J.C. Williams

An Enthusiast – by F.J. Williams – Page 2

CAMELLIA japonica ‘Optima’

The new hybrids were extremely floriferous, thrived out-of-doors and had generally the added advantage of shedding their blooms when the flowering season was over: some japonica varieties retain their old flowers until they rot off the plant many months later.

Chinese gardens had for centuries contained forms of Camellia reticulata: but plant hunters like Forrest were expected to do their plant hunting in the wild and not in the gardens of Chinese mandarins. It was Forrest who collected in the wild the seeds of new forms of reticulate, which began a new phase of camellia development in 1948: but that is another story.

Magnolias

The weekly magazine The Garden had for many years brought to the notice of a wide public a chance to see in colour the new plants that had begun to flood into this country from Asia, as well as recording the success of amateur hybridisers in such areas as roses and daffodils. The magazine had depicted Rhododendron griffithianum/aucklandii in 1881, Engleheart’s first breakthrough in advancing the form and substance of the daffodil through Narcissus golden bell in 1893, and finally in 1895 came Magnolia campbellii 13.

Magnolia stellata

This was a large magnolia with pink flowers which appeared before the leaves. It had been discovered both by Griffith and by Hooker, but the gardening world’s enthusiasm was muted, partly because a flower display without foliage was at that time regarded as ‘vulgar’, partly because although new plants grew well, they took between twenty-five and forty years to bloom. (One seedling of this magnolia took forty years to flower in my time, being planted in 1930 and not flowering until 1970). In 1897 one magnolia only was growing at Caerhays – Magnolia stellata – and it is there today, fit and well, in front of the house.

In 1900 William Robinson ceased to be controller of The Garden, which was taken over by Miss Jekyll. One of the problems the magazine had faced was Robinson’s preference for etchings over photographs. In 1903 Robinson started a new and rather upmarket monthly periodical which he called Flora and Sylva, an attempt ’to marry Flora to Sylva – a pair not far apart in nature, only in books’. It was not surprising that one of the first groups to be tackled was the magnolia. Magnolia campbellii was clearly continuing to disappoint. In 1898 a tree grown by Veitch at Exeter had apparently flowered, while almost certainly the first flower of this magnolia to be seen in Cornwall came from Southern Ireland and was exhibited at the Truro Daffodil Show in 1904.

Magnolia denudata var. purpurescens

Fortunately however in China Wilson had begun to find and send home seeds of different species of tree magnolia, as George Forrest was to do later from Yunnan. One of the first exciting new arrivals at Veitch’s Coombe Wood nursery in 1901, identified as number 688, produced several plants from seed. Wilson named this Magnolia denudata var. purpurescens and described the saucer-shaped flowers as varying from rose-red without to rose/pale-oink within. When Veitch’s great nursery sale was held in1912 garden owners from all over Britain attended, and lists were made of the destinations of the plants as they changed hands. J C Williams purchased Magnolia denudata and planted it out at Caerhays. On 20 April 1919 this magnolia flowered for the very first time, at which JC commented ‘very good’: he did not rise to hyperbole. The botanists named it Magnolia sprengeri diva. Only seven years to come to flowering instead of the forty-year wait for M.campbelli suggested that attitudes to deciduous tree magnolias might be about to change. The plant also set seed, which were grown on, but proved a great disappointment at flowering, seeming to err on the promiscuous side. Some of the second batch of seedlings raised were very similar to the mother plant, and later, when sprengeri diva was crossed with M.campbellii and with other new Chinese varieties, the results were to prove startling. More important, most of them came into flower within eight to twelve years. They are handsome trees, the major feature of Caerhays after a frost-free winter.

Some of these magnolias set seed fairly often when the spring conditions are right. Windblown seedlings have flowered very well and we have planted them out here and there over the past decades. There is one growing well today in Tregolls Road on the right-hand side going into Truro, and another good one a couple of hundred yards to the west of St John’s Hall in Penzance. They should be much more widely grown: they advance the feeling of spring and shine out from a distance as if asking winter to retreat. Landowners might well include one or two when they are tree planting. They brighten up the county at a very bleak time of year.

