GeuMt triflorurn "PrairieSmoke"

Bulletin of the mencan Rock Garden etu

Vol. 39 Summer 1981 No. 3 The Bulletin Editor Emeritus DR. EDGART. WHERRY, Philadelphia, Pa. Editor LAURA LOUISE FOSTER, Falls Village, Conn. 06031 Assistant Editor HARRYDEWEY, 4605 Brandon Lane, Beltsville, Md. 20705 Contributing Editors: Roy Davidson Anita Kistler H. Lincoln Foster Owen Pearce H.N. Porter Layout Designer: BUFFY PARKER Business Manager ANITA KISTLER, 1421 Ship Rd., West Chester, Pa. 19380 Contents Vol. 39 No. 3 Summer 1981 Prairie Smoke—Maryann Collins 105 Eastern American : Part II—Frederick W. Case, Jr 108 The Seed Collecting Chase—Marvin Black 123 Two Southwestern Primroses—Sally Walker 127 Lawrence Hochheimer 129 Crystal Gardening: Painless Propagation—Marie Tietjens 130 Award Winners 1981: Hans Asmus, Bozidar Berginc, Victor Reiter, Jr., Aline Strutz, Wayne Roderick 132 Pikes Peak and How The Tundra Got There—Lucian M. Long 136 The Lamiums: Their Usefulness and Limitations—Mrs. Ralph Cannon. 139 Olga Lewis 141 Thymus Lanuginosus as a Lawn—Daniel C. Weaver 142 Book Reviews: New York Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horticulture by Thomas H. Everett 144 A Few Thoughts About the Rock Garden—R.D 145 It Ain't Necessarily So—Flossie O. Dawson 146 Of Cabbages and Kings 147 Front Cover Picture— triflorum—Allan Stavos, Wayzata, Minn.

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 Membership, $8.00 each to be submitted in U.S. funds or In• ternational 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 annual• ly. Membership inquiries and dues should be sent to Donald M. Peach, Secretary, Rte. 1 Box 282, Mena, Ark. 71953. The office of publication is located at Rte. 1 Box 282, Mena, Ark. 71953. 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 Mena, Ark. and additional offices. Bulletin of the American Rock Garden Society (ISSN 0003-0863). Vol.39 Summer 1981 No. 3

Bulletin of the merican Rock Garden etu

PRAIRIE SMOKE

MARYANN COLLINS Apple Valley, Minnesota

Prairie Smoke, Grandfather's Beard, The consists of a basal clump of China Bells, Old Man's Whiskers, Pur• almost fern-like pinnately compound ple Avens, Long-Plumed Avens, and and toothed leaves arising from a thick Pink Plumes are all common names -like root. From April to July, generated by a single extraordinary depending upon the elevation, nearly North American native plant: Geum tri- leafless flowering stems arise from the florum. clump of foliage, each usually carrying Though the plant is most commonly three flowers as indicated by the referred to as Prairie Smoke, its unique name, triflorum. However, two, four, character in flower and especially in fruit, or even five flowers per stem is not un• coupled with its extensive range, which common. runs from the Great Lakes west to Brit• The flowers are of curious form, al• ish Columbia, south through the Mid• most defying description. Each blossom west and Plains, and down the moun• consists of reddish , perhaps more tains to New Mexico and California, has accurately described as russet or old produced these many provocative ver• rose in color, which are fused at the nacular names. base to form a cap-shaped structure.

105 From within this cap of sepals, and mass of dead leaves and brown soggy nearly hidden by it, protrude five red• mats, Prairie Smoke's clump of foliage, dish or straw-colored and numer• already verdant, is a welcome and en• ous . The flowers are held mod• couraging sight. Close inspection will estly drooping on crooked stems, pro• reveal tiny buds, furry and tight against ducing an effect of hanging ruddy urns. the foliage, already formed as early as The name China Bells probably refers to March. During the entire growing sea• the shape and pose of the flowers as son the plant is not marred by insects, well as their unusual substance. Though drought, or other foul weather. In late delicate in appearance, each stem of summer and autumn the leaves will flowers remains unchanged and in per• often color red or mahogany, again fect condition for four to five weeks. adding color and interest to the garden. Those unfamiliar with the plant will wait In this description no mention has expectantly, and fruitlessly, for the been made as to plant size, since, as is "buds" to open, and only after consider• often the case with a plant that occurs able time will realize that these half-inch over a wide geographical area, variation "seeming-buds" are the flowers. exists. In Minnesota where I first be• After this long period of bloom the came familiar with it, Prairie Smoke is a flowers are transformed, as if by meta• common plant of tall-grass prairie rem• morphosis, into magnificent seed nants. Further west on the High Plains it plumes, the "smoke." The flower stalk, grows in the less arid areas, often inter• curved downward while in blossom, si• spersed with sagebrush. In the moun• multaneously elongates and straightens, tains of the west it is a plant of high while the styles lengthen and become alpine meadows. Obviously, Prairie featherlike. The plant thrusts aloft a Smoke occupies various habitats. More• lavish, silvery-pink cluster of seeds. This over, the plant grows at widely diver• plume is composed of a cluster of seeds, gent altitudes, ranging from near sea more properly called achenes (small, level to well over 8,000 feet. dry, hard fruits that do not split open For this reason, a general statement when ripe), each consisting of a beaked that the plant may vary in height from head and a feathery tail up to two inch• six to twenty inches or more and when es long. This showy seed-head is the left undisturbed, that the stout root- obvious instigator of such names as stock, increasing much like a clump of Grandfather's Beard, Old Man's Whisk• iris, will form a horseshoe-shaped mat ers, and Pink Plumes. Observed at a lit• two feet or more across, is true but mis• tle distance, an area thickly studded leading, tending to convince a rock gar• with Geum triflorum in fruit gives a dener that Prairie Smoke is too tall and pinkish, smoky appearance, thus the large for rock gardens. This conclusion name Prairie Smoke. is unwarranted. Prairie Smoke in bloom and fruit puts One form of Prairie Smoke that I on a continuous performance for two grow is that which occurs on the lime• months in spring and often produces a stone prairies of Minnesota that border stray flower or two during summer and the Minnesota River from Jordan to fall if stimulated by a generous rainfall. Chaska. Its leaf measures a very consis• Moreover, even when not in bloom or tent nine inches from the leaf tip to the fruit, the basal clump of leaves is attrac• end of the . In bloom the plant tive and adds substance and stability to measures ten inches, and approaches the rock garden at all seasons. In spring, one foot when in fruit. The spread of when the snow first recedes revealing a the plant is slow but steady, not ram-

106 pant, and easily reduced by judicious temperatures probably will not harm this division every three years. This plant rugged plant. It seems to have no pests, grows comfortably for me in a rock gar• though goldfinches will filch the seed, a den that measures fifteen by twenty-five liability only if one wants it for other pur• feet. poses. Smaller forms also occur. On July 4, Germination of Prairie Smoke seed is 1978, we came upon a meadow at Rab• not difficult, but the resultant seedlings bit Ears Pass, Colorado, at an elevation may require three years to bloom. I had of 9600 feet, thickly covered with Prai• excellent germination of both Geum tri• rie Smoke just coming into bloom. The florum var. campanulatum and var. cili- entire plant was considerably com• atum received from the ARGS Seed Ex• pressed. Each leaf, more finely cut and change this spring using my usual tech• ferny than usual, measured only three nique for alpine seed germination, i.e. and a half inches from leaf tip to end placing the pot of planted seed in a cold of petiole. In bloom the plant barely frame, which I cover only with window reached six inches. This form has re• screens, exposing the seed to the tained its miniature stature under culti• weather from February or March on• vation, creating an altogether charming ward. In July, when each plant had two clump of much-dissected foliage. or three true leaves, I potted them sep• Other forms are also available. One arately in two and a half inch pots. nurseryman, George Schenk (The Wild Wintered in a cold frame, these Garden), lists three varieties: Geum tri- should be large enough for the garden florum 'Bighorn Mountains', ten inches; next spring and, I hope, will bloom the Geum triflorum var. campanulatum, a following year. dwarf pink form of the Olympic Moun• Division of the rootstock is another tains; and Geum triflorum 'Davidson method of propagation. Either early Ranch', which reaches a height of fif• spring or late summer division gives teen inches. good results. The plants thus divided re• In cultivation, Prairie Smoke prefers a sent this procedure and sulk mightily, rich to average garden soil and full sun. but once the initial shock wears off, re- Though appreciative of spring moisture, establishment is rapid and losses infre• this plant is exceptionally tolerant of quent. drought, and seems equally impervious Geum triflorum is an unusual and to hot, drying winds and low humidity. largely unappreciated plant that de• It is extremely cold-hardy, having with• serves to be more frequently grown in stood -30°F in my garden; even colder rock gardens.

Note From a Sandgrower

One of our members, who grows many difficult plants with con• siderable success in sand "a la Deno" (See Vol. 38, No. 2), sends in this note: "It seems obvious, but it should not be overlooked that the sand should be thoroughly dampened before planting". He also ad• vises that sand beds on even a slight slope or if contoured or mounded need frequent watering.

107 EASTERN AMERICAN TRILLIUMS PART II

FREDERICK W. CASE, JR. Saginaw, Michigan Photographs by the author

Part I covered the pedunculate trilliums of eastern North America.

THE SESSILE TRILLIUMS

The sessile trilliums, subgenus Phyl- 1975. Serious students and gardeners lantherum, comprise a large and con• must consult Freeman's work to gain in• fusing group of American trilliums. Most sights into the nature of the "species" in are less showy of flower than those of this section, for all previous works badly the pedunculate group, but all hold in• confuse populations and forms. terest for the gardener. In this group, Some species in this subgenus appear the "leaves", really enlarged on less distinct from one another than do the flower scape, possess, in Eastern species in subgenus . species, varying degrees of mottling in Freeman divides the sessile subgenus green tones and underlying bronzes. Phvllantherum into three somewhat in• Even without the flowers, they are wor• formal "species groups". These, he thy of cultivation as accent plants. The says, are groupings of species which he flowers differ from those of the pedun• feels show affinities with each other. culate group in that the petals and se• The groups do not represent taxonomic pals stand directly upon the leaf-bracts sections in the usual sense. (i.e. they are sessile). Except in one spe• cies, the petals are erect and somewhat connivant, rather than spreading to re• THE EASTERN SESSILE TRILLIUMS veal the reproductive organs within. colors run mostly into maroon or Group I bronzy reds with varying degrees of The Trillium recurvatum group. green and brown intermixed. Yellow T. recurvatum and green flowered species occur, and T. lancifolium albino, partially albino and pallid color forms abound. Group II Sessile species occur only within the The group. continental and adjacent T. sessile Canada. T. decumbens The most recent taxonomic treatment T. underwoodii (and in my opinion the most accurate T. decipiens and useful treatment so far) by Dr. John T. reliquum D. Freeman, appeared in Brittonia, T. discolor Vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 1-63, Jan. - March, T. stamineum

108 Group III The Trillium maculatum group. T. maculatum T. foetidissimum T. cuneatum T. luteum T. ludouicianum T. gracile T. uiride T. uiridescens

Group I.

Trillium recurvatum Beck The aspect of this species is tall and lanky, but the plant varies considerably depending upon its vigor, the local race, and the type of soil on which it grows. The species ranges from northern Ala• Trillium recurvatum bama to extreme southwestern Michi• The of this plant are rather gan, and from Ohio and Kentucky west narrow, elongated, and brittle and must into Iowa, Illinois, , and to be handled with care. The plant is com• northern . It can be locally pletely winter hardy. abundant or very rare in various parts of In most of its habitats it grows in a its range. Its common names include heavy clayey or limey soil. Riverbank or Prairie Trillium, Toad Trillium, and per• low woodlands constitute favored situa• haps most imaginative of all, "Bloody tions northward. Noses", a folk name in parts of Mis• souri. In my garden, the plant is prone to form small offsets which, in my sandy Structurally one of the most distinc• soil, are slow to mature. tive of the sessile trillium species, T. re• The open growth habit and darkly curvatum plants are tall, with strongly mottled leaves make this an interesting, petiolate leaves up to six inches long, if not terribly showy plant. It is common heavily to rather obscurely mottled. The enough over most parts of its range that sepals recurve to become adpressed to reasonable collections for horticulture the scape below the leaves, a feature ought not in any way to injure wild found (to a lesser degree) in only one populations. Wildflower dealers from other sessile trillium. The petals, usually Indiana westward to the Great Plains rather ovate-lanceolate are acute at the may occasionally offer this species to tips, condensed into an almost stalk-like the trade. claw at the base and are about one to one and one-half inches long. Their col• Trillium lancifolium Raf. or is a dark maroon red to purple, Trillium lancifolium appears to be fading to a brownish red with age and poorly known, but its narrow segments, varying in color forms to greenish its almost wire-thin petals, and its rather brown, maroon or even pure yellow. delicate proportions make the plant a The very clear colors make particular• most desirable contrast plant in the wild ly desirable subjects for garden use. garden.

109 The Lance-leaved Trillium ranges bank soils in mature woods which, in from eight to eighteen inches tall, with that area, are somewhat brushy and somewhat drooping, sessile, narrowly rank. The plant is both local and unob• lanceolate-elliptic mottled leaves. With trusive where it occurs. Until one is ex• narrowly linear, crepe-paper textured, perienced, locating the plant in the wild crinkled, purplish-green petals one to is not easy. two inches long, the plant is one of the The narrow, linear white rhizomes most distinctive of all sessile trilliums. grow just below the surface of the heavy The entire aspect of the plant, scape, soil, and break easily. Digging the plant, leaves, and petals, is one of narrow• therefore, is difficult, but pieces of bro• ness. ken rhizome soon produce small plants. Found from South Carolina to Ala• The generally delicate aspects of this bama, especially in areas adjacent to the species seems to imply that the plant Cumberland Plateau in Alabama and might lack hardiness. This seems not to Georgia, it seems not to have a general• be so, for it has survived seven winters, ly distributed population, occurring in• some of them very open and bitter, in stead in local areas with wide gaps be• central Michigan. tween colonies. Besides the localities T. lancifolium seems to be unknown bordering the Piedmont, it occurs in the to most gardeners, at least in the North. vicinity of Lookout Mountain, Tennes• This is a pity, for it is quite unlike any see, and much farther south in Georgia other species. I prize it highly, and am and Florida in areas bordering the Chat- trying to find a ready means to propa: tahoochee River. gate my plants for distribution. The colonies I have seen grew on clayey floodplains and adjacent stream- Group II

Trillium sessile L. Trillium sessile, the Toad Trillium, en• joys a wide range, from western Virginia westward about to the Indiana-Illinois state lines. It is largely absent from Illi• nois, but abundant again in Missouri and northern . Northward it reaches to southwestern Michigan where it is very rare, all of Ohio, and eastward into southwestern Penn• sylvania and barely into southern New York. Southward, it ranges into central Kentucky and Tennessee, with a few outlying stations in Alabama and North Carolina. It grows in a great variety of woods, thickets, and even in fencerows and hog pastures. It prefers a rich, fairly heavy, limestone soil. Horticulturally, a much misunder• stood species, most plants illustrated in magazines as 7. sessile do not represent this species, but rather either T. Trillium lancifolium cuneatum or one of the western species

