Chlorophyll in his veins

I am sorry to say that my first intimation of the existence of J.C. Raulston was the news of his death, arriving via the medium of the Alpine-L discussion forum on 22 December 1996, the morning after his fatal car crash. It was immediately apparent that he was a man who had been hugely admired, respected and loved by a vast number of American horticulturists. In succeeding years I have learnt a lot more about this remarkable man from American friends and have had the pleasure of visiting the arboretum that now bears his name on several occasions. His life-story has now been revealed in Bobby J. Ward's biography of 'J.C' Chlorophyll in his veins. Published early in December, my copy reached me in the last post of 2009.

Although I had read through most of the typescript last summer it was, as always, wonderful to see the finished result. It is a simply but attractively produced softcover book, privately published by Bobby Ward with a cover price of $25. The book is available from www.bobbyjward.com.

As the book's subtitle indicates, J.C. Raulston was a 'horticultural ambassador', tirelessly promoting good plants and practices to the horticulturally underdeveloped American public and staid nursery trade from his base at the North Carolina State University Arboretum in Raleigh. This remarkable place, now called the JC Raulston Arboretum, had itself been established in the face of severe opposition from within the university. With J.C.'s dynamism it rapidly became known as one of the horticultural hotspots on the American east coast, a position it retains today. One of its most remarkable features has been the practice, established by J.C., of distributing vast numbers of plants to the nursery trade and the horticultural public, part of his philosophy of 'Plan and plant for a better world'.

'Chlorophyll in his veins' takes us in extraordinary, thoroughly researched detail, through Raulston's career, and in part peers into his private life, though this is a subject that could be studied at greater length. His legendary sex-life is scarcely touched upon - this is a horticultural biography - but his contribution to the gay horticultural world is fully acknowledged. He was an extraordinary personality, perhaps something of a flawed saint, but his influence on American horticulture was vast. It is no wonder that superlatives are used of him by those who provided jacket endorsements; 'this century's most important horticulturist' (Tony Avent), 'one of the most-loved personalities the gardening world has known' (Pamela Harper) and 'this giant of American horticulture' (Dan Hinkley).

One of the more regrettable of J.C's failings is that that he did not publish more. Although he wrote copiously for the Arboretum newsletter, he published only one book, and not very many horticultural articles. In small part this dearth of publications is remedied by the printing here of transcripts of a few of his many presentations to horticultural groups. Despite being only a tiny sample they give an impression of what a talk by this man was like - full of wisdom, wit and irreverence. Mainstream American horticulture and its dullard practitioners get short-shrift in his talk 'The joys of horticultural deviance', while 'Untangling the hardiness question' reveals both the depth of his knowledge and his skill at passing this on to an audience. It would have been nice to have met him, but Bobby Ward's book is the next best thing.

Trees in the snow

Although inconvenient in so many ways, the snow really highlights the beauty of bare trees, and by highlighting each branch and twig, really shows up their shape and architecture. The conical shape of Corylus colurna; the big rounded dome of Tilia platyphyllos (slightly sculpted); Tilia x europaea, showing why it is a classic avenue tree; the Colesbourne contorted Platanus orientalis, reputed to have come as a cutting from the tomb of a Chinese emperor; the oft-despised Sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus, showing off its merits as a magnificent mature tree in an exposed site.

The Cotswolds under snow

20 cm of snow fell yesterday afternoon and overnight, onto frozen ground. Very inconvenient.

In the cottage garden 2009

Galanthus nivalis 'Green Tear'; February colour; Crocus 'Ruby Giant'; Pulsatilla vulgaris 'Rubra'; Tulipa sprengeri with Sambucus 'Black Lace'; Papaver orientale, wild form; Moraea huttonii; Iris pseudacorus 'Roy Davidson'; meadow in June with Thalictrum aquilegiifolium, Aconitum ferox, Papaver bracteatum; Euphorbia 'Excalibur', Aconitum 'Stainless Steel'; Delphinium elatum; meadow and border; foliage, including Mahonia 'Moseri'; Molinia caerulea 'Karl Foerster'

Memories

IN MEMORIAM PAMELA SCHWERDT
1931-2009

GARDENER : FRIEND : MENTOR

Photographs taken on 1 July 2009, at the Garden House, Condicote, Gloucestershire: Verbena 'Sissinghurst'; Dactylorhiza hybrid; white Papaver somniferum; border; Sibylle Kreutzberger, Pam Schwerdt, Gary Keim

Botanical big game

By way of a belated Christmas card, Tom Hart Dyke has sent me this amazing picture of a group of Puya raimondii in the Peruvian Andes, with himself providing scale. This is a plant I've always wanted to see, the largest bromeliad in the world, growing on exposed grassy mountainsides above treeline, rather like the giant lobelias and groundsels of East Africa. The rosette, made up of many long, viciously hooked leaves, takes decades to grow and then dies after it has flowered. Unfortunately it is now becoming rare, though on his recent trip Tom was able to find plenty of them, as well as numerous other species of Puya. Hopefully seedlings of them will soon be growing at Lullingstone Castle.