Conclusion

John Charles Williams was only one of a long line of Cornish gardeners who have contributed to the development of plants throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century’s. Sir Charles Lemon of Carclew was one of the first to grow Himalayan rhododendrons; the Rev’d John Townshend Boscowen of Lamorran was one of the few people consulted by the great rhododendron expert W H Mangles in 1880s. Algernon Dorrien Smith was the real founder of the Cornish daffodil trade. Caerhays could not have come into being without the efforts of explorers like Wilson and Forrest, and its success depended a great to a great extent on the support and involvement of the Royal Horticultural Society, Kew, Edinburgh and the Arnold Arboretum. After J.C.’s death his work was carried on by George Johnstone of Trewithen and by the Bolitho family of Trengwainton and Trewidden. The plant life of China is still being explored, and new plants are being introduced into Cornwall thanks to the work of Nigel Holman of Chyverton and Tom Hudson of Tregrehan. New varieties of daffodil continue to delight.

But it was J.C. Williams who founded and fostered many of these links and friendships, and whose dedication and enthusiasm ensured the success of many experiments in hydridisation: his legacy is evident every springtime in the sights and scents of Cornwall’s gardens.

APPENDIX 1

J.C. WILLIAMS’ DAFFODILS

[taken from the International Daffodil Register and Classified List 1998. Numbers are as identified in the register. It should be remembered that none of these were named by J C Williams]

FCC: First Class Certificate; N: named before date given.
AM©: qualified for cutting; AM (G): for garden decoration; AM (P): for cultivation in pots; AM (M): for cutting in the open.
FA: Forcing Award (Holland)

32 Adamant N 1945, AM (G) 1952, FCC (G) 1953
61 Andromeda N 1908
79 Arlington N 1945
102 Baltic  N 1945
103 Bandicoot N 1910
108 Bartley  N 1934, AM (G) 1946, FCC (G) 1949, AM (P) 1981
114 Bedouin N 1908, AM (Holland) 1912, AM (G), AM) 1914
115 Beeswax N 1945
145 Bramble N 1945
167 Caligula N 1908
199 Charm  N 1908
250 Crescendo N 1945, AM (G) 1952
252 Croesus N 1912, FCC1912, AM (G) 1914, AM (Holland) 1914 FA (Holland) 1933
281 Dido  N 1930
295 Dragoon N1913
364 Fleetwing N 1907
367 Florinda N 1931
385 Gadfly  N 1910
412 Glorious N 1923, AM(C) & (G) 1923, AM (Holland) 1926, FCC (C) & (M) 1926,
   Kirton FCC (G) & (M) 1934, AM (G) 1936
423 Golden King N 1913
431 Goldilocks N1937
485 Hospodar N 1914  Firebrand X King Alfred C (G) 1936
490 Hypatia N 1910
625 Magician N 1927
666 Midas  N 1913
727 Noontide N 1945
751 Osprey  N 1925
777 Pepper  N 1933 Narcissus radiflorus var. poetarum X (Maximus X Firebrand) AM (M) 1935
787 Picture  N 1945
831 Puritan  N 1910
848 Red Beacon N 1910
848 Red Chief 1909
894 Rubellite N 1912  Poetaz AM 1912
1010 Syphax N 1914  Poetaz (Narcissus King Alfred x Narcissus jonquilla)
1015 Tamerlaine AM 1914 (Firebrand x King Alfred)
1022 Tavistock N 1945
1089 Victory N 1907
1118 White Slave N 1907  (Narcissus Princess Mary x Narcissus Horace)
1118 White Star N 1910
808 Polvarth N1949
923 Sealing Wax N1913
1044 Tipperary Tim N 1929

