Bergenia Questions

Well, Bergenia, which is from the Himalayas, isn't a Mediterranean plant, 
that's for sure, but it thrives in Mediterranean California gardens. It seems 
to be nobody's favorite and a plant no one has paid much attention to for some 
years. 

For a writing project, I have been trying to find out about the history of this 
plant in California gardens. Maybe the first plants used were B. crassifolia, 
or maybe, as Hortus III suggests, the more widely planted and most vigorous 
ones were B. x schmidtii. Does any one know anything about this history?

Now nurseries are selling some of the new British hybrids, but some 
horticulturists have told me that the plants in old gardens are more virus 
resistant than some of the new ones. That is, they all sometimes get thrips, 
but the thrips don't seem to spread viruses in the old garden plants. Has 
anyone any further evidense about the relative vigor or pest resistance of the 
older B. crassifolia or B. x schmidtii vs. the newer hybrids?

Pam Peirce, 
San Francisco, CA
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