Bulletin of the American Rock Garden

Vol. 37 Summer 1979 The Bulletin Editor Emeritus DR. EDGAR T. WHERRY, Philadelphia, Pa. Editor LAURA LOUISE FOSTER, Falls Village, Conn. 06031 Assistant Editor HARRY DEWEY, 4605 Brandon Lane, Beltsville, Md. 20705 Contributing Editors: Roy Davidson Anita Kistler H. Lincoln Foster Owen Pearce Bernard Harkness H. N. Porter Layout Designer: BUFFY PARKER Business Manager ANITA KISTLER, 1421 Ship Rd., West Chester, Pa. 19380 Contents Vol. 37 No. 3 Summer 1979 Two Eastern Dicentras—H. Lincoln Foster 105 A Dicentra Variant—Mercer Reeves Hubbard 107 We're in the Chips—Boyd C. Kline with Edward Huggins 109 A Small Glamorous Shrub: Fothergilla gardenii—Mrs. Ralph Cannon 115 Lester Rowntree 116 Nomocharis in Massachusetts—Ronald A. Beckwith 117 Cyclamen in Containers—Brian Halliwell 123 The Turfing Lilies—John Osborne 125 A New Hybrid Saponaria—Zdenek Zvolanek and Jaroslav Klima 126 A Good Tempered Synthyris—Edith Dusek 127 Victoria Rock Gardens—Sybil McCulloch 129 The Evolution of a Garden . . . and Gardener—Florence Free 133 Award Winners—1979: Sallie Allen, Laura Louise Foster, H. Lincoln Foster 136 Book Reviews: Manual of Alpine Plants by Will Ingwersen; Wildflowers of the Northeastern States by Frederick W. Case 139 Notes from Alaska: Botanizer's Bonanza at Eagle Summit—Helen A. White 142 Of Cabbages and Kings: A Fresh Approach—Henry Fuller; Clematis Texensis —Pam Harper; Cutting Dates—Dorothea De Vault; Poison Ivy Cure; Cyclamen Society 144 In Praise of Rock Gardening—Charles Gordon Post 150 Front Cover Picture—Dicentra cucullaria—Laura Louise Foster, Falls Village, CT

Published quarterly by the AMERICAN ROCK GARDEN SOCIETY, incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey. You are invited to join. Annual dues (Bulletin included) are: Ordinary Membership, $9.00; Family Membership (two per family), $10.00; Overseas Mem• bership, $8.00 each to be submitted in U.S. funds or International Postal Money Order; Patron's Membership, $25; Life Membership, $250. Optional 1st cL delivery, U.S. and Canada, $3.00 additional annually. Optional air delivery overseas, $6.00 additional annually. Member• ship inquiries and dues should be sent to Donald M. Peach, Secretary, Box 183, Hales Corners, Wi. 53130. The office of publication is located at 5966 Kurtz Rd., Hales Corners, Wi. 53130. Address editorial matters pertaining to the Bulletin to the Editor, Laura Louise Foster, Falls Village, Conn. 06031. Address advertising matters to the Business Manager at 1421 Ship Rd., West Chester, Pa. 19380. Second class postage paid in Hales Corners, Wi. and additional offices. Bulletin of the American Rock Garden Society (ISSN 0003-0864.) Vol. 37 Summer 1979 No. 3

Bulletin of the American Rock Garden Sooetn

TWO EASTERN DICENTRAS

H. LINCOLN FOSTER Falls Village, Connecticut Drawings by Laura Louise Foster

Fleeting but elegant are the two spe• flouted. Instead of raising a cup of cies of dicentra that grace the early crinkled petals upward to bask in the spring flora of Eastern United States: sun D. cucullaria wraps two of its petals D. cucullaria and D. canadensis. upward to form puffed wide-spreading Similar they are to the point of confu• horns — yes, like an upside-down pair sion, with only slight above ground of Dutch pantaloons, suspended by an and yet conspicuous below ground dif• almost invisible pedicel and filled only ferences. with air. Two other petals curl down D. cucullaria, most commonly known to form a pouch that expands at the as Dutchman's Breeches, has green fer• mouth into two cupped wings tipped ny foliage early in the spring topped with gold. Wrapped within are the func• by a one sided raceme of nodding, tional stamens and pistils. These white, dancing flowers most curiously blossoms dance for a week or so in formed. The structure of the blossom earliest spring above the lacy platform is intricately arranged with the four of deeply cut, slightly glaucus green pleated and folded petals assuming such foliage. Then, after this ballet, all col• unlikely postures that their basic poppy lapses with remarkable suddenness; the relationship is not only concealed but ballarinas sink as they sway, their gar-

105 ments shrivelling to tawdry brown. rather than yellow as in D. cucullaria. Black seeds within the horned pods These two dicentras, similar as they of the ovary extension harden and are, possess other less obvious dif• glaze. The pod bursts. The seeds ex• ferences. Though their ranges overlap trude. The foliage fades from green to a large extent, they do not hybridize to yellow, glimmering down gently to as they have different chromosome leave no remnants and the underground numbers and there appear to be subtle base of this ballet of blossoms is called differences in their site preferences. upon to carry on the life processes Dicentra cucullaria has a slightly below ground and unseen until another more extensive range south and west, performance the following spring. extending from Quebec west to North These underground parts consist of a Dakota and south to Alabama and short root-stock bearing a cluster of Missouri with a curious disjunct pinkish-white rice-like tubers, huddled population, distinguished as var. occi- into a scaly bulb. dentalis, in Oregon, Washington and In Dicentra canadensis the subterra• Idaho. Where its range overlaps with nean rhizome carries loosely held, gold• that of the less widespread D. canaden• en, grain-like tubers. It is this feature sis the two are occasionally found grow• that gives this plant its colloquial name, ing together in rich woodlands, but Squirrel Corn. The foliage is quite im- in all state floras Squirrel Corn is described as much rarer than Dutch• man's Breeches. Neither of these dicentras is com• monly encountered in rock gardens despite their intrinsic beauty and the fact that most rock garden texts list at least D. cucullaria. For some years I thought these two charmers were dif• ficult to establish in cultivation even though D. cucullaria is locally abundant in certain natural settings. These seemed almost invariably to be at the base Dicentra canadensis of rocky slopes in woodlands, most always where the rock was acidic. possible to distinguish from that of Investigation showed that the tubers Dutchman's Breeches though it appears lie close to the surface in pockets of a bit later in the spring and persists almost pure humus. for a week or two longer. Squirrel Efforts to move a few clumps of Corn blossoms are carried in a manner Dutchman's Breeches from an area similar to those of Dutchman's Breech• along a major highway where expan• es, but the individual flowers, though sion of the road was impinging on superficially similar, are quite the rocky slope, were successful to the distinctively shaped. Here the upward extent that some leaves appeared the pointed furled petals form shorter more following year, but no blossoms. My rounded spurs, parallel rather than site, though rocky and shaded by high diverent, looking, indeed, like the erect trees was amidst rocks of Stockbridge ears of a baby rabbit, and the wings Marble, an ancient metamorphosed on either side of the mouth are pinkish limestone. Meanwhile I had purchased

106 from a "wildflower nursery" — that of Squirrel Corn which had been quietly means usually plants collected in the multiplying unnoticed beneath the wild — some tubers of Squirrel Corn. Kaempferi Azaleas. These I put in a nearby spot under What I begin to think is that you some Kaempferi Azaleas. For a year need patience and fresh seed. The or two there were a few sprigs of cluster of tubers usually breaks up in dicentra foliage and no real display the transplanting and the individual of blossoms, so I tried moving a few grain-like scales become scattered, tak• corms of each species up into the ing a few years to grow into a clump acid soil of the woodland garden. sufficiently big to support blossoming Then, I think it was the third year, stems. The shining black seed has, at there was a fine burst of early Dutch• its point of attachment, a fleshy white man's Breeches blooms along the path aril, which shrivels quickly when expos• amidst the limestone rocks. And year ed to air and it would seem that once by year their numbers increase and this aril becomes desiccated the seed they have spread into the most unlikely loses viability. and enticing pockets: amidst ferns, Both species are beginning to appear primulas, mertensias, arisaemas, all here and there in greater and greater huddled together with the Dutchman's abundance in other areas of the garden, Breeches generally leading the parade either among basic or acidic rocks. of flowers. They appear to thrive on Seeds do get scattered and it is quite competition and, conversely, never in• possible that the tubers also are spread terfere with the most delicate neighbors. about by foraging mice. Some find After about five years I suddenly a good niche. And the rewards in the became aware that at the very end very early spring when the butterfly of the blooming season for the Dutch• blossoms dance in the chill air above man's Breeches, there was a great the lacy foliage are heartlifting. flush of flowers on an expanding bed

A DICENTRA VARIANT

MERCER REEVES HUBBARD Pittsboro, North Carolina

On a walk in central North Carolina's good walking stick that I threw down Chatham County woods with my hus• to look more closely at a large popula• band and his father some years ago, tion of dicentra. One group was easily we came upon an exciting concentration recognized as the typical white Dutch• of native plants in flower: Alum Root, man's Breeches, Dicentra cucullaria, Foam Flower, oxalis, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, but there were others — pink ones, Hound's Tongue, Trout Lily, white really pink ones! hepatica, flags, Dutchman's Breeches, Not finding a pink D. cucullaria Toothwort, Paw-paw, and Buttonbush, listed in our books, we crept up upon all could be seen within an area of these plants several times during the a few acres. I never have found my next few years, wondering if they were

107 really pink breeches or if the white surely get famous and have 'Mercer's had faded into pink. Color remained Pink Breeches' officially listed; this is constant; in addition the pink- what volunteers at the North Carolina blossomed plants seemed to present a Botanical Garden named the variant. slightly different aspect from the re• Dr. Radford said we'd watch it for membered Dutchman's Breeches of our a while and see what happens. "I don't mountains. think its going to change color or Hoping that we had discovered a shape; I think it's genetic. A disjunct new plant, finally I found my way population which is genetically dif• to native plant authority, Dr. Albert ferent is likely fixed and might even E. Radford, in his office on the top be a new variety." floor of the Botany Building at the Of significance, possibly, is a University of North Carolina at Chapel discovery made last spring, while the Hill, a hike quite as exhilerating as plants were being photographed by Ken climbing the steep bluffs of Chatham. Moore, NCBG Superintendent. A form Dr. Radford said that what struck was noticed with very straight corolla him at first was the color and shape sacs (breeches) with dark reddish- of the corolla. He said that he had brown and others with orange coloring never seen that variation: the small at the constrictions of the petals. After corolla, the more rounded apex, the viewing the slides exhibiting the various beautiful pink coloration. "You get a forms of straight corolla sacs, rounded little pink in Dutchman's Breeches, but corolla sacs, and varying shades of not all that pink — a rich pink which pink, Dr. Radford expressed enthusiasm was retained." He added whimsically over the distinct genetic variation with• that the breeches were not as baggy in this population. The entire popula• as those regularly seen in D. cucullaria tion merits further observation and and promised to look it up to see study and horticultural selection of if it could be a new variety. some of the specific forms. In Brittonia, at that time a publica• After the hard winter of 1978 these tion of the American Society of Plant plants struggled to bloom according to Environments edited by Kingsley Stern, their accustomed schedule. Although the Dr. Radford found that Dicentra winter was below freezing later than cucullaria is listed as having a great usual, the plants came up and were amount of variation, particularly in in bloom within six days. They could respect to flower form. The shape of almost be seen growing. our variant, as well as other shapes, This gets more interesting all the was sketched and treated as a variety time. We don't know how many new of D. cucullaria, but with no recognition plants are left to be found, but we'll of named varieties. I thought I would be taking more walks in the woods.

1979 Seed List Correction Please note that Number 55 should read Aciphylla montana Arm• strong, the name under which it was contributed, and not A. lyallii, the result of unauthorised alteration. James R. Le Comte, Donor 481

108 WE'RE IN THE CHIPS:

Exploring the Himalayas of Kashmir

BOYD C. KLINE, Medford, Oregon with EDWARD HUGGINS Photographs by Mr. Kline

This last July we flew from New Ladakh and some eighty-five miles Delhi to Srinagar, in northwest northeast of Srinagar. It was July 30, Kashmir, and there set out upon the 1978, the weather perfect. adventure of a lifetime. We rose at seven-thirty and went There was Barry Starling of Great to the village "pony-boy" station. Ghul, Britain, the ericaceae expert and ac• our forty-five year old "boy," saddled complished nurseryman, with his pa• our ponies and we mounted, jiggled tience, persistence, and quiet British our stirrups, and were off — preceded humor — and Reuben Hatch of Van• by Ghul and his pack-ponies laden with couver, Washington, the hard working, our paraphernalia as well as with tents, successful rhododendron nurseryman food, and supplies for our grand en• and leader of our expedition, his visit tourage — four pony-boys, a cook, to Kashmir four years ago now serving a guide, and the guide's twelve year us well indeed — and, of course, yours old boy. So began the trip that would truly, the old man of the mountains. take us twenty miles northwest to Lake Making headquarters at once in Krishensar, to Lake Vishensar above Srinagar, the capitol of Kashmir, we it, and up at last to the 13,000 foot looked forward to a month of excur• ridgeline. In these four days we would sions. We would drive northeast into see the best plants that we found in the Ladakh territory and perhaps all Kashmir. glimpse to the far north the snowy The trail out of Sonamarg headed peaks of the Karakorum Range. In• down at first. It then climbed mile trepid explorers of wilderness areas, after mile until, after a 2,000 foot as• we three would scramble up countless cent, we reached a ridgeline meadow. meadows and screes through eastern Ahead, northwestward, the meadow Kashmir, even as far south as Menali, sloped up sharply to a soaring peak, everywhere searching along the highest its spire a gray, shaly rock in nearly ridges to behold all the fascinating vertical, tilted layers, its side a green plants we had read about for years mantle swooping to our left to form but never seen. Challenging the the meadow's spine before plunging. Himalayas has a rather romantic ring Sheep herders' mud huts clustered near to it. But when I actually gazed up the spine. Peak after peak marched at those awesome heights I could only northward, each with its up-slope pelt murmur, "Egad, what have I gotten of dark trees and lighter green shrubs myself into?" fingering toward but never surmounting Such was our reaction one morning the naked spire, and each with its in Sonamarg, a tiny village near downslope striations of gray rock and

109 scree. Close to our right, a forest of huge. Instead of the usual purple, they long-needled Himalayan pines and In• had throats of white. dian firs edged the ridgeline, which Farther down the slope, in a jumble fell north to a river valley. of rocks, we were examining cheilanthes Barry, Reuben, and I wanted to ex• when we heard a clatter and looked plore down this north-face trail. Its to see our ponies scrabbling, pitching, slippery mud terrified the ponies and jouncing goatlike over the maze though, so we dismounted, leaving Ghul of boulders, manes abobbing. We shook and his boys to lead our mounts farther our heads and laughed, glad to be up the ridge to a rock and scree descent. afoot. We three made our way toward the valley. Alongside the upper, forested part of the trail, in shady places among the rocks we found a wide variety of ferns — athyrium, polystichum, asplen- ium — all in species unknown to us. Barry gathered fronds with plenty of ripe spore, and I could not resist picking out several small specimens. The trail opened out into meadows. We waded down through acres of flowers waving at us in the wind, the salvia and geranium and potentilla so abundant that we soon walked among them as familiarly as among old friends. And even when this or that Primula reptans rare little beauty peeped out, no matter how new and exotic, no matter how The trail dropped precipitously to she widened our eyes, Barry would the river and brought us to a ridge hardly betray the twinkle in his eyes with layers of flatrock shale. "We as he bent down to observe quite should find Primula reptans in here," calmly, "This looks good." Beautiful said Reuben. And sure enough, we did. Meconopsis aculeata grew in singles Gorgeous things! Their difficulty in the here and there, the flower's baby blue garden paled before their rare beauty petals flared out around a golden ring. here in the valley. Tight, flat mats We saw both white and yellow forms they were, their tiny buns pressed right of Anemone obtusiloba, some close against the outcropping's shaded face. together. The fern-like foliage of Adonis With the patterned stone a fascinating chrysocyathus appeared in great clumps backdrop, the extremely compressed ten to fifteen inches high among the buns and diminutive leaflets were strik• rocks, each stem topped with a large, ing enough. But the blooms in full solitary, golden yellow bloom. We came flower clinging tightly to the mats — upon a Salvia hians more than a foot the sight raised the hair on our necks. tall; the cluster of large, basal foliage In dark purples and light lavenders, grew in moist soil, where rivulets of the blossoms huddled upon the foliage melting snow may once have carved a as though trying to hide from our bed, and the dark blue flowers were gaze.

