March - May 2014 | NO 7 A Garden View Why a geographical garden? What are gardens for? Environmental sculpture How to plant roses Tulips: Fit for kings From the Director Contents Dear Readers, 2 From the Director 12 Rare plants Spring is around the corner and will soon bring blossoms and an atmosphere of celebration. 14 What are gardens for? 4 Gardens News At the Gardens, Spring also means an increase in activities and in the numbers of families and Environmental sculpture From our Volunteers Scholarship news 16 groups visiting. Dear Friends Research Profile of Yechiel Baras We hope that Spring’s renewal will also bring healing to the trees that were so badly damaged in the winter’s snow and that the Gardens will start to recover and look more like the Gardens 6 Plant of the Season How to plant roses we all know. Tulips Family Page Flowers fit for kings 18 C onstruction of the Children’s Discovery Trail and the expanded Tropical Conservatory is Barley, Wheat and Passover proceeding according to plan. The foundations for the discovery path are down, the concrete Matza recipe work is being done now, and we are getting ready for the next stage, which is to create the 9 The advantages of a interactive stations in areas where the ground works have already been carried out. geographical garden 20 Events and courses Many of you responded to the snow damage appeal that we made in the last issue of A Garden View and a number of new friends and volunteers came forward asking to be involved with the Gardens’ work. Our thanks to all of you. Your willingness to help in different ways moved all the staff and we are truly appreciative. Editor: Sue Surkes Scientific editing: Dr Ori Fragman-Sapir In another area of our work, we are making progress on the development of a new strategic Hebrew language copy editing: Sara Adar and Ruth Perlman plan for the Gardens and a revision of the Gardens’ mission statement. A team of staff members English language copy editing: Marlin Levin from the departments of science, horticulture, marketing and content met over several months to discuss the Gardens’ aims. We will present a draft for you all to see in the coming period. Editorial Board: Sara Adar, Hannah Cohen, Nehama Foerster, Ruth Perlman Photography: Sara Adar, Ori Fragman-Sapir, Sue Surkes Wishing all of us a Spring full of blossoms and renewal, Graphic Design: Keren Shapira-Buzaglo Translation: Ofer Grunwald, Professional Translation Services See you at the Gardens, Printed by: Shimshon Printers Address: 1 Zalman Shneor Street, Nayot, Jerusalem (via Nayot Petrol Station) Oren Ben-Yosef Mailing address: The Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, Hebrew University Givat Ram Campus, Director-General Jerusalem 91904 Telephone: 02 6794012 | Fax: 02 6793941 www.en.botanic.co.il Winter opening hours: Sundays through Thursdays 9.00-17.00 Fridays and holiday eves 9.00-15.00 Sabbaths and holidays 9.00-17.00 Summer opening hours: Sundays through Thursdays 9.00-19.00 Fridays and holiday eves 9.00-17.00 Sabbaths and holidays 9.00-18.00 Hours may be extended for special events - please check our website. Cover photo: Tulips on an Izmir tile, by Ori Fragman-Sapir 2 3 Gardens News... Gardens News... Gardens News... Our Roots: T he scheme has enabled more than 100 Research: D utch environmental artist Will Beckers t alented young horticulturalists to spend T he Gardens’ Head Scientist Dr. Ori v isited the Gardens earlier this year to from one month to one year at the Gardens F ragman-Sapir has secured a three-year begin work on an intriguing environmental over the 30 years that the UK Friends have c ontract from the Jewish National Fund sculpture called Our Roots. The sculpture been raising funds for scholarships. to evaluate the diversity, performance and will take its inspiration from a fallen tree. r eproduction habits of bulbs in areas of It will be located in the Gardens’ tropical Like Dr. Upson, many scholars have gone t he HaKedoshim Forest of Aleppo pines Australia forest, beneath a planned canopy o nto key positions in the international near Beit Shemesh, 30 kilometers west of walk. Both the sculpture and the canopy botanical and horticultural industry. Today, J erusalem. For decades, the Aleppo pine w alk will form part of the Children’s t hey are part of the Gardens’ network w as the JNF’s forestry tree of choice for Discovery Trail which is under construction o f professional contacts, supporters and I srael’s hilly regions. Dr Fragman-Sapir’s and is due to open in a year. ambassadors worldwide. Two years ago, a study forms part of a larger project to assess similar