THE FRIENDS OF TREBORTH BOTANIC GARDEN CYFEILLION GARDD FOTANEG TREBORTH NEWSLETTER CYLCHLYTHYR Number / Rhif 60 September/Medi 2017 Fig. 1. The Jo Whiley Scent Garden, RHS Chelsea 2017 (Photo - RHS) [p.14] Fig. 2. The Chelsea team (Photo - N. Chivers) [p.14] COMMITTEE Sarah Edgar ([email protected]) Chair Angela Thompson ([email protected]) Vice Chair, Membership Sec Cath Dixon ([email protected]) Treasurer Natalie Chivers ([email protected]) Curator Rosie Kressman ([email protected]) Horticulturist Dr John Gorham ([email protected]) Events Secretary Thomas (Tomos) Jones ([email protected]) Publicity Dr David Shaw ([email protected]) Committee Member Enid Griffith Committee Member Tom Cockbill ([email protected]) Committee Member Dr Ann Illsley ([email protected]) Committee Member Berta Rosen ([email protected]) Committee Member James Stroud ([email protected]) Committee Member Rosie Barratt ([email protected]) Committee Member Jen Towill ([email protected]) Committee Member Bethan Hughes Jones ([email protected]) Co-opted Newsletter Team John Gorham (e-mail as above) — layout, photos Grace Gibson ([email protected]) — adverts, articles Angela Thompson (e-mail as above) — commissioning articles, planning, editing Cover Photos: Front: Ernst Haeckel - Kunstformen der Natur (1904), plate 72: Muscinae courtesy of Wikimedia Commons [p. 40] Back: Tree-planting to celebrate establishment of FTBG in October 1997 [p. 5] 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: http://www.friendsoftreborthbotanicgarden.org or write to:The Chair, Friends of Treborth Botanic Garden, Treborth, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2RQ, UK Issue No. 60 September 2017 Contents Chair’s Introduction, September 2017 3 News in Brief 4 FOMO and FOBLO 4 The Friends Coming of Age 5 Curator’s Report: January - April 2017 9 Arboretum Restoration Project 12 New Labels for the Treborth Arboretum 13 A Chelsea Experience 14 Gardens of the West Midlands 17 An Anglesey Garden – Autumn 26 Wild Orchids of Scotland 29 Orchid Counting at Caeau Tan y Bwlch 31 Mycology Matters 33 Hair Ice 38 What is the Point of Mosses 40 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 2017 We are reporting in this newsletter on many aspects of our work at Treborth. One of the big projects this spring and summer has been the improvement of the arboretum, where student interns Sarah Ellis and Jake Burton have been helping the Treborth staff by strimming brambles and other unwanted vegetation. You can now properly see the trees and also identify them, as labels have now been erected on wooden posts made by Erle Randall. The labels themselves were ordered by Pat Denne and paid for by donations from Friends members Pat Winsor and Margaret Evans. More details are given in a couple of articles, but I wanted to emphasise that this is how we get many things done at Treborth - a combination of volunteers, students, staff and generous donors. Natalie also reports on other activities at Treborth, such as the new interpretation boards (again, a team effort to design these, and funded by the Friends, Huw Thomas, the Confucius Institute and the Glastir scheme) and mapping work. Shaun Russell writes about mosses, lichens and liverworts, those fascinating, but often overlooked, lower plants that grow so well at Treborth. Many of us enjoy watching the RHS Chelsea Show on television every year and there is always added interest if we know someone who is actually involved. Sometimes we might see members Sue and Bleddyn Wynn Jones of Crug Farm Nurseries, but this year we were keenly watching out for Natalie Chivers and Jen Towill, who were helping to prepare the Jo Whiley Scent Garden designed by Kate Savill and Tamara Bridge. Jen’s article for this newsletter tells us about her first experience of setting up a Chelsea show garden. Gerry Downing reports on a day spent counting orchids at Caeau Tan y Bwlch. We reproduce, from the online magazine Biome Ecology, two articles by familiar names: Nigel Brown and Dan Brown. Nigel writes about mycology and Dan about hair ice. We also have another report from Nigel on nature in his Anglesey garden. Finally, there are two articles on Friends’ activities: one on our recent coach trip, with members of the north Wales branch of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust, to gardens in the West Midlands, and one on the history of the Friends. We suddenly realised earlier this year that we reach our coming of age next May – 21 years since a few people decided to set up a support group for the Garden. You can read about some of the ups and downs of the Friends of Treborth Botanic Garden in my article. Sarah Edgar 3 News