January Meeting - AGS Vic Group

An important part of my gardening life is the Alpine Garden Society Victorian Group. I have been a member since the early 1990s and have met some of the best gardeners in Australia and internationally via this Group.

The name is misleading - the Society doesn't just focus on true 'alpines' - the focus is on alpine and rock garden plants, small hardy herbaceous plants, hardy and half hardy bulbs, hardy ferns and small shrubs.

Tonight's AGS Vic Group meeting is a 'show and tell' session - bring a slide, book, plant etc...

For the 'bench' I will take - Clematis viorna (see above). This lovely and rare clematis comes from the USA - Pennsylvania, Georgia and Texas. Its common names include Leatherflower and Vase Vine. It grows up to 3m in semi-shade, perhaps best over and through shrubs. It was grown from seed by another member of the Group. I picked it up a few years ago at the annual Christmas 'Bunfight' meeting - a free plant swap.

I have gone through some of my slides and made an eclectic selection to show tonight. I will scan some of them and post them later.

I will also take a few favorite books - my two Christmas presents (Trilliums by Case and The Collector's Garden by Ken Druse). The other book I will show is Frank Kingdon Ward's 'Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges'. I love Kingdon Ward's writing he is elegant, incisive and evocative (even though occasionally he clearly demonstrates the social attitudes of an Englishman abroad in the early twentieth century).