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THE FRIENDS OF TREBORTH BOTANIC GARDEN CYFEILLION GARDD FOTANEG TREBORTH NEWSLETTER CYLCHLYTHYR Number / Rhif 66 September/Medi 2019 Fig. 1. Cotoneaster cambricus seedlings germinated in 2018, and one cutting taken in 2018. [p. 8]. Fig. 2. Tom Parry with horticulturists from Chester Zoo, checking and clearing around the plants on the Great Orme. [p. 8]. 2 COMMITTEE Sarah Edgar ([email protected]) Chair Angela Thompson ([email protected]) Vice Chair, Joint Membership Sec Cath Dixon Treasurer Natalie Chivers ([email protected]) Curator Rosie Kressman ([email protected]) Horticulturist Cherry Bartlett ([email protected] Events Secretary Teri Shaw ([email protected]) Joint Membership Sec Dr John Gorham Committee Member Dr David Shaw Committee Member Tom Cockbill Committee Member Dr Ann Illsley Committee Member Dr James Stroud Committee Member Jen Towill Committee Member Katie Bolton / Maisie Biggs STAG Representatives Newsletter Team John Gorham (layout, photos) Angela Thompson (commissioning articles, planning, editing) email as above Cover Photos: Front: Death of a bamboo. Chusquea gigantea flowering at Treborth ©John Gorham Back: Volunteer Stuart Turtill planting a Prunus ’Tai Haku’ at Treborth. Unless otherwise stated, all contributions to the newsletter are copyright of the author. For more information about the Friends of Treborth Botanic Garden, please visit our website: www.friendsoftreborthbotanicgarden.org, or write to: The Chair, Friends of Treborth Botanic Garden, Treborth, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2RQ, UK. NB The Garden now has a different telephone number: 01248 388877. The new number will ring to all the phones, including Rivendell (administrative building). Whoever answers can then transfer the call to another extension as appropriate. Issue No. 66 September 2019 Contents Chair’s Introduction, September 2019 3 News in Brief 4 Membership Renewal 5 Curator’s Report: May—August 2019 5 Conservation Propagation of Cotoneaster cambricus 8 Monocarpy—Going Out with a Bang 13 Forestry 15 Friends of Treborth and Welsh Historic Gardens Trust visit to Gardens of South Wales, 2 – 4 July 2019 17 A Giant’s Tale 20 Alaska 33 UN Assessment Report, May 2019: Human Activity threatens Nature’s Sustainability 42 The effects of Anthropogenic Noise on Bird Foraging and Vigilance 44 Wild Elements 47 The Rhizotron Taking Root 49 Intern Paul Golding 52 If possible, please access the online version of the Newsletter to save paper and printing costs, and tell Angela Thompson ([email protected]) that you do not require a printed copy. 2 Chair’s Introduction, September 2019 Sarah Edgar This newsletter will give you a good picture of the variety of student projects that have been going on at Treborth over the last few months. Paul Golding has been mapping the woodland and Jessica Baggott did research for her MScRes earlier this year on the effects of noise on birds (this explains why a portable bird hide popped up periodically in the Garden!). Stewart Turtill has also written about his summer work at Treborth, and Sarah Ellis tells you about her busy year which has taken her to New Zealand as well as to Treborth. The state of the rhizotron has been the cause of some frustration and embarrassment to us at Treborth; this wonderful facility, dedicated to Malcolm Cherrett, who established it in the 1980s, has been falling into disrepair because of a lack of research being carried out there. But another intern, Claire Duncan, took it on herself to clear it and come up with a plan to make it more accessible to visitors and you can read about this in her article. Members will have heard about Wild Elements, the social enterprise organisa- tion that was set up by Bangor alumnus Tom Cockbill and is based at Treborth; Claudia Howard writes about the many projects they are involved with. Natalie Chivers up- dates you on other happenings at Treborth in her regular Curator’s report. Angela Thompson writes a thought-provoking article on sustainability and what we are trying to do at Treborth. She also reports on the enjoyable garden tour that the Friends un- dertook with the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust to South Wales in July, while John Gorham has travelled further afield and writes about his recent trip to Alaska – watch out for the bears! We have plenty of good reading about specific plants as well. Adrian Bell ex- plains about monocarpy as he ponders the fate of Treborth’s dying Chusquea bamboo. I am somewhat envious of Richard Birch’s success in growing Echium wildpretii in his garden on Anglesey - I can’t seem to get my Echium plants to do anything even in my greenhouse. But well done to him for successfully persevering with this stunning red beauty. Rosie Kressman is also