This *is* about rosulate violets. Stephanie Ferguson herself probably knows the IDs of her plants very well, but she has not replied to email; perhaps she is away.
Impatient, I asked two skilled viola wranglers for help in identifying the mystery rosulates in Alpenpix. Both said they'd need more details before risking names. 1. Ger van den Beuken offered to get John Watson to ID the plants if I'd just send better images and information about the provenance of the seeds. But of course I can't. Ger being the Dutch nurseryman whose tour to Chile I mentioned yesterday; John being the seed collector based in Chile. I see that Ger has now posted a couple of rosulate violas in Alpenpix. http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/temperate/?gal=alpenpix Thank you, Ger. 2. Philip Mac Dougall, who has been amazing Vancouver for years and is now a rising star in NARGS, contributed images of rosulate violets to Alpenpix in 2007. He broke away from potting Epimedium seedlings in the small hours of this morning to reply: "Am I avoiding the Viola question? You bet! I'd assume the etiolated one is V. cotyledon, that's it's classic shape in cultivation. I'd guess V. volcanica for the other one, the rosette is the right color but again, without seeing a flower only a guess. I do like the Viola congesta, glad to see someone has a bit of a handle in growing these things. I'm going to try a couple of the annual rosulates this year, have seed of V. taltalensis and V. subandina. If they germinate it will be interesting to see if they are any more amenable to cultivation due to their annual habit." Annual rosulates. Not to be confused with perennial rosulates that check out early. How about tuberous rosulates? Edible ones, sold in great sacks in marketplaces for a song. Impossible to kill. Fad of foodies. Paige _______________________________________________ Alpine-l mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/alpine-l
