British and American hollies

Back in England… I hear that the frost has finally reduced to a squishy mess those impatiens back in Pennsylvania that had been protected with old bedsheets. It’s now just too cold… The lady’s tresses orchid was still looking good when I left a couple of days ago and is a little more resilient in the face of yesterday’s snow.

First stop here was the Royal Horticultural Society show where the society itself staged an exhibit of hollies. Most of the plants on this fascinating exhibit came from the Society’s west of England garden at Rosemoor in Devon. Curator Chris Bailes, author of the recent holly monograph – perhaps the best plant monograph of the last year – told me that recently flocks of fieldfares and other birds had begun to strip the plants of berries. But there was still plenty to see on the exhibit. [Fieldfares are related to British blackbirds, and the American robin.]

It was especially interesting for British visitors to see the deciduous American Ilex verticillata (first picture), its stems crowded with berries, alongside the more familiar evergreen I. aquifolium and I. x altaclarensis.

Chris also pointed out to me the value of a circular exhibit at flower shows, in preference to rectangular or square stands. He says that visitors tend to follow their way all the way round a circular exhibit but when they arrive at the corner of a rectangular stand they tend to keep walking across the isle to the next display. You learn all sorts of fascinating things at these show…