How to amuse yourself during Covid 19?  We get the message loud and clear - STAY AT HOME - So what does home have to offer?  Lots - if you have a garden, and even more if you have a park in your neighbourhood!   I am lucky enough to have a Heritage Rose Garden in my local park - Beverley Park Heritage Rose Garden.  And not only that - I have the Red Zone too, and the recently redesigned Avon Loop walkway, all within walking distance - so I am spoilt by choice.

Although I know my weedy beauties can be invasive or even plague-like, I appreciate them because they come back in abundance every year like old friends, and in a small garden it is no problem to cull these marauders out in spring.  Owners of large gardens may not feel the same way!!  
​With these 'weeds' in my garden I look forward to late summer when they have grown tall finding their way up to the light  between the perennials in the most fetching way.  This, when they are at their best either flowering or setting seed.   

Earlier this season I was not so vigilant about thinning out the weeds in the spring. Usually I clear the seedlings away from the edges of the borders so they do not block pathways, but this year I left them just for fun.  And it has been fun - they lean over the pathways most fetchingly.  So much so that I need to part a space between the gorgeous things to weave my way down the path to the shed.  And they feel so nice brushing against my face and body, and most importantly slow my journey down the garden path and in the process I notice more of what is what is going on around me in the garden. 
​So it is all a very sensuous business, and isn't that what gardening is all about - the senses?  Sight , sound, smell and touch!   Today, after a most welcome shower of rain overnight - the first for 2 months - these 'weeds' are leaning even more heavily over the path because they are bowed down with raindrops which means getting down to the shed is a very damp business today.  A lovely cooling wet sensation after the dry heat of the last few weeks.

I do, because I know that if I don''t, I won't be able to stand the sad look of them come late summer.  In my own garden it's easy, as I don't have that many roses.  Except climbers which are always labour intensive when it comes to dead-heading, as there is so much more of them and they climb way up high, which, for me always entails a ladder.   But it's in our nearby Heritage Rose Garden in Beverley Park, where dead-heading really takes the time, as there are 150 roses and some of them have grown into huge bushes.  However we gather together our little band of volunteers to help, but this isn't always easy in mid summer when everyone is so taken up with the Xmas and holiday season.  However maybe it isn't so sad after all, when that magnificent first flush of blooms are over, because when the roses finish and we roll on into summer, look what happens!!

Sadly I can't name these Dahlia varieties, as the tubers were given to me by friends. and no one knows what varieties they are - although I suspect from the look of them, that Keith Hammett may have had a hand in them.  They have his touch with single and semi-single blooms amongst bronze foliage.   
​I find it pays to be selective when choosing Dahlias for your garden as you can so easily end up with a mish-mash of different forms and colours, so I choose the colours and forms which blend with my garden.  For instance I like just the 2 varieties pictured above for my front garden as oranges and scarlets are dominant in the front garden and I like the single forms in this situation as they suit the mini-prairie style which I have planted with grasses and simple flowers.  While in my back garden the prevailing colours are crimson, magenta and Burgundy, so the 2 Dahlias there are also in those colours.  

​GRASSES

Grasses are really a whole other story which I should keep for another time, another place, however I will just say that I would not be without them in my garden, as they add a dimension to my plantings which I find most satisfying, and which I hope the images below show.   More about these later. 
Amongst the grasses in the back garden there is a Dahlia in a completely different form - the cactus dahlia  - and this was chosen for it's dark velvety crimson, and is called appropriately 'Nuits d'Etes'.  There is also another dahlia in this garden not pictured here and it is pale pink and single with bronze foliage and definitely bred by Dr. Keith Hammett - ''Mystic Dreamer''.

​This story is not so much about plants which work well together as about gardeners who work well together.

​​Beverley Park Heritage Rose Garden is part of the Canterbury Community Gardens Association, but is not so much about producing food for the body as food for the soul.  It is a place where people come to seek solace, scent and beauty - a much needed place of serenity in our area.
As with other Community Gardens we work with volunteer support, and there is plenty of camaraderie and  friendship amongst our helpers as we work towards our common goal  -  to create something uplifting and beautiful for the wider community. 

