Author: Whatcom Hort Society

Whatcom Horticultural Society supports Kelly Dodson and Sue Milliken (Far Reaches Farm) plant exploration and their current trip to China.  This is their first correspondence.

Hi Folks!  We are in Hubei where we have spent the last two days at higher elevations in a bit of snow before being chased down to lower and richer elevations.  The last two days have been spot on gorgeous with crisp sunny weather but that will change tomorrow and be more like our first day in the field with light rain made wetter by wading through waist to head height dripping bamboo for hours.  No such conditions would be right without mention of leeches and Kelly landed a good one.  Pretty much hate the low bamboo that colonizes vast areas at the expense of all but a few trees and shrubs but had some small measure of revenge at dinner tonight when we had steamed bamboo seed – think buckwheat/farro in a sort of pilaf.  Really tasty.  Now if we can have goat tomorrow night and exact some retribution upon the semi-feral grazers, all will be right in our world.

This has been a terrible seed year in China.  Earlier reports Sent from my iPad and there have been some good ones.  There is no doubt that we are gaining much from observation in the field and what a moment today to see Acer griseum growing on a huge boulder shoulder above a stream with a waterfall in the background.  This was one of those moments in life for all of us.

Things are going well and despite the poor year, we have no complaints as we are making some very fine lemonade out of lemons including some first-time introductions.  We are going to have a very good day tomorrow we are quite sure.  Much work to do yet and it is 9:45 at night having just finished field notes.  Thanks for helping us do this work!

Kelly & Sue

We had every intention of getting a note out to you last night but fortunately it was a very good day in the field and prep and field notes went quite late into the evening just missing being morning.  We left the botanical candy store of Shennongjia and Hubei today are now in Anhui which is to the east and required a long all day drive.  We opted out of lunch at the gas station/rest stop where the specialty was fish heads but our guide and driver were quite pleased with their meal.

Tons of work to do tonight and glad today was a drive day so no field notes just a tot of whisky and plotting the morrow.  Steve is hoping to find Rhododendron shenii which would be quite a coup and we are after a yet to be introduced Polygonatum which would be a treat to see.   Everyone is doing great – just the usual trots and respiratory viruses hitting some of us although Sue gives lie to that ‘weaker sex” myth as she is unscathed.  The biggest annoyance is poor to none internet for google searches although email works.  There must be some serious filters in place.

Just got settled into our room for the next 3 nights and about to head out to another interesting meal.  We are sad to leave the hot spiciness of the Sichuan influenced cuisine and into what we imagine to be more familiar American Chinese food but with far more mysterious ingredients.  Thank you for this opportunity!

Kelly & Sue
Far Reaches Farm

We have arrived in Taiwan today after finishing up in China.  We had essentially a tourist day in the incredible Huangshan Geopark in Anhui which is China’s Yosemite but perhaps even more so.  We were on the gondola heading up the mountain at 8am on a Tuesday morning and already it was teeming with Chinese tourists as well as the only Westerners we saw during our China leg.  The views were incredible, the granitic mountains amazing, the famous pines justifiably so and the beauty marred only by multiple amplified tour guides on loudspeakers and the jostle and thrum of the multitude.  And this was an early morning off weekday in the off season – what must peak season be like?  We could only imagine the color of a few weeks earlier with sheets of Enkianthus chinensis filling the ravines and the locus classicus Rhododendron anwheiense forming evergreen shrubs beneath.  We wandered for hours along but mostly up and down a labyrinth of mortared stone paths to stunning viewpoint after stunning viewpoint.  The pressure of humanity was setting all of our nerves on edge and we opted to walk down the mountain to the distant parking lot following a long downhill path in hopes of avoiding the crush and finding a little peace among the plants.  We let go of that notion soon enough!  People everywhere and usually at quite some volume.

The next day we drove to Zhejiang Province and explored a small mountain that is home to what is thought be ancient wild Ginkgo trees – they were impressive – as well as massive Cryptomeria evoking California Redwoods including extraordinarily rare old growth Pseudolarix amabilis of which these few trees of this Asian Larch are likely the last old growth examples in the world.  The long straight trunks of these impressive specimens with their open branching habit looking like an Asian landscape scroll were reverential.  The bark had divided into symmetrical plates like a mudflat drying in the sun and we all agreed this was one of those botanical moments which punctuate our lives.  A few interesting herbaceous plants such as Podophyllum pleianthum and a very handsome Liriope helped round out the day.  The last full day was quite rainy and we headed into the immense city of Hangzhou prior to departing for Taiwan the next morning.  We spent several hours prowling the Hangzhou Botanic Garden which was quite good although we lamented the general lack of labels although many of the trees were labeled but it did seem as though the ones we were most curious about had no identification.  Beautiful examples of that confusing jumble of broadleaf evergreen shrubs and trees from temperate to subtropic zones.  Wed were all getting a bit headachy towards the end from data overload!

Out in the field again tomorrow.  Pretty sure Kelly has cracked something in the rib arena from his fall a week ago but has not prevented any field work.  In fact, he is getting used to Sue carrying the heavy pack and lugging the luggage about!  Nearly 9pm and a lot of collection work still to be done tonight.

We’ll keep you posted!
Kelly & Sue