The first daisies…Townsendia

Easter daisy (Townsendia hookeri)

There are people who claim they don’t like daisies…
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Altai by camel caravan

Camel Caravan in Mongolian Altai

The Altai and Tien Shan Mountains of Central Asia each comprise dozens of mountain ranges that straddle Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China. For three enchanted weeks in late June and early July, Mike Bone (propagator here at the Gardens) and I had the privilege of exploring four of these ranges and the steppes and deserts between them on behalf of Plant Select. Thousands of photographs later,
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Living within Nature’s Landscape Cont’d.

Daffodil in the snow

When I wrote that I was unsure how to live within a Western landscape in drought, it it immediately seemed that Nature took offence and sent snow and precipitation directly at us.  We’re still in a drought, but the winter storm that forced us to reschedule Susan Tweit and Jim Steinberg certainly illustrated another way to live within the landscape. 

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