Haut Chitelet Alpine Garden (France)

[Philippe]

Helichrysum milfordiae


Lilium pyrenaicum

A superb lily endemic to the Pyrénées. Superb when grown in mass, but one has to adapt to the strong scent of hundred of flowers...


Polemonium pauciflorum

From North America. Quite unusual among the Polemonium genus , with the distinct shape and lovely colour of the flowers. NOt really perennial, seed has to be collected regularly to ensure new plants.


Primula bulleyana


Saussurea sp ( cf.S.erubescens)

A beautiful Saussurea collected in China, about 25/30cm height, with shiny purple floral bracts.


Sempervivum pittoni

From the austrian Alps


Tropaeolum polyphyllum

Feels at home outside at the alpine garden, displaying every summer a reliable beautiful flowering. The flowers must be hand pollinated to get some rare seeds which are tricky to germinate.

[Philippe]

Views of the garden









Here under is now the WAlps bed before we began to have a close look on it.







Above the same bed several working hours later, totally emptied of the old plants and with renewed soil. Decision was to set a scree-like area and to add also a path on the top to get a better view of the plantations to come.

[Maggi Young]

In Scotland this year we can sympathise with your changeable weather - some of us have rain nearly every day, with only some small periods of sun and some have had no rain for two months or more. A very odd summer indeed.
Your fine photographs show to great advantage the plants that are managing to flower in this season.
I will look forward to seeing the  redevelopment of the  bed for the western alps. 

[Lori S.]

Beautiful!  I would love to see it in person!

[astragalus]

How very, very lovely.  What a pleasure it must be to work in such a garden.

[John85]

Strange that you have problems with polemonium pauciflorum.How do you grow it?I grow mine in a shady but airy place,in a rich but well drained home made compost.Do you think damage is due to frost or to winterwet?
My location isn't exactly alpine:10 miles from the sea,so mild winters

[Maggi Young]

We used to have Polemonium pauciflorum seed itself gently around the garden for many years. As often happens, it was only when there were only a couple of plants remaining that we realised it had been dwindling.
By then the plants were not setting good seed and now we no longer have the plant.

John's query about winter wet or frost being the problem is a good one.... but in all honesty I do not know what was the cause in our case.   It is a regular problem, though, that plants which have seemed to be happy and "naturalised" in the garden suddenly dwindle  and even disappear. I take this as a lesson not to take any of them for granted and so pay greater attention to their condition - but that is a counsel of perfection that I fear I am unlikely to fulfil.
 

[Magnar]

What a wonderful place. Philippe. Thanks for showing the pics, I'd love to go there one day to see it for real

 

[Philippe]

Strange that you have problems with polemonium pauciflorum.How do you grow it?I grow mine in a shady but airy place,in a rich but well drained home made compost.Do you think damage is due to frost or to winterwet?
My location isn't exactly alpine:10 miles from the sea,so mild winters

Hi John

The Polemonium once grew in light soil which didn't hold excess water at all ( Nearby planted lewisias grow pretty well in it). Nutrients content of this soil is perhaps very low though, and as said, I didn't trust the plant coming every year again, what it indeed also didn't do everytime, maintaining the stock only through regular seed sowing.
Since 2 years I grow it in a much richer mix, probably a bit moister too. So far the plants at this place look pretty, with many flowers this year for the first time. I'll see if they will grow again next year, but will save seed just in case.

Concerning the climate, I would say the plants don't have to endure frost or excess humidity in winter, as they rest under snow most of the time of this crucial period.

I may do something wrong also: I am totally incapable of growing a single Cortusa matthioli further than the 3/4 leaves stage, even after having tried several times in different places/soil mix, I just invariably make them die more quickly than is needed to say

[Lori S.]

Polemonium pauciflorum is completely cold-hardy here in zone 3, though I believe the individual plants are probably short-lived (have never bothered to keep tabs on any individual plant).  It flourishes with the ligularias alongside the shaded side of the greenhouse where it gets lots of water that drains through the greenhouse's gravel base, though it is rather floppy in shade.  It also can take both full sun and dry conditions... seems to able to grow wherever the seed falls here.

[Lori S.]

I may do something wrong also: I am totally incapable of growing a single Cortusa matthioli further than the 3/4 leaves stage, even after having tried several times in different places/soil mix, I just invariably make them die more quickly than is needed to say

With so many wonderful plants in such a fine setting, I can't imagine anyone missing Cortusa matthioli!   

[Philippe]

July 2012, second half

A bit of high summer as I am writing: we have bright sunshine and each day temperatures getting warmer, reaching now 23 to 25°C. Thunderstorms are forecasted very soon, and would be highly welcome, to help
watering the beds.
Fortunately, most of the himalayan plants have finished their summer growth, so that the present dry air and warm spell doesn't harm that much anymore. Anyway in special cases, I am never far away with the watering can.
Rheum nobile of course and some of the cremanthodiums get their shading and daily watering though.
Propagation beds are tightly closed since a week now, to protect the young pricked out plants and seedlings from sun and warmth.