110 Shadows lengthened. We had a fifteen of all potentillas, P. nepalensis, its one mile ride up river to make camp at to two foot stems procumbent and tip• Lake Krishensar, so we mounted up. ped with beautiful crimson blossoms, But our ponies were old hands at some variegated to an orange-red. Then fun and games. "Stumble Bum," as up and up the ponies struggled, no I politely named my pony at first, shenanigans today, and at more than quickly discovered that I froze to the 13,000 feet we reached the top saddle saddle every time he lurched, so he of the ridge above Lake Vishensar. gleefully tripped over every rock and From the steep climb and the altitude, log. Then he tried a new game, "acci• Ghul had a terrible headache, so I dentally" leaning against a great boul• gave him some aspirin and told him der and squeezing my leg between his to rest before he headed back down ribs and the hard place. Well, the next to camp with our ponies. Barry, Reu• time he tried that I swung my other ben, and I wished to spend the day leg and "accidentally" gave him a swift on foot exploring the chips. kick to the jaw. Meanwhile, Barry of• Along the whole ridge a mantle of fered his pony a marathon lecture on chippings overlay a deep, rough scree. its unsavory ancestry, and on we went These finely shattered chips had broken with never a respite to look at plants down from the many shaly outcroppings along the way, teased and tested at poking up from the ridges. All of these every river crossing, hill, and pebble. higher outcroppings looked like Before nightfall we reached Krish• brownstone. ensar (11,500 feet), a large lake at Right at our feet we noticed pad the base of the mountain we would after pad of Androsace sempervivoides climb the next day. A young German and A. muscoides. The dark, heavily couple, camped near the water, spoke flowered mound of Androsace mu- happily about the fishing in the river, cronifolia surprised us with its tiny where they had caught fine German rosettes. brown trout. We made camp on a flat Soon we came upon the Queen of a few hundred feet below the lake, the Himalayas, Paraquilegia gran- near where the river emerged. Our diflora. Right up on the windswept guide went fishing. Barry went looking ridge, it grew tightly adpressed to the — and in rock crevices right by our surface of chippings and stood barely camp found Asplenium viride, a one inch high. Most of the seedpods delightful, tiny fern with the stems not were green, but we scurried from plant black but green. He discovered Asple• to plant and finally, with diligence, nium septentrionale on a large, solitary collected a fair supply of ripe ones. rock in a meadow nearby, the very Looking at the unexpected abundance fern I had seen in the Colorado Rockies of plants here, we felt overwhelmed the year before. to think of all the seed that would At six the next morning we took ripen in just two more weeks. Then, a quick breakfast, left everyone behind knowing that every time we found this but Ghul, and went for the gold ring. shaly, sandy-red rock we would find Right away, on the steep, open meadow P. grandiflora, we explored the north that mounded up from Krishensar to face of a great outcropping and nearby Vishensar, we spied the huge, discovered several dozen plants (with bright yellow flowers of foot-high Geum tremendous taproots) all up and down elatum as well as the most striking the labyrinthine stairsteps of rock. On

111 some plants the aquilegia-like foliage lavender flowers aroused interest with curled into tight little fists as though its inflated seedpods. The Whiplash Saxifrage, S. flagellaris, was everywhere, one of the very few plants not endemic to Kashmir (how curious that it grows at 13,000 feet both here and in the Rockies). The large yellow blossoms whipped and danced in the breeze, while below them the reddish, spidery stolons crept out along the ground for new screes to conquer. Another very interesting saxifrage, but new to me, was S. jacquemontana, its bun not only molding itself to rocky ledges but its yellow blooms a deep orange-yellow. The flowers seemed unable to open themselves fully. On rock outcroppings we saw S. imbricata, the tiny leaves compacted into a tight Paraquilegia grandiflora bun; from the center of the leaf clusters protecting its wealth of blossoms and came small, stemless, single white seed; on others the leaves lay open, con• flowers. And we found S. sibirica, the touring the whole plant into a magnifi• cent mound. We found amazing varia• tion not only in the foliage but in the flower — one with blooms the size of a clime, another smothered with blossoms the size of a quarter, and still others as large as a half dollar, twice the size of any other forms I had seen. In contrast to the well-known but smaller, bright lav• ender flowers found in Nepal and else• where, these had a light lavender tint upon the back of the petal, as we saw on one plant with its dozens of buds still tight — but the whole inside of the open bloom was pure white, a lovely Queen. Higher up the ridge we climbed, seek• Corydalis thyrsiflora ing Mertensia tibetica. Here a deep red allium bloomed in large groups, dense tufts of reniform leaves one inch yet onions hardly drew our interest across and the stems four to eight in• amidst the teeming royalty. For in this ches tall with bulbils at the base; a area we came upon pink-blooming pat• corymb of fairly large white flowers ches of Androsace muscoides, Corydalis topped each stem. To our delight, S. thyrsiflora with short, compact flower sibirica grew thickly amidst the beauty heads of deep yellow, and the huge, we came seeking — Mertensia tibetica. flat, succulent leaves of Corydalis We found it all around, an amazing crassifolia, which despite its rather dull multitude, some clustering under rock

112 ledges, others taking full sun right out and clambering straight up the moun• in the open. Unlike most mertensias, tainside. the dark blue flowers turned their faces One large wall of gray, creviced rock upward, as if sipping the infinite azure contained some beautiful Himalayan en• of Kashmir. demics that held us spellbound. In the rock shelving we saw Primula reptans, Primula elliptica, Mertensia tibetica, and Androsace sempervivoides. On a stone ledge above us stood a Sedum crassipes with its clusters of twelve inch stems arising from a single root-stock, each stem topped with bright red, paint• brush flower heads. And there, right beside it on an eight inch stem, the hoodlike yellow daisy of Creman- thodium decaisnei peered at us. We reached the shepherd's level. We said nothing. He said nothing. We walk• ed on, just a mite self-conscious. Clouds, like the sighs of a mountain Mertensia tibetica god, ambled about the gray peaks, tou• Barry glanced up — "We seem to ched them lingeringly, and moved on. have a visitor." Not far above, on Another ridge and another, and the the top ridge, a sheep herder stared day wore on. The mind can only absorb at us — peculiar white men scampering so much. Ever intoxicated with about and grabbing plants and seed blossoms, Gentiana argentea roamed far

" ^^iS8S8^^M'^'i '•'

Barry Starling and Reuben Hatch on Vishensar Ridge

113 and wide over trie high meadows; leaves and debris, washing roots clean, though a small annual only three inches enclosing each plant in a plastic bag high, it was dense with terminal clusters to retain moisture, and packing them of bright blue flowers. Pedicularis together snugly in cartons. And the showed a grand array of sizes and colors next morning we prepared for the jour• — the variegated white and rose-purple ney back to Sonamarg. of P. pectinata, the bright rose-purple Only when Ghul yelled "Osha!" at of P. siphonantha, the one and a half especially steep, precarious spots did inch long pale yellow blooms of P. the ponies leave off their fun and games versicolor. Soon, excitment settled and attend to boulders. Plantsmen are down. We squirmed around to get the never content in the saddle, though, right photo angles. Talk grew quieter. so on and off we got to check plants A Pedicularis bicornuta, one foot of along the return trail. A monsoon rain pure elegance just ballooning with large swept upon us, soaking us to the skin puffed yellow blossoms like giant but• in seconds, and for a quarter of an tered hominy, drew a speculative look, hour we had the ride of a lifetime a whispered "Nice," and a couple of on slippery saddles upon bouncing po• photographs. nies up mountain trails and down. In Along the bowl-rim ridges we circled the terribly rocky, muddy area beyond back and down to camp. Tired. Con• Nichinai Pass, Reuben's pony floun• tented. dered to its belly and pitched him head The next morning, August 1st, we over heels into muck. Reuben calmly breakfasted on trout our guide had remounted. All the while I kept giving caught and took it rather easy by hiking my pony swift kicks for his tripping up a small canyon between Krishensar tricks and his propensity for choosing and Vishensar. Here we spotted a wrong trails and so, when we got back Rhododendron anthopogon and a few to Sonamarg and I got one foot on species of primula. We gathered seed- the ground but the other boot stuck pods from Aquilegia nivalis. Above all, in the stirrup, the pony, expecting well we came upon a dwarf Aconitum deserved kicks in the ribs, kept sidestep• heterophyllum only ten inches high, but ping and sidestepping and I kept hop• with unusally large helmet flowers of ping alongside like a one-legged duck lime green, striped a dull, purplish wishing I could kick that varmint. Ghul brown. Then Barry found his long finally got my boot out and I spit sought Cassiope fastigiata at the top out a few purple epithets. Ghul only of the canyon ridge. grinned and shrugged. We got back to camp by midafter- I joined Reuben and Barry, who were noon, itching for a swim, and traipsed gazing back at our mountain peaks. up to the shore of glacier-fed Krishensar, Had we actually conquered a wee Canadian Club in hand. Ah, a few bit of the Himalayas? Had we perhaps swigs to warm up. Then we stripped, put our footsteps beside those of Blatter, ran, and dove into the lake — hah! Coventry, and other great plant hunters — and out much faster. Towels. Clo• of the past? At least in our hearts thes. A few more swigs and lots more and minds we had our own small "Vale plant talk occupied a beautiful, beautiful of Kashmir," twenty miles long, a afternoon. million memories wide. We spent that evening caring for Everything we had come seeking we the day's collection — picking out dead had found, except Corydalis

114 cashmeriana. We had hoped so much abundance, the outstanding beautiful to find that, and perhaps it was in Primula replans, and thousands upon another area (Zojila Ridge, no doubt), thousands of Paraquilegia grandiflora or possibly mere steps from where we in all her loveliness. had walked. In fact, it may even have Now, having been home for several passed from bloom and gone to seed weeks, an interlude affording me occa• right under our feet. But the plants sion for deep thought, in retrospect that we did find exceeded our hopes I must confess with all honesty —• — Metensia tibetica in unbelievable I wish I had kicked that damned pony!

A SMALL GLAMOROUS SHRUB: Fothergilla gardenii

MRS. RALPH CANNON Chicago, Dlinois

Flowering shrubs are among the most flowers at a very tender age so there is important features of a garden; they no wait for a certain size to be reached definitely play a supporting role. If the before you can expect flowers. garden is small the lack of space pre• Its witch-hazel like leaves are obovate vents the gardener from growing any• to oblong, base rounded or broadly cu- thing approaching the collection of his neate, to two inches long and coarsely dreams. The temptation to plant more toothed; nice green color above and and more shrubs leads to overgrowth paler beneath. In May it produces fluffy along with drastic pruning which results inflorescences of fragrant flowers re• in the shrubs losing their natural shape sembling stubby bottle brushes. The and beauty. quantity of bloom makes the shrub There are many dwarf species and outstanding. These white blossoms varieties that should be considered for without petals are borne in dense ter• they not only contribute flowers but minal heads in which the stamens are beauty of form and foliage. A dwarf the conspicuous part. They appear in shrub worthy of inclusion in any collec• short clusters on the naked branches tion is Fothergilla gardenii (F. alni- before the unfurling of the leaves and jolia) which rarely exceeds three feet in are most decorative. There is a par• height and is very striking both in ticular charm about shrubs that flower spring and autumn. Belonging to the before the tufts of green leaves show as Hamamelidaceae family makes it a it permits the structure of the naked handsome cousin of the Witch-Hazel. It twigs that support the lovely white does well in semi-shade and on a light flowers to be seen. acid humus soil. This little round Fothergilla gardenii was named after upright bush prevails with its foliage the Quaker, Dr. John Fothergill. In and flowers against any competition 1762 Dr. Fothergill had a most notable from any flowers. Being low growing it garden in Upton, England, second only can be ideal in many different positions, to Kew. After eighteen years his gar• rock gardens or general landscape dens contained 3400 species of exotic design. One of its virtues is that it plants in addition to his trees and

115 shrubs. In 1772 the nurseryman, James is a native of the south-eastern states Lee, made the following request in a let• and mostly from the Appalachian ter to Linnaeus, "I know Mr. Miller sent mountains. It can be propagated from you a drawing of a plant he wanted you stem cuttings, root cuttings, by layering, to name after my great friend Dr. John or from seed. Good plants can be ob• Fothergill. The doctor is fond of that tained from most garden centers and plant as it is sweet and elegant and will planted in the spring at least by the first endure in the open air in the severest of of May. winters." Fothergilla gardenii answers Frequently when seeking plants with to the description of this plant. The gar• decorative shades of colored autumn denii part of the name is in honor of leaves one turns to some member of the another contemporary doctor, Dr. Alex• Witch-Hazel Family. Few bushes can ander Garden, who practiced in rival Fothergilla gardenii for the Charleston in 1755 but spent all the orange-yellow color of its leaves before time he could spare from his profession they fall in the autumn. This seasonal on botany. He corresponded frequently effect is very glamorous. One thing is with Linnaeus. certain, even one specimen of this little We are told that this shrub is hardy shrub can be worthwhile and will bring into Ohio and Massachusetts although it color and elegance to your garden.

Lester Rowntree Lester Rowntree, a recipient of the ARGS Award of Merit in 1967, died on March 21, 1979 just eight days after her 100th birthday. Born in England, she came to the United States with her parents when still a school girl and spent most of her adult life in California where she had an astonishing garden built on a steep mountainside overlooking the Pacific in Carmel Highlands. Mrs. Rowntree spent comparatively little time in her garden, however, as she traveled extensively, usually alone, throughout the southwest United States and Mexico, even exploring as far afield as the Mediterranean maquis and the Chilean highlands to collect the seed of native flora of these areas, which she then dispensed throughout this country and abroad. Mrs. Rowntree's two books (unfortunately now out of print), Hardy Californians and Flowering Shrubs of California, are a delight to read. A writer of talent, her books, though authoritative, are not dry botanical texts, including, as they do, lively accounts of her adventurous explorations. Mrs. Rowntree maintained joint citizenship in Britain and the United States and on the occasion of her hundredth birthday received a cable of congratulations from Queen Elizabeth II. She was a charming person with a lively sense of humor, a dedicated plantsman and conservationist, and a legend in her own time.