110 formerly lumped by horticultural writers into "7. sessile californicum". True 7. sessile, is a plant of low stat• ure, rarely more than ten inches tall, with relatively broad, obscurely mottled, broadly sessile leaves. The sepals spread but do not reflex. The inch long petals, widest at the middle, and taper• ing without a claw to their base, range in color from rich maroon-purple to dingy liver brown or greenish yellow. One of the most tolerant of trilliums, its chief value horticulturally lies in its great adaptability to most climates and soils, and to its early blooming period. It deserves a place in the garden even though it is not as showy as some. Plants offered as T. sessile by many dealers may prove to be other species. In Kentucky, west of Louisville, T. sessile intergrades at times with T. re- curuatum. Intergrades possess narrower leaves than 7. sessile, with varying de• Trillium sessile grees of the petiolate condition. Their petals, too, vary between the conditions ly twisted, lanceolate three to four inch found in both species. dark red-maroon petals. When sunlight strikes these large petals the "ancient Trillium decumbens Harbison lamp" effect is stunning. If I had to choose but one sessile trilli- This species appears very early in the um for the rock garden, it would be this season, but blooms from mid to late species. It is almost unbelieveable in season. Long before the buds open, the growth habit. Truly decumbent, its highly colored, mottled leaves draw at• great, strikingly mottled leaves spread tention in the garden. As fruits develop flat upon the forest litter and rocks following flowering, the stem elongates among which it grows. The first time we somewhat, but remains decumbent. found it in the wild, we were amazed; The leaves are short-lived, and soon dry we could not escape the impression that up or rot away 4eaving the scape and the plants resembled ancient oil lamps fruit to mature over the summer. with the four-inch petals the red, glow• A natural rock plant, we find the De• ing lamp fires. The fact that this species cumbent Trillium in sloping rocky often grows in large patches accentuates woods, talus below shaley ledges, and its striking manner of growth. at the bases of massively weathered 7. decumbens arises from a stout, tufa-like limestone boulders. Typically, deeply buried rhizome. The five to eight the plant forms colonies of hundreds of inch scape literally bends and lies along plants neatly spaced so that the leaf tips the ground. The sessile leaf cluster, up just touch. We have seen the plant to eight or ten inches in diameter on ro• growing in very mature woods where bust plants, bears at its center relatively dense shade develops early, and in short green sepals, but very erect, slight- open, second-growth woods of oak and

111 Trillium decumbens maple, where sufficient light prevails to loam, this species has not only wintered allow some grasses to grow. well for me, but has seeded in my gar• T. decumbens occurs in a narrow den. Its manner of snuggling up to the band from northwestern Georgia, to contours of the garden ledges or against Tuscaloosa, Alabama, mainly in foot• a rock is unlike that of any other spe• hills of the Cumberland Plateau and the cies. Those who have seen it, desire it. Ridge and Valley Provinces. T. decum• bens is not present in every available Trillium underwoodii Small habitat within its range as some species I have found Underwood's Trillium in of trillium are: rather large colonies oc• the wild only once; my experience with cur somewhat sporadically. it is therefore limited. Rock gardeners ought to make every A trillium of medium stature, it stands effort to get this species into cultivation, from five to 10 inches tall with sessile, for it is truly an outstanding plant. Al• lanceolate leaves. The leaves bear con• though it can be locally abundant, (Free• spicuous mottlings in shades of light and man, 1975), its range is limited. Ala• darker greens. According to Freeman bama conservationists have expressed (1975), the mottling varies from colony special concern (Freeman, et al. 1979) to colony. The sepals, lanceolate to that it might be collected excessively. It ovate, and one to two inches long di• should be propagated by nurseries or verge or spread. The oblanceolate to botanical gardens and offered to the narrowly elliptic petals are one and one trade, not heavily collected from the half to three inches long. Color as in wild. It is not, to my knowledge, offered nearly all the sessile species varies from commercially at present. dark purple or maroon to brownish pur• Planted in a well drained, slightly acid ple, or greenish yellow. This variation is

112 influenced both by the genetics of the strongly mottled, lanceolate leaves individual plant and the age of the often with a light band of pale green flower; most sessile species losing the along the midrib and almost maroon rich reddish maroon tones with age and tones below the greens would render developing a liver-brown, less attractive the plant striking in the garden if it never color. bloomed. At blooming time, the flowers In T. underwoodii, the stamens bear are large in proportion to the leaves, very short filaments and lateral pollen making them appear quite conspicuous sacs on a connective which extends a for this type of trillium. millimeter or two beyond the pollen We have seen this trillium growing in sacs. Stigmas are very short and re• a very robust form in acid woodlands in curved upon the ovary. Alabama, and on limestone soils in Although this species is very closely woods and along stream banks near related to and like T. decipiens in many Marianna, Florida. It grows in much the aspects, Freeman (1975) asserts that same situations as do both the sessile they can usually be distinguished in the and prairie trilliums farther north, pre• field readily. T. underwoodii, apparent• ferring the lower slopes of wooded ly, does not grow in mixed populations bluffs along streams. with its closest kin. Its short, erect scape A few of the Florida plants have sur• permits the drooping leaves (at flower• vived one severe, open winter here at ing) to touch the substrate (not so in the Saginaw. This past spring we collected a taller T. decipiens). few rhizomes from plants farther inland Within its range T. underwoodii in Alabama which may prove to be even blooms from mid-February to April. It more hardy. Our experience with wide• occurs from Mobile, Alabama, across ly ranging Coastal Plain and Piedmont north Florida to western Georgia, ex• plants found from the Mobile Bay area tending northward onto the Piedmont, eastward into the Carolinas has been especially in Alabama. that populations from Alabama tended We found Underwood's trillium grow• ing along the base of ravine slopes near a small stream, in a very rich beech and oak woods. Soil was slightly sandy and rich in humus. Plant companions at this station were acid-soil species. Plants we observed in John Lam• bert's arboretum collection at Mena, Arkansas, were particularly rich in both leaf and flower coloring.

Trillium decipiens Freeman The epithet 'decipiens' means "deceiving", and refers to the similarity between this species and T. under• woodii. A much taller plant, with stiffly spreading leaves, the scapes attain heights of up to one foot. The broadly lanceolate petals range from greenish brown to maroon, the maroon tones fading to liver brown with age. The Trillium decipiens

113 to be more winter-hardy than those by Freeman implies. The scapes, with a from farther east. slight S-shaped bend stand not over One disturbing note on collecting this eight to 10 inches tall. The sessile, plant: in Florida, we found a whitish bluntly tipped leaves show beautiful fungus destroying the leaves and fruits mottlings of light and dark greens un• of a great many plants of some popula• derlain with some maroon tones. The tions. Persons collecting this species flowers are somewhat nondescript, with from the wild ought to take great care lanceolate-ovate, maroon purple petals not to introduce disease to their gardens about one to one and a half inches long. or to introduce this disease to new areas Yellow petaled forms occur. where it might spread to other species. 7. reliquum blooms from mid-March to late April in the wild. In my mid- Trillium reliquum Freeman Michigan garden, it blooms in mid-late This very rare and limited trillium has May, being one of the later trilliums a peculiar distribution. It grows along here. Although it is winter hardy (Au• the Savannah River near Augusta, Geor• gusta, Ga. plants) it does not grow well gia, and in adjacent South Carolina, and nor flower well for me. A deep forest also disjunctly in southwestern Georgia species, its leaves are extremely sensi• near the Chattahootchee River. In both tive to windburn. It is not, therefore, localities it grows in mature hardwoods particularly desirable horticulturally. with oaks and beeches, on bluff sum• As the rarest of the sessile trilliums in mits and slopes to the flood plain. the East, it deserves designation as an This species, like T. decumbens, has endangered or threatened species and scapes which can be semidecumbent, should be left in the wild. although, in my experience, not so strik• Trillium discolor Wray ex Hooker ingly so as the description of the species After T. decumbens, this species would be my choice as the best sessile trillium for the rock garden. It is a small plant, with leaves held close to the ground, rarely growing six inches tall in cultivation, but growing occasionally to eight or ten inches tall in the wild. The sessile leaves, richly blotched in dark green over a softly mottled back• ground, and broadly ovate-elliptic, ap• pear very early in spring. In its native haunts, the plant blooms early, but in my northern latitude the leaves and buds appear, followed by a period of several weeks of waiting. Finally, when most of the other trilliums begin to fade, the delightful lime to lemon colored flowers appear. The short, wide, ta• pered petals show greenish veins and are distinctly apiculate. The flowers last long but slowly fade to a light straw col• or. Fresh blooms are spicy-fragrant. Trillium discolor This trillium is restricted almost entire-

114 ly to the upper tributaries of the Savan• nah River system in the Piedmont of Georgia and South Carolina and the Blue Ridge Mountains valleys of North Carolina. Although it grows in a variety of woods, it prefers small flats along mountain streams where thickets of Leucothoe, Kalmia and Rhododendron occur. In such localities, the most vigor• ous plants grow in bright, open areas under tall trees. The small size, late blooming, distinc• tive lemon coloring, full hardiness, and attractive leaves all season make this a truly outstanding plant for the rock gar• Trillium stamineum den. It is, however, a very local species. If it is not yet designated for protection have a form with pale yellow petals under the endangered species act, it overlain with pink. Clear yellow forms probably will be, for a large part of its have been reported. In this species, as originally limited range has been de• in T. discolor, the petals are apiculate. stroyed through the building of power The stamens are massive, erect, clus• dams and impoundments. Efforts by tered into a conspicuous ring, almost some botanical gardens or qualified hor• more apparent than the petals to a visit• ticultural societies to obtain and propa• ing insect. gate the plant for release commercially T. stamineum is too tall for the usual would undoubtedly take pressure off rockery, never-the-less one should the remaining wild populations, and grow it for its distinctive flower. A place should be undertaken. at the back of the rock garden or in a I have grown this plant in Michigan woodland setting would be best. for almost twenty years; it is beginning This species grows natively in a north- to seed around the parent colony. I will south band from northern Alabama and attempt to make seed available through Mississippi into Tennessee. Within this the ARGS seed exchange. area it is locally abundant in rich woods, Trillium stamineum Harbison on ledges, and on slopes above and A large and distinctive species, T. sta• descending onto flood plains. We have mineum is practically unknown to gar• found it growing with T. recurvatum but deners outside its range. It is the only have seen no evidence that they hybrid• trillium with spreading, corkscrew twist• ize. ed petals borne directly atop the ob• 7. stamineum is completely winter scurely mottled leaves. The aspect of hardy with me in central Michigan. It is this plant is like no other trillium. illustrated in color in the Time-Life book Scapes stand twelve to twenty inches on Wildflower Gardening (Crockett, et tall, with the leaves variably lanceolate al., 1977). to ovate-elliptic, usually fairly broad for their length and weakly mottled to plain Group III. green. The petals are short, one to one and a half inches long, twisted, and Trillium maculatum, Raf. dark maroon in most forms, although I This large and quite showy trillium

115 ranges across the middle and outer Piedmont and Coastal Plain of South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, and locally south into the panhandle of Flor• ida. Plants range in height from a foot to almost two feet tall, with sessile, elliptic to broadly elliptic leaves. The leaves may be obscurely to strongly mottled. In the best forms we have seen (near Au• gusta, Ga.) the leaf markings were especially prominent, with light, medium and dark bronzy green blotch• es, some underlain with a deep maroon red. The petals, distinctly spatulate, broadest beyond the middle and stiffly divergent-erect, are rich maroon-red to a dark garnet red. The color does not Trillium foetidissimum fade to the dull liver tones of so many of the sessile trilliums. The Spotted Trilli• the larger and more vigorous T. cuneat- um, therefore, is a colorful and particu• um which is of similar aspect. T. macu• larly desirable garden plant. latum is not, to my knowledge, offered T. maculatum blooms very early in in the trade. the season, both in the wild and in the garden. It grows in a variety of rich Trillium foetidissimum Freeman woodlands of both upland and flood- The Fetid Trillium quite strongly sug• plain. We have seen it on acidic and gests T. sessile in its general size and limestone soils. habit. Its leaves, however, are far more As in most of the sessile trilliums, bi- strongly mottled, and are carried at a colored yellow and purple petaled and slightly different angle. One gets the im• pure yellow petaled forms occur, but we pression, in the field, that the leaves are have not seen them. carried at a precise right angle to the This trillium has been much confused stem and droop less at the tips than do by botanists with other Coastal Plain those of T. sessile. and Piedmont species. Much of the lit• While the ranges of T. foetidissimum erature prior to Freeman's treatment and T. sessile do not overlap, speci• (1975) may refer to other entities so one mens of either from horticultural sources cannot rely upon stated characteristics could easily be mistaken for the other or distributions in the older works. species. Despite its deep South distribution, In T. foetidissimum, the leaves are plants from near Augusta, Ga. have more conspicuously mottled with more proved completely hardy here for many varied tones, the ovary is not distinctly years. Recently we obtained a few six-winged, the stigmas are usually not plants from west Florida. These were as long as the ovary (at flowering). The relatively taller, with smaller leaves and scent of the flowers in T. sessile is spicily flowers than those from Augusta. It re• unpleasant, while those of T. foetidissi• mains to be seen how they prosper. mum have, according to Freeman, a In leaf and flower color, this is almost "strong, nearly stifling, carrion odor." more desirable as a garden plant than T. sessile occurs in the midland states

116 mostly north of Tennessee and Arkan• Trillium cuneatum Raf. sas. 7. foetidissimum occurs east of the Trillium cuneatum, also widely in southern Mississippi known as 7. hugeri, is one of the plants and that portion of Louisiana which lies frequently illustrated as "7. sessile", east of the Mississippi River. especially in European articles. A large We found this species growing in low trillium, it is worthy of a featured spot in woods along a small river in rather the wildflower garden. trashy thickets, and also in more attrac• Plants stand one to two feet tall and tive cover on lower ravine slopes near bear large, chordate-ovate acuminate the headwaters of small rills. It grew on leaves which possess strong mottlings in open forest floors in leaf mold, and oc• light and dark green with some maroon casionally on low rocky outcroppings. undertones. These leaf markings fade Plants were mostly scattered, with little and blurr somewhat during the season, tendency to form clumps. but the plant remains a good accent Freeman (1975) says that 7. foetidis• plant until it dies down at season's end. simum inhabits floodplains, river bluff In the best garden forms, two to three forests and ravine slopes under beech, inch, cuneate (wedge-shaped), heavy magnolia, and pine. textured, inch wide maroon-purple to This is an attractive plant, particularly bronzy purple petals stand upon the in leaf. If it proves to be sufficiently leaves. Petal bases are not narrowed or winter hardy for northern gardens, it will thickened into a claw in this species. be very useful in the rockery. If it proves The narrower sepals may be green or not to be hardy, it is sufficiently like T. with strong maroon purple coloring on sessile so as not to be badly missed. their upper surfaces.

