In Memoriam: Jim Archibald

by Bobby J. Ward

Jim Archibald, a major figure during the golden age of plant hunting in the latter part of the twentieth century, died at age 68 on August 9, 2010, at his home in Ffostrasol, Wales. Jim, who operated JJA Seeds with wife Jenny, brought an intellectual approach to seed collecting as reflected in the informative, detailed plant descriptions in catalogs mailed to scores of customers around the world. In these writings, he frequently tossed barbs and strong opinions at venerable organizations, especially when it came to horticultural snobbery, endearing him to many.

            Jim, a Scot, majored in English literature at the University of Edinburgh, and worked during summers at Jack Drake’s fine nursery in the Highlands where his interest in plants began. His first collecting trips were in Corsica and Morocco during the 1960s. Jim’s earliest travel logs, published for the Alpine Garden Society, included admirable pen-and-ink drawings. Although concentrating mainly on plants of the Middle East and Mediterranean, Jim and Jenny also collected in the Andes, western United States, New Zealand, Central Asia, and South Africa.

            Jim and Jenny, both NARGS members, were well known to NARGS audiences, speaking frequently at annual meetings and study weekends after which they would dash off to see local flora or to visit long-term friends. Panayoti Kelaidis (Denver Botanic Gardens) refers to the Archibalds as the king and queen of contemporary plant hunting. The DBG introduced through its Plant Select program Digitalis thapsi ‘Spanish Peaks’, a foxglove with raspberry-rose flowers, collected by the Archibalds in Spain and Portugal in the 1980s. Their vast seed list included campanulas, saxifrages, irises, hellebores, euphorbias, and bulbs such as Crocus scardicus and Muscari mcbeathianum.

            According to John Grimshaw (Gloucestershire, U.K.), “Jim Archibald’s influence on alpine gardening, in the widest sense, was pervasive.”

            “Jim Archibald was one of the most remarkable plantsman of our era. His discriminating eye and personal integrity led him to select seeds from the best forms of rare and unusual plants throughout the world,” says Nancy Goodwin (North Carolina), who frequently purchased from JJA Seeds.

           Maggi and Ian Young (Aberdeen, Scotland) described Jim as “one of the truly great privateer plant hunters.” They go on to say, “there can scarcely be a single person with an interest in alpine plants and bulbs who is not growing plants derived from the worldwide seed collections of the Archibalds, either directly from seed from Jim and Jenny's seed business JJA Seeds, or from seed grown on by a multiplicity of nurseries across the world.”

            Currently, at least three plants are named to honor Jim Archibald, the first Dionysia archibaldii (from Iran). Janis Ruksans (Latvia) has given the name ‘Jim’ to a fine cultivar of Crocus hittiticus and Ruksans is naming a new crocus species for Jim to be published in a monograph this winter. Jim read the plant’s description a few weeks before he died.

            A funeral was held for Jim on August 16 in Aberystwyth, Wales. Donations may be made in Jim’s memory to the following two organizations: The Beacon of Hope, 10 Baker St, Aberystwyth SY23 2BJ, United Kingdom (a Welsh hospice association); or Wales Air Ambulance, 3 Palace St., Caernafon, Gwynedd LL55 IRR, United Kingdom.

            Jenny and a son and daughter survive Jim. If you wish to send notes of condolences, the address is Jenny Archibald, Bryn Collen, Ffostrasol, Llandysul SA44 5SB, Wales, United Kingdom.