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| Raoulia grandiflora |
There are days you want to encase in a bubble, like a snow globe, and put them on a nearby shelf to take down now and again, and jiggle. January 19, 2018 will be exactly such a day for me as long as I live. It was the day I discovered the Grampian mountains of New Zealand.
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| Steve Newall, left and Michael Midgley right (Raoulia australis in between) |
There are Grampian mountains in Scotland (the original ones) and in Australia. This is a relatively small range of mountains on private land (we had permission!) in the MacKenzie Highlands. The American Horticultural Society tour I helped lead gave us a day "off"--and Michael had arranged to pick us (myself and Cyndy Cromwell--a friend of Michael's) up, joining Hamish Brown and Steve for the magical day. Temperature, 70-ish degrees more or less. A slight breeze. The pictures tell it all!
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| Melicytus alpinus
The widespread Mahoe (or porcupine shrub) |
Doesn't this look exactly like a frog?
Here you can see the first leg of the road: we were in Michae's trusty four wheel drive, lots of gates to pass through. The New Zealand Southern Alps are so stunning in January: the biggish lump just to the right of center there is Mt. Cook.
There are so many cushion, mat and bun forming plants here--they counted 9 species of
Raoulia alone--I'm afraid I'll only be showing a half dozen of these (not all my pictures were worthy of uploading, alas)
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| Helichrysum intermedium foliage |
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Helichrysum intermedium in seed
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| Hamish photographing a monster Helichrysum intermedium in bloom! |
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| Helichrysum intermedium |
Here's my picture of the monster Helichrysum--just see how much bigger it is than the car behind it...
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| Steve Newall on Donatia novae-zelandiae |
Taking a well earned break!
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| Donatia novae-zelandiae |
One of the tightest cushion plants, in the Stylidiaceae--a family largely restricted to New Zealand and Australia (one in the Americas).
Cyndy Cromwell, praying to the cushion
Donatia novae-zelandiae!
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| Aciphylla monroi |
One of four "Spaniards" on the hill: a group I would dearly love to grow successfully (they've eluded us so far)...
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| Raoulia eximia |
It's hard to convey the delight, the thrill it is to see these plants I've yearned to see all my life. I saw them in early bud back in 2016, and now they were in bloom and just going over. We should remind ourselves every day to thank our lucky stars!
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| Raoulia eximia |
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| Raoulia eximia |
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| Raoulia eximia |
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| Raoulia eximia |
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Raoulia hectori tapestry
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Words sort of get in the way--I'll leave most of the rest of the blog as pictures and captions. The pictures really speak better than I would!
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| Raoulia hectori |
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| Raoulia hectori and Chionohebe pulvinaris |
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Raoulia hectori and a small unidentified Hebe
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| Another tapestry like mass of mat formers |
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| Raoulia hectori |
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| Raoulia hectori |
I was rather taken with this species as you can perhaps guess...
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| Aciphylla aurea |
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| Aciphylla aurea |
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| Aciphylla dobsonii |
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| Raoulia, you guessed it, hectori |
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| Gentianella serotina |
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| Aciphylla dobsonii |
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| Dracophyllum muscoides |
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| Hebe epacridea |
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| Raoulia youngii |
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| Raoulia youngii |
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| Raoulia youngii closeup |
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| One of many Epilobium sp. here |
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| Raoulia subsericea |
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| Raoulia sp. (I believe it's R. petriensis) |
This was the last one we encountered--and some was going home with our hosts for testing...
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| Aciphylla scott-thomsonii |
Once we decended the mountain, we spied a colonies of the largest of the Spaniards in the distance. Michael, Cyndy and I had to take a closer look...
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| Aciphylla scott-thomsonii |
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| Aciphylla scott-thomsonii |
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| Aciphylla scott-thomsonii |
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| Aciphylla scott-thomsonii |
Thank you so much, Michael: for the third time in a year and a half you have wafted us to the heights around the MacKenzie highlands--a place that has become a touchstone of my heart. I'm already dreaming about coming back one more time! Long may you thrive, explore and garden!
That last Raoulia in my hand I have as R. petrimia in my notes - same as petriensis? All the seeds arrived btw, really hopeful the Aciphylla aurea might do well in North Carolina.
ReplyDeleteSo glad the seeds got there! I'll correct the R. petrimia (they're not the same I don't think--I'll check). Good luck with the seeds (you and J.C.R.A)!
ReplyDeleteI have done a little research: I believe R. x petrimia represents a hybrid between R. petriensis and R. eximia--notably in 'Margaret Pringle': I think what you all found was a species and not the hybrid? I'll stick by petriensis for now, Cyndy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for clarifying - shocked my notes were inaccurate��
DeleteHi Panayoti,
ReplyDeleteThis is my first comment on your site, of which I have been following for 10 years, a bit lame I know! I would like to congratulate you on the marvellous series of posts about New Zealand. I was interested to hear about the Grampian Mountains since I have heard of the Scottish ones and I also live in the state of Victoria in Australia where you can find the Grampian National Park. As a side note, a third of all plant species in Victoria can be found in this National Park.
On another subject, I think I can blame you for luring me into the world of Rock Gardening and joining NARGS a few years ago. This has led to me joining the AGS, SRGC and AGS Vic Branch. For that I do thank you for opening my eyes to another wide world of amazing plants and look forward to enjoying many more informative and interesting posts. Will we ever see you in the Land Down Under?!
Cheers,
Alan Ayton
What an incredibly gracious and inspiring note, Alan! It's precisely the sort of thing that keeps me motivated! I would love nothing more than to visit Australia (in fact, ALL the Grampians!). I have cousins and a god child I have not seen in 55 (count 'em, 55! YEARS) who live in Australia, not to mention friends at several botanic gardens there. Fermi DiSouza suggested an Australian addition to my last N.Z. trip--but things were so hectic I didn't follow up. I have a little hunch another N.Z. trip may materialize, and should it do so, I will make sure to extend the time to finally visit your immense and wonderful continent. I know just enough about Australia to be dangerous! Do check this video out about Victoria: I think you'll enjoy it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB8Upd6zIvE
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words Panayoti. We would love to have you here! Next time your in the land of the long white cloud its only a short hop across the ditch(aka "Tasman Sea") to the big island. A lot of us here cheekily say that N Zed(short version of New Zealand) is the seventh state of Australia anyway!! Thanks for sharing that link, I learnt that we used to have a rainforest in Victoria, incredible since I know what the Anglesea area looks like now. On a somber note, I think I saw on your Facebook feed that this gentleman had passed away. I sometimes ponder the attention we give to celebrities and such like when they pass and compare that to people just doing their thing in their chosen field, sometimes discovering amazing things and making huge leaps in medicine of which the majority of us never hear about and I'm sure they would not want the limelight but its nice to recognise their efforts. Dare I say we live in a topsy turvy world.
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