Trillium cuneatum

117 An early emerger and bloomer, T. They stood fully two feet tall, with im• cuneatum remains in bloom for weeks. mense leaves and four inch petals. When fresh, the flowers have a faint, As with most of the maroon purple pleasant scent. Older blooms lack odor sessile flowered species color forms oc• and fade to the usual liver-brown under• cur with brown, liver, greenish yellow, tones, which, to my mind, detract lemon yellow petals, or bicolors with somewhat from the plant's beauty. dark bases and green or yellow extrem• Last spring, we found plants in Ten• ities. We grow a beautiful, clear light nessee which developed undertones of green form from the hills of northern orange as the flowers aged. Some of Georgia. It is not a very large form, but these plants now grow in my garden it is very attractive. where we will observe them. If they still Despite its being rather closely associ• show promise, we will attempt to self- ated with specific limestone soils in the pollinate them and work toward the wild, the plant is extremely easy to possibility of producing orange trilliums. cultivate in almost any garden soil. Even Trillium cuneatum grown natively on in my very unsuitable sandy acid soil Ordovician limestone soils in Southern seedlings appear regularly. Kentucky, Tennessee, western North Appalachian wildflower nurseries of• and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama fer the plant (often listed as T. sessile) and northern Mississippi, occurring far• and it is well worth growing. ther south into the Piedmont and Coast• al Plain as one moves toward the Missis• Trillium luteum (Muhl.) Harbison sippi River. It occurs in a variety of Except for flower color and petal woods and thickets, from very mature shape, the general description for T. beech and oak forests to dry scrubby cuneatum might serve also for T. lute• oak wood. Plants from Georgia and um. In T. luteum, the somewhat nar• Alabama which we have observed have rower, lanceolate petals range in color smaller, narrower petals of darker pur• from pale lemon yellow to a strong clear ple-maroon than those from Tennessee darker yellow in wild plants. However, and Kentucky. The largest plants we some of these darker yellow forms, have ever seen grew near Huntsville, transplanted to my garden, consistently Alabama in a mature beech woods. yield paler, greener tones at this lati• tude. Flowers of T. luteum emit a pleasant lemon scent, those of 7. cuneatum a spicy, musky or faintly fetid odor. T. luteum, an excellent garden plant, occurs naturally in western North Caro• lina, and then, more abundantly in east• ern Tennessee, where it is the only ses• sile trillium in Great Smoky Mountain National Park (Freeman, 1975) and thence northward and westward it oc• curs into south-central Kentucky. In the vicinity of Gatlinburg, Tenn. the bloom• ing plants literally light up the forests and roadsides with a soft yellow glow. It prefers to grow in rich, moist, rocky Trillium luteum woods and lower hillsides, often on

118 lower slopes above a small streambed. vine bluffs along a stream, Louisiana Unlike some sessile species, however, it Trillium grew in heavy leaf mold at the is not confined to river drainage situa• bases of trees and about old rotten logs. tions. In this woods, which had been recently In southern Kentucky T. luteum and pastured, plants were not common. T. cuneatum occur in the same wood- Freeman, (1975) however, avers that lots, a situation seldom seen elsewhere. the plant is locally abundant in central In such stations obvious hybrids and in- Louisiana. He gives its range as "Upper tergrades abound. Coastal Plain of Louisiana (west of Mis• Authors prior to Freeman frequently sissippi River) and eastward into Missis• lumped T. luteum with T. viride Beck, sippi". It is very local in Mississippi and or with various pallid color forms of oth• is said to intergrade there with T. cune• er species. Consequently, the confusion atum. in the literature about its range and char• Since we have just obtained this spe• acteristics is considerable. Freeman's cies this past summer (1980) we cannot treatment (1975), seems to me best to yet comment on whether or not it will reflect the situation which exists in prove hardy. nature. Except for the avid collector, this spe• cies, like several others from the Gulf Trillium ludovicianum Harbison Coast region, is not essential to garden• Louisiana Trillium stands about six to ers, for its horticultural differences from twelve inches tall. The bracts or leaves other, thoroughly hardy and readily ob• are sessile, lanceolate to broadly ovate, tainable species is minimal. and from three to five inches long. The leaves are mottled distinctly, but not so Trillium gracile Freeman strongly as in T. decipiens or T. under- Trillium gracile is another sessile spe• woodii. Petals are linear-oblanceolate, cies with which I am only slightly ac• one and one-quarter to two and one- quainted. We found it growing abun• quarter inches long, somewhat diver• dantly on floodplain alluvium of tribu• gently erect. In color they are green, tary streams to the Sabine River system merging into purplish at their bases. In in extreme western Louisiana. The this species the lower portion of the pet• plants we found had been completely al is narrowed and somewhat thickened inundated, and while covered with dry into a claw-like base. Flowers have a mud, were in full bloom. distinctly bicolored appearance. The Stems (scapes) of this species stand ovary is six-angled. eight to twelve or more inches tall. The This species, according to Freeman sessile, elliptic or elliptic-ovate leaves (1975), is somewhat intermediate be• (bracts) are only two and one-half to tween the species found in Missouri, three and one-half inches long, the Arkansas and the -Louisiana bor• apices of those we saw bluntly rounded. der country, and the sessile species Color was a dull bluish green with some found farther east. darker spotting, but lacking the dramatic We have not seen this species in flow• coloration of some of the more southern er yet, but we have seen the plant and sessile trilliums found farther to the east. collected it in the wild in central Louisi• The petals are linear-elliptic, fairly ana. Because our time was very limited, short, one to one and one-half inches we were able to visit only one small sta• long, their tips acute or rounded. Free• tion. Here, under beeches, magnolias, man gives the color as either dark pur• and a scattering of pines, on small ra• ple or yellow. Those we saw were ex-

119 clusively dark purple. Because of the 7. viride grows in rich woodlands, flooding, the plants u/e observed at first rocky, but damp hillsides, and slopes hand were deteriorating; we observed above river flats within its range, often no characteristic odor. Freeman likens on limestone soils. We were surprised to the odor of Graceful Trillium to that of find it at its best in very thin open sites, the Morel mushroom {Morchella). often quite brushy and grassy, with a T. gracile grows in open to dense minimum of tree cover overhead. pine and hardwood forests on slopes, Plants from Missouri have proved dif• streambanks and alluvium. While Free• ficult to grow and even more difficult to man says that the soils where it grows flower here. This may be because of the are usually sandy, where we collected sandy, dry, acidic nature of my soils, our plants the soil was distinctly clayey. but in any case it is unfortunate, for the T. gracile ranges from extreme south• dark leaves and green flowers make this eastern Texas eastward into Louisiana a desirable garden plant. where it occurs primarily on the upper Coastal Plain of counties bordering on Nutt. the east Texas boundary. This Ouachita-Ozarkian Mountain We have yet to see how this species species bears a close relationship and winters in central Michigan. Like T. physical similarity to T. viride. It grows ludovicianum and foetidissimum, if it somewhat taller, to over eighteen inch• fails to survive here, it is not sufficiently es, with broader leaves which end in distinctive horticulturally to be deeply acuminate tips. Mottling of the leaves mourned. If it is hardy, then from the may be absent or obscure. Leaves tend collector's viewpoint — hurrah! to be carried at right angles to the scape. The narrowly linear-spatulate petals Beck stand erect with a gently graceful single In northeastern Missouri and south• twist. Petal color is a clear green above a ern Illinois, in counties close to the Mis• dark maroon base, (see color photo• sissippi River grows a trillium which until graph, Crockett, et al., 1977). As with recently, was much confused with T. the other sessile species, yellowish, luteum. This plant, T. viride, the Green green, and all purple forms occur. Trillium, seems to be quite distinct. T. viridescens occurs in southwestern A moderate plant, T. viride, stands Missouri, all of western and northwest• ten to eighteen inches tall, with elliptic ern Arkansas, and eastern , leaves either dark green or only very with a few stations known from extreme faintly mottled. Leaves are somewhat southeastern and northeastern blunt tipped and exhibit numerous sto- Texas. Its habitat is rich soil on slopes, mata on their upper surface (Freeman, bluffs, talus and river alluvium under 1975, page 44), a feature generally not mature trees. Magnificent native colo• found in other sessile species. The pet• nies grow in John Lambert's Mountain als are narrow, spatulate to linear, up to Fork River Arboretum near Mena, Ar• two inches long, and somewhat clawed kansas, often in surprisingly heavy (narrowed basally). Petal color is fre• floodplain soils among canebrake. quently dark purple at the base, becom• A handsome species, well worthy of ing green to yellowish green distally. All cultivation, T. viridescens, like T. viride purple and all green forms occur. In my has proved difficult for me. It is prone to plants there is a tendency for the petals a leaf dieback here, so early in the sea• to be divergent spreading and some• son as to interfere with food manufac• what twisted. ture. Consequently plants linger but do

120 not store sufficient food to flower well. Perhaps my sandy, acid soil is the prob• lem. From the standpoint of interest and the collector, there is no such thing as a "bad" trillium species. All evoke uncom• mon interest, many present a real chal• lenge to those who search for them, some possess great grace and beauty. Surely they are among the loveliest of American wildflowers and a noble con• tribution to the world's forests and gardens.

A PERSONAL POINT OF VIEW In this day of high interest in and con• cern for endangered species, I am sure that some readers will feel that one ought not to discuss or to encourage the growing of any "rare" species. True, some trilliums are rare and local, but within their ranges, all but about two or Trillium viridescens three species are really quite common. Wise collection, coupled with propaga• propagated stock. tion and nursery availability is quite I believe that a most worthy function feasible, and should, in my opinion, be of plant societies, arboreta, and botan• undertaken. It will not endanger any ical gardens is to obtain, propagate, and species if approached properly. disseminate stock of even rare or en• 1 sit on the Technical Advisory Com• dangered species to gardeners and nur• mittee on Endangered Plants for the serymen. Such organizations, working Michigan Department of Natural Re• carefully with conservation depart• sources. It is our function to review, rec• ments, can monitor and grow with con• ommend, and establish the rarity status tinuity from generation to generation of our native Michigan plants. I also many horticulturally desirable rare speak before many types of garden plants. By introducing selected horticul• clubs and conservation organizations. I tural forms these institutions and organi• have heard all kinds of statements and zations can help to satisfy the demands arguments relating to the conservation of collectors and gardeners, thus taking of our native plants. Many are irrational• pressure off wild populations through il• ly overzealous and some, such as the licit collecting and black market trading, frequently heard statement that picking which, unfortunately, will exist so long trilliums kills the plant, are simply un• as no other source of plants is available true. to the inveterate collector. Endangered species laws seek to pro• From seed*, or from rhizome divi• tect rare wild plant populations, or pro• sions and offsets, trillium propagation is hibit commercial exploitation of wild quite easily accomplished. In my opin• plants. The purpose of such laws is not ion, wise and carefully monitored col• to totally prohibit the growing of these lection and dissemination should be species or the sale of horticulturally undertaken. It can be done without en-

121 dangering any species, and it can add a given period of growth. Also, if the top of new dimensions to our gardens. the plant is removed, the plant will make no further growth above ground that season. It will, however, appear again the following season after the required low temperatures 'Both trillium seeds and rhizomes have break the bud dormancy. built-in dormancy factors which must be con• Unless one is prepared to care for seeds in sidered in propagation. Trillium seeds have a a frame or pot for several years, I believe it is double dormancy, a first period of low tem• more practical for gardeners to sow the seeds peratures and freezing stimulates the emer• in a suitable spot in the wild garden and let gence of the root from the seed. A further development take its own course. period of shoot or stem dormancy is neces• Trillium rhizomes may be scarified or par• sary, which usually in nature involves a sec• tially girdled to produce a ring of buds which ond winter before the shoot dormancy is will ultimately develop into offset rhizomes. broken. Trillium seeds, therefore, usually Once formed on the girdled rhizome, how• take at least two years to appear above ever, these offset buds must first undergo the ground. Maturation from that point requires required dormancy-breaking temperatures from three to seven years depending upon before any growth appears above ground. species, soil fertility, and other cultural fac• Propagation is not difficult, but it does take tors. time. Someone with the proper facilities Trillium rhizomes also have a bud dor• ought to undertake a program of tissue cul• mancy. New growth is not initiated until the ture and experimental dormancy-breaking to buds have been cooled sufficiently following speed the propagation process.

Bibliography Case, Frederick W., Jr., & Burrows, George L., IV. 1962. The Trillium in Michigan: Some Problems of Distribution and . Papers Mich. Acad. 47: 189-200. Crockett, J., Allen, O., & Editors of Time-Life Books. 1977. lV;7d//ou>er Gardening, Time- Life Encyclopedia of Gardening, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Va. pp. 35-37. Duncan, Wilbur H., Garst, J. & Neece, G. 1971. Trillium persistans (Liliaceae), a New Pedicellate-Flowered Species from Northeastern Georgia and Adjacent North Carolina. Rhodora 73: 244-248. Freeman, John D. 1975. Revision of Trillium subgenus Phyllantherum (Liliaceae). Brittonia 27: 1-62. Freeman, J. D., Causey, A. S., Short, J. W. & Haynes, R. R. 1979. Endangered, Threat• ened, and Special Concern Plants of Alabama. Dept. of Bot. and Microbio., Agricultural Exp. Sta. Auburn Univ. series no. 3. Auburn, Ala. Gates, R. R., 1917. A Systematic Study of the North American Genus Trillium, its Variability and its Relation to Paris and Medeola. Annals Mo. Bot. Gdn. 4 : 43-92. Hooper, G. R., Case, F. W., Jr., & Myers, R. 1971. Mycoplasma-Like Bodies Associated with a Flower Greening Disorder of a Wild Flower, Trillium grandiflorum. Plant Disease Reporter 55: 1108-1110. Johnson, R. G. 1969. A Taxonomic and Floristic Study of the Liliaceae and allied Families in the Southeastern United States. Unpublished Ph. D. Diss. West Virginia University, Morgantown. pp. 179-238.

122 THE SEED COLLECTING CHASE

MARVIN BLACK Seattle, Washington

Ripening Lewisia tweedyi seeds smell the seed collector's next ridge. like honey: bet you didn't know that. 1 Having selected a motive, the seed found out when I entered my dining collector turns to strategy. Why trek 500 room (translate: "seed room") one miles to an unknown area to find only warm July afternoon. This may explain snow banks and buds, or dry tops and why this plant in the wild can send seed• shattered seed pods? One must see the lings uphill several feet a year if ants plants in bloom, both to know the answer the siren call. To collect seed choicest seed patches and to get ac• regularly in the wild is to pick up many quainted with the plant so as to recog• such clues and insights. nize it elsewhere in seed. Guide books One starts collecting wild seed with a and general botanies give information to choice of motives. Greed is one — a help establish what month in a "normal" cheap way to begin an alpine collection. year the plants bloom and "sort-of" Forget greed: it's no more valid than the where. But, there are a lot of days in fisherman's delusion that his hobby pro• August and a lot of miles in "canyons of vides inexpensive food. Honor — per• the Salmon River." A trip to an herbari• haps. Something grows in the garden• um will often give the desired plant on er's breast after years of raiding seed ex• an herbarium sheet, with date the changes for treasures sent by Icelandic blooming plant was collected and quite grandmothers crawling across glaciers; often quite specific directions to the Tasmanian children directed onto preci• "station" where the collection was pices, too insecure for their parents' made. Of course, if you have friends weight, to grasp seeds of near extinct already familiar with the area, cultivate plants; or English gentlemen who swim them, even to the point of asking them the neighboring castle's moat at mid• to lead. With wide-ranging plants, you night to seize the forbidden daisy pro• can then move to lower or higher eleva• tected in yon garden. One finally must tions and probably find any growth contribute one's own native rarities and stage from bud to seed, but with the tales of jeopardy to life and limbs. rarer things you'll almost certainly have to return two weeks (Lewisia and desert Near-kin to honor is fame. What a plants), four weeks (Penstemon and magnificent epitaph! "Miss Brinkman is many mountain flowers) or even six to of course remembered for the seed eight weeks later (some moisture-loving pods of Penstemon wretchedii clutched things) to find seed ready. This is the in her hand when her body was found two-visit necessity that makes plant and at the bottom of Arizona's Precipitous seed collecting expeditions span several Gorge. Lord Johnstone's plants raised months and skyrockets costs. Collectors from the 1954 ARGS Seed Exchange will often travel to a place one year to seed, placed posthumously in Miss see flowers, take pictures and find a few Brinkman's name, yielded the superb seeds, then return for seed collecting a orange form that received the Award of year-and-a-month later. It also explains Merit in 1959.'" Fame lurks just beyond

