Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: Thomas Huber on August 05, 2009, 10:34:50 AM
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Hi freaks.
Many concered e-mails arrived in my mailbox in the last months, asking where I am:
I was, and still am, busy at work, doing the repotting in my garden, building a new
rockgarden and - holiday with the family on Lago di Garda. Just a simple family-holiday,
not planed for plant-hunting, but I couldn't avoid to observe the millions of Cyclamen
purpurascens in this area.
First some well grown plants:
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In some places they were growing so close together, you couldn't walk
without damaging them, please enjoy'em yourself:
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Heeeeey! Thomas! Long time no see! Fantastic cyclamen. 8)
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Good to hear from you. As we are just starting our family trip (guess where .... yep, Wales again! With various friends which is gonna be fun) you are home again after your trip.. Hope all the Hubis had a good time, give them my love. Ever fancy a UK holiday we'll bring you with us ... but cannot guarantee sun and fun like at Lago di Garda.
Some fantastic cyclamen. Thanks for sharing the pics with us.
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Hi Thomas,
Excellent pictures and fine plants - congratulations for these sights!
P.S.
First Crocus are not far away!
Gerd
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Hi Thomas,
P.S.
First Crocus are not far away!
Gerd
Yes in the UK too - repotting a few days ago I found good shoots on C vallicola and C kotschyanus. The flowers will wait until we return home!
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Tony, hope you and your girls will have a nice holiday in Wales again.
Found the first crocus shot yesterday on scharojanii flavus and many shots under the surface while repotting.
Sorry for some fuzzy Cyclamen photos, but partly they are growing in very dark corners of the woods,
mainly under pine woods as you can see from the pine needle covering around the plants.
The Garda-forms are known for good leaf markings, I found only one single plant without markings.
In one single area I found lots of saw-tooth leaves.
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and then there were the silver leaves..... :o
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For Ian and I, C. purpurascens is one of our favourite cyclamen...largely because of the delicious perfume .... it is mouthwatering to see such colour variation in the leaves and flowers..... thanks, Hubi!
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Wonderful shots of ground covering C. purpurascens, I have never seen them look so at home....the colour of the flower matches the silver leaf perfectly and I had no idea they are scented as well. Is the soil at Lago di Garda acid Thomas?
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Wonderful shots of ground covering C. purpurascens, I have never seen them look so at home....the colour of the flower matches the silver leaf perfectly and I had no idea they are scented as well. Is the soil at Lago di Garda acid Thomas?
Robin, I've measured several times and always found the soil ph neutral 7.
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Hi Thomas great to hear from you again. Lovely Cyclamen. Hope you all had a great holiday in one of my favourite places in Italy. Don't work too hard Thomas and I know these are not easy times for businesses like yours.
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Great to have you back on board Thomas !... and what a lovely series of Cyclamen pix !!! Awsome !
Thanks and stay with us plse ;)
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Thomas,
where are the pics of the white flowering Cyclamen?
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great to see these! i didn't know there was so much variation in this species..interesting, since its supposed to be my best bet for a species hardy here!
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Great you enjoy my photos!
Johannes, there are no photos of white flowering purpurascens :-[
While walking through the dark woods I often saw white flowers from
the distance, but coming closer they emerge as fading flowers, losing
their colour >:(
Cohan, the Garda plants don't get much frost I guess, but it's always
worth a try. In my own garden the last hard winter (-24°C) was survived
by: hederifolium, coum, purpurascens, colchicum, intaminatum, pseudibericum,
trochopteranthum, cilicium and even mirabile and graecum are still alive.
Give them a sheltered place near a wall and hope for good snowcover 8)
For those who are interested, I have some more impressions from around the lake:
- 11: Nightview of the lake
- 04: Lago di Tenno
- 27: On the beach in Riva
- 12: Waterfall 14 meters high
- 49: Exploring the canyon - barefoot!