APPENDIX II

PLANTS SENT TO J.C. WILLIAMS BY E H WILSON FROM THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM NO.4 EXPEDITION

569  Azalea indica. var. (from altiniudinal limit), 5000 feet. The scarlet nearly deciduous; bush 5 – 6 feet.
800  Azalea sinense (the source of the yellow in Anthony Koster) Pine woods and conglomerate rocks
1812  Carrierria calycina (new monotypic genus) White tree, 20 – 40 feet, not hardy at Kew
500  Poliothyrsis sinensis (new monotypic genus) Small white in longer panicles. Small tree, 15-30 feet, hardy at Kew
622  Emmenopterys henryi (new monotypic species) The pink and white magnificent. Tree 60-80 feet, not hardy at Kew
4405  Camptotheca acuminata (new monotypic genus) A noble tree, 50-100 feet, not hardy at Kew
584  Sino wilsonia henryi
565  Sino wilsonia (new monotypic genus) Allied to corylopsis; shrub 6-15 feet, doubtfully hardy at Kew
111  Staphelia holocarpa
185  Staphelia holocarpa and
290  Staphelia holocarpa. Bushes or small trees of white to pink, very ornamental and quite hardy even here
798  Cupressus funebris. Seeds from altitude limit, probably hardy at Kew
4005  Buddleia officinalis. A white glowing species, light lilac, fragrant. Not hardy at Kew
596  Marlea plantinifolia. Bush, 6-10 feet, flowers white; doubtfully hardy at Kew
165  Marlea begonifolia. Small tree, 20- 30 feet, flowers white, not hardy at Kew
513  Liquidamber formosana. A magnificent tree, 60 -120 feet X 8-15 feet, not hardy at Kew
795  Liquidamber. A new species with glaucous leaves, doubtfully hardy at Kew
308  Styrax veitchiorum.. A much finer species than Japonicum, doubtfully hardy at Kew
372  Styrax dasyanthum. A new species allied to S.Serrulatum, doubtfully hardy at Kew
1374  Magnolia wilsonii. A fine new species in the way of parviflora, probably hardy at Kew
914  Magnolia (new species)
914a  Magnolia (new species) and
923  Magnolia (new species) – these all unknown, probably quite hardy at Kew
4450  Populus (new species) The finest member of its family and undoubtedly quite hardy at Kew
1401  Salix magnifica. Leaves larger than magnolia conspicua. Hardy
200  Aesculus (new species) A fine tree, 60-80 feet, panicles of white flowers, rare, not hardy at Kew
425  Clerodendron (new species) Shrub, 6-12 feet, flowers pink, not hardy at Kew

APPENDIX III

‘WILLIAMSII’ CAMELLIAS ORIGINATED AT CAERHAYS AND BURNCOOSE

Beatrice Michael 1954 AM 1980 – shown by Treseders
Burncoose  1985
Burncoose Apple Blossom 1986
Caerhays  1958 AM 1969
Caerhays Best  1985-86 (Fortescue, Buckland Monachorum)
Carolyn Williams 1972-73
Charles Michael 1951 AM 1987
Cornish Snow  1948 AM 1948
George Blandford 1965 AM 1965 and 1974
J C Williams  1940 FCC 1942
John Pickthorn 1962
Mary Christian 1942 AM1942
Mary Jobson  1962
Mary Larcom  1962 AM 1974
Monica Dance  1984
Musoka  1979 – 80
Noember Pink  1950 – 51 AM1950
Philippa Forwood 1962
Rosemary Williams 1961
Saint Michael  1973 AM 1987
Saint Ewe  1947 AM 1947

APPENDIX IV

The following extract from The Rhododendron Society Notes, volume 2, part 4 1923, is included to illustrate J C Williams’ interest in, and knowledge of, rhododendrons both in his own garden at Caerhays and elsewhere in the country. His own philosophy of learning is nicely expressed in his own particular style in the last sentence.

‘A NOTE UPON RHODODENDRON SERIES’

Rhododendron growers have in the last twelve years been flooded with such number of new species as to be overwhelmed by them, and find it difficult to know one from another, or, what is more important, which are the best ones to grow for their purposes. This difficulty is not new in gardening, for those who cultivate Primulas are in the same trouble, and those who grow Orchids are met by it in an even worse form, and other instances would be easy to find. Probably much of the difficulty arises from the angle at which we approach the problem. I have found, as others have also found, that if you go first of all to the published descriptions, the mass of detail is difficult to follow, and as regards much of it, not always presented in a form which a gardener, as distinct from a botanist, finds it easy to make use of.
On the other hand, if you begin by taking plants as they develop in your garden, and watch their characteristics during growth, particularly in the early stages of seedling life when their differences show more and more in each period of their growth, then you find on going to the printed descriptions much which, as a result of your contact with the living plants, is most interesting and instructive. And it is the stirring of interest by contact with the plants which will make it easy to remember them, such contact presenting the facts in a simple form. It is also a help to get into one’s head where exactly the different species come from, and if you get an outline map, and mark down roughly where they are found, it makes a clearer track to work along when the memory is in difficulties. The Rhododendron Society would do a real service if it could get such maps for the use of members, and even better if the general gardener could obtain them.

But the system which the late Sir Issac Bayley Balfour was each year pressing more and more on the attention of those of us so fortunate as to enjoy his person help and guidance, is, I think, the direction in which we shall get most help. He in later years constantly associated a plant, when discussing it, with the group most nearly allied to it, and if we carry this out in such notes or other details we may have of our gardens, the relationships and names are easier to manage; indeed, it is more than likely that the average grower will do little more as regards names than group the families, just as has long been done with the Arboreums under the name of ‘ARBOREUM series’ and not bother about the name of each species.

