Bulletin - Summer 1979 - North American Rock Garden Society

VICTORIA ROCK GARDENSSYBIL McCULLOCHVictoria, British ColumbiaPhotographs by the authorVictoria, British Columbia! — I oftenwish I had been aboard the firstship to sail into its harbor, it musthave been lovely in its untouchedbeauty. It still has the setting, hillsand rocky outcrops, encircled insparkling blue water and snow-cappedmountains, but gone are the bogs,streams, and except in isolated areas,the native plants.Even when I was young Erythroniumoreganum grew in multitudes on therocky slopes and in the woods withCamassia quamash and lichlinii,Dodecatheon pulchellum and hendersonii,Sisyrinchium douglasii, and Sedum spathulifolium.Cypripedium calceolusgrew in the Pemberton Woods andCalypso bulbosa carpeted the forestfloor with mauve and filled the airwith its scent. Chimaphila umbellataand Goodyera menziesii (now oblongifolia)were their choice companions. Soyou see the early settlers did not have farto go for choice plants for their gardens.The British Isles were home to manyof these early Victorians so that whenthe great plant explorations to Asiatook place early in this century, newsof the collections came quite rapidlyto Vancouver Island. Indeed, ReginaldFarrer's cousin arrived on the Islandabout the time that Mr. Farrer wasin China and Tibet. The Royal HorticulturalSociety used to send someof the collected seed to Mrs. R. P.Butchart at Benvenuto, now the worldfamous Butchart Gardens, to give thema chance of survival if they did notdo well in the United Kingdom.After World War I, many Victorianswere demanding greater variety in theirgardens than the arabis, aubretia,alyssum and campanulas that madesuch a colorful display on the rocksin spring. The Layritz Nurseries alreadywere importing the new rhododendronspecies and exotic trees and shrubs,but Mr. Farrer's books had whettedthe appetite of some keen gardenersand they formed a group in 1922 todiscuss and grow alpine plants. Thisgroup grew into the Vancouver IslandRock and Alpine Garden Society. Aboutthis time the first rock and alpine nurserywas started by an Englishmannamed Croft Bennet. He published acatalog in 1925, which was quite extensiveand included alpine plants fromEurope and Asia, as well as some hehad collected on Vancouver Island.Other founders of alpine nurseries wereHugh Preece and A. Nichols, John Hutchinsonand Norman Rant. I am toldthat Mr. Preece grew alpine plants toperfection in pans. Mr. and Mrs. Hibberson(of Trillium hibbersonii fame)grew them in troughs. Mrs. Hibbersonnow grows alpines in the alkaline anddry interior of British Columbia at Savonaon the way to Kamloops. I rememberMr. Hibberson speaking of Gentianaverna as though she were hismistress; she grew well for him.In 1929 a young Victoria couple,Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Lohbrunnerdecided to explore the ForbiddenPlateaux on Vancouver Island with afriend. Mr. Lohbrunner had been askedby Croft Bennet to see if he could129