Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Kew Wednesdays, the Rock Garden and Davies Alpine House...

Finally we come to our 7th, and last, installment of Kew Wednesdays. Our wonderful visit to the Kew Gardens wraps up with a walk though the Rock Garden and Davies Alpine House...

I zeroed in on these small Celmisia semicordata (subp. semicordata) right away, I was in love. Little did I know that the next day when visiting Alternative Eden (the garden of Mark and Gaz) I would find another Celmisia to drool over, but for now this one had all my attention....

Why do we not see this plant in the USA? All I could find online were companies offering seeds. Look at that foliage!...

Here’s another interesting plant I've never seen before...‘Horrid Spaniard’ or Aciphylla horrida. Look at them!

A little info I found online: “A. horrida is native to the South Island of New Zealand and found in mountain areas with high rainfall. In cultivation it will do best in cool or cold temperate, oceanic climates, where it requires a sunny or only lightly shaded spot. It does not like high summer temperatures and is a perfect replacement for Agave and Yucca in such climates.” (source) And why have I never seen this plant in Portland?

I know this photo is a little hard on the eyes what with the glare but I wanted you to be able to see the proximity of the Rock Garden to the Princess of Wales Conservatory on the right.

And those aren't just any rocks, they’re big chunky ones…

There’s that Celmisia again…

Although I never could find a tag on this one I'm willing to bet it's a Fascicularia bicolor/Fascicularia pitcairnifolia...

Kind of weedy but I love it!

Here's the Davies Alpine House, imagine one of these in your garden! Yes, with a few modifications I think it would make a lovely greenhouse. Oh I know the heating bills would be horrendous but whose worrying about that?

I wouldn't mind the rocks coming along as well...

You grass lovers out there are going to have to forgive me because this is as close as I got to the Grass Garden. I know, I hang my head in shame...we were simply running out of time!

It looks lovely though doesn't it?

Looking back towards the Rock Garden.

And now we're inside the alpine house. We sort of scurried through there too. I'm sure there were many fabulous small plants I missed.

Sempervivum calcareum...

From the French Alps! I don't know why that cracked me up but it did.

Look a vertical crevice garden!

We just skirted the Aquatic Garden too.

And guess what...just like that Kew Wednesdays are over. I hope you enjoyed our extended trek though this historic garden.

20 comments:

  1. I will miss this! Great pictures, such cool new plants. That Horrid Spaniard (what a great name!) is perfect for the PNW! You should suggest cultivating it to Cistus or one of the other nurseries down there.

    I wish you had more time for the places you missed, so that this feature could have gone on longer. I heard Scott's "Aaaarrgghh" all the way up here in Seattle.

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    1. Me too Alison, it's been really fun to relive it all. Luckily (for me, and hopefully you) I've still got plenty of our trip to London left to share.

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  2. Great finale to the tour. Amazing gardens so beautifully done.

    Some of those plants would be winners in Portland. Maybe you can encourage some of your nursery friends to bring them in.

    Thanks for managing a few photos of the gorgeous grasses. That section would be my first stop. Love that you ended with a rare bit of sun.

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    1. I look forward to your (or Scott's) visit someday in the future so I can see what we missed in the grass garden!

      That sun was really appreciated, especially with the way that it lit everything so dramatically.

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  3. Great finale Loree, it was enjoyable reading your Kew series :)

    Celmisias are still difficult to get hold of here. The big ones we have was a chance find on a nearby garden centre a few years ago (quite starnge to find one there of all places). We have a couple of semicordatas in the garden and they are rather slow growing but hardiness has been good. Apparently it's easier to spot them on nurseries in Scotland than anywhere else in the country.

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    1. Isn't wonderful when you make those chance discoveries in the least likely of places?

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  4. Great stuff! Isn't scurrying how we always go through these gardens? Unless you're sitting down on a bench and soaking in the space, you're probably more rushed than you want to be, right? I know that's how I feel.

    Isn't "vertical crevice garden" redundant? Vertical is how they should be normally I'd think, with the others being "horizontal" crevice gardens. :-)

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    1. There is definitely always the fear of being kicked out of the garden before you've seen it all! I've learned to study the map in advance so I am sure to see the things that I want to see first, at a bit more relaxed pace. And thank goodness husband is always good at making me stop and soak it all in for a minute or two!

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  5. Sincerest sympathy Scott! I'll miss Kew Wednesdays. It's been great and I can't believe that seven weeks have passed already. Love that Horrid Spaniard!

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    1. I know! Seven! I'm really glad I did it this way so I got to share such a large amount of photos. Thank you for coming along for the trip! (so to speak)

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  6. I am going to miss Kew Wednesdays. It has been fun seeing it through your eyes.

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    1. You are a lucky fellow to live so close!

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  7. Hi Loree, So how hardy is Celmisia? What an outstanding looking plant. Maybe you can talk to Sean Hogan about acquiring it and the Fascicularia too. Before you know it, they'll be everywhere. We can hope. Happy Thanksgiving!

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    1. I really have no idea how hardy it is, but figured if it was happy there it would get along okay here too.

      (BTW Cistus already has a great selection of Fascicularia, that's where I got mine!)

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  8. Wait...go back...I want to see the grasses!!! ;-)

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    1. But isn't it all fore the better that the mystery remains and you get to discover that garden for yourself one day? (I know...but I thought I would try).

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  9. But those plants have already been for sale here on the west coast, I remember picking up both a couple of Aciphyllas and Celmisias at least 10 years ago when the Bay Area group the Hortisexuals made their trip up to Seattle. A few have also been for sale here in California by growers such as Suncrest Nursery. I suppose it needn't be said that New Zealand alpines aren't the easiest plants to keep alive, and my new acquisitions didn't even last a year, nor did their replacements from Suncrest. There's a reason they probably do better in places like Scotland. On the other hand, Fascicularia bicolor is quite easy to grow, if not 100% cold hardy in the worst a PNW winter can give you. Thanks for a nice stroll down memory lane with your visit to Kew, it took me 3 days of visits to take all those various garden sections in. Your photos are a nice virtual revisit. If you've your heart set on growing the Aciphyllas and Celmisias, and there are over a dozen species of each all equally stunning, be prepared to love them and perhaps lose them, they ain't easy...

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    1. Well you do give me hope...and then dash it a bit. But still, hope.

      I do have a lovely Fascicularia pitcairnifolia I picked up at Cistus a couple years back. I lost my first one in the ground the winter of 2009/10 (I think) but put the replacement in a container and it's doing fine. No blooms yet though.

      3 days!? Wow, that would have been lovely. Alas with only a week in London I wasn't able to enjoy such a luxurious pace.

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