Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: Alan_b on June 17, 2013, 09:02:08 PM
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These pictures were taken between 6th and 12th June in the area around Banff. I'm using a book I bought there to identify the flowers. You may gather I am very ignorant about alpines.
Firstly an orchid called a Calypso (Calypso bulbosa) also known as a 'Venus Slipper' or 'Fairy Slipper'. This was actually very easily found growing in woodland in dappled shade so it must be quite a common plant. Perhaps it would grow in similar conditions in Scotland?
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A beautiful norne, Alan!
I know it is native in Scandinavia but I have never seen it in the wild. Would love to have it in my garden!
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The enchanting little Calypso is one of my favourite flowers 8)
The late, great Kath Dryden used to grow it and that was my introduction to it in real life.
Chris in Poland seems to be doing well with it, but I worry too much about killing such a beauty to even try sourcing it!
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The Calypso is so beautiful a flower that one thinks it must be difficult to grow, but it grows in such abundance in the area I was visiting that I wonder if maybe it isn't. Worth a try, Maggi?
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No, Alan, this is one I won't try - the world is full of places where gorgeous plants grow in profusion but which are intractable in cultivation- sometimes I'm game to try 'em, but this isn't one of those.
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I saw a variety of anemones of different heights and sizes and I think all these flower are such. Typically they were growing in full sun, often near the edge of a lake.
Edit: I now think the second photo here (labelled anemone1) may actually be a Pasque flower (or 'Prairie Crocus'). I only found these on a trip we made down the valley to lower altitudes and thus later in the season. Most of them had gone over but I'm pretty sure that I managed to photograph one; in which case it is this one. Lori S. confirms this identification as Pulsatilla patens (also known as Eastern Pasqueflower). The large flower in the first photo is identified as Trollius albiflorus, common name White Globe Flower.
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More anemones
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Typically the anemones were distributed more sparsely than the previous picture conveys.
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Another white-flowered plant that I thought was probably a type of strawberry, although the leaves are very narrow. I saw many of this type but also other plants with broader leaves looking more like the illustration in my book and the UK wild strawberry.
Edit: Lori S.identified this as Fragaria virginiana but it still seems to me to be a form with particularly long narrow leaves by comparison with other illustrations of the species that I can find.
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No, Alan, this is one I won't try - the world is full of places where gorgeous plants grow in profusion but which are intractable in cultivation- sometimes I'm game to try 'em, but this isn't one of those.
lovely pictures Alan,of over to look at them ourselves in a week or so. Maggi clearly you need a Chorley climate where calypso thrives quite well.
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Here is a distribution map I found for Calypso bulbosa http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/mono/orchida/calyp/calybulv.jpg (http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/mono/orchida/calyp/calybulv.jpg) . Maybe Chorley also merits a dot? I would have thought that anything so attractive and named 'bulbosa' might be of interest to a person who likes to grow bulbs.
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Another plant we only saw down the valley was the 'Shooting Star' (Dodecatheon pulchellum). These were dotted around in a meadow area, as you can just about make out in the second photo.
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Maggi clearly you need a Chorley climate where calypso thrives quite well.
Yes Tony, I know there are those who grow the plant in the UK, but I am so entranced by these little flowers that the thought of maybe killing one , or even keeping one or two in captivity when they can be so glorious in their little communities in the wild is just beyond me. It's an odd thing, because I'm happy to try other plants which may require pot culture - it's just a mental block I have over this Calypso - I just think it is one of the most gorgeous flowers ever!
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Maggi, I agree. Calypso bulbosa is exquisite, a plant that makes you keep looking and looking. I've seen it a number of times in the wild and each time the habitat was such an integral setting for the plant. I can't imagine liking it in a pot after seeing it in nature.
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Does it have to be pot-grown? I saw this plant in the vicinity of Banff, climate http://www.world-guides.com/north-america/canada/alberta/banff/banff_weather.html (http://www.world-guides.com/north-america/canada/alberta/banff/banff_weather.html) . Compare this to, say, Stirling then peak summer temperatures are similar but Banff experiences a much longer colder winter. So surely the only useful thing a pot can provide is good drainage and less winter wet than is normal hereabouts? Those are conditions you might be able to achieve in the ground with a little care. Or am I being naïve?
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Does it have to be pot-grown? I saw this plant in the vicinity of Banff, climate http://www.world-guides.com/north-america/canada/alberta/banff/banff_weather.html (http://www.world-guides.com/north-america/canada/alberta/banff/banff_weather.html) . Compare this to, say, Stirling then peak summer temperatures are similar but Banff experiences a much longer colder winter. So surely the only useful thing a pot can provide is good drainage and less winter wet than is normal hereabouts? Those are conditions you might be able to achieve in the ground with a little care. Or am I being naïve?
It needs to be moist all year round with just a little less water in summer when it is dormant.
It does not grow in the 'ground', it grows in a few inches of pine duff over the soil,not easy to replicate ouside of a pot.
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I hope you had a great time out here!
After the calypso orchid photos, the first one is Trollius albiflorus, then Pulsatilla patens, 5 photos of Anemone parviflora (or so they all look to me), then Fragaria virginiana.
