2011 Speaker Tour
Spring - West - Alan Bradshaw
Alan Bradshaw
ALPLAINS was started in 1989 by Alan D. Bradshaw partly out of his frustration in trying to find certain rare plant seeds. Originally employed as a software engineer, he found himself devoting more and more time to the collection of seeds, first grown in his gardens on the eastern Plains of Colorado and then from wild flora of the western United States. Small seed lists in the early 1990s were followed by his first color catalog in 1994. From then his business steadily grew until widespread drought in the early 2000s nearly forced him into bankruptcy. By 2005, the business had recovered enough to allow Alan to again issue color catalogs. Growth has been steady ever since and his 2009 catalog contains seed of over 1000 different rare and unusual plant species, including a large selection of cactus seed from the collection of Jeff Thompson. Alan also traveled to the Chilean Andes in 2001 and brought back seeds of several rosulate violet species and many other Andean gems. Today, Alan still remains “Dedicated to the Preservation of Wild Flora and Dissemination of the Harvest.”
Topics
1. FLORA IN THE WILD
2. SEED GERMINATION & PROPAGATION TECHNIQUES
3. LEWISIAS & OTHER WESTERN SUCCULENTS INCLUDING CACTUS
4. WESTERN HIGH ALPINES
Alan Bradshaw's Tour is arranged by
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Fall - East - John Grimshaw
John Grimshaw has been interested in plants all his life, as both gardener and botanist. He holds a first class degree in botany and doctorate in African forest ecology from Oxford University. African plants remain his principal botanical interest. He is however fascinated by all plants and will attempt to grow anything in the garden. The origins of garden plants are a particular fascination and he has travelled widely to see plants growing in habitat. His first book was The Gardener’s Atlas (1998), recounting the journeys plants have made from their source to our gardens.
Having worked in the Netherlands for the seed company K. Sahin, Zaden. B.V., where he was responsible for developing perennials for the seed trade, he is currently Gardens Manager at Colesbourne Park, Gloucestershire. There he is responsible for maintaining and developing the historic Elwes family garden, especially the snowdrop collection. He is co-author of the monograph Snowdrops (2002) by Matt Bishop, Aaron Davis and John Grimshaw, published by his own publishing company, Griffin Press. Between 2004-2009 he was principal author of a major book on trees introduced in the past 35 years, entitled New Trees, Recent Introductions to Cultivation, sponsored by the International Dendrology Society. It was published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in May 2009.
He is a member of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Advisory Committee on Nomenclature and Taxonomy, and Woody Plant Committee. John is particularly proud to be an honorary elder of the Masai community of Lerang’wa, Tanzania.
TALKS BY JOHN GRIMSHAW
The diversity of snowdrops (for dedicated galanthophile audiences only)
Snowdrops and other early spring bulbs
Making a snowdrop garden – Galanthus and associated plants
Colesbourne Park – not just a snowdrop garden
Choice spring bulbs
African alpines
An Ethiopian Adventure – a journey to the Bale Mountains with the Alpine Garden Society
In a botanist’s garden – an eclectic sampling of the world’s flora
Plantsman’s choice – plants I like and the reasons why
New Trees – recent introductions to cultivation
Aruncus and Delphinium John Grimshaw
Garden John Grimshaw
Kniphofia John Grimshaw
Lobelia John Grimshaw
John Grimshaw's Garden Diary
John Grimshaw's Tour is arranged by
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Philip MacDougall
 Philip is the president of The Alpine Garden Club of BC. A fairly recent enthusiast of botanical travel, but making up for lost time, he has visited many of the most diverse of the globes temperate floras. He's a registered nurse practicing at the BC Cancer Agency but also potters about at his small nursery, Chlorophyllia. Much of the material grown is from his own seed collections.
TOPICS
1. Dempster diving. Two weeks along the Dempster highway at the Arctic Circle, an area of high endemism that served as a refuge from the last glaciations. Glorious alpines, and if you follow the trail to the Klondike Gold Rush, dancing girls .
2. A comparison between the temperate floras of eastern Asia and those of North America based on travel to Taiwan, Korea, Japan and the east and west coasts of North America.
3. Flora of Tasmania Alice in Wonderland meets horticulture, where Rhododendrons are replaced by the Epacrids, lilies become grass trees and mountain moors are covered in Astellia.
4. Temperate flora of Taiwan. It’s not called the Emerald Island because of it’s a source of cheap green plastic.
5. A Carolinian Spring. Discussing the woody plants and ephemerals of the deciduous forests of Carolina with an aside on the International Trillium Symposium of 2008.
6. Chile. Alpines and temperate flora of central Chile and Argentina. Land of the Monkey Puzzle Tree.
7. Berberadaceae. An overview of the Berberis family, with observations in the garden and around the globe.
8. Siskiyou Mountains. One of North Americas sites of high plant biodiversity, the ultramaphic soils here create an analog to an island geography. Several plant groups are undergoing rapid speciation. The area abounds with the like of Fritillaries, Lewisias , Trilliums, Irises, a host of alpines and of course is the home of Kalmiopsis leachiana.
The Speakers' Tour is arranged by Harold Peachey, who can be reached by
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or phone: 1 315-480-0978
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