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THE FRIENDS OF TREBORTH BOTANIC GARDEN CYFEILLION GARDD FOTANEG TREBORTH NEWSLETTER CYLCHLYTHYR Number / Rhif 45 September / Medi 2012 2 COMMITTEE Judith Hughes ([email protected]) Chairman Dr David Shaw ([email protected]) Vice-Chair Sarah Edgar ([email protected]) Secretary Angela Thompson ([email protected]) Membership Secretary Nigel Brown ([email protected]) Curator Dr John Gorham ([email protected]) Events Secretary Rosie Barratt ([email protected]) Horticulturist Enid Griffiths Committee Member Deborah Wieland ([email protected]) Committee Member Tom Cockbill ([email protected]) Committee Member David Evans ([email protected]) Committee Member Jamie Stroud ([email protected]) Committee Member Ann Illsley ([email protected]) Committee Member Liz Lemin Committee Member Berta Rosen ([email protected]) Committee Member Natalie Chivers ([email protected]) Student Representative Matt Kent ([email protected]) Student Representative Megan Saywood ([email protected]) Student Representative NEWSLETTER TEAM Pete Wieland (formatting, photos) [email protected] Grace Gibson (adverts, articles) [email protected] Angela Thompson (commissioning articles, [email protected] planning, editing) Cover Photos Front: Rosie Barratt (by James Balfour) Back: Field Cow-wheat (by Richard Birch) Unless otherwise stated, all photographs are copyright of the article author Issue No. 45 Sep 2012 INDEX Introduction/News in Brief 3 Curator’s Report 5 Weather and Wildlife 9 Membership Renewal 11 A Request for Rust Records 12 What Tree is That? The Evidence Underground! 18 Field Cow-Wheat 20 Volunteering Taster Day 22 Welsh Historic Gardens Trust 23 Julian’s Adventures in Pakistan 25 Recording the Meadow Patches 34 The Life and Times of Treborth’s new Horticulturist, Rosie Barratt 37 Pensychnant: A Semi-Natural History 39 Poem: That Time of Year 44 2 Chairman’s and Secretary’s Introduction This is the 45th issue of this newsletter and it has progressed from being a modest little number when the Friends started to this much larger version with colour and a wide range of articles. We get many comments about it, mostly favourable, and we do value your feedback. The "hot" topic of conversation this summer has been the appalling weather, which has affected all gardens from Treborth to our own more modest plots. As this is being written, everywhere is waterlogged and battered, nothing is growing well except weeds and crops are poor. Nevertheless we are lucky compared to other flood-hit parts of Britain. The extremes of weather experienced by other parts of the world are also truly devastating. Gardeners are a resilient bunch though and most gardens will recover, but these extreme weather conditions are becoming the norm and we need to adapt to these changes very quickly. Let us hope we can do so, and that this autumn we have better weather and good harvests. Judith Hughes and Sarah Edgar And… News in Brief Newsletter articles: We have established a pattern for the receipt of articles for the newsletter over the last couple of years – the deadline is the first Monday of the month before the month in which the newsletter is mailed out. So for the next newsletter which is mailed out at the end of January, the deadline will be 3 December 2012. This is your newsletter – please consider writing something for it! It could be on a group of plants that particularly interests you, an account of a visit to a garden, or the trials and tribulations of getting some precious seeds to germinate. The choice is yours… Donations: Many thanks to Jennifer Rickards and Margaret Griffiths for raising £127 for Treborth at the plant stall at the open garden day at Llys y Gwnt. We also thank Dr K Barrar and Susannah Robinson for their donations. New signs: In his Curator’s Report, Nigel mentions the new signs that have been put up in the Garden to mark features of interest. These have been made by Peter Boyd, the sculptor who made the wooden furniture by the new pond. Peter has used oak from the Garden by cutting logs in half lengthways, then carving the lettering in a beautiful script on the flat surface. The logs have then been oiled to preserve them and fixed to the ground with steel bars at the back. The signs look extremely elegant and are in keeping with the ambience of the Garden. We hope you will come and admire them! Other improvements in the Garden include two large timber compost bins at the back of the arboretum to take lawn cuttings; lawn edging strip at the bottom 3 of the rock garden to make mowing easier and the rock garden edge better defined; and new paths in the Tropical House. Most of the materials and labour for these projects have been provided by the Friends. Interesting website: Arizona State University