Description
In October 1987, a great storm drove in from the English Channel, devastating the southeastern counties of the British Isles. Huge gaps opened in the landscape of England, and the historic tree collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, and Wakehurst Place in West Sussex lay fallen. The storm exposed the mortality of heritage trees for all to see and provided the impetus for a new wave of plant collecting by the Royal Botanic Gardens, led by the enterprising Mark Flanagan and Tony Kirkham. The losses sparked a realization: the collections at Kew and Wakehurst Place lacked key representatives of the world’s temperate woodlands, and to fill the gaps, Flanagan and Kirkham looked east, to the species-rich temperate forests of Korea, Taiwan, eastern Russia and Japan. These hidden corners of the Far East became their hunting ground.Plants are at the heart of this story, and the descriptions convey the excitement of the find. In the Sorak Mountains of South Korea, Kirkham delights as the sun illuminates the loose, pale-coloured flaky bark of “Betula davurica, revels in the orange-tinted leaves of Sorbus amurensis and admires the winter value of the Korean silver fir. The narrative unfolds with an immediacy that makes us feel right there beside them as they uncover rarities like “Cotoneaster wilsonii (found only on the remote island of Ullung-Do), hang off the side of a gorge to collect the seed of “Magnolia sieboldii and endure a punishing day in search of the Taiwan beech. We stay with them as they lose their way in the mist-shrouded mountains of Taiwan, fend off the ravages of mosquitoes in the woods of Vladivostok and gamely consume the strangest things imaginable. Wecontinue with these Kew-trained horticulturists as they tread in the footsteps of collectors from yesteryear and encounter plants whose close relatives occur as far apart as eastern North America and the Russian Far East.Vividly illustrated with colour maps and photographs, this entertaining travelogue will appeal to travellers, plant-lovers and anyone with an interest in the rich diversity of flora of the Far East. Gardeners will savour the descriptions of wild species familiar to them from cultivation, and all who love plants will be encouraged to hear how hard-won seeds of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants are now thriving in the world’s great gardens for the delight of future generations.Mark Flanagan is Keeper of the Gardens in Windsor Great Park, where he is responsible for the world-renowned Savill and Valley Gardens as well as the gardens at Frogmore (the resting place of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert) and Royal Lodge. He has travelled extensively in search of hardy plants, with visits to Turkey, eastern Asia, western Canada and the western United States. He lectures widely and contributes regularly to horticultural journals. Mark is married and has two children; they all live in a house in the woods in Windsor Great Park.Tony Kirkham is Head of the Arboretum and Horticultural Services at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, where he cares for the existing heritage landscape and woody plant collections and maintains the integrity and development of the living scientific plant collections. This latter responsibility has been the impetus for plant collecting trips to Chile, South Korea, Taiwan, Russian Far East, western China and Japan; many of the trees now growing in thecollection originate from seed collected on these trips. Tony lectures internationally, runs workshops and has published papers on a wide range of subjects. He is married with two children and lives in London.
