Sunday, May 5, 2013

A few more treasures from Gothenburg

Fritillaria grayana
Taken a week ago, I suspect many of these images are already history (since it's warming up finally in Western Europe) but I thought it would be fun to share a few more images of the hundreds of wonderful plants in the backup greenhouses at Gothenburg (where the public is held back). Henrik told me that there are plans afoot to redesign these greenhouses to make them accessible...Until then, you can get a glimpse here!


I believe this is a hybrid between Dicentra peregrina and D. nevadensis
 This wonderful hybrid bleeding heart will be released to general horticulture soon under a fancy name (which I forgot): it is one I shall look for, I can assure you!



Aquilegia glandulosa dwarf
 This is surely a tiny form of the spectacular blue columbine from the Altai I have admired in nature...challenging in hot gardens, however.


Iris timofejewii
 Not the showiest of irises, this far eastern bearded iris may be one of the trickier to spell and pronounce however!


Fritillaria stenanthera
 Another stunning American plant which I doubt any public garden in America has plants of (ok, ok, maybe Berkeley or Rancho Santa Ana B.G.)...


MORE!


I believe this is the true Fritillaria verticillata


MORE!


More and more--it goes on and on like this for bench after bench--all impeccable.


Let's not even talk about Corydalis--there were hundreds.


And more


And more


Mertenia McDougalii
 Kit Strange, of Royal Botanic Kew, was very taken with this North American, which (of course) I'd never seen before...

A cool primrose yellow flowered Androsace--to die for


I tried to get the label--maybe you can key it out?


I believe these are Fritillaria raddeana, going over...
 
I even love this frit in this state! Oh well...I have hundreds more pix but time is running out...and I'm on my second botanic garden in Germany already. Yikes! Must get cracking...

3 comments:

  1. I am moderately jealous....
    Not Frit. stenanthera, but something else; eastwoodiae, maybe.
    I might need an alpine house.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've been thinking a lot about you Bob, as we careen through the absolutely gorgeous German countryside, hosted by the most thoughtful, wonderful German hosts, drinking fabulous beer, schnapps, aqua vit, Rheinwein and visiting garden after garden full of astonishing treasures, and did I mention the gorgeous German countryside where every glimpse is velvety and glowing with light this time of years: chequered fields full of glaring yellow "Rap" (Canola in blinding bloom) and melting vistas with castles in the distance. Prunus blooming everywhere--wild and cultivated, not to mention pears, apples, rhododendrons galore, and lilacs (remember lilacs?) and so much more, and every crisp cottage seems to have a garden to match. Wunderbar!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Some amazing plants there, what a trip this must have been. Isn't it irksome that one must travel half way around the globe to find fantastic American plants being grown so well, absent from American horticulture, why is that? It's a bit strange that Kit Strange at RBG Kew grows the lovely Mertensia macdougalii from New Mexico, a plant I've never heard of, and I bet most other North American gardeners never heard of, but why not?

    The yellow Androsace lehmanniana 'Natalia' is to die for; at first I thought it was a cultivar called 'Goteborg Yellow' recently showed on NARGS Forum (remember that place? ;-) ), but then I saw the next photo with a plant label. Here again, a North American plant, in fabulous forms, that nary a North American has heard of let alone grows, and there it is growing happily half way around the globe. By the way, ITIS and other sources (except The Plant List) consider this as Androsace chamaejasme ssp. lehmanniana.
    Androsace lehmanniana 'Goteborg Yellow' on NARGS Forum:

    http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=1299.msg23260#msg23260

    I agree with Bob who posted first, that the frit identified as stenanthera is not, F. stenanthera is a light pink-flowered species from Central Asia, now I'm curious to know what frit it is.

    Thanks for bringing this brief synopsis of your travels to us, some spectacular plants to be sure, I don't even want to think about all of the Corydalis treasures I'm not growing and have no access to.

    Mark McDonough
    antennaria at charter.net

    ReplyDelete

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