I can't imagine growing calypso orchid in a pot either (but maybe that's just me... the notion of growing anything in pots doesn't really enter my consciousness). Is it a good year for them? They can extremely thick... I saw thousands of big robust plants one spring in the forests around Lake Louise! Guess I'd best get out there to see for myself!
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"Pleasant springs in Banff lead onto a warm and appealing summer climate"... that's tourist-brochure-speak for "cold". ;D
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... I saw thousands of big robust plants one spring in the forests around Lake Louise! Guess I'd best get out there to see for myself!
Go quick, I left one week ago so I don't know how long the Calypso flowers will last. Thanks for help in identifying some of the other flowers. We did indeed have a great time.
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They can extremely thick... I saw thousands of big robust plants one spring in the forests around Lake Louise! Guess I'd best get out there to see for myself!
Good grief! The very thought makes me hyperventilate. What a wonderful sight that must be.
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One for the true rock gardener, I think it must be Androsace chamaejasme, Rock Jasmine
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Views taken along a road called the Icefields Parkway that runs between Lake Louise and Jasper passing through the Columbia Icefields. Bow Lake, source of the Bow River which flows down the valley through Banff and eventually through Calgary. About half of my 'Anemone' photos come from the lake shore, where I also photographed a small red plant that I cannot identify. Nearby, the impossibly blue Peyto Lake; I have not tampered with the photograph, it really was that colour.
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A rainbow in spray at Mistaya Canyon and some of the tiny plants growing by the path on the walk down from the road to the canyon.
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I'm enjoying all these photos - the scenery is so majestic - but that rainbow in the spray shot is a stunner!
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That small red plant has leaves that remind me of a Pedicularis - I think some of them are reddish when they first appear, then become greener with time.
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The red plant is indeed Pedicularis groenlandica. The Androsace is correctly ID'd - it's actually very easy to grow (in cold, dry climates, at least).
(P.S. Well, it doesn't look like an orchid walk is in the works for this weekend... the Trans-Canada highway and also the 1A bypass are closed at Canmore due to extreme flooding of Cougar Creek (which I'm not sure if I've ever even seen water in before)! Take a look at the videos at the bottom of this news article:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/06/20/calgary-canmore-flooding-emergency-w.html (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/06/20/calgary-canmore-flooding-emergency-w.html)
Lots of flooding and neighbourhoods adjacent to the floodplains of the Bow and Elbow Rivers being evacuated in Calgary too. Good heavens, I'm glad we live up in the highlands! :o )
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Ruddy heck, we were staying just up the road from Cougar Creek, which was as wide as the Bow River in Canmore but appeared completely dry when we were there. And we had lovely weather for our 8 days, ending last Thursday!
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According to my book, Pedicularis groenlandica has the common name ' Elephanthead' because the individual flowers on the spike resemble the head of an elephant, a pink one at that!
Geum triflorum (I think) known as 'Old Man's Whiskers', 'Three-flowered Avens' or 'Prairie Smoke'.
Clematis columbiana, known as 'Blue Clematis' or 'Purple Virgin's Bower'.
A plant with blue grass-like leaves (a bit like a small iris) that was very prolific in the woods west of Canmore. We found one in tight bud but it was too early to find any in flowers so I never identified it.
Lastly a view looking over the reservoir and on to the town of Canmore in the valley. The now-flooded 'Cougar Creek' descends from the far mountains and will be somewhere over towards the right of the picture.
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Yes, Geum triflorum, and the plant with bluish grass-like leaves is Zigadenus, either Zigadenus elegans (very common and very beautiful) or Zigadenus venenosus.
Too bad it was so early. I wish you'd seen the "elephanthead" in bloom... I think seeing pink elephants would make anyone smile! :D
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=3949.msg104101#msg104101 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=3949.msg104101#msg104101)
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Lori - I hope all's well with you and family given the horrible flooding in Calgary.
johnw
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Yes, we are fine. Thank you very much for your thoughts, John. We are SO very fortunate to live well above the river floodplains (so only experienced lots of rain), but as I'm sure you've seen from the news, about 75,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas along the Bow and Elbow Rivers. It sounds (from the news and social media) as though the evacuation and housing of people has been done really well - an absolutely stellar effort by all the emergency services and city departments!
It sounds like people are being allowed to return to their homes in a few areas but the downtown is still without power. (I can only imagine that all the underground parking in all the downtown office and apartment buildings must be totally flooded. I work downtown so I'm waiting to see what my employer tells us about coming in on Monday.) How awful for the people who know there has been terrible damage to their homes, or even total destruction of their homes.
Sorry, I don't know how to link this video itself, but here is a current news article with video:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/06/21/aerial-view-flooding.html (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/06/21/aerial-view-flooding.html)
Sorry to divert the topic from your beautiful mountain photos, Alan! :(
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Not at all, Lori; I am concerned for anyone in the area. We stayed for 8 days at a very nice 'resort' hotel in Canmore that was not very far from Cougar Creek, followed by 2 nights in downtown Calgary before we flew home. Although we encountered a few intense showers, overall we had lovely sunny weather. And yet wherever we rested our heads, flooding has followed in our wake. A week later and the Canmore hotel is closed ("Emergency and restoration crews are working to restore the resort and we hope to be back in operation by July 5, 2013") whilst much of the downtown area we saw in Calgary is also flooded. We feel so sorry for all affected by this.