Haut Chitelet Alpine Garden (France)

[Philippe]

May 2015, update 3, part 4



Primula ' gold laced', in the bed dedicated to garden hybrid plants.



Primula rusbyi/ellisiae from the wild, has to be identified yet, as both species are really close.

Yes, some snow, which fell just this morning.



And melted very soon shortly after, leaving place to repeated sleet showers the whole day



The Saxifraga rockery, with some of the Porphyrion members amongst others.



The beautiful Scleranthus uniflorus beginning to form nice cushions.

[ashley]

Beautiful plants Philippe, beautifully photographed.
I enjoy this thread very much.

[David Nicholson]

Beautiful plants Philippe, beautifully photographed.
I enjoy this thread very much.

Seconded.

[ian mcenery]

 Philippe a really   interesting thread- we could almost be there

thank you

[Tim Ingram]

I love the idea of a plant (Linaria) apologising in such a beautiful way! Gives a good perspective on a garden. Growing Gentiana verna is interesting - we have always found it rather short lived as well but Joe Elliott famously grew it in troughs with some good rich compost down below, just as Philippe says, which must be like the flush of nutrient which comes through alpine meadows as snow melts and percolates down from screes above. So we need to make a richer scree as well as the sand bed in the garden. Very interesting to see these different growing conditions such as the vertical trough with Androsace vandellii(previously) and the propagation areas. We have this white form of G. verna on a raised bed, which I have top-dressed with Vitax Q4 fertiliser, and the bed was made with good fibrous loam from stacked turf (but a long time ago); it will be interesting to see how well the gentian does over the longer term.

[Philippe]

May 2015, update 4, part 1
 
Trying to give a chronological aspect to the updates from now on, and not order everything. This might make the things more sparky, it comes just how it went.

Thank you anyway for the comments to the updates, it's always with great pleasure I read them.

Tim, about the vertical Androsace vandellii trough, it seems it is not as good as it should be. The concept might be interesting, but I faced the trough toward NW at the beginning, telling me the soil mix wouldn't dry out too quickly this way, as watering the plants is almost impossible, or at least really not efficient. This was a good idea, because even when we lack rain for 3 weeks like we did in June last year, the Androsace were completely ok in this location. But...Things are different during winter and early spring, or whenever we are getting a really wet period, during which the shady trough surface area gets few sun or none at all for a long time and doesn't dry at all: that's liverwort and other mosses's paradise then. Something's wrong with the mix then. It should be more coarse and freely draining with the trough placed this way. Some plants of Androsace rotted to, other are pretty. Well, anyway it won't last very long so. That's why I harvested seeds last year, that sprouted very recently, to see what I can do then with Androsace vandellii next time, in a better way I hope!

Pictures from different flowering plants in the violent midday sun. Was no good idea though, I don't like that light at all, evening is far more better for this. Here they are however!



Corydalis cashmeriana.

I think I told it last year maybe, but somehow I owe the rodents the 7/8 plants that grow currently in various locations in the Himalaya bed. I always had that single cherished mother plant I brought back in 2010 from a visit to the alpine garden Schachen ( where it grew as a weed, seeding itself around in the beds) and didn't dare dividing it of course. The plant never gave any seeds here, and I was waiting and waiting season after season to let it time to set seeds one day.  And one morning during summer I found the poor Corydalis cashmeriana dismantled by a rodent, with stems and leaves lying right and left on the ground, you can imagine the horror sight...I lifted up the whole plants, fortunately, the tubers were mostly intact, and this was the moment I finally dared to make as many plantlets as possible which deserve to live peacefully now. So far for the story of that plant here!



Claytonia megarhiza

I love this simple Lewisia relative. It looks like a Lewisia indeed, but in a very condensed way, and the leaves are so perfectly arranged in the rosette. Hence its english name perhaps, alpine springbeauty. I'll think of sowing plenty of it if I get enough seeds, it just has to be everywhere in the north american bed. Again this is another plant which one could think it only needs poor soil which doesn"t old water. It will live in such conditions, but will probably never be as happy as in somewhat better ones. The point is only to know where not to go too far in trying to improve its life. That's a very important thought which has to be kept in mind when growing alpine. In their natural environment, all is naturally made to make their life "easy", or at least worth it. Let's say they are really adapted to that precise environment, as harsh as it may seem ( plant competition/associations around, soil nature, rain/snow regime throughout the year...), that's actually why they are here, and sometimes only here. When trying to grow them, I was often inclined to give rather tough conditions in the garden, but the poor plants are already most of the time quite out of their natural climates and soils, and therefore suffering, or stressed anyhow. The more I garden here, the more I learn that a happy alpine plant here is a plant that really has enough food ( not too much), which helps facing the other limitating factors such as climate or the lack of plant communities on which few can be done. This is clear for the big perennial of course, but also for the cushion and carpet forming species.