- 21: Chris relaxing on the lake - the belly is still white ;D
- 27: View on the lake from 1000m
- 09: Church of Montecastello
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And the last batch:
- 52: Monte Baldo view from Passo di Tremalzo
- 74: After a rainy night the air was so clear that we could even see the Apennin
- 18: Another Monte Baldo view, watch the XXL-view if you have a good screen
- 23: Chris and Celine on Monte Baldo
- 42: Best place for reading lessons I can imagine
- 44: Last plant photo before my photo batteries were empty
- 62: View from the ferry Malcesine-Limone northwards
- 45: Arena in Verona
- 69: Celine somewhat damaged
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Oh dear, just when we are relaxing with the beautiful scenery.... here is poor Celine.... more than somewhat damaged :o ........ I was thinking in the photo where she and Chris are climbing on the rocks by the waterfall that this could lead to a fall...... ::)
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Oh dear, just when we are relaxing with the beautiful scenery.... here is poor Celine.... more than somewhat damaged :o ........ I was thinking in the photo where she and Chris are climbing on the rocks by the waterfall that this could lead to a fall...... ::)
Maggi, it looks dangerous, but the waterfall climb was made without damage.
Celine's wounds result from 4 accidents in different places :-\
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Celine's wounds result from 4 accidents in different places
That sounds just like me when I was little! :-[
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I bet chocolate made them better!
Super images Thomas. Thanks once again.
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What a gorgeous looking place and the weather looks perfect for a family holiday - did you swim in the lake?
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What a gorgeous looking place and the weather looks perfect for a family holiday - did you swim in the lake?
Yes, of course we were swimming in the Garda Lake, it was warm and refreshing, especially Lago di Tenne, where
I was the only one from the Hubi family swimming (~15°C). 14 days of sunshine with just one rainy night
was more than we have expected.
Cliff, Chocolate might have helped Maggi, but not Celine - she's not a Choco-girl.
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Great you enjoy my photos!
Cohan, the Garda plants don't get much frost I guess, but it's always
worth a try. In my own garden the last hard winter (-24°C) was survived
by: hederifolium, coum, purpurascens, colchicum, intaminatum, pseudibericum,
trochopteranthum, cilicium and even mirabile and graecum are still alive.
Give them a sheltered place near a wall and hope for good snowcover 8)
thanks for the input,thomas..
quite possibly the hardy purpurascens are from colder places;
the other species suggested for coldest places are coum and hederifolium, but, from the experiences of others, they sound pretty doubtful for my area--maybe sometime i will try in pots that i put in a shed or something for winter..
unfortunately, -24C would be a very mild winter here ;)
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Cohan - Cyclamen purpurascens is the hardiest of all the cyclamen here. The pure silver-leafed forms are rather cranky and must be situated perfectly. C. hederifolium is so-so - I had hundreds of them seeding everywhere and one snowless dry winter (low around -17c) took them out; the oldest corm reappeared 7 years later with one huge leaf. C. coum is hopeless long term; kuznetzovii we are hoping will fill the gap though other says coum var. caucasicum might be better. C. repandum and cilcicum lived for a few years.
I blame winter wet and especially bad are winters with little rain or snowcover - the ground temperature can really plummet when the soil is dry.
C. purpurascens just started flowering here about 10 days ago.
johnw
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Cohan - Cyclamen purpurascens is the hardiest of all the cyclamen here. The pure silver-leafed forms are rather cranky and must be situated perfectly. C. hederifolium is so-so - I had hundreds of them seeding everywhere and one snowless dry winter (low around -17c) took them out; the oldest corm reappeared 7 years later with one huge leaf. C. coum is hopeless long term; kuznetzovii we are hoping will fill the gap though other says coum var. caucasicum might be better. C. repandum and cilcicum lived for a few years.
I blame winter wet and especially bad are winters with little rain or snowcover - the ground temperature can really plummet when the soil is dry.