123 why most serious seed collectors get to "ready." When my sister, Naoma Ney- know their near-to-home areas well by erlin, visited from Oregon and first saw repeated visits. I know that I can collect Lewisia tweedyi in the Wenatchees, I Lewisia tweedyi seeds somewhere on chided her for insisting on carrying Entiat Ridge in mid-June, for I find it home a half-dozen flower sprays in a nicely blooming in early June, and I've bottle (on the bus!). Ten days later I learned the few spots it nearly always is phoned her, smirking, "Well, how did flowering May 10 and the high, shaded your bouquet do?" "Fine; they're shat• places where the last blooms will still be tering seeds all over my window sill." I out in mid-July. Faith Mackeness knows looked on my own window sill and so the seed-pastures of the Columbia River were mine. Subsequently, I've tried Gorge in the dark from years of experi• selecting flowers here and there of spe• ence. Carl and Edith Englishes, Ed Loh- cial forms to bring home if the plant has brunners, Roy Davidsons, A.C.U. Ber- no seed pods. Usually the seed comes rys, Marcel LePiniecs, Boyd Klines, on and shatters out. Four weeks after Margaret and Brian Mulligans and oth• finding populations of Lewisia rediuiva ers learned to go cross-country, follow in bud stage, I've returned to find every deer trails, and find out where the best trace of the plants' blooms, pods and populations grew, over decades of seed gone for the year, as if the acres of tramping the hills. plants actually vanished from the earth. Wayne Roderick taught me: collect Lewisias are fast. Most alliums still have seeds in paper bags — brown lunch color in the flower when the seed is ripe. bags, bags from the market. The bags Fading flower stalks of heucheras usual• are cheap, pack away easily and you ly ripen, and it took me several years to can write on them with a lead pencil in learn that Asarum caudatum, which I the rain. You can hold five in your hand never could find in seed, has its seeds when you are watching for several kinds ripening in the fleshy backs of the flow• of seed at once across a hillside. Most ers, which scarcely change appearance importantly, they don't trap moisture until one day they just rot down into the and "sweat" as plastic does. Seed- moist soil carrying the seeds with them. heads, often with green stems and One learns that certain seeds don't leaves attached, will rot or mold in plas• "dry" in the classic sense, and this in• tic and raise havoc with shattering cludes several swamp or moisture seeds. You can put entire stems of dry• lovers. ing , such as those of It takes steady nerves to collect Cory- erythroniums, in the generous bags, dalis scouleri, C. caseana cusickii and and when you get home, you can open their kinfolk. These plants proudly bear the tops of the bags, place them in a stalked green pods ready for anything warm room on a table, or (my mother's coming by to grab. Ah, there's the rub! method) run clotheslines on the back That's what these clever plants are wait• porch and clip the bags, tops open, on• ing for. Let a human or a deer reach to to the line near the ceiling, warm and touch a pod — it explodes violently, out of the way. For violas, lupins, and flinging seeds twenty feet in all direc• others with exploding pods, close the tions, sometimes into your eyes. You top. Our back porch always sounded must tiptoe up to this plant carefully, like a combat zone: Mom was into cup your hands into as large an open lupins. ball as you can manage, close your eyes With practice one learns which seeds and — Gotcha! And the crazy pods will can be collected before they might seem writhe and pop between your hands like

124 so many small snakes, while neighbor• produce so much seed per square foot ing uncaught pods trumpet the alarm, in nature, that you won't have to follow exploding seeds into the woods like up and get the slow-release ones. peppershot. This is not a plant for the Genera such as Calochortus, Fritillaria, faint of heart. Dan Douglas and I drove LiHum, Erythronium and Iris either a hundred miles extra last summer to simply pour out their seeds or release get C.c. cusickii in seed, so captured them with minimal coaxing. They're were we by its flower and its bold four- fun. Then there are the ridiculous ones foot stature. We arrived only to find all that aren't fun. One of my sons hasn't its cages unlocked a week earlier and a visited with me since I had him man the mile of plants yielded less than a hun• needle-nose pliers to help crack out the dred seeds where there had probably seed of Opuntia fragilis. 1 suppose most been millions. cacti work that way. Zygadenus elegans and Stenanthium The hard, pointed seed capsules of occidentale have seeds that look like many penstemons can punch painful shrivelled grains of rice, but in planting holes in your fingers when you try to get them you discover that this immature at the seed inside; Wayne Roderick rec• appearing seed is good. Zygadenus is ommends grinding a layer of capsules one of the last of the Olympic Mountain between two bricks to release the seeds. plants to ripen seed; I usually cannot Faith Mackeness prefers to use a small collect it until October. mortar and pestle to avoid the brick- When you get your seeds home, dust mixed with the seeds. I agree; it's open the bags and dry the seeds. Some not difficult to work out the delicate line non-shattering things I spread onto between cracking open the capsules large shallow platters to dry, such as and turning the seeds to flour. Heu- lewisias, which have fleshy capsules that cheras can be part-cleaned this way, or can hold lots of moisture and mold if as with many seeds, by rubbing the they are piled up or closed in. The same pods briskly between your hands. With is true of the big head composites that some seeds, such as those of the mat- don't shatter, such as Balsamorrhiza forming phloxes, the cleaning is easy and Wyethia. Air must be able to cir• because the capsules are borne singly culate to dry. I'm unwilling to try the low on the plants, with only two seeds inside oven heat (below 120°F.) that some each capsule — the tedious job here is people use and the rays of microwave collecting the capsules. ovens would kill the life in seeds. A Once you have more or less gotten warm porch or upstairs room would be the seed loose from the seed case, the good for seed drying; basements would big problem, at least with some species, need to be dry and heated or some begins — separating the seeds from the seeds would mold. I use the dining chaff and debris. The first method with room table and we eat in the living room most seeds is to assemble a system of for two months. sieves, those used for laboratory work Once dried the seeds need cleaning. (in soil laboratories, for instance.) Nest• This operation ranges from the sublime ing together and made of brass, these to the ridiculous. Dennis Thompson are lovely to look at and use, but at loves allium cleaning — it's sublime. about $45 per sieve, a set of four or five You can put the heads in a paper bag sizes is costly. Otherwise you raid the with a small ball and shake everything kitchen and the housewares stores for around for a while. The ball will dis• colanders and sieves of different sized lodge most of the papery chaff. Alliums mesh. Beyond sieving, some seed still

125 will not separate from the chaff too well; mons would supply more than has ever try slowly pouring from one bowl to an• been requested by applicants to all the other while you or a hair dryer (very world's seed exchanges since their in• gently) blow an air current through the ception. A tablespoonful of small seeds stream of falling matter to remove the will supply many dozens of packets. chaff (the ancient art of winnowing.) Many items will only be requested by Finally, I spread out some seeds onto a five to ten applicants in a given ex• sheet of white typing paper, forming it change. Only in rare cases would a hun• into a bent-shaped slide, tilting that dred packets of a species be requested, down into another bowl while I gently and no one is impressed with the vol• shake the sliding seeds downward and ume of a particular seed you send. At blow upstream across the top of the the other extreme, with really rare flow. Most of the heavier, slicker seeds things, fifty seeds will supply ten packets will continue to slide, while the chaff will of five seeds each or twenty-five packets move back upstream. With tiny seeds of two each and lots of people would such as those of heuchera, where the like that chance, so don't hesitate to chaff is equally tiny and light, I find it send painfully small quantities of the works well to place the seeds on white rare ones, but don't bother sending such paper and methodically (tediously) tilt stingy supplies of common things. the paper one way then another, keep• The most consistently popular native ing something below to catch the over• Northwest seeds include the genera flow. The seeds are rounder and tend to Lewisia, Viola, Douglasia, Phlox, and roll downhill a bit faster than the chaff. such goodies as Campanula piperi and Certain berry-like seeds dry down C. lasiocarpa, certain choice Draba, well and the seeds can be extracted Silene acaulis, S. hookeri, S. ingramii, from the pulp when dry; single-seeded Eritrichium, Saxifraga oppositifolia, cer• berries I leave in the dried pulp. Some tain Aquilegia and Penstemon, Synthy- pulpy or glutinous seed, such as that of ris pinnatifida var. lanuginosa, Clayton- trillium, I'm told come away from the ia megarrhiza, and some Talinums. The pulp best with washing — I've not tried. finest thing a seed collector can do in (Putting berries and glutinous seed cap• the wild is discover populations where sules in a glass of tepid water and leav• the choicest forms appear and get seeds ing them to soak for several days at from these into the world's gardens. room temperature to soften and rot, Quite often a native Northwest plant has then rinsing and gently rubbing them a bad reputation because the few in• between your fingers in a sieve under troductions have been of an inferior cold running water sometimes works form. well. — Ed.) Drying down pulpy seeds Perhaps you'll not accomplish any takes several weeks unaided, and the goals of Greed, Fame, or Honor collect• seed exchange deadlines come fright• ing wild seed. You will help enrich gar• fully early for so much delay; our berries dens for others in distant countries {and are often collected in October. other sections of your own. — Ed.) I Until I helped package seeds in the was surprised how many British garden• ARGS distribution, 1 little realized what ers told me they only sought out the were proper quantities to send. The wild-collected seeds in exchanges. And average collector sends them in too you may learn how seeds smell ripen• large quantities — it isn't hard to collect ing. It gets in your blood — at the time a quarter-cup of certain penstemon of his death, the writer-collector Regi• seeds, which in the case of most penste- nald Farrer was busy in seed harvest in

126 China. Methinks he probably died happy. to obtain plants, even rather common ones on their native turf, from distant places. If, however, you're unable to (There are several reasons why avid collect in the wild, by all means send in plantsmen prefer wild-collected seed: If seed of the best forms of species from properly collected and identified, they your garden. — Ed.) usually come true — some genera, no• tably Aquilegia and Dianthus, miscege- Reprinted with permission from nate rather freely in a garden situation; the program for the West Coast it's often the only way, in many cases, Study Weekend Six-1981.

TWO SOUTHWESTERN PRIMROSES

SALLY WALKER Portal, Arizona Drawings by the author

Two delightful primroses are native to shade of conifers, both on stable screes southwestern United States. and on the forest floor, where it blooms in summer during the rainy season. At the tip of a slender stem, up to 25 cm. (10 in.) tall, but usually much shorter, four to eight flowers are produced in an on peduncles about 2 cm. long. From a small mealy calyx, the corolla tube opens into five magenta heart shaped petals surrounding a yellow eye. Each blossom is about 2 cm. (3/4 in.) across. The leaves are basal, about 10 cm. (4 in.) long, nearly half of which is petiole, and 2 cm. wide. They are toothed and rather soft in texture. Primula ellisiae is more local in distri• bution. It is found on the summits of the White Mountains and the Sandia Moun• tains in New Mexico at 11,500 feet. A few plants also grow in the shade of co• nifers. It differs from P. rusbyi in that the flower stems are much shorter, barely Primula rusbyi is found in the higher surpassing the leaves. The calyx is a bit mountain ranges in southern Arizona larger than that of P. rusbyi and the and southern New Mexico and at least flower color a deeper purple. The leaf as far south as the Sierra de Chapulte- petioles are margined. It, too, blooms in pec on the Tropic of Cancer in the state July and August. of Zacatecas, Mexico. It grows at eleva• As I haven't gardened since I left En• tions of 7,500 to 10,000 feet in the gland and moved to Arizona, where I

127 now only collect the seed of such plants, 1 asked my friend Brian Halliwell of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew for infor• mation about the cultivation of these two primroses and received the follow• ing information from Tony Hall, Super• visor of the Alpine Department at the Botanic Garden: "Primula parryi (the easiest of the North American species to cultivate at Kew), P. rusbyi and P. ellisiae are now firmly established members of an ever expanding New World alpine collection. These related species, which bloom be• tween June and August, are useful pot plants for our alpine house at a time of year when flower colour is often in short Prim ula ellisiae supply, although P. parryi, with its coarse and strongly pungent foliage, is ing specimens can be produced from the least attractive of the trio as a potted seed within eighteen months. subject. "It is possible that these two primroses "Seed should be sown immediately it are calcifuge so use rain water only. is gathered, or on receipt, in a mixture Ample watering is required during the of equal parts of leaf-mould, soil and growing season (April to October) but sand. The seed should only just be especially when flowering. In the resting covered. Plunge the container in a period decrease water, avoiding mois• sunny frame keeping the pot and the ture around the crowns, but do not dry plunge material uniformly moist. Ger• out completely. Apply a balanced liquid mination will take place during mild feed or use granules between July and spells between February and May fol• August at three-weekly intervals. lowing prolonged cold and/or freezing. "Slugs can be a nuisance. The white "The container of seedlings should be C shaped grubs of Vine Weevil may be transferred to a cool glass-house follow• found attacking the roots. Various ing germination and potted singly in aphids may feed on leaves and flower small containers when they are big scapes and occasionally the roots. Ap• enough to handle, using a compost of ply a control as soon as these troubles four parts of leaf-mould, four parts of are noticed. Rotting of the crown can peat, four parts of soil, and three parts occur in winter if over watered. Grey of silver sand [pure white quartz sand Mould may attack leaves in autumn if containing no iron.—Ed.) Seedlings the plants are watered from overhead or should remain in the cool house up to when there is insufficient ventilation. May or until established, when they are Apply powdered sulphur to any cut sur• transferred to a shady cold frame. They faces resulting from removal of infected are not plunged, but are watered regu• material. larly during the summer. Once estab• "For outdoor cultivation, established lished in the small containers they will seedlings were planted out in our wood• need to be moved into larger ones, land garden for trials in May 1978. They probably in early summer. Good flower- were planted in light shade in a leafy,

128 sandy soil, which did not dry out in forded by an outside location will en• summer. There was occasional artificial courage free flowering eventually. I be• irrigation in dry spells. These plants sur• lieve that the winter wet, rather than vived the following hard winter to flower frost, will be the governing factor where in 1979 and it is hoped that the free these primulas are cultivated out-of- root-run and better light conditions af• doors in Great Britain."

Lawrence Hochheimer 1895 - 1981

Larry, to his friends, was one of the most evenly balanced men whom it has been my privilege to know, a man of many diverse and unsuspected talents, some not often encountered today. He probably knew verbatim more Gilbert and Sullivan than a score of us put together. Shakespeare was a warm and familiar friend. Multi• lingual, widely read, widely travelled, he wore his attainments lightly, and charmed all who were fortunate enough to be admitted to his friendship. For some years prior to 1968 he served the Society as Secretary, and always maintained an active interest in it and in the Connecticut Chapter particularly. He was ever ready with sound counsel when called on, but never thrusting himself for• ward. Larry's gardening credo was characteristic: to keep this aspect of his life in perspective. If a plant pleased him, suited his domain and seemed likely to be at home in his stone wall, it was his — not otherwise. This wall is a proper New En• gland one, granite boulders, lichen covered, of ancient glacial vintage. There as the spirit moved him, he would take it down in part, chink the interstices with soils ap• propriate to both the granite and the plants selected for inclusion, and then carefully rebuild. Thus his garden, together with adjacent areas of the heather tribes of which he was fond, grew at his chosen pace. A personal garden, small, manageable, with no pretense nor aspiration to become a comprehensive collection of every known form of Genus X or Y. In short, this garden was for him recreation, not his whole life, indeed, far from it. A story is told in the family of an episode during a trip that he and Irene once took into the Pacific Northwest, which says many things about him — his wit, his in• stant recall, his attitudes toward plants and, yes, toward some types of fellow gar• deners. The tour bus had stopped, everyone had piled out eagerly and hopeful to discover "new" plants — the familiar scene of gung-ho rock gardening enthusiasts touring en masse: all stooped in avid circles over some tiny plant, exclamations here, photographing there, interest at fever pitch. Finally all back in the bus, the usual excited chatter, Latin names flying up and down the aisle. Ultimately, some• one asked Larry the inevitable question — what had he found? Then the instanta• neous, almost dead-pan response, "Miltonia areopagitica". Retold thus in cold print, this may, unhappily, seem a chilling bit of one-upmanship. But not with Larry, as the twinkle in the eyes and the ghost of a smile would tell.

