Haut Chitelet Alpine Garden (France)

[Luc Gilgemyn]

What a fantastic series of updates, Philippe !!!
Undoubtedly a wonderful and well maintained garden !  I hope I can visit it one day !

[cohan]

Always a lot of rare beauties, here- when searching names, often these pages are the only references to them!

[Philippe]

UPDATE APRIL 2014


The years go by but look so different. If 2013's season-start was cold, grey, and with much snow left untill mid-May, 2014 looks completely different.

A quick drive to the garden last week-end to bring first things/packages and see how it looks upthere, and oh my god...



Winter has been very mild, historically mild. Trees are getting green already, sometimes 6 weeks sooner than last year for some species.

After 4/5 good winters, this last one was truely a shame. Great start in november, and that was almost over then, the garden had to live for about 2 months with the snow that fell in november, with alternatively long periods of dry/sunny weather coupled with utterly mild temperatures in december for example, or spells of very wet snow/cold rain from January on. There has probably never been a solid and lasting snow-underlayer the whole winter through, and there must have been times where it may have more or less completely thawed.

Fortunately no fierce frosts at all with this sometimes weak snowcover The coldest upthere must have been in the -5/-10°C range.

Spring has been also very very mild untill now, and utterly dry too, some places in NE France didn't get more than 15/20mm of rain in about 2 months, dispatched on 3 or 4 days only.

Snow has therefore disappeared in the garden during march, and let place to sun and summer-temperatures sometimes up to 15°C!

Problem for the moment : drought. First thing that had to be done quickly once the water supply was on again: watering the potted plants and sandbeds in the propagation area.

The beds in the garden were dry, but still relatively ok thanks to swowmelt in March

Things should hopefully get better this week, with finally first serious opportunities of generous rain since mid-february.

We will begin the gardening season next week.



I brought the first pics of the season of course!




Pulsatilla vernalis



Pulsatilla grandis



Anemone obtusiloba



Adonis vernalis


Needless to say it feels so frustrating not being there yet, and having to wait -  even if just a short week now- It feels like I am "missing" things that might happen meanwhile.
Appreciating the blossom of Pulsatilla vernalis will sadly be one of these things, as it will probably already be faded next week. I also saw some plants of Anemone obtusiloba full of flower buds last week-end. I cross the fingers there is something left from that when we arrive!

I can't wait of course to see what the Rheum nobile have become with this particular winter. You can probably imagine me rushing in the himalayan bed to make a close inspection of the precious Rheum after 6 months but I can't tell right now, it was too soon. I'll update the other thread if/as soon as there will be something to report.

[Philippe]

First update May 2014, part 1


Start of the new season. As I told in the last update 2 weeks ago, 2013 and 2014 are 2 separate worlds for the garden.

This pic from late April 2013, when we just arrived.

The stream was already snowfree, and this big snow accumulation on the right is usually the last place where it will disappear in spring.



The same place in late April 2014.



Pretty much work coming ahead now.

This is how beds and generally the garden often look like after the winter : untidy, uncared, a scary sight. Even if doing the most that can be done in fall before we leave, there is always just as much to do when we get back in spring.





Dried stems and leaves everywhere, broken branches in the vicinity of trees, labels that must be arranged to match the plant again and be easily readable from the paths.


This is generally manageable, as the garden only opens for June 1st . But with such a hative snowmelt as we had this year, the problem is just that everything comes together at the same time.



For example, this one won't wait much longer to ask for urgent attention...Poa annua in the paths, ready to flower after having enjoyed a short winter, and a warm spring, and also certainly ready to set seeds in just a few weeks if left untouched.

We don't use any chemical products to weed the ways, all is done and will have to be done manually very soon, alternating with the other major first gardenworks that have to be done just as quickly.

[Philippe]

First update May 2014, part 2


Pressure is coming from everywhere with this 3 to 4 weeks vegetation advance.

Lots of germinations in the sowing bed. Species sown last fall, as shown in the pic with a generous Silene nigrescens sprouting, can still wait a bit yet, but species that sprouted last summer and which were not pricked out should get all the care they deserve now



The 2014 new species sowings are waiting in the fridge, and for the quick sprouters that will come, a first pricking out could already be possible in about 4/6 weeks.

Many potted monocotyledons are in full growth presently, before some of them will already go dormant again in about 6/8 weeks. Right now would be just the perfect time to begin something with them, plantation in the monocot propagation bed, or in bigger pots with new substrat. Or directly in the beds in the garden.

Other dicotyledons plants that were pricked out in 2013 and could not always be planted last year because of the persistant warm and dry summer would just have the good size now to get in the garden, before they root too firmly out of the pots into the sand of the propagation bed.


Next weeks are just going to be very busy it seems.