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​TINY SHOPS
The most imaginative and creative of projects was initiated by the Inner City East group on a vacant site where buildings had been demolished.   With the help of Greening the Rubble they, built this idiosyncratic and picturesque little streetscape on a shoestring, consisting of quaint little buildings, planter boxes and little picket fences painted orange, purple and yellow dotted amongst gardens and gravel pathways.  These funky little buildings are the Tiny Shops which  house a bookshop, a secondhand clothes shop, a bike repair shop and a cafe where you can sit outside, at tables and chairs surrounded by the garden and enjoy a great coffee when the sun shines.  A gathering place for the whole community, it was here that people also gathered on Clean-up Day to weed the garden, do running repairs, weed the gravel pathways and plant shrubs flowers, and veggie plants which had been donated to the project.  

​It was a most successful day not only  in the spruce-up of Tiny Shops, but in the camaradarie of people from all walks of life working together for a common cause.  The thing I enjoyed most was working and chatting with people and families I would otherwise never have met - moving me out of my comfort zone and broadening my appreciation of other ethnic and social groups.  And joining together afterwards to enjoy a barbecue lunch organised by  Tiny Shop tenants.   Participating in the Cleanup Day was the most fun I have had for a long time, cost nothing and gave a great sense of satisfaction to be involved in a spruce up for Tiny Shops, a much needed beacon of hope in an area down on it's luck.      ​

​A month ago towards the end of July, I joined a group of Galanthophiles - becoming one myself - on a Snowdrop tour to the deep south.  These included visiting some famous southern gardens which are Snowdrop heaven, including Larnach Castle, Maple Glen and Blue Mountain Nurseries in Tapanui.  I don't know that any of the owners of these gardens have had convenient great-great-grannies.  I think these were people who had slogged over the years for the pure love of Snowdrops to understand the differences between the varieties, and to spread many of these favoured varieties throughout their own gardens.  We were lucky enough to see the fruits of their labours over many years.

When I left New Zealand in mid-May to visit my family in the UK, I hadn't even thought of the Chelsea Flower Show.  But my family had.  Soon after I arrived as part of a significant birthday celebration, they presented me with an envelope which contained tickets for Chelsea.  And not just any old tickets, but invitations to the Members Day and Cocktail Party afterwards!  None of us are RHS members so I was touched and impressed by the hoops my family must have had to jump through to obtain these prestigious tickets.   It was a thrilling day with much to see and take in, only a fraction of which I am able to record here.  I have chosen my  favourite gardens to discuss, but there were other worthy gardens too, which had been awarded gold, silver and bronze medals. 

We headed first of all for Main Avenue and the Exhibition Show Gardens where the first impressions were wild, green and natural!  In many of the gardens there was not a lot of colour - the drama relied on textural planting, and clever design.  The simplest and most natural looking designs are of course the most difficult to achieve, and there were 2 of these which I particularly liked. ​ 
​The first of these was the M&G Garden designed by Andy Sturgeon which deservedly won a Gold Medal and Best in Show.  M&G stands for M&G Investments which is the main sponsor of Chelsea, and  who chose Andy Sturgeon as the designer of their sponsored garden.  The aim of the garden was to celebrate the beauty of natures power to regenerate and colonise all kinds of landscapes with new growth.  It certainly did that with it's lush and vibrantly green environment featuring plant species from around the world - many of which had never been seen at Chelsea before. 
Much of the power of this exhibit was due to it's position where it could use borrowed landscape in the form of existing trees already part of the Chelsea site.  Sited against existing mature trees on 2 sides, where the edges of the exhibit and the existing woodland blurred, it created the feeling that the garden went on forever into woodland. 
​This lush planting was divided by and contrasted against black linear sculptures representing ancient rock formations fashioned from massive charred oak.  The regenerative theme was carried through by a series of small pools and streams trickling through the garden.  I am in complete accord with the judges in rating this garden the most powerful and strongest design at Chelsea.

