On the road again – April 2024

April took me to Pershore, where I lent a hand at the AGS Headquarters Garden for a week, focusing on the Crevice Garden and the NGS garden open day. Later in the month I was fortunate to go on an AGS tour to Kazakhstan. A wonderful trip, travelling across the country and exploring the flora of Kazakhstan. I took countless photos during this trip of a lifetime; I find it hard to slim down my album. In this entry, I will focus on just some of many plants we saw as we travelled west across the country in search of different habitats.

The AGS Garden at Pershore

At the beginning of the month, I was given the task of tidying up the crevice garden in Pershore. This was built many years ago by the legendary Czech crevice garden master ZZ (Zdeneck Zvolanek). The job involved weeding and tidying up plants and removing any Erinus alpinus which was interfering with other plants and preventing them from growing. I sourced a range of plants from Abercowny Nurseries to plant throughout the bed picking locations where I thought they would be most suitable and grow to their best. Once they were all planted, I top dressed with fresh gravel ready for the NGS garden open day that weekend.

It was great to spend some time getting to know the garden a little more and to see it dramatically improving at the hands of the staff and volunteers who look after it. Looking particularly good that week was the woodland walk, with trilliums, erythroniums and other woodland plants gently seeding around and thriving under the tree canopies.

A trip to Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world. To put it into perspective it is eleven times larger than the UK. The country experiences extreme continental climate with long hot summers and very cold winters.

After a long journey with two connecting flights, we all arrived in Almaty. The largest city in Kazakhstan is set in the foothills of the Trans-lli Alatau mountains. Our local guides and driver were there to greet us. After a well-deserved breakfast we headed straight off to Kapchagay, the first botanising location of the tour. Growing around the reservoir we found Iris tenuifolia, Tulipa albertii and Tulipa jansii. This species has recently been described and named after Harry Jan, the tour leader. On finding it in flower, Harry started jumping for joy. Tulipa jansii is the only member of the subgenus kolpakowskianae that forms stolons. As we trekked further, we found large specimens of Vicia subvillosa growing in the grass.

The next day, driving further west, we were in for another treat, ticking off more species of tulips. One of them was Tulipa greigii, easily recognised by the dark speckled leaf markings.

At the top of the plateau, we found masses of various forms of Tulipa ostrowskiana; a sight to behold. Growing beside the roadside were some attractive looking birch trees. These were Betula tianshanica, native from central Asia to Mongolia with creamy pink peeling bark.

We did lot of botanising, hiking in a valley near Merke. Growing from the cracks in the rocks was Rosularia glabra. We soon started to notice more tulips including Tulipa zenaidae. This species is easy to recognise due to its red and yellow petals.

Another good location we travelled to was Akkol lake in the Jambyl (Zhambyl) region. Here we came across many species of astragalus. Worldwide there are pproximately 3000 species of Astragalus, and more are still being discovered. It’s been hard to assign correct names to plants as I slowly work my way through all the photos I took. One specimen which we saw was Astragalus scrabrisetus. Near the lake one can also find Fritillaria karelinii. Unfortunately, we were there too late in the season, and they had already gone to seed. The seed pods are rather attractive.

Dotted throughout the landscape was Bungea vesiculifera, another attractive plant.

On our journey further west we had a quick 15-minute break to stretch our legs. We used the opportunity to see what we could find along the roadside, and a few of us decided to scramble up the scree banks. The screes were covered in masses of Eremurus lactiflorus. We also found Tulipa berkariensis in full flower as well as Allium karataviense.

We were lucky enough to visit Aksu Zhabagly nature reserve for the day, the oldest nature reserve in central Asia. This was a truly magical place, full of mouth-watering plants. After seeing Gymnopermium albertii growing in cultivation back at RBGE it was great to see it growing in the wild. I have a soft spot for fritillary species and throughout the tour we saw many that had already gone over. As our trip took us higher, we luckily to find two species in full flower, they were a joy to see!

The two species were Fritillaria stenanthera and Fritillaria sewerzowii. We were also lucky enough to find Corydalis ruksansii in flower. This species is named after bulb expert Janis Ruksans. Also in full flower, spotted by a group member up on the bank was Iris willmottiana.

The next day we went to Aksu Canyon, where at a slightly higher altitude we found Crocus alatavicus growing near melting snow patches. It was a pleasure to see this rather attractive species with uniquely patterned outer tepals.

The last day arrived. After travelling back east to Almaty on the night train we arrived at our hotel for breakfast and coffee. On our last day of botanising we went to the Kaskelen gorge. Here we found large clumps of Iris albertii in full flower. We also spotted dainty Primula algida. On our way back for an early night before flying home, we stopped at the roadside for a quick walk around the scree areas. From a distance we spotted the foliage of Paeonia intermedia, however it was sadly still in bud. Heading further up the scree we found a large specimen in flower. This was a great way to end a wonderful trip.