Portland Classical Chinese Garden

Lan Su Yuan, Garden of Awakening Orchids

Just the seed of an idea in 1985, the Portland Classical Chinese Garden opened in September 2000. The Classical Chinese Garden is a Ming Dynasty - style garden providing walk-ways, bridges, open colonnades and views that are never the same twice.

Inside you can find the following attractions and works of art: Courtyard of Tranquility, Hall of Brocade Clouds, Knowing the Fish Pavilion, Reflections in Clear Ripples, Fragrance Courtyard, Scholar's Courtyard, Celestial Hall of Permeating Fragrance, Flowers Bathing in Spring Rain, Moon Locking Pavilion, Tower of Cosmic Reflections, and finally the Painted Boat in Misty Rain.

The Garden is a masterpiece on many levels. The walled garden in Portland's Chinatown replicates the Suzhou gardens found in Suzhou, Portland's sister city in China. It features the five elements essential to a Chinese garden: water, stone, architecture, literature, and plants. The design embodies the Chinese philosophy of the duality of nature. The buildings represent the order of Confucian thought and the landscape represents the Taoist view of chaotic nature. When these are balanced, harmony results.

Water, like the wise man, does only what is natural. The lake invites contemplation. The rocks represent mountains and are coarse with wrinkled surfaces, like the beautiful face of a wise old person. The pavilions' leak windows leak ever-changing views. Poetry as inscribed on rocks, screens, and plaques hint at another time and place. Each plant symbolizes a person or trait; and, although plants may seem to be randomly placed, they have meaning by virtue of position.

The garden unfolds myriad views to the visitor, but experiences in the garden include all the senses, the sound of rain dripping on a banana leaf, the fragrance of wintersweet, the changing sensation with each footstep on the mosaic stone paths.

The collaboration that created the Garden is as intricate and exquisite as this all - season, all - weather Garden. Design teams from China and the US meshed ancient construction methods with current construction codes. Suzhou shipped 500 tons of rock from Lake Tai with 60 craftsmen and two designers to ensure authenticity. Horticulturists and nurseries combed the area for the correct plants; many donated by enthusiasts.

The outcome is an urban oasis defined by sheer beauty and quiet harmony, within the hue and cry of the city.

Gardens of Villandry Castle

Villandry was completed toward 1536 and was the last of the large chateaux built on the banks of the Loire during the Renaissance. The castle was built by Jean le Breton, one of Francois I's Finance Ministers. His most impressive achievement in this field was the construction of Chambord, that vast flight of regal fancy, which Le Breton supervised under the aegis of Francois I. While directing this project, he built for himself nearby a small replica of Villandry called Villesavin near the Chambord chateau. Le Breton had first been ambassador to Italy where he spent all his time studying the Italian Renaissance art of gardenning. In order to build the present chateau, Le Breton had razed an old 12th century castle , from which he had only kept the old tower that can be seen behind the main courtyard.

Villandry stayed in le Breton's family until 1754 and then became the property of the Marquis de Castellane, the King's Ambassador who came from a very illustrious noble family from Provence. He built the Classical style outbuildings that you can see on either side of the front courtyard. He redesigned the interior of the chateau to meet the standards of comfort of the XVIIIth century which are much closer to those we know today than to those, which were applied during the Renaissance.

The traditional gardens were destroyed in the 19th century to create an English-style park around the chateau (in the style of Monceau park in Paris).

In 1906 the chateau was bought by Dr Joachim Carvallo, who was born in Spain in 1869, and who is the great-grandfather of the present owners. He gave up a brilliant scientific career with Professor Charles Richet, the winner of the Nobel Prize in 1913, to devote himself entirely to Villandry. He thus saved the chateau which was just about to be demolished and created the presentday gardens which are in complete harmony with the Renaissance architecture of the chateau. In 1924 Joachim Carvallo also founded the "Demeure Historique", which was the first association for people owning chateaux of historical value. He was a pioneer in the opening of this kind of historic buildings to the public.