129 It is safe to say that, after his family, the chief motivating force of his so-called retirement years was one of service to his community. Retiring from business in the early 60s, he quickly turned his executive energies and expertise to many aspects of Norwalk's civic life, particularly to work with and for the elderly. Among his notable accomplishments was the organizing of a volunteer job placement service for senior citizens of all ranks who, like himself, sought to fill their lives with useful pursuits. Another facet of his service to his city led one editorial writer to call him "the ombudsman of Norwalk". And indeed he must have been so to many: every Thursday, rain or shine, well or not, he kept his office door open to any and all who sought attentive counsel on all sorts of matters. In consequence there came flooding to him in his last days hundreds of heart-warming letters from his fellow townsmen and women expressing appreciation and gratitude for help and attention freely given over many years, spontaneous tributes to his long history of con• cerned, caring, resourceful and pertinent help to those in trouble. One of the finest appreciations of his work that I have seen is in the closing lines of an editorial in one of the Norwalk papers marking his passing: "The best memorial to Larry Hochheimer already has been constructed: it is his own record of accomplishment in behalf of his fellowman." - MSM

CRYSTAL GARDENING: Painless Propagation

MARIE TIETJENS Blue Bell, Pennsylvania

Just what is crystal gardening? It is my might have a cutting and he said, "But, simple, efficient and rewarding method Marie, is it the right time?" I gave him of propagating cuttings under glass jars. my stock answer. "Dr. John, when the I use no bottom heat, no misting, no opportunity presents itself, that is the strong hormodin powders. I let mother right time for me." And with that, he nature do most of my work for me. told me to help myself. So, in the pour• What, when, where and how do I ing rain, I did just that. The cuttings took propagate? and grew into nice healthy plants. I de• What? Anything and everything — lighted in telling the Wisters of their azaleas, rhododendrons, dwarf coni• progress. I have since taken cuttings of fers, trees, roses, chrysanthemums, the cuttings and have spread the cheer rock garden plants. You name it. around. When? Whenever the opportunity My greatest delight is in giving away presents itself — from January 1st to plants I have propagated. I have, per• December 31st. I recall one instance haps, been influenced by some remarks when I was visiting the Wisters' garden Line Foster made at one of the Rock in Swarthmore. I had always admired Garden Society conventions when Max their Rhododendron mucronulatum and I were comparatively new mem• 'Cornell Pink'. I asked Dr. Wister if I bers. He explained the importance of

130 sharing plants: of extending beauty; node. The size of the cutting is depen• when you share a plant, you never lose dent upon the size of the plant. If it is a it because you can always get a cutting dwarf rhododendron or dwarf conifer, I back if you lose your own plant. usually take about a two inch cutting. If I am a firm believer in sharing and it is a medium-leaf rhododendron, I spreading beauty, and, besides, I have a take about a three to four inch cutting. If mania for propagating plants. I must it is a large-leaf rhododendron or a dog• propagate anything and everything — wood or cut-leaf maple, I take about a especially when someone says it can't six inch cutting. I remove some of the be done. My daughter-in-law has lower leaves and if the leaves are large I spread the rumor that I can propagate a cut the rest of them in half. At either broomstick. side of the base of the cutting, I shave Where? My original propagating off a sliver, about one inch long for a bed, which 1 still use, is a protected area large-leaf rhododendron and much less, about four by four feet in front of our if anything at all, on the smaller plants. house, facing north. This is actually a As I said earlier, I do not believe in natural Nearing Frame. The cuttings are strong hormodin powders. If I use any• protected by the wall of the house. thing at all, it is some old Rootone that Some azalea bushes in front of the someone gave me years ago, which has propagating bed not only protect the probably lost all its effectiveness. I then plants but hide the view of unsightly put the cutting right into the ground and jars. The area gets light but no sun, put a jar over the top of it. Mother na• which is very important. I can strike ture takes over at this point. I do not about a hundred cuttings here. At first I water unless we have a particularly dry did nothing to the soil, which was the spell in the summer. Patience is a virtue worst imaginable foundation excavation at this time. I am not in any particular soil. Would you believe that I had tre• hurry to remove the jars. From time to mendous luck with my cuttings? Max time, I lift up the jars to see how the has since added quite a bit of peat moss, plants are doing. I am a firm believer in sand, and humus and has made the soil the power of positive thinking. I know in loose and friable. my mind that the cutting is going to take I have since encroached on another — and it usually does. If for some area, a raised bed alongside the fence of reason it doesn't, I remove it, stir up the our pool, facing north. We had azaleas soil a bit and put another cutting in its here at one time, but they did not do place. well on account of the shade from the When do I remove the jars? Well, that appletree nearby. As Max moved the depends. Instinct guides me. Usually azaleas, I took over with my jars much after sufficient growth has been made. to his disgust and horror. He is such a Sometimes it takes a year and some• perfectionist that the thought of seeing times it takes two years. The plant can all those exposed jars, in all sizes and all then be moved to a nursery bed for fur• shapes, just did not appeal to him at all. ther growth or to somewhere in the gar• He called it the "city dump". A friend of den. Or it can be given to someone who mine re-named it the "crystal garden". 1 might appreciate it. Since these plants like that name much better. Recently, have been exposed to the elements, someone called it a "bubble garden". So they will not suffer from transplanting. what's in a name? They are good, healthy, strong plants How? 1 take a cutting, preferably one that should continue to grow well with without a flower bud, just below a leaf the proper care.

131 What is my percentage of success? cess. Why? Because it is one more plant Well, I tell you. I use Lee Raden's math than you had before, so that makes it for propagators. If you take ten cuttings 100% . If two root, that is 200% and so and only one roots, that is 100% suc• on.

AWARD WINNERS - 1981

AWARD OF MERIT

Hans Asmus Visitors, on their way to Wisconsin's E. nanum var. jankaea grown from Door County Peninsula, following the seed he received from the Balkans. As• 1973 ARGS Annual Meeting, had a mus has established friendships with brief stop at the Mequon, Wisconsin alpine gardeners in Czechoslovakia, garden of Hans Asmus, where they Germany and Switzerland, first by letter were amazed by the large and healthy and then by visits. Some very interest• plants of ramonda and haberlea in full ing seeds have been passing back and bloom. It was soon obvious that there forth, the results of which will be enrich• were many other treasures to be seen in ing our gardens shortly. that garden. The tour leader faced mu• Hans is an excellent photographer tiny when he attempted to get everyone who has contributed many slides to the back on the bus on schedule. Shortly ARGS Slide Library. When the Wiscon• after this visit Hans sold that house (and sin-Illinois Chapter of ARGS viewed the garden), moving to another only a few library's primula slides there was a feel• hundred feet away. ing of "deja vu"; many of the slides had This is not another sad story of lost been seen in a talk Hans had given a garden, lost soul. Hans had planned for few months earlier. He is also one of the the move. He had propagated almost Chapter's most accomplished show ex• all his choice plants and started seed• hibitors, with a drawer full of blue rib• lings of many more; so when he took bons to prove it. possession of his new property he was The American Rock Garden Society ready. His new property now has more takes great pleasure in presenting the extensive and lovely rock gardens than Award of Merit to Hans Asmus for out• did the old one. standing horticultural achievement and He grows many plants from seed, contributions to the Society. —I.G. some from his own collecting trips. Several of these trips recently took him Bozidar (Ted) Berginc into the Big Horn and Beartooth Moun• On a forty foot wide lot in West Allis, tains. Many of these collections have Wisconsin there is a ranch style house been contributed to the seed exchanges and a driveway extending the length of of the ARGS, Alpine Garden Society the lot from the street in front to fan out and the Scottish Rock Garden Club. to the width of a two car garage in the From his collected seed he is growing back. Not much room for a garden, yet Eritrichium, which he is comparing with Ted Berginc has transformed this small

132 space into one of the most visited rock Victor Reiter, Jr. gardens in the Mid-west. With a sure By many of his friends and fellow gar• eye for design and craftsmanship to deners Victor Reiter, Jr. is regarded as match he has constructed a lovely gar• the "Dean of Horticulturists" of central den to house the aristocrats of alpine California if not of the entire state. Now plants. nearing the ripe age of eighty years, he The genus Saxifraga provides many has spent the fifty-five years since grad• of the inhabitants here, among them uation from the University of California Saxifraga x 'Scheeryi', a cushion dome in Berkeley in pursuit of his great love composed of 2cm. diameter silver ro• — plants. At that time his father, Victor settes tight against each other, each with Reiter, Sr., started gardening in a new a little red center button, which eventu• home in San Francisco and young Vic• ally elongates into a flower stalk, the tor joined him in collecting and hybridiz• whole cushion about ten inches across. ing roses, producing some that are still Here the mossy saxifrage, S. trifurcata worthy of use in landscaping. becomes a revelation. Its rosettes are The new home was near Golden much wider and with coarser foliage Gate Park and the Reiters, father and than the mossy hybrids, yet its cushion son, became acquainted with "Papa is a smooth dome, looking very like a John" McLaren (famed Superintendent trimmed, soft and open sponge. This is of Golden Gate Park for almost sixty an illusion, however; the cushion is like years), and with two members of his rock to the touch. There are also many staff: Lewis Allen, propagator, and Eric thriving specimens of and Kab- Walther, botanist (later to become Di• schia saxifrages in this garden, among rector of Strybing Arboretum in Golden them sancta, 'Faldonside', 'Princess', Gate Park). Through the friendship and and grisebachii. Other genera well rep• guidance of these men and many other resented in the Berginc garden are Gen- growers and hybridizers, Victor studied tiana, Primula, Douglasia, including all and worked his way into becoming the but the Alaskan species, and androsace, great plantsman that he is. with a number of high alpine species. At about the same time, young Victor All of the species plants in the garden started a one-man nursery on part of have been grown by Ted from seed and the home property, naming it "La he has experimented with a number of Rochette" (The Little Rock). From his seed media to achieve some remarkable friends and contacts he was soon col• results. Many he grows to maturity in lecting plants and seeds, both from local pots in his two well engineered cold sources and through importations from frames and when he brings these plants all over the world. Among these many to Plant Shows at ARGS Annual Meet• plants he acquired hundreds of succu• ings, they are invariably prize winners. lents, and was soon producing new, Ted is a gracious and modest person. named clones of echeverias, some of His generosity has enriched the ARGS which are still being propagated. Seed Exchange and both chapter and A devastating freeze in December, national plant sales with rare specimen 1932, obliterated all the breeding stocks plants. of the tender plants in the nursery, so The American Rock Garden Society Victor became interested in Mediterra• takes great pleasure in presenting the nean flora because of the similarity of Award of Merit to Bozidar Berginc for climates. At the same time he started outstanding horticultural achievement working with fuchsias, and father and and service to the Society. —I.G. son became very active in the breeding

133 of this genus. After his father's death, Born and raised in Alaska, Aline has Victor carried on this fuchsia work, spent a lifetime locating, collecting and eventually writing definitive articles on studying the flora of her native state. the hybridizing and culture of the genus. She is perhaps more familiar with this During World War II, Victor went into flora than most trained botanists and is war work, but returned enthusiastically frequently requested to lead both pro• to breeding plants after the war was fessional botanists and professional and over. He continued to increase his col• dedicated amateur horticulturists to the lection until his sales catalog listed over areas where they grow. This Aline five hundred kinds of rock garden and seems always willing to do and, though non-succulent herbaceous plants as well well past three score years and ten, she as several hundred succulents, plus will still sprint up mountain slopes like a dwarf conifers, shrubs and vines, many bird dog in search of an elusive plant at of them unobtainable from other sources. a pace that frequently leaves her follow• There was a constant flow of visiting ers, even those half her age, gasping far professionals, advanced amateurs and behind her. others to the nursery, all eager to dis• She shares other things as well, such cuss and acquire these rare plants. Vic• as seeds and plants. She has been par• tor was generous to a fault (he still is), ticipating in the seed exchanges for sharing knowledge, plants and advice; years, not only that of ARGS, but also rarely did a visitor, expert or no, leave those of England, Scotland, and British the nursery without gifts or exchange Columbia. She carries on a voluminous agreements. Finally, however, the com• correspondence with wildflower enthu• bination of research, collecting, grow• siasts in other parts of the United States ing, and selling became too demanding and the world. She is forever answering and costly, and the nursery was closed. their questions and sending them seeds But Victor did not quit. Not by any and plants. means. He still has a constant stream of Aline has been collecting Alaskan visitors; he still grows his rare plants by plants for many years and she has fur• the hundreds; he is still supplying nished these to various herbaria. Many friends and visitors with plants, advice, of these plants now grow in her wild- and genial good-humored friendship. flower garden, which is extensive and For many years he has given lectures to contains more than two hundred spe• clubs and societies and recently he has cies of Alaskan wildflowers in addition acquired a camera and learned photog• to cultivated varieties and wild plants raphy so he now can illustrate his talks from other areas. According to those with his own slides. who have visited her fascinating garden, Victor Reiter, Jr. is eminently deserv• she has the greenest thumb of anyone ing of the Award of Merit from the in Alaska, and an Alaskan friend says "If American Rock Garden Society. Aline can't make something grow there - O.P. is no use in anyone else trying." As shown by certain illustrations in Aline Strutz The Alaska-Yukon Wildflower Guide, Although not formally educated in Aline is also an excellent photographer. botany Aline Strutz has acquired an ex• She probably has photographed more tensive knowledge of the flora of Alas• Alaskan species than anyone else. ka. What is more to the point, she For her high horticultural achieve• cheerfully shares her knowledge with ment and many contributions to rock one and all. gardens and rock gardeners all over the

134 world, Aline Strutz is particularly well ite scree with several tons of rocks from suited to be a recipient of the Award of the California High Sierra, in which he Merit of the American Rock Garden planted an alpine garden containing Society. -H.W. many Sierran alpine plants formerly considered almost impossible to grow in the mild sea-level climate. A few years ago he was appointed to MARCEL LE PINIEC AWARD the position of Director of Tilden Park Botanic Garden situated in the hills be• Wayne Roderick hind Berkeley. This garden consists of It is specified that the Marcel Le Piniec native plants only and Wayne's experi• Award be "given to a person who, as ence and training exactly fitted his new nurseryman, propagator or plant ex• job. Here, along with his staff and many plorer, is currently and actively engaged volunteers, he has created a splendid in extending and enriching the plant educational horticultural exhibit consid• material available to American rock gar• ered one of the best of its kind. deners." Wayne Roderick of Orinda, In addition to his appointed work. California well qualifies in all respects to Wayne maintains his own noteworthy these specifications, plus being involved private rock garden in which he grows in other horticultural activities. rare plants collected from many sources He was born into a flower loving fam• all over the world. Through acquaint• ily. His parents ran a florist shop in Pet- ance and correspondence with many aluma, California and as a boy and other highly placed plantsmen he has young man Wayne worked in the shop, obtained seed, bulbs and plants, not making professional flower arrange• only for Tilden Park Garden and his ments. At the same time, he was plant• own garden but also for distribution, ing and growing plants on his own. along with seeds, plants and bulbs re• He became a gardener at the Univer• sulting from his own collecting. Such ac• sity of California Botanical Gardens in tivity is in high accord with the Le Piniec Berkeley, ultimately becoming Horticul• Award requirements. In addition to his turist. Having been interested for a long exploration for native Western Amer• while in California native plants, he was ican plants, Wayne has hunted for placed in charge of the California native plants in South Africa, North Africa and plant area of the Gardens. In addition, Spain, among other locations. he could also indulge in growing plants He has given freely of his time for lec• for himself. He also joined with others in tures to many local and foreign plant plant collecting. Together with Arthur organizations including annual ARGS Menzies of the Strybing Arboretum in meetings and the International Rock Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Mar• Garden Plant Conference in Harrogate, garet Williams of Sparks, Nevada, and England, in 1971. He has written many other friends he made almost weekly articles on the plants in which he spe• exploration trips the length and breadth cializes and these have been published of California. He collected plants, bulbs, in various horticultural journals. Among and seeds of native plants for inclusion the many plants about which he has be• in the Botanical Gardens, propagating come an authority are brodiaea, lache- the results of his collections and ul• nalia, fritillary, narcissus, lewisia, arcto- timately making an extremely well staphylos and pleione, along with many thought of and popular native plant gar• others. den. In one area he constructed a gran• Wayne Roderick is thoroughly qual-

135 ified to be included as one of the Ameri- serve the Marcel Le Piniec Award, can Rock Garden Society's greats to de- — O.P.

