For those of you who are unsure, Sean Rafferty and Brenda Macdonald are a couple. They participated in a plant viewing expedition to Yunnan led by Steve Hootman, co-Director of the Rhododendron Species Foundation, in May, 2005. This trip will be the subject of their lecture the evening of February 19th, entitled 'VRS Members in Yunnan'. Upon asking for information on their horticultural backgrounds, Brenda’s response was such that I don’t think it can be improved upon:
Basically both of us have just been interested in gardening for most of our adult lives, both apart and together. I did take a few years of Agriculture at UBC, but the only really lasting benefit that provided was a fascination with botanical nomenclature and a deep appreciation of the complexity and variety of horticultural specimens out there.
It was actually Sean who developed the passion for rhododendrons. We grew a number of them at our house in West Point Grey in Vancouver, but it was only when we moved to North Vancouver that he truly became fixated. Rumours that it was because it was one of the few genera – besides Lungwort - we could grow successfully are probably quite valid. We live on a very precipitous acre+, right on Lynn Creek, with parkland surrounding us on virtually all sides. It is very nice, but almost as rainy as everyone suspects, and also fairly heavily forested. Of course in the current era of political correctness we were prohibited from cutting any of the existing trees, so for a number of years we grew rhododendron leaves quite successfully. It was only after limbing up and spiral cutting a number of the larger conifers that we began to grow more blossoms. Sean continued to refine his interest to species rhododendrons, of which we now have a moderate collection, some in pots, some in the ground, and some in the rhododendron cemetery. I tend to like the small things, Sean tends to like large things. I like campylogynum, he likes montroseanum.
Since initially joining the VRS at the Spring Sale in 1999, we subsequently joined the FSRS, from there began to participate in the RSF Study Days, and ultimately trekked off to western Yunnan with Steve Hootman and a number of other obsessives in the spring of last year. We will be attending our fifth RSF Study Days in early spring and expect to return to China (northeastern Yunnan, possibly Sechuan) with Steve later this May. I have been the editor of the FSRS newsletter “The Yak” since late 2002.
Sean wishes to have me add: “Sean has a small garden maintenance business which allows him to play in other people’s fine gardens, and is able to rely on the vast repository of knowledge of Brenda for all things horticultural.”
Brenda and Sean’s story should be a warning to you all of the dangers of becoming addicted after only a little innocent experimentation. In fact, reports from other members of the Yunnan expedition indicate that their enthusiasm was universal among the participants.
Steve’s classes in the RSF garden began a few years ago, and have become very popular. His guided trip last May to Yunnan was the first of its kind, and was so successful it will be repeated, in a different part of Asian rhododendron habitat, this coming spring, and may very well become an annual event. Both the classes and the expeditions are open to RSF members, although the latter should be undertaken only by able-bodied ones. Steve Hootman will be our April speaker this year, speaking about one of his more research-oriented, and arduous, expeditions.
