Haut Chitelet Alpine Garden (France)

[Philippe]

The endemic Primula deorum, finding the conditions here very suitable ( peaty and boggy soil along the stream)

A close -up



Primula hirsuta



Primula pedemontana



A new incomer in the Caucasus bed, Trollis ranunculinus, with elongating flower stems as the days pass.

[Philippe]

Again Primula, farinosa, from a once wild collection in the Alps.



I was speaking last year about this NZ Myosotis which I would like to see covered with white one day. It seems the wish has been fulfilled, with a generously flowered cushion this year. I believe there is nothing to do then to get it this way. As is the case for much other plants, it looks like the weather conditions of the previous season were generaly favorable to induce abundant blossoming in 2013



An adorable counterpart of the Myosotis above, Androsace alpina



Androsace vitaliana at its best



Dodecatheon jeffreyi from North America

[Philippe]

A little Saxifraga hybrid dispay installed near the garden entrance. Sorry for the numbers. I intended to add the cultivar names with the pics, but the Saxifragas have gone meanwhile, and the list too...



Present spring was perfect to allow visitors to appreciate the neat Saxifraga cushions. They are usually already passed when the garden opens to the public on June 1st, flowering right after snowmelt and having too often had too warm springs the years before, which made them flower even more quickly.

Petrocallis pyrenaica



And a set of european Pulsatillas. Pulsatilla alpina sp.apiifolia.



The native and protected Pulsatilla alpina ssp.alba



Primula auriculata from Caucasus

[Philippe]

I am particularly proud of the Androsace vandellii vertical trough, which I placed in the bed last fall. Some plants begin to flower right now, but they need to increase now for some years, and this would be very interesting.

However, I will have to take care of the moss not becoming a nuisance for the Androsace with the years. And above all, I hope the trough itself will make it through these years, as this one was initially not meant for such a long term use...



Some gentians now.

Gentiana kochiana



Gentiana verna



Gentiana alpina



A view of Adonis vernalis near the garden entrance

[Philippe]

Corydalis cashmeriana from the western Himalaya.



Ranunculus parnassifolius. It was a wise decision to dispatch it in another place last year, as one of the places was seriously damaged by rodents last winter, with many plants losses there. Fortunately, in the second place, the Ranunculus settled down very well and creates now a beautiful mix with Gentiana verna, Arabis caerulea, and the seemingly happy Ranunculus glacialis seedling which was planted last year



One of my favourite, Meconopsis integrifolia, for which I had worries last year, seeing its leaves turn to yellow quite soon in the season. But that was ok, finaly huge lemon yellow flowers this year after 5 years cultivation.

Hand pollination regularly made every day on each flower, as the plant is supposed to be monocarpic.



The japanese Glaucidium palmatum



Another well beloved plant of me, Ranunculus gouanii from the Pyrénées. A simple buttercup as one might think, but it definitely has something more.

[Philippe]

Arnebia pulchra from Caucasus with disappearing black dots as the flowers age



Draba rigida var.bryoides



And the still shy flowering Primula minima, even in this year of abundance...



Good to think also there are still refreshing possibilities in the Vosges in this mid-June time: snowfields at around 1200m asl. Some of them still 2/3 meters deep, ensuring very probably still astonishment untill the first half of July. I recently read that if the Vosges were only 300 or 400 meters higher, there would be possibly permanent snow on such locations as shown below ( snowbeds turned towards N or  NE)

[Maggi Young]

Hey Philippe, hope you had a good day yesterday to celebrate your birthday?  It does look as if the garden is working this year to give you a seasonal gift of glory of all those flowers!

Your photographs are a pleasure to see - it must be so exciting  for you to see the plants do so well.

I am going to move this excellent thread to the Blogs and Diaries area. 

[Tim Ingram]

Philippe - beautiful and informative photos and discussion. Who would think of turning a trough vertically? Simple but rather brilliant.

[astragalus]

Philippe, wonderful pictures of beautiful plants.  Your trough is very interesting but please forgive a silly question - How do you keep the soil mix from falling out when it's placed vertically?

[Philippe]

Thank you Maggi. 

