THE FRIENDS OF TREBORTH BOTANIC GARDEN CYFEILLION GARDD FOTANEG TREBORTH NEWSLETTER CYLCHLYTHYR Number / Rhif 58 January/Ionawr 2017 Fig. 1. Malus hupehensis reflected in the water feature in the Chinese Garden [p. 11] Fig. 2 Map of the Garden [p. 30] ii COMMITTEE Sarah Edgar ([email protected]) Chair Angela Thompson ([email protected]) Vice Chair, Membership Sec Cathy 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 Christian Cairns ([email protected]) STAG representative (Chair) Jane Batchelor ([email protected]) STAG representative (Sec) Newsletter Team John Gorham email as above (layout, photos) Grace Gibson [email protected] (adverts, articles) Angela Thompson email as above (commissioning articles, planning, editing) Cover Photos: Front: Cattleya trianae flowering in August [p. 33] Back: Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) The Meadow Maker [p, 44] 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.treborthbotanicgarden.org/friends.htm or write to: The Secretary, Friends of Treborth Botanic Garden, Treborth, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2RQ, UK Issue No. 58 Jan. 2017 Contents Chair’s Introduction, January 2017 3 News in Brief 4 Chair’s report to the AGM, 20 October 2017 5 Curator’s Report: September—December 2016 8 Treborth’s Malus hupehensis trees are National Champions 11 An Anglesey Garden—Midwinter 12 The Library at Treborth 15 The Best Volunteer Job in Treborth Botanic Garden 17 Creative Writing—Poems and Prose 18 A brief Introduction to Cors Ddyga (Malltraeth Marsh) 21 Treborth Mapping and Surveying Internship 2016 30 Orchids at Treborth—Update and Ramblings 33 A Garden for Storiel 37 School Children Explore Wildlife at Treborth Botanic Garden—The Importance of Inspiration 39 Winter Delights 42 Wild Elements: Celebrating Trees at the Treborth Botanic Garden 44 The Meadow Maker 45 New Developments at Treborth 47 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, January 2017 There are several interesting reports in this newsletter on projects and events going on at Treborth: as well as Natalie Chivers’ curator’s report, Claire Holmes of Wild Elements writes about the October Tree Fair (soggy but successful!) and Bethan Morris-Powell writes about the maps that she has been devising for the Garden which are helping greatly with planning and interpretation. Did you know that we have some champion trees in the Chinese Garden? These are the two specimens of Malus hupehensis. Pat Denne tells us about them. Our library is also being put onto a database, and Ann Illsley tells you about this work. Rosie Kressman reports on her plans to redevelop the fernery and the islands bed in the Temperate House, and Simon Retallick introduces our new orchid acquisitions, kindly donated by the widow of Terry Markland. We are also delighted to have some poetry and prose: a creative writing group visited Treborth and some of their pieces that were inspired by the Garden are reproduced here. Our members are, of course, all interested in gardens, and so do read Julian Brandram’s article on winter flowering shrubs. Hilary Miller writes about the development of the gardens around the new Storiel museum and art gallery building in Bangor. Tomos Jones looks at Cors Ddyga on Anglesey, and his article nicely complements the report of the wildlife there written by Nigel Brown in our newsletter issue 56, May 2016. And as you can imagine, since Nigel retired to his cottage on the island, he has been taking a keen interest in the birds and other wildlife around there, and he tells us about this. This is also the time when we at Treborth are planning events and activities for the forthcoming year; the enclosed Events Diary tells you what is going on up to May – pin it up on your noticeboard – and we look forward to seeing you sometime! Sarah Edgar 3 News in Brief · Donations We would like to thank Frances Simpson, Brian Ayers, Nancy Saville, Mark Roberts, Madeline Marshall and John and Jackie Wootton for their kind contributions to the work of the Friends. · Plant Sales at Treborth 2017 Our sales will be held on April 8th and May 27th and we need Friends to help to grow plants - herbaceous, woody, vegetables or herbs, all welcome! Join our propagation group at Treborth OR grow at home and tell us what you’ve chosen to grow. Either way, please contact David Shaw, [email protected] or Judith Hughes, [email protected]. · Botanical Seminars Treborth Friends and Bangor graduates Tomos Jones and Jen Towill are organising a series of seminars on botanical topics in 2017. They will be held at 6pm in G23, Thoday Building, Bangor University, Deiniol Rd, Bangor. There will be no charge for the events but donations to the Friends would be welcome. Monday, January 30th ‘Saving plants from extinction in Wales’ with Nigel Brown Monday, February 27th ‘'Endangered species recovery in the uplands of Wales’ with Barbara Jones (There will be no Treborth Botanical Seminar in March: instead there’s the Len Beer lecture) Monday, April 24th ‘Another fine mess you got me into; what can we learn from the history of nature conservation?’ with John Ratcliffe Monday, May 29th Speaker TBC Angela Thompson 4 Chair’s report to the AGM 20 October 2016 I’d like to start by thanking the many volunteers who have contributed to the work of the Friends, as well as working hard in the Garden. We’ve had several new volunteers this year who have thrown themselves into Treborth life and become really valuable additions to the team. When someone new expresses an interest in volunteering in the garden then either Rosie, Natalie or I have an initial chat with them, to find out what their interests and skills are, and we explain about how volunteering works at Treborth. Then we say what they might be asked to do. I always approach this by starting off by listing the kind of jobs that they were probably expecting they would be asked to do, like weeding, planting, composting, propagating – then I gently slip in a list of all the other kinds of things they might be asked to do that they perhaps weren’t expecting. Can you make a cake? Do you mind taking money at the plant sale? And write out some plant labels? Build some compost bins? And do the washing up on the refreshments stall? And mend the broken shed door? Help put up the marquees? Book the coach for the next garden trip? And if they haven’t run off in horror by that stage then I know they are our sort of person and I get them to sign on the dotted line as quickly as possible. I hope that they also feel they are valued as volunteers, because we couldn’t arrange the events and activities without a team of people getting stuck into the preparation and running of them. Our plant sales are the most important events. The three that we have arranged in the last year have raised £6500 - yet another record and a great tribute to the many people involved with growing plants, labeling and pricing them, doing the publicity, and refreshments, baking cakes and so on – as well as, of course, our many customers who seem to be happy to come whatever the weather. Our income has also been boosted by some generous donations again this year, some for specific projects, which we keep ring fenced, and others just for the general funds. One in particular that I would like to mention was money that we were given a couple of years ago but have only spent this year. This was £1000 from the family of Eilir Morgan, the young man who was a member of university staff and died tragically in 2013. Eilir loved coming to Treborth and, although the family did not specify how the money should be spent, we wanted to use it for something special. Berta Rosen, who has been involved with developing the Chinese Garden, suggested that the Garden needed a water feature, and found a beautiful blue ceramic bowl. We used this money to buy that bowl and it now sits, filled with water, in the centre of the Garden. We have placed a small memorial plaque there. Another generous donation we received last year was from Huw Thomas for management of the Lucombe Oak; we are using this money to put a low post and rope fence around 5 the oak to protect the roots from compaction by trampling, and also we are working with a designer to create an interpretation board. We’ll have more to report on this next year. Other significant items that we have spent money on include: replacing the insulation in the orchid house and some tree surgery behind the glasshouses, several new books, new glasshouse shading for the orchid house, and casual labour.