The garden now surely goes towards fall, and the main flowering period is over. No flower mass effects anymore, but still beautiful plants to find here and there, when one takes his time to follow every secundary path through the beds.

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

Meanwhile, the rain has fallen, and it was quite a heavy one with thunder, on two successive nights, raising the monthly precipitation amount on 175mm for only 13days with rain.
July was as "warm" as June, with a monthly mean temperature of 11.9°C.
Highest day temperature was 25°c, and lowest one 5°C.

As usual now here some pics.
I reserved a special place to our southern hemisphere bed this time.



Calceolaria arachnoidea is growing since 3 years by us, without any kind of artificial protection. The duration of snowcover in winter helps a lot, as do a somehow shaded place and the generaly moist and fresh summer
weather, which many calceolaria species seem to appreciate, once the soil recquirements are met.



Hypsela reniformis
From South America, and a plant to have a close look on in the bed, as it can become quite invasive, disturbing cushion plants planted in the vicinity.



A general view of a part of the southern hemisphere bed. The raoulia in the middle, Raouli hookeri, spreads around year after year, profiting once again from the shelter of the snowcover in winter. It's hard to imagine that all this could get lost at once just because 4/5 days of strong frosts without snow.
Crassula milfordiae with its white flowers in the foreground, an invulnerable plant it seems...It persists at the same place since so many years, never getting any care at all, and just becoming more beautiful






Ewartia planchonii, from the mountains of Tasmania and south Australia. Would be easily taken for an Antennaria ( I think more precisely of A.umbrinella from North America), but the flowers immediately set both clearly apart.
It grows in Haut Chitelet since 2 years, and does well for the moment, beginning to widen between the rocks, in a sunny place with well drained and not particularly rich soil.
You may see some green blurred foliage in the background. This is Hydrocotyle nova-zelandiae, which we have difficulties to control. It becomes a pest when the white underground stems/roots travel under the rocks to
reappear further, in the middle of a cushion plant sometimes.



Felicia uliginosa
From South Africa, creating a beautiful display together witgh the silver mats of Helichrysum milfordiae. The felicia is only to be seen at its best during day, between 10AM and 16/17PM. Before and after that, the petals
invariably bend back totally and the plant looses all its beauty.



Helichrysum milfordiae flowering.



Raoulia australis.
I am really not sure with the Raoulias. This one has tiny leaves but I don't remember having seen flowers on it untill now.



Raoulia subsericea (?)



Scleranthus uniflorus.
The perfect cushion plant, eating month after month the stones around.
So far for southern hemisphere plants.
I am so disappointed also: the regular hand pollination on the 2 Calceolaria uniflora plants has totally failed. I always took care not to let the plants under rain after the different pollination sessions, but no seed is going to be set at all, and the stems with empty fruits are turning brown now.
On the contrary, it was successful with Calceolaria polyrrhiza ( presumed for the moment, as C.lanceolata is quite similar in appearance), and the seed pods begin to swell now.
I recently planted Oxalis enneaphylla in the bed, after having gotten it as a living plant in spring, hoping it will make it through next winter.

[Philippe]

Back to the northern hemisphere with some plants from the european Alps



Campanula excisa.
Another perfidious weed in the garden...It is so beautiful, in leaf and flower, but it only wants one thing: invade the bed where it would be planted, having no shame when disfiguring mats or cushions plants. I had to throw
away plenty of it in spring, as it threatened to upset seriously Androsace alpina, Pulsatilla vernalis, Androsace villosa, Gentiana verna, aso...As for most of the scree plants with abundant root system, no seed or very little is ever set.



Campanula raineri
A whole world between this one and C.excisa! C.raineri has to be grown in a dedicated trough placed in the Western Alps bed, as I don't dare to put it yet in a scree with other plants around. I have read it would not
appreciate a nutrient soil, in which I planted it last year, but all I have had then was a yellowish plant not managing to end its very poor flowering before resting almost totally in August! The plant was put in this trough then, with a far more nourishing soil, and this was a good decision, as I have plenty of flowers this year, and, for the moment, a pleasant green foliage.



Cirsium acaule.
This one with no exigency, but still beautiful at flowering time.



Physoplexis comosa
Again a more tricky species, which seems to have fortunately found a beloved place near the garden entrance, where it can always be watched ( by visitors and by us...) This is the glabrous leaves type, and I hope to be
able to install the more fleshy and hairy leaves type in the next seasons in the same area.
Slugs are not a problem for the moment. Some flowers were eaten, but obviously, the slug wasn't that hungry at that time, or it was something else.



