Strictly speaking, the acknowledged habitat of true alpine plants, as classed by botanists, is between the limit of coniferous tree growth, (the Treeline) and the permanent snow line. This area can be found at or near sea level in arctic regions and can be above 6,000 feet (1,830 meters) in mountain regions. Some will be found tightly wedged between cracks and fissures on rocky cliff faces, whilst others grow on steep shifting scree slopes. Many are the travelers who have risked life and limb to get a closer look at these alpine aristocrats growing in these inaccessible places. However, the alpine gardener has expanded the range of habitats to include the alpine meadows and valleys, the cool earthy-smelling forests and woodlands; the prairies, tundra and steppes and the regions too dry to support a forest; but not dry enough to be a classed as a desert. In general then, (from the point of the alpine gardener) an alpine plant is a reasonably hardy perennial, of compact habit and doesn’t necessarily have to come from high altitudes. We may equally refer to these plants as 'rock garden plants' - even though not all of them grow amongst rocks and not all of them grow in alpine regions.

Annuals are almost none-existent at the higher altitudes and few are suitable for the rock garden. The majority of alpine plants are true species, true wild plants that haven’t been altered in anyway by plant breeders, as have such plants as roses, chrysanthemums, pelargonium’s auriculars and begonias etc., where countless newer “improved” cultivars are being offered each year.

The mountains of the world cover one-fifth of the earth’s land surface, and occur in 75 percent of the countries of the world. More than half of the world’s fresh water originates high in the mountains; and the entire world's great river systems are fed from mountain sources.
The Himalayas are the highest and one of the youngest mountain ranges in the world, forming a 1,500 mile (2,400 km) broad crescent through Northeastern Pakistan, Northern India, Southern Tibet, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan.
The Mountains of the Andes in South America are the longest and one of the highest mountain ranges in the world, stretching 4,500 miles (7,200 km) from north to south, along the west coast of the continent.
The Rocky Mountains, one of the oldest mountain ranges, are situated in Western North America, extending north-south from British Columbia to New Mexico, a distance of about 3,000 miles (4,800 km). Though part of North America's Pacific Cordillera, the Rockies are distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges which are located immediately adjacent to the Pacific coast.
The mountain ranges of Europe consist of the Pyrenees, Alps, Carpathians, Apennines, Urals and Balkan Mountains. Many other familiar mountain ranges in Europe are included within those mentioned above.
There are other significant mountain ranges around the world and to go into further detail would fill many more pages. There are the mountains of Africa, Japan and New Zealand where a number of choice alpine plants come from.

Mountains affect the climate of the world. Whilst some mountain peaks may be covered in ice and snow, the foothills may have a tropical climate. There will often be a range of differing temperate regions between these two extremes. The Himalayas, Tibet and other mountain ranges such as the Rocky Mountains and the Andes are good examples of this climate variation. In some parts of the world a mountain range may block the rainfall, so that one side may be rainy, whilst the other side may be a dry desert. Accordingly, the plants would be very different from one side of the mountain to the other.

The vast majority of alpine plants are easy to grow in any reasonably good well-drained garden soil with adequate humus; and ask for nothing more than to be placed in an open sunny position, and not have to compete with pernicious weeds. Those that are considered difficult are so, for a variety of different reasons.
For many months of the year the plants that grow at high altitudes above the treeline are covered by a deep blanket of snow which keeps them dry and at a constant low temperature, but not as low as the air temperature above the snow. They are also protected from cold bitter winds. When spring arrives and the snow melts these plants receive an abundance of moisture, and they soon put on rapid growth. Many have a deep tap-root system that provides a strong anchorage in the often shifting and moving scree; so even if there is a land-slide which decapitates the plant, it often has the ability to put up new growth from the root, much as a dandelion does. Because the neck of these high altitudes alpines have a good dressing of fine pebbles and stones around them and the water and nutrients they receive is soon filtered from the surface to the roots, they survive and flourish.
Very often the snow at these higher altitudes may not disappear until late June; then in September the plants will be covered and protected again with a blanket of snow. So in their short season of spring and summer they must bloom and set seed, and then hibernate under the snow until the following spring snow melt. The Soldanella grows in damp meadows, mountain valleys, river banks and along the edge of melting snow patches. Throughout the winter the plant remains dormant under a thick blanket of snow, and then, with the first trickling of water from the start of the snow melt in spring reaching the roots, it is “kick-started” into germination. The flower stalks with its unopened bud starts to generates heat from the fuel stored up in the leaves. It pushes its way upwards through the snow, melting an area around the flower stalk as it does so; to eventually emerge in the spring sunlight with snow and ice still around its feet. By melting its way through the snow and flowering before other plants have grown, the Soldanella preserves its life and produces seeds which will grow and carry on the species.

Now consider the different environment alpine plants are obliged to grow in when bought into cultivation; perhaps for example in a garden in Staffordshire in the United Kingdom. The winter months are cold and damp, with usually little snowfall and fluctuating temperatures – a damp, foggy day, followed by a night of frost and then a sunny morning. This cycle of damp, fog, frost and sunshine could continue for a number of weeks, and the foliage of the plant, which would otherwise be covered by snow in its mountain home, will become a damp mush that will just wither, rot away and die. Whilst we can’t provide a deep covering of snow for several months to protect our choice alpines in cultivation, we can go some way into providing an environment in which they will be contented and induced to put on a magnificent show of flowers. The plant shown right (Androsace vandellii) is a high altitude alpine plant from the granite cliffs in the Central and Southern Alps where it forms tight cushions whose roots penetrate deep into the calcareous rocks in search of food. It can be grow outside with a covering of glass during the winter months, but only with limited success! By far the best environment in cultivation is the alpine house; where it can be cosseted so that it puts on a show worthy of a Farrer Medal at the spring shows. Dionysia is a genus related to Androsace, and these too need alpine house protection, they come from Iran and Afghanistan where their habitat is crevices and fissures on shady cliff faces and cave entrances. They were at one time regarded as being almost impossible to keep in cultivation, and a few decades ago there were only a few species grown, and clinging tentatively to life in cultivation. Today, around half of the known species are in cultivation, and regularly appear at many alpine plant shows – grown to perfection! This is due, in no small way, to the skill of dedicated growers, whose understanding, devotion and cultural knowledge of these wild plants has led to them gaining a more secure foothold in cultivation. There are possibly other species in the wild that are not in cultivation, but because of the political instability in their native lands, it will be many years before they do become available.

In 1803 the U.S. purchased not only New Orleans but the whole of Louisiana Territory from France, (The Louisiana Purchase) for fifteen million dollars; an area of over 800,000 square miles. Much of this vast new territory was unexplored and what little knowledge there was; was more myth than fact – legends of woolly mammoths, erupting volcanoes, fierce giants that killed all intruders and mountains of pure salt.
In 1804 U.S. President Thomas Jefferson selected Captain Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition across this unexplored area of western North America. The objective was to seek a possible water route to the Pacific Ocean, to study and cultivate a friendship with the native Indian tribes encountered, to record, observe and collect all that was noteworthy concerning the indigenous flora and fauna, the minerals, rocks and climates. They were also instructed to map the sources and courses of rivers and important landmarks by means of the stars to determining exact latitudes and longitudes. Almost immediately after his appointment by President Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis wrote a letter to his long-time friend, 32-year-old William Clark; recruited him to be the expedition's co-leader. Clark was four years older than Lewis and a seasoned frontiersman.
The expedition consisted of a force of over 40 men – soldiers, navigators, boatmen, hunters; and others skilled and accustomed in various frontier ways. There were also two horses and Lewis’ Newfoundland dog “Seaman”. The journey of about 8,000 miles through very difficult and dangerous conditions took over two years to complete but was considered a great success, with over 300 new plant and animal species unknown to science, nearly 50 Indian tribes, and a charted passage to the west coast, this great endeavour was the beginning of the American westward movement. Pioneers, immigrants, gold seekers began to settle the Rocky Mountains, Great Plains and the Pacific coast. The stress and hardship of the journey took a toll on Lewis. He never wrote the formal report of his experiences that he had promised President Jefferson, and sadly he died three years later in 1809, aged 35. Clark fared much better, and lived a productive life until his death in 1838, aged 68.

