Summer in the Canadian Rockies

Erigeron aureus, one of my favorites:

I love this area for the fracture patterns and the bedding in the limestone...note how it causes the straight side on this tarn:



This message was edited Aug 4, 2007 12:35 AM

More sweet little alpines (seems I was rather taken by the fleabanes today): Erigeron humilis

On an impossible looking scree slope (actually, they all look impossible due to foreshortened angles... only slightly less impossible as you get closer ;>) ), Crepsis nana, Alpine hawksbeard:
PS My thought is that seeing alpines in their natural states is useful and interesting to alpine gardeners (I sure enjoy it, LOL!) but if this sort of thing is not strictly appropriate to the forum, please do let me know (and no offence would be taken on my part). Thanks!


This message was edited Aug 4, 2007 12:50 AM

Wonderful! I've not had the opportunity to get out into the mountains this year so thank you for your lovely pictures. These types of pictures are absolutely appropriate to this forum.

Great! I'd love to see pix of mountain areas in Utah when you are able to get out - have spent a tiny bit of time in the lower elevation parks there, but never in the higher parts.
Epilobium alpinum, I think (but not sure... any other thoughts?):

These are rather subtle little things... I doubt they make it into the alpine plant trade?

A play of sun and shadow on the distant slope...

These pictures are perfect for this forum!
Tam

Good to hear, Tammy!
I haven't figured out this plant's identity... any thoughts? (Hope the picture isn't too fuzzy.)

Seems to have an amazingly thick root, trailing up to the NW corner of the photo... perhaps exposed by the shifting rubble.

Edit: Arabis lemmonii.

This message was edited Jan 26, 2013 10:48 PM

A little snow-melt creek runs down this valley; the banks are lush with Lyall's saxifrage, arnica, senecios...

Every year is different, timing-wise.... on this trip, the scree slope at the head of the valley was pink with another epilobium, river beauty (Epilobium latifolium)... with big, fat fuchsia-like buds. Water runs under the scree from some snow banks hanging near the top...

Last one!

Alpine gardening at its best! Thanks for posting all these great pics!

BTW, that is the only Lychnis I truly want to grow.

Wonderful place, and beautiful plants, great to see where nature placed the wee beauties.

Wonderful photos altagardener :-)

Fantastic pictures!

Oh, that tarn photo! There is something very mysterious about tarns. I have a favorite one very high up on the Beartooth Plateau, far from the madding crowd... Sigh. Thanks for the pics, altagardener

Here's another mysterious tarn for you, Picante!

Ooohh, gorgeous. I saved that one.

altagardener, I just saw the Aug 4 pic of the river beauty, which we call "Dwarf Fireweed" here in Alaska and it's in all the rivers here up one side and down the other in the gravel and sand everywhere, we all just love it, also. And, do I see some blue forget-me-not, two of them?
Carol

I enjoyed this thread even more the second time through!
I sure hope you take more hikes through the Canadian Rockies
next year too. :-)

Hi Carol - how are you doing? I'm sorry I haven't been able to keep up with your thread - I never seem to have the time to catch up ;-) I hope you are doing OK.

River beauty grows here too :-) It's so gorgeous to see the drifts of pink flowers growing out of the sand - it sure adds a splash of color to an otherwise bleak landscape :-)


Rann

Thanks Rann, I'm feeling fine, went and had my head examined (hehhehehe) and they found very little regrowth, so the Doctors were suprised and I'm starting my 6 to 18 months left from november 5, now. River Beauty is froze out now, though. Kinda drizzly and cold, but freezing tonight, (It's 3:36 am now, here)

Glad to hear you're feelin OK :-) Everthing's frozen here too, now. That's some major time difference. When you posted it was 12:47 pm here! lol

I wish you all the best.

