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Re : I'm back

Welcome back Nick !

What is your Flora of China Project ?

I'm interested in spotting the  geographical origins of mediterranean
plants in China (I hope to go plant collecting in China in a few years).
For me "mediterranean" means drought resistant of course, but also cold
resistant to something like - 10 ° C : near Montpellier where I grow my
plants, the winters are sometimes quite bad. Is the Gobi desert interesting
? Have you already been to China ? Is it easy enough to travel through the
North-West ?

Here in South of France we are almost in summer already. The Cistus have
finished (except for C. laurifolius, C. crispus and their hybrids). The
Phlomis are ending, except for the nice Phlomis herba-venti which is in
full bloom (light purple). The best show comes from the lavender collection
and the achillea collection. Do you know Achillea coarctata ? Bright yellow
on soft grey foliage. And Achillea nobilis, with its wonderful cream almost
white flowers ? It shoots a lot from the ground, and makes an excellent
ground-cover.

By the way, I'm surprised not to hear more about ground-covers on
medit-plants. Are you still fighting with your lawns in the U.S and in
Australia ? Are you allowed to water lawns during the summer, or do you
have water restrictions ? Water restriction is the best ally to
mediterranean botanical research. Here to replace lawns we use plants such
as  Frankenia laevis, Matricaria tchihatchewii, Lippia nodiflora (Phyla
canescens), Zoysia tenuifolia, Dichondra repens (needs some water though),
Stenotaphrum secundatum (in protected areas where frost isn't to bad),
Cynodon... Does any-one have suggestions on other interesting low
maintenance ground-covers to replace lawns ?

Olivier
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