116 NOMOCHARIS IN MASSACHUSETTS

RONALD A. BECKWITH Southampton, Massachusetts Photographs by the author

"If the Peat Garden enthusiast had to confine himself to twelve genera, Nomo- chads would not be last on that short list." — Alfred Evans, The Peat Garden

In 1889, in the "Journal de Botanie," georgei, . henrici, lophophorum, Adrien Rene Franchet, Director of the mackliniae, nanum, oxypetalum, and Museum D'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, souliei in Lilium. Nomocharis, as con• France, designated the genus ceived by Sealy, is a small homogeneous Nomocharis from specimens collected genus, obviously closely allied to by Delavay in western China. The name Lilium, Fritillaria and Notholirion. This derives from the Greek nomo for relationship has given rise to plants meadow or pasture and charts, meaning that loosely fit into either genera, outward grace, loveliness. Surely a therefore, periodically there are shifts delightful name for a delightful plant. in taxonomic opinion and species pop Our friends the taxonomists made no back and forth between the genera. mistake with that name. To complicate matters further, Franchet apparently set up the genus Nomocharis species have proved to be on account of the basaily swollen fila• a trifle promiscuous, presenting us with ments, and the wide open flowers with the problem of natural and man induced the outer segments entire whilst the hybrids. This has resulted in the crea• inner segments are much broader and tion of the grex N. x jinlayorum. fringed at the margin, with large, al• The eight species that Sealy accepts most lobed nectary glands. are as follows: N. pardanthina, meleagris, Following the introduction of new mairei, basilissa, farreri, synpatica, species, the genus was reviewed in aperta and saluenensis. Of these, N. several papers. The first revision was basilissa and synpatica are probably not published in 1918 by Sir Isaac Bayley in cultivation. In this articla, I will con• Balfour in the "Transactions of the fine myself to the Nomocharis that I Botanical Society of Edinburgh" and grow and which I believe to be readily was followed by E. E. Wilson in 1925 available in the seed exchanges. in Lilies of Eastern Asia; W. E. Evans The history of the introduction of in 1925 and 1926 in "Notes," Edin• Nomocharis into cultivation resounds burgh Royal Botanical Garden; and with the names that reverberate D. Wilkie in 1946 in the Royal Hor• throughout the world of rock garden• ticultural Society "Lily Year Book." ing: Forrest, Fairer, Rock, Ward, and Fourteen species were recognized, not forgetting those great French mis• some of which possessed slender fila• sionary collectors from western China, ments. A more recent revision done Delavay, Soulie and Maire. I think that in 1950 by J. Robert Sealy in the perhaps here we should acknowledge "Kew Bulletin" reduced the genus to the tremendous part that the Royal Bo• eight species, placing N. euxanthum, tanic Garden, Edinburgh has played

117 in the history of the genus N omocharis before attaching to the anther. This and its consequent retention in cultiva• swelling is quite unlike anything in tion. I am sure that I speak for Lilium. all growers of these wonderful plants N omocharis farreri is sometimes gi• who firmly believe that, if all else fails, ven as a variety of N. pardanthina, Edinburgh and that select group of which it quite closely resembles. astounding Scottish growers can be However, N. farreri is reputed to grow counted on to keep things going. Taxo- much more strongly, to have narrower nomically, Edinburgh has been in the leaves, and the inner segments of the forefront, with many reviews and flower are not so heavily fringed, being papers on the genus emanating from only nicked. Plants that I have grown there. from seed under this name did not Pere Jean Marie Delavay (1834- show these characteristics. N. farreri 1895) was a priest in the French Mis• was first found by Farrer in the Hpi- sions Etrangeres and from 1867 until mau Pass. Upper Burma in 1919 (Bur• his death in 1895 lived in China. He ma-Yunnan Border Region). It was was stationed in northwestern Yunnan later collected by Forrest and by Ward. between Tali-fu and Lichaing. Working mostly alone, he sent a most remarkable amount of material back to France, to the extent that some fifty years after his death his herbaria were still being sorted and classified. It was to Franchet at the Paris Museum that Delavay sent the first known collection o f N omocharis. This was classified as N. pardanthina. Delavay collected N. par- danthina in June 1883 in the pastures of Mount Koua-la-po in the Tali district, Yunnan Province. However, it is to George Forrest that we are indebted for its introduction into cultivation. It Nemocharis aperta first flowered at the Royal Botanic Gar• den, Edinburgh in 1914 from seed that Nomocharis aperta is another Forrest he had sent back. Frank Kingdon Ward introduction. He collected N. aperta also collected and sent back seed. N. sometime in 1906 in southwestern pardanthina ranges in height from eigh• Szechuan and northwestern Yunnan. teen to thirty-six inches with whorled This is rather a distinct plant with foliage. The flowers tend to be nodding, the segments entire and the perianth about three inches across, white or flu• of a flat saucer shape. The more or shed with the palest pink, the inner less outward facing flowers are three segments fringed whilst the outer are to four inches across, white or flushed entire. The face is quite heavily spotted rose with blotches of deep crimson crimson towards the center, giving the around the nectaries. The filaments are effect of an eye. The filaments are not swollen. Although this species is swollen from their base to a little over reported to attain thirty inches, with half way up, after which they become me it tends to be rather short, growing rapidly reduced, becoming thread-like some eighteen to twenty-four inches tall.

118 The leaves are paired to scattered (unlike N. pardanthina). Nomocharis mairei (how I admire this plant) was first collected by E. E. Maire in 1912 in pastures at 10,000 feet at Ta-Hai in northeast Yunnan. However, again we are indebted to For• rest, and later Ward, for its introduc• tion into cultivation. I find it difficult to categorize plants, but this really is a most lovely plant, rather reminiscent of an Odontoglossum. The tepals are white or flushed pink and heavily spot• ted with crimson over all the segments, giving way to a crimson-eyed center, the inner tepals are beautifully fringed. Nemocharis mairei By contrast, the pollen is yellow. N. I had a fine batch of the grex mairei var. Candida is reported in the Nomocharis x finlajorum. literature. It is said to be pure white Perhaps a review of how this name and unspotted. The flowers of N. mairei came about would be fitting. During hold themselves well, facing out or a visit in June 1969 to the garden slightly down, the tips recurved. The of Keillour, the home of the late Major filaments are club shaped, but again, and Mrs. Knox Finlay, Patrick M. they become thread-like before atta• Synge, former Editor of the Royal Hor• ching to the anther. The leaves are ticultural Society, saw several groups whorled. of Nomocharis which he believed to When I was preparing to write this be of hybrid origin. It was thought article, I read the published species unlikely that these plants would be clon• descriptions and I found that some of ed, but would be kept in cultivation them did not exactly correspond with by seed propagation, and therefore, it my plants. Comparison of living was decided to give them a grex name, material with the herbarium sheets at hence N. x finlayorum, after Major the Gray Herbarium of Harvard Knox Finlay, who for many years was a University was made as a further check. regular exhibitor and superb grower of In this I was much aided by Mr. H. Ahles, Keeper of the Herbarium at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Although Nomocharis aperta and N. mairei matched well, the conclusion was reached that there were no true N. pardanthina or N. farreri amongst my plantings even though several batches had been raised from seed under those names. Many came very close, but did not quite fit the descriptions. References to the Royal Horticultural Society's Lily Year Books led us to the conclusion, somewhat to my dissatisfaction, that Nemocharis x finlavorum

119 these plants. The original description on the East Coast) when I lived there, can be found in the Royal Horticultural but 1 never got them to flowering size. Society "Lily Year Book" 1969, p. 107. While I have been here in the United What can I say about A. x States (Massachusetts), 1 have had finlayorum to help you identify them? much better success. Starting off with Mostly, they have whorled foliage and seed in 1972, I have tried various seed they have an obvious affinity to A. mixtures, but these seem to make little pardanthina, farreri and mairei. The difference; drainage seems to be the flowers are white to pale pink, the important criterion. The mixture that spotting anything from all over the 1 use now is basically: one part of face to confined merely around the cen• peat humus, one of loam and one of tral eye. Indeed, some have no spotting sharp, course sand to which a base but just the central eye. They are very fertilizer is added. Then according to lovely and worthwhile additions to any how the soil mix "feels," (and you, garden; a clump standing some two as rock gardeners, are just as familiar to three feet tali is a most delightful with the term as I am) I add grit sight. or one-quarter inch trap rock screen• ings, I suppose perlite would be all Another Nomocharis that I am rais• right too. Keally, the drainage is the ing from seed is A. saluenensis, which most critical factor. I do not use Jiffy is reported to be closely aiiied to A. Mix or vermiculite on slow-germinating aperta. Aomockaris saluenensis was col• seeds. I do not have anything against lected from altitudes between 9,000 and either; it is just that during the length 14,000 feet in southeastern Tibet, of time that I leave nomocharis northwestern Yunnan, western Szechuan seedlings in the pot, Jiffy Mix and and northeastern Burma. The present vermiculite tend to break down and stock in cultivation is believed to be get mushy. derived from George Forrest's collec• tions of 1921-1922. Photographs and 1 have used baby flats as containers attendant literature show that the widely in the past, but 1 now prefer four saucer-shaped flowers are upward fac• or four and a half inch square plastic ing, white to pale pink (even pale pots as they are deeper. 1 always put yellow has been reportedJ with purplish a layer of three-eighths inch trap rock spotting towards the center. These are over the bottom for drainage and then borne on plants that grow two to three fill with the medium to about one-fourth feet tall. As in A. aperta, the filaments inch below the lower rim. The medium are not swollen and the leaves are is then firmed. paired to scattered. Its name is derived I try to sow the seeds very thinly from the Salween River. I would ven• as I am going to leave them in the ture to suggest that the photograph pot two to three years, depending on of A. saluenensis featured in The Peat their growth. One can usually delermine Garden by A. Evans (Plate Xd) is if the seeds are good by placing them a good example of this Nomocharis. on wax paper or thin typing paper But "Ah" you say, "This is all very and holding it over light. You should well; how do we grow them?" I can be able to identify a good seed because only speak from my experience of them the embryo appears as two lines in here in the Northeast. I tried growing the endosperm, going part of the way them in Britain (just north of London across it. However, use this as a rough

120 guide and do not discard any seeds, Once the plants start putting on some only what is obviously chaff, even stem growth I plant the whole potful though only a few appear good. I al• out as a clump, placing them slightly ways shoot for the works and assume lower than the soil level and then work• that I might have missed some. If the ing soil in around the stems to bring seeds appear really good, I will sow it up to soil level. I leave them like maybe twelve in a four and a half this until the first flowers appear. inch pot, but if it looks very poor Usually one or two will flower before and I can see only a few seeds with the others in the third to fourth years. the embryos plainly visible, I will sow As soon as the flowers are faded, sufficiently thickly that they are perhaps I dig the clump up and separate the even touching each other. I then cover plants out. Care must be taken in dig• the seeds with about one-eighth inch ging because Nomocharis bulbs tend of medium over which I place a layer to get down deep like those of Erythro- of siftings from three-eighths inch trap niums, so you must dig well down rock, i.e., one-fourth inch or less. Just to get the spade under them, or you a single layer of trap rock pieces will will leave the bulb behind and cause suffice. It will help keep the moss out. yourself much annoyance. I like to I then water the seeds in well from replant immediately. 1 separate out the the top. bulbs and I dig holes eighteen inches When to sow? Frankly, I don't think across and nine to twelve inches deep that it matters. The books all say to with the soil at the bottom of the sow in early spring but I have sown hole well forked over. I then plant in the fall, and in the winter (January, six to nine bulbs in the hole, working February). As soon as the seed is sown the soil in around them carefully as I put the pots out in the cold frame I go. Hold the stem and plant them where they get frozen solid. In most as you would a tree sapling. Take care cases seedlings will appear in the spring that the plants are as deep or even although I have had them skip a whole slightly deeper in the soil than they year and come up the following year. were before. They can and will adjust I have also sown seed in April, in themselves within reason. I always tread which case, they sometimes germinate my plants in after planting, treating almost immediately, but sometimes they them more like saplings than bulbs. wait. I want to stress the importance As to where to plant them? I can of not becoming over-anxious and pit• only speak for my garden. I have grown ching them out if they don't germinate Nomocharis in two very different gar• quickly; as with all good alpines, wait dens. Though their planting site in both three years. gardens was well drained, in my former For the first year or so after ger• garden it was much damper than in mination, I keep my seedlings in the my present garden. Also, in the former cold frame, which I shade during the garden they were planted on the eastern summer with snow fencing so that side of Pinus strobus, but the trees the pots receive a thin moving shade. were quite small and dense (twelve to I never allow seedlings to flower in eighteen feet); at present m y the seed pots, however. Bearing in mind Nomocharis are growing under a large that they are in smallish pots, I keep Pinus strobus, mostly on the north and a special eye on them during their eastern sides, and on a north slope. second to third spring post-germination. They have a somewhat thinner shade

121 than previously as well as a much drier that I believe that Nomocharis can be situation. I think, therefore, that it is grown, at least in the Northeast, when reasonable to say that Nomocharis pre• given reasonable conditions and that fer some shade in this climate (western they are not as difficult as many would Massachusetts). I give them bone meal suggest. Believe me, they get no better in the fall and I spray them every care than the rest of my plants. As ten to fourteen days during the growing alpine growers, you all know the impor• season to keep them free of aphids. tance of microclimate and finding the I think that hand pollination is re• right place for the plant. So far they quired in order to get seed; without have proved hardy and I have had it the seed-set is not very good and no problems with rodents or slugs. seed seems to be the only reliable way This is how I have grown a few to increase Nomocharis. While mine Nomocharis. I hope that this will en• grow well, I have not noticed any great courage others to try growing them. increase in numbers. This is merely I feel there is nothing more satisfying a general observation, as I do not go than to show your friends a group round counting them. From all that of Nomocharis in flower during June I read, they can continue undisturbed and July. They have a refined ethereal for several years. There appears to be quality about them and they are all no great need to lift and move them true alpines with none known in the every three or four years as I would wild to occur below the 9,000 foot advise with lilies. level. So how about adding a little What does all this mean? Simply, Grace to your Pasture?

SELECTED REFERENCES Coats, Alice M. 1970. The Plant Hunters. McGraw-Hill. Cowan, J. M. (Editor). 1952. George Forrest VMH. Journeys and Plant Introductions. Royal Horticultural Society. Cox, E. M. H. 1945. Plant Hunting in China. Old Bourne: London. Evans, Alfred. 1974. The Peat Garden and Its Plants. Dent. Wilson, E. H. 1925. Lilies of Eastern Asia. Dulau & Co., Ltd. Woodcock and Stearn, 1950. Lilies of the World. Country Life, Ltd. Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. Kew Bulletin, 1950. Royal Horticultural Society. Lily Year Book, 1932, et al.

The Myth of the Lime-Loving Plant I am not going to say that no plant needs lime and will perish on an acid soil; my experience is far too limited for such a sweeping statement. I do say that I would not be deterred from trying any plant I wanted to grow because I read that it must have lime. I am at present growing at least three species which, theoretically, ought not to flourish in a pH 5 soil without benefit of lime, namely, Camptosorus rhizophyllus, Clematis — in variety, and Iris unguicu- laris (seven different cultivars.) "Clematis and lime are forever linked, like salt and pepper," writes grower-member Richard E. Farrell. How do these myths continue to be perpetuated? —Pamela J. Harper, Seaford, Virginia

122 CYCLAMEN IN CONTAINERS

BRIAN HALLIWELL Kew, England

Many cyclamen, including Cyclamen growth commencing at the onset of persicum, described below, require a autumnal rains. Leaves appear first in Mediterranean climate; hot dry sum• October and November with flowers mers; spring and fall rains; and low, appearing in January or February al• but not prolonged freezing temperatures though they can still be seen as late in winter. For this reason many of as April. Insects are responsible for the very choice species will not do pollination and when this has occurred, out-doors in the United States except the flower stems elongate; as the seed perhaps in the Southwest, though some pod swells, the increased weight brings will survive in the Southeast if given it down to ground level. Unlike those good drainage. They can all, however, of the other cyclamen species, the flower be grown in pots as explained in stems of Cyclamen persicum do not this article by Brian Halliwell of the coil into a spring after pollination of Alpine and Herbaceous Department at the bloom. Leaves often die away before the Royal Botanic Garden in Kew, pods are fully ripe. These eventually England. — Ed. split to expose sticky seeds that are attractive to ants, who seem mainly The so-called Persian Cyclamen, C. responsible for distribution. persicum, from which the florist's plant Leaves have serrated edges and are was developed by selection, did not heart-shaped, usually about two inches originate from Persia and, in fact, is across at their broadest and of similar not to be found there. It occurs in length. There is much color variation several countries at the eastern end from plain dark green throughout to of the Mediterranean: Greece, Rhodes, completely silver, but in general there Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. In is a green background on which there these countries it can be found from are bands or zones of silver arranged sea level to a height of about two in attractive patterns. thousand feet, usually in woodland al• The flowers, which are deliciously though it also grows in the open amongst scented, stand well above the leaves shrubs or at the base of rocks. Usually on six to nine inch stems. Petals are it is found growing in alkaline soil about an inch in length, narrow and that is well supplied with leaf-mold. twisted. These are usually held vertically Corms, which can be as large as a as in all typical cyclamen. Most often tea plate, may be over a foot below their color is pale pink but a search the surface where the soil is deep but in any colony will disclose variation can also be just covered where the in shades from white to a fairly deep ground is thin or stony. It is very rose and whilst most have a darker rare to find corms exposed as they eye some are self-colored. Besides varia• often are in cultivation. tion in color, flowers will be found During the hot dry summers of these where petals are held horizontally in• countries, corms are dormant with stead of vertically, and flowers in which

