Haut Chitelet Alpine Garden (France)

[Philippe]

Now a look to the chinese/himalayan bed where there are still some beautiful things to find



Allium beesianum

A truly magnificent allium species with incredible blue flowers of a good size , soon darkening a bit as they age



The affiliated Allium cyaneum, with smaller flowers of a far less convincing hue, but still very pretty with the orange exserted stamens.

Under now a question for people who could answer it!!!





We have this Cremanthodium as C.oblongatum, from garden origin. I have tried to identificate it with the determination key on http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/NaviKey, but the process soon stops after having given 5 or 6 criteria.
So if anyone has an overall idea of what this cremanthodium is or could be, without coming into botanical details I can't give here of course, don't hesitate to propose your suggestions!



Cyananthus lobatus



Primula capitata ssp.mooreana



Primula tibetica, second flowering, this time attacked by Thrips (!!), a pest I had never seen in Haut-Chitelet before...But well, it's a pest's year anyway, I have already more than a lot complained about it since the
beginning of the gardening season

[Philippe]

To the southern hemisphere.



Tulbaghia acutiloba.

This plant comes from the mountains of South Africa. We had it through the München Botanical Garden, which is trying to acclimate plants from Lesotho high land in the alpine garden Schachen, located in the Bavarian
Alps ( you can read the superb diary of the alpine garden, made by Jennifer Wainwright-Klein on this adress, http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Schachen ).
Time will tell what plants adapt to our somewhat different conditions in Haut-Chitelet ( less rain, generally more warmth in summer, and shorter snowcover period), and what plants will not. An interesting work to do, as
many unexpected surprises may happen sometimes.



Scleranthus biflorus

From New Zealand and Australian high mountains. A beautiful carpet plant, with totally insignificant flowering, but a great bright green tiny and compact foliage, which fits perfectly between smaller rocks.



Calceolaria valdiviana

To finish this short southern hemisphere tour, a look at Calceolaria valdiviana. Calceolaria is a big and complicated genus, making identification sometimes very hard. This one could be the true one, and is new in the
garden.

-----------------------

Back to Europe, with some flowers which still deserve some attention



Dianthus sylvaticus



The indefatigable Geranium endressii from the Pyrénées.



Impatiens noli-tangere



And the endless flowering Linaria alpina, as the young spring seedlings begin now to flower, when the mature plants from last year have finished.

A final trip to North America, where the flowering season is about to end with the Allium stellatum display.





A lilium species, which I haven't yet tried to identificate. As before, suggestions welcomed. But this is a young plant, flowering for the first time, reaching for the moment 30cm high. No geographical precision, as the plant is
mislabelled and was not collected in the wild.

The next update will probably not be as usual in about 15 days, as the seasons goes on and the flowering plants become scarce.

[Maggi Young]

Wonderful pictures -I am so glad that in the middle of August it can still be real summer!

As to the Convolvulus, have a look here :
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2010Mar311270058840IRG_March_2010.pdf

In this issue of IRG, you will find some information about this plant and its synonyms from Fritz Kummert -  Convolvulus boissieri Steud. subsp. compactus (Boiss.) Stace
Synonyms: Convolvulus cochlearis Griseb., Convolvulus compactus Boiss., Convolvulus parnassicus Boiss. & Orph., Convolvulus suendermannii Bornm.

[Philippe]

Thank you Maggi!
And I want this Corydalis in the front page of the bulletin   

[Maggi Young]

Thank you Maggi!
And I want this Corydalis in the front page of the bulletin   

I am not surprised - it is quite stunning, is it not? The colours are just perfect.

[cohan]

All beautiful as usual! But the Geranium is a perfect pink- much nicer to me than the bluey ones...

[Philippe]

Already time to begin the flowering season 2013?





Pics taken yesterday from the road passing over the garden.
There are still 1 to 1.5 m of snow laying upthere, and it will probably still last several weeks untill some of the beds become totally snowfree.