persevering with the germination at Treborth of Coto- neaster cambricus and she writes about the conservation programme for this endan- gered plant. Finally, I would like to report sadly on the death of Gaenor Price. I first met her in 2014 when a group was set up at Treborth to look into the Victorian history of the site. She was member of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust and she enthusiastically and meticulously researched the history of the proposed Britannia Park development (on the land that is now the botanic garden) that was started and then abandoned in the 1850s. She went to the National Library of Wales, Chatsworth (to see the Paxton archives) and the National Archive at Kew to make sure that every possible avenue of 3 research had been explored. The results of that research appeared in Newsletter no. 57, September 2016. She was a great character, kind and funny and enjoyed coming on our garden tours - but insisted on eschewing the boring accommodation of our hotel and found a local campsite instead! News in Brief Colour Photos in the Newsletter and Online For each issue of the newsletter, we ask contributors to send in photos to illustrate their articles. These should be of the highest possible quality (at least 1 Mb). We usually receive far more colour ones than we can use due to cost constraints. It’s very hard to decide which ones make it to print; some can be converted to black and white and this does not involve any extra expense. This time, however, due to the large quantity of quality images received, we have bought another page of col- our printing. So, in the centre of the newsletter, there’s double the colour for your enhanced enjoyment. We are also aware that due to the small size of the reproduced images, they can lose clarity and quality. From now on, starting with this issue, we are going to put the newsletter images online on our website, www.friendsoftreborthbotanicgarden.org, under Newsletters, along with all the others we didn’t have space for and couldn’t fit in. We hope this will greatly im- prove your experience of our membership services. Please tell us if you like the change! Donations We are very grateful for a donation recently made by Bridget Hogge. New telephone number for the Garden Following the completion of work by the university’s Information Services, the Gar- den is now connected to the rest of the network. Consequently, the staff have a new phone number – 01248 388877. This number will ring to all the phones, in- cluding Rivendell (administrative building). Whoever answers can then transfer the call to another extension as appropriate. 4 Membership Renewal Teri Shaw and Angela Thompson It’s that time of year again when we’re after your money! Those of you who pay your subscription by cash or cheque, and who are due to renew soon, will be getting a letter and renewal from us by email or in the post. As you already appreciate, the Garden at Treborth needs constant attention - tending collections, propagation and maintenance work goes on all the time. Volunteers undertake much of this, but they need tools and other materials to carry out their tasks. The Friends are de- pendent upon your membership contributions to provide a steady income to im- prove the Garden and facilities. When you receive your renewal form, please complete it and and return it to us with your cash or cheque, ensuring that you do so at the new rates: Type of membership Full price Concession Adult £15 £10 Family/two adults £20 £15 Alternatively, you may like to complete the standing order form on the back so that you can ignore our reminder next year! We don’t define the concessionary rate – we leave it up to you to decide as we would not want anyone to feel discouraged from joining because of finances. Welsh and English forms can also be printed from our website www.friendsoftreborthbotanicgarden.org. Curator’s Report: May – August 2019 Natalie Chivers What a busy few months we’ve had! I’m typing on a brand-new computer that has been formally connected to the University’s IT network, and I am happy to report that I haven’t had to restart the computer, pull out a cable and re-plug it or run down the corridor and restart the internet hub! This is a monumental step-forward for Treborth. The Garden now benefits from a practical connection that allows us to share information, keep our data safe and operate new software for our plant rec- ords database and mapping of garden borders, but this is also a symbolic linkage to the University who have invested in the Garden in order to ensure we have the same benefits as the rest of the campus. The IT services department have worked hard to 5 provide the Friends with a group login for full access to the network, as well as con- nections for the visiting public and organised groups.