It will happen, too, that the nature of one’s garden will compel most of us to turn to the families most suited to it, the soil and climate compelling this in the long run.

For instance those in open exposed places, but having a suitable soil, would turn to the dwarfer kinds, and other low growing sorts, such as the mountain form in the case of a rock garden, or most of the Triflorums grouping round the Yunnanense, Chartophyllum, and Davidsonianum series for groups nearly approaching full sunshine.

In the cases of some of the Irroatums and most of the Decorums, it is the experience here that in a summer like 1921 they flourished when the woodland things such as the Arboreums, most of the big Hooker forms, and the Falconeri, Argentum series, were injured or killed.

At any rate, it is clear that no one garden is going to do all species well, for we in the South West are agreed that the set Souliei and Campylocarpum are hardly ever seen here doing as well as they do in Sussex, and only the great beauty and refinement of that set induce some of us to go on with them at all. This year, in June at Edinburgh, there was on a big plant of SOULIEI many scores of big blooms in flower at one time, and the plant did not seem distressed by them, whilst such a production of bloom at Caerhays would be almost a symptom of ill-health.

In conclusion, I would urge those interested in the matter should keep for themselves a book in which the different series are kept together in the different families, these being in alphabetical order and so also the members of the families. Perhaps some may not care for the labour of doing this, but there is no easy way of learning any difficult thing except by close contact with it.

J C Williams
October 1923

The edition of the Notes in which this article appeared also contains a list of past and present members and honorary members of the Society. Five of the thirty named were well known Cornish gardeners and growers. The list demonstrates not only the standard of expertise of members but their very wide geographical representation, showing that even during the war time was found to ensure that new Forrest plants were given homes all over the British Isles where they could be tested.

Honorary Members

BALFOUR, Professor Sir Issac Bayley, KBE, FRS etc
BEAN, William Jackson, curator, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
FORREST, George, Broomhill House, Lasswade, Midlothian
HILL, Dr Arthur William, MA, D Sc, FRS, Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
MANGLES, Miss Clara, Littleworth Cross, Seale, Farnham, Surrey
MOORE, Sir Fredrick William, MA, MRIA, FLS, Wilibrook House, Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin
PRAIN, Lieut-Col. Sir David, CMG, FRS etc., 12 Heathview Gardens, Putney Heath, London
SARGENT, Professor Charles Sprague, Arnold Arboretum, Havard University, Mass. USA
SMITH, Professor William Wright, MA FRS, FLS etc., Regius Keeper, Royal Botanic Garden, Kew

Members

BALFOUR, Lieut-Col. Fredrick, RS Dawyck, Stobo, Peebleshire
CLARKE, Lieut-Col. Stephenson R., CB, Borde Hill, Cuckfield, Sussex
DORRIEN SMITH, Major Arthur A., DSO
ELEY, Charles Cuthbert, MA, FLS, East Bergholt Place, Suffolk
GODMAN, Dame Alice
HEADFORT, the Rt. Hon. the Marquis of, KP, Headfort, Kells, Co.Meath
HOLFORD, Lieut-Col. Sir George Lindsay, KCVO, Westonbirt, Tetbury, Gloucestershire
JOHNSTONE, George H., Trewithen, Grampound Road, Cornwall
LLEWELLYN, Sir John T Dilwyn, Bart.
LODER, Sir Edmund Giles, Bart.
LODER, Gerald W E, MA FLS, Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, Sussex
MAGOR, Edward, JP, Lamellan, St Tudy, Cornwall
McLAREN, the Hon. Henry Duncan, Bodnant, Tal-y-Cafn, North Wales
McDOUALL, Kenneth, Logan, Stranraer, Wigtownshire
MAXWELL, The Rt. Hon. Sir Herbert E, Bart., FRS, DCL, etc., Monreuth, Whauphill, Wigtownshire
MILLAIS, Lieut.-Commander John Guille, Compton’s Brow, Horsham, Sussex
MOORE, H Arymtage, Rowallane, Saintfield, Co.Down
NIX, Charles G A, MA, Tilgate Forest Lodge, Crawley, Sussex
RAMSDEN, Sir John Freckville, Bart., Bulstrode, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire
RAYLEIGH, the Lady, Beaufort Castle, Hexham, Northumberland
ROGERS, Lieut-Col. J M, Riverhill, Sevenoaks, Kent
ROSS-OF-BLADENSBURG, Lieut-Col. Sir John F G, KCB, Rostrevor House, Rostrevor, Co Down
ROTHSCHILD, Major Lionel de, 46 Park Street, London
STAIR, Lieut-Col. The Rt. Hon. the Earl of, DSO, Lochinch, Castle Kennedy, Wigtownshire
STIRLING-MAXWELL. Sir John Maxwell, Bart., FSA, Pollok House, Pollokshaws, Glasgow
WILDING, Eustace Henry, Wexham Place, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire
WILLIAMS, Jon Charles, Caerhays Castle, Gorran, Cornwall
WILLIAMS, Percival D, Lanarth, St Keverne, Cornwall

