by Margaret
DeWeese
Clint Smith, plantsman from Sumner, Washington, never fails to delight and amuse his viewers with his slide presentations, and his talk on Gardens of Scotland was no exception. Last spring Clint and a group of fellow Americans, including one Victoria Rhododendron Chapter member, Barbara Fleming, flew to Glasgow for an unprecedented spell of hot sunny weather in theCeltic land of mists and rain. Their tour of Scotland included some of the finest gardens of Europe due to the benefits the Gulf Stream provides and which allows unusual exotic shrubs and trees to flourish.
Most of the gardens they visited were conceived in the Victorian era when seeds were brought back from plant explorations of different parts of the world, particularly rhododendrons from the Himalayas, and have now grown to tree-like proportions. The spring colour was in Clint's judgment, the finest he had seen in his trips to Scotland. The reds, whites and pinks of the towering R. arboreum certainly proved that in his fine photography. The riotous colours showed up against a backdrop of bare branches of native birch, oak, the green of pines and the blue, blue skies.
I didn't catch all the names of the locations visited as their tour took in something like twenty eight gardens. One memorable sight was the view from Stonefield Castle of the sparkling blue sea beyond a tapestry of colour. The Younger Botanic Gardens of Benmore, a country annex of the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, was reached by a windy ferry crossing to Dunoon. The huge wrought iron gates opening to the grand avenue of Wellingtonias planted in 1820 was a visit of which Clint said, they just could not possibly see everything in the time they had. Crarae Glen Garden, a steep glen where the garden is situated in a wooded ravine, is filled with azaleas, camellias, magnolias but the going is strenuous from Clint's description.
Almost welcome relief came from the huge stands of heavily felted robust and vigorous large leafed species with their huge heavy trusses, such as falconeri, hodgsonii, rex and arboreum were the slides of the delicate R. quinquefolium looking like red edged stars, the blowzy edgeworthii wilting in the hot sun, the croziers of exotic tree ferns and the fresh trillium of such unusual colours. One of the highlights of their trip was a visit to Glendoick Nursery where they met with the famous rhododendron owners, Peter and Ken Cox.
The last slide of William Wallace, "Braveheart", powerful hero of Scotland, was placed there by an American. (I’ve heard tell) that Clint's enthusiasm with the "Standing Stones", found even on the Pat Bay Highway, may in fact not be Scottish at all. I mean, when the Scots turn to raising catfish, what can be sacred?