Local (generally unsung) Heroes

Check out:  http://apps.kew.org/herbcat/gotoWilson.do;
https://www.countrygardener.co.uk/article/content/garden-which-remembers-ernest-chinese-wilson

Well, you learn something new every day – which is something that pleases both Paul and I when we have our little excursions for a coffee, or tea and cake, in our local area.
​
Broadway and Chipping Campden are small (but beautiful) villages in the north Cotswolds and within very close proximity to us.  They are both well-known tourist destinations with a reputation for chocolate-box thatched cottages and as a centre for the Arts and Crafts Movement, and artists and literary giants such as William Morris, John Singer Sargent, Francis D Millet and J.M. Barrie.  For example, “Sargent’s first major success at the Royal Academy came in 1887, with the enthusiastic response to Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, a large piece, painted on site, of two young girls lighting lanterns in an English garden in Broadway, The Cotswolds. The painting was immediately purchased by the Tate Gallery”.
www.broadway-cotswolds.co.uk/history

However, Chipping Campden was also the birth place for the less well-known but equally as important E.H. Wilson – a British plant collector and explorer who introduced a large range of about 2000 of Asian plant species to the West.    On Sunday Paul and I stumbled across the Ernest Wilson Memorial Garden at the end of the High Street, a quiet and unassuming garden oasis tucked away behind the ubiquitous honey-coloured Cotswold stone wall.  A beautiful haven away from the relative hub of touristy traffic.

Ernest Henry "Chinese" Wilson was born in Chipping Campden, in February 1876 and until his tragic death in 1930 was a significant contributor to the discovery and introduction of many Asian plant species to the West.

His family moved to Birmingham where he grew up and eventually went to work in Birmingham Botanic Gardens. In 1897 he moved to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and from here was tasked by the famous nurseryman James Veitch to take part in a plant hunting expedition in China. This was the beginning of many such trips encompassing not only China but also Japan, Korea, Formosa and Taiwan. Subsequently E H ‘Chinese’ Wilson discovered and brought back over 1,200 different plants including the ever-popular Handkerchief Tree (Davidia Involucrata). Other plants which he introduced and are now popular in many domestic gardens are: 
 
Acer griseum (Paperbark Maples), Actinidia deliciosa (kiwi fruit), Berberis julianae (Chinese barberry / hedging), Clematis armandii (white, climbing clematis), Clematis montana var. rubens (light pink and fragrant vigorous climber), Ilex pernyi (evergreen shrub), Jasminum mesnyi ( evergreen shrub with yellow fragrant flowers) and Primula pulverulenta (mealy primrose or mealy cowslip).

In his book “If I were to Make a Garden” E H Wilson stated that he had introduced 25 species of wild rose to the West, and from the expedition to Japan (1911–1916), he also collected 63 named forms of cherry blossom.

So there you go ... probably something new that you now know!