The winter has been quite contrasted, with a loud beginning right in early december, bringing about 1.5m of snow within 2 weeks.
Then there was a hard time starting on the week before Christmas, to jump shortly over the new year change, with sometimes mild air masses, SW winds, frequently associated to notable rainfall periods. The worst combination which has progressively reduced the massive snowcover to a kind of drenched icy soup,  leaving the higher parts of some beds bare again, and probably exposing the other ones partly to melt-overwatering under the remaining ice-cover.

January brought cold and some fresh snow back, but not in great quantity this time, so that the next mild and very rainy spell around late january ruined again the fragile new snowcover which had managed to form meanwhile.

February was cold throughout the whole month, with very rarely positive temperatures, and snowfalls from time to time. Not abundant, but gently accumulating on the soil each time.

March is now over, and will be the wintriest month: only a few days on the beginning with positive temperature, but dry weather, and then all the rest simply below 0°C and with frequent snowfall, leading right now to the important snowcover I mentioned at the beginning of the post.

As in most parts of northern and western Europe, it looks like spring is not yet decided to break through in the next days and the colder weather could easily last at least untill mid-april.
Will have to be patient to give news from the garden!

 

[Philippe]

It's been 4 weeks now.
I was upthere today to bring some first personal belongings for the season to come, and this was best made with the sledge, as a generous snowcover still lays on the ground. But different than last time when everything was white: parts of the garden, and some of the higher or near-water beds are already snowfree now, whereas the depth in some other places reaches sometimes still 1 meter.



That was a great impression today, to walk in the snow having 15°C and bright sunshine. Melting water begins to run generously here and there, but I guess it will be another further 3 weeks untill the garden becomes totally snowfree. Of course work will begin well before that point, and should start from next week on 

A few pics of the very first flowering plants which have more or less recently emerged out of the snow. But nothing special for the moment.





More to come in the next weeks

[Maggi Young]

There is something very exciting about the emergence of the garden from its snow cover.

We hope the coming season will be a good one for you and for the plants, Philippe.

[Philippe]

So far now, season 2013 has begun with our defintive installation on the very last days of april. As quite usual for Vosges-weather conditions, fog and drizzle welcomed us on our first day.
There was still much old snow/compacted ice, although a good part of it melted since the last visit on April 24th, first due to a few very mild and sunny days, followed then by abundant rainfall.

That's how looked the main way on the first day, in the upper part of the garden.

[ Specified attachment is not available ]

Except for the snow quality, it could have been a pretty ski run, isn't it?

Fortunately as last year, some of the beds were snowfree, or on the way to become so. And if the cars are not yet likely to get down to the living chalet in the lower part untill several days, work can begin in the beds as
soon as the weather gets better.
The himalayan and north american beds along the river Vologne were the first to get that privilege. No great weeding task for the moment however. It's more about uncompacting the surface soil after 5 months of snowcover, and raising the labels again, being careful of not disturbing or breaking the various new shoots that gently look out of the ground.



A view of a part of the himalayan bed on the left.

From a distance and after snowmelt it looks like everything's dead and wouldn't come again at all! I always get scared on those very first days, when everything seems so desperate, wondering if such plant is going to grow again if such other one is not already dead.
But it mostly only needs some snowcover-free days and you quickly see the plants waking up from the long winter rest.

Of course, losses must always be expected. I immediately and firstly think about voles, which for any reason often adore making their way under snowcover precisely along the rocks of the beds.
And for some other horticultural reason, that's also the kind of place in which I particularly like to install young alpine plants.
The difference between voles and me though is that they can do what they want during the 6 winter months without being disturbed by anybody...The only thing I can do when I'am back is to search for the plants that seems to have disappeared meanwhile: in the best case they often still are here, but upside down, burred in the soil, only needing urgent care.

On last thursday, we already had the first thunderstorm of the season, with hail. Together with snowmelt, strong rain, and that abundant little hail that fell for nearly half an hour, the river soon overflowed the beds situated
along it, and flowering Primula rosea for example stood for a moment into deeper water than usual.