Leucanthemopsis alpina

May I say that I really really love that species too? And that I impatiently wait for its blossom every spring?



A focused view of a well flowered part of the Alps bed. Yes, the labels everywhere, I know. Usually I put them out when taking photographs but here, no, there are really too many.

On the way to fading Gentiana kochiana in the front, hidden Viola calcarata just behind, Pulsatilla alpina on the left, ready to flower Papaver alpinumXnudicaule, Pulsatilla vernalis which has gone, Adonis vernalis, some little heads of Primula farinosa on the right, and the rest we don't see here. Such a beautiful sight, but that means there will be nothing left from this during summer.

[Philippe]

May 2015, update 4, part 2



Weeding afternoon in this rockery of the western Alps which was renewed for 2/3 years. The bed is not full yet, far from full, but plants are growing, mainly smaller plants, in order to keep the scree-like display visible. Papaver rhaeticum with its bright yellow round flowers should color a part of the scree in a few days, for the first time since plantation.



Meanwhile, weeding this bed among Gentiana clusii and Pulsatilla vernalis is a delight. I am really enthused by the perfection of shape and color of Gentiana clusii. One would like to have it flowering the whole summer long.



Viola stojanovii from the Balkans mountains. Here on starvation diet it seems. Not enough food and water retentive material in the soil! The plant is flowering well, but the foliage is really weak and shriveled. I am almost
sure that these plants are giving the best they can this year ( they were planted last year only), and will fade next season already if nothing's done meanwhile ( or are they sort of biennial?)

[Philippe]

May 2015, update 4, part 3



That leads us directly to that part of the garden, the himalayan bed. I told in one of the first udpates of the season that some places needed urgent and profound care in that bed. There should be plenty of life, of green, of leaves, and if necessary flowers here! I didn't think this would be undertaken so soon in the season. But I really felt like doing something here this morning. Poor soil, washed out by the rain, having lost all its humus content through the years, drying out quickly in a few days without rain. I took out the last plants that still managed to survive and here we go!



Here is the impoverished layer of surface soil ( on the bottom left, greyish), and deeper the layer of natural peat and granite debris ( black and the yellowish soil above on the pic). In many rockeries, this is how it works ( with more or less underground peat according to how far one is from the peatbog). Getting the deeper substrat to the surface already constitutes a good basis for the coming new growing mix, especially for asiactic species. Drainage is then ensured by the granite fine grit, and water retention partly by the present peat.



Here comes the food now, here a mix of various vegetal home made-compost. Not really sure it is always totally well decayed yet, but I am taking the risk, the amount in the final bed-soil won't be that big either, so it should go. It will be mostly big perennials and at least  rich soil species that will be planted in that part of the bed. This would be perfect for Primulas I guess, but I fear it's perhaps not wet enough for many of them here: full sun almost the whole day, and raised above ground level. Cremanthodium and Meconopsis should be ok with that kind of place, however with watering from time to time when needed.



Once done. There is still much more to do all around though, left and behind above all, the bed is so big :/ Young himalayan plants have to grow in the propagation area; only when there are enough new species to come can such bed renewals be undertaken, if wide bare spaces are not to be shown to the visitors.

Speaking of young plants from the nursery, as I was weeding the himalayan bed the other day, I stopped over this place:



Sloping toward the north, just above the stream, and more or less protected from the afternoon sun by the small rocks at the bottom of the slope . All in all a rather cool and moist place, things that many Primula really enjoy. Not enough place here to install bigger plants. That's exactly perfect though, there are young Primula reptans waiting patiently in pot in the propagation area, from a Chadwell recent collection. I think this is THE place for it, at least in the public area, if the geographical presentation is to be respected.

[Philippe]

May 2015, update 4, part 4



A rich spongy soil, a bit sand and grit for the inevitable drainage, coal, as Primula reptans seems to be sensitive to fungus problems, and some sphagnum to give it the moist environment and avoid or retard as much as possible a dry out of the soil mix. I chose condensed sphagnum and put it in the soil around the clod. It will certainly grow back again, so I'll have to beware of this. Who knows, maybe Primula reptans would love growing on sphagnum too? As said this the most condensed species that grows here, and is generally quite amenable when it comes to share space with plants.

The thing that really makes me pensive about all this is the place itself: it may be very appropriated from a climatic point of view, but at the base of rocks, this is unfortunately also the beloved track for many rodents in general in the beds...I keep the few other pots in the propagation area. Maybe to please Primula reptans, I can think of a kind of modified trough too, which would hold more water during the growing season, and stay much drier in winter.

Letting considerations about Himalaya and Primula reptans, it's perfect time to enjoy the delicious Myosotis glabrescens.



As usual the cushion only wears some flowers. I dream of the day I'll see one of them covered with flowers. But at least it is very healthy and happy.

