Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Finest Plants in the Republic of Georgia 1

Colorado-made Loki vests really will get you places.
Outside of Bakuriani, which was once a ski resort for holiday-making Russians.
But it is also a home for encrusted Saxifrages. If you like Saxes, get Malcolm McGregor's book.
Runoff melts an ice-cave under a surviving drift and allows for the first flowers.
Gentiana angulosa. Oh glory, I love this plant. It has a fragrance that whispers above roses and a colour that is certainly a leak from heaven. I've never seen such blue. I don't know how often it is cultivated, but is grown like G. verna.
More near Bakuriani
More heaven.
Daphne mezereum is an old garden plant- Beverly Nichols talks about it in his timeless old english garden rambling books. It is surreal to see such a domesticated plant in its native place.

Corydalis sp. (back to my notes)
Best accomodations are often free. A loft above a hotel. I got sunset and sunrise and some sweet beanbag comfort.
Southern Georgia somewhere.
A Xeric steppe style area in the middle of Georgia. Low shrubs are a woody Astragalus and the charming white heads are Anthemis iberica.
Euphobia pontica, I hope to recall.
Well-embraced by xeriscape circles, this is Veronica liwanensis, the Turkish Speedwell, doing what it does at home in Southern Georgia.

Spring is tops anywhere you are.
Cyclamen coum complex looks fine, I believe, at the foot of all sorts of things, and here it does its celebration-of-shade at a tree's roots.
A traditional Georgian Dinner is prepared for foreigners in the hotel.
Wild Cyclamen coum.
This is for you, mom. A Paris sp. flourishes behind.
Helleborus orientalis. Another garden stand-by. Now you know where you plants-with-funny accents look like at home.

Galanthus platyphyllus is a huge plant. (Well, huge in snowdrop terms) This is a legendary stand of it that benefits from a very wet snowmelt nearby.

Closer. Leaves like paddles for bad children.
I think this is Kutaisi.

I think that Galanthus collectors wet their trousers for yellow forms. Again, Galanthus platyphyllus Yeah, they're nice.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Is that blue flower really that blue? It is fabulous!

Sweet Solitude said...

Ditto! What IS the blue one????

Kenton J. Seth said...

Names coming now that I have a moment to process my pictures...

Panayoti Kelaidis said...

Totally forgot you beat me to Georgia--what a great Blog! I think your Corydalis was C. marschalliana....your pix of G. plicatus are enviable! You must have been there in April? March? Wowza