1. The Giftshop 5. The Maze 2. The Castle 6. The Herb Garden 3. The Love Garden 7. The Vegetable Garden 4. The Water Garden 8. The Music Garden

The love garden The ornamental gardens above the kitchen garden are an extension of the rooms of the chateau. To have an overall view of the whole garden you have to go up to the belvedere. The first four squares just in front represent an allegory of the "Gardens of Love". Each clump evokes one of the following four feelings of love: tender love with hearts and masks formed by edges of boxwood, passionate love with bleeding hearts, fickle love with clumps shaped like horns and fans, and tragic love with knife blades. Inside each clump, the specific choice of both the flowers and their individual colors was intended to emphasize the power of the feeling of love in question. Orange was for tenderness, red for tragedy, yellow for adultery. Much to our delight, the geometric ensemble is perfectly completed by two fountains marking the intersection of the paths.

	a. "Tender Love" is symbolized by hearts separated by the flames of love in the corners. In the centre are the domino masks are situated in the centre. They were worn at balls which allowed all types of conversations, from the most serious to the most frivolous.
	b. "Passionate Love" is also represented by the same hearts but this time, they are broken by passion. The box hedges are criss-crossed and form a maze, which also constitutes an evocation of dance.
	c. "Fickle Love" The four fans in the corners symbolize the volatile nature of feelings. The horns of the jilted lover are situated between these fans and the love letters or "billets doux" that the fickle lady sent to her lover are in the centre. The dominant colourin this square is yellow, the colour of jilted love.
	d. "Tragic Love" the design represents the blades of daggers and swords used during the duels that were provoked by lovers' rivalry. In summer, flowers are red to symbolize the blood spilt during these fights.

The water garden The water garden is situated above the ornamental garden to the far south of the gardens. It is designed in the Classical spirit, centred round a large lake in the shape of a Louis XV mirror with a cloister of greenery. It is the ideal place for rest and meditation.

The Maze A hedgerow maze has recently been opened. It is based on the pattern of the Renaissance.

The herb garden The herb garden is situated between the Kitchen garden and the Church, like in all gardens in the Middle Ages. It is dedicated to aromatic, cooking and medicinal herbs. The garden here contains some thirty varieties of these beneficial plants which were considered to be essential for family life by our ancestors.

The vegetable garden Between the Chateau and the village is the Renaissance vegetable garden. It has nine squares of equal size but with different geometrical patterns.

These squares are planted with vegetables of contrasting colours (the blue of the leek, the red of the cabbage and beetroot, the jade green of the carrot tops), which gives the impression of a multicoloured chequer-board. The vegetable garden was created in the Middle Ages. The monks in their Abbeys took great pleasure in growing their vegetables in geometrical patterns. Much later, the pragmatic Doctor Carvallo had recreated the vegetable garden during WWI to feed his hospitalized patients. This was his favorite garden, laid out over 9 completely different squares with a clever mix of 250,000 vegetable and flower plants that have only a decorative purpose today, but one of very high design. Nine gardeners oversee the care and regular replacement of all the plants in order to preserve the color harmony during all growing seasons. Autumn is the best time of year to admire the crimson color of the decorative cabbages.

The many crosses in the Villandry kitchen garden remind us of these monastic origins. The monks also planted standard roses to decorate their gardens. According to a long-standing tradition, the roses here are planted symmetrically, representing the monk working his vegetable patch.

The second influence came from Italy and inspired the ornamental features in this monastic garden: the fountains, bowers and flower beds.

French XVIth century gardeners combined both the French and the Italian monastic inspirations to create the garden which they needed for the roses and vegetables newly arrived from America. They called it the "ornamental kitchen garden". Their work was described by Androuet du Cerceau and constituted the inspiration for Joachim Carvallo when he designed the kitchen garden.

The music garden On the other side of the canal is the second box garden which symbolises music. The large triangles represent lyres and next to them are harps. Between the lyres are candelabra for lighting the music.

What are orchids...

The orchids family consists of approximately 30,000 different species, but if we take into consideration the hybrids growers all over the world have and are still developing, their number probably exceeds 200,000. They are found in every continent, the only exception being the Antarctic and there are endemic species in every part of the world.

Orchids are epiphytes, which means plants that grow on other plants. This was the most challenging fact the first growers had to face. Nowadays, we know that epiphytes live "stuck" on the branches of trees in tropical forests, attached to them through a strong root system; in fact the roots do not touch the soil. Instead the roots are literally in the air with the morning dew being their primary source of water in their natural habitat with rains coming right after that. The birds that fly and rest on the branches provide plenty of nutrients through their stool (out of which the roots absorb their food).

In the world of flowers, orchids are definitely the winners. Although they used to be expensive plants, today orchids are affordable to all and growing them is one of the most loved hobbies among flower lovers. Their incredible beauty and the numerous differentiations among species excite us all.

Orchids History Orchids were always exciting to people. They have constituted for centuries, and still do, a symbol of love, luxury and beauty. Our own ancestors considered them a symbol of virility and fertility.