123 there are ten petals instead of five. tainers are best kept out-of-doors and Few sights are more beautiful in ear• plunged to their rims in a frame where ly spring than a pine forest in one they receive some shade. Water of this plant's native countries where whenever required and keep them grow• the forest floor is carpeted with the ing until flowering takes place. Time "Persian Cyclamen". On a warm day of flowering will depend on species, the flower fragrance can be so intense when sown, and the amount of winter that it drowns the scent of the pines. heat available. Rehouse in the fall Unfortunately such a scene is unlikely before frosts arrive. A winter tem• in gardens but an individual plant or perature of 45 to 50° F. is ideal but plants make a delightful addition to as long as the glass house can be kept an alpine house or cool room. frost free the plants will prosper. Apply Cyclamen of all species are raised water carefully whenever needed being from seed, most of their forms coming careful that none fall onto the foliage true to type. Best results are obtained or tubers. Keep the plants in a dry from fresh seed sown as soon as col• airy atmosphere avoiding at all times lected at which time germination is stagnant conditions which encourage most rapid and even; old seed takes disease. longer and germination is erratic. The disease Botrytis is a serious Unless the gardener or his friends have menace, attacking first dead or damag• plants, fresh seed will be unobtainable ed plant material. From here it spreads so before sowing seed should be soaked to immature flower buds and, whilst for twenty-four hours in cold water. there will be no obvious symptoms, A compost for sowing can consist of these fail to develop. Pick over the equal parts of soil, sand, and leaf-mold plants at regular intervals, removing (leaf-mold seems to suit cyclamen better yellowing leaves, faded flowers, or any than peat.) Space out the seed in a damaged material taking care when container or sow individually in small detaching the stems that no ragged pots, insuring that the seed is covered plant remnant remains adhering to the with one-quarter to one-half inch of tuber. Dusting the centers of the plants the compost. with sulphur will give control against When fresh seed is not available, the disease spores and will also act sow in January if sufficient heat is as a deterrent against further infection. available (50 to 60° F.) otherwise When flowering is over gradually delay until temperatures are rising in reduce the amount of water but do April or May. Unless individually sown, not dry off completely. As the danger pot the seedlings singly into small pots of frost passes, transfer out-of-doors when they have developed three leaves. and plunge to the rim in a sunny Seedlings of C. persicum should be pot• part of the garden where the plants ted one to a five-inch pot whereas all will receive such summer rain as falls others can be potted several to a nine- so they do not dry out completely. Sun to twelve-inch pan, insuring that at and/or warmth is required by the all times the tubers are kept well above tubers to insure free flowering in the the soil. Use the same basic ingredients following season. In wet areas protect as already mentioned but add some in a frame to which maximum ventila• lime and a light dressing of balanced tion is allowed at all times. feed. Normal watering for C. purpurascens During the summer months, con• (europeum) will continue throughout

124 the summer; for other species it should container and replace with new. Cycla• resume as flower bud formation is men grow and flower best when they noticed or as new leaves start to are root bound so repanning will only develop. Before rehousing, pick over be necessary when the corms become the plants to remove any debris, scrape so large as to touch each other or the loose soil from the surface of the the sides of the pot.

THE TURFING LILIES

There is considerable confusion be• with light green and cream colored tween the two closely related genera, stripes running the length of the leaves. Liriope and Ophiopogon, the Asiastic Probably the most exotic of the turfing lilies; the only difference ophiopogons, 0. nigrescens, comes from separating them being that the liriopes northwest Nepal. It produces a small have a superior (the perianth attached tuft of glossy, dark green leaves about below the ovary and not to it) rather four to five inches tall and flowers than a half-inferior ovary as in the resembling those of a creamy Lily-of- ophiopogons. Ophiopogon comprises the-Valley. In the best form, known ten or more species that range from as "Black Dragon Beard", the leaves India through China to Japan and are of such a dark green as to be Korea, while Liriope contains fewer almost black. The fruit too, a pea sized species, possibly no more than four, berry, is darker than in most which have a narrower range, being ophiopogons, being a deep navy blue. confined mostly to China and Japan. Not all the plants will come true from Both genera form dense tufts of arch• seed, however; about fifty percent will ing, dark green, narrow straplike have bright green leaves. leaves from three to eighteen inches Except for some of the ophiopogons long or more. They bloom in late sum• from warmer climates, which may need mer and fall in spike-like racemes that some winter protection in more norther• are usually shorter than the leaves and ly gardens, these plants will tolerate vary in color from white to deep purple. almost any reasonable soil or climate. These and the leaves rise from short They will do well in most garden soils, rhizomes, which often produce slender but prefer it rather sandy. Though they stolons. will grow in both sun and shade, they Liriope platyphylla (F.T. Wang and flower best in half shade. Tang) and Liriope spicata (Lour) are Both genera divide easily, are long much the same, though the latter seems lived, and make very attractive addi• to be the one found in most gardens. tions to the rock garden. Planted closely But here again there is much confusion they make an excellent ground cover as the latter plant has been known and most forms will spread slowly but as Ophiopogon spicatus var. communis, steadily to form a dense mat, a pro• Liriope graminifolia, L. spicata var. clivity which gives both Liriope and densi flora and L. muscari. It has Ophiopogon their soubriquet, Lily Turf. flowers of a light purple and there John Osborne is a very attractive variasated form Westport, Conn.

125 A NEW HYBRID SAPONARTA

ZDENEK ZVOLANEK AND JAROSLAV KLIMA Prague, Czechoslovakia Photograph by Jan Hulka, Prague

For a number of years Czech rock on a compact mat. It showed its quality gardeners have been enjoying such sa- at the May, 1978, Show in Prague, ponaria hybrids as S. x olivana with its blooming for three weeks in full sun. large cushions bearing pale rose flowers This hybrid results from the activity

Saponaria pumila x ocymoides rubra compacta of good size and the less frequently of our pen-friend, Fritz Kummert of seen S. x 'Bressingham Hybrid' with Mauerbach, Austria. The cross was its smaller, bright red flowers on tiny made in 1974 and the seed was sown bright green cushions. Now our growers in October of the same year. Only are excited by a new, so far unnamed, two seedlings came up. One proved hybrid originating in Austria from a very similar to Saponaria pumila; cross between Saponaria pumila x S. the second is the new hybrid. ocymoides 'Rubra Compacta.' This According to Mr. Kummert (and in outstanding hybrid has flowers of a our experience, also) it is easy to pro• warm rose up to an inch in diameter pagate cuttings from plants planted out

126 in the garden, but not from potted back following its blooming period. plants. Cuttings should be made of the This excellent hybrid has not been young shoots in early June taken from widely distributed until recently. It has the center of the plant when it starts only one small defect: it is as yet into growth again after trimming it unnamed.

A GOOD TEMPERED SYNTHYRIS

EDITH DUSEK Graham, Washington

The impact of some plants can best was a wisp of roots, four leaves, and be described as love at first sight. two scrawny stems of flowers. A check Others steal slowly into one's awareness, around the garden turned up a likely taking on the comfortable compan- looking home, rich in humus, where ionability of a pair of old shoes. My sunshine and shadow played tag across first sighting of Synthyris reniformis the plant. Once it was tucked in, I on the gravel prairies near Olympia, promptly forgot all about it as showier Washington created almost no impact plants and other garden matters de• at all. Wee scraps tangled in other manded attention. herbage and struggling for the right Early the next spring as I was scoot• to live, they had few leaves and even ing around trying to finish the "fall" fewer flowers. Still, they were the clean up, a bright spot caught my eye. earliest of our native wildflowers. Most There was friend Synthyris blooming of them were of that indeterminate color its heart out. What a difference! The our English friends are wont to call scrawny thing had increased to a hand- mauve with an almost audible sigh of sized clump and was a solid mass of resignation. Unlike S. missurica, whose bloom. To be sure, each flower was flowers climb nimbly up the stem, these a small thing in itself but when it were collected toward the top where socialized with its many fellows, the they did their best to make some sort effect was quite pleasing. Small of showing. checkered gray and white butterflies A bit of searching revealed here and were as enthralled as I. The plant was there a plant with blossoms of a quite so well attended by them that there respectable lavender. More rarely there was standing room only. It is said would be a pure white one whose to be impossible to make a silk purse virginity was set off by glowing pink from a sow's ear but this little plant stamens. "Oh well, might as well try had set out to prove otherwise. Needless one," I thought. Prying the chosen one to say, my indifference to this small away from the stems of the shrub it person began to disappear. had chosen as a provider of shade In succeeding years I have added took a bit of doing. On arriving home, a white flowered plant and a few with disengaging the plant from the grass somewhat larger petals of a more def• in which it was enmeshed was even inite color. Each year the original plant a more delicate operation. The result has tried to outdo its performance of

127 the year before. It would now cover time for blooming and bloom they do a dinner plate with a ruff of purplish for months on end before our natives old leaves on which sits a perfect get into the mood. These plants do nosegay of blossoms. Despite its not flower all at once as ours are floriferous efforts, it has managed to prone to do, rather the blossoming produce only a few offspring. Its con• stalks flower in succession. I have yet duct has been nothing short of impec• to see one of them produce the nosegay cable. It neither asks for coddling nor effect (perhaps in time?) but since does it become overly enthusiastic with the individual flowers are of good size, itself or its kind. Its stature makes they are still quite effective. They quite it a suitable companion for plants of make up in size and rich color what the size of hepatica, bloodroot and they lack in number. cyclamen. As might be expected, in addition Some time later an Oregon pen pal to shades of blue, an occasional pink- informed me that Sythyris reniformis flowered plant may be found. Mine grows down that way too only the has rather small blossoms (for the flowers were blue. Indeed they are, Oregon form) of a very nice pink. though that is rather an understatement. It set a nice crop of open pollinated In contrast to the rather delicate tints seed last year. When they ripened, I of our local plants, those from Oregon tucked them in at "mother's" feet. are a rich full blue, sometimes so much Despite a summer to end all summers so that they become a deep purple. for drought, the seed germinated nicely. Plants generally are larger in all parts Doubtless most or perhaps even all will without losing the charm of their nor• prove to be blue flowered but with thern cousins. In addition to this, and back-crossing something of note may despite being botanically identical, they appear. do not behave in the same manner Garden life seems to agree with the in the garden. Coming as they do from Oregon plants too for they have increas• the south of Oregon, one might logically ed in size and vigor without showing expect them to wait for weather here any signs of wearing out their welcome. to moderate before putting on their act. It is not often that one finds a plant Not so. They think winter is the proper of such intrepid good humor.

• # »

Most dwarf conifers remain constant in character, but occasionally a few branches will revert to type, particularly if the dwarf originated as a bud sport on a normal tree. A pendulous clone may give rise to upright "leaders," or a side or top shoot with the strong, faster growth of its "normal" parent, will suddenly appear on a dwarf tree. Minia• ture ivies will sometimes do the same and shrubs grown for their color variation may produce branches whose leaves are a normal green. Such reversions should be controlled as soon as noticed by cutting out the offending branch; if permitted to grow they will destroy the desired character of the plant.

128 VICTORIA ROCK GARDENS

SYBIL McCULLOCH Victoria, British Columbia Photographs by the author

Victoria, British Columbia! — I of• After World War I, many Victorians ten wish I had been aboard the first were demanding greater variety in their ship to sail into its harbor, it must gardens than the arabis, aubretia, have been lovely in its untouched alyssum and campanulas that made beauty. It still has the setting, hills such a colorful display on the rocks and rocky outcrops, encircled in in spring. The Layritz Nurseries already sparkling blue water and snow-capped were importing the new rhododendron mountains, but gone are the bogs, species and exotic trees and shrubs, streams, and except in isolated areas, but Mr. Farrer's books had whetted the native plants. the appetite of some keen gardeners Even when I was young Erythronium and they formed a group in 1922 to oreganum grew in multitudes on the discuss and grow alpine plants. This rocky slopes and in the woods with group grew into the Vancouver Island Camassia quamash and lichlinii, Rock and Alpine Garden Society. About Dodecatheon pulchellum and hendersonii, this time the first rock and alpine nur• Sisyrinchium douglasii, and Sedum spa- sery was started by an Englishman thulifolium. Cypripedium calceolus named Croft Bennet. He published a grew in the Pemberton Woods and catalog in 1925, which was quite exten• Calypso bulbosa carpeted the forest sive and included alpine plants from floor with mauve and filled the air Europe and Asia, as well as some he with its scent. Chimaphila umbellata had collected on Vancouver Island. and Goodyera menziesii (now oblongi- Other founders of alpine nurseries were folia) were their choice companions. So Hugh Preece and A. Nichols, John Hut- you see the early settlers did not have far chinson and Norman Rant. I am told to go for choice plants for their gardens. that Mr. Preece grew alpine plants to The British Isles were home to many perfection in pans. Mr. and Mrs. Hib- of these early Victorians so that when berson (of Trillium hibbersonii fame) the great plant explorations to Asia grew them in troughs. Mrs. Hibberson took place early in this century, news now grows alpines in the alkaline and of the collections came quite rapidly dry interior of British Columbia at Sa- to Vancouver Island. Indeed, Reginald vona on the way to Kamloops. I remem• Farrer's cousin arrived on the Island ber Mr. Hibberson speaking of Gen- about the time that Mr. Farrer was tiana verna as though she were his in China and Tibet. The Royal Hor• mistress; she grew well for him. ticultural Society used to send some In 1929 a young Victoria couple, of the collected seed to Mrs. R. P. Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Lohbrunner Butchart at Benvenuto, now the world decided to explore the Forbidden famous Butchart Gardens, to give them Plateaux on Vancouver Island with a a chance of survival if they did not friend. Mr. Lohbrunner had been asked do well in the United Kingdom. by Croft Bennet to see if he could

129 find a white form of Penstemon plants. One area over thirty feet in scouleri. When he arrived in the alpine length and about five to six feet wide meadows, the sight of the myriad num• between rocky outcrops lent itself to bers of flowers and their exquisite excavation. This was cleaned out to beauty sealed the fate of Edmund Loh- a depth of six feet in places. The area brunner. He decided to live with them. is on a thirty degree slope and faces This was the beginning of what was west. It has been lined with three inches to become the famous Lohbrunner Nur• of chipped rock for drainage and then sery. filled with a scree mixture of one third The beautiful early gardens of Major loam, one third sand and one third and Mrs. A. Morkill, Mrs. B. Wilson, leaf mold with some peat moss and a Mr. and Mrs. W. Pemberton, and the generous topping of shale or rock Misses Angus have made way for sub- chippings. This scree ends in a moraine,

divisions or apartment buildings, but bog and pond. that of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Edgell The top of the scree is carpeted by is still beautiful and choice as is that Gentiana acaulis and Rhodohypoxis of Mr. and Mrs. Vern Ahiers. Both baurii with Asperula suberosa trying of these gardens have interesting to hide a magnificent plant of Daphne natural rock formations but each has petroea. Kalmiopsis leachiana thrives been developed in a different way. in the shelter of a north-facing rock. Mr. and Mrs. Ahiers used their rock Three Asperulas: nitida, hirta and to provide suitable homes for their ex• lilaciflora grow well with Erodium tensive collection of alpine plants by chrysanthum and Anacyclus depressus. either building up suitable areas or Geum borisii flaunts its orange-scarlet by deepening crevices to provide a cool banners with two of the lovelier helichry- root-run and proper drainage for their sums: HH. frigida and milfordiae. And

130 these are only a very few of the choice soldaneloides, Phlox adsurgens, Gaul- plants that grow so happily in the scree. theria sinensis, Epigaea repens and Mr. Ahiers tells me that during the several cypripedium including an ever many years he has been growing alpines increasing clump of the European C. that he has had at one time or another calceolus. These are just some of the all but two of the plants mentioned treasures to be seen. in Royton Heath's book, Collectors Al• Mrs. Edgell's garden is planned in pines. Quite an achievement. a different way. The rocky outcrop On the north side of the rock outcrop is used as a focal point to bring the can be found in their due seasons eye from the riotous color of rhododen• several cassiopes, including C. merten- dron and azalea borders with their un- siana and C. lycopodioidcs; Arcterica derplantings of native woodland plants nana ramps vigorously along with the and ferns: Clintonia uniflora, Asarum wee trilliums: T. nivale and T. rivale hartwegii and A. caudatum and and the form known as 'Vern Ahiers.' Phegopteris dryopteris. Many varieties Penslemon scouleri, Arenaria halearica of Asiatic primulas grow with Meconop- and Erigeron mucronata frame a ferny sis betonicifolia in drifts among the cave above a pool whose boggy rim shrubs and azaleas lining the grassy shelters Dodecatheon dentalum, Caltha paths that lead up to the rocky area. leptosepala and other bog loving plants. The rock itself slopes down to a pool, Many shrubs and dwarf conifers which provides wet areas for the bog enhance the rocky outcrop which is loving primulas, various caltha, and shaded by our native oak, Quercus gar- Lobelia cardinalis. ryana. Among these grow two con• The rock is flanked by prostrate volvulus: C. cneorum and C. mauri- shrubs, hebes and Clematis alpina, tanica, cistus, many hebes and Nierem- along with Jasminum parkeri, Astilbe hergia rivularis, one of my favorites. chinensis, various dianthus and dwarf The rock and scree have been melded iris. Mat-forming plants grow well in into the lawn very naturally with dwarf the rocky pockets: Gentiana acaulis, rhododendrons and daphnes, including Globularia cordifolia and Dryas oc- the lovely hybrid, D. x 'Leila Haynes.' topetala to name a few. Helchrysum A well grown plant of Corokia coto- miljordiae, flanked by Lewisia howellii neaster is charming in the spring with grow well in a rocky seam. Cytisus its little yellow stars crowning a bed kewensis ramps down from the summit, of Lithospermum oleifolium, whose sil• as does C. demissus and C. procumbens. very blue flowers enhance the yellow Dwarf conifers find nourishment in stars. some of the pockets and a fine specimen One rocky area is set aside for North of Abies koreana looks well to the American plants: various phlox, includ• right of the pool. ing P. diffusa; Eriogonum douglasii, Springtime in the Edgell garden is Penstemon gairdneri, and three of the gay with dwarf narcissus, tulips, aconite loveliest lewisias: LL. tweedyi, rediviva and fritillaria. Anemones carpet many and howellii. In spring visitors can areas: A. nemerosa, A. ranunculoides, admire a very complete collection of and A. blanda, followed by pulsatilla erythronium, trillium and the rare in some lovely colors. Erythroniums Scoliopus hallii. Other woodlanders also thrive in this garden as do various skirting the rocky outcrops are Shortia species of cyclamen: CC. coum, repan- uniflora, Schizocodon (now Shortia) dum, and neapolitanum.