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​THE SAVILLS AND DAVID HARBER GARDEN
designed by ANDREW DUFF
Bronze Medal winner 

 The second garden I particularly enjoyed was the wild and natural Savills and David Harber Garden designed by Andrew Duff - his first Chelsea design which won a bronze medal.  This was wild and natural taken to the extreme, with plenty of long grass and wild plants of the woodland and countryside verging on weeds i.e. buttercup and cow parsley.   Nevertheless, we all know how beguiling a froth of cow parsley can look! 
​Rather than strong and powerful as was Andy Sturgeons M&G Garden, I was captivated by the ethereal quality of this garden as  light filtered through surrounding woodland into a clearing and a naturalistic pond with the native iris growing in a most natural way in and around the pond blurring the edges.  The plants - weeds and all, were native to the UK, and the  trees  included Alder and Elder. 
​To my way of thinking this was a superb example of a simple and natural design, which would not have been easy to achieve in a Show context and could have stood alone without the sculptural shard-like installation as a focus - a double focus actually reflecting as it did in the pond.  My initial feeling was that this glitzy sculptural element didn't gel with the natural feel of the exhibit.   Or was it  there as a foil to the wild and natural and meant to contrast rather than gel?

Another 'wild' garden I identified with straight away was a southern hemisphere garden - The Trailfinders 'Undiscovered Latin America Garden' -  Made not by a Chilean or Brazilian designer - but by Jonathan Snow from the U.K.   Like Jonathan I had been on a botanical trip to Chile and Argentina some years ago, and his Chelsea garden transported me straight back there.  All the planting was faithfully native to South America, particularly Chile, from the large Araucaria araucana (monkey puzzle) to the herbaceous Alstromeria.  I felt quite at home with this southern hemisphere garden as so many of these South American species also belong to the same plant families as our New Zealand  native species - such as Kauri which is also of the Araucaria family.  And the Chilean Nothofagus antarctica (evergreen beech)  is related to the New Zealand Nothofagus (native beech) and looks very similar as well.   South America's native Fuschia magellanica was represented too,  as we also have our native Fuschia (Kotukutuku).
The red walkway may not have been authentically South American, but it certainly added a visual focus to the exhibit.
Jonathan says 'Understanding where a plant grows in the world and the conditions it enjoys, helps us all become better gardeners and designers'. 
Ain't that the truth??  And the garden won a silver medal so the judges were impressed too.

Another wild and natural garden, the ''Welcome to Yorkshire Garden'' celebrates Yorkshire's canals and the rural drama of the county's industrial heritage.  This exhibit illustrates again the way the existing trees of the Chelsea site, can enhance a design which in this instance aims to strike the perfect balance between the industrial and the beautiful.   Mark Gregory, the designer says ''My design pays homage to the canals and locks which were vital to Yorkshire as the arteries of industry during the Industrial Revolution and how they have been lovingly restored to create a unique ecosystem and valuable leisure resource''. 
​It was very hard to get a good photo of this garden as there were celebrities around  - Joe Swift was interviewing Monty Don in the garden so the  crowds were several rows deep hoping to get a glimpse of the celebs.  And a glimpse is all I could get with my phone camera, as I was squeezed from all sides.  So the photos are less than perfect, however you might just make out Joe and Monty through the willow chatting in front of the Lock-keepers cottage.

Everybody wants to know about the Duchess of Cambridge's garden!!   It was titled The RHS Back to Nature Garden and was created with the help of designers Andree Davies and Adam White. As an RHS Feature Garden it was in a  class of it's own which was not competitive. 
​Following the theme of wild and natural, it was a like an authentically natural playground for children.   There was no gaudy plastic playground equipment here - oh no - all was created from nature.  The tree-huts, the hidey holes, the swings, the little wooden bridges over little rocky streams, the winding trails and paths were all created from pebbles, branches, logs and rocks.  The  naturalistic planting of woodland and roadside, such as ferns, long grass and wild strawberry, was once again verging on weeds.
The Duchess's vision was to provide inspiration for places for children to be able play, learn and discover about the natural world, and although a charming concept and beautifully crafted, this garden did not convey the sophisticated design principals of many of the Exhibition Gardens.  Nevertheless, the queues to view the garden were endless. 
      