The Chinese, ever since the age of Confucius, called them the plants that had the fragrance of the king, while in the middle ages orchids were one of the basic ingredients of herbal remedies. They were also considered to be aphrodisiacs and thus a basic ingredient in love potions. In dreams, orchids represent your inner need to have finesse, kindness and romance in your relationships.

In the beginning of the 18th century, orchid harvest was started in many parts of the world. Because of the unusual beauty of their flowers and their intoxicating fragrances, some British explorers brought orchids from the far-off (at the time) lands, at some point during the 18th century. A few botanists started to cultivate them in Britain along with some wealthy hobbyists. The situation changed dramatically in 1818, when a Mr Cattley managed to get his orchid to bloom. He had actually salvaged this plant from a package he received into which the orchids were used as packing material. His name was given to a whole category of plants and has been maintained until today (Cattleya orchids).

The great demand in orchids lead to the destruction of huge habitat areas in which plants were harvested. Happily today, harvesting plants from their natural habitat is strictly prohibited especially since some orchid varieties belong to the endangered species.

Orchids Description How can someone describe orchids? Which words to use in order to describe their numerous strange forms and how to give an idea of the wonderful fragrances of many species?

Their extra-strange flowers look so complex while in reality their structure is very simple. The flowers consist of 3 sepals and 3 main petals, the middle petal is differentiated taking a specific form that looks like a lip.

One more peculiarity of the orchids, is that there are no female and male plants as all the reproductive organs co-exist on each plant. The fragrance has the only aim to attract the insects which will pollinate the plant. Nature has made orchids smart enough to control the strength of their fragrance. Some species are exclusively pollinated through night moths so their fragrance is stronger during the night. An extra advantage of the flowers is their longevity.

Orchids do not grow exclusively in rain forests, as most people believe. On the contrary, there are varieties that grow in barren rocky areas (using the rocks to hold on to, the same way as they use the branches of trees in tropical forests) while there are also varieties endemic to plains, conifer forests and mountain slopes. Endemic species exist in our country as well as in the wider Mediterranean area or any other corner of the world. In Greece, we often spot the Bee orchid, among other wild flowers during the spring months.

History of Tulips

The history of the Tulip is filled with intrigue, skulduggery, thievery, instant fortunes and broken hearts. And, although these flowers are synonymous with the Dutch, Tulips did not originate in the Netherlands nor were the Dutch always at the forefront of breeding these beauties. The Dutch obsession with Tulips belongs to the relatively recent history of the Tulip.

If only Tulips could talk, they'd tell many interesting and twisted tales about their history. Unfortunately they can't talk which makes tracing their history a "mission impossible" - although many have tried. The attempts to trace the exact history of the Tulip have been thwarted by a lack of reliable documentation over the centuries although art from as early as the 12th century does give some clues.

What historians have been able to establish is that Tulips probably originated thousands of years ago in a 'corridor' which stretches along the 40 degrees latitude between Northern China and Southern Europe.

Tulips are remarkable flowers which seem to have the power to capture hearts (and break them). Although the Dutch Tulipomania is the most famous, Tulips have experienced other periods of "power" in other countries. The first mania occurred way back in 1500's in Turkey - which was the time of the Ottoman Empire and of Sultan Suleiman I (1494-1566). Tulips became highly cultivated blooms, developed for the pleasure of the Sultan and his entourage. During the Turkish reign of Ahmed III (1703-30) it is believed that the Tulip reigned supreme as a symbol of wealth and prestige and the period later became known as 'Age of the Tulips'. Tulip is also a Turkish word meaning: Turban.

The Turks had strict laws governing the cultivation and sale of Tulips. For example, during the reign of Sultan Ahmed III, it was forbidden to buy or sell tulips outside the capital - a crime punishable by exile (which is a mild punishment compared to torture). It was often commented that, during this time, the tulip was more highly valued than a human life.

It was during the early 1700's that the Turks began what was probably the first of the Tulip Festivals which was held at night during a full moon. Hundreds of exquisite vases were filled with the most breath-taking Tulips, crystal lanterns were used to cast an enchanting light over the gardens whilst aviaries were filled with canaries and nightingales that sang for the guests. Romantically, all guests were required to wear colours which harmonised with the flowers!

At this time the Dutch were already experimenting with the development of the Tulip but the Turks were still far ahead and far more enchanted by the blooms.