PIKES PEAK - And How the Tundra Got There

LUCIAN M. LONG Colorado Springs, Colorado

I have often wished to have a time grated from the north, following the machine with the dials set to the 14th higher elevations of the Rocky Moun• day of July, 1820 when Edwin James tains. and his two companions first saw the The concept of Plate Tectonics has tundra and the masses of astonishingly now been fairly well accepted for about brilliant mat plants on top of "Grand 15 years by most scientists around the Peak". world as being the only way to explain Captain Zebulon Pike and his "dam'd Continental Drift. There are still many rascals" had first seen the "highest pre-existing ideas which will have to peak" from a distance on November 15, change, but many former quandaries 1806, but failed in an inept attempt to can now be resolved. climb it — exploring South Park in• The circumboreal plants, some of stead. A member of the party, Dr. John which eventually reached the Rockies, H. Robinson, published a brief report of probably originated on what is now the trip in 1819 and on a crude map known as the Arctic Plate, which was called the peak "Pikes Mountain." On a originally located to the north of Green• map published several years later it was land. This plate moved westerly even called "James Peak". Eventually the faster than the North American Plate two were combined to become Pikes (after they both pulled away from Eu• Peak. Later, another botanical explorer, rope) and eventually it turned slightly Dr. C.C. Parry, named a different peak counter-clockwise and collided with for James. Siberia about 45 M.Y.A. (million years Many words have been written about ago). The Arctic Plate, caught between the unparalleled beauty and the exqui• Siberia and the North American Plate, site excellence of tundra flowers, but included eastern Siberia, Kamchatka, until recently not much thought has and western Alaska, creating a solid been given about where they came land link between northern Asia and from. North America from about 45 M.Y.A. As 1 pointed out in The Green Thumb, to 12 M.Y.A. when a large fault opened published by the Denver Botanic Gar• the Bering Strait. This opening was dens (Vo. 36, No. 2, Summer 1979, p. filled in — probably by erosion — by 46), Colorado tundra plants have mi• about 9.9 M.Y.A., but then, about 4

136 M.Y.A., the Bering Strait opened again Rockies. Clementsia, frequently listed even wider than before. In later periods as Rhodiola, was named for Frederic E. other "land bridges" existed between Clements, who founded an alpine labo• Siberia and North America because of ratory at Minnehaha on the east side of lower levels of the oceans during the ice Pikes Peak during the early part of this ages. These permitted the peoples, later century. (Both Rhodiola and Clement• to be known as the American Indians, sia are, by some botanists, classified as to cross from Siberia. Plants from Asia Sedum — Ed.) also migrated across this link of land. A Pikes Peak, although 14,110 feet in mixed mesophytic forest extended from elevation, is not on the Continental Di• Japan to Oregon. vide. The Pikes Peak massif was formed In Alaska, the tundra can exist near by a pulse of molten rock forced up sea level because of the cold northern from deep within the earth during the climate, but as the tundra plants mi• second of three mountain building epi• grated south they were relegated to the sodes in Colorado. The time of this heights and were unable to extend their event is difficult to establish, but took range beyond the mountains of north• place later than most of the other "base• ern Arizona and New Mexico. A few ment rock" formations and probably oc• plants, which can withstand more heat, curred about a billion years ago. The have progressed nearly to the Mexican rock cooled slowly, obviously far below border, yet some others have not even the crust, to form a pink coarse-grained reached as far south as Colorado. granite. As the Colorado Rockies were The migration of plants is a slow pro• pushed up (about 50 to 45 M.Y.A.) this cess, depending as it does on genera• rock was exposed and the entire area tion after generation extending their continued to rise very slowly until about range by sowing into suitable locations. 10 M.Y.A. Some plants seem to remain the same The Pikes Peak massif is at right an• through the centuries of migration, oth• gles to the Continental Divide and is iso• ers go through genetic changes as they lated about 75 miles east of the other move from one site to another. In some high peaks. The only way high tundra cases plants that change significantly be• plants, which require cool conditions, come relegated to a particular area and could have reached the Peak would may be designated as endemic species have been to migrate during the ice — occurring in no other place in the ages, which reached a maximum about world. 20,000 years ago. Blanca Peak, about Kings Crown {Rhodiola integrifolia), 100 miles to the south, still cradles the whose deep red to maroon flowers, southernmost glacier in North America. sometimes tinged with yellow or or• Having been isolated for, perhaps, ange, are among the most brilliant on 10,000 years, many of the high altitude Pikes Peak, is a member of a wide• plants at Devil's Playground on Pikes spread genus. There is a species in the Peak have become endemic, differing Arctic, with yellow to rose flowers, from other Colorado tundra flora. They called Rhodiola rosea and in the moun• are noticeably different from those on tains of central Asia is another species 14,264 foot Mt. Evans about 60 miles called Rhodiola semenouii with a more further north on the Continental Divide. rounded cluster of blossoms. This, last The Borage Family () is very like the pink to white-flowered must be very ancient for it is widely dis• Rose Crown or Queens Crown (C/e- tributed around the world. It is, per• mentsia rhodantha), endemic to the haps, best known among gardeners for

137 anchusa and borage, but there are tensia in Colorado above timberline. about 85 genera in this family and over The Many-flowered Puccoon (Litho- 1,500 species, many of which are desig• spermum multiflorum), another mem• nated as endemics. Among these are ber of the Borage Family, this one with the beautiful Chatham Island Forget- yellow trumpet shaped flowers, is com• me-not {Myosotidium hortensia), a mon from the mesas to tree limit from monotypic genus difficult to grow even Wyoming south to Mexico. It is of inter• in nearby New Zealand. est to botanists because of the variations Though the state flower of Alaska, in the form of its blossoms. Still another alpestris, has migrated into the member of the Boraginaceae, this one northwestern corner of Colorado and occurring in Colorado and southeast has been found on the White River Pla• Wyoming, is Miners Candle {Cryptan- teau between Yampa and Meeker, it tha uirgata), which is well represented does not appear on Pikes Peak, though along the Cog Road on the east side of its relative, Stickseed Forget-me-not Pikes Peak. A stiff bristly plant with (Hackelia jloribunda), a tall coarse white forget-me-not flowers in the axils plant, does grow below the tree limit on of the leaflike bracts, it makes one think the Peak as well as in other areas of the of a miniature echium. Rockies. Pikes Peak can be reached by Cog But the coveted member of the Bor- Road or by automobile. Perhaps the aginaceae (at least among rock garden• best way to see the flowers is by the ers) is eritrichium with representatives in automobile toll road. There are two Asia and Europe as well as in North areas where it is convenient to view the America. Several variants of Eritrichium tundra: Elk Park, overlooking Bottom• nanum, sometimes listed as separate less Pit; and Devil's Playground, west of species under the names E. howardii, the top. At Elk Park there are a number E. elongatum and E. argenteum, occur of rare plants, among them: Kings in the Rocky Mountains. Also occurring Crown {Rhodiola integrifolia), Old- in Colorado is another variant or sepa• man-of-the-mountain {Hymenoxys rate species E. aretioides (depending on grandiflora), Rock Jasmine {Andro- the botany you consult), appearing oth• sacae chamaejasme), Purple Saxifrage erwise only in Alaska and Siberia. White {Telesonix jamesii), Halls Alpine Penste- flowered mutants of this usually blue- mon (Penstemon hallii), Alpine Paint• flowered plant are occasionally seen in brush {Castilleja puberula), Snow-lover the southern Rockies, and on Pikes {Chionophila jamesii), Alpine Mertensia Peak, at Devil's Playground, there are, {Mertensia alpina), Dwarf Columbine in addition, two sizes of these diminu• [Aquilegia saximontana), Moss-pink tive eritrichiums, each size with flowers [Silene acaulis) and Nailwort {Parony- of a slightly different blue. chia puluinata). Another member of the Boraginaceae Devil's Playground is more typical of common in Colorado is mertensia, often high alpine tundra. Of particular interest called bluebells, though the blossoms, are the endemic Alpine Parsley (Oreox- on close inspection, resemble those of is humilis) and Eritrichium aretioides. In forget-me-not rather than those of blue• addition there are many other tundra bells. There are several species as the al• plants such as the Fairy Primrose {Prim• titude increases: MM. lanceolata, ciliata, ula angustifolia), Golden Draba {Draba viridis and alpina. This last is very com• aurea). Snowball Saxifrage (Saxifraga mon on the high tundra of Pikes Peak rhomboidea). Wild Candytuft {Thlaspi and it is found only there, the only mer• montanum), Alp Lily {Lloydia serotina)

138 and Alpine Kittentails (Besseya alpina). there and agree with Edwin James that Visitors to the Colorado tundra are it must be the bright sun on Pikes Peak fascinated by the variety of plants found which makes the flowers so brilliant. in the beautiful natural rock gardens

THE LAMIUMS: Their Usefulness and Limitations

MRS. RALPH CANNON Chicago, Illinois

Many plantsmen think that foliage is North America. The vernacular name much more important than flowers in a for lamiums is "dead nettle". In general, garden. In many ways this is definitely the leaves are simple, hairy, opposite true. Green is the main color in a gar• and toothed. The flowers are two- den and until a green background is ob• lipped and are borne in clusters in the tained the flowers cannot be properly leaf axils or as terminal whorls. They seen as a focus of interest. Of course, have a five-lobed corolla, two or four the green background can be interrupt• stamens, one style, two stigmas, and a ed and brightened by the blending of superior ovary. The fruit is composed of some variegated foliage. The lamiums four one-seeded nutlets with the calyx can be used in this respect for their enclosing them. blends of silver, gray and gold, though One species that has been used in our these are less easily found than the solid gardens for many years is greens. One needs to be cautious about maculatum. It likes a moist soil but will recommending lamiums to one's fellow also grow in dryish garden soil. It does gardeners as they can be invasive, but well in shade. It produces a dense low there are cultivars that are as well be• carpet in a short time. The hairy, dim• haved as they are beautiful. pled, cordate leaves, about two inches Besides using foliage plants as a back• long, with a broad silver stripe and some ground to flowers, they have another white blotches running down the midrib function — covering the ground. In na• of each leaf, are most attractive. Ro• ture, where soil and climate permit, all settes of pinkish-purple two-lipped flow• ground is completely covered; in gar• ers are borne at the nodes throughout dening we should strive to keep the the summer. It is too invasive for the ground covered with something too. regular rock garden and should be rele• Generally, herbaceous plants come first gated to other places: for edging to to mind and here lamiums are suitable pathways, beds or borders. There it will and well qualified for they colonize sweep into the path and make an un• rapidly. even line that is most satisfying as one Lamiums are herbs belonging to the strolls along. This species used in a Labiatae or Mint Family. Mint, sage, woodland or wild garden remains in the hyssop, lavender, catnip and thyme are memory as a perfect example of imag• among its members. This family is one inative planting. of the most commonly represented in A white form, Lamium maculatum al-

139 bum is available, although not com• form new plants. This plant will grow in mon. It is like the type plant with the ex• dry shade and can be a blessing in some ception of the quite showy white flowers. areas as long as you can keep it within Another very striking cultivar of the bounds by mowing or clipping back the species is Lamium maculatum 'Aureum' edges, but left to its own devices it can with bright yellow foliage. The leaves become a nuisance. The spreading var• are shorter and the growth habit more iegated verdure and not unattractive prostrate and compact than in the spe• heads of pale yellow, two-lipped blos• cies, making it a fine low growing plant. soms will cover almost any eyesore you The flowers are pink or purple. The want to hide: an unattractive wall, a leaves are somewhat undulated and rough steep bank where little else will keep their bright yellow color through• grow, the bare patches under large trees out the season of growth. Yellow is a or shrubs, as a cover over spent bulb popular color in spring because it har• foliage. It should, however, be kept monizes well with the excitement of the away from other plantings as this plant opening of the gardening year and this needs room to sprawl and it can be em• lamium will brighten a shady spot like a barrassingly prolific. Only sturdy grow• patch of sunlight. This cultivar is as well ers can compete with it. If it does begin behaved as it is beautiful and can be to wander into territory where it is not used in a rock garden or in the forefront wanted, use a sharp spade to cut off the of a flower border. It is not rampant and invading stems as they appear. may be safely associated with other It would be a serious omission not to plants. Also lovely and restrained in mention Lamium armenum. Roy Elli• growth habit is a new cultivar, an En• ott, writing in The Journal of the Royal glish introduction named L.m. 'Bea• Horticultural Society (1973), tells about con's Silver'. In this plant the silvery this fine new lamium introduced from splotches on the leaves are so enlarged Turkey in 1966. He describes it as one as to render the foliage nearly pure sil• of the finest plants of the last decade, ver. saying it was nearly lost to cultivation Another species of lamium, (best because recipients of the seeds refused known in its variegated form) is Lamium to believe that "Lamium sp." might turn galeobdolon (now reclassified as Lami- out to be a notable plant. He describes it astrum galeobdolon galeobdolon) known as an unusual plant for the garden. colloquially as the Yellow Archangel. Growing very compactly, it behaves it• This is a plant which, though it is a self and can be trusted to keep to its vigorous spreader, takes time to form assigned territory. The soft pink flowers, dense carpets. It grows in the same which are borne in large numbers, add manner as does vinca, sending out long to its charm. This lamium seems to be a looping shoots, which must criss-cross rarity to be assiduously sought and cher• before they cover the surface. ished when discovered. The leaves are large, lovely and mot• The lamiums look after themselves tled by various shades of green over and are easy to grow. Propagation of all which is sprinkled an arc of silvery dots. is simple: by seed, lifted pieces, or cut• Planted in shade in a soil into which leaf tings, which strike quickly. This latter is mold has been worked, it will rapidly probably the easiest way to increase if spread to cover what was previously many plants are desired. bare ground. The non-flowering run• There are so many places in most ners will root at the tips when they arch gardens where lamiums can serve an down to touch the ground and thus invaluable purpose as a weed smother-

140 ing, low growing, decorative ground moisture differs. The gardener doesn't cover or as unusual plants with magnifi• deserve credit because some plants cent foliage. Every garden has plants grow rank, but he does deserve credit that vary from one garden to the next as for recognizing their usefulness and shade, soil, fertility, acidity, and limitations.

Olga Lewis

It was with deep sorrow that we learned of the death of Olga Lewis of Bellevue, Washington, long time member of the ARGS, the American Penstemon Society and the Alpine Garden Club of British Columbia, whose courage and good humor during long years of suffering have won the admiration of us all. Olga loved plants and people and spent her life in service to both. She never lost her British accent, but the United States was her chosen country and she was never happier than on plant hunting expeditions in the wild. Olga and Cliff built a beautiful garden and shared their knowledge and their plants with all who came. In 1980 they were jointly awarded the highest honor given by the ARGS for their work for the Society. Plantsmen in the Pacific Northwest will miss Olga Lewis for her unfailing sense of humor, for her hard work (she helped proof-read the Interim International Con• ference Report), and for her ability to make things run smoothly. The sympathy of all alpine gardeners is extended to Cliff Lewis in the loss of his wife and companion of so many years. — A.W.

