Mon 2nd Nov

I started on Alpine today, Chloe gave us a tour around the collections and the area. Helped prepare the display house and dug out an area they call the 'Proctor' in preparation for a fern area in the Rock Garden.

There are often approx. 300 plants on display in the Display House. General work that is done here are - check for watering and dead heading. Labels need to be put in front of the pot. A thick paintbrush is used to smooth the sand plunge bed over or a dustpan brush for larger areas. When taken out an orange label is put into it to show that it has been in display. What is passed over is taken out, the intention is to display what's looking the best and good at that moment. Floors are given a swept. In winter the heaters are switched on for the night, they are switched off in the morning. It can be shaded on one side in summer - one side is almost more woodland type plants and the other more arid. Pots have to be level for watering and also to ensure that sand is compacted enough at the bottom so that it doesn't sink when watering. Plants are not fed in the house as these are done in the collection houses.


Plant collections

South African Plants are from beyond the tree line - these are from warmer climate zones but found in mountainous areas nonetheless, there has been a bit of dispute about whether SAP are true alpines because of this reason. A large collection is housed in a simple old style wood and glass dutch greenhouse. It is generally unheated except in the heart of winter. It is kept well ventilated with many opening doors and windows and fans in winter.

Photo 1: South African House.

There is a Primula auricula collection (looked after by Mike Fergusson), they don't look great - last years haven't been taken off and apparently they may have a virus. There is a Hepatica House - they flower from Feb - March. A Primula marginata, x venusta and allioni (dome like ones) house (this is also another old dutch light greenhouse - a bit smaller than the South African one). The primulas are on a two year rotation of being checked for vine weevil and being fed.

There is a outdoor shade frame - more woodland type plants - but fits in with the aesthetics of Alpines. There is a big unheated polyhouse where the majority of the collection is called the Rovero e.g. Fritillaria, Tulipa (flowers Apr - May), Hyacinths, Narcissus and Crocus. The roofs of this house can roll back. There is an Arum collection and select terrestial orchids - e.g. Cypripedium - these are repotted near Christmas, and kept moist enough when they are in their dormancy in winter. There is also a Cyclamen House in a small Glasshouse as well as in the Rovero.

Photo 2: A section of the Rovero House

Chloe herself has a small Petrocosmea collection (Gesneriaceae family, related to things like Streptocarpus) they are a bit of a relic with ancient based cell structures. They are propped like Begonia, put them in a jam jar of water and they will root. New leaves come up after old. Ray Drew is a prominent grower of these. She has ferns too, some sharing with her Petrocosmea house , and also some in a polytunnel of specific Desert Ferns - these are very drought resistant. She sterile props the ferns by microwaving the soil first except for the Desert ones which is propped by division. This polytunnel also has an extensive collection of Saxifraga -  Kabschia types (domey ones) are from higher altitudes and have smaller pedicels. The Silvers type are from a lower altitude - chalk soils and have longer pedicels - they have pink white speckled flowers. There are also Mossy types. These and Primula are more proned to vine weevil. Water is kept off the foliage of all these and only watered around the edges of the pot.

Photo 3: A Petrocosmea.

Photo 4: Saxifrages

Photo 6: Saxifraga - Mossy type.

Photo 7: Desert ferns - Cheilanthes.

Then there is the Elliot House - which houses the 'true alpines' - the one that are from above the treeline and where the snow melt is from places like the lava fields of Patagonia. They are the trickiest to grow and maintain (winters here are too dark and wet for them to be really happy), because of their not ideal conditions they are most susceptible to pest and disease in particular things like aphids and red spider mite. The fans are not strong enough for adequate ventilation either. Elliot was someone who use to edit the AGS bulletin. The collection is split into a damper side and a more arid side. The plants tend to be greener and fuller foliage in Spring.

There is also a Rhodopoxylis and Sempervivum collection based outside in coldframes. 

The reason they have so many is that alpines are short season, they flower quickly (for true alpines it is when the snow melts) and then these burn off and it goes to leaf. And they want to a good display as much as possible throughout the year.

Landscaped House
This is a bit dated not, but it was to show examples of growing rock garden plants. The tufa walls and not the beds themselves are watered - in summer everyday, in winter less. The Sandbeds outside that has a plastic shelter erected in winter to protect plants not from the cold but the wet are fed twice a year.

Rock Garden
This is 104 yrs old - designed by a Japanese man called Okahara. There are peat (for Sarracenia), asian plants and damp areas. In the middle is more of a traditional Rock Garden. 2nd Terrace (from top down) is a plantsman area, the section at the top that connects to Weatherhill is a dry woodland slope and is meant to be the Jekyll Embankment. It is dominated by some very big oak trees and strangely enough the Rock Garden is North facing. There is also the Bonsai Walk.

Crevice Garden
Rocks are Forest of Dean rocks - same as Pershore Rockery where AGS is based. It was built in 2 weeks in 2010. Planted in March 2011. It was designed by Zdenek Zvolanek who is Czech. Czechs do a lot of gardening based on their own landscape because of their former cut off ness. Reginald Farriner wrote about crevice gardens and how the Czechs pioneer this. It is tricky gardening here - the sand doesn't hold enough feed, it dries on top and caps.

Peter Hermann is the handyman in Alpine, he has been here for years one of the longest members left and is in in the mornings.