Another cushion, of a brighter green, in the chinese bed: Arenaria kansuensis.



Just about to begin flowering, but the sight of the cushions only is something appetizing ( well, let's say the flowers don"t bring much more to the cushion)

Staying in China, Primula secundiflora I couldn't untill now photographed the way I would like. The flower themselves are utterly beautiful, with the deep violet and this white and black pattern on the calyx, but a general view doesn't bring anything, the plants are too young and not generously flowering yet.





So that's much better with him now, isn't it? No direct sun, dew on the leaves-tips

[Philippe]

May 2015, update 4, part 5

 And to finish this update, this encouraging pic:



What's that poor crappy plant here? I am unaccountably attracted by the Apiaceae family. There are many really weird or useless things within, some of which you can't get rid of once you have them in the garden, but there are also such magnificient species, throughout the world. This above is a Lomatium of North America, unindentified species that was planted last summer. As you can see, the centre of the plant is dead, with dried leaf-stems from last year, and when I saw it 2/3 weeks sooner, I thought it had unfortunately perished during winter. What a joy this morning when I was weeding  this part of the bed, to see many new sideshoots appearing meanwhile around the main plant from last season! 

[astragalus]

Your garden is beautiful beyond words.  Love the Corydalis cashmeriana.  Do you also grow Corydalis ambigua?  Please keep posting pictures.

[Philippe]

June 2015, update 5, part 1


Days go and still no new update since late May...

The garden is now at or will soon be reaching its flowering peak. Weather is with us again, rain and clouds, after 2 weeks of dry and often sunnny days, implying the urgent time-consuming watering task when there is otherwise so much work to do. Thunderstorms hit last week-end, brought 50mm rain in an hour, and were followed by a cool misty and partly rainy week, which still goes on right now.
The rain fell so heavily during the storm that it sometimes poured out of the ponds, the water finding its way in the beds nearby. Primula reptans, which was planted for a few weeks above the stream, was almost swept away, just a matter of 15/20 cm...

Everything is fresh, got enough water, colours are bright and the greens shine again deeply. Midges profited from this weather change to litteraly invade the garden, and as every year, they are making the garderner's life quite hard for at least a few hours each day.

I'm late with the current update, so the few that is posted here has faded meanwhile, ant it rather looks like it's going to be a non-update.

It's high time for the asiatic bed though, with many Primulas flowering, different Meconopsis species, both delicious small Silene davidii and nigrescens, perhaps S.setispermae to come, for the first time.

Well, all this for next update I hope.



Polemonium confertum



Silene uralensis involucrata

( So called, anyway, then it doesn't seem to match the descriptions or pics I have seen of it)



Viola biflora

Pretty in a shady and moist corner of the rockery, where it then seeds itself around.



Aquilegia viridiflora

From Central Asia, and therefore inhabitant of the new central Asia bed which was built last year.
An Aquilegia which has the good idea of not being easily apt to hybridation in the garden. The plants here are seedlings of the mother plant which flowered unprotected some 2/3 years ago.



Pulsatilla albana

From the Caucasus. Not very showy, but not unbeautiful at all. Needs probably 1 or 2 further seasons to build up more strenghtly.

[Philippe]

June 2015, update 5, part 2




Dryas octopetala

So lovely, but so quick flowering too. Within 4/5 days, the show is over. It is however a real delight to see it run over the rocks



Doronicum grandiflorum



Primula involucrata



Sorbus pygmaea

One of the few tiny Sorbus species from China, which has its place in the smallest rockbeds too.



Gentiana dinarica

Superior to Gentiana kochiana in the intensity of the blue, coming close to G.clusii, and really easily growing, by sort of sometimes quite long underground sideshoots.

[Philippe]

June 2015, update 5, part 3




Gentiana verna ssp.balcanica

Another one from south-east Europe, growing and flowering much more freely than G.verna.



Pulsatilla alpina ssp.apiifolia

A gorgeous plant when flowering, with these 6 to 7 cm wide flowers of that beautiful lemon yellow



Narcissus poeticus



To answer your question about Corydalis ambigua astragalus, no, we don't have it here. It's sometimes quite a challenge with Corydalis'seeds, when not sown fresh.
Presently, we just have Corydalis taliensis from China, the usual ophiocarpa, C.mucronata and probably C.malkensis ( have to wait both last untill they flower one day).
Corydalis flexuosa failed the first winters everytime we tried it, C.nobilis or wilsonii never germinated, and C.rupestris didn't make it through the first summer, probably because of wet then.
But that is such an interesting genus, with those gems from the drier parts of the Himalaya 

[Tim Ingram]

Just been to visit the Haut-Chitelet Garden and to meet with Philippe. We had a wonderful afternoon exploring the garden and being shown behind the scenes by Philippe - a memorable experience! Some pictures to come in a few days time