Dianthus furcatus ssp.tener



Anagallis monelli
Not a mountain plant, but still a pleasant rock garden plant, tried for the first time this year, the pic above showing a newly pricked out plant. Looks like it is not going to feel at home here ( probably too wet in summer, too fresh), but the blue of the flower is quite breathtaking, and strongly remind of that of the spring Gentians.

[Philippe]

North America now and the asian part to finish.



Aster coloradoensis
I was quite surprised that this plant does so well here. It is planted in a well drained soil, but in a bed where there is always more or less moisture deep within, with sun only from midday on. I have the plant also in a full sun exposed place, with much more drier soil, and I don't find it so strong as the plant above.
As for most of the Asteraceae family, and especially interesting foreign species, seed is rarely set., if never.

You may remember I told I would love to begin renewing the north american bed last time in the mid July update? We could actually make it, and this was quite a huge task, the bed measuring 5/6 meters long on 3/4
meters wide. Naturally totally filled with "antique" useless plants battling with each other to find their place, and letting enough space yet for weeds to come between..
In one word, clearly a shameful bed, which you can see shortly after the beginning of the renewal work in the pic here under.





Some hours later, a good part of the plants has been thrown away, keeping only the running Arctostaphylos uva-ursi in the right foreground ( the green mat in the right background is Phlox douglasii, which has taken huge proportions with the years, a thing that cannot be tolerated)



From another point of view, but again not a very speaking pic. The bed was cut in two, with a new meandering path in the middle to allow people to see future plants from nearer, when all will be over. Quantity of plants
from North America must now come in this bed. Some of them are waiting in the propagation area to be planted next year probably.
 
A quick look at the asian part of the garden now.



Cyananthus macrocalyx.
It's Cyananthus time now, as the different species grown in the garden will soon begin to flower together. It smells like fall...



Leontopodium wilsonii, from China, but again a so-named plant which could well be another Leontopodium, as these plants are from garden origin.



Primula florindae show, and the delicious scent all around which makes weeding the himalayan bed such an adorable task for the moment



Vaccinium nummularia



Delphinium caucasicum, wild collected in the Caucasus, which shows a fairly prostrate habit.



Dicentra peregrina from Japan and extreme east Sibiria.

[Philippe]

August 2012

We have high summer now, at a time when nobody did expect it anymore.
After having spent most of June and July with pleasant fresh air and generally sufficient precipitation, the conditions now turn clearly in the other direction, extreme I would even say: very few rain on 3/4 different days since August beginning with only one effective watering day, most of the time sunshine, and forecasts now see an unbelievable heatwave coming toward France for the next days.
Historic records could even fall a bit everywhere, just to remind us we are witnessing right now the effects of climatic changes on several places around the world.

Though luckily preparing now for the fall rest, I hope the most susceptible plants will cope with this violent and late heatwave, and, above all, that we might get some rain before that, to give the whole garden sufficient help
from above to begin the "battle".
Watering all the beds with a can or a hand garden hose is unfortunately impossible: the slope configuration and the now superficial deshydrated soil ban every effective watering effort.


A sortiment of plants from various mediterranean mountain parts.



Convolvulus suendermannii

A beautiful but rather obscure plant, on which I can't find reliable informations. It is found either as a subspecies of boissieri on the web, or as X suendermannii. Does anyone knows if this plant is to be found somewhere in
the wild or if it is a man made garden hybrid? Of course it would be best planted in the garden, would it be only for its late flowering and superb foliage, but as long I have no certainty of its origin, I can't put it neither in the
mediterranean bed, nor in the one dedicated to horticultural variety. Ideas welcome!



Helichrysum compactum

From Turkey, happy in poor dry soil, with plenty of sun. At least a plant which will appreciate or won't mind the warmth to come



Lallemantia canescens

A disappointing display this time for this short lived/monocarpic turkish species, probably because of wrong soil preparation I think. Seed has to be harvested to give the plant a better try next time.



Silene hayekiana.

Beautiful early in the morning when the young petals are still incurved, showing the underside brown colour.



Veratrum nigrum

A tall plant not flowering every year here, but that's not surprising as one sees it when it actually comes to flower: hundreds of little dark purple/black stars arranged spike like along the many flowering stems. The colour
change is interesting according to the weather: almost black when overcast, turning to a glowing red when seen through sunshine.



Campanula tommasiniana

From the mountains of  the Balkan Peninsula

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

Some inhabitants of the Caucasus bed.



Olymposciadum caespitosum

A lovely creeping Apiaceae with an interesting fleshy green-glaucous foliage and delicate flowers on 15/20cms long stems.



The well known Sedum sempervivoides.