​The Great Pavilion showcases some of the best nurseries from Britain and around the world as well as science and education exhibits and impressive displays from U.K.'s finest florists.  More than 80 nurseries were exhibiting their passion for plants and in my opinion there were none more splendid than the Allium National Collection.

This exhibit was a show-stopper where Alliums in flower, leaves, seed-heads and bulbs were all on display.  But it was the Alliums in flower which said it all.  Exhibited in formal rows, their stiff growth habit of a ''globe on a stem'' was accentuated.   This form in many different shades of purple, mauve white and green, were spectacular.   ​Wouldn't we love to have this sort of access to growing Alliums in New Zealand?  They are a rare treat in our country, whereas in the U.K.  you can see Alliums in many gardens.

  

Even the roses were wild and natural.  The David Austin Rose exhibit was rambling and tumbling everywhere.  There were also some more recently introduced formal cultivars, but I didn't feel drawn to photograph them in the same way as I did this more natural wild display, so I'm afraid they got left out!  However I do know that 2 new cultivars were introduced, both of them named after characters from Thomas Hardy novels.  Both of them full ruffled forms - one called ''Eustacia Vye' has a deep coffee apricot centre fading to a lighter pink towards the outer petals.  And the other called 'Gabriel Oak'' is a rich burgundy pink, again with multiple ruffled petals.  But neither variety is shown here.

It is not unusual for Hilliers Nurseries to win a Gold Medal.  They are always a prominent exhibitor in The Great Pavilion and have won a Gold Medal every year since 1939.  The excellence and breadth of their designs and plants is unrivalled even though there are always many other interesting, unusual and attractive exhibits in the The Great Pavilion, yet for sheer excellence and professionalism, Hilliers always pulls it out of the bag. 
​And we, in  New Zealand are delighted about this as so many of us remember with affection, Kate Hillier, part of the famous Hillier Nursery family, when she lived in Auckland and managed the Ellerslie Flower Show.

,, 
The Hillier blends together contemporary and traditional themes. The central element, alongside the thousands of beautiful plants, is the striking contemporary water feature that brings a feeling of calm and elegance to the space and is designed to be easily viewed from all angles.  I have been blown away by the largesse of the plant material of Hilliers exhibits when I have been to Chelsea before, especially the way they so effortlessly show plants of all seasons together.  And here it was again with white spring Cherry Blossom in flower alongside summer roses, late summer Hydrangeas with the striking , variegated white and green Cornus foliage.  These were in the white corner of the exhibit where serene white borders transition to vibrant pinks and oranges, moving to hues of purple as you walk around the exhibit.
​ ​The planting designer, Lilly Gomm says “Combining both traditional and contemporary can be a fine balance, but we have made sure the two are seamless. The presentation of a wide variety of Hillier hardy perennials, shrubs and trees, including brand new varieties and classics, is, of course, a vital part of this.”

  Finally here are two of the many plants which took my eye at Chelsea. In the Hillier Garden I spotted a favourite of mine which I have tried to grow in my own garden - Lysimachia purpurea 'Beaujolais''.  But it never looked like this in my garden!!   Never so fulsome and lush.  The other plant which appealed was a  hybrid foxglove introduced for the first time at Chelsea called Digitalis x valinii "Firebird"   It was well named with it's deep pink pointed beak-like florets set off by unusual red tinted foliage. 

I came away from Chelsea that day filled with wonder and enthusiasm at the Great British Gardening  Culture.  Horticulture and anything relating to gardens are so much part of their way of life - the impeccable design, the excellence of the plant material and new plant introductions, the enthusiasm, the crowds, and the seriousness  with which  horticulture is regarded in the UK is impressive.  It is in their DNA!  
And I couldn't help wishing it was more like this in New Zealand.  There is a garden culture here too, and we do have some great gardens and dedicated gardeners but horticulture here is all too often side-lined for something which is percieved as more important.  There is not the dedication led from above which you see in Britain.

Even though it's May, that most dire of months for gardens in the southern hemisphere - equate it with November if you live on the other side of the world -  there is the beauty of decay.  Sometimes you have to look hard to see this beauty - but believe me - it is there!  Especially in the seedheads of grasses and spent flowers.  Mostly they turn a warm beige or corn colour as they dry out in the late summer and autumn sunshine, contrasting so well with that last rose of summer, and other autumn flowers such as Michelmas Daisies, Dahlias and simple Chrysanthemums.  