141 Thymus Lanuginosus As A Lawn

DANIEL C. WEAVER Hamden, Connecticut

Hortus Second lists, but does not de• When established T. lanuginosus is scribe, Thymus lanuginosus as a variety reasonably drought resistant. Indeed, it of Thymus serpyllum. Hortus Third lists will succumb if continuously inundated the plant as T. pseudoserpyllum and for any period. While it flourishes in full describes this and other Thymus as fol• sun, foliage may die in prolonged heat lows (paraphrased): (100° F.) unless roots are moist. How• ever, most plants recover. Generally plants survive severe winters, although THYMUS. Labiatae. 300-400 spp. Aromatic small shrubs or per. herbs. Eur. Asia. Usually excess brine from snow-ice removal prostrate or creeping. Woody at base (at least). causes death of foliage at street edges. Mostly square in cross-section. Lvs. opp. entire. Mats will reform, however, over added Most thymes grown in American gardens appear gravel as described below. to be of confused identity and erroneously named. . . . Dense mats resist weeds, but weed T. lanuginosus. Mill. Closely allied to T. serpy/- seeds, which can sprout between the lum; not known to be cult.; material listed under thyme plants as the runners advance, this name is T. pseudoserpyllum. will flourish. Well established areas of a T. pseudolanuginosus. Mat-forming, creeping per., scarcely 1/2 in. high, sts. woody at base; hundred by thirty feet require little lvs. broadly elliptic, about 1/8 in. long obtuse, maintenance. (Weeding is best done hairy on both sides; fls. few in If. axils, corolla pale with a dental tool — blunt, curved end, pink, about 3/16 in. long. lifting the thyme foliage to isolate the weed. Scraping weed roots out of the Whatever the proper botanical name, soil, away from the hand, while firming Thymus lanuginosus of the trade can soil occupied by the weed works well.) create a pleasing lawn. While one "Deep watering" (the only way to might, as a design purist, prefer that no water) when required, is necessary for blooms appear, appear they do. Seed• the health of the existing tap roots and ing does occur and, as with T. ser- to promote further deep rooting. pyllum varieties, seedlings show up Initially, I surrounded my plants of even in places fairly remote from the Wooly Thyme with wood chips to planting and must be removed ruthless• smother the grass and weeds that in• ly and early from areas where more del• evitably appeared after removing the icate, choice plants are grown. conventional grass-and-weeds lawn. In general, Wooly Thyme is highly Wood chips in this case proved an er• satisfying. Its gray-green, densely hairy ror. The thyme runners did not form leaves provide a non-garish carpet, abundantly and the plants became quite turning to gray-green with purplish shrubby. They frequently died after overtones in winter. If "properly" grown several years. Chance led to a more — i.e., slightly out of character — the satisfactory method of cultivation. An mats are quite even and intermingle abutting area of coarse sand revealed a freely. Minimizing the sub-shrubby predeliction of thymus for sand; runners character of the genus is esthetically crept onto it and a lush mat soon desirable in the lawn. formed. This prompted me to experi-

142 ment with sand in another area, already Wooly Thyme is most inviting) are not languishing. Sand was forced under the harmful. Prolonged exposure to trauma mats. Rooting occurred and growth be• can be fatal, however. One section of came more dense. This treatment was my lawn was destroyed during con• then extended to other areas. But, as struction of the alpine greenhouse. A always, prevention is a better cure. Now scaffold-way in such an eventuality is in• I plant thymus directly in coarse sand as dicated. Scooting along on my pillow, I do many plants. Seedlings on my sand as I sit to weed, is not a problem for the pile grow roots four to six inches long by plants, but this is more safely done the time they are transplanted. when the plants are not wet. Heavily Our local coarse sand is pinkish- trafficked areas require stepping stones brown and is freely interspersed with or paths, a requirement for any ground small pebbles (perhaps 10% by vol• cover. ume). It is called construction sand by Establishing new mats from rooted our local purveyor. Its pH is unknown cuttings or from layers with roots is quite to me. There is obviously considerable simple: planting can be done directly in• nutrient value. Runoff of water is dark to sand as mentioned, even in mid• orange in color. Predictably the sand summer, if kept moist. Large clumps, or will settle, as much as 30%, if delivered cuttings grown to plants in pots, require or used dry. This sand drains well at the more care. Large mats can be divided surface but at a depth of two inches with a spade into sods with a depth of (especially if over moist soil) will retain ten to twelve inches and placed in a some moisture for considerable periods. hole of similar depth containing a Thyme runs over it freely and often "gruel" of water, sand, and soil. Such roots down. This plebian medium clumps may contain a tap root or so but serves as an excellent bed for weeds as will certainly have a tangle of fine roots well as for thymus seeds. However, which require the exclusion of air pockets. weeding is quite easy and, if accom• Establishing a thymus lawn can be plished early, thyme seedlings are not done gradually. For the impatient it threatened or damaged. Parent plants must still be dependent on a commit• rarely become shrubby on this sand ment to propagate. It is moot whether base, a decided advantage for a lawn. areas are covered more quickly by Until three years ago I hesitated to planting cuttings with roots directly into feed my thymus lawn, although I top- the lawn area or into pots for later re• dressed it with humus and sand. Now I planting. Since "maintenance free" is a also add a modicum of bone-meal in relative matter, one needs only to de• late March. Results have been gratifying cide whether one wishes to work awhile so this treatment will probably be per• and wait — or cut grass. manent. A casual warning: if you wish to be Does the thymus lawn survive traffic? left undisturbed by inquiries and/or If plants are shrubby, considerable dam• compliments from passers-by and all age will be done by feet or garden carts. service people, do not create a Thymus Bare feet (visually and texturally this lanuginosus lawn.

A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

143 . &L «i : k&^te* ,.vw .*x<&-<:>\ f\ ft • ^^ ^-^ . v» • %flV'v JfJ^^K ^^.-- (Book m £v*ews rC-s» •• 3^ ., ^' '£~ ' A"/* i*r

NEW YORK and structured summary of that prodi• BOTANICAL GARDEN gious encyclopedia that is Tom Everett ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA in the flesh. OF HORTICULTURE He started his formal training in the by Thomas H. Everett, 1980-1981, plant world, in what we now look back Garland Publishing, Inc., New York, on as the hey-day of horticultural train• N.Y. $52.50 per volume, $525.00 for ing, at the prestigious Royal Botanic complete set of 10 volumes. Gardens at Kew in England. When he came to America, jovially bearing his The first three volumes of this impres• English heritage and training, he sive ten volume master work were re• became attached to the premier botani• leased in 1980 and the remaining seven cal garden in America, the New York are promised at six week intervals dur• Botanical Garden — or one might say ing 1981. This is a major publishing vice-versa. His presence at the N.Y. event to start with. The prepublication B.G. was quickly felt. His erudition and price of $52.50 per volume does not energy moved him quickly into posi• seem excessive in today's market, nor tions of Director of Horticulture, Super• $525 for the full set. intendent of Maintenance, and Senior What is even more impressive is the Curator of Education at the Garden. His content of these volumes. Generally for outreach meanwhile was as broad as his a work of this dimension, and of this au• charm was infectious and his knowledge thoritative quality, there would have deep. He has been a favorite lecturer been a large band of horticultural schol• before garden clubs and scientific soci• ars assigned various facets of the work, eties. to be brought together and edited by an Meanwhile he was storing away notes over-all board. In addition there would and files on thousands of plants. He have been another "task force" assigned personally worked with most of them as to rounding up a set of pictures. he expanded the diversity of the plant• What makes this Encyclopedia of ings at the gardens in the Bronx. At the Horticulture unique is that it is the work same time he was photographing plants of one remarkable man, Thomas H. himself and building up a stupendous Everett. file of photographs and slides of plants Tom Everett is a large and voluble and all aspects of horticulture. For the man, as all the thousands of devoted past ten years, since his retirement from horticulturists who have known him will official duties at the Garden, he has attest. This encyclopedia is a compact been structuring this great encyclopedia.

144 The ten volumes, packed with some• informed and so far, through the first thing like three million words and ten three volumes, 1 could not fault an en• thousand photographs — a number in try. I feel sure that the standard will hold color, all carry the mark of this remark• throughout. able man. He knows his subjects thor• For instance, I pored over the entry oughly and he knows how to convey his under Campanula. It was thorough and information to an audience. There is precise. All essential information was here careful research, including the compactly and expertly presented for most recent name changes in the litera• the rock gardener, for the border enthu• ture, and very precise advice on grow• siast and for the houseplant or green• ing all kinds of plants. It is all based on house devotee. There are descriptions practical experience as one can see of all species (except the rarest) cultural from the text and the photographs. One advice, landscape uses — all sorts of suspects that frequently the pictures of packed information, yet not stilled into a hands and feet illustrating gardening frozen computerized syllabus. practices may be the extremities of T.H. There are ample cross-references: al• Everett himself. pine plants are briefly described with a This massive and elegant work, speak• reference to rock gardening. I can't wait ing as it does to every layer of the horti• to lay my hands on the volume for that cultural community, positively supplants reference. all previous pretenders in the field. In All I can say, and most honestly I say fact, it probably will, and should, daunt it, here is an elegant work of monumen• any challenge for a long time to come. tal proportions. If I could have but one I personally perused all sections of the reference work in my library this set work about which I feel myself fairly well would be it. — H. Lincoln Foster

A Few Thoughts About the Rock Garden

Of all the many, many words on rock should learn from the words of W.D. garden constructions as suitable places Blair, who wrote in ARGS Bulletin, Vol. for the happiness of rock plants, those 8, No. 1: "There is more to a rock gar• of Marcel LePiniec (ARGS Handbook, den than its flowers, rocks and shrubs. p. 13) come to mind as important to re• There is space — all-enveloping space, member: "Avoid using too much rock; all-embracing space." Wonderful. simplicity and restraint [are] the unsus• Keeping in mind these two admoni• pected companions to success." Yes, tions, we can, perhaps, avoid prema• how often we find those stratified and ture ageing of our rock gardens. But laboriously constructed — and maybe there is no rock garden anywhere (nor even eye-pleasing — simulations of nat• any kind of garden that can be called a ural geologic formations to be totally un- true garden) that does not require main• suited to growing the sort of choice tenance. Most of us are ambitious to an plants we would like to enjoy. unsuspected degree when we com• And on the subject of space, we mence building. There is a very well

145 posted sign at the entrance to C.L. Cliffs — openly exposed and nearly McDonald's jewel-box garden in Salem, barren except for lichens, mosses. Oregon: "The garden must be very Naked Ledges — eroded cliffs; crevice small or you will have no fun at all." plants in a variety of exposure. CNuff said?) Screes — accumulated rock from But having made all the mistakes, we ledge disintegration; cool deep root- can take the advice of Line Foster who run; free draining; sunny. tells us in the ARGS Handbook, p.5 Moraine — differs only in being subirri- how to go about "instant renovation" gated; open or sheltered. through rejuvenation of the soil. Never• Alpine Meadows — broad and with theless, in order to really be what the deep, moist soil; mainly open. gardener wants, the successful rock gar• Bogs — constantly wet, spongy soil den absolutely must be lived in and though well-drained; protected or worked in. Thus rock gardening, as we open. well know, is the most personal and inti• Pools and Streams — for draining ex• mate of all forms of plant cultivation, at cess moisture away; [on the lowest least in the open garden. areas.] To help the novice, as well as other rock gardeners, the Natural Divisions of Only an extensive garden area is like• the Rock Garden as explained by Cor- ly to accommodate all these ecological revon are here recounted (with slightly divisions; yet with care and understand• revised explanation): ing, the devoted gardener-student of plants may grow representatives of a Deserts — openly exposed; rough great part of them, and at an increased soil; water never stands; [on highest concentration of his efforts as well as the garden areas.] bounty of pleasures on his successes. - R.D. It Ain't Necessarily So

"It ain't necessarily so" — That is, the variety of seed in each compartment statement that seed of anemone has to and slip the pack into a fold-lock sand• be fresh in order to germinate. wich bag. Then I place it in a fairly warm Being of Scotch descent, I do not like place and keep a sharp eye on it. to throw things out, and that goes for Quite a number of the seeds that I seeds. I never plant all of the seeds in a had had for five years, among them £n- packet; I put the remainder, still in their celia farinosa and Pedicularis groen- original envelopes, in a plastic freezer iandica, and other fresher seeds, which container in the back of my refrigerator, had not germinated at the first sowing, just in case. such as Sisyrinchium douglasii, which I In 1980, in those dreary days of Feb• have been told takes two years to germi• ruary, while waiting for fresh seed to ar• nate, came up. rive, I planted all the older ones. So this year I decided to try again, I plant my seeds in those plastic packs earlier, before Christmas in fact, as I had (six compartments or four) in which received some western seed from Sally bedding or vegetable plants are sold at Walker in Arizona. I planted a portion of the market. I fill each compartment with these and soon had nice stands of do- Fertilmix and tamp it down, soak the decatheons and primulas. Unfortunate• pack in warm water, plant a different ly, a wee beast of a mouse wanted

146 greens, darn him, so I replanted using Geum, Gilia, Hedysarum, Hymenoxys the remaining seeds plus some of acaulis, Lupinus lepidus var. lobbii, Anemone tuberosa from the previous Oenothera kuntheana, Primula parryi, year, one of which has come up. P. rusbyi, P. ellisae, Petalostemon villo- Anemone sylvestris had germinated the sum, Ptilotrichium spinosum, Roscoea previous year from fresh seed, but I cautleoides, Scabiosa lucida rosea, Sap- planted some of the held over seed onaria ocymoides, Saussurea, Calceo• anyway and they also germinated along laria acutifolia, Callirhoe digitata, Erig- with two seedlings of Campanula eron compositus and Calliandra erio- lanata, which had not germinated the phylla sprouting happily under my year before from fresh seed. lights. Among the few I have not suc• I do my seed sowing under fluores• ceeded in germinating in this manner cent lights in the bedroom as 1 have no are saxifrages, androsaces, and Gen- basement. I use just ordinary four foot tiana uerna. "shop lights" with cool white bulbs, hung When the seedlings are above ground on brackets with a shelf under them. I replace the sandwich bags with larger As of February 2, 1981 I had seed• food bags, making individual "green• lings of Arnica chamissonis. Anemone houses" over each pack. Later the sylvestris, A. tuberosa, Alyssum ser- young plants are moved into individual pyllifolium, Campanula lanata, C. styrofoam cups with bags over them as americana, Cephalaria alpina nana, the air in the house is too dry for them in Dodecatheon radicatum, Dianthus ne- winter if exposed. glectus, Draba dedeana, Galega, — Flossie O. Dawson Owasso, Michigan . . . of Cabbages and Kings . . .

When one is owned by a garden it is garden. A nongardener will exclaim, difficult, indeed, to be bored for lack of "But it's so much work!" A gardener occupation. Every day of the year can glories in the work. He rises with the be filled with the gathering and sowing sun, glowing with happy plans for a full of seeds, the pricking out and trans• day of hard labor among his flowers, planting of seedlings, with pruning, and goes to his sleep with dreams of trimming and clipping, weeding and better plants to grow. Though he tends roguing, planting and planning, with to solitude and silence while practicing reading about and searching for new his art, he is happily vociferous when and untried plants, with adding or re• conversing (in the plantsman's some• moving a plant or two, and at times ren• what arcane vernacular) with others of ovating an entire planting or even in his ilk. With them he can discuss prob• changing major sections of the land• lems of seed germination, fungus dis• scape. One can be sure, when admiring ease and soil mixtures, share his tri• a beautiful garden, that it receives the umph in flowering Paraquilegia grandi- constant loving nurture and firm con• flora and mourn his failure with Primula trolling hand of a devoted gardener. cawdoriana. Together they can condole But just as the garden needs the gar• with each other over the early death of dener, so does a gardener need a gar• their Meconopsis betonicifolia. In the den. It is a symbiotic relationship. most extreme cases of this monomania, Imagine a true gardener deprived of a the welfare of a gardener's plants will

147 take precedence over that of his wife pending on their ambition and strength and children. A gardener is a confirmed — an essential for good health accord• complainer (too much rain or not ing to doctors who now recommend enough, too hot or too cold), yet he is mild but regular exercise even for heart an eternal optimist (things will be better patients — but it creates a tremendous next year). He is at his most content will to live. A true gardener, no matter when, in filthy sweat soaked clothes, how ailing, will fight off death like a with muddy hands and boots, he is ad• veritable Horatius if only to see how a miring his present project or contem• new planting of primroses will look plating a new one. when it blooms the following spring. And, it is possible that the urge and, We have gardening friends who are indeed, the need to improve, renew still hybridizing rhododendrons at age and expand his garden is, despite the 75 and planting tree seeds at 80. minor ailments of aching knees and Though the likelihood of his seeing the creaky back that in time afflicts all mature results of his work is, perhaps, plantsmen, one of the reasons for the expecting too much of even the most frequent longevity of gardeners. Not persistent human frame, it is quite possi• only does the continual activity get them ble that Methusela yearly planted olive out in the fresh air and give them exer• pits and lived to press the oil from the cise to a greater or lesser degree de• fruit of his trees.

