Far Reaches Farm

No wonder I'm tired.  I just typed up a label description for Cimicifuga sp. MD97-074 which is the 1000th different plant that we have offered for sale.  Our sales area is fairly modest but we do run some pretty cool items through it.  I'm just glad No. 1000 wasn't some ubiquitous Heuchera but something not only pretty but botanically interesting.  Cimicifuga sp. MD97-074 is from our seed collection at Bita Hai in Yunnan at 11000' from our 1997 plant hunting trip. 

This particular plant stood out from the others by virtue of an amazingly long and heavy seed head.  We were scrambling along a narrow flat shoulder bordering a shallow stream and marshy area in this very botanically rich valley and cursing the snow on the ground which was covering the interesting little plants when we noticed this big wand of seed capsules arching over our heads from the bank above.  Something that good provokes an almost autonomic reflex of camera, field notes and seed envelope.  This has proved to be a very good garden plant but has not yet reached the lofty heights of its parent.  (We try very hard not to lay the burden of parental expectations on it but may have done so unintentionally which might account for its comparatively stunted growth.) 

Other collections that come to mind from this valley are Potentilla fruticosa - same genus and species as our native and looking just like it.  Malus yunnanensis was a nicely fruited small tree in a damp position and nearby grew a small yellow Phlomis sp. whose specific identity eludes me at the moment.  On the other bank opposite the Cimicifuga was a nice jumble of Primula polyneura and dwarf Rheum likiangense - the latter which is in flower right now in our border.  These were both growing in a partially shaded mossy rumble of cobble-sized rocks at the shrubby base of a steep hill. 

Moments of plant hunting come back to me with such clarity while events of yesterday have all the substantive nature of mist in the mountains.   I get so keyed up in the field that even during periods of exhaustion I think the adrenalin of new plants or of familiar plants finally seen in situ just cements those memories firmly in place.  If only that would happen when I go to the store to pick up 3 or 4 things breezily saying as I leave " Oh I don't need a list."