hosts the International Institute for Species Exploration. For some time now the Observer newspaper has been highlighting reports from the IISE on species new to science, taxonomic advances and biodiversity. There have been some very interesting articles on all sorts of living plants and animals plus fossils. Recent top new species have included an underwater mushroom, a beautiful new Solanum from Ecuador, a yellow poppy that blooms in the Himalayan autumn monsoon season, a breathtakingly beautiful blue Tarantula that may be at risk due to habitat loss and exploitation by the pet trade, and a nematode from one of earth's deepest gold mines that survives the temperatures and pressures of living almost a mile below the planet's surface. Go to http://species.asu.edu/index for more information. Busybees - Bangor Courses in Beekeeping Vegetable growing Fruit tree growing, pruning and grafting. www.foodskillsforall.co.uk Tel. 01248 361 576 Won't you come into the garden, I would like my roses to see you. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) said to his future wife Elizabeth inferring that she was more beautiful. 4 Curator’s Report: April – July 2012 The involvement of Rosie Barratt as part-time assistant gardener at Treborth since mid April has been the most defining element of the Garden during the last 4 months. In her capacity as the co-ordinator of Friends’ practical activities at Treborth, she has ensured the best use of everyone’s time and energies, skills and enthusiasm including the Curator’s. Rosie’s personal commitment to Treborth knows no bounds and her charming, happy disposition benefits everyone. There is no way in which the Friends could have given the Garden and myself more help than by her appointment and it is earnestly hoped that her contract can be extended beyond the mid October deadline which stands at present. Strenuous efforts are being made to this end and I am grateful once again to Sarah Edgar for her substantial help in drawing together applications for funding. In addition, discussions with the university are on going and, dare I say it, look hopeful. The other recent significant factor for Treborth is the announcement of the departure of Professor Tom De Luca who is returning to USA in September to take up a prestigious research post at the University of Washington State in Seattle. We owe Tom an enormous debt of gratitude as Treborth’s academic champion, a role he enthusiastically and effectively assumed upon his appointment to the School of Environment and Natural Resources and Geography (SENRGY) 4 years ago. Tom headed up the successful grant application which resulted in the wholesale refurbishment of the Rhizotron and of the house known as Rivendell so that we can now boast the premier soil lab in Europe and a fine support facility with offices, meeting room, workshop and accommodation for visiting researchers. Tom has been a constant source of ideas and encouragement and has ensured that Treborth is fully involved with several University-wide projects including Pontio. He has personally assisted with events such as Wild Science Day and always been on hand to instruct and entertain numerous visiting groups such as Kew Diploma students and VIPs. Additionally, Tom’s wife, Denise, has provided inspiring help both formal and informal related to her own research on biomimicry. For these reasons and for always being such an amiable, encouraging and generous colleague and Friend we say a big thank you to Tom and wish him and his family every success back home in the States. Tom intends to keep in touch with the Rhizotron project and we look forward to a continuing close academic association – after all, these days one is only an email/skype away and as part of his new post he will be making regular return visits to use the new Rhizotron. 5 And talking of the Rhizotron it is pleasing to report that most of the soil cubicles are now planted and beginning to grow topside and below. The facility has received many visitors this summer, all impressed with the refit and the added dimension which the tubular inserts bring to each window. Other matters: the period has been a busy one with school classes of all ages (including 10 sessions under the Talent Opportunity Programme) and the successful establishment of the Forest School which has welcomed pupils from Hillgrove School in Bangor. I am very grateful to Jon Steele and Tom Cockbill for their expertise and enthusiasm in establishing and running the Forest School and to Hillgrove for being such willing and enthusiastic ‘guinea pigs’! While on the subject of schools, it is appropriate to tell you that Ysgol Coed Menai (formerly Ysgol Treborth) has now officially closed bringing to an end 60 years of teaching disadvantaged youngsters.