Poppy seedheads, almost as pretty as the flower they come from, are still looking so handsome, dry and golden, as is the annual weed Red Orach - Atriplex hortensia, which pops up all over my garden in spring. 
Some may think of it as a weed, but I bless it every day from the time it's  burgundy foliage appears in spring until it grows tall, in midsummer waving it's pink seedheads about, right through till autumn when that delicious burgundy pink suddenly changes to beige and gold when lit by sunlight.   
Although - in spring when the seedlings appear, I wonder if it might swamp the whole garden because it seeds in great clumps, all over the place, even coming up in cracks in the paving, but thankfully it's also easy to pull out in big tufts. 
You can control the amount of Red Orach in your garden by leaving only the seedlings you want to remain.   In strategic places of course, where you know it will look good rearing up as it does between other plants in all it's burgundy splendour, creating a wonderful foil for flowers throughout summer!  ​ 
Who would have thought that other annual, Queen Anne's Lace - Ammi majus could carry on right through into winter so delicately, it's lacy white flowers turning to gold.
​The seedheads of the tall elegant grass Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster'  wave about dramatically above everything else through summer and autumn, even the tall lilys.  But now in late autumn the seed-heads of those tall lily's are an event in themselves. 

In the garden at the front of the cottage there is no tall Calamagrostis, waving about, but there is that other weedlike plant which I am so partial to - Verbena boniarensis, which arrived in my garden all by itself from I don't know where.  But what a bonus - as this is the plant which everyone remarks upon flourishing along the length of my front fence. Another happy accident because I would never have thought of teaming this lilac colour with the oranges and lime greens I had planned and planted so purposefully as the colour scheme for the front garden.  But V. boniarensis has appeared uninvited and unthought of and completes the colour scheme perfectly all by itself! 
Not only has it introduced just the colour fillip that the garden needed, it has introduced tall form and structure in it's unique zig-zagging way.  Even more, it does the seedhead thing.  Not turning beautifully gold like the previous seedheads described, but more of a blackish mauve, and though it might lose a bit of colour, it sticks to it's tall unique form doggedly all winter, so it doesn't deserve to be cut down.  While other seedheads might have broken up, rotted or faded away by spring V. boniarensis stays, until even I get sick of it and inspired by new spring green popping up everywhere else, I finally cut it down.   I also like the bronze fennel in this front garden not only because of it's feathery bronze summer foliage but also because of its form and seedheads in the autumn/winter garden.  And did I mention Stipa gigantea?  Such a tall plant in such a tiny garden?  It's golden seedheads reach as high as the roof of my verandah.   Just because my garden is small it doesn't mean to say I have to have tiny neat little plants.  

Now that we are well into May and winter is just around the corner even those golden seed-heads which I have been so careful to save and appreciate - even they will fade back, break up and decay, so that soon there will be just the structural evergreen plants and skeletons of deciduous plants to look at.  It is only a week till I take off for warmer climes (I hope) to visit my family in the UK and to join old friend Noel Kingsbury and his group in Madrid studying the Flora and Gardens of Central Spain, and then a quick trip with Jimi Blake looking at The Cutting Edge Gardens of Sweden.  By the time I come home in mid June, my head and heart filled with the sights and colours of exotic plants and gardens of warmer climes, my garden will have lost all of it's autumn colour as below and there will be just the bones left - the  skeletal shapes of bare deciduous trees and shrubs and blessed evergreens left.   