Honorary Secretary: Charles C Eley, East Bergholt Place, Suffolk

Acknowledgements

As JC Williams would have been the first to admit, he was served, as have been his successors, by excellent gardeners. Christian names were never used, the gardeners always being referred to as Mr Martin (head gardener from the 1890’s to the 1920’s), Mr Ivey, the daffodil propagator who ruled his world absolutely, and Mr Michael, at Caerhays from 1923 to 1956, while at Werrington the head gardeners were Mr Fitt and Mr Gregory. Since 1956 Caerhays garden has been looked after for 40 years by Mr Phillip Tregunna, and for the last three by Mr Jaimie Parsons.

Gratitude must be expressed to Christine North, our County Archivist, for her great help, and Sarah Rundle of Caerhays and Debbie Palmer of the RIC for their help in typing the first two attempts.

Notes and References

1 Volume 52, 1825

2 Volume 62, plate 3423. Its importance lay in the fact that it was one of the first successful attempts to
        hybridise the Himalayan Rhododendron arboretum with either the North American Rhododendron
       maximum or the Asiatic Rhododendron ponticum. Rhododendron arboretum was thought to be far from
       hardy, which proved to be untrue.

3 Gentleman’s Magazine 1847 vol.2 pp.425, 426. Dean Herbert ‘offers … to the hybirdising small gardener a
source of harmless and interesting amusement and perhaps a little profit and celebrity’. Paxton’s Magazine of Botany 1843 vol. 10 p.187

4 Volume 24, 1883, p.349

5 Volume 44, 1893, p188

Royal Horticultural society lecture by Dorrien Smith at the Daffodil Conference and Exhibition, 1890: published report of the conference proceedings, 16 April 1890, p.311

7 Daffodil Year Book 1939 vol. 10, p.21

8 Volume 84, plate 5065

9 Volume 20, 24 September 1881, p328

10 Volume 124, plate 7614, 1898. Plate 7621 depicted Rhododendron rubiginosum

11 Hortus veitchii [London 1906], p.84

12 JC never referred to it by name, he always called it ‘No.1350’

13 Volume 48, 1895, p.142

14 Of the numerous other importations of Wilson and Forrest some of the best are Mag. Sargentiana var. robusta, Mag. Dawsoniana and Mag. Var. mollicomata.

Magnolias

Conclusion

John Charles Williams was only one of a long line of Cornish gardeners who have contributed to the development of plants throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century’s. Sir Charles Lemon of Carclew was one of the first to grow Himalayan rhododendrons; the Rev’d John Townshend Boscowen of Lamorran was one of the few people consulted by the great rhododendron expert W H Mangles in 1880s. Algernon Dorrien Smith was the real founder of the Cornish daffodil trade. Caerhays could not have come into being without the efforts of explorers like Wilson and Forrest, and its success depended a great to a great extent on the support and involvement of the Royal Horticultural Society, Kew, Edinburgh and the Arnold Arboretum. After JC’s death his work was carried on by George Johnstone of Trewithen and by the Bolitho family of Trengwainton and Trewidden. The plant life of China is still being explored, and new plants are being introduced into Cornwall thanks to the work of Nigel Holman of Chyverton and Tom Hudson of Tregrehan. New varieties of daffodil continue to delight.

But it was J C Williams who founded and fostered many of these links and friendships, and whose dedication and enthusiasm ensured the success of many experiments in hydridisation: his legacy is evident every springtime in the sights and scents of Cornwall’s gardens.

APPENDIX 1

J C WILLIAMS’ DAFFODILS

[taken from the International Daffodil Register and Classified List 1998. Numbers are as identified in the register. It should be remembered that none of these were named by J C Williams]