During the second half of the 16th century, news of the extraordinary flower reached Europe and seeds were then sent to the prefect (Clusius) of the Royal Medicinal Gardens in Prague. This event marked the arrival of the Tulip to Europe.

Some years later (1593), Clusius fled to The Netherlands for religious sanctuary and became the curator of the Leiden botanical gardens. Although these gardens were planted chiefly for the supply of herbs and plants for medicinal purposes, Clusius had brought his huge collection of Tulips (rumoured to be one of the most impressive in Western Europe at the time) with him and so planted these also in the gardens.

Historians say that Clusius was a selfish gardener. He was keeping his beloved Tulips to himself and refused to sell or share them with anyone - despite many generous offers. Naturally, with their growing popularity Tulips aroused intense interest and some Tulip devotees became so desperate that they eventually resorted to sneaking into the gardens and stealing some. Apparently this act so disgusted Clusius that he gave up any dealings with Tulips. He never even grew them again.

However, now that the Tulips were 'set free' from the botanical gardens there were plenty of others willing to grow the bulbs.

Tulips were originally a natural curiosity and a hobby for the extremely rich. The fascination with the tulips, its endless mutations and mystery, gave it increasing value of immense proportions.

Speculation on Tulip bulbs began building quickly as the middle and upper classes sought them as the ultimate symbol of wealth and prosperity. Along with avaries of exotic birds and large, decorative fountains, there would always be Tulips in the garden of any self respecting Emperor, King, Prince, Archbishop or member of the aristocracry. Often mirrors would be set up in the garden to give the illusion that the owner had been able to afford to plant many more tulips than he actually had.

Until 1630 the bulbs were grown and traded only between connoisseurs and scholars but more commercially minded people soon noticed the ever increasing prices being paid for certain Tulips and thought they'd found the perfect "get rich quick" scheme. And so the popularity of the Tulip increased and more and more people became caught up in the trade. Groups of speculators were meeting regularly in the local inns to buy and sell Tulip bulbs. (The innkeepers of the time really flourished!)

It wasn't long before the majority of the Dutch community became obsessed with these flowers. Those who could not afford the bulbs settled instead for art, furniture, embroideries and ceramics which featured the flowers.

Many of the gorgeous Tulip water colours painted during this period are now considered works of art but were, at the time, painted for catalogues with which to tempt buyers into ever more extravagant purchases. It was only ever the most expensive Tulips (ie those with 'broken' colour) which were painted.

Since bulbs were sold by weight, most people were speculating on the future weight of the bulb once it was dug. All investors had to do was plant some bulbs and sit back on the reasonable assumption that the bulbs would grow whilst in the ground. It was like making money out of thin air and hence this speculating also became known as "the wind trade".

From the period of 1634 to 1637 bulb prices sky rocketed as 'Tulip fever' spread like wild fire amongst the normally solid and sensible Dutch. Bulbs of one or two Guilders could be worth a hundred Guilders just a few months later and bulbs would change ownership several times before they even bloomed for the first time.

The period of absurd speculation became known as "Tulipomania" (officially 1636 - 1637) and the phenomenon was so intense that it still puzzles historians and economists until this day. Such was the absurdity of the period that, at the peak of Tulipomania, a single bulb could be sold for a price which could have purchased a house in the best parts of Amsterdam! (The equivalent of 15 year's wages for the average bricklayer).

During "Tulipomania" there were many who tried to stop or slow down the absurd speculation. Pastors and moralists warned their followers against such an obsession with worldly goods whilst the government also tried passing laws to stop the whild speculation.

The inevitable 'crash' of Tulip prices happened in 1637 when a group of sellers could not get the prices they wanted and people everywhere suddenly came to their senses. Everyone saw that the current Tulip prices were 'artificial' and their value as elusive as the wind!

Many people lost everything they owned and for them it was a tragic ending and many many people of the day never liked the flower again. However, for many others Tulipomania had done little to lessen the flower's beauty and grace and some of the rare varieties could still command huge prices. By the 1640's (when Tulipomania was considered to have passed) Semper Augustus, for example, could still fetch a price of 1,200 guilders (ie approximately 3 times the annual average wage) which would be, in Australian terms - approximately $120,000.

During the 17th and 18th century, the Tulip still reigned supreme elsewhere in Europe but the dramatic close of the 18th century and start of the 19th century (the French Revolution, Napoleon's invasion and the occupation of The Netherlands) brought a more sober approach to life and the Tulip.

