All gardeners have this propensity for frenzied activity, for there is always something that needs to be pruned, dead-headed or shaped, and of course there is the weeding, mulching, watering, fertilizing.
So this month it is time to take a lesson from the weather. Move slowly in the heat. There should not be any over-reaching chores to attend to, other than making sure that the irrigation systems are properly functioning.
If you have made plans to rebuild or construct anew a fence, patio, deck, arbor, try to cancel those plans. August is the month to read all the new gardening magazines and books that have this ability to stack up and get dusty during the heady gardening months of spring and early summer.
And a good place to start is with Plants from the Edge of the World, by Mark Flanagan and Tony Kirkham (Timber Press, $39.95). This book is a wonderful travelogue and will transport you into the rich and diverse flora of the Far East. This is plant-hunting writing at its best.
It was the great storm of October 16, 1987, which destroyed 800 mature trees at the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, and 15,000 trees at Wakehurst Place in Sussex. This disaster inspired the curator, John Simmons, to initiate a number of plant-collecting trips to Asia in order to replenish the gardens with new trees and shrubs.
The expedition reported in this book concentrated on the eastern edge of Asia. Mark Flanagan, who was in charge at Wakehurst, is now the Keeper of the Gardens at Windsor Great Park, and Tony Kirkham is Head of the Arboretum and Horticultural Services at the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. Their writing is imbued with a grand spirit of adventure and they invite us along to join them in their achievements, challenges and disappointments. It is a grand romp.
Along the way you will find and savor the descriptions of wild species that are familiar to you from cultivation. You cannot help but admire their antics and the heroics involved in bringing the seeds back from the wilds. Beyond their compelling fascination with plants, they describe their encounters with wild strangers, snakes, swamps, swarms of mosquitoes, swollen rivers, and, of course, foul food.
Plant hunting today is a totally different experience from the pursuits made in previous centuries by famous explorers such as Reginald Farrer, George Forrest or Ernest 'Chinese' Wilson. Their expeditions would last for months, or sometimes even years . Their collections would take years before being available to ordinary gardeners.
Only devoted small nursery owners or trusted grand estate gardeners could or would find a way to get a seed or two and then propagate these treasures on for sale to a very limited number of gardeners. Today's plant hunters go out for three to four weeks and bring their seeds and cuttings back for immediate propagation work.
This new breed of plant hunter can be found on the lecture circuits, and oftentimes will prepare a series of articles for immediate publication. Many have their own nurseries and make their collections available to a broad audience within a year's time.
But Flanagan and Kirkham honor the legacy of Ernest H. Wilson, clearly indicating that his work was their inspiration. Frequently they find themselves on the very same spot where Wilson had done his collecting work nearly a century before.
As with all adventures, there were the grand successes and not so sweet sorrows. They were searching for the Taiwan beech (Fagus hayatae), a species close to extinction. Ecstatic when they found the tree, but sorrowful when they learned that they were too late in the year for seed collecting. However, their success with Sorbus commixta is celebrated by a photo of the tree, with its brilliant red autumn foliage, now growing vigorously at Kew.
The photographs and maps add so much to this beautiful production by Timber Press. The one missing element is a complete list of the specimens that were collected on this journey. But, as frustrating as this is for plant fanatics, it certainly does not in any way take away the fun and joy and education and thrill of this very good read.[[In-content Ad]]