If the next update is not too long or if there is still few other to report about plants and flowerings, I shall post news about the peat bog works that begun last fall. I don't remember if I had mentioned it last year, but I rather don't think so.

[Philippe]

Let's talk today about the peat bog which is to find in the lower part of the garden.

Many of you will be familiar with what a peat bog is, notably people living in cool and wet countries. With generous rainfall and due to the altitude which provides cool weather, the Vosges are particularly rich with peat bogs. The alpine garden has one within its limits. But we can't call it natural or original anymore, as it has experienced ample draining works during the early 20th.century, leading progressively to a drier environment. This means slow disappearing of the characteristic peat bog-flora due to stronger competition through growth increase of native trees and blueberry bushes.

However, in order to keep this place the most open and the most peat bog-like possible, we regularly pull up tree seedlings, preventing this way the ineluctable forest formation process. But never this would help making the peat bog survive, as the main problem was still complete: not enough water underground due to the numerous draining trenches which were scattered about it, continuously running the water immediately further down, and letting the upper parts often too dry.

The problem was studied and solutions were proposed. Last fall the works have begun, made by an external firm. The main purpose was of course limitating or even countervailing the draining effect. Then a new much longer duckboard should be built, getting across a greater part of the peat bog.

That's how the peat bog and old duckboard looked like 5 years ago



And this is now. The big spruces right in the middle of the peat bog have been cut down, and their trunks used to block the main draining trenches.



      

These "dams" should stop the water outflow, and let the water level raise again. As there is quite a height difference between the lower and upper part ot the peat bog, many dams were created successively on each trench.
Sometimes the dams are just made of peat that was digged out, creating thus a kind of pond over which the water would flow once filled.

When the dams are well tight, the water raises and can imbibe again all the area surrounding the ponds. Pond after pond, and over a good part of the peat bog, it should have a crucial effect on the flora year after year. At
least, that's the result which is expected.

For the moment, everything just looks in really big mess, and the vegetation needs to recover from the hard works that have been done. We hope sphnagnum colonies are going to occupy the bare soil quite quickly, thus
making perhaps place for a possible return of the drosera species which are normaly to be found in peat bogs.

The new duckboard, which must be finished this year, will lead the visitors through the peat-bog, and interpretation signs should help explaining and understanding what a peat bog is, and how important and interesting it is.
Of course, once the garden is closed at the end of the day, it would still be a pretty place for us to enjoy the evening, as long as the sky doesn't pour rain 

In the next post hereunder a closer look to the garden which awakes from its winter sleep a little bit more every day.

[Philippe]

I talked with a fellow worker of me which works at the alpine house of the Tübingen botanical garden in Germany just 10 days ago, and he was saying he found that many plants had really strong blossom this year. I was
therefore curious about what I was going to find just after that discussion by the return in Haut-Chitelet. From the few I can yet see here, and for any reason, I would say it's also completely true! Some plants that usually
have few flowers in a normal year are now making really big impression!

It's the case for Pulsatilla vernalis for example which I don't remember having seen so covered with flowers in the past years.



This is just as right for Primula latifolia which normaly has at its best 1 or 2 flowering stems



Soldanella pusilla also shows quite many flowers this year, although it might be less evident than for both precedent plants.



I was deeply impressed by Primula amoena too, which used to have 1, 2, or very occasionaly 3 flowering stems. This year, that's just a marvelous spectacle!



Looks like Primula marginata is also going to have more flowers than usual. Other european species, which are sometimes rather shy-flowering the previous years, will perhaps also be just as generous. For the moment,
the snow has just retreated in the last parts of the Alps beds, let's wait and see later.
Now, I am even more curious about what's going to happen with the plants from the other beds and from the rest of the world. After the difficult gardening season last year, this might perhaps be a wonder gardening year
this time???

[astragalus]

The plants are all wonderful but the Pulsatilla vernalis is really superb.

