Pacific Horticulture & Mexican Mountain Daisies
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Pacific Horticulture & Mexican Mountain Daisies
- From: t*@eddy.u-net.com (Tim Longville)
- Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 17:51:18 GMT
Courtesy of Bill Grant I've been enjoying the current issue of this v.
impressive mag. What impressed me MOST (even more than Ray Collett's
article on correas) was the piece on giant daisies from the
high-elevation cloud-forests of the Mexican uplands. These are
creatures with names such as (for those who haven't seen the article)
Senecio uspantanensis, S. cristobalensis, Montana hexagona, M.
leucantha, Stevia microchaeta, Bartlettia tuerckheimii and (my
personal love-of-the-moment, from the sensational photograph) B.
sordida (pity about the name but you can't have it all! huge, felted,
satiny, red-veined leaves, dense heads of ray-floret-less purple
flowers, like giant powder-puffs, on plants up to 8ft tall: it's
growing at Strybing so at least some members of the list no doubt
already know it, lucky souls). I was fascinated to read that many of
these creatures will take temperatures down to 20F without serious
damage. The article seemed to suggest that these were all still the
preserve of a few Calif. and Mex. botanic gardens. True? Or does
anyone know of private gardeners already growing them? Has anyone on
the list actually seen any of them, even? And if so, what are their
impressiions? Shoud I book my ticket for Mexico now or just go and
take a cold shower?
Which I need to do since the temperatures here in Cumbria have got up
to (don't all collapse with shock) the dizzy heights of 80F.
Positively inhuman, I call it....
Tim Longville
