Bulbs at the WWSW

Last weekend the Western Winter Study Weekend was held in Vancouver, BC.
These study weekends, eastern and western, are an annual function of NARGS,
but the western weekends are hosted on a rotating basis by the currently
independent rock garden societies of British Columbia as well as by NARGS
chapters. Some of the speakers (usually 8 to 10 during the weekend) always
focus on bulbs. The meetings are open to non-members of the sponsoring
societies at a small additional fee. The next one will be held in Portland,
Oregon, March 13-15, 2009 and will include two talks by Ian Young, a
well-known bulb grower from Scotland, and one by John Lonsdale of
Pennsylvania, who a notable member of this discussion group. There will
also be a really big plant sale. I encourage PBS members to consider
attending; write me privately for a detailed description.

The Vancouver meeting's bulb talks included two by Jim Almond from England,
who grows many kinds of bulbs but most notably Juno irises, and two by
Henrik Zetterlund of the Gothenburg Botanic Garden, who also concentrates
on geophytes to some degree. Perhaps because Almond grows many plants for
competitive showing, the techniques he discussed are more exacting than
many of us would need to apply to our Junos that we grow just for our own
enjoyment. One segment of his talk included a group of plants (e.g., I.
magnifica, I. vicaria) that he regards as suitable for the open garden, and
another group that he considers must be grown under glass. The difference
between UK and Northwest America conditions was brought home to me forcibly
this morning, when I finally had time to walk around my rock garden and
found that a single division of Iris 'Sindpers', planted out on a berm two
years ago, had increased to a spreading clump of 5 crowns and was in full
bloom after a wetter and colder than average winter. This was one of
Almond's "not for the garden" plants. This encourages me to test more Junos
in the open.

The most interesting (to me, anyway) information I took from Henrik
Zetterlund's talks was his discussion of the new bulb house at Gothenburg.
It's a large metal-supported structure with a tempered glass roof and no
sides. Since temperatures there can dip to minus 20 C (minus 4 F), I asked
him if they would temporarily enclose the sides during cold periods, and he
said they would not, but he would probably cover the plants with something
like microfoam sheets. This launched me on plans for the bulb-and-alpine
house I'll install on my newly purchased "city" (actually woodsy suburb)
property before I remove there in 4 or 5 years. An open-sided structure
should be even more effective in one of Portland's banana belts, and will
eliminate the expense and fuss of vents. By eliminating the expense of side
covering, it'll be easier to afford glass on the roof, which I think is
necessary because the neighborhood is so full of big trees, and getting
tree pollen off glass is much easier than getting it off other types of
greenhouse glazing.

The BC groups always put on a nice plant exhibit, and this one of course
had early bulbs. Most were commonly grown sorts, but there were a lot of
snowdrops, including some seldom seen in North America. I'm not in the
ranks of card-carrying galanthophiles, but I now covet 'Primrose Warburg'
and some variety with large green zones on the outer tepals. I'll try to
mention this desire in the "barter wanted" section of my summer surplus list.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA