Cape Floral Kingdom seminar

This was a most interesting day at the RHS in London called Flowers from the Cape and the British branch of the Mediterranean Garden Society had a small stall there.  I think much of the success of the day was due to a masterly overview at the start from John Parker on the geology, climate and growing conditions of the Cape, clearly conveying his love of the area.  Fascinating statistics on the biodiversity.  I was able to attend his talk and presentations on the pelargoniums, bulbous and cormous plants and proteas; there were others on restios and succulents.  I have also learned how to pronounce fynbos and lachenalia properly.  My first instinct was to go out and buy a ticket to South Africa, but I might just settle for the Isles of Scilly off our Cornish coast, where plants from warmer climes do well (Mike Nelhams from the Tresco Abbey Gardens gave the talk on proteas).

The MGS stall's display included an illustrated map highlighting the five mediterranean climate areas of the world.  Those of you who attended the AGM in California might have seen this but I wasn't there.  Highly sensitive as I am to lavender illustrations, I'd just like to point out that the lavender illustrated on this map is L. pinnata, and not L. dentata as the text says.  L. dentata is the lavender with very regularly toothed leaf margins and a stylish flowerhead with pale violet (sometimes almost white) coma bracts.  It used to be classed with L. stoechas on the basis of the similarity of the flower spike with its sterile bracts,  but  has recently (1997) been allocated to its own new section.  This lavender is called French lavender in the US and in Australia, but in the UK the term French lavender is invariably assigned to L. stoechas subsp stoechas. We sometimes call L. dentata  toothed or fringed lavender.
I don't know how the term French lavender became attached to L. dentata.  It's not native to France, after all.  Can anyone throw light on this?

Thanks to Sean for the reminder about the Tuscany AGM in October. I was galvanised into action.  Hope to see some list members there.

Joan  (of The Lavender Bag)

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