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PACIFIC HORTICULTURE a magazine about plants and Gardens of the West Illustrated Color Quarterly Annually: $8 U.S., $10 Foreign in U.S. Currency Write to P.O. Box 22609, San Francisco, CA 94122

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148 NEW OWL RIDGE ALPINES

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149 THE CUMMINS GARDEN DWARF RHODODENDRONS YES, We Ship! DECIDUOUS AZALEAS Custom Propagating DWARF EVERGREENS Catalog $1.00 COMPANION PLANTS (Refundable With Order) Phone (201) 536-2591 22 Robertsville Road Marlboro, NJ 07746

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Hardy Named SEMPERVIVUMS SEDUMS <5 JOVIBARBA & ROSULARIA (W^rtAs Red. Pink. Purple, Blue & Gold New American Hybrids—Imports from Europe NURSERIES Wholesale and Retail OAKHILL GARDENS Specialists in I960 Cherry Knoll Road Dallas, Oregon 97338 (Same location—new address) Azaleas, CATALOG—25 i Visitors Welcome — Picnic Area — Garden Rhododendrons, Clubs welcome (please by appointment) WE SHIP AGAIN 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 Fairfield, Conn. 06430 Shipping Charge $1.00 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 50# 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

Rock Plants, Alpines, Dwarf Conifers, BEAUTIFUL—COLORFUL

Dwarf Shrubs etc. Many Rare SEMPERVIVUM (Hen and Chicks) Hardy Semps are great decor for between rock edgings, borders, containers Send 50c (coin or stamps) for Descriptive Catalog $1.00 deductible from first order descriptive listing RAKESTRAW'S PERENNIAL GARDENS COLVIS GARDENS & NURSERY R.R. -2, Box 272 •-^2) Nashville, Ind. 47448 3094 S. Term St., Burton, Michigan 48529

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An unrivaled selection of over 700 alpines and rock garden plants, including 100 Northwest natives and 60 rock ferns . . . JSfSKIYOlT RARE PLANT ^NURSERY" CATALOG—$1.00 Sorry we cannot accept Canadian or Foreign orders J .Cobb Colley Baldassare Mineo 2825 Cummings Road, Medford, Oregon 97501 Phone: (503) 772-6846

151 Imagine knowing as much about the rest ofgardening as you do about rock gardens

Globe artichoke Acrocomia aculeata

Left: Arabis caucasica flore-pleno with, at the left, Iberis sempervirens in a rock garden.

Perhaps you know as much about rock home, the most authoritative and compre gardens as anyone you know. hensive work on gardens and gardenin Now you may learn even more about published in the past 65 years. your favorite subject and much, much The AMERICAN HORTICULTURE more about the wider world of horticulture hailed this achievement as "An encyck or gardening. pedia which is destined to become a stanc With the publication of The New York ard work...and which belongs on the she Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of every serious gardener." of Horticulture, you can now have, in your NO OTHER SET OF BOOKS COVERS AS MUCH GROUND IN AS MUCH DETAIL

Now the entire world of plants and gardening Hanging Baskets, Pots and Planters, Ecolog is at your fingertips. Here are 7,000 entries, and Gardens, Flower Beds and Borders, am describing some 20,000 species and vari• Bulbs or Bulb Plants. eties of plants. There are detailed descrip• Whether you garden in the North, th< tions of more than 3,600 genera; over 2,500 Deep South, the East, or the Far West, o cross references; and some 10,000 photo• anywhere between...whether your specis graphs, hundreds in full color. interest is trees, shrubs, lawns, rock gar In addition, there are 900 feature-length dens, aquatics, succulents, orchids, vege articles that give you extensive information tables, fruits, or any of numerous othe and instruction on subjects such as Botanic specialties...you will find more comprehen Gardens and Arboretums, Greenhouses and sive information related to your specie Conservatories, Rock and Alpine Gardens, needs and about more gardening subject; Carniverous or Insectivorous Plants, Berried than you can find in any other single source Trees and Shrubs, Mulching and Mulches,

152 THE MAN WHO WROTE IT lornas H, Everett,former director of horti- • jlture of the New York Botanical Garden '*c*F* id now senior horticulture specialist iere, is a world-renowned expert. He has * , ^£*B& XIA. jvoted more than 13 years to writing The " * J^«Fnp ncyclopedia and taking the superb photo- aSfc ^u.- f'j*\**JJMichaelmas-daisyK ; •.-.V--. > , garden variety. DU CAN FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR tries are alphabetical. Latin names are graphical range, the number of species in )ss-referenced with common names for its genus, and, where it applies, pertinent sy finding. Look up your favorite plant or historical information. Then comes in ad• y other plant about which you want to equate detail, the all-important "how-to- ow more, and in addition to its descrip- grow-it" (cultural) directions. n, suggestions for its landscape and The Language is simple and straight• rden uses, and detailed guidance to its forward, so beginners as well as experts Itivation, you'll find a wealth of back- have access to the vast amounts of material Dund information including the derivation gathered here for the first time. d pronunciation of its name, its geo• AN INVESTMENT TO GROW WITH To order your ten-volume set, just send in the coupon below. These giant (91/4" x 121/4") volumes can broaden your gardening horizons. And with four thousand pages and over three million words, they will be a prestigious addition to your own gardening library. — -RESERVATION APPLICATION- —-| GARLAND PUBLISHING, INC. 136 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 ( j YES! Please enter my reservation for The New York Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horticulture. I understand that you will ship each of the ten volumes as they are published and bill me just $52.50 plus postage and handling per volume. I am guaranteed this price even if the list price of the set increases between receipt of my order and the publication of Volume X Note: Volumes I through V are now available and will be shipped to you upon receipt of your order. The remaining five volumes will be published at intervals of approximately eight weeks during 1981 and early 1982. [ ] Please bill me. [ ! Please bill my institution. Charge my VISA or [ ] Mastercard (*MC) account number • Charge my American Express account number |—i—i—| | | ] | | | | | | | |

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153 THE ROCK GARDEN Maine Hardy Plants ROCKNOLL

Choice Cultivars — Uncommon Species Send for our special list of Grown and Mailed in Peat lite Rock Plants, Perennials, Shrubs and Evergreens New Varieties Annually Seedlings from Several Exchanges Free List ... We Ship and other European Sources Attention — Eleanor or Belden Saur' Many Ericas and Callunas ROCKNOLL NURSERY Mail Order Catalog 40* 9210 U.S. 50 — Hillsboro, Ohio 45133 LITCHFIELD, MAINE 04350

UNUSUAL SEED Over a thousand different species, Dwarf Evergreens many collected in the wild. Uncommon Trees * PLUS • BARNHAVEN PRIMROSES Visitors Welcome Displays Labeled Browsing Encouraged Seed & Transplants 1981 Catalog $1.00 (deductible) Please send a stamp or two for our list listing seeds from every (No shipping) continent in the world. FAR NORTH GARDENS DILATUSH NURSERY 15621AR Auburndale 780 Rte. 130 Livonia, Ml 48154 Robbinsville, N.J. 08691

WATNONG NURSERY The place to find some "PLANTS FOR DRY SUNNY AREAS "HARD TO FIND" PLANTS AND THOSE SHADY CORNERS" Groundcovers, Alpines, Wildflowers Gayluuacia brachycmra and Dwarf Conifers, Leiophyllum, dwarf & low Succulents in variety growing Rhododendrons, R. yakusianum & Catalog — 50c several of its hybrids By Appointment, at the Nursery Only WOODLAND ROCKERY 6210 Klam Road Hazel and Don Smith Otter Lake, Michigan 48464 201 — 539-0312 Sorry, we cannot accept Foreign orders. 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 — 50c 13328 King George Highway Route 1, Box 488 Surrey, B.C. V3T 2T6, Canada Beaverton, OR 97007

154 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 ALPINE GARDEN SOCIETY'S PUBLICATIONS,

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

HANDBOOK OF ROCK GARDENING $4.00

THE GENUS LEWISIA By R. C. Elliott $4.50

SAXIFRAGES By Winton Harding $6.00

ALPINES IN SINKS AND TROUGHS By Joe Elliott $2.75

THE GENUS CYCLAMEN By D. E. Saunders $3 25

ASIATIC PRIMULAS By Roy Green $12.00

DAPHNE By Chris Brickell and Brian Mathew $12.00

AND ROSACES By George Smith and Duncan Lowe $12.00

MOUNTAIN FLOWER HOLIDAYS IN EUROPE By Lionel Bacon $22.00

DWARF SHRUBS By Harold Bawden $11.50

A6S Publications are available ONLY from AGS Publications Ltd. (All prices postpaid) D. K. HASELGROVE, 273/280 Hoe Street, Walrhamstow, London El7 9PL, 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 plants, and their world wide haunts. Its excellent annual scheme for the distribution of rare 4 unusual seed, amongst its international members.

for £3.50 per year ($8.00) Hon. Subscription Secretary D. J. Donald Esq. Morea, Main Rd., Balbeggie, Perth PH2 6EZ, Scotland Please pay subscriptions by cheque in U.K. currency drawn on a British Bank or by International Money Order.

155 Now available — newly-revised editions of 2 gardening classics

ROCK GARDENS Wilhelm Schacht

The definitive book on rock gardens, in a new translation, completely revised and reorganized, with up-to-date information, and many new photographs.

Features:

• 108 full-color photos • cultivation instructions for over 500 species • complete listing and description of individual plants, arranged alphabetically within types • list of nurseries, garden centers, & societies specializing in rock garden plants

190 pages, hardcover $19.00, postpaid

GENTIANS Mary Bartlett

A completely new edition, expanded to include:

• 40 photographs—21 in full color—and 38 line drawings • current information on everything from cultivation and propagation to pests and diseases • precise and preferred growing conditions for over 100 species and many hybrids • complete table of species listing descriptive features • list of horticultural societies and nurseries specializing in gentians

144 pages, hardcover $22.00, postpaid

UNIVERSE BOOKS, Dept. RG, 381 Park Ave. So., NY 10016

156 DIRECTORATE AMERICAN ROCK GARDEN SOCIETY President Emeritus HAROLD EPSTEIN, 5 Forest Court, Larchmont, New York

President ROBERT L. MEANS, 410 Andover St., Georgetown, Mass. 01833 Vice-President MARNIE FLOOK, 2111 Fairfield Place, Wilmington, Del. 19805 Secretary DONALD M. PEACH, Rte. 1 Box 282, Mena, Ark. 71953 Treasurer FRANCIS H. CABOT, Cold Spring, N.Y. 10516

Directors Term Expires 1982 Pamela J. Harper T. Paul Maslin Quentin C. Schlieder, Jr.

Term Expires 1983 Marvin E. Black Iza Goroff Howard W. Pfeifer

Term Expires 1984 Patricia Lou Carson Kenneth Love Dr. Robert McDermott (Mrs. Orel Dale)

Director of Seed Exchange Director of Slide Collection Kenneth Vogel Quentin C. Schlieder, Jr. 19795 Excelsior Blvd.. Excelsior, Minn. 55331 Box 1295-R. Morristown. N.J. 07960

ARGS-PHS Library Service Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Library 325 Walnut St.. Philadelphia. Pa. 19106 CHAPTER CHAIRMEN Northwestern MRS. MARGUERITE BENNETT, 17015 26th Ave. N.E., Seattle. WA 98155 Western JACKS. ROMINE, 2065 Walnut Blvd., Walnut Creek, CA 94596 Midwestern AlLEEN MCWILLIAM (Acting Chm ), 711 Magnolia St.. Mena, AR 71953 Allegheny MARGARET H. WiSNER, 338 Kemerer Drive, Greensburg, PA 15601 Potomac Valley DR. JOHN WURDACK, 4400 Samar St., Beltsville, MD 20705 Co-Chairman RUSSELL D. KIRK, 2709 Lime St., Temple Hills, MD 20031 Delaware Valley ROXIE E. GEVJAN, 536 Dogwood Place, Newtown Square, PA 19073 New England MARJORIE WALSH, Rte. *2, Litchfield, ME 04350 Great Lakes JUDY PEARSON. 5421 Whipple Lake Rd., Clarkston, Ml 48016 Wisconsin-Illinois WAIDR. VANDERPOEL, 232 Apple Tree Lane, Barrington, IL 60010 Columbia-Willamette MRS. FAITH MACKANESS, Rte. 2. Box 981, Corbett, OR 97019 Connecticut MICHAEL H. DODGE, Hilltop Rd., Deer Island, Lakeside, CT 06758 Long Island JEANETTE STELLMAN, 38 Lister Circle, Northport, NY 11768 Co-Chairman MADELINE PAUTZKE, 25 Gunther Dr., East Northport. NY 11734 Hudson Valley PAUL HALLADIN, 85 Hillcrest Dr., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Minnesota Lois ECKLUND, Rte. 5 River Haven, St. Cloud, MN 56301 Siskiyou RAMONA OSBURN, 1325 Wagon Trail, Jacksonville, OR 97530 Western-No. Carolina JAMES A. COLLINS, Rte. 8, Box 211, Hendersonville, NC 28739 Rocky Mountain ANDREW PIERCE, Denver Botanic Gardens, 909 York St., Denver, CO 80206 Adirondack ELVA C. LINK, Box 211 RD 2, Corinth, NY 12822 Watnong PAUL HALLADIN, 85 Hillcrest Dr., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Ohio Valley HARRYW. BUTLER, Rte #1, 2521 PenewitRd., Spring Valley, OH 45370 YOUR ARGS STORE

1. ARGS BULLETINS - Back Issues for Sale at $1.50 each.

All other Volumes not specifically listed above are $2.50 each. Please inquire as to availability of other Volumes. Charge of 20c per page to Xerox specific articles.

2. CUMULATIVE INDEX to ARGS Bulletins, Vols. 1-32 Incl. Lists Authors, Article Titles and Sub• ject Matter NC 3. THE HANDBOOK OF ROCK GARDENING. Published jointly by ARGS & Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Written by ARGS Members $2.25 4. SEED LIST HANDBOOK - 3rd Edition — Bernard Harkness, 246 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 $7.50 5. THE GENUS PHLOX, Edgar T. Wherry. 174 pg. Monograph. Photos and line drawings, Maps of distribution $6.00 6. THE ALASKA-YUKON WILDFLOWER GUIDE. 217 pgs. Colored plant photos by family $9.00 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 ARGS Bulletins $2.00 9. ALPINES OF THE AMERICAS - the report of the 1st interim International Rock Garden Confer• ence, 1976. 327 pages, 20 pages of color plus black and white photos. (Separate mailing cost of $1.00 per book for USA, $1.50 per book overseas.) $15 95 10. WHAT'S IN A NAME - Guide to botanical names of plants, 24 pages $2.50 11. TROUGHS - Construction, plant material to use. Study Weekend East 1974 by Conn. Chapter members $3.00 12. TALLY OF 1ST CHOICE REQUEST - A help when you are deciding which seed to send to 1981 Exchange, 28 pages $4.00 13. ARGS LAPEL PINS $3.00 14. ARGS SHOULDER PATCHES. Washable $2.00 15. NOTE PAPER - 12 folded notes 4%" x 61/2", each with different drawing by ARGS artist; with envelopes Per packet of 12, Postpaid, U.S.A. $4.25, Overseas $5.00

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