Rock Garden Quarterly Summer 2012 - (Page 233)

A subsequent prolonged visit to the region with a different colleague followed in 1987/88. It was centred on Patagonia, and involved no more than occasional contact with these violas. Despite that, two key events occurred as a direct result. One led to my partnering Anita in Chile, and both were fundamental to our subsequent association with Kim. To begin with I was invited to plan a first-ever Alpine Garden Society tour of the Andes and act as guide to – and identifier of – the plants we found (which led to further such commitments over the next decade). Secondly, at roughly the same time, the AGS commissioned me to investigate and contribute the Andean element to its Encyclopaedia of Alpines. The latter task involved delving thoroughly into the botanical literature of the selected flora. The greater knowledge of rosulates gained from this exercise decided first me, then Anita and myself, to adopt and develop their botany. They are a large group of over 100 species distributed between Ecuador and Patagonia which had never been comprehensively investigated before. In fact nobody more than dabbled occasionally in their identities and relationships for over 60 years prior to our beginning to gather them under our wing (in the early 90s). Nor was anyone planning to do so at the time – so far as we knew. As we subsequently discovered though, a close Argentinian botanical colleague of Anita’s, Riccardo Rossow, had decided independently on the same course at the same time. The three of us agreed to work co-operatively, but he died in 1995 before a joint start could be made. In the same year, 1995, we first met Kim. Kismet? As was the case with others among her friends in the botanical and horticultural worlds, the venue for our meeting with Kim was a flower tour, the fourth I co-led in the Andes and Patagonia for the Alpine Garden Society. We immediately hit it off, and the discovery of our shared passion for violas set the seal on the beginning of a long and mutually valued friendship and occasional but fruitful working partnership. Most who took part would surely agree the highlight of that tour was the long, exhausting drive up to the scenic Laguna del Maule at 2300 m (7500 feet). On arrival we found no pre-arranged camping facilities as expected. Luckily Anita was with us to interpret our situation to the couple of caretakers of an electricity company staff’s mountain lodge, then temporarily unoccupied. That saved our bacon. Sufficient blankets and tins of emergency supplies were somehow dug out, a welcoming log fire was lit, and the occasion ended up as memorable rather than miserable! The flora of the gently sloping pumice hills surrounding the blue lake as seen on the following day included three violas as well as magnificent Mimulus cupreus populations. Most of these were typically red, but vigorous clumps of a yellow form, hitherto unknown to us Violas, Kim, and Us – a Celebration Kim Blaxland (1941-2011) 233

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rock Garden Quarterly Summer 2012

Digital Quarterly
Expanding Panayoti's Axioms
Photo Contest 2012
Photographing Alpine Plants: A Landscape Point of View
NARGS 2013 Election Timetable
Rock Gardening from Scratch - Seeds
Kim Blaxland and the Violets of North America
Viola pedata
Violas, Kim, and Us - A Celebration
Cooking Native Japanese Plants
Carl Gehenio Memorial Trough Show
Fire in the Hole: Phlox across Colorado
Rebuilding a Rock Garden in Pittsburgh
A Remarkable Garden: David Douglas and the Shrub-steppe of the Columbia Plateau
Bookshelf - Reviews
Swedish Dreams
Treasurer's Report
Bulletin Board
2012 - Eastern Study Weekend: October, Pittsburgh

Rock Garden Quarterly Summer 2012