The trough was planted and placed horizontaly one year long after the plantation, untill the mix compacts a bit. Some moss also installed itself here and there on the very surface of the mix, maintaining the whole thing, and perhaps the roots of the androsace began meanwhile to "hold" a little bit of the mix too.
Now that everything is quite done, there is few or even no mix particule falling from the trough once verticaly placed. Also falling rain doesn't seem to be a problem
However some slate sheets ( is the word right? ) inserted quite deep into the mix at a 45°C angle create a kind of supporting "skeleton" for the mix, and prevent it additionaly from pouring out.

The idea of placing a trough vertically was simply to have water getting away quicker of the plants, essentially during the non-growing season, as there is no way to install rain shelter here year round, but also during the long snowmelt-time in spring, when the susceptible cushions might get drenched continuously for about 3/4 weeks if planted horizontally.

As soon as I have enough material, I will also try the same with more sensitive plants than A.vandellii.

[ruweiss]

Hello Philippe, thank you for showing us these alpine gems growing
in the open garden. Here we can only dream about it.
Temperature today max.36°C, some plants now look like
dried tobacco.

[Maggi Young]

Temperature today max.36°C, some plants now look like
dried tobacco.

36 degrees?     That must be summer I suppose?

[Philippe]

Hi Rudi

Though it's not as warm as at lower altitude, these are simply very hard days for the alpines here. We get near 30°C at day since monday , bright sunshine, and nightly temperatures just few below 20°C. 
It's just too much for some generas now, particularly those from the monsum-Himalaya. It will be ok for them this time, but for example the Meconopsis integrifolia doesn't make it to produce any pollen anymore with the dry and warm air. The anthers just seem to abort, and don't open.

Fresh weather and rain should come from tomorrow on, but we will have to take a stop by the thunderstorm stage before that. And the forecasts are quite alarmous, with every possible damaging consequences as regards to hail, rain, and storms.
I pray we're not concerned 

[Philippe]

First update July 2013, part 1

The season goes on, and the changeable weather helps keeping the average 3 weeks of vegetation lag. We just had one really warm period in June, but it was at once also too much of it, with daily max as high as 28/29°C during 3/4 days, which is only 3 to 4°C away from the last 10years record highs.

Fortunately this hot spell didn't last too long, and enough rain and fresh air soon came after that, without the feared thunderstorms which have caused localy many damages in NE France at their passage.

We'll be able to make beautiful trush bouquets on this early July here ( at least where lily beetles larvas don't feed on)

The peat bog works are over now, and the new duck board was opened to the visitors on last friday. It's a real pleasure to walk on it now.

In the garden itself, the works of the last weeks have been divided between some days of many plantations in the beds, the going on of pricking out actions in the propagation area, and weeding tasks of course.

Nearly 100 new species were introduced or sometimes re-introduced in the garden, and about just as many new species placed in the propagation bed as a result of  pricking out of both sowings of present and last year. Both works should go on during the next 2 months, although the pricking out will be stopped by early August.

As every year, there are beds more or less total renovation plans, but they will be mostly undertaken in the second part of the season.

This year, we should again add a new part to the southern hemisphere bed. As regards to the general building of the garden, we have a quite interesting landscaped bed planted with cultivars and hybrids of mountain/alpine plants, which is simply too big for this purpose ( and not that interesting I find, not enough anyway to be further completed), and which, once considered in its whole, would need only the half of the total place. The other half should then be used for southern hemisphere plantations, and 7/8 huge cushions of Helichrysum milfordiae are already waiting in one of the propagation bed, getting bigger and bigger every year, and only waiting now to carpet comfortably between big rocks. It's not decided yet if we should move all the cultivated South Africa plants to this new bed, or if we should go on mixing all together also mountain plants from both New Zealand, and South America. I personaly would rather like the first solution, but this would mean having to plant out species which are already installed for some years, sometimes a little risky according to the plants.

The european Balkans Mountains must also be refreshed ( plants/soil mix/rocks). A part of it was ameliorated last season, but it's already filled with new plants, and the search for places has begun again for new introductions.

