Thomas Pakenham, the nonagenarian author, historian, tree-lover, plant-hunter, founder of the Irish Tree Society and owner-guardian of Tullynally Castle’s arboretum and historic woodlands in Co Westmeath, was just 21 when he set his sights on a voyage to the lost civilisation of Gondar and some of the most inaccessible mountain ranges of the former empire of Ethiopia. On a quest to find the prison-fortresses of the former princes of Abyssinia as well as to locate one of the region’s last remaining medieval churches, he subsequently chronicled his adventures in The Mountains of Rasselas. This is the first of 11 books that this genial adventurer has written over the course of his long lifetime. His eleventh, The Tree Hunters, was published just last month.
A rollicking, riveting, hugely entertaining tale of the remarkable people who literally risked life and limb in pursuit of new species of trees to introduce into cultivation in Britain and Ireland, it’s both fascinating and poignant.
Pity, for example, the young English clergyman John Bannister sent to eastern America to collect seed of species hitherto unknown in cultivation in the “old world”. It was a task at which he excelled (his collections include the sweet gum, or Liquidambar styraciflua; and the scarlet oak, Quercus coccinea) until he was tragically killed in a shooting incident.
Likewise, spare a thought for the famous British plant-hunter Ernest Wilson, who barely survived a landslide while crossing a narrow mountain trail in China. Or for the frequent injuries, indignities and hardships suffered by the American Quaker farmer, brilliant amateur botanist and tree hunter John Bartram. Employed by many of the great landowners of 18th-century Britain, he’s responsible for the “Yankee genes” that are an important part of the pedigree of many modern varieties of rhododendron as well as for introducing species of maple, pine, abies and hemlock.
Consider too the tragic end of the pioneering 19th-century Scottish plant hunter David Douglas, whose expeditions to the then-wilds of Oregon and California were to bear extraordinary fruit in the shape of seed of species of trees and shrubs now well-known in Europe, including the noble fir, Monterey pine, mahonia, Sitka spruce, and the species commonly known as the Douglas fir. He was found gored to death in a wild bull pit in Hawaii. To this day there’s speculation as to whether it was murder or a tragic crash.
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Another who met a tragic end was the Kew gardener David Nelson, who somehow survived mutiny on the Bounty and an eight-day-long, 4,000-mile trek to the nearest Dutch settlement on the island of Timor only to die of fever, a similar fate suffered by many other plant-hunters exposed to the fierce rigours of a tropical climate.
Others died of then-common diseases. An example is the distinguished Victorian plant-hunter William Lobb – the man responsible for many notable introductions, including the monkey-puzzle tree – who by Pakenham’s account is reputed to have died of syphilis in a hospital in San Francisco before being buried in a pauper’s grave. Another is the brilliant British plