Last week I was on a plant collection trip for our BG. We botanized the upper half of the Great Northern Pininsula. The rock here is limestone and has a wonderful array of native arctic-alpines. We had wind, rain and even snow on the trip! (we also had some sun!) They are much colder than St. John's and there were only a handful of plants in bloom. The willows were mostly passed and even the Saxifraga oppositifolia were finished. The first yellow lady's-slippers where just starting. Soon there will be thousands of them!
