THE FRIENDS OF THE CRUICKSHANK BOTANIC GARDEN Newsletter January 2013 In this issue :- • The Spring programme • Dates for the diary • Garden words and notes • History of the Friends, part 1 • The Herb Series: Sweet gale • Reports of two recent talks: A life in gardening Fruit and vegetables for Scotland • Recording mammals survey • Subscriptions, Gift Aid and bequests • The Seed List and AGM papers are enclosed 1 Friends of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden Programme Spring 2013 Meetings are held on Thursdays in the Zoology Building Lecture Theatre, University of Aberdeen, Tillydrone Avenue at 7.30pm February 14 Roma Fiddes Gardens around Gothenburg A tour of some private gardens near Gothenburg and the wonderful Botanic Garden near Sweden’s west coast, with a mild climate influenced by the Gulf Stream. Swedish gardeners are adventurous and not afraid to test plants on the border of hardiness. March 14 Nigel Dunnet RHS: Growing for Success Joint meeting with the Royal Horticultural Society Ecology and horticulture integrated for low-input, dynamic, diverse, ecologically-tuned designed landscapes on small and Olympic scale. Refreshments afterwards. April 11 Annual General Meeting at 7pm followed by Ian Alexander On gardening In 1981 Clare and Ian Alexander bought Birken Cottage, in the Don Valley and set about creating a garden from a wasteland. This is the story of the garden, the influences, lessons and pleasures. May 11 (Saturday) Plant Sale in the Garden 10.30 - noon. May 30 The Noel Pritchard Memorial Lecture Pete Hollingworth Genetics, biodiversity and conservation Pete Hollingsworth is Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and will describe the processes governing the evolution of plant biodiversity, with emphasis on diversification and taxonomic complexity. Refreshments afterwards. Please note the above dates of our meetings and discard the green programme enclosed in the September newsletter, which was mistakenly printed without being proofed. The replacement blue programme is correct. Mea culpa 2 More dates for the diary The Scottish Rock Garden Club, North East Branch Meetings are usually on Tuesdays at 7.30pm at Rubislaw Church Centre, Fountainhall Road. Guests and visitors will be warmly welcomed. New Website: www.srgc.net Sat. February 16 Scottish Rock Garden Club ‘Early Bulb Day’ in the Victoria Hall, Dunblane. Aberdeen SRGC Group are arranging a day trip to this very popular event and Friends are welcome to join them. Talks will be given on colchicums, cypripediums and arisaemas. There will be displays of bulbs and alpines in flower, with many for sale. Soup, sandwiches and teas are available at the hall. The coach will leave at 7.30am from the Airyhall Library, Springfield Road and return around 6.30pm costing £12 per person. To reserve your place please telephone Ian or Margaret Young Tel: 318617 or e-mail: [email protected] with your name and contact details. February 26 AGM and Members night March 26 John Mattingley Cluny House Gardens, Perthshire April 30 Ian Christie Propagation workshop There will not be a Spring Show in Aberdeen this year, but others will be held in Stirling on March 23, Perth on April 30 and Nairn on April 27. See website for details nearer the time. Royal Horticultural Society, Aberdeen Meetings are usually on Tuesdays at 7.30pm in the Girls Brigade Hall, 19a Victoria St. February 5 Dr Lorna Dawson Mudsticks March 5 Paddy Scott Scotland’s Gardens March 16/17 Spring Show in the Winter Gardens, Duthie Park Free admission from 10.30am to 4.30pm on Saturday and 10am to 3.30pm on Sunday. Entries for most classes are open to all and full details can be found on their website: www.rhsofaberdeen.co.uk Angus Plants are holding an Auricula Open Day, May 12, 1.30 to 4.30pm. To reach there drive down the A90 to just beyond Brechin. Turn right at the Bervie Chipper signed to Careson and Menmuir and after 3.5miles, turn left at the T junction. Angus Plants is 150m on the left. The postal code is DD9 7RN if you use a GPS. Angus Plants are coming to give an illustrated talk to the Friends in October. 