[Philippe]

Although the last update is more than 10 days, there is very few to tell. The weather just hangs up between late winter and early spring, snow fell on one occasion meanwhile, and new one is forecasted at the end of this week. This doesn't make the work outside easy. However there is still a lot to do before the public opening on June 1st.

Fortunately we had about...let me think about a moment...1 day of bright sunshine and really pleasant temperatures, to remind us we're in May. This day was mostly used to undertake/begin reparations on the wood-fence which encircles the garden and which always suffer more or less during the winter.

Rainy times were also used to do most of present year's sowings, and when the rain wouldn't feel too "wet", the first plantations of the season were achieved, before the plants settle down too much in the propagation beds.

I had a thought for those admirable plants last week, when I was outside by 3°c and penetrating drizzle, simply freezing on my feet, planting a set of Gentiana and others, and having a look around to the diverse plants which endure these weather conditions so proudly. After just one small hour of work, though quite tighlty dressed, I thought I would not be able to finish the plantations as I was already reaching my personal limits of weather-tolerance, which led me again to the relative warmth of our indoor work-place...

Some plants that are or were in flowers in the last 10 days.



Anemone obtusiloba. This plant on the pic above is a little surprise: it came within one pot of Androsace lehmannii that J.Wrainwright-Klein, from the alpine garden Schachen in Germany, sent me last year. As I planted the Androsace at that time in two different places, as a security, there were just 2 tiny Anemone leaves unfolding in one of the cushion, but I didn't know what this could exactly be, probably a very young Delphinium or something similar I thought. But as it came from this tremendous garden I had already visited and knew, it could be something interesting, though probably  not really wished in an Androsace.

The first flower of the Anemone came last week, and this was a pure delight under shy sunrays. The Androsace itself was hassled by voles last winter, I had to replant it newly, ( fortunately it grew problemless at the other place), but the Anemone withstood the winter activities of the careless rodents.



Even if this once entire Silene acaulis 'Correvoniana' will survive, and perhaps even grow better after a little relooking, it is always quite agonizing knowing what the voles are able to do during the winter period. Saponaria pumilio cushions were also much appreciated, and here anyway, it has to be expected that they will disappear at least by half every 3/4 years simply because of them.

But apart from vigorous or more common plants, I haven't noticed any damage yet on interesting plants of most of the beds, which is already a very good and encouraging thing.



The Primula denticulata hanging its head under the quite usual mid-May fresh snow cover.



Primula integrifolia.

 

I fear that that was it, already. As I am writing now, the temperature is dropping toward 2°C, and it's been raining just once today. It is still doing, should do the whole night through, and snow begins to make its way amongst the raindrops.

We hope for the next 2 days without too much cold or rain. But then, from Thursday on, back to the winter again. Weather forecasts say snow untill 700/800m asl for next week-end, and we should get here 10/20cms of fresh snow with temperature not over 0°C during day with possible peaks at -3/-4°C. A chance that the trees still haven't their foliage out!

So whether the next update will be very short once again, or I should really wait longer to make a new one later, and hopefully then June will bring a bit of spring again with plenty of flowers and plants!


(edit by maggi to increase photo size)

[Philippe]

So it's been now a long time since the last update, after which the garden was once again covered with snow. Cumulated 15cms during the last May week-end. It is also not so long ago that the garden looked like on the pic below.



May was grey, cold, and very wet: nearly 250mm of rain during the month, only 5.3°c monthly mean temperature, and the absolute highest recorded temperature was 16°C.  7 days with snow, of which 4 with cover on the ground.

June finaly brought the hardly wished mountain-spring, with exploding vegetation among the beds.

As nearly 1 month has passed since last update, the pics will be sorted by chronology.

Let's begin with the very last days of May, with a last look at what was a marvelous sight this year: Pulsatilla vernalis, and its unbelievable numerous superb flowers sparkling in sunlight.

I hope there will be some seeds, but pollination will only have been able to take place within very few days at the end, because everything was so wet and cold before.



The european Primulas were also particularly generous with their flowers. All have passed of course now. The following pics were taken during late May/early June;



Primula clusiana



Primula spectabilis