Townsendia pics

[McDonough]

Hello all, I am starting this thread to highlight good photos of Townsendia, whether found on the web, taken in the wild or in your garden... feel free to contribute.

I'll start with a photo I found on the older SRGC (Scottish Rock Garden Club forum), contributed by Geir Moen, showing a delicious shot of Townsendia spathulata 'Pryor Mountain form'... does anyone have any details about this form?
http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/12068.jpg

[Todd Boland]

That is one hoary Townsendia...and I mean that in the most flattering way!

[IMYoung]

There has been no response to your question, Mark, which I only just found, so I'll help out...

 Also on the "Old" archived version of the SRGC Forum we learned a little more about this lovely plant from the nurseryman Graham Nicholls .... he wrote :" It is a difficult plant to grow not liking too much moisture and I have never had viable seed set. This plant is grown from collected seed Ev Whittemore sent to me three years ago. Just compare it with the usual form seen in the trade and see how furry the leaves are. This is the original species confirmed by John Grimshaw by checking with material sent back to Kew. I have only seen it in the Pryor Mouintains of Montana growing in tufa banks. "
Follow this link to the message Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 2:41 pm: by Graham Nicholls to see more pictures.....

http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/27576.html#POST14832

 

[McDonough]

Excellent!  Thanks for the update Maggi... or is this Ian?

[IMYoung]

Excellent!  Thanks for the update Maggi... or is this Ian?

 'tis Maggi, Mark!

 Glorious plant, isn't it?  I don't grow it..... but I 'm off to look at Graham's site to see if I can remedy that! http://graplant.co.uk

[IMYoung]

Here are three photos, of the Pryor Mountains form of Townsendia spathulata taken in the wild by Brian Welzenbach.
 
The photos were kindly passed to me for posting here by Graham Nicholls who got seed of this one from Brian. (and the 'Cottonballs' form recently featured  with Brian's photos in the International Rock Gardener   No. 5 May 2010 : http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=international) 

These are spectacular little daisies and great to have the pix from the wild: thanks to Brian Welzenbach!



As usual: please click on the photos to enlarge them.

[Hoy]

Shouldn't think such plants existed!
The second photo shows a whole community too of similar plants.

[Nicholls]

Further to Maggi's posting yesterday here is a pic of my Pryor Mnts townsendia show plant before it became buried under glass & snow last winter and died a sorry death.
Graham

[Hoy]

Further to Maggi's posting yesterday here is a pic of my Pryor Mnts townsendia show plant before it became buried under glass & snow last winter and died a sorry death.
Graham

I had been very depressed had anything like that happened to me. Did you have a heavy snowfall that broke your glasshouse? I had much snow last winter and some shrubs and limb of trees broke.

[Spiegel]

Further to Maggi's posting yesterday here is a pic of my Pryor Mnts townsendia show plant before it became buried under glass & snow last winter and died a sorry death.
Graham

Graham, what a gorgeous plant.  Are you still growing this?  I remember this one from your book, but have never seen seed listed anywhere.  Townsendia condensata is another very unusual one that I like a lot. 

[Nicholls]

For those that haven't seen my greenhouse disaster go to http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/groups/Wiltshire and page down. This is the front page of the Wiltshire AGS group web site. My greenhouse is at the bottom of the page. From this page you can also navigate to various parts of the site to see our photoshoot and plants at our own local show. I will post some pictures of various townsendias soon as Mark started this thread by saying he would like to see some good ones.
Graham

[Nicholls]

Here are a few townsendia pics. All plants have been grown by myself except the T. montana which I photographed on Cartherine Pass, near Snowbird during the NARGS conference there. Anne you remember our hike together to the alpine beach don't you. Iris preferred to to a bit of ironing back at the motel.
The first plant is the cottonball, sown September 2009 and flowered this week for the first time. Wonderful plant. T.condensata is the next one. Many people considered the cottonballs to be the same initially but it's no such thing. T. condensata has always been biennial with me.
T. exscapa is the next one. This was amazing, I was given seed by a friend whilst visiting her in Arizona. The plants had the largest flowers I have ever seen on this species. T. hookeri is the next one. A nice show plant but the thin silver leaves are prone to red spider in hot weather. T. incana is a nice show plant if you get the compact one, it is important to select the right seedlings here. However it is prone to collapse after about three years. T. leptotes a fine show plant but slow to fill a pot. T. mensana. Nice work if you can get it. Occasionally the seed crops up in seed lists (Not exchanges) and is reluctant to germinate well. However as you can see its a nice species. T. montana, as I said photographed during a very good hike to one of Anne Speigels favourite places. T. nuttallii, slow to grow to a large plant but well worth waiting for those nice pink flowers. And finally T. rothrockii an attractive species that has grown well for me in troughs.
There you are Mark a nice collection for you.
Graham

[McDonough]

Thanks Ian/Maggi and Graham, for some fantastic images of Townsendia species and forms; they're such delicious eye-candy.  The ones from the Pryors are sensational, almost imitating South American Chaetanthera species.  Graham, your images let us know these are indeed very growable plants, most worthwhile for a trough, rock garden, or alpine house.  Sorry about your greenhouse devestation, I recall seeing this on SRGC.  Hopefully you have rebuilt since then.

I still hope to do what I set out to do here, that is to do some armchair botanizing, and find and provide links to good images of many Townsendia species, saving hours traversing dead-end, unreliable, or otherwise unhelpful links.

[Spiegel]

Hi Graham, I remember the hike to the "alpine beach" very well.  A grand day for beautiful plants  I still have Townsendia montana, which seems quite perennial - seed collected from Sunset Pass on another trip.  I've had the same experience with Townsendia condensata, but it does set a huge amount of seed, much of which germinates even when scattered around the parent plant.  Townsendia hookeri is one of my favorites, beautiful foliage.  I find I can keep the townsendias going longer if they're in a trough as against the open garden, but I'm going to try them in the crevice gardens, new since your New York visit.  If you think about it, a crevice garden is almost like a trough - each crevice is a very finite garden.  I'll let you know how they do.  I've seen Townsendia mensana in Utah - the foliage was spectacular and the seed germinated readily but the plants weren't perennial in my garden.  When you see them on nature. the plants are small, although not as small as Townsendia minima.  Have you ever grown that one?  I always thought it should be ideal in a trough

[Spiegel]

Graham, would you be able to identify this one?  Label lost.