Naturally, I just couldn't ignore the beautiful things that are already happening in the rockbeds, aside from the present untidiness.

Something more for Primrose's fans, as this is currently the genus that shows the widest blossom.

And they will even be seen under their favourite weather, moist and overcast, as we had a bit of light rain and fog during the first days.



Primula amoena



Primula caldaria



Primula clusiana

An east european alps well known species, here with a very flashy pink coloration



Primula hirsuta

Masses of flowers for this inhabitant of shady and acidic rock cracks.

[Philippe]

First update May 2014, part 3



Primula latifolia

Already passed its best, with flowers beginning to fade away.



Primula marginata

Whereas Primula marginata from the SW Alps just begins to flower



Primula spectabilis

From the northern italian Alps. Close to some other european species of the section, but good forms should really deserve the name spectabilis, as the flowers are then produced in abondance and are visually bigger than these other species. It seems the plant that grows here is one of this good forms. It is still in one of the propagation beds, but will certainly join the primrose team in the rockbeds this year.



Primula tsariensis

A rich deep velvet colour for this himalayan species, enjoying a shady place under a rock just above the streamlet.

[Philippe]

First update May 2014, part 4

Let's leave the genus Primula, but stay in the family, with two other genus just as adorable as the primroses themselves.



Androsace hedraeantha



Soldanella minima

A tiny treasure, just 3 or 4 cm high, and living in a pot for the moment, untill the right place somewhere in the bed is found.

A quick look outside the primrose family now:



Pulsatilla vernalis

The utterly beautiful Pulsatilla vernalis, just as cracking with flowers wide opened under sunshine as hanging the head down because of rain.



Ranunculus crenatus

From the eastern Alps and Carpathians. Looks like a R.alpestris, however with petals more or less deeply cut.



To finish, this view of the himalayan stream. Simple plants, but so colourful right now.

[ranunculus]

Magnificent images, as always.

[fixpix]

Very nice, Philippe.

[astragalus]

Beautiful plants.  What a wonderful garden.  Our winter here was just the opposite of yours - cold, snowy and very long.  Everything here is very late as a result and people are still wondering when spring is coming.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Fantastic report, Philippe ! 
You must feel terrific getting back to your promised land !

[Philippe]

MAY 2014, update 2, part 1

Perhaps time for a new update, which isn't that fresh anymore however, as much of the pics will show plants that are already passed their best time.

May went really quickly. We didn't get our usual mid-month snow. We have seen snow but nothing serious laying on the ground though.

The weather on the whole has been quite normal . A mix of very fresh to cold days with frequent rain and fog, and some short periods of better weather, which became sometimes already too hot at once, but luckily didn't last very long: the garden has to be reasonnably pleasant to visit untill at least late June and too much early heat after the warm spring beginning wouldn't help at all .

Various works could be done at one time or another according to the weather.

Sowing 2014 is for the greatest part over, and a first big pricking out serie could be achieved, when it was so awful outside. Do I dare to say that the sun was sometimes so strong and the weather so warm on 1 or 2 particular days that pricking out was even made on the warmest afternoons?

Some trees were cut down. Not that they had really become too big or whatever, but they just didn't stand right where they were allowed to grow. The siberian bed and part of the caucasian bed will now be able to propose better growth conditions for plants again: light and end of the root competition for food and water. The soil should be refreshed with a new earth-mix this season.

It's just too painful to have new plants waiting in the propagation area, where they grow well and beautiful, and have to let them stay there because there's sometimes simply no other such suiting place for them in the garden itself.

Some time left too for the first garden beds-weeding. However the whole garden couldn't be weeded before the opening on June 1st. Mediterranean mountains bed, southern hemisphere, Pyrénées, and one or two places in the european Alps still wait for the gardener hand to come and get things pleasantly tidier again. I hate how beds look out at the end of the winter. New green growth and beautiful flowers above can't hide totaly what's under and beneath.



After one month of presence here, a small check-up of the results of last winter quite hazardous weather conditions can be made. It was indeed generally not a good winter, with not enough snow, and, above all, not dry enough snow, which was quite regularly thoroughly soaked by mild and rainy spells, but without thawing totally, what contribuated to leave the plants more or less moist or wet without possibility of drying out in the open air for nearly all their resting period.

Plants who seem to have suffered the most are the more sensitive Helichrysum species from south Africa or New Zealand, just as species of Raoulia. However and fortunately no total loss for the moment, even if I have doubts for one or two plants that still are at a very critical recovery stage.

In the propagation area things were more radical. Everything in pots which wasn't firmly established during last fall or would have appreciated a dry winter to settle down didn't make it. Even species planted directly in the propagation beds sometimes came to rot, after having been here for several seasons.