3 Words from the Garden, January 2013 Do most of us really appreciate that our own environment is really man made. The famous patchwork of fields in the countryside are a result of man’s intervention. Our Neolithic forebears started to clear away woodland to produce enclosures for stock. The stock themselves ate the young seedlings so preventing re-afforestation. This pattern continues right to present times, albeit in a more controlled manner. We all have an effect on nature by our very existence and what we do. The countryside, including gardens great and small are under process of change and flux. Back in the 1970’s the government provided grants for farmers to grub out hedge rows and increase field size. The EU now provides grants to replant hedgerows for the re-establishing of insects, birds and small mammals lost after hedgerows removal! There is a programme for planting up a National Forest at a site in Normanton-on-Soar, in Leicestershire. The site is a former coal tip that will become an area of recreation with a large lake, woodland and country walks plus picnic areas. Part of this forest is the Jubilee Wood where trees will be planted in memory of loved ones who have died. My family has sponsored two trees, one for my mother-in-law and the other for my son Cameron who died two years ago. You are probably wondering what this has to do with the Cruickshank Botanic Garden, so let me explain. First and foremost, the environment in the Garden is very much man made. Most of the 130 ‘Order beds’ of plants displayed according to their presumed natural affinities and a large collection of Scottish native plants were lost in World War 1 when the garden was taken over for growing vegetables. The Garden as we know it today gradually developed when finance and expertise coincided and additional ground became available. This leads me to talk about some of the new developments in the Garden and others anticipated. As you enter the Garden and walk towards the herbaceous border, you will notice that the yews and hollies have been removed along the main path to the Zoology building. They had become overgrown and were causing problems for cyclists, while some female students and staff were concerned by large areas of shadow. The horticultural reason was the decline in the growth at this end of the herbaceous border due to a lack of light. We have also cleaned out the base of the hollies in front of the old pond, created a new grass pathway and extended the conservation hedge by more hedge laying to meet the new path. The sides of the path have been planted with spring bulbs. You will notice some amazing art work on the cycle sheds, carried out by Mark and Ben (Zoology student volunteer). The laying out and planting of the labyrinth featured in the P & J was another autumn project and Mark, Audrey, George and I had great fun designing it on paper. We needed a full week and the use of a turf lifter to plant thousands of crocus bulbs, with the help of volunteers. We have also pruned back overhanging branches in the sunken garden which has opened up new vistas. Audrey has planted bulbs by the new path in the rock garden 4 and the areas exposed during this installation. Victor and I along with volunteers planted still more bulbs in the area leading up to the Arboretum and inside the entrance. If you walk to the far end of the Arboretum you will find a picnic and informal children’s play area. This is located at the site of the Pinus mugo, where it has been pruned back to reveal fallen tree trunks. We have carpeted the ground with wood chips which came from trees felled nearby due to Dutch elm disease. We are going to plant some memorial trees in the Arboretum, a collection of Japanese plants and a new informal hedge. All of these will help the bio-diversity of the Garden. Curator Mark and I along with input from the garden staff, Friends committee and University Press have produced a new layout plan of the Garden, for use by visitors, students and other interested bodies. This will be put on a display board and will also be in the new Garden leaflet which should be printed soon. Once you see a copy, you will notice some name changes to areas of the Garden. So all in all a lot is happening here in the life of Cruickshank Botanic Garden. I started by pointing out the changes in the British countryside and how it has always been that way and likely to remain so. Likewise in a great garden the same things happen. I remember Timothy Walker’s talk to the Friends and one thing stuck in my mind. He stated that he and the garden staff at Oxford know that everything they do is temporary and future custodians will change the garden. This is as it should be. Botanic Gardens are not meant to reflect a certain time period as are historic gardens. They should reflect the changes of use of plants throughout their lives and times. I hope all the Friends have a better gardening year than the summer monsoon in 2012. Richard Walker, Head Gardener Primroses Amongst high rocks I love to see a glory of pale primroses. Earthbound, I plunder market stalls buy more cultivated plants, bury my face in their sweet honey.