Rhododendrons of the Horticultural Centre of the Pacific

Ted Irving and Bill McMillan January 2004

Speakers Biographies

Ted Irving’s distinction in the horticultural world is undoubted. Bill McMillan has become an ubiquitous contributor to all of our Society’s dimensions. Anne Allen is a gardening aficionado who supports her passion by working as a medical technician.

Our Society harbours special feelings for the Horticultural Centre of the Pacific so it was fitting indeed to see and hear of the works of this garden, interpreted by Ted Irving who described the development of the rhododendron sector and Bill McMillan, who revealed its current splendours.

Bill conducted a tour of the blooming season, showing selected photos of the 250 rhodos from February through midsummer. At the Centre, Rosamundi has consistently flowered ahead of Christmas Cheer, rendering the latter as a March festival (which anyway may be more accurate historically as the likely date of the sacred birth). After the sparse 6 % of the first quarter, the wealth of April (38%) and May (51%) provides colours in great profusion, leaving a scant prospect for June and beyond. Everyone has favourites, but Lutescens of a glorious yellow, Taurus with its striking red (noble for some tastes, garish for others’), the exquisite Augustinian hues of Blaney’s Blue, and then later, the orange charm of Old Copper, all pierced the heart of one person’s appreciation. Each rhodo specimen is carefully labelled, a feature that may be disdained in the upper reaches of gardening hauteur, but of notable value to the humbler learners among us.

Ted then presented some of the highlights of the Centre in its 20 years of life. The land was cleared in 1983 and the five gardens laid out, consisting of: native plants, heather, winter, Japanese and rhododendron. In 1984 Les Clay provided some 350 rhodos, most of them hybrids. In 1995 the garden suffered root rot mainly due to inadequate watering. At that time, a first grant of $1000 was made by the VRS which has consistently supported the garden ever since. A major renovation occurred with the bequest of hostas from Frances Williams, resulting in a new identity as the rhododendron-hosta garden. Ted described the great work of conditioning the “squinting clay” with sand and loads of Saanich mulch, with winter rye providing a ‘green manure’. Pink feldspar from Quebec was used for the steps. He spoke of the valuable help in these endeavours by volunteers like Norman Thomas and Dan Dixon. Seeing slides of the historic progress and being able to visit this garden regularly, even over a shorter five-year period, all provide an understanding of a living, constantly changing masterwork.

Anne Allen introduced us to a real jewel in her 5 minute account of a visit to Kitty Coleman’s Garden situated 50 kms. north of Courtenay at Bates Beach. Though known by that name, this vast natural garden has been owned and developed by Brian Zimmerman over the last 20 odd years. With over a mile of trails, it contains some 3500 rhododendrons with more being steadily added. As a natural garden, essential moisture is provided by a series of watercourses fed by underground springs or by hand-held hose. Brian Zimmerman is devoted to the preservation and encouragement of wildlife: after noting a declining frog population, he replaced the predatory Koi in his ponds with more civilized sticklebacks, themselves providing accessible food for the bird fishers – Great Blue Herons and the like. A visit to this remarkable garden would be worthwhile, indeed.