The Reeves connection

One of the projects here this year has been the raising of a brood of Reeves's Pheasants from a setting of eggs bought on Ebay and placed under a broody hen borrowed from a friend. The eggs took 24 days to incubate: all ten were fertile, but only seven chicks survived the hatching process. From minute, beautifully patterned chicks they grew very rapidly into adult-sized birds, reaching full plumage after about four months. After passing some on, and a couple of escapes, we have three left, a hen and two cocks. One of the males will have to be rehoused, and replaced by another female if possible, before the breeding season starts again in spring. Although extremely handsome they are not very satifactorily ornamental, being completely neurotic and ducking for cover or rocketing around when approached. The dominant cock shows signs of becoming tamer, approaching for food as in the picture above.

Reeves's Pheasants are found wild in forests in central China, but in consequence both of habitat loss and the fact that it is a large and (presumably) tasty gamebird its population has become reduced and fragmented, so that the total number of wild birds is considered to be less than 10,000 individuals and it is classed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List. The species Syrmaticus reevesii was brought to the attention of science in the late 1820s, when skins reached naturalists in London, presumably they were sent by the eponymous Mr. Reeves as both scientific and common names commemorate him. The first living specimen to reach London (a male) certainly came from Reeves, and was exhibited in the Zoological Society of London's collection in Regents Park in 1831: a second came in 1834. Since then it has been a popular avicultural subject and has become naturalised in a few parts of the world. In the Czech Republic, for example, it is sufficiently well established to be a prized hunting trophy.

John Reeves (1774-1856) was an employee of the East India Company, and was sent to China in 1812 to work as Assistant Inspector of Tea, rising to be Chief Inspector, and known to the Chinese as Li Shi, Tea Chief. He spent at least twenty years in China, returning to England only twice in that time: his son, also John, spent thirty years there. They were among a small, select group of Europeans established on the edge of China for trade purposes. Canton (now Guangzhou) was the only port at which European ships could come into for trade and the big European companies maintained warehouses for goods there, but their personnel were only permitted in Canton when trading ships were present. For the rest of their time they lived on the Portuguese island of Macao. One of John Reeves's neighbours was John Livingstone, a surgeon for the Honourable Company, who had a particular interest in vegetables and other 'economic' plants; another was Thomas Beale, who worked in China for fifty years until his death in 1841. Beale was another keen naturalist and gardener, noted for his hosptality and generosity. He is now most famously commemorated in horticulture by the winter-flowering, beautifully fragrant Mahonia japonica Bealei Group (formerly Mahonia bealei), but it is probable that many other early introductions of Chinese plants can be at least indirectly attributable to him. He kept a large collection of aviary birds and it seems that it was from there that Reeves sent home specimens of the exotic long-tailed pheasant that bears his name.

Since their movements on mainland China were greatly restricted these men had to obtain specimens of mammals, birds and fish from the market in Canton, while many plants came from the Fa-tee nurseries where choice specimens were grown for the local market, among them cultivars of Camellia, Chrysanthemum and Paeonia. When sent back to Europe these were often the first examples of their species to be seen, but they had to endure the long sea journey via the Cape, passing twice through the tropics. Even on a fast tea clipper this was a journey of several months, and a large proportion of plants did not survive. Reeves, however, was a cautious character and took great trouble in preparing plants for shipping to England, getting them establishing them in pots long before the journey.

For his return to England on leave in 1816 John Reeves prepared a selection of 100choice specimens, of which about 90 reached the Horticultural Society alive aboard the Cuffenels under Captain Welbank. Among them were camellias, but also the first living specimen of Wisteria sinensis to reach Europe. Shortly afterwards another arrived on the Warren Hastings ,captained by Richard Rawes. These two appear to have been grown by private individuals - the early history of the wisteria in England is as tangled as the vine itself - but early propagations from these, or perhaps other individuals, were soon planted at the Horticultural Society's garden in Chiswick, and another in the Royal Gardens at Kew. The latter plant still survives, growing over an ancient iron frame near the old Ginkgo. What is interesting about this Wisteria is that it was propagated by cuttings from a plant in the garden of a Chinese merchant in Canton, Consequa. This is probably still the commonest clone in cultivation - certainly most of the grand old specimens on old buildings are its descendants (including the old 1850s specimen here at Colesbourne): the cultivar name 'Consequa' has been proposed for it. Commemorating Reeves (or possibly his son) is the evergreen, berry-bearing Skimmia japonica subsp. reevesiana, still usually sold (as in several local garden centres at the moment) under the name S. reevesiana. It's great advantage is that the plants are hermaphrodite, so always set a good crop of fruits. The original clone, still the commonest in cultivation, is now named 'Robert Fortune' after the man who brought it to England in 1849, a worthy successor to John Reeves as an explorer of the horticultural riches of China.

John Reeves's other great contribution to knowledge was the set of paintings he commissioned from Chinese artists, illustrating the flora and fauna of Canton. In many cases it was these drawings that gave Western science the first glimpse of a Chinese species. They are now among the treasures of the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library and the Natural History Museum's collection of art. Among them was a painting of Consequa's wisteria, now in the Lindley Library and shown here.

Alas, the name of Reeves is also attached to a much less desirable introduction to our shores, Muntjiacus reevesii, the small deer known to many gardeners and foresters as a menace to their plants and now spreading rapidly through England. Luckily it is usually known only as 'muntjac' (although often prefixed with an expletive) and it provides excellent venison, so revenge can be tasty.