February Meeting 2001

by M.J. Harvey (mainly)

A large turnout of members welcomed what has almost become the Annual Clint Smith Lecture. The topic was a tour that Clint had led in Spring 2000 to see Cornish and Welsh gardens. However, starting from Heathrow Airport the first visits were to nearby gardens.

Just west of London, Windsor Great Park with its Valley Gardens and the Saville Gardens gave shows of Magnolias, Camellias and Rhododendrons and at Richmond, R. augustinii ‘Electra’ was a vivid blue in the Queen Mother’s ‘Frogmore’ garden.

After that, south of London to Wakehurst (good R. niveum and lots of golden pheasants), with immense drifts of bluebells in the Himalayan Valley and R. erinigerum memorable. Clint remarked that ‘Jacksonii’ (caucasicum x ‘Nobleanum’) had much superior, deeper pink flowers than ‘Christmas Cheer’. At Leonardslee (Sir Edmond Loder), the antiseptically neat beds were “getting commercial” but the overall layout is superb.

In Millais Nursery the genuine R. sinefalconeri was giving one of its rare show of blooms – the first for England in 100 years – the sight of which reportedly left Ken Gibson speechless for 2 hours. By contrast, the dwarf ‘Blewbury’ was seen in many gardens; it is obviously a British favourite on account of its compact size, its clean, weevil-free foliage and small ball-like inflorescences (R. anwheiense x roxieanum v oreonastes).

Clint advises anyone on tour to go to Wisley last to avoid carrying the heavy weight of books you are bound to buy in the excellent bookstores all round England.

Exbury delayed the group a day since its gardens are still growing and evolving. Clint was able to show a dubious Ken Gibson the pink form of ‘Fortune’. Ken has the well-known Fortune-Annapolis at Tofino – this is yellow. But Exbury has the whole Fortune grex including the rare pink ‘Ottawa’. Fortune grex is falconeri x sinogrande. R. arboreum Rubaiyat with a dazzling red truss impressed. The group also inspected the ‘compost pile’ where the West Coast hybrids were planted following the 1989 Victoria conference. The plants were growing better than if they had stayed on the West Coast.

Finally reaching Cornwall the group adopted the habit of staying in one center for a few days since within 20 miles there are as many as 50 world class gardens. While in Newquay there were visits to Anthony House with tree ferns and South African and South American plants prominent. Then in rapid succession Trebah, (large red leafed copper beech and a 16 foot gunnera) Penjerrick (the name is used in several hybrids), Glendurgan and the Lost Garden of Heligan. The story of Heligan is the tragic one of 18 gardeners including the Tremaine brothers all volunteering for service in the First World War, all being killed in France and no family members left to maintain the estate. The overgrowth of trees is now being removed by a couple of young men to reveal the original walled gardens. [Think Mayan Temples in the jungle].

Caerhays where J.C. Williams financed George Forrest’s 2^nd and 3^rd expeditions (receiving much seed in return) has many of the original collections still growing with many magnolias and the magnificent castle. Also, a very large R. forrestii v repens. The Tre-gardens followed [tre – place of]: Trewithen, Trelissick and Trengwainton where Acer pseudoplatamus ‘Brilliant’ with its salmon pink young leaves was conspicuous. Tree ferns and R.venator – a good red – were notable.

Lanhydrock with wonderful architecture and Maddenii’s including R. lindleyi rather ticked off Clint with a charge of 5 pounds per leg for the use of camera tripods. Fortunately, Ken Gibson, the “frugal photographer” employed a monoped, and he tried to be helpful by offering to remove legs from other persons’ tripods. In general admission charges had gone up to as much as 12 pounds per person, much more than previous trips.

Moving north, Hergest Croft produced not only some big-leafs but the Scottish Rhodo Group on a tour with Peter Cox. Following were Powis and Chirk with Bodnant (Lord Aberconway), of course, taking up a whole day.

On the way to Tatton park (an extensive Japanese garden) , Clint pointed out the plentiful roadside displays of ‘white ponticum’. “Stop the bus” cried Ken, “I must have that”. But it was actually old Cunningham’s White.

At Penrhyn Castle, Clint was impressed by the colourful rainbow display of some 22 different scotch broom hybrids. He is thinking of giving up rhododendrons and only growing broom (no weevils, no water, no fertilizer) – but that was after finishing his book on the tea-rooms at Cornwall – it may not be good for him but he really loves that clotted cream!

During a discussion of ‘mad cow’ disease having spread to France, Clint asked “How can you tell if a Frenchman has it?”. The Cornishmen were so amused by this that they awarded Clint a free dinner.

Unexpectedly, your editor was unable to attend the February meeting, termed the “Annual Celebration of Clint Smith”. Happily, his talk was well covered with a report by Joe Harvey, augmented by notes prepared by Evelyn Weesjes and Theresa McMillan. We are accordingly indebted.