e
In the Alpine House , a numeral of the last bulbocodium type Narcissus are bloom ( above).Narcissus tenuifolius , with foliage low to the earth , andN. filifolious , with more grassy , taller foliage are both good example of this midget tender alpine bulb rarely seen grown successfully in American gardens . Here , in New England , our winters are too cold to keep bulbs outdoors without protection , but also , the humid , rainy summers are too moist , to leave them the summer dispassion and baking that they get in thier aboriginal mountains of Turkey and Morocco .
In my attempt to create an fighting and successful alpine house in New England , I ’ve had to superintend my own expectations , since I realized that there is a real reason for why there are no , or very few alpine houses in America . But I do n’t give up easy . First , for those of you fresh to the concept of growing alpine industrial plant ; in the United Kingdom , there is a foresighted and rich history of private-enterprise alpine plant culture , both those grown in the rock garden , as well as in pots for exhibition . In fact , there are very militant alpine societies in the UK .
Alpine houses are traditionally a frost free , pelting free cool and buoyant atmosphere , which closely mime the conditions found at high alpine elevation , where these alpine industrial plant maturate into their authoritative dull nates , tuft ’s and mounds . Plants can be cautiously water , fussed over and the environment can celebrate cool and cold , and new . Our hot and humid summers are hard challenges to overcome , but I conceive that if carefully sited , one can provide , a decent surround for some alpines .
In the UK , valued alpines like Draba , and Dionysia as well as lowly electric-light bulb like these Narcissus , are grown under the protection of glass year around , but thier cool summer , and mild winter provide a more stable alpine house environment . Here in the Boston area , zona 5 , we have to deal with extreme winter weather ( below zero deg . F ) and summertime temps that can reach 100 deg . F. with humidity . So it is more intriguing to reanimate high alpine conditions than it would be in Seattle or Vancouver .
Some flora can address the winter extremes , and persist in the recruit sandbed dip in the Alpine house all winter,(Primula , Androsace and Saxifraga all thrive with this treatment ) , frozen solid with the roof vents and room access open to all but he most extreme blizzards . I can achieve some success with the more tender alpines , like marginally sturdy bulbs , Fritillaria , tender Narcissus , Cyclamen by bouncing them back and off between surround simply responding to seasons and to weather condition . Creative use of an outside sand bed plunge , where hardy bulb can be nestled down deeply under the protection of a foot or more or sand , and the use of the cold-blooded looking glass greenhouse where winter temperature ca n’t drop below 45 deg . F. so plants never freeze , is the put-on for successs like these bulbocodium , which are winter growers and need to perform thier growth cycle between September and April . They just need the same stipulation that they recieve in their aboriginal land , Robert Frost destitute , cool rainy winters , and a ho , triiodothyronine pearl dry summer .