Over the following decades, interest in the Tulip rose and fell but the Dutch maintained a commercial devotion to these flowers (today they export 1.2 billion bulbs annually). This is why the Tulip is now synonymous with the Dutch. It is the Dutch migrants, settling in new homes scattered around the world, who are largely responsible for further spreading the popularity of the Tulip today.

Hampton Court Palace Gardens

The Hampton Court gardens are a subtle mix of 500 years of royal gardening history and like the palace, their history has agricultural origins. The lands surrounding the earliest buildings at Hampton Court were farmed by the Knights Hospitallers (the earliest owners of the site) to raise funds for their military activities in the Holy Land. Sir Giles Daubeney, Henry VII's Lord Chamberlain, who took a 99-year lease on the property in 1505, was the first to enclose 300 acres of plough land as a deer park. The present Home Park was also probably made into a deer park, with rabbit warrens, for his entertainment.

It was Cardinal Wolsey (c1475-1530) who created the earliest garden at Hampton Court, probably on the site of the present Fountain Court. But it was Henry VIII (1509-47) who, in 1529, began to establish the structure of the gardens, very much as they remain today. His layout survived, despite changes in horticultural fashion and garden design, until the reign of William III (1689-1702) and Mary II (1689-94) when they decided to re-plan the whole of the estate in the Baroque manner.

THE SOUTH GARDENS The gardens to the south of the palace have always been the private gardens, which have provided the palace with produce.

The Privy Garden The Privy Garden, the king's private garden, has recently been restored to the way it appeared when it was completed for William III in 1702, using the same varieties of plants that were originally in the garden. Separating the garden from the river is an ornamental ironwork screen by the French blacksmith, Jean Tijou, which is currently being restored.

Knot Garden To the west of the Privy Garden is a small Knot Garden made of box hedging which was planted in 1924, an early attempt to show the sort of gardens that might have been at Hampton Court in the 16th century.

Pond Gardens Further west are the Pond Gardens. These three sunken gardens were originally ornamental ponds used for holding freshwater fish until they were needed in the kitchens for cooking. Today they contain impressive displays of spring and summer bedding.

Lower Orangery The Lower Orangery was originally built to house Mary II's collection of botanical specimens. More recently it was converted into a gallery to display Andrea Mantegna's Triumphs of Caesar.

Great Vine Close to the Lower Orangery is the Great Vine planted in 1768 by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. It is the oldest known vine in the world and still produces 500-700lbs (230-320kg) of grapes each year. The grapes are harvested at the end of August and are sold in the palace shops.

Banqueting House On the south side of the grdens overlooking the Thames is the Banqueting House built by William III in 1700 for small parties after dinner at the palace. The main room was decorated by Antonio Verrio, who was also responsible for most of the wall and ceiling paintings in the palace. The oval ceiling panel depicts Minerva as the Goddess of Wisdom, surrounded by allegorical figures of the arts and sciences, while the walls show the loves of Jupiter. The Banqueting House is open in summer only.

THE EAST GARDENS In Henry VIII's time, this area was parkland but was gradually enclosed by the Stuarts and under William III was laid out as a great semicircular parterre with 12 marble fountains. Queen Anne (1702-14) added the surrounding semicircular canals in 1710.

The Great Fountain Garden The Great Fountain Garden, as it is now known, has been much simplified since then and although many of the yew trees date from 1707, the overall layout is predominantly Victorian.

Home Park Beyond the East Front gardens is Home Park with the great canal, or Long Water, dug for Charles II in the 1660s. The park contains a herd of 270 deer, a golf course founded in the 19th century and an oak tree from the original park, which is probably over 1,000 years old.

Royal Tennis Court At the north end of the Broad Walk is the Royal Tennis Court, which can be visited. Built in the 1620s, it is still in use today and provides a venue for the British Open Real Tennis Championships.

THE NORTHERN GARDENS In Tudor times Henry VIII's Great Orchard occupied the land to the north of the palace but during the reign of William III this entire area, known as the Wilderness, was planted out with tall clipped hedges in geometric patterns. Today these gardens are famous for their splendid carpet of spring bulbs.

The Maze The Maze, planted in 1702, is the only remaining part of William III's Wilderness (see above). Its winding paths amount to nearly half a mile (0.8km) and cover an area of a third of an acre (about 1,350 square metres). One of Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat declared the Maze 'very simple...it's absurd to call it a maze', only to become completely lost. Inside he met other visitors 'who had given up all hope of ever seeing their home and friends again'!

