Staying directly across the street from The Botanics, I arrived Tuesday morning to a familiar sight and a warm welcome from Elspeth MacKintosh and John Mitchell. I was incredibly eager to see the progress of their tufa wall and new alpine house and made a B line to both. The morning commute through the Rhododendron gates For those who do not know, I was here two years ago on the same Diana Aitchison Fund to study how alpine houses are built. On my last part of that trip, I spent a day talking with John and Elspeth on their alpine houses to better understand how they are built and to get ideas on how to build one for Betty Ford. The alpine display house had signs of age and was undergoing plans to be rebuilt. At first I almost mistaked the new one for the old one but quickly noticed the new cedar and paving surrounding it. In keeping with the same look as the older one, the new alpine house is absolutely beautiful and quite "smart" as Elspeth would say. Th
After a fantastic week in Sweden, I flew over to Scotland where I met up with Carly Epping, also a Diana Aitchison fund student, around 2pm on Friday. We traveled by train up to Perth where we met Julia Corden who was busy setting up for Saturday's SRGC alpine show. Julia drove us to her home in idyllic Scottish town called Pitlochry. The double rainbow and snow dusted mountains in the morning looked like a water color painting. We spent all day Saturday in Perth for the SRGC show where I had the privilege of guest judging with Ian Christie and Ron Mcbeth. It was a lot of fun to talk plants and reconnect with many familiar faces from my trip 2 years ago. Plant shows are unfortunately uncommon in the US. I find them very valuable for networking, community, and spreading knowledge and passion for growing new or rare plants. I hope the tradition continues for years to come and maybe makes its way to the states. The judges and Julia Carly stewarding at her first show eve