131 Garden of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Edgell

This garden is not nearly so easy that gives it such a pleasing effect. to describe in detail as that of Mr. Ground covers blend in with the shrubs and Mrs. Ahiers. It's the overall effect and the very fine collection of of shrubs and trees planted to blend rhododendrons. color and texture all during the year

Rejuvenating The Garden The Editor of the Alpine Garden Society asked Mr. Hanger, then curator at Wisley, "How often is the rock garden soil rejuvenated or replaced and is complete replanting of a section aimed at from time to time?" The reply (AGS Bulletin, No. 123, p. 66) was that "Each year certain pockets are resoiled, as for Gentiana sino-ornate, etc., and a generous top-dressing of sterilized soil is given annually in autumn, except to the screes. Small sections are resoiled at intervals as necessity arises." As to a large-scale rejuvenation, Wisley's some two acres of rock garden do present a rather extensive job. "During the war (1939- 1945) many perennial weeds became established, and following (1949- 1951) the entire rock garden was overhauled, a piece at a time. Certain stones were reseated where erosion had taken place. All plants except a certain few large shrubs were lifted and almost all soil re• placed. Then it was replanted." It is thus seen that the problems of a large public garden are not too different from those besetting any and all of us and that a regime of maintenance and repair is probably something each must work out for his own situation. —R.D.

132 THE EVOLUTION OF A GARDEN... And Gardener FLORENCE FREE Seattle, Washington "Be it ever so humble —!" What something else had to go. Until finally can give a deeper sense of satisfaction the decisions were not mine, I just than moving into a brand new house, did what the plant dictated. soon to be a home, destined to be And a lot of my most valued plant the one and only home. The early snap• material was either a gift or came shot of our small daughter leaning over to me by chance. For instance, a happy the porch rail viewing a recently chance brought a seedling of Cornus bulldozed lot sprouting a vigorous crop nuttallii to my garden via a bird in of pigweed shows a little brick house the peach tree. In the nick of time sitting high on its concrete foundation I recognized the little stranger for what in a row of equally bare little houses, it was and instead of weeding it out all on fifty foot lots. The high founda• I moved it to a corner of the garden tion makes possible a garage under where it could expand into the tree the house with an excavated driveway it was destined to be. Now it is thirty boring down to it. A dream house, feet high and so dominates that corner no less! of the garden with its shade and roots In the thirty years since that picture that the vegetable garden has had to was taken, not only a garden, but a go- gardener has evolved. Another bird brought me a seedling mahonia which persisted in a clump I made it a point to be home the of blueberries in spite of my best efforts exciting day that the man came to to weed it out. I finally changed my put in the lawn. He brought up a tactics and decided to grow the mahonia question which I had never considered. instead of the blueberries. It is now How wide did I want the shrubbery fifteen feet high, and the blueberry border around the house to be? Intent patch has changed into a woodland on getting the dirt covered up as soon garden. as possible to keep it out of the house, When I speak of "the garden" I I thought two inches would be about am primarily referring to the area in right. It was the first miscalculation. the rear of the house. Although the The lawn has been shrinking ever since, lot is only fifty feet wide, it is one away from the house and the garden hundred sixty-five feet deep so that perimeter. However, I am now curbing there is quite a bit of room back there, that tendency. A small garden, full of one hundred feet or more. This is fur• a wide variety of plant material, needs ther enlarged by a bank running across a generous amount of lawn to bring it, dividing it into two levels. When cohesion and serenity to the scene. I joined the ARGS in 1958, this east- There was never a blueprint for facing grassy slope became the site of this garden. It just happened. It evolv• the Rock Garden. It was spaded up, ed. I fell in love with a plant, I found the turves turned over and buried and a place for it. It outgrew its place, a montane situation simulated by I moved it. It got too big to move, spreading a heavy mulch of crumbled

133 granite over it. We collect this disin• the slugs that love its damp depths. tegrated granite in certain areas in the However, it is a lovely setting for such mountains. It has been spread as a things as ramondas, (grown in chunks mulch each year and has also been of tufa, green with moss), schizocodons, dug in around plants when they are shortias and hepaticas. Soldanellas moved, so that it is now quite deep, bloom well here and s e 1 f - s o w . at least a spade's length deep in most Loiseleuria procumbens, A rcterica places. nana, and the small form of Rhodo• Many plants seem to like the granite. dendron radicans cascade down the Such raoulias as R. australis, glabra, bank. Adiantum pedatum v a r. hookeri, lutescens and subsericea grow aleuticum, Athyrium iseanum "Pictum" happily there. I have also found that and other ferns enhance the picture. the granite makes a fine seed bed, Another bit of adversity which turned and as a consequence there are many into an asset was a low area on the plants of gentians and castillejas. Seed opposite side of the garden. We debated of the castilleja was originally rubbed about how to drain it, but in the end into mats of Raoulia australis, but it I decided to do nothing and have a is now seeding itself into other things bog garden. How glad I am that I such as eriogonum and sedum species, did! A bog garden is a very interesting and Parahebe canescens. In fact, it is and attractive thing to have. Here I seeding into just about anything that can grow Lobelia cardinalis, Epipactis will protect it from my weeding. We gigantea, and Habenaria dilatata. It was especially value the castilleja for its about 1964 that we collected a plant long blooming season. As I write this, of Veratrum calif or nicum, (a job to mid-July, Castilleja miniata and Gen- dig!). It is now a large plant and tiana septemfida are blooming together each spring we enjoy the unfolding and making a brave display. Castilleja of its large pleated leaves, and await levisecta started the blooming in May. with anticipation its tall spire of bloom, Another bonus of the granite is that but so far, in vain. it discourages slugs. They seem to Shrubs in the bog are Betula nana, dislike its gritty, fast-drying surface. Andromeda polifolia alba, Kalmia As a consequence I can grow such slug polifolia microphylla, ledum and favorites as campanulas. chamaedaphne. I have found that the There is another bank along one side foliage of Iris gracilipes and of the garden having a northern ex• Ophiopogon planiscapus nigrescens posure which is deeply shaded by over• have an aesthetic affinity for each other hanging shrubbery. When cultivated, and they both do well on the upper erosion was a problem. When left alone, slopes of the bog. For ground cover, moss was a problem. "Sweet are the Mazus reptans with blue flowers is easy uses of adversity". I decided to leave and pretty, but M. radicans, with white the moss alone and have a moss garden. flowers that slugs love, is much slower But may I say that "left alone" is to increase. not truly descriptive of the way it evolv• Four years ago I discovered the joys ed. It is actually a high-maintenance and benefits of trough gardening. Now garden. It takes constant vigilance to I am able to grow things that were keep undesirable mosses out of it, to impossible before. Campanula piperi is keep bird and squirrel depredations to a prime example. This is its fourth a minimum, and to hunt and destroy year to thrive and bloom in a twenty-

134 two inch by sixteen inch by eight inch squirrels. It is planted in decomposing deep trough. One trough is devoted forest litter with an old drain tile buried to the more interesting succulents such eight inches below to assure quick as Sempervivum ciliosum, Crassula mil- drainage. fordii "Silver Stars" and Orostachys One of the shrubs that I am especially spinosus. Under them I am trying some fond of in the upper garden is Men- of the aestivating little bulbs such as ziesia purpurea, grown from seed Fritillaria pudica and F. recurva, suc• started in 1959. I love the subdued cessfully the first year. Dodecatheon elegance of this Japanese member of clevelandii var. patulum is doing well the Ericaceae family when it is covered and increasing rapidly after three years. in spring with its small campanulate Another trough is devoted to things flowers of bright red tinged with purple. from New Zealand. Raoulia grandiflora, Garden visitors are interested in the Helichrysum milfordiae, and Celmisia labelling system which we have sessiliflora are some of the plants that developed. My husband has made labels I am attempting to grow here. Fuchsia by capping nails with plastic tape on procumbens cascades over the side. I which are punched numerals. Each keep a plastic, hand-made cloche over plant has its numbered nail beside it this trough in winter. In fact, I hope and the number refers to its name to keep cloches over three more troughs on a plant list. This system is only this winter if I can prevail upon my used where leaf raking is not necessary husband to make them. because the nails are so apt to be A Sophora japonica in the "Upper raked out and lost. Aside from that Forty", a mere whip of a thing when they are permanent and ideal. I use I planted it in 1961, is now thirty them for all plants in the troughs, bog, feet high and forty feet wide, and covers scree and moss garden. I have limited the whole upper garden with its their number to eight hundred to keep beautiful, lacey shade patterns. It is down the work of checking them over another case of not being master in once a year and making new plant my own garden. I have had to give lists as some plants fail and others up growing such delights as salpiglosis take their place. and zinnias, but am well compensated by being able to grow some woodland After thirty years of gardening this things like trilliums and erythroniums. little plot, I look around and I am I grow many kinds of them, and my pleased. Also amazed. I didn't do it. favorite erythronium, Erythronium I just played out there a little bit, revolution var. johnsonii, is naturaliz• did the things that obviously had to ing artistically. I have been able to be done, and let the plants dictate the keep Cyprepedium calceolus for eight landscaping. And behold! I have a years, but I have to keep a screen mini-estate. around it to protect it from birds and

135 AWARD WINNERS—1979

Award of Merit Winners

Conference in Seattle and Vancouver. Her sense of commitment has been similarly shown while serving as a na• tional director of the Society when she readily offered sound counsel on mat• ters of concern. As a recognized authority on Cassiope, Sallie grows most of the taxa of the genus. In studying and expanding her wide knowledge of the small Ericaceae, she has developed world-wide relationships that have shared her knowledge and that have led to a generous sharing of her plants as well. This facet of her busy life has enhanced and, to a degree, shaped her role in the international relations of the So• ciety. Sallie Allen's horticultural interests are not confined to rock gardening. In addition to her ericaceous contribu• tions to Pacific Northwest rock gardens, for years she has had an active role in the Northwest Ornamental Hor• ticultural Society, whose bulletin she SALLIE ALLEN currently edits. She is active in the Lake Washington Garden Club. In both these Probably no member of the American she has introduced many to rock garden• Rock Garden Society has done more ing, sharing her knowledge and plants to promote strong international ties generously with the uninitiated in the among rock gardeners than has Sallie best traditions of gardening. Allen of Seattle, Washington as Chair• More recent involvements reflecting man of the International Relations her interest in people as well as in Committee for some fifteen years. Her gardening are her active role in hor• contribution on a personal and ticultural therapy and in organizing and organization level was especially directing horticultural tours. noteworthy in regard to the 1976 In• The American Rock Garden Society terim International Rock Garden Plant is proud to present its Award of Merit

136 to Sallie Allen for distinguished service met one or another need of the Society. to the Society and for outstanding con• Her dedication to the purposes and tributions to the promotion of interna• objectives of the Society could stand tional good will among gardeners. alone, however, on her assumption of the editorship of the Bulletin when most needed. The excellence of the Bulletin LAURA LOUISE FOSTER under her editorship testifies fully to her commitment and competence. Rock gardeners and botantists rejoice The American Rock Garden Society in the delightfully definitive plant por• is proud to present its Award of Merit traits produced by one of our most to Laura Louise Foster for distinguish• talented members, Laura Louise Foster ed service to the Society and for of Falls Village, Connecticut. A vital outstanding accomplishment in the arts part of H. Lincoln Foster's Rock Gar• and in rock gardening. dening, of the Connecticut Plantsman during its brief life, and of the Society's Bulletin, our "Timmy's" drawings de• monstrate well her unique per- ceptiveness, precise craftsmanship, and understanding of the living plants. For Marcel Le Piniec Award those who find special pleasure in the forms of the ferns, there is further cause for appreciation of Timmy's H. LINCOLN FOSTER talent in Cobb's Field Guide to the Gardeners, especially rock gardeners, Ferns where exquisite drawings enhance identify the name Millstream with artis• its usefulness for plant identification. try in growing the distinctive plants While Laura Louise Foster's draw• that embody the creativeness and per- ings have done much to aid us to ceptiveness of an exceptional plantsman, become more knowledgeable plantspeo- H. Lincoln Foster of Falls Village, ple, this has been but a part of her Connecticut. contribution. Those who know the The intellectual discipline, per- meaning of "Millstream" can readily severence, and critical perceptions that compare its luster to that of our finest Lincoln Foster translates ultimately into coin of the Land — the golden "double Millstream are recognized the world eagle". As a coin has two faces, over. "Millstream" identifies an ever "Millstream" has Lincoln and Laura increasing number of fine plants that Louise Foster identified inseparably include such names as Phlox procum- with its rich beauty. Timmy's reputed bens 'Millstream', Buxus 'Millstream disclaimer of being "Just my husband's Green', Pieris floribunda 'Millstream', weeder" serves only to place this Tsuga canadensis 'Millstream No. 1' "weeder" among the best of gardeners. and gives assurance of superior garden Throughout her membership in the quality. To cite these few specifics American Rock Garden Society, an leaves untouched rampant ac• ever-ready willingness to lend a hand complishments among the saxifrages, has marked the strong sense of respon• rhododendrons and other much desired sibility and dedication which is so much groups. Whether a product of discovery, a part of the character of Laura Louise selection of form, or careful breeding, Foster. Time does not permit enumera• each plant that receives the Millstream tion of the many times that she has hallmark attests to Lincoln Foster's

137 Laura Louise and H. Lincoln Foster Martha Porter photo competence as a plantsman. tribution to horticultural knowledge and Lincoln Foster's right to recognition his personal achievement. Not least of as a superior plantsman could rest alone his contributions are his skills as on his creation of Millstream and the designer and constructor of rock gar• fine plants that are identified with his dens, exemplified in Millstream, which years of productive effort there. He bring joy and inspiration to all who has not, however, confined himself to view them. the laboratorial potting bench and its It is most appropriate that in May environs. His sponsoring of North 1979 the American Rock Garden So• American wild flowers for garden use, ciety present to its former President, his extensive writings, including the H. Lincoln Foster, the Marcel Le Piniec classic Rock Gardening, and his ready Award for distinguished plantsmanship participation in discussion — whether and sustained outstanding service to person to person or in symposia — rock gardeners and rock gardening. all add immeasurably to his great con•

