UK: Burncoose Nurseries to showcase skills at RHS Chelsea Flower Show
The garden is designed to illustrate how many of the most popular everyday plants in our herbaceous, ornamental and woodland gardens were in fact first discovered only 100 or so years ago in Southern China and its historical outlying provinces.
The 101 plants represent the work of the great plant hunters, Ernest Wilson, George Forrest and Frank Kingdom Ward who travelled to China after 1905 on often dangerous and difficult expeditions to collect seeds from new and unknown species of plants.
These expeditions were funded by nurserymen, horticulturists and landowners who remained safely back in the UK. With a family history and heritage in horticulture spanning 150 years, including funding plant hunting expeditions, Owner of Burncoose Nurseries, Charles Williams knows better than most what the intrepid plant hunters must have encountered on their missions.
To illustrate some of the challenges and adventures experienced by plant hunters in China, visitors to the Burncoose stand will be able to see a collection of original photographs taken on some of George Forrest’s 11 expeditions to China between 1905 and 1932.
Click here to read the complete article at thisisthewestcountry.co.uk
