I got back from the NARGS winter study weekend in Victoria, BC a few days ago. What a great time. Excellent talks. 250 people. Garden visits, etc. Roger Barlow of Beaver Creek gave a wonderful demonstration talk on growing alpines in pots. The plant vendors at the meeting had some far-out plants. As the theme was Pacific Rim plants, there were relatively few I could grow in my area (Patagonia and New Zealand alpines where the main plants). However, Beaver Creek was there and had a load of excellent alpines. Between him and the others I managed to get a few new plants including:
Centaurea bagadensis
Centaurea spp. (dwarf with pink flowers and silver foliage)
Lewisia rediviva
Lewisia nevadensis pink form
Lewisia brachycalyx
Mertensia longifolia
Penstemon pruinosus
Primula villosa
Saxifraga cartilaginea
Townsendia spathulata
Convolvulus cneorum
Lithophragma parviflora
Cyclamen coum - silver leaf form with pale pink and deep magenta flowers.
Now I just have to hold them for the next 3 months until it is safe to plant them out!
I'll post some picks of the private gardens we saw....not much colour yet but when you see the pics, you'll have an idea of what it might look like in a month or so.
NARGS Victoria meeting
Here are some private rock gardens from Victoria. This is a crevice garden done in the Czech style.
Another section of that garden.
A garden of alpine troughs.
A rockery with a garden pool.
The most common flower in bloom in Victoria right now are the Saxifrages. This is Saxifraga oppositifolia, one of the more challenging species.
A common narcissus open in their rock gardens currently is N. cyclamineus.
and some early primula are now open. This is Primula 'Hocker's Edge.
That is the best crevice garden of that style I have ever seen. I've always though they looked kind of "weird." This one oozes expertise all over the place.
Now you should be getting the idea I know very little about saxifrages - correct. And your photo is the first time I have seen (or noticed) the ranked foliage on oppositifolia. Duh! (Reference previous sentence.) Are there other ranked foliage saxifrages?
I am told by a member of our Minnesota Daffodil Society that no species daffodils survive here in Minnesota zone 4. Any thoughts on that?
Thanks for sharing, Todd.
S. oppositifolia is about the only 'ranked' saxifrage I can think of. The others have more rosette pattern.
The crevice garden actually belongs to a Czech person.....at the conference he taught a workshop on how to create a crevice garden.
In regards to species daffs, if the hybrids can survive zone 4 then there must be a species that can as well (after all the hybrids orginally had to come from a mix of species!)
You would certainly think so, Todd. Although hybrids are almost always more vigorous. This requires more investigation.
Thanks Todd! Sounds like you had a great time there. And those photos are terrific.
Tam
Excellent photos - sounds like you had a great time and came back suitable rewarded. But having to wait 3 months! My favourite species narcissus is cyclamineus - I have it flower now despite freezing temperatures. Thanks for posting. Those troughs look great.
I'm in awe of the Czech style crevice garden. I've not seen one in person yet, but the pictures I've seen always leave me wanting to have one myself. I can only imagine the amount of time and effort that went into creating the one in your pictures.
Did you purchase the Centaurea from Beaver Creek? I would enjoy seeing pictures of these later in the season. I had considered ordering some from BC this fall but didn't.
Wonderful pictures!
The Centaureas did come from BC. One has a bud now! The bagadensis has never flowered for Roger Barlow (the owner of BC) but it is suppose to be pinkish-purple.