C. purpurascens just started flowering here about 10 days ago.
johnw
tks, john..it was your comments previously, and lori's, that made me doubt hederifolium..we usually have good snow cover in mid winter, but it can easily get to -20 or -30 before the snow comes...
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unfortunately, -24C would be a very mild winter here ;)
Cohan, I suspected you have deeper temperatures, how deep ??
And I think without snow cover my plants would not have survived so well.
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unfortunately, -24C would be a very mild winter here ;)
Cohan, I suspected you have deeper temperatures, how deep ??
And I think without snow cover my plants would not have survived so well.
thomas--we can have as low as around -45, although thats not common--but usually a couple of times we get to/near -40, and -30 for some days at a time, and lots of -20's--daytime too, not just for a short time at night; worse, its a long cold season-this year we have had frost in every month! although nothing was damaged here, not too far away, people had tomatoes freeze in early june(usually not safe before that, but this was late, this year!) and even in late june, people had beans freezing; i picked a safe spot i guess for my vegetable garden (just started this year)--nothing frozen since late may, but tomatoes are not making any fruit either! very little hot weather this year....
we can have very serious frosts in september, even late august--last year my new sempervivums closed up by september...
our snow cover is usually good in midwinter for the very coldest weather, but as i mentioned to john, it can be very cold already before we get lasting snow, often well into december..
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Thomas,
Interesting that you measured the PH. Do you always do that? It would help many of us if the PH was mentioned more often in plant requirements.
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OK, Cohan, -45° could be called "very cold". The -24° we had here last winter were not the
standard winter temperatures (-10°). However, give purpurascens a try or you will never know.
Pat, I often have my ph-meter with me when travelling, and if I think of it I measure the soil.
Will keep your wish in mind, when I'm posting photos from my plant journeys next time.
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OK, Cohan, -45° could be called "very cold". The -24° we had here last winter were not the
standard winter temperatures (-10°). However, give purpurascens a try or you will never know.
Pat, I often have my ph-meter with me when travelling, and if I think of it I measure the soil.
Will keep your wish in mind, when I'm posting photos from my plant journeys next time.
thanks thomas-- i will try it sometime--lori in calgary--just a bit warmer on average than me, and less snow, and john in the east of canada, are both growing C purpurascens, so it should grow here too...
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Thomas, very nice
Curious, can one smell the scent in the air/breeze, with so many flowers open at the same time?
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Thanks Thomas I will appreciate hearing the different PH levels - other plants growing in the vicinity is also very interesting.
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Thanks Thomas I will appreciate hearing the different PH levels - other plants growing in the vicinity is also very interesting.
Pat, the largest plants were found in pure pine needle humus, with nothing else growing there
exept some single grasses and a few Campanulas. Only rarely the sun shone on the plants.
So far I thought Cyclamen would do best in beech humus, but the plants in found under beeches
were not half as big as the ones under pines. Perhaps due to other vegetation growing much
better there (sorry no names).
Hope this helps
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I had read that Cyclamen liked pine trees so I did move some seedlings there but then decided that they did better in our conditions in the nursery under shadecloth - bit too dry here.
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Thomas,
Just ventured into the "Travel/Places to visit" section and of course came into this topic pretty quickly. ;D Seeing the purps carpeting the area...... breathtaking. I can only imagine the perfume on a warm day. :o Some stunning leaf forms in there, that is for sure.
I have to say 'Thanks' for the larger version of the panoramic view. With a larger computer monitor the first shot was pretty pointless, but the larger version showed so much more. An impressive mountain, set off beautifully by the sea.
Thanks for inviting us on your holiday! ;D
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Thomas,
I have to say 'Thanks' for the larger version of the panoramic view. With a larger computer monitor the first shot was pretty pointless, but the larger version showed so much more. An impressive mountain, set off beautifully by the sea.
That's exactly what I thought about the small panoramic view, when I saw it reduced first time.
But I posted it even so because there are still people outside having just a small monitor.