138 MANUAL OF ALPINE PLANTS memorate the occasion by a special publication. I am sure he had been by Will Ingwersen V.M.H. 1978, urged more than once to write a book Ingwersen and Dunnsprint, Ltd., East based on his long experience with rock Grinstead, W. Sussex, England, $20.00. garden plants. Available in U.S.A. and Canada from HHH Horticultural, Hightstown, NJ. Periodically, in England as other• where also, there is a demand for an Here is an eccentric and interesting update on all recent introductions into volume about rock garden plants. The the rock garden plant world. Sampson author, Will Ingwersen, has a name Clay in 1954 in The Present Day Rock to conjure with not only in his own Garden updated Farrer's work, cor• English countryside, but here in recting some slips in Farrer and adding America where he has visited and lec• a vast number of items to the catalog tured. His credentials are impeccable. of possible rock garden plants. His Will Ingwersen has spent a rich and work ran to almost seven hundred pages full life associated with Birch Farm of close packed text, a monumental Nursery in West Sussex, England, a work based largely on compilation of nursery of world-renown founded by all the up-to-date botanical literature. his father, Walter, just over fifty years He corrected some Farrer errors and ago. classified and described hundreds of Will's father was a giant in all the plants not mentioned in Farrer. Many early days of alpine gardening in he apparently grew, most he abstracted England. His nursery and its catalogs from literature. It remains a valuable were the source — the well spring. reference work. Of course in the days He was not only a tireless figure in of Clay's book, publishing was a dif• the day to day running of the famed ferent matter from what it is today. nursery, but he was an informed and It is very possible, yet I have no avid explorer for plants. His fascicled way of knowing, that Will Ingwersen supplements to the nursery catalogs, was persuaded by his admirers and genus by genus, and his columns in even by a potential publisher to do the pages of the old Gardener s Chroni• a full scale update of the Farrer-Clay cle were models of scholarship and hor• sequence. Things have been going on ticultural writing. in the way of exploration and introduc• On the 50th Anniversary of the tion since those days. We do need an founding of Birch Farm, his son, Will, update. The information is contained was quite naturally moved to com• in various publications to which most

139 rock gardeners have no access and yet its family designation and a gratuitous we all want to know what is the latest and rarely enlightening derivation of word on primulas, drabas, dionysias, the generic name, most of the informa• et al. A work devoted solely to the tion for which the author ingenuously purpose of bringing into one source admits he shamelessly cribbed. all the latest information on new plants One cannot help but admire the would serve, I think, a real need. devoted efforts of research, and praise What Will Ingwersen has done in the fine presentation in readable type. this manual is a curious mixture of There are, as is inevitable in so crowded the old and the new, the extended and a work, a few questionable pieces of limited, full of first hand and much information and an occasional care• second hand information. It is certainly lessness in editing. not in the scale of Farrer and Clay. Though this work may not be the In fact, in the introduction to the work, first book of reference to which a rock the author makes clear the purpose gardener turns when faced with ques• of the book. tions about a particular plant, it will "It is our intention that the Manual find a place in my library as a source should be used in conjunction with our I'll turn to when presented with a name annual catalogue, which will appear like Gratiola, for instance. — H.L.F. each year in an abbreviated form. All plants described in the Manual, of which we have available stocks to WILDFLOWERS OF THE include in our catalogue, will be listed NORTHEASTERN STATES and priced but not described. In the by Frederick W. Case, Jr. 1978, The New case of such families as Aubrieta, York Botanical Garden; McGraw-Hill Phlox, Helianthemum, etc., of which Book Co., New York, N.Y.; $18.95 there are so many named cultivars and This book, sponsored by the New hybrids, the name of the variety will York Botanical Garden, represents a be followed by a colour description. new dimension in book publishing. It "Many plants which will be in our is, in a sense, a multi-media offering, annual catalogue will not appear in a slide lecture in print, the slides serv• the Manual. For these there will be ing to illustrate the wildflowers discuss• the necessarily brief description which, ed in the text. It serves as an adjunct unfortunately, economy now dictates. to the first volume of the Wild Flowers Bulbs, with certain exceptions, are ex• of the United States, also sponsored cluded from the Manual, as are by the New York Botanical Garden, Heathers and Conifers although some and is, we understand, the first in a which are truly rock garden shrubs series highlighting a selection of the are included, shrubs are also excluded. wildflowers covered in the six volumes In any case I did not wish to become of that monumental work. involved in deciding what was, or was It will be interesting to see how this not, a shrub!" novel approach will be accepted. It has Aside from a single page of "Cultural its limitations: the reader-viewer must Advice" there is little specific infor• either own or borrow a slide viewer mation about growing or propagating or projector so as to enjoy the slides the plants listed. Genera are listed al• and it would be difficult, though not phabetically for easy reference. The impossible, to do so in conjunction name of each genus is followed by with the reading of the text. These

140 carpings out of the way, let us proceed. hints as to how best to grow them This book covers forty plants all to in captivity. Only in a few instances be found, we discover upon reading does Mr. Case suggest that they are the preface, in the State of JNew York. best left where they are found, and The number of plants discussed is as members of the ARGS know, such limited by the number of slides that advice from a grower as skilled as can be stored in the transparent pockets Fred Case should best be heeded. fastened to the inside of the front and The slides, though of necessity all back covers of the book. It must have duplicate reproductions of the originals been extraordinarily difficult for Mr. taken by the author, are of excellent Case to decide which wildflowers to quality and are in themselves almost select out of all the thousands available worth the price of the book. As those in order to fit them into this restricted who have heard and seen Mr. Case's format. As he explains in his preface lectures would guess, they are all the choice was his and he tried to beautifully composed and lighted, giv• strike a balance between the common ing clear detailed images of the flowers, and rare species found in a number in many cases of the foliage, and of differing habitats, choosing, when sometimes of the whole plant as well. possible, those of special interest. Thus In a few instances Mr. Case has concen• the book is divided into three sections: trated on the blossom to the exclusion the Eastern Deciduous Forest; Meadow of most or all of the foliage, which and Streambank Habitats; Northern I personally regret as I do not feel Coniferous Forest and Spruce- such pictures, beautiful as they may be, Tamarack Bog. Within each section and give an adequate portrait of the plant. to some extent throughout the book This is perhaps a minor point for, these plants are presented roughly ac• as Mr. Case points out in his preface, cording to their season of bloom. this book is not intended as an iden• Each section opens with a short tification manual. description of the ecology of the par• Unfortunately the slides, though each ticular habitat under discussion. Light, in perfect focus, are not all in the moisture, temperatures and soils and same focal length so that occasional the effect of these factors on the plants adjustment is needed to get a clear to be found in that habitat are briefly image. Even more annoying, however, described. A list of the plants to be are the thumb marks which, particularly discussed in that particular section, giv• on the vertical shots, in the majority, ing both the common and botanical are frequently misplaced, at lease in names of each, is followed by a series our copy. This means that each slide of essays on these plants. These verbal should be carefully examined and re• portraits, each keyed to the appropriate marked before projection, a chore that slide, are headed by a small black and should not have devolved upon the white reproduction of the slide; the reader. There are also a number of essays themselves are models of the careless typographical errors in the text. genre: concise, informative and delight• Such details, though not in themselves fully expressed. They give a full bo• major, are regrettable in a book that tanical description of each plant along is otherwise so beautifully conceived with information about its growth and executed. habits and requirements, an occasional This book is intended for the unini• bit of folk lore and, in most cases, tiated layperson or for those only ca-

141 sually interested in wildflowers in the of these plants that they did not pre• hope of obtaining converts to the study viously know. of native plants and convincing them The New York Botanical Garden, if of the worth of wildflower conservation. they decide to publish more books in Most, if not all, of the flowers portrayed this series, will be hard pressed to will be familiar to ARGS members. find an author and photographer as However, even they will find much to knowledgeable, skillful and delightfully enjoy both in the text and the slides literate as Fred Case. — L.L.F. and many may learn facts about some

NOTES FROM ALASKA Botanizer's Bonanza at Eagle Summit

HELEN A. WHITE Anchorage, Alaska

On the Steese Highway, out of Fair• Yukon River and is the farthest north banks 108 miles, one can find one one can drive on interconnecting high• of the best botanizing areas in Alaska. ways. It probably is the best except for Attu But, let's get back to botanizing. The Island in the Aleutians, Point Hope feast really begins at Twelvemile Sum• in northwestern Alaska and the Teller mit back at milepost 89.6. From here Road out of Nome. The good thing to Eagle Summit and on the surround• about this place, Eagle Summit, is that ing mountainsides can be found a fab• it is on a main highway and thus ulous array of alpine plants. One is easily reached. If you are traveling could easily spend a week in this in a camper or motorhome, you have general area without seeing all that it made; just come on up and camp is to be seen. Eagle Summit is at an for a few days and look the place elevation of 3,624 feet which probably over and browse around among nature's will not seem like a very high mountain gems. to those of you who dwell in the South Many people camp at Eagle Summit 48. However, when you consider the on the nights of the 20, 21 and 22 latitude as well as the altitude, it is of June so that they can watch and equal to at least 10,000 feet in the photograph the midnight sun. If you Colorado Rockies. Some of the plants are not prepared to camp, drive on here will be familiar to those of you to Circle City (54 miles), Circle Hot who have botanized the Rockies, too. Springs (27 miles) or to Central which As you no doubt know, each degree is only 19 miles from the summit. There of latitude north is the same as 200 are accommodations at these places but feet more elevation. Thus one does not it is best to call ahead from Fairbanks have to be very high above sea level for reservations. Incidentially, Circle to discover alpines found at much City is on the banks of the mighty greater elevations farther south. And

142 what a wealth of plants are everywhere with its oddly shaped leaves is abun• underfoot. Some are bound to be crush• dant. Anemones, AA. richardsonii, ed as we walk along. drummondii, parviflora and narcissi- Eagle Summit is a place of extremes. flora can be noted all around. I have seldom been more uncomfortable Many varieties of minuartia, from the heat than here. On another arenaria, melandrium are also found day I saw it raining harder than I in this area. The strange little blue have ever seen it rain before or since flowers of Corydalis pauciflora are in in Alaska. We could not see at all evidence here and there and we must through the summer downpour and had not overlook Papaver macounii with to stop driving for half an hour until its gay yellow flowers dancing in the the torrent lessened somewhat. Also, mountain breeze. Parrya nudicaulis is I have seen more vicious mosquitoes an attractive plant and there are several per square inch on Eagle Summit than cardamines, including the appealing C. anywhere else, yet it is not always purpurea. We shall also see Sedum "buggy." In fact, most times I have rosea (what Alaskan rock garden is found it pleasantly bug free. One sum• complete without it?) and about a mer we arrived at the Summit to find dozen species of draba. C o r n u s virtually no plants showing. It had been canadensis is manifest, of course, as an exceedingly dry season and every• it is over so much of Alaska. The thing seemed to be dead. However, the legumes are certainly well represented next summer the myriads of plants had in the region. Here are six oxytropis, grown and blossomed as usual. But let Lupinus arcticus, six astragalus and us see what plants are to be found in two hedysarum. this area which includes both Twelve- In peaty pockets or along the few mile Summit and Eagle Summit. streams you may come across Viola The lowly saxifragas are said to be epipsila, and V. biflora can be found our basic rock garden plant. There are on some of the slopes. Several nice nearly twenty saxifraga species in the potentillas make their homes in these neighborhood. This is the first place mountains and some rubus and vacci- I ever saw Rhododendron lapponicum. nium do well in the surrounding area. If it isn't its flowering season you may Dryas octopetala is interspersed with have difficulty finding it, but it is D. integrifolia, and Geum rossii is one there. There are also perhaps ten species of the more winsome plants to be found of that intriguing little shrublet, salix. on the Summit. Alaska's state flower, Even though Silene acaulis is a rather Myosotis alpestris is obviously present. common alpine plant, it is a striking A related plant, Eritrichium aretioides, one, to be sure, and there is plenty is the jewel of the natural flower garden of it here. Its broad bright green on Eagle Summit and a real jewel it cushions with rosy purple flowers are is. Androsace chamaejasme is another seen on all sides. It is too bad that gem and it is here in great abundance. Lloydia serotina is not a more imposing I have heard that both Cypripedium plant because there are many of these guttatum and C. passerinum are in the little lilies. Polygonum bistorta stands area but I have not seen them. Dougla- out with its elegant plumes of pink. sia gormani and arctica are supposed There are a couple of claytonias and to be up here, too, but I have not stellaria, too, in variety. Oxyria digyna seen them either.

143 • • • of Cabbages and Kings • • •

Spring arrived in this cold northwest flat, spring has arrived and the heart corner of Connecticut in a sudden rush swells and the gardener rushes out to of blossoming and green grass in the see what has survived. last week of April. Most things have, but there are al• After a cold, wet, but practically ways some losses to mourn. The wise snowless winter that left the ground gardener waits and watches, however, encased in ice and carried the frost and is cautious with the pruning shears six, even seven feet down to freeze and with-holds the extirpating spade; water pipes and plant roots, March there is frequently life in those came in like a lamb. It continued dessicated twigs and, given a chance, lamblike, or reasonably so, all month new growth may sprout from buried with temperatures wobbling from the root-stocks. fifties (and even the low sixties on But for survival under such adversity several days) to below freezing at night. a plant must have strong healthy roots And it rained and rained and rained. to pump nourishment to the stems and Water poured over the frozen ground buds. Indeed, without properly func• and, unable to penetrate, settled in every tioning roots a plant will suffer dieback hollow. Brooks and rivers became tor• and eventual death no matter how rents, lowlands became lakes, roads favorable the conditions in which it flooded, and the local volunteer fire is growing. And so it is with an department was kept very busy pump• organization such as the ARGS; the ing out cellars that over night became membership of such a society provides cisterns. Then it thawed and froze and the nourishment that keeps it viable. thawed again and the earth turned to To date the Society has flourished the consistency of peanut butter. It was, mightily. Its chapters are burgeoning. what in New England is called, "The In less than fifteen years the mem• Mud Season." bership has grown from under 1,000 to Then came April and the temperature nearly 3,000. Yet perhaps it has grown dropped into the twenties and the 'teens too lushly for there are signs that all again and the wind blew cold and dry is not well. or cold and sleety. Winter was back This past year the Seed Exchange with a vengeance and buds that had nearly collapsed. Again and again our tentatively begun to swell were pinched president, Jim Minogue, reminded the and broad-leaved evergreens turned sere membership that the term of the Seed and brown. It was typical New England Director would expire in the spring weather. of 1979 and that a new director was But spring came at last with the needed. In the pages of the Bulletin first warm rain and though we shall Board and through the chapter chair• have occasional light frosts and snow men at local meetings, he asked for may fall (even in May up here), it volunteers for the job to step forward. will be a warm snow: "Poor man's The response was discouragingly small. fertilizer", we call it, and though bran• A few, but only a very few, individuals ches, heavy with buds and even young did, indeed, volunteer, but upon leaves, may be broken by its weight, discovering the amount of time, space and soft green sprouts may be pressed and assistance needed to fulfill the job,

144 decided they would be unable to follow from 503 donors and sent out 24,881 through. A few others sent in the names packets to fill 882 requests. of possible nominees. These, too, were The job of the Seed Exchange Direc• followed up by Mr. Minogue and the tor, along with those of all the others members of the Administrative Commit• who serve the Society in various capaci• tee, but came to nothing. In the Spring ties, has indeed, grown to tremendous Issue of the Bulletin Board, our presi• proportions as the Society has grown. dent regretfully announced the possible In its first years the Seed Exchange demise of the Seed Exchange for lack was handled by one person, sometimes of a director. with the assistance of one or two Only at the last moment was a others; Mrs. Robinson had the assist• reprieve granted; Kathy Freeland of ance of sixty members of the North• Holliston, Mass. reconsidered her for• western Chapter. mer doubts and agreed to try the job Perhaps this number of assistants in of Seed Exchange Director for a year. situ is not essential. A dedicated group Kathy deserves the whole-hearted thanks of four to six people could probably of us all. handle the job if most of the seed But make no mistake. We must not was sent for packaging to groups within now heave a sigh of relief and relax. the chapters across the country. This This is only a remission in a disease has been done by past directors and to which too many volunteer organiza• is, I believe, the method used by the tions are only too prone. Though it Director of the Seed Exchange of the has no name that I know of, its first Alpine Garden Society in England. Af• symptoms are always the same. As the ter a botanist or other person familiar organization grows larger, the mem• with plant names has, with the help bership forgets its vital function. It of reference books, verified the names no longer works to keep the society and their spelling and proof-read the viable, but becomes accustomed to let• file cards, these could be farmed out ting "George do it," forgetting that to an expert professional typist for pre• they are "George." paration of the list for the printer. True, the work of any organization Perhaps a judicious pruning of the becomes more arduous as it grows. seed list would ease the burden on In the May-June Issue of the 1944 the Exchange without diminishing its Bulletin, Mrs. Hildegard Schneider of quality. Donors could help by being Bronx, N.Y. wrote the first report of truly selective in their offerings: seed the newly reorganized Seed Exchange readily available elsewhere, such as that of which she was chairman: "Soon of border perennials, should not clutter after the seed lists were sent out to up the Seed List of the ARGS. It only the members, requests for seed came adds to the Director's problems to be pouring in and to date 536 packages placed in the position of having to of seed have been sent to 49 different choose which seeds should be culled persons; this seems a pretty good from the list as inappropriate. Needless response to a venture which formerly to say, seeds should be sent in properly had not been successful." Compare cleaned and packaged and clearly la• these figures to those reported by the beled with the correct name properly Seed Exchange Director, Mrs. Frances spelled. Roberson, in 1979: Her committee But despite the number of helping catalogued 4267 different kinds of seed hands and carefully selected, clean

