And so it was at 8000 feet (2600 meters) we found a tiny outcropping of struggling plants -- the outstanding exemplars having only 3 or 4 tentative shoots. Imagine our surprise then, when we started to notice bountiful edelweiss plants decorating the planters and hotel fronts of downtown Zermatt.
Their robust gray, white, and yellow seemed perfectly suited to the muted metal of an antique pot at the Hotel Admiral -- or set off the vivid pansies in their streetside planters.
At the venerable Monte Rosa -- the Zermatt hotel on the Bahnhofstrasse whose original three spartan rooms housed English climbers including Edward Whymper before his attempts at the Matterhorn in the 1860s -- a pair of potted blue spruces, underlaid with edelweiss and wrapped in flocked red ribbon, flanked the front doors.
In the old town, a fountain is dedicated to the memory of Ulrich Unterbinden, the legendary local moutain guide who passed away in 2004 at the age of 104 after reportedly climbing Mt. Cervin (as it's known in French) more than 100 times. Near the fountain lives a new planting of edelweiss, native purple fireweed, and one uncharacteristic, large green weed.
But that's not all. Even the lowliest pension sports a planter full of edelweiss, mint, and petunias to advertise available rooms!
And then we discovered the mother lode: The new flower shop was geing populated with racks and racks of potted edelweiss, apparently shipped up the valley from Brig, where it might have been started from seed or perhaps even tissue culture.
You could buy a robust pot for 12 Swiss francs or Chf (about $15 at the current exchange rate) or the self-same pot tucked into a colorful gift bag and arrayed across the front steps for 18 Chf.
The next day, when we wandered past the florist again, we found that even the delivery boxes had been pressed into service as display cases for the newest plant to invade Zermatt.
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