​As we drove east one morning from Tabriz in Northern Iran up into Sabalan mountain, little did we think we  were going to end up at the seaside for lunch!    We were concentrating that morning on discovering alpine treasures, and were especially thrilled to come across more tulips!​

 When we were on our way back down the mountain again, we encountered a different sort of snow carpeting the hill-sides.  But this snow was actually a familiar white carpeting plant which is well known as a garden plant sometimes called 'Snow in Summer' - Cerastium cerastioides.   Interesting to see it flourishing for miles in it's natural semi-alpine habitat.​

​As we travelled  further east over the next few days, across the wide plateau of northern Iran we could see in the distance the northern-most foothills of the Alborz mountains and when we got closer Jalil pointed out tantalising glimpses of the Caspian Sea between the far hills.   I doubt that the Caspian Sea was ever on our schedule, because Jalil, as a botanist specialised in  alpine flora, however I had read about the Caspian and it seemed such a fabled place of myth and romance.
A place I didn't ever think I would get to, yet here we were - so near and yet so far.   'Can we please go there Jalil'  I asked more than once and Jalil, our long suffering guide, was silent for quite a while, then suddenly he announced   'We will have lunch on the shore of the Caspian Sea today'.  I was overjoyed, and almost hugged him.  Then I remembered just in time that an Iranian woman would never do such a thing, so I contained myself. 
Up we climbed through dry foothills, until we reached the top of a pass which looked East down to the Caspian side.  It felt similar to climbing the Canterbury side of the Southern Alps to reach the top of Arthurs Pass where the vegetation changes dramatically to wooded hills on the West Coast side.   It is the same in northern Iran where the dry hills become wooded as you descend to the Caspian side.  Here  the forest is mostly deciduous to the east of the mountain pass, descending to the Caspian Sea,  where  precipitation from the sea creates a moist climate resulting in lush growth. 

​But there was something even more exciting to discover further on which would thrill us all.  The first we knew about it was when Jalil asked the driver to stop near some road works.  Such an unpromising looking  site, but we knew it must be important as Jalil suddenly leapt out of the bus and  over ditches and muddy ravines and raced up a steep hill on the other side of the road works.    He gesticulated wildly so we attempted to follow him over this steep terrain, but the women decided it was too tough and found a comfy look-out point from where we could see the men and the indefatigable Tamar make it up the steep slope opposite us.   From a distance we could see they were excited about some  unremarkable clumpy shrubs  of dull green dotted here and there.  Whatever was it we wondered?  Then as the intrepid plant-hunters made their way back, we could see their arms were full of something beautiful - great soft yellow cups of peony roses - Paeonia wendelboi!! 

​We were nearing the end of our time in Iran but the treats weren't over yet!  We wondered what botanical pleasures could possibly surpass  the thrill of finding Paoenia wendleboi growing in the wild?  But there was to be one last botanical thrill before we left Iran.   Roses!! 
​The original species  rose - Rosa persica, which as the name suggests was found in old Persia of which modern Iran is a part.

I had been bothering Jalil ever since arriving in Iran, asking him more than once about finding Rosa persica, and he was typically non-committal, but then one day he announced  'We will visit my village today'  We all expressed delight at the idea, but still had no idea what that would entail.  When we arrived at his village there were 2 of Jalil's brothers  awaiting us with smiles and polite gestures to usher us into 3 cars, so we piled in  on top of each other into these rather ancient vehicles and proceeded to bump up and down over farm fields, through rifts and hollows for or mile or two,  mystified about what could possibly be happening next.  Then suddenly we stopped and all got out still not sure what this was all about and Jalil pointing to the ground simply said 'Rosa persica'!  
​And sure enough in the rift of wild land between two cultivated fields there it was scrambling and sprawling underwhelmingly along the ground.  The attractive colour of each small single golden flower with it's distinctive burgundy brownish blotch in the centre made up for it's scrubby appearance.   Jalil and his brothers who had driven us there were probably mystified at our delight in finding this unprepossessing plant, which to them was perhaps not much more than a weed, and rather an invasive one at that!   Endemic to Iran, (Persia) this scrappy drought resistant bush, is a very primitive form of rose, but it is a plant which could teach us something of the evolution of the rose.   ​
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What could be more fitting for our last  day in Iran, than roses - as this is where some of the earliest and most distinctive rose species were found. 
​And Jalil's village and rural environment was rich in roses with plentful supplies of Rosa canina,which we had also seen in Armenia, and which has naturalised in many parts of the world, even in New Zealand  where it came in on the boots of 19th century goldminers to Central Otago eventually becoming a noxious weed, spreading throughout dry inland mountainous areas of the South Island. 
But Iran was different as it was not only the common Rosa canina or the rare  Rosa persica, which we found growing in the wild, but also the unusual single flowered yellow Rosa foetida, absolutely thriving in the wild, as was it's dazzling orange cousin Rosa foetida 'Bicolour'.  This orange form is named 'bicolour' because the petals are red inside and yellow on the reverse, and so each single bloom appears as bright orange, especially when contrasted amongst the lush blue tinted foliage as these were. 
​Native to the Caucusus  from Eastern Turkey  and across Iran to Afghanistan, here they were growing naturally as hedges alongside the dusty road in this rural setting.  I couldn't believe we were seeing such a rare and exotic sight  growing so casually and happily.   It is from these, that the bright orange and scarlet red tones  of our modern roses originate. ​