145 donations of seed, the job is still an two served for only one year. enormous one. A love of rock garden It has also been suggested more than plants and an enthusiasm for growing once that a stipend attached to the them from seed is not enough. Though job of Seed Exchange Director would the work entailed in the Seed Exchange make it easier to fill. Perhaps so, but is in many ways stimulating and the Exchange itself, which has tradi• fascinating, much of it is donkey-work. tionally been self-supporting, could not And it is the Director who bears the support a large additional expense, burden and responsibility of managing though certainly the price of the seed the complicated process of receiving, packets could be higher, which would collating, cataloguing, listing, sorting, help defray such a cost. Some societies packaging and sending out the seed. charge from fifty cents to a dollar-fifty It is, however, a job for which many for a packet of seed and though some of our members are surely qualified. members might consider this exorbi• It requires a fairly systematic person tant it would be better than having with some knowledge of plants, a no Seed Exchange at all. However, even willingness to attend to detail, and a with this additional revenue neither the true dedication to the Society. A certain Seed Exchange nor the general budget amount of executive ability does also of the Society could pay more than help. a token honorarium such as is presently It has been suggested that it would paid to the Secretary and the Editor be better to have a more or less per• of the Bulletin. The job of Seed Ex• manent Seed Exchange Director, as change Director would still be, as is in the past, rather than continuing the true of all the jobs that make the present system of shifting the burden Society function, a volunteer job. every two years to a new director and Without willing volunteers the So• a new group of people. Both systems ciety would soon cease to exist. The have been tried and both have their best way to keep the ARGS and all advantages and disadvantages. Obvious• its services viable is, indeed, to have ly the running of the Seed Exchange "George" do it, remembering always is easier for a person who has managed that you are George. it for a number of years and knows the ropes than it is for a neophyte. A Fresh Approach However, it is a burdensome job and Henry Fuller of Easton, Connecticut, for this reason a long-term Seed Ex• sends in this note on Jeffersonia dubia: change Director is hard to recruit and keep. To date, fairly frequent changes This spring I observed in my garden of directorship have not proven a detri• something I had never seen before. It ment. In the past thirty-six years only was as surprising as water running one person, Bernard Harkness, has down hill, but I had never thought served as Director for more than three of it until I saw it, and the principle years. Mr. Harkness served two terms could be used to make something very of six years each with three years off beautiful which I have never seen and in between. Mrs. Schneider, the first never read about. Director, Mrs. L. D. Granger, Dr. A. In the past I have planted Jeffersonia R. Kruckeberg and Lawrence Crocker dubia in woodland locations, shady and served for three years each. Five direc• fairly level; and always many seedlings tors served for two years apiece, and germinated quite close to each mother

146 plant, where the seed fell, and where vey of Kitchener, Ontario reported to there was little room for growth. But me that C. texensis is a favorite of some time ago, because Selma wanted hers. She received her orgininal plant to see it from her window, I hesitantly nearly twenty years ago and after it moved a large Jeffersonia plant to a had bloomed collected the seeds and rocky gravelly slope, open to the sky planted them in late October directly and sunny, but not fiercely so and into the cold frame in good friable not all day long. Dwarf rhododendrons garden loam. Fifteen seedlings appeared grow nearby. The Jeffersonia liked it, the next May and these she potted bloomed beautifully, throve. up, overwintering them in the frame This spring I saw it, the horde of before planting them out the next spring little Jeffersonias growing happily in against a trellis about a foot from a the gravel down the slope from the west-facing wall. They commenced mother plant. Could water running flowering in May and have continued down hill carry little seeds? The little to flower annually until the end of plants are too thick, but after thinning November when hard frost kills them out they should grow happily where to the ground. They are, however, root- they are, and the excess planted else• hardy. where. In the sun, the little plants Mrs. Harvey reported that she never seem to be growing faster than their again lacked C. texensis as she can cousins in the shade. always find seedlings near the foot of I planted my Jeffersonia near the her mother plants though she finds them bottom of the slope. But suppose some difficult to germinate in containers. She more resourceful and imaginative gar• achieves her best results by scratching dener should plant a few Jeffersonias in some seed late in the fall near the near the top of an appropriate slope. mother plants though she has a friend In a few years what a beautiful sight who successfully germinated fresh C. he might create! I wish someone, texensis seed on the kitchen window somewhere, would do this, and let me sill without bothering to freeze it first. know. I would not have to see it to Pam grows hers at the foot of that take great pleasure in thinking of it lovely dwarf hybrid cherry, 'Hally every spring and throughout the year. Jolivette' so that the clematis can scram• If he needs little plants I have them ble through its branches and hang its in abundance and would gladly send. fleshy, urnshaped flowers in the shrub• by tree after the pale pink, double cherry blossoms are gone. It must be Clematis Texensis a pretty sight. C. texensis is usually Pam Harper of Robanna Shores, fiery red on the outside and the six Seaford, Virginia sends in the following pointed sepals curl back to display the note on propagating Clematis texensis: buffy-pink interior though some forms are a good deep pink on the outer Clematis texensis can't normally be surface. propagated by cuttings because it is Pam offers to send off a few seeds not self-branching and makes no growth (so long as the crop lasts) as soon buds in the axils (maybe a tip cut• as they are ripe to any member who ting?) It also seems to me that cares to send her a stamped self- freshness of seed must be of con• addressed envelope. Her address is in siderable importance. Mrs. C. W. Har• the Membership List.

147 Cutting Dates made at later intervals had struck roots.

The following note on some cuttings Poison Ivy Cure and when to take them was received from Dorothea De Vault of Easton, The leaves, stems and roots of Sweet Connecticut: Fern, Comptonia peregrina, described on page 43 of the Winter issue, pulled bodily from the sandy soil in which I enjoy making cuttings, sometimes the plants prefer to grow, will cure by guess and by golly but of recent a case of poison ivy within a few years I have been more careful to keep days reports one of our correspondents, records. Timing is often critical so whose family has used this remedy suc• perhaps this account of recent successes cessfully for several generations. Cut may be helpful. the plants: stems, leaves, roots and all, On July 3, for the first time, I at• into sections small enough to pack into tempted cuttings from an especially fine a large pot; cover with water and stew plant of Gentiana scabra. On July 16 gently for two to three hours; cool cuttings were taken from a favorite and strain to remove the cooked vegeta• evergreen azalea, unfortunately not tion before using. The resulting named as no one so far can seem brownish green broth may be slopped to aid with identification. On July 18 on the affected area fresh or bottled I took stock from Pieris pygmaea, a and kept in the refrigerator for use delightful, delicate dwarf in our rock throughout the summer. garden, which I seldom see in other gardens. July 25, rather as an after thought, for I seldom make deciduous Cyclamen Society cuttings so late in the summer, I tried A new plant society, The Cyclamen Baby's Breath, Gypsophila paniculata. Society, replete with semi-annual jour• Here I think the lateness was a plus nal edited by Col. James A. Mars, for the stems were sturdy. Other years famed for his outstanding bulb nursery, G. paniculata, with thinner stems, has has recently been formed. ARGS mem• been difficult for me to root. bers interested in joining should write Results: On August 4 the gentians Col. James A. Mars, Foxbreak, Courts- were husky, well-rooted plants and put mount Rd., Haslemere, Surrey, GU27 in individual pots. They were planted 2PP, England. The membership subscrip• in their permanent homes on August tion is two pounds a year (about five 26. On August 25 all the other cuttings dollars) to cover overseas postage. In Praise of Rock Gardening And this our life exempt from But let it go. Shakespeare will not suffer public haunt, vexation of spirit. Finds tongues in trees, books in That I hit upon rock gardening in running brooks, my seventies was due to two friends: Sermons in rock gardens . . . Elisabeth Shelden of Lansing, New York, and Virginia Briggs of Ithaca. Reader, forgive me. The banished They are responsible for introducing Duke Senior said nothing of the sort. me to this gentle, energy-consuming and He said 'stones' not 'rock gardens'. spiritually elevating pursuit. Mrs. Shel-

148 den gave me three plants, among them illustrated by Laura Louise Foster. I a Geranium sanguineum lancastriense joined the American Rock Garden So• or true geranium and I was caught. ciety which can boast a membership It came as a shock to me that the more exclusive than either the Quakers geranium of my childhood, the flower or the Mafia, and receive the helpful that was sold by all florists and which ARGS Bulletin four times a year. I adorned the window-sills of many a bought seeds from the ARGS Seed Ex• schoolroom, was not a geranium at change; and I began to meet all. Then Mrs. Briggs, a rock garden knowledgeable and dedicated rock gar• expert, gave me about thirty alpine deners. and saxatile plants and I was bound Well, here are no gorgeous, so• hand and foot, imprisoned, corralled, phisticated displays; there are no encysted, incased. dahlias, no fireballs, no peonies got It so happens that at one side of up like over-dressed and bejewelled our lawn there is a slight slope. This dowagers; no super-giant parrot tulips, I have converted into what is called no giant hyacinths, in fact, no giant a scree, that is, "a mass of detritus, anything. Everything is on a small forming a precipitous, stony slope upon scale. To see some of the flowers I a mountain-side". There is no have to get down on my hands and mountain-side, and there is nothing pre• knees but it is worth the effort. cipitous about it; but I did turn the Simplicity and delicacy — these are soil, added well-rotted compost, broken the dominant qualities one finds in a stones and chicken grit and introduced rock garden. There is nothing gross larger rocks, buried, like icebergs, eight- about any alpine or saxatile plant. nineths below the surface. At the same Every day in spring, summer and time I tried to give the garden a natural fall I attend the garden. There is water• look. A local farmer permitted me to ing to be done, weeds to be pulled, raid his stone pile which I did fre• the more aggressive species to be quently, accompanied by groans from restrained, the more fragile to be pro• the car; the smaller stones I gathered tected. Often I just stand and admire at the lake shore and these were used and note developments. On dour winter primarily as mulch. To provide better evenings I plan ahead. This coming drainage (the sine qua non of rock year I hope to begin growing from gardening) I built two short dry walls seed since, as Foster says, "plants of in the interstices of which I planted the rarer alpines are almost impossible several varieties of campanula. to obtain from nurseries". And this At first, the garden measured four neophyte likes to experiment. by fifteen feet; as plants were given me Sermons in rock gardens? Of (rock gardeners are indeed generous) the course, there are sermons in rock gar• garden was extended fifteen feet; after dens, sermons that one hears from all two years, the garden now measures four nature, from the mountains, the fields, by forty-five feet, a modest garden to be the oceans and the streams, from the sure, but a rock garden and not a garden smallest of animals and the most in• of rocks. There are about sixty different significant of flowers, and all based plants. upon the same text: ignore nature at Of course, I couldn't do without your peril. guides, the most useful being H. Lincoln I like, however, to think that my Foster's Rock Gardening, charmingly plants have a special message. They

149 say to me, Yes, we are simple, we across, the Asarum europeum or wild are unpretentious, but we do manifest ginger. a quiet beauty. Look at our colors: Somehow, by some peculiar opera• the lovely yellows of the Primula tion of the mind, I associate these plants polyanthus or the Lysimachia japonica; and their earthly home with dignity, the rich blues of the Omphalodes verna; integrity and decency. "In Nature's in• the white of the Oenothera speciosa; finite book of secrecy/A little I can the pink of the geranium. Look, too, read", declared the soothsayer in An• at our foliage: the grace of the tony and Cleopatra. Though I have Athyrium goeringianum or Japanese not the percipience of the soothsayer, Painted Fern, the charm of the heart- when I turn from my garden to other shaped leaves of the Tiarella Cordifolia pursuits, I turn refreshed, and with (Foamflower), the soft, silky touch of more hope and equanimity contemplate Artemesia schmidtiana nana (worm• my small world. wood), or the frank, shining leaves Strange, what age does to one. of the most modest plant I ever came Charles Gordon Post, Aurora, N.Y.

PACIFIC HORTICULTURE a magazine about plants and Gardens of the West Illustrated Color Quarterly Annually.- $6 U.S., $7 Foreign Write to P.O. Box 22609, San Francisco, CA 94122

FALL AND WINTER HOLIDAYS 1979 with Fairways & Swinford

OUR FALL PROGRAMME highlights a special tour to the Cape Province of South Africa with Michael Upward, Secretary of the Alpine Garden Society. Dates are from 15 September to 6 October and the price from London back to London is estimated at about £860 (to be confirmed). The itinerary includes eight days in Cape Town with daily visits to places of horticultural interest, followed by a leisurely tour by special coach, taking in Citrusdal, Swellendam, Worcester and Hermanus with visits to Flower Shows and private gardens where possible.

LATER HOLIDAYS include two treks (at £785 and £729 respectively) into the Himalayas: Western Sikkim under Kanchenjunga from 12 October to 2 November with Oleg Polunin, and the Annapurna Base Camp from 27 October to 16 No• vember with Theresa Atkins. Centres in Europe and the Middle East include a superb tour of Eastern Turkey; the Sierra de Cazorla (famous for its birds and wild life); and a journey through Jordan and Syria visiting Petra, Palmyra and many desert sites and Crusader Castles.

Full particulars of these and many other holidays in 1979 and 1980 from the organisers: FAIRWAYS & SWINFORD (TRAVEL) LIMITED 37 Abbey Road, London NW8 OBY (Tel. 01 624 9352)

150 PLANTS FOR THE CONNOISSEUR DWARF CONIFERS—for troughs and rock garden that will not outgrow their site in a short time. JAPANESE MAPLES—only the finest are grown. Dwarf in growth—exquisite foliage. The above for mailorder or pickup. CATALOGUE 5GV The following for pickup only. ROCK PLANTS—ALPINE HOUSE PLANTS—DWARF RHODODENDRON Many rarities in quantities too small to list are available to those willing to visit the nursery and extensive rock gardens. By appointment only on Tuesdays—Saturdays and Sundays, call 516-MA 3-7810 after 8:00 PM. JOEL W. SPINGARN 1535 FOREST AVE. BALDWIN, N.Y. 11510

STONECROP NURSERIES Cold Spring, NY 10516 (Just off Rte. 301—between Rte. 9 & Taconic)

Offering a wide selection of Alpine plants and wildflowers for the Rock Garden and Alpine House; Trough Gardens; Unusual Perennials and Dwarf Shrubs. Cash and Carry—No Catalogue By Appointment only—914-265-2000 Display Gardens and Alpine House Frank Cabot—Prop. (914-265-3533) Sara Faust—Mgr. (914-223-3419)

Grower of AMERICAN PRIMROSE SOCIETY ROCK PLANTS, HERBS offers PERENNIALS Quarterly publications beautifully illustrated, ANNUALS an international Seed Exchange of approx• Large Selection imately 100 different Primulas and a culture chart to assist in the growing of species No Catalog Primulas. All Plants for Sale at Nursery Only U.S.A. $7.00 per year SAMUEL F. BRIDGE, JR. G. K. Fenderson, Treasurer 437 North Street South Acworth Greenwich, Conn. 06830 New Hampshire 03607

CJREER QARDENS

Specializing in — the rare and unique Rhododendrons, Dwarf Conifers, Japanese Maples, Lewisia, companion plants.