Rann

About a half a world away, huh? lol I'm kinda into maps so it amazes me that Seward is on the 60th parallel and Iceland is touching the arctic circle on the north end and we're so much colder than you. Must be the difference in the Japanese Current and the Atlantic Current and the variables carrying the ocean heat around.
You know they will be sailing the Northwest Passage within the next 10 to 15 years due to global warming and to think of the lives and ships lost trying to discover the same route in the last hundred years.
Carol

Rann,
A funny thing, or kinda weird, I hadn't heard from you in a while and just got a seed list today from the Scottish Rock Garden Society for the '07-08 season. What's funny is I asked for LAST YEAR'S list, because I was in the middle of writing the names onto the many packets I had ordered last winter from last year's list when I was taken Ill. In my illness,( I had lost the list) for last year and only had 1/3 of the packets labeled. I emailed the Society and they were so nice to try to accomodate me, but somehow I was sent this years list instead of last years list. So here I am, I know some of the seeds may not be viable by now, but would would like to leave the properly named packets of seed for somebody. Now I have packets with just numbers on them and no list to identify them with. I feel I've troubled them enough that they sent this list and am hesitant to bother them again with my plight.
Carol

Hi, Carol - nice to meet you! Yes, definitely a couple of forget-me-nots in with the fireweed (sharp eyes!) and a dash of arnica for a colorful contrast.
Tammy, yes, all things being the same, I expect we'll be out hiking and looking at flowers again next summer! But, for the next 6 months or so, it's undeniably winter... Fairly heavy snow falls in the mountains already this year (enough snow for DH's first back-country ski trip on Sunday - early, compared to recent years).

Hi Carol

I would like to help as I have last years seed list.
regards boot

How wonderful boot! I was just thinking that there's got to be somebody who'd have the list! lol.

Carol - there's been some discussion here about the NW passage opening up. Some think it's a good thing since it could put Iceland in a very strategic position as a port, but those views really tick me off. I can't see how it could possibly be a good thing since it would mean a considerable warming from now - and we're already in a mess. It's the gulf stream that's keeping us (Iceland) relatively warm, if it gets disrupted we're toast.

Rann I contacted Boot and we'll see what happens
This global warming is going at a pretty slow rate right now, but you'll be seeing great changes in 10 years I predict. Don't know if I'll see it, but the signs are clear. Now if the idiots spending all those Billions on wars would grow up and look around, they would start building their citties a little further inland and on higher ground and start preparing for warring with (or working with as Alaskans do) Mother Nature instead of each other. Big changes are coming and more resources must be channeled towards survival and not only the usual disasters (typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos, hurricanes, floods and droughts) But also sea level rising, melting great ice sheets from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Which will change the Atlantic and Pacific currents, which wil change climate all over) But I say all these things will worsen gradually at first then pick up speed towards 10 to 15 years. Even in the North central state of Alaska, natives are reporting loss of plant life they have used for thousands of years. Where I live the so called 100 year floods are happening every 6 to 8 years. I don't mean to propound doom and gloom, just get more people aware of these things.
I know I don't know everything, but I know a lot. My voice should be more far reaching, I know, but I'm nearing my end as you know and I feel frustrated that all these things I know are not reaching all who should be aware of them

I really loved the pics in this thread. I am trying out a bunch of alpine plants this coming year-but I have a feeling I'm going to hit some failures before I find ones that work for me. I'm at 1850 ft-hardly alpine-but we're on a hill-we'll see. I have a few already-but a lot to learn, especially starting from seed.
Carol, I am enjoying your thread and it is great to bump into you here! I don't understand why people aren't more freaked out by global warming. Not that I enjoy freaking out per say-but there's a lot to worry about and tangible changes that can be made. Acknowledging the prob would be a good first step. Anyway-I'm sooo tired and off to bed

Hi Flower, and Hi to Eli and Nevada. I hang out on this forum and the composting forum and sometimes the Wildlife and European forums.

Humbling-thanks for the reminder that I'm human!

Hi Leftwood-SO I've looked around this forum more and I'm even more humbled!LOL! There are some wonderful plants, too many! Carol was showing us on her thread how to make some hypertufa-I have wanted to try it for a long time-but she revitalized my interest. Looking at the trough pics-woo hooh! Those are great!
Carol-if you check in-both the boys say "hi!"-although they are asleep now. I'll definitely ask for tips, but I'm trying to clarify exactly what I'll be asking for first! hmmmmm-did that make sense?-Kath

Katy,
Makes sense to me, ask away. Great kids, you're lucky. I know the composing in your head before posting is such a task, I didn't realize until this thread (or I should say [that thread]) got to be the growing thing it's become. I know I've really honed my typing skills!
Carol

Nothin' but the Best, and the Best Wannabe's here at DG.

In case you hadn't realised, there is a Hypertufa and Concrete forum.

There's a lot to realize : )
I'll be addicted later.-Kath