Gardening at 58 North

Continuing with the snowy theme, here are some more photos from my visits to Switzerland.

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5 6

13 hours ago | [YT] | 17

Gardening at 58 North

Continuing with the snowy theme, here are some photos from some of my visits to Switzerland.
I was always amazed in Switzerland that you could take a quick 10 minute funicular railway trip up a mountain and go from no snow to meters of the stuff. Even walking from one valley to the next the snow depth could vary massively.
I also visited in summer so I will post some alpine plant photos at a later date.

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5 6

1 day ago | [YT] | 31

Gardening at 58 North

I've been posting about my research trip in China a lot recently, now that its December and Christmas is not far away I will take a break from the Jade dragon snow mountain photos and show some of my more wintery photos.
I will start with some of my oldest photos, back when I was a teenager in Insch, a rural village in north east Scotland. Insch is in one of the snowier and colder areas of Scotland ,it is far enough away from the coast to get down to -20C and close enough to the sea to get lake affect snow.
The cold climate makes growing certain plants difficult and the heavy snow often damages hedges and conifers.
These photos are from around Insch showing the snow in the area and the plants buried by it. At times we would get two foot of snow falling in one night.

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

2 days ago | [YT] | 28

Gardening at 58 North

Its Monday mystery macro time. What plant does this macro close up belong to?

Comment below with your guesses, I will reveal the answer next Monday.
I have cropped in closer on the first photo as you can actually see the individual plant cells and stomata.

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4

3 days ago | [YT] | 13

Gardening at 58 North

The answer to last week's Monday mystery macro is red Petunia flower. I've had this particular Petunia growing in my pots at the front of the house this summer. I like to use trailing Petunias in pots as they cascade down the pots allowing my other bedding plants to grow above them.

Well done to those who guessed correctly this week.

I will upload this week's Monday mystery macro later today.

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5

3 days ago | [YT] | 25

Gardening at 58 North

Although not a plant post, the Yaks on Jade dragon snow mountain had a big influence on the plants in the area.
We usually saw the Yaks between 3800m (12,500 Feet) and 4200m (13,800 Feet) on the mountain usually above the tree line.
Although not normally dangerous if we kept our distance there was a few times that they blocked the only route down the mountain. At these times we would either have to wait for them to move on or swing out arms to make them move aside from the path. Most of the Yaks would move when we approached but there was a big bull which would square up to me at times forcing us to back off.
One morning when we were camping at 4000m we woke up surrounded by the herd with the bull staring us down, we had to abandon our tent and come back to pack up our things a few hours later once the herd had moved on. The bull is the one with the big curved shoulders.
The last photo is of some of the damage caused by the Yaks grazing the local plants.

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

4 days ago | [YT] | 39

Gardening at 58 North

The Yak meadow on Jade dragon snow mountain had a very wide variety of wild flowers which all flowered at different times, although yellow was the predominant colour.
When we first visited the area was yellow with Ranunculus (buttercup) flowers, another week it would be yellow with Potentilla and towards the end of our time on the mountain is was yellow with a miniature sunflower like plant which I think was a species of Cremanthodium. Despite being predominantly yellow from a distance, it was in fact covered with numerus different wild flowers.

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

5 days ago | [YT] | 42

Gardening at 58 North

Although most of the slopes of Jade dragon snow mountain were covered in trees or shrubs, there was one area just below 4000m (13,100 Feet) which was an open meadow. This was the largest area on the mountain which was relatively flat and appeared to have deeper soil, we used to call it the Yak meadow as it often had yaks and horses grazing the plants which might explain is absence of trees or shrubs. There was however a few shrubs which survived here, there were a few different species of Dasiphora (formally Potentilla) which I am used to seeing in carpark planting here in the UK, it was interesting to see their native habitat on exposed mountain tops.
There was also several spikey plants, presumably because the grazing Yaks found them too spikey to eat, such as Berberis and roses. Other small ground hugging shrubs found here are alpine willows and very small dwarf Rhododendrons.

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6 days ago | [YT] | 26

Gardening at 58 North

Before we head up to the higher altitude alpine plants on Jade Dragon snow mountain I would like to show you some of the flowers found a little lower down where the oak trees become stunted and form a low scrub canopy. This area is a transition zone between the oak forest and the other alpine trees such as the Firs, larches and junipers. Despite the area having mostly gravel instead of soil it still hosted a wide variety of flowers.

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 week ago | [YT] | 44

Gardening at 58 North

Another tree/shrub of note on Jade dragon snow mountain were the Junipers. These had a fairly large altitude range on the mountain, but were most prominent around 4000m in areas of high grazing pressure. The junipers didn't seem to have any grazing damage despite the large number of Yaks on the mountain. Most grew as small shrubs, but on the more exposed sites they grew as Krummholz, as their growth was impacted by the high altitude and high winds forming a ground hugging contorted plant with exposed dead stems.
Surrounding the Yaks in the photos you can see the Junipers, we saw the Yaks on most visits to the summit and had a few close encounters, these are very large animals with dangerous horns, I will mention them in more detail in a later post.

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1 week ago | [YT] | 34