Tiltyard Close to the Maze is the Tiltyard. Originally built by Henry VIII for tournaments, it was divided up into smaller gardens in the 18th and 19th centuries. It now comprises six areas including the Rose Garden, Herbaceous Garden and the Tiltyard Tea-rooms.

Source: webgardenguide.com

Discovering the oldest trees in the world

For eons the bristlecones (Pinus longaeva & aristata) have flourished atop the arid mountains of the Great Basin, from Colorado to California, enduring extreme hardships and silently adjusting to their environment. Their exquisite beauty was known to few. Their great age was known to nonenot until 1953.

First we must go back to 1932 when Edmund Schulman began his career in dendrochronology as an assistant to A.E. Douglass of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona. Schulman had a background in astronomy and, like his mentor, he related cosmic events to the science of tree-ring dating. For the next 20 years he conducted climatic research throughout the western states. At that time our records of climatic conditions in western America were relatively short, with sensitive tree-ring records showing only a few centuries. Schulman thought it imperative that he/science push the chronology further into the past.

Climatic changes During the years 1939-1953 Schulman's focus was on conifers in the lower forest zones, the habitat of the pinon and Douglas-fir. The longer records of the Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) were not used because of the semi-humid region they grow in. Then he learned that certain species of trees in the upper-forest zones, growing under stressful conditions, showed sensitive records of drought in their growth-ring sequences, much more so than the rings of trees living in lower zones that can be unreliable due to ground water, etc. The short, distorted and dwarfed trees of the upper tree lines were now his focus. He discovered a Douglas-fir 600 yrs. old in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, an 800 year old bristlecone on Mt. Evans in Nevada, and a pinon pine of 975 yrs. in Utah. With all this data, a picture of the past climatic events began to emerge. From 1215 to 1299 A.D. a severe drought took place and probably caused the Pueblo people to seek areas with adequate food, leaving their long-established homes. Following this calamity, the period (1300-1396) was shown to be one of extreme rainfall, probably a time of great floods. Schulman began to see a 200 year cycle of flood and drought, and he formed a theory relating this cycle with sunspot phenomena that were observered to be in decline during this same period. But the hypothesis was put aside due to insufficient data.

Acting on a rumor In 1953, Schulman was working with his colleague Frits W. Went of Cal Tech when they found a limber pine (Pinus flexilis) in Sun Valley, Idaho, with 1700 growth rings. A very promising find! Returning to Pasadena with their collected data, they made a detour to mapthe White Mountains acting on a rumor that old trees existed there. Knowing such hearsay seldom proved to be true, the trip up the mountain was made anyway, and became fateful. Here they found a multiple-stemmed bristlecone fully 36 feet (10.9m) in circumference that had been named "Patriarch" by a local ranger. Although after taking samples, they found it to be only 1500 years old with typical ring growth of the upper tree line. But at this point they knew that the bristlecones were better recorders of drought conditions than the limber pines. Even more exciting were the old trees found nearby on even drier sites. The return home was filled with excitement for next year's field trip.

"Methuselah" dated Back in the laboratory, extensive analysis of the collected samples and data proved the "rumor" true and Schulman was then convinced it was the bristlecone stands he needed to explore. During the following two years of 1954 and 1955, an extensive search from California to Colorado was carried out by Dr. Schulman and his assistant C.W. Ferguson. They found the oldest trees at elevations of 10,000 to 11,000 feet (3048 to 3354m), often growing in seemingly impossible locations. These trees showed large areas of die back (deadwood) and thin strips of living bark. The trees growing in the most extreme conditions, with scant soil and moisture, seemed to be the oldest! Several trees in the 3,000 to 4,000+ year range were discovered. All but one were found in the White-Inyo Range, so Schulman devoted his attention to this area. The first tree proven over four thousand years old he aptly named "Pine Alpha". Later in 1957 "Methuselah" was found to be 4,723 years old and remains today the world's oldest known living tree.

For several months after his discovery Schulman was known to be ancient tree awed by these trees, often speaking with amazement about their ability to live so long with so little. He wrote: "The capacity of these trees to live so fantastically long may, when we come to understand it fully, perhaps serve as a guidepost on the road to understanding of longevity in general".

Worldwide attention Data by Schulman and his colleagues was reported in National Geographic (1958) bringing worldwide attention to the White Mountains. Sadly though, Edmund Schulman died shortly before his article was published, struck down by a heart attack at age 49. That same year the U.S. Forest Service established the 28,000 acre Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, naming a very special area, Schulman Memorial Grove, in honor of his contribution to the world.