Douglas, the son of a stonemason, was born in Scotland in the village of Scone north-east of Perth. After leaving school at the age of 11 he found work as an apprentice gardener on the estate of the 3rd Earl of Mansfield at Scone Palace. He spent seven years at Scone and then for a while, went to college in Perth where he learnt more about the scientific and mathematical aspects of plant culture. After a spell working in Fife (where he had access to a library of books on zoology and botany) he moved to the Botanical Gardens in Glasgow, where he attended many botany lectures at Glasgow University His talent as a young naturalist was further developed through work with Professor William Hooker, and in 1823 on the recommendation of the Professor, he moved to the Horticultural Society of London.
It was from this recommendation that lead to Douglas undertaking his first plant collecting expedition to the eastern part of North America. Over the course of Douglas’s eleven years as an exploring botanist and plant collector, he introduced more than 250 new species of plants to Britain. Initially he travelled with parties of trappers, but as he grew more confident he travelled only with an Indian guide. His main collecting area was the wild unexplored Indian territories of the Pacific Coast, from California to British Columbia and inland to the Rocky Mountains; far from civilisation. Between 1825 and 1827 he covered over 10,000 miles.
At the age of only 35, David Douglas meet a tragic and untimely death in Hawaii on July 13, 1834; where he was trampled to death after falling into a bull-pit in which a bullock had already fallen. He was buried at Kawiaihoa Church at Honolulu, where a plaque stands to commemorate his achievements; and a second fitting memorial to him stands in the grounds of the old church at Scone. It has been asserted by one authority that: "No other plant collector has reaped such a harvest in America or associated his name with so many plants".

George Forrest who was born in Falkirk, Scotland, started his working life as an apprentice chemist in Kilmarnock. Lifn a chemists shop was not for Forrest and when he inherited a small amount of money at the age of 18, he set out in 1891 to travel to Australia to visit relatives, where he tried his hand at gold prospecting and working on a sheep station before returning to Scotland in 1902.On his returned to Britain he was befriended by Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour as a clerk in the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. Sir Isaac, his employer, was impressed by his character and recommended him to A.K. Bulley, who was sponsoring an expedition to Western China in search of exotic plants.
In 1904 Forrest made his first expedition to the Western Chinese province of Yunnan, botanically China's richest province, alongside 17 other plant collectors. This first adventure was both exciting and horrifying, as for political reasons the local Tibetan monks killed 60 foreigners. Forrest narrowly escaped with his life, and spent three weeks trekking to safety with only the cloths he stood up in. This horrific incident did not deter him from returning to Yunnan and pursuing an extremely successful career as one of the greatest plant collectors of his time.
Forest made five expeditions to China and didn't restrict his collection activities to plants but also collected birds and butterflies. He was well respected by the Chinese and used the medicinal skills he learned as a chemist to treat the local Chinese for a variety of illnesses. Forrest himself succumbed to illness and died in Yunnan in the upper Mekong River in 1932. He was buried in Yunnan, the land where he made so many great discoveries.
The photo above was taken around 1914 in the North West province of Yunnan. (Photograph from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, George Forrest photographic archive.) From amongst over 31,000 plant specimens, several hundred are still in cultivation today. The specific epithet, forrestii, occurs in more than thirty genera and thousands of hybrids have been bred from Forrest stock.

Ernest Henry 'Chinese' Wilson; better known as E. H. Wilson, was born in the Cotswolds and became an apprentice at Hewitt's nursery in Solihull, prior to moving to the Birmingham Botanic Garden at the age of 16. In 1897 he began work at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, when W.T. Thiselton-Dyer, then Director, put him forward to go to China in an expedition for the famouse nursery firm of James Veitch & Sons, who were eager above all to retrieve the dove tree, Davidia involucrata. "Stick to the one thing you are after," advised Harry Veitch, who had more than a dozen plant hunters on payroll, "and don't spend time and money wandering about. Probably every worthwhile plant in China has now been introduced into Europe." Showing incredible determination and ability to plan and lead the expedition, he finally found many specimens of the handkerchief tree, alongside new species of Acer, Betula, Viburnum, Clematis, Buddleia, Rhododendron, Magnolia and Camellia, his collection totalling seeds of over 300 species, and 35 Wardian cases of living bulbs and roots. In 1914, Wilson explored Japan, focusing his attention on conifers, azaleas, and Japanese cherries. Beginning in 1917, he undertook a systematic exploration of Korea, Japan, and Formosa (Taiwan), returning to Boston in 1919 with seeds, living plants, 30,000 herbarium specimens, and 700 photographs. His last expedition, a tour of the gardens of the world, took place from 1920 to 1922. Wilson’s third and fourth China expeditions were sponsored by Charles S. Sargent, the director of the Arnold Arboretum. For three years beginning in 1907, Wilson explored western Hubei and western Sichuan, returning to Boston in 1909. Wilson’s second Arboretum expedition, which began in 1910, was to collect cones and conifer seeds in the central and southwestern parts of China.

Wilson was a popular lecturer on the topics of his travels and horticulture. After Sargent’s death in 1927, he became “Keeper” of the Arnold Arboretum. Three years later his career was cut short when he and his wife were killed in an automobile accident. They are buried in the Mont-Royal Cemetery in Montreal, Canada.