2006 Volume 65 Issue 2
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Membership in the American Penstemon Society is $10.00 a year for US & Canada. Overseas membership is $15.00, which includes 10 free selections from the Seed Exchange. US life membership is $200.00. Dues are payable in January of each year. Checks or money orders, in US funds only please, are payable to the American Penstemon Society and may be sent to: Dwayne Dickerson, Membership Secretary 600 South Cherry Street, Suite 27, Denver, CO 80246 USA Elective Officers President: Louise Parsons, 1915 SE Stone Street, Corvallis, OR 97333–1832 Vice‐President: Bill King, 1564 Wasatch Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84108 Membership Secretary: Dwayne Dickerson, 600 S. Cherry Street, Suite 27, Denver, CO 80246 Treasurer: Steve Hoitink, 3016 East 14th Ave, Spokane, WA 99202 Robins Coordinator: Ginny Maffitt, 265 SE Sunset Blvd, Sherwood, OR 97140 Executive Board: Jill Pitman, Mews Cottage 34 Easton St., Portland, Dorset, DT5 1BT, United Kingdom Ann Bartlett, 1569 South Holland, Lakewood, CO 80232 Bob McFarlane, 5609 South Locust Street, Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Appointive Officers Director of Seed Exchange: Bob McFarlane, 5609 S. Locust St., Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Editor: Dr. Dale Lindgren, Univ. of NE West Central Center, 461 West University Drive, North Platte, NE 69101 Custodian of Slide Collection: Ellen Wilde, 110 Calle Pinonero, Sante Fe, NM 87505 Registrar of Cultivars/Hybrids: Dr. Dale Lindgren, Univ. of NE West Central Center, 461 West University Drive, North Platte, NE 69101 Librarian: Ellen Wilde, 110 Calle Pinonero, Sante Fe, NM 87505 Robins & Robin Directors A. Executive/Directors Louise Parsons (formerly #1 & #13) B. Cross Country Betty Davenport (formerly #6 & #7) C. Cross Country Ellen Wilde (remains #3) D. Small Penstemon Ramona Osburn (formerly #8) F. Cross Country Shirley Backman (formerly #11) G. International Jack Ferreri (formerly #16) H. Cross Country/Intl Graham Ware (formerly #20) The American Penstemon Society is a non‐profit unincorporated plant society dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about penstemons, their introduction into cultivation, and the development of new and improved cultivars. The Bulletin of the American Penstemon Society is published in January and July. Bulk postage is paid in Denver, Colorado. BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN PENSTEMON SOCIETY Volume 65 Number 2 August 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Message from the President 2 by Louise Parsons Sixty Years: A Look Back 6 by Dale Lindgren APS 2006 -Annual Meeting Registration 8 by Louise Parsons Penstemon Serendipity 18 by Sally J. Boyson The APS Seed Exchange: Report for 2005, APS Seed Exchange. 24 Announcement of 2006 Program by Bob and Phoebe McFarlane Correspondence 26 by Louise Parsons 2006 Membership Listing of the American Penstemon Society 34 by Dwayne Dickerson Covers: Front: Penstemon colony from Sally Boyson’s Garden, Denver, CO See page 18 (photo by Sally Boyson) Back: Penstemon baccharifolius, Austin, Texas (Photo by Dale Lindgren) Message from the President by Louise Parsons, Corvallis, OR Greetings to Penstemon-People Everywhere: “Arizona Spring” was a welcome break, especially when there was quite a bit of winter left to endure in so many areas. Even with the drought, we enjoyed penstemons displayed in the botanic gardens. The meeting started with breakfast at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. In the wildflower garden we found Penstemon parryi, pseudospectabilis, eatonii, and palmeri in bloom, thanks to judicious watering. As you can imagine during such a drought year, cactus and succulents were stars of the show. Reminding us of the seriousness of the drought, even those were showing signs of strain. Fortunately there has been subsequent relief. APS librarian Ellen Wilde brought along an extra set of Bulletins to Arizona for the care of yours truly ---and for future APS presidents of course. How wonderful it would be to scan this treasure-trove of information and APS history and thus make it more accessible. As an inspiration, the Scottish Rock Garden Club has placed their entire collection of bulletins on a CD available to members. Even with a document-feed scanner, this is a rainy-day project for sure. The APS collection contains the earliest mimeographed bulletins. Though they are in remarkable condition, they won’t last forever. After a guided tour and some leisure time, we all made our way to Tucson for our evening meeting at Tohono Chul Park. The park gardens were enchanting and we enjoyed both a guided tour and an ethnobotany talk that featured edible plants of the desert. Tohono Chul Park volunteers went all out to serve us a tasty and colorful dinner of desert foods. We were provided with a nice booklet of recipes for all of the wholesome and