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Himalayan Plants

© Diana Pederson

It is a sweltering August day as I write this review, but I feel as though I have been transported to a totally different climate. Jim Jermyn, the author of The Himalayan Garden: Growing Plants from the Roof of the World, published by Timber Press in 2001, has written a delightful tale of the plants in the Himalayan mountains.

Jermyn believes that understanding where plants grow naturally is the key to growing them well in our gardens. Therefore, he spends the first chapter discussing the "Ecological Divisions of the Himalaya" and includes a map showing exactly the geographical area covered in the book. Even if you are not familiar with the Himalayan mountain range, you may already know one of its important peaks: Mt. Everest. The Himalayan range stretches for 1500 miles and includes the temperate, subalpine and alpine climate zones. The author focuses his plant attention on those that will grow well in gardens. The next chapter discusses plant exploration in both the past and in the future.

Chapters 3 through 5 each talks about the plants growing in a specific climate zone. The temperate zone, covered in Chapter 3, is found between 6000 and 8000 feet above sea level. Plants from this range are used to growing in cool conditions even if they are in the full sun. Jermyn suggests they would be appropriate in our woodland or peat gardens. He carefully describes the trees and shrubs, bulbs, and herbaceous plants from this zone that would do well in our gardens. I like the way he starts with generalities and then moves on to discuss specific plant genera and/or species to grow. Chapter 4 discusses the subalpine zone, which ranges from 8,000 to 13,000 feet above sea level. He suggests these plants would do well in bog gardens, rock gardens, or raised bed gardens. The alpine zone plants is the subject of Chapter 5. The alpine range is defined as 12,000 to 16,400 feet above sea level. This zone is the part of the mountain that lies above the tree line (where trees stop growing). These plants are most suited planted in pots, raised beds or troughs. Most will need soil that is slightly on the acid ph side.

Reading this book fascinated me partly because of the detail he provides for plants discussed. Many of his descriptions are accompanied by full colored photographs of the plant growing either in a garden or it its natural habitat. Here is just an example

The Himalayan Garden book cover

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