in Brief Gardens Coach Tour 2018 Following the success of this year’s trip to gardens in the midlands, the Friends of Treborth Botanic Garden and the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust will again be organising a joint gardens coach tour next year, this time to Cumbria, from 3rd to 5th July 2018. Anyone interested should please contact Olive Horsfall, preferably by email, at [email protected], or phone 01766 780187, with no obligation. A booking form will be sent out to both groups on the same day when the details are finalised. The cost should be similar to this year’s, i.e. £220. Donations We should like to thank K Laurie for kindly donating to the Friends. Angela Thompson FOMO and FOBLO No, they’re not Treborth’s revamped versions of the Flowerpot Men… They are acronyms, along the lines of other more familiar ones like NIMBY (not in my back yard) or DINKS (double income, no kids). These two newcomers play on people’s niggles about not being part of things: FOMO stands for ‘fear of missing out’, and FOBLO ‘fear of being left out’, perhaps a rather more uncomfortable experience. Anyway, these phrases need not bother you in the botanical sense if you renew your subscription to the Friends. It’s that time of year again – the next membership year starts at the end of October. Through the newsletter and the events programme that you will continue to receive, you will keep up with developments at Treborth and events ahead – you will then be ITHEK (in the know). If you have a standing order, you need do nothing. If you pay by cheque or with cash, please would you complete the enclosed form and return it to Treborth with your subs. We really do appreciate your continued support of the Garden. For example, your recent subscriptions have contributed to the erection of interpretative boards and smart, clear labelling of trees etc. This helps to inform and educate the community about the importance and pleasure of Treborth. And 4 the Friends have been able to pay for casual labour again over the summer when there is much to do. Please help us to continue this and other vital work. Many thanks Angela Thompson The Friends’ Coming of Age On 21st May 1997, a few people met together at Treborth to talk about setting up a Friends group to support the Garden. So next May we celebrate our 21st anniversary! I have had a fascinating time looking through the files of the Committee minutes and old newsletters, to put together this summary of the history of the Friends, and of some of our high- and low-lights. Nigel Brown’s hand- written notes of that first meeting record his concerns about financial constraints and “the enhancement of the sports facilities at the nearby Playing Fields [that] threatens to reduce the natural appeal of the Garden and jeopardises its future development. Treborth needs a strong voice to maintain and develop its own unique character”. By the end of that year a Committee had been formed. It was comprised of the Curator, Nigel, and Gardener, Mike Roberts, Alfred Williamson (Chairman), Helen Hughes and Jane Wright (joint Secretaries), Trevor Dines (Newsletter Editor), David Toyne (Publicity Officer), Pauline Perry, Ann Wood and Grace Gibson. Membership subscriptions were set at £5 for singles, £8 for couples and £10 for a family; but, to kick start the Friends, people were invited to become Founder Members and pay £50, receiving in return free newsletters and an occasional Founders’ event. An open day was held in June 1997 and an official launch in October. 300 people - a very respectable turn out even today for a public event - attended the launch and the Taiwania that Vice-Chancellor Prof. Roy Evans planted (Fig. 26) can still be seen growing strongly in the arboretum. The first mission statement was proudly declared in issue 1 of the Friends’ newsletter: “To improve public awareness of Treborth Botanic Garden and provide help and financial support for future developments which would enhance its educational, research and conservational 5 roles as well as its amenity value.” The core activities of the Friends quickly became well established: a programme of talks was set up (the first one being Maldwyn Thomas on “A Plantsman in China”) and a fungus foray, plant propagation workshop and work day were all planned in the first year. The Friends continued the arrangement with the Alpine Garden Society of the annual Len Beer Memorial Lecture. Some of the issues that the Friends had to deal with in those early days were resolved (for example, a slightly sticky relationship with the Friends of Plant Biology; the two Friends groups did become friends eventually!) but many continue to chunter on.