Color catalog hailed as being a worthy addition to your gardening library — $1.00. We ship

Dept. R, 1280 Good pasture Is. Rd. Eugene, OR 97401 (503) 686-8266

151 WE SURE DO HAVE... Hortus III, Hillier, Bacon, Leach, Rehder, Hartmann & Kester, Jaynes, Wyman, Hoshizaki, Harrison, Bloom, Pirone, Westcott, Symonds, Dirr, and of course, the Klaber VIOLETS

with literally hundreds of other New Books.

If you'd like to receive our Catalog Lists and our mailings for a year, send us $1.00. (We'll include a Dollar-Off coupon!)

If you missed us at the Meeting, don't worry... we ship!

HHH HORTICULTURAL 68 Brooktree Rd. Hightstown, NJ. 08520

Order Now! Rock Plants, Alpines, Dwarf Conifers, WILL INGWEIRSEN'S MANUAL of ALPINE PLANTS Dwarf Shrubs etc. Many Rare Over 450 pages distilled from the "Get Acquainted Special" experience of one of the world's great growers. 6 Hardy Sedums Labeled $3.50 Postpaid $22. plus .75$: shipping Exclusive Distributor's: Descriptive Rock Plant Catalog 50i HHH Horticultural RAKESTRAW'S PERENNIAL GARDENS 68 Brooktree Rd. Hightstown, NJ. 08520 3094 S. Term St., Burton, Michigan 48529

THE CUMMINS GARDEN DWARF RHODODENDRONS YES, We Ship! DECIDUOUS AZALEAS Custom Propagating DWARF EVERGREENS Catalog 502 COMPANION PLANTS (Refundable With Order) Phone (201) 536-2591 22 Robertsville Road Marlboro, NJ 07746

152 SCARCE and INTERESTING BOOKS . . . on gardening, botany, natural history, birds, etc. bought and sold. Secondhand reference works, color plate and rare anti• quarian. Send $1.00 for catalog, sent air mail. Want lists wel• comed. Books quoted without obligation.

BOOKS BOUGHT.. . Please send details of any books you wish to sell. Good quality collections/libraries espe• cially wanted.

Peter Kennedy 702a, Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, England Telephone: Bournemouth 301461

Hardy Named SEMPERVIVUMS SEDUMS JOVIBARBA & ROSULARIA Red, Pink, Purple, Blue & Gold oAts New American Hybrids—Imports from Europe NURSERIES Wholesale and Retail OAKHILL GARDENS I960 Cherry Knoll Road Specialists in Dallas, Oregon 97338 (Same location—new address) Phone 503-623-4612 before 9:00 AM or Azaleas, after 5:00 PM Visitors Welcome — Picnic Area — Garden Rhododendrons, Clubs welcome (please by appointment) SORRY, WE NO LONGER SHIP Dwarf Evergreens Helen E. & Slim Payne and Rock Plants PLANT JEWELS OF THE HIGH COUNTRY For sale at nursery only. Sempervivums and Sedums Catalog 50* by Helen E. Payne 1159 Bronson Road 111 Full Color Photographs Autographed Copies $8.50 Postpaid Fairfield, Conn. 06430 THE AMERICAN BEAUTIFUL—COLORFUL PENSTEMON SOCIETY SEMPERVIVUM Cordially invites you to join its growing list (Hen and Chicks) of enthusiastic members. If you are interested in Penstemons, you Hardy Semps are great decor for between will be interested in the activities of the rock edgings, borders, containers society. Send 50c (coin or stamps) for Write to the Secretary, descriptive listing Orville AA. Steward COLVm GARDE MS P.O. Box 450, Briarcliffe Manor R.R. n, Box 272 New York 10501 7^_^__^^ Nashville, Ind. 47448 for Particulars

MINIATURE BULBS We have an extensive collection of MINIATURE and SPECIES BULBS and HARDY CYCLAMEN from many countries. It includes OLD FASHIONED WILD DAFFODILS, a unique collection of SPECIES and HYBRID SNOWDROPS, CYPRIPEDIUMS, PLEIONES, EUROPEAN and other GROUND ORCHIDS. Many are UNCOMMON and RARE — COLLECTORS ITEMS We offer speedy deliveries by air freight and U.P.S. Our catalog, over 40 pages of fascinating reading, is available from BLACK and THOMPSON, 124 N. 181 ST., SEATTLE, WA 98133 Price 50c including postage J. A. MARS of HASLEMERE, Haslemere, Surrey, GU27 2PP, England

ORCHID GARDENS ALPENFLORA GARDENS Over 150 Native Plants, Ferns, Club-mosses 1798540th Ave., Surrey, B.C. Shrubs, Ground Covers, offered in our Canada V3S 4N8 Copyrighted Wildflower Culture Catalog. New list in 78; many new & rare plants, colorful primroses, many dwarf & species Send 50g for your copy irises, alpines, floriferous rockery plants, All plants carefully dug and expertly choice perennials, ornamental grafted trees, packed to arrive in top condition evergreens, rhododendrons, ground covers, miniature roses. Mr. and Mrs. Clair Phillips 6700 Splithand Road Buy Canadian, U.S. $ at premium! Quality plants in 4" pots; Grand Rapids, Minnesota 55744 quantity discounts Sorry we cannot accept foreign orders Open weekends & holidays only

50 cents brings our catalog which offers an unrivaled selection of the world's most unusual and desirable alpine, native and rock garden plants. SISKIY0U RARE PLANT NURSERY (now under new ownership)

Working under the supervision of L. P. Crocker and B. C. Kline we intend to maintain the same high quality and individual care that goes into each order. With new larger facilities we hope to increase production to meet the growing demand for these rare plants. Sorry we cannot accept Canadian or Foreign orders J. Cobb Colley Baldassare Mineo 2825 Cummings Road, Medford, Oregon 97501

154 THE ROCK GARDEN PUSKAS WILDFLOWER NURSERY Maine Hardy Plants Native plants—Perennials

Choice Cuitivars — Uncommon Species Wildflowers from all over the world Grown and Mailed in Peat-lite Groundcovers New Varieties Annually Alpines—Ferns—Herbs Seedlings from Several Exchanges Rare bulbs and other European Sources Many Ericas and Callunas Kent Hollow Rd. Mail Order Catalog 40* RR #1, Box KH-37A Kent, Conn. 06757 LITCHFIELD, MAINE 04350 Phone (203) 927-3680

UNUSUAL SEED Over a thousand different species, Dwarf Evergreens many collected in the wild. Holly * PLUS • Unusual Trees and Shrubs BARNHAVEN PRIMROSES Seed & Transplants Send 52# Stamps 1979 Catalog 750 will offer many for lots of interesting information new kinds from both North and South of the Equator. DILATUSH NURSERY FAR NORTH GARDENS 780 Route 130 15621AR Auburndale Robbinsville, NJ. 08691 Livonia, Ml 48154

WATNONG NURSERY "PLANTS FOR DRY SUNNY AREAS The place to find some AND THOSE SHADY CORNERS" Groundcovers, Alpines, Wildflowers "HARD TO FIND" PLANTS and Gaylussacia brachycera Succulents in variety Dwarf Conifers, LeiophyHum, dwarf & low Catalog — 50c growing Rhododendrons, R. yakusianum & several of its hybrids WOODLAND ROCKERY By Appointment, at the Nursery Only 6210 Klam Road Otter Lake, Michigan 48464 Hazel and Don Smith Sorry, we cannot accept Foreign orders. 201 — 539-0312 Morris Plains, New Jersey 07950

RARE PLANTS and NATURE'S GARDEN SHRUBS Dwarf slow growing conifers that NURSERY stay dwarf and other shrubs all Species Primulas — Gentiana suitable for Bonsai culture. Alpine Show Auriculas Large collection of Alpines as well Ramondas — Lewisias as unusual plants are listed. Sedums and Sempervivums Please send $1.00 for catalog. ALPENGLOW GARDENS New Plant List — 50£ 13328 King George Highway Route 1, Box 488 Surrey, B.C. V3T 2T6, Canada Beaverton, OR 97005

155 THE ALPINE GARDEN SOCIETY Membership of the Alpine Garden Society puts the American alpine gardener in close touch with those throughout the world who share his interest in one of the most absorbing branches of horticulture. The Quarterly Bulletin of the A.G.S. is respected internationally as one of the most informative publications of its kind. It will bring into your home a distillation of the experience and ideas of some of the finest gardeners, plant explorers and horticultural thinkers of our time. Among the many other benefits of the Society, its uniquely comprehensive seed list alone is worth more than the modest subscription of $10.00 for Overseas Mem• bers. Apply to:— The Secretary, The Alpine Garden Society- Lye End Link, St. John's, Woking, Surrey, England

THE SCOTTISH ROCK GARDEN CLUB

Offers you . .. its twice yearly Journal, well illustrated and containing au• thoritative articles on all aspects of rock gardening, rock ~T£\ plants, and their world wide haunts. excellent annual scheme for the distribution of rare *• ^. unusual seed, amongst its international members.

for £2.50 per year ($5.00) R. H. D. Orr, C.A. 70 High Street, Haddington East Lothian, Scotland will be glad to send particulars.

THE ALPINE GARDEN SOCIETY'S PUBLICATIONS,

WRITTEN BY ACKNOWLEDGED EXPERTS IN THEIR OWN SUBJECTS, OFFER OUTSTANDING VALUE

THE GENUS LEWISIA By R. C. Elliott The only monograph on this fascinating American genus $3.50

SAXIFRAGES By Winton Harding A guide which should be read by every rock gardener $3.00

ALPINES IN SINKS AND TROUGHS By Joe Elliott A most useful guide by one of our best known nurserymen $2.00

THE GENUS CYCLAMEN By D. E. Saunders The most up to date book on this wonderful genus $2.00

ASIATIC PRIMULAS By Roy Green $7.00 DAPHNE By Chris Brickell and Brian Mathew $7.00

ANDROSACES By George Smith and Duncan Lowe $7.00

(All prices postpaid)

AGS Publications are available ONLY from: D. K. HASELGROVE, Distribution Manager, 278/280 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London E17 9PL, England

156 DIRECTORATE AMERICAN ROCK GARDEN SOCIETY President Emeritus HAROLD EPSTEIN, 5 Forest Court, Larchmont, New York President JAMES A. MINOGUE, Rt. 1, Box 126A, Bentonville, Va. 22610 Vice-President ROBERT L. MEANS, 410 Andover St., Georgetown, Mass. 01833 Secretary DONALD M. PEACH, BOX 183, Hales Corners, Wise. 53130 Treasurer FRANCIS H. CABOT, Cold Spring, N.Y. 10516 Directors Terra Expires 1980 Norman C. Deno Mrs. Louis (Molly) Grothaus Ms. Deon R. Prell Term Expires 1981 Elizabeth Corning Kovalchik Charlotte Ray Term Expires 1982 Pamela J. Harper T. Paul Maslin Quentin C. Schlieder, Jr. Director of Seed Exchange Director of Slide Collection Kathy Freeland Quentin C. Schlieder 541 Norfolk, Holliston, Mass. 01746 Box 1295-R, Morristown, N.J. 07960 ARGS-PHS Library Service Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Library 325 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19106

CHAPTER CHAIRMEN Northwestern SHARON SUTTON, 8235 NE 119th St., Kirkland, Wash. 98033 Western WILLIAM S. FOLK MAN, 2640 San Benito Drive, Walnut Creek, CA 94598 Midwestern AILEEN MCWILLIAM (Acting Chm.), 711 Magnolia St., Mena, Ark. 71953 Allegheny DR. RORERT MCDERMOTT, 1507 Mifflin Rd., Pittsburgh, PA 15207 Potomac Valley DR. JOHN WURDACK, 4400 Samar St., Beltsville, Md. 20705 Delaware Valley ALAN P. SLACK, 908 Twyckenham Rd., Media, PA 19063 New England EDWIN F. STEFFEK, Cedar Hill Rd., Dover, Mass. 02030 Great Lakes HARRY W. BUTLER, Rte. #1, 2521 Penewit Rd., Spring Valley, OH 45370 Wisconsin-Illinois VAUGHN AIELLO, 2322 North Wayne. Chicago, IL 60614 Columbia-Willamette KENNETH J. LOVE, 3335 N.W. Luray Terrace, Portland, Ore. 97210 Connecticut RICHARD W. REDFIELD, RFD #1, Hampton, CT 06247 Long Island JOHN BIEBER, 185-8th St., Bethpage, NY 11714 Hudson Valley JOHN TREXLER, c/o Frelinghuysen Arboretum, Box 1295-R, Morristown, NJ 07960 Minnesota MIKE ZINS, Rte. 3, Cologne, MN 55322 Siskiyou PHYLLIS GUSTAFSON, 250 Maple St., Central Point, OR 97502 Western-No. Carolina HORACE K. FREEMAN SR., 2150 Woodridge Dr . Hendersonville, NC 28739 Rocky Mountain PANAYOTI P. CALLAS, 922 12th St., Boulder, CO 80302 Adirondack KATHIE LIPPIT, 6 Glen Terrace, Scotia, NY 12302 YOUR ARGS STORE 1. ARGS BULLETIN, back issues. Refer to listings and prices in this issue. 2. CUMULATIVE INDEX to ARGS Bulletins, Vols. 1-32 Incl. Lists Authors, Article Titles and Subject Matter .! NC 3. SEED LIST HANDBOOK — 2nd Edition — Bernard Harkness, 216 pages. Quick reference to Seed Listings of ARGS, Alpine Garden Society and Scottish R.G. Club. Gives Genus, type plant, height, color, origin and Horticultural Reference $5.00 4. THE ROCK GARDEN, Henry T. Skinner (reprint) $1.00 5. THE GENUS PHLOX, Edgar T. Wherry. 174 pg. Monograph. Photos and line draw• ings, Maps of distribution $6.00 6. THE ALASKA-YUKON WILDFLOWER GUIDE. 217 pgs. Colored plant photos by family $6.00 7. SEED GERMINATION REPORT, Dara E. Emery (Ed.), data on selected species and forms by various reporters $1.00 8. SEEDS — 3 Methods of Germinating Seeds; Xeroxed from earlier ARGS Bulletins $2.00 9. LIBRARY BINDERS, each holds 2 years $4.00 10. ARGS LAPEL or SAFETY-CLASP PINS. Specify $3.00 11. ARGS SHOULDER PATCHES. Washable $2.00 12. ARGS MEMBERSHIP LIST NC 13. ARGS SLIDE LIBRARY CATALOG NC 14. ARGS-PHS LIBRARY SERVICE LIST NC Order from Anita Kistler, 1421 Ship Rd., West Chester, Pa. 19380. All orders prepaid in U.S. funds, please, make checks or Postal Money Orders payable to "ARGS," (no cash.) U.S. destinations must show ZIP Code. Orders will be sent surface mail, postpaid; airmail billed at cost.

BULLETINS FOR SALE — Back Issues Available at $1.50 each. Postpaid Vol. 26, No. 2 Vol. 32, Nos. 1, 3 & 4 Vol. 28, Nos. 1 & 4 Vol. 33, Nos. 1, 2 & 3 Vol. 29, No. 2 Vol. 34, Nos. 3 & 4 Vol. 30, Nos. 2 & 4 Vol. 35, Nos. 3 & 4 Vol. 31, Nos. 2 & 3 Vol. 36, Nos. 1 & 2 All other Volumes not specifically listed above are $2.50 each when available. Please inquire as to availability. For specific articles as listed in the Cumulative Index, please give Volume and page number listed. Issue will be sent, IF AVAILABLE; otherwise a charge of 15^ per page for duplication from File Copy. Please remit with order. Foreign orders in U.S. funds, please. Shipments postpaid. Airmail billed at cost. Make checks/money orders payable to: ANITA KISTLER, BUS. Mgr. DISPOSING OF OLD BULLETINS? The Society's reserve stock of back Bulletins is seriously depleted. The earliest Issues are all but exhausted. NEEDED—Any and all ARGS Bulletins! We urgently need to keep a supply available for members who seek to build up their libraries IF YOU HAVE NO FURTHER USE FOR YOURS, WE NEED THEM TO MEET DEMANDS. PLEASE—Send them to the Bus. Mgr., ARGS Bulletin, 1421 Ship Rd., West Chester, Pa. 19380 ARGS will entertain offers for extensive 'runs'. Postage will be refunded OUR THANKS TO ALL THE PAST DONORS!