Finally, cultivation tries in several places and several soil-mixes taught me that some plants just won't cope at all with moisture during winter: Arenaria globiflora, which showed encouraging growth last year, died. Whether planted in the chinese bed , in pots, or in pure sand, the species invariably died in each place in different substrats. Just the same for Leontopodium andersonii.

On the other hand, there were good surprises too: the rather intractable Androsace helvetica in its plastic long-pot made it through the winter without any problem at all, gratifying the return of summer with its firts blossom ever. Rheum nobile in the himalayan bed stood the winter too, although I strongly suspect this plant will tolerate any reasonnable wet/moisture in any season, as long as it doesn't stay at the roots. Species from Turkey or the drier places from the mediterranean mountains also showed unexpected results sometimes.

Work-plans are numerous this season again. Plantation of the New Zealand new bed, probably we will prepare a new small bed for plants from Central Asia. North America, one of the oldest part of the garden, should also go on being progressively rejuvenated. Some more place can still be made for chinese plants. Siberia is still a big problem, as the bed is huge, and at the same time probably is one of those in which there are the least cultivated species.

We are thinking about finding a place for big caucasian mountain plants, as they seem to be generally really garden-friendly, and flower for most of them relatively late in the season.

And last, still waiting to finish the mediterranean bed, a thing I promise myself each year, without being able to do it, or only partly and slowly...

So enough talked, place to the pics now. I won't show any originality, just classing the plants by alphabet.




Androsace ciliata

Small species from the Pyrénées. Cultivated in pot in the propagation area, as the pyrenean bed doesn't have yet a place where this androsace could be installed. Well, this could be, with some effort, but there are precisely things that often won't find time to be done. The place is already there, but then everything around must be thought in order to enhance this beautiful androsace. Perhaps the trough-solution could be the more satisfying one meanwhile, untill a plantation directly in a scree in a finer part of the bed is done.




Androsace helvetica

Some of you may of course get far more better results with this plant, but I must say am proud of it here Already seriously thinking here too about a plantation in a dedicated trough to be put in the Alps bed.




Androsace idaohensis

North american species, as the name suggest. It seems to be happy in the Rokcies new bed, which otherwise has been “heavily” planted this spring. ( best seen through the labels rather than the new plants themselves...)






Androsace vandellii

The famous vertical trough in which plants begin to make effect. Parts of some plants rotted this winter it seems, but A.vandellii ist one of the most accomodating species, and things should be fine.

[Philippe]

May 2014, update 2, part 2



Arabis aubrietioides.

From Turkey, and really deserving its name.




Claytonia megarhiza

A bit on starvation diet here, and should be tried in somewhat moister and richer soil perhaps. I notices that many Lewisia behave surprisingly better in such conditions. Lewisia nevadensis selfsow from the top of the bed in the heavier and very moist soil downwards, and seems to be very fine with that! So does Lewisia cotyledon, and L.tweedyi planted in poor and dryish soil just won't show the best it can.




Corydalis cashmeriana

Couldn't make the update without a look at it. Thanks to rodents, the only plant I had for 2 years gave birth to about 10 new plants. I just didn't dare to touch the mother plant, but last year rodents didn't show the least fear to dismantle the bulbs on several occasions by passing nearby or just under. As it almost never sets seed, I was so anxious to loose the plant that I simply digged it out, divided the many smaller bulbs and planted them individually in pots during late summer. Now, the himalayan bed gets blue here and there, a delight! And rodents can still have a look at it, this shouldn't be a problem, exceptionnaly in this case




Draba rigida var.bryoides

A species which doesn't do well when planted directly in the bed, showing many died parts at the end of the winter, taking lot of time untill it becomes green and neat again, and rarely and poorly flowering. Here in a trough, amongst stones and well above soil level, it seems to enjoy the much drier place.

[Philippe]

May 2014, update 2, part 3



Gentiana clusii

Lovely calcareous counterpart of the G.kochiana, here with flower of a much better pure blue.



Gentiana kochiana




Petrocallis pyrenaica

White and lilac flowering forms together, selfsowing in this part of the bed.




Primula farinosa

The common bird's eye primrose.




Primula involucrata

From the Himalaya.

[Philippe]

May 2014, update 2, part 4



Primula longipetiolata

A superb Primula with flowers of the most exquisite transparent plae blue colour. An extremely beautiful foliage plant too. And sweetly scented.




Primula macrophylla

Young specimen, very young...I hope it will be covered with flowers next year.




Primula minima

Finally with a “generous” blossom this year. Planted at the north-west bottom of a bigger rock, just above pathway level, where the soil generally stays longer moist and fresh.




Primula pedemontana




Ranunculus thora

Interesting above all for its foliage, and said to require lime to grow well