initiative began in Australia. the ecological effects of Aleppo pine forests Our Roots will be 25 meters (82 feet) long w hich have been thinned to different and 5 meters (16 feet) wide at its broadest densities. point. On an abstract level, it will encourage v isitors to consider that life (‘our roots’) D r. Fragman-Sapir and Dr. Mike Fay, comes from the soil and that a dead tree h ead of genetics at Kew Gardens’ Jodrell becomes the cradle for a new generation Laboratory in London, are collaborating on of living things as part of the Cycle of Life. the tulips of Israel. Tulip leaves have been In reality, and with a great sense of mystery, A model of part of the environmental sculpture sent to the UK laboratory for analysis, with mischief and fun, the sculpture will invite Our Roots being planned t he aim of classifying them in relation to visitors into the tree trunk via a tangle of other tulip species from around the world. r oots. Once inside, they will experience (See p.6 for more on tulips). t he scents and sensations of the dark, Scholarship news: damp, earthy world where nature recycles D r. Tim Upson, a former scholar at the The Israel Nature and Parks Authority has the building blocks of life. G ardens, has been appointed Director t ransferred hundreds of wild cyclamen o f Horticulture at the prestigious Royal tubers to the Gardens after rescuing them O ur Roots will be built on a solid steel H orticultural Society in Britain. He will f rom a new pipeline built near Eshta’ol, structure overlaid with scores of recycled b e leaving his job as curator and deputy west of Jerusalem. The tubers, some of them l ogs of different thicknesses and shapes. d irector of the Cambridge University l arge and more than 100 years old, have Live trees will be planted alongside so that B otanic Garden. Dr. Upson came to the been planted in the Mediterranean section b ranches can be woven in and out. This J BG in 1989, thanks to a Kew Gardens where some are already starting to flower. will enable the artwork to live on, evolve, s cholarship funded by our UK Friends. and change. Like other pieces of land art H e and his partner Carolin Gohler, who t hat Beckers has created in Europe, Our was a UK scholar at the Gardens in 1990, R oots will challenge us to ponder our c ontinue to support the UK Friends’ JBG h uman relationships with nature and the scholarship program. environment. Native tulips are the focus of collaboration with Kew Gardens 4 5 From the Head Scientist Tulips In Israel, most cultivated tulips will flower only once and should be regarded as seasonal plants. To see carpets of tulips of different varieties, visit By Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir the display gardens and the European section of the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens this month Today, the tulip is the most commercially-successful (March). In the Asian section of the Gardens, you’ll of all bulbs, according to Prof. Rina Kaminsky of find species such as the Sun’s-eye Tulip, which the Volcani Institute. Some 900 hybrids are grown grows wild in Israel. in Holland and elsewhere. Four species of tulips grow wild in Israel: Sun’s- Tulips are bulbous plants that belong to the lily eye Tulip; Desert Tulip; Two-flowered Tulip; and family. Their bulbs are unusual in that they have Hermon Tulip. They are more delicate than their only a few fleshy scales enveloped by a dry one. cultivated cousins and all are protected by law. T ulips have flexible stems able to bend in the wind, rain and snow during their growing season Where to see wild tulips in Israel: in the winter. Although the flowers do not produce n ectar, they are full of pollen which provides a Early March f ood reward for pollinating insects. In Israel, the The Sun’s Eye Tulip pollinating insects are beetles, which gorge on the Tulipa agenensis subspecies sharonensis: pollen and sometimes even sleep in the flower. The Poleg Nature Reserve near Netanya The Two-flowered Tulip C ommercial growers propagate tulips either by Tulipa biflora: Lotz cisterns in the dividing the bulbs or by using tissue culture. The Negev Highlands o ffspring flower within a year or two and are The Desert Tulip Tulipa systola: identical to the mother plant. Plants are propagated The slope facing north along the road by seed only if the grower wants to cross-breed between Mashabei Sadeh Road and varieties to produce new ones. It takes five to eight Sdeh Boker and also at the Yeruham Iris Nature years for a tulip grown from seed to flower. Reserve. T ulips sold in Israel are all imported, mainly Through March: from Holland.