the plants, H.milfordiae just doesn't fit to any possible rule.

It may well be that the general climate is more to their likening, encouraging better blossom in the whole ( snowcover not too long, summer not doo dry and not too wet, temperatures a bit warmer than higher up, but not too warm too)

But just note that the clumps in the propagation area are very few flowered in regard to the ones in the bed. These are all the same clone. Although the snow may lay perhaps one week to maximum 10 days later in the propagation area than in the garden itself, this just doesn't confirm the possibility of general climatic conditions as the leading factor for blossom.
Of course the soil is not exactly the same between these two places, but I doubt this would give such difference of blossom.

[astragalus]

Your most recent photos of Helichrysum milfordiae are absolutely stunning.  I can never see too many photos of this beautiful plant.

[krisderaeymaeker]

Thanks for the information Philippe ! Very remarkable and it makes this plant even more mysterious .
I agree Anne , me too ....never get enough of such pictures ......

[Philippe]

Last update September-October, part 1

The garden entrance has been closed on Septembre 30th. 2013 was a good visitor-season, with the dry, sunny, and quite warm summer we had.

It's time to prepare the garden for the winter now, and exceptionnaly on this occasion, the good weather we have since 3 weeks can only be appreciated: making the last weeding-tour of the beds, one of the most important one, laying down the labels, bringing geographical wood-signs and banks inside for the winter, waiting for the tree-leaves to fall in order to gather them for compost/leaf mould preparation, taking away all the dried remains of plant flowering stems and leaves in the beds, aso...actually everything which can allow us to spare time when we'll come back next spring, as we never know if it will be already on early may or rather a bit later because of possible late melting snow.

A few time is also accorded to the very last autumn sowings, mostly from plants already in culture in the garden, but which need to be propagated for any reason ( monocarpic, not enough individual plants to harvest more seeds, or just because some plants are beautiful and deserve to be grown en masse )

The last flower pics of the season. I lumped together what was to be seen here and there these last 6 weeks.

There is now really nothing more to see, only the chinese carpet blue gentians begin to show very shyly. I would have expected them to flower earlier, because of the long and warm summer, but obviously they will curiously be later than the years before, because of the late snowmelt in spring. I even doubt Gentiana sinoornata will ever have the occasion to really open its flowers this year: it should need another week before it would really begin flowering in mass, but we're having the first true snow covering the soil and slightly negative temperatures for about the next 2/3 days.
And if the weather doesn't turn rapidly dry and clear after that, it will  be shorter and shorter then, and this could be the first time in 15 years it wouldn't open in a lovely and overwhelming blue carpet  in the chinese bed.



Carlina acaulis from the Alps



A beautiful Gentiana asclepiadea plant, becoming sometime a nuisance in the Alps bed, because of  mass self-seedlings if the ripening seed-pods are not taken away, a thing that was made just yesterday on all mature plants.



Scutellaria alpina



Chaneorhinum glareosum from the Sierra Nevada, Spain. A charming Linaria-relative, which was or still is parlty included in the genus Linaria



From North America, Collomia debilis

[Philippe]

Last update September-October, part 2



Ursinia alpina from Lesotho-mountains



And Leontopodium linearifolium from middle Asia ( but really not sure, all these Leontopodium mostly come from gardens, sometimes look very close to eachother)

[Philippe]

Last update September-October, part 3

Some asiatic gentians now, as they often are late flowerers.



Gentiana gelida from Caucasus, with flowers of the most beautiful whitish-yellowish colour



Gentiana arethusae from China, very closely related to G.hexaphylla, with which it might sometimes be put together. That greenish hue on the outer corolla-stripes is very lovely, as is the shape of the non wide opened flower



Gentiana farreri. Light blue coloured flowers, but with a less graceful silhouette in comparison with the former one, though the markings on the corolla are still stunning - they must have a precise utility, but flying insects don"t need them to pollinate the flowers as they come from above. Perhaps ants are the pollinisator insects in this case, and the stripes lead them directly to the flower inside like a guide line?



Another species which has to be identified, having come under Gentiana loderi. It is once again a very intersting plant, very compact with ground foliage and solitary flowers just above it, but it isn't obviously G.loderi



Gentiana stipitata ssp.tizuensis

Another eye charming member of the genus. Congested basal leaves supporting almost stemless white flowers striped with green on the outside, a delight!

[Philippe]

Last update September-October, part 4



From China, Allium beesianum, late and very very long flowering



Cyananthus lobatus

A frail plant, trailing its long delicate stems on the soil, pointing upwards then to show the most perfect shaped and coloured flowers. Just a shame that each one would not last more than 2 or 3 days, even more true when the weather is a bit warm or if rains is lasting too long.



Cyananthus spathulifolius ( or macrocalyx, things have to be cleared out yet in the rockbed), also an interesting plant flowering late in the season, in late august/early september, and presently having a second even stronger blossom. Individual flowers don't last very long once again, what gives the plant a rather untidy look most of the time. But just take a look at those incredibly thin yellow "hairs" on the middle of the flower, this is just perfection!



The curious Picrorhiza kurroa, a well known medicinal plant in the Himalayan region.



Should be Primula edgeworthii.

Given and planted in spring as a mature plant, and flowering now in early october. Needs perhaps a little acclimatization time in order things to get right again?

 

Rendez-vous l'année prochaine! ( next year then!)

[Maggi Young]

Philippe, it is good to see so much growth and colour over this season at  the garden - thank you for sharing with us.

I hope that your are satisfied with your season's work - and that the winter passes well for you and for the garden 

[krisderaeymaeker]

Many thanks for the many magnificent pictures and plants Philippe . I enjoy this topic very much .
Hope that the winter passes by very soon ..........