If You Go Down In The Woods Today......in Kentucky

[alpines]

Thanks Paul....and after the day I've had.....to say nothing of the excitement over this weekend....I'm off to bed.
G'night y'all !!!!

[Paul T]

G'night!! (which is amusing to say, given it is 11:45am here!!  )

[ranunculus]

SEN -ruddy- SATIONAL!!!!

How come you showed us nothing like that when we visited?  Just bears, bears, bears!!!

Super stuff....now off you go to capture the trilliums.....please.

[alpines]

Mr. Booker, Sir.........You came in June. Even the wonderful Sherba can't keep flowers THAT long. So forget Florida next year......get over here the first two weeks of April and we'll walk even YOUR legs off.
(For those who don't know Mr. B personally, his ability to walk is only surpassed by his ability to take such incredible photographs).
As I said, the pictures don't do this mass of bulbs the breathtaking justice they deserved.

[Ian Y]

Simply stunning Alan and Sherba - THANK YOU

I know how difficult - impossible- it is to capture that sensation of standing in front of a mass flowering like this but the pictures on your link do give us the best impression and the rest is up to our imagination and mine is working over time.

It is fascinating to here you say that E americanum is on one side of the river and E albidum on the other. Are there any obvious factors to this clear devide?

[alpines]

Hi Ian,

The only thing I can think of, is that E.americanum prefers the North East aspect at Floracliff, but having said that I didn't check out the aspect of the albidum at the other site, which incidentally, had a mixed population of albidum/americanum, although the yellow was in much smaller numbers. I'll check the aspect out and let you know. Plant community-wise, both Erythroniums were growing amongst similar populations of like plants at the two sites, Sanguinaria canadensis, Trillium sessile, Phlox divaricata etc.
I should have noted too, that for all the thousands of albidum in flower, there must have been 10 non-flowering plants. (The same applies to the americanum in both Floracliff and Anglin Falls).The leaves were everywhere but as you know, 1 leaf=no flower, two leaves=flowers.
Another interesting observation was that we found T. sessile growing in a full vertical position out of the bank very similar to Lewisias at Bodnant Gardens. I have never seen T.sessile growing anything other than in  a horizontal plain. The more I see stuff over here, the more I learn. Next time we're out I'll try to remember to take my pH tester with me and see what the pH of the soil is. The vast majority of Kentucky, especially the Bluegrass area (I'll post a physio map of KY when I get the chance) is on limestone, although the forests are so old and almost virgin, that the leaf litter may still have neutralized the soil to a degree.
I am not too well educated on bulbous stuff, so if there is anything in particluar you want me to find out about the growth habit etc. of the Erythroniums, then just ask.

Glad you enjoyed the shots

[Katherine J]

Alan,
I realised in this moment, who are you! Yours was the very first website concerning alpine gardening which I have read a few years ago!
So, I want to thank you very much for the impulse you gave me and the helpful advices. From time to time I'm wisiting it, and like it very much!
Wish you and Sherba many wonderful walking days!
Kathrine from Hungary

[alpines]

Katherine...there are people throughout the alpine world who are STILL trying to figure out who I am. 
So thank you for giving them a clue as to my real identity. You can't believe everything Cliff Booker says about me.
If I inspired you with a love of alpines then I am so very pleased.
Long may you continue to gain pleasure from growing the most beautiful plants in the world.

Alan

[Ed Alverson]

Alan,

I too have greatly enjoyed your photos - especially the Erythroniums!  Thanks for posting them.  The first week in April is a glorious time in so many places!

Ed

[SueG]

Wonderful pictures - thank you very much.
Sue

[mark smyth]

Now then, why does my group of Sanguinaria never open like that? Mine are gone already and I never saw them open

[alpines]

Maybe Mark, because you don't have too many timber rattlesnakes and copperheads drilling drainage holes underneath them!!!!!
I tried growing sanguinarias back in England but I had the same problem as you. But the truth is, for every one you see here during a weekend, you probably miss hundreds that have opened during the week. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't.
When Sherba and I were out on Sunday, [it was warm (78 degrees) and sunny], it just happened to coincide with the same weekend we were at Anglin Falls last year. Here's a photograph of what we saw this time last year, taken 6th April 2007.
Maybe this is a factor !!!

[Maggi Young]

When Sherba and I were out on Sunday, [it was warm (78 degrees) and sunny], it just happened to coincide with the same weekend we were at Anglin Falls last year. Here's a photograph of what we saw this time last year, taken 6th April 2007.
Maybe this is a factor !!!   

Quite a difference in weather, then! At 78 degrees F, not much wonder they were out taking the sun like that... lucky little things!
A frozen waterfall is a pretty sight, if chilling!

[alpines]

Hi Maggi,
You wouldn't believe the weather here.....about 4 weeks ago, we had a tornado on Monday, 70+ degrees for the next two days, then we had an ice storm, then we had snow for three days, then back to warm and sunny. I often wondered why Sherba was so incensed with watching the weather forecast when she lived in England....now I know. And I kid you not, you can go out in long johns in the morning and change to shorts in the afternoon. I have seen (and not on just one occasion) where we have had a 40 degree change from morning to evening. And you wonder why I can't grow alpines here !!!!!

[Maggi Young]

where we have had a 40 degree change from morning to evening

Ridiculous! Shouldn't be allowed... it's as bad as a desert, a temperature swing like that