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Like Stonehenge these standing stones are completely shrouded in mystery, but in Armenia high up in the mountains, they are also often shrouded in mist.  And this coupled with such isolation  lends a particularly mystical atmosphere, especially when they 'speak'. 

It wasn't only the standing stones - Zorats Karer - which remained from  ancient civilisations once present in Armenia, but also the Celtic patterns carved into very old wood and stone.   Celtic crosses in old cemeterys, and the distinctive interlacing and intricate patterns carved into old wooden monastery doors.  And it wasn't just the odd one, but many.  Similarities between the carved crosses and celtic patterns of  Scotland and Armenia, is perhaps not so accidental remembering that over 1000 years ago Armenia was on the ancient silk route and at the height of the Armenian Empire it's borders spread as far as the Mediterranean Sea.  Also remembering there was much travel and commerce between east an west, but in which direction did the influence flow?  Armenians like to think it was from East to West.   Nevertheless, it was unbelievable to see these ancient Celtic carved patterns which I had always thought were unique to the celts of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, here in this eastern land of Armenia, surrounded on almost all sides by Islam.  It made me wonder how much religion, craftsmenship and ideas were once shared between East and West.  Sadly, not today! 

​ Another precious commodity which travelled from East to West were Tulips.  Eastern countrys including old Armenia, Persia and Turkey were the original home of the tulip.  It wasn't till the 16th Century that tulip bulbs found their way to Europe in the bags of early explorerers,  and by the early 17th Century they had become a highly fashionable flower in European gardens.  By 1600, Dutch growers had established nurseries specialising in cultivating tulips and it is around this time that tulipmania began.  A brief spectacular time when bulb traders could earn the equivalent of $60,000 for a single bulb!  ​

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​Knowing the history of the tulip made it all the more exciting when we came across a superb colony of them growing in the wild the day before we were due to  cross the border to Iran.   At the 11th hour our trusty guides, Chris and Tamar spotted them  up a rocky cliff.  But we weren't the only ones to discover this abundance of tulips, as the locals knew of this spot too.   Like mountain goats, they had climbed up to the top of this rocky cliff-face, to places most of us could never reach, and were coming down with their booty.  Bucket loads of wild tulips to be sold!   Bulbs and all!   We wondered at the desecration of such botanical treasure which seemed to be open slather to all.  Was there no protection of such a precious resource?   But why should there be, we realised, as Armenia had more important things to think about - such as survival, and even if in our view, it seemed very short-sighted, to many Armenians, tulips from the wild were there for the taking and meant a living.   And despite plundering the tulips this year, they know they will be back in abundance next year.  In fact they thought nothing of generously giving away in typical Armenian style, bunches of their lucrative tulips to us!

But there were still enough tulips left for a few crazy botanists to clamber up cliff faces to examine and photograph.  They were all bright  red and yellow tulips, similar to the shapely garden tulip. Botanical names?  Red - Tulipa sosnowskyi.  Yellow - Tulipa florenskyi
   

 

At the 11th hour what could be better than this tulip feast, but we weren't finished yet in Armenia.  Though this time it wasn't tulips.   After winding our way down towards the Iran border through beautiful emerald forest, we encountered in a rocky valley the impressive thistle Jurinella speciosus.  From a distance I thought it was a pink cactus Dahlia  growing out of the rock walls,   but it was actually an Armenian native thistle, and very decorative it was - just like a Dahlia!  

