Lilies and Related Plants - RHS Lily Group

unning a hunt supporters club and Church things, among many – of all these
achievements he modestly says that he has never climbed to the top of very big
trees but only medium sized ones! He was nevertheless awarded an OBE in 1984
for his services to the Water Industry.
He stayed with Thames Water until just before privatisation in 1986, at which
point Robin Herbert who was then President of the Royal Horticultural Society
asked him to join Council and later, on the advice of Alan Hardy, became Chairman
of the Lily Group. He feels that he has never looked back since then. Through his
interest in trees he joined the International Dendrology Society in 1987 when he
was asked to be Treasurer in which capacity he served until 1993 and in 2003 until
2010 he was Vice-President for Great-Britain. He served on Council of the IDS
throughout most of this period.
Until he purchased Evenley Wood Tim had grown a collection of bulbs at
Mixbury Hall but had never felt that he would stay so he didn’t extend his gardening
activities. The first time I visited Evenley Wood was nearly 30 years ago and the
project was in its infancy but it showed great promise and in characteristic style
he led the group I was with round the woodland with great enthusiasm. In the
1994-1995 edition of Lilies and Related Plants is an article, he wrote, outlining
the rules he had set out for himself from the start, his aims and the plants that
he grew then. The main genera of woody plants grown are Magnolia – he is
conducting a trial of the species on alkaline soil for the RHS – Quercus, Malus and
Euonymus. This latter genus is now perhaps the largest collection, in cultivation,
of species and forms in Europe and when I visited in the autumn to my question
of “why Euonymus?” he showed me the plant that started it all – the common
Euonymus europaeus. He knew nothing of the genus when he spotted it in the
woodland the first time, started to read about it and became interested.
Over the years he has trained himself to have a good eye and among the plants
he has named are a form of Quercus rubra ‘Aurea’, Quercus ‘Evenley Gold’ and
Acer campestre ‘Evenley Red’, which he spotted growing in a hedgerow and tied a
piece of string round it so as to be able to observe it.
He has also become increasingly interested in wild apples, pear, plums
and rowans. Among the rarest he grows Malus sieversii, a wild apple native
of Central Asia from which almost all cultivated apples come. Pyrus regellii
pinnatifida which he grew from seed, Sorbus porrigentiformis from Cheddar and
S . pseudohupehensis which has pinkish-white fruit, and Prunus sogdiana which is
described in New Trees as “a pretty, hardy little tree with abundant white blossom,
followed by tasty plums”.
Inevitably such a wide range of plants and careful management has meant that
Evenley Wood has become a haven for birds, butterflies, insects, mosses, liverworts
and fungi, with surveys being made for each – a source of great pleasure for Tim.
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