delicious dishes. I have found that you can substitute ingredients in areas where such delicacies as cactus buds aren’t available. The evening’s “Desert Rats on Holiday” talk by Marcia Tatroe, richly-illustrated with Randy’s photography, was pure enjoyment. What a perfect combination of keen botanical knowledge and entertaining observations. Randy and Marcia should definitely be on the speaker’s circuit. The Arizona- Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson was absolutely tops. Again in spite of the drought, there was an amazing array of interesting plants and animals. Our docent-guide, Doris Manning, shared her remarkable knowledge. Doris has been studying Arizona plants and is involved in local field studies. Now she has become a penstemaniac and I hope that we will see her in Idaho! I had a very beautiful and rewarding time on two whirlwind scouting trips to Idaho in late June and early July. Up at 4:00 am each day to stalk the wild penstemons! There is nothing quite like sunrise on Borah Peak, though wisely I did not negotiate “Chicken Out Ridge” to reach the summit! Special thanks to Ginny Maffitt and Dwayne Dickerson, who also made central Idaho scouting trips. This is an area unparalleled in both mountain beauty and diversity of wildflowers, including about a dozen penstemon species. I have created an “Idaho Preview” webpage at penstemon.org and we will be adding to it regularly. With dramatic elevation changes, flowers are sometimes scattered. Because of the bloom patterns and scouting results, we have moved the meeting dates to around the 22 to 24 of June in ‘07. (Details will be forthcoming.) The greater number of penstemon species bloom at lower (and more accessible) elevations at this time. Mackay is, alas, not big enough to hold us, so we are changing the locale a little to center in the Stanley-Ketchum area, where there are more choices for meeting facilities and for accommodations. If you plan to attend the Idaho ‘07 annual meeting, you might want to consider allowing extra time to explore. There are some areas that can’t accommodate a larger group, but which are still accessible and lend themselves to visits by smaller groups. Pass Creek Summit out of Mackay and Leslie is one such gorgeous area. However access is a one-way road with small turnouts –very passable, but not suitable for a large car caravan. For the active and adventuresome, the Sawtooths and Lost River Range are wonderful for backpacking. In the latter half of June, the weather is lovely. Because the busy season begins with 4th of July weekend, we will beat most of the tourists. Over two million tourists visit the Sawtooths and central Idaho during July and August. There is still some snow in places in June, but plenty of dry areas as well. To my delight, Dr. Andrea Wolfe will be able to speak to us on June 24th and bring us up-to-date on her exciting penstemon research. According to an informal, online page, “Wikipedia”, the genus Penstemon has now been placed by some botanists in the vastly expanded family Plantaginaceae instead of the traditional Scrophulariaceae. It will be interesting to hear “the scoop” on all of the new relationships and evolutionary surprises in the genus, wherever it “belongs”. Don’t forget that APS has a website at www.penstemon.org All ideas are welcome. However, please continue to send articles and notes to the APS Bulletin. Although it does not replace the Bulletin, the APS website is a good place for short informal notes and photos. It serves as an important outreach to the international Internet community. I have been working on getting the site more exposure by informing garden groups such as the Hardy Plant Societies of our existence. We are gradually being added to links and now have a better position for search engines. I am still finding our old address on garden and other penstemon websites, so please, all, help us to correct it. Eric Gouda of the Utrecht University Botanic Gardens has created a new site for penstemon pictures. Join Penstemon-L and you can easily upload pictures to the FloraPix site. A page of penstemon “thumbnails” is maintained. When you click on an image, a larger version will open up. You can select a percentage size for viewing to save connect time. To join the Penstemon-L discussion list, write to me at <[email protected]>. Note that my e-mail address does not spell my name correctly! On the business end of things, APS Bulletin editor Dr. Dale Lindgren would like to retire from this very important job. After so many faithful years he surely deserves a break. He has been wonderfully steadfast in this endeavor and is willing to help a successor. Dr. Lindgren’s updated 'List and Description of Named Cultivars in the Genus Penstemon' is in press as I write this and will be very welcome. As the Internet continues to increase our exposure to an endless variety of penstemon cultivar “listings”, this booklet will be increasingly useful.