The next day we set off early to cross the Aras river which forms the border between Armenia and Iran, sadly without Chris!  Because Chris was travelling under a British passport, he was seen as an undesirable in Iran as were the 2 Canadians in our party, so we had to wave them good-bye at the border. But thank goodness we still had our spunky little Armenian guide, Tamar, with us, as we ventured a little nervously over the border.  We were pleased to have her as we went through border formalities and on to meet our Iranian botanist and guide, Jalil who was waiting for us on the Iranian side.  
As Chris had predicted the landscape changed almost as soon as we entered Iran.  The mountains and hills began to open out into vast plateaus and the high snowy peaks were further back into the distance ringing the plains.  The lush forested mountains and gorges of Armenia gave way to drier plains, and a more agricultural landscape.  There were many apricot orchards which we had also seen in Armenia, as well as mile upon mile of agricultural land which consisted mainly of crops.

  Hollyhocks!  Everybody leapt out of vehicle to photograph these elegant white beauties growing along the side of the road - Alcea striata.   Close up each petal of each single flower was delicately marked white on white with transparent and opaque white stripes.    And a different sort of Iris paradoxa standing up like white candles on a hillside.  They did have rather a truncated look though with their brown reduced falls.

More hills to climb as we skirted this high plain on the way to Tabriz, but this time we made our way up through soft pink flowery mounds.

We were delighted to find just beyond the village beautiful fields of wild flowers alongside a stream 

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I found myself in Armenia and Iran because of a book - a large, and visually beautiful book titled Flora of the Silk Road.   Jointly written with  photographs by botanists, Christopher and Basak Gardner, it is a fascinating pictorial story with stunning photographs of the landscapes and the plants and flowers growing in their natural habitats throughout the countries  which make up the fabled Silk Road. 
Chris and Basak also organise botanical trips through their company,  'Vira Natura' and a trip to Armenia and Iran was coming up soon.  Unable to resist botanical journeys to exotic and far flung places, I knew this would be an opportunity not to be missed, especially after reading about the rich botanical habitats, history and cultures of these countries.  My friends, Penny and Jane thought so too, so we all went to discover "Armenia and Iran - Irises and Ancient Art".   
Armenia is renowned as one of the worlds botanical hotspots, and when we arrived from an early New Zealand winter, it was late spring there - perfect for Irises, Fritillarias and all manner of late spring flowers growing in the wild.  ​

  
Situated at the southern end of the Caucasus, on a high mountain plateau, this tiny country is overflowing with the grandeur of stunning and diverse mountain landscapes. 
New Zealand is not the only beautiful country in the world!   
In Armenia we encounter  majestic  craggy mountain ranges, and deep wide river valleys all within a country only two thirds the size of Canterbury.  Though there are no coastal lowlands or evergreen flora, as in New Zealand, there is a great diversity of plant habitat.  Sandwiched between Georgia to the north, and Azerbaijan to the east with the giants Turkey to the west and Iran to the south, Armenia straddles Asian and European plant habitats and this along with the influences of a temperate climate to the north and a  Mediterranean climate to the south means it is caught in a rich botanical cross current, unlike New Zealand's farflung islands isolated in the south pacific ocean. ​

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But this was not all.   There were different forms of Corydalis, Anenome, Lathyrus,  Allium, Primula and much more.  And there seemed to be sheets of yellow Primula almost every day.  And one day up a rocky cliff we were amazed to see a swathe of Dictamnus albus, a treasured garden plant if you can get it to grow.  So to see it growing in such a lush and fulsome way in the wild is a rare treat indeed and so worth the scramble up a rocky bank to find and photograph it.  Another day, I was delighted to see Eremurus - only once, and just the pale yellow form, but still exciting to see growing in the wild.

There is so much more to be said about Armenia - the mysterious standing stones, the celtic patterns carved into the stone and the age old wooden doors looking as authentic today as they did centuries ago.  The natural forests of the south, the apricot orchards, and many more plant and flower species growing in the wild, including tulips - oh the tulips!    There will be more, so watch this space. 
​Such is Armenia today, a small jewel of a land between east and west, north and south full of the wonders of nature and botanical beauty.