The China bed, of which a part was totally emptied last year, was recently planted with new species in June. They are now gently settling down, but I am curious to see the results on a longer term: mostly plants from the monsum SW China mountains, of which some I think will be a bit difficult. As there was no possibility to get water running in this part of the bed, I chose to lay a generous grit mulch on the soil, this should help keeping the mix and the roots at least fresh, when unfortunately not wet ( providing copious watering when the weather turns too dry for some days).

Place should be made in Himalaya, in order to install scree/cushion/slow growing new plants, which would be otherwise a bit lost and endangered amongst giants such as Rheum, Meconopsis, Cremanthodiums, Primula.

Concerning the North American bed, some late plantations were made last fall, but with varying success, and quite disappointing balance. New species were therefore introduced in spring. Waiting to see what it will be now, but the bed is huge, and still plenty of place. I hope it can look better in several weeks, or at least next year.

Finally the western Alps bed, which was shown in one of the updates from last season, has been completed with young plants ( under which the Androsace vandellii vertical trough). I wait to see now how the plants will evolve, but surely there will be more plantations next year here.

Just for the record, the pic I had shown last year, before the work.



And under now from a bit different point of view ( the pinkish rock just here above in the lower middle near the path is in the lower left corner in the following pic)



The plants are still very small, and as you see there is still much available space for further completing plantations. This bed anyway was the perfect place to try Campanula cenisia, which was lingering in plastic pots in the propagation area for 2/3 years. Of course, I wouldn't have installed the Campanula directly in the groung, which could be the surest way to eventually loose it. So, as for the C.raineri and Androsace vandellii, C.cenisia deserved a dedicated trough for itself alone, the one you may perhaps sight in the foreground, with white topdressing quartz. Meanwhile, the little Campanula has surprisingly well recovered, beginning to run under the grit, and is preparing 3/4 flowers.

I am not sure putting troughs in the bed is a really good esthetical choice. Ok, they mimic the colour of the rocks around, but well, I always find myself trying to hide as much as possible the trough-sides, with plants or rock pieces. However, the main motivation of placing throughs in the beds is finally to give people the possibility to see plants that would otherwise not succeed reliably when direclty planted in the soil. Of course, if the plant does well in the troughs, there is still possibility to get enough material to make a later try in the bed itself then.

As I am telling about troughs, here a partial view of the non geographical through display at the entrance of the garden ( could be better organized, with more interesting plants. Well, for the moment, it's not the case, the troughs are quite old, and maybe when new ones will come we'll think of showing other plants).

In the right foreground, a Silene acaulis ssp.cenisia cushion, then Dryas octopetala, Globularia cordifolia, and a yet non flowering and trying to survive Campanula alpestris.

Then a grey mix of Helichrysum milfordiae and Raoulia sp., and behind an endless carpeting Phlox of North America ( as said, all plants that could go directly in the beds, or already are meanwhile)

[Philippe]

First update July 2013, part 2

Some plants portraits now, with a rather geographical travel through the beds, beginning with the mountains of eastern Europe ( Carpats, Balkan peninsula)



Androsace lactea is doing really well in this shadier and moister part of the Carpats-bed. Planted at the base of a north-facing middle sized rock, it thrives very well, with a generous and long flowering. No comparaison with the high altitude jewels from the Alps or from the Himalaya, but this is honestly a very interesting and charming plant



I finally managed to get a Cortusa matthioli untill flowering stage! I simply love it. The plant is very young, and therefore very small, with a tiny flowering stem and few flowers this year. I hope it will show other proportions next season, what should then be a delightful sight if everything goes well.



The Geum coccineum from Bulgaria, throwing a splash of beautiful orange-red into the Balkan bed. I am thinking of soon installing young Lilium carniolicum in this area, which could carry on the interesting similar colour display once the Geum would have faded. But place must be made above all else!



Dianthus myrtinervius ssp.caespitosus. Another charming plant from the Balkan peninsula, superficially reminding of a Silene acaulis. Makes a beautiful display when associated to the Gentiana verna ssp.balcanica and some Linum capitatum, all three flowering at the same time.



A look at the eastern Alp Geranium argenteum, with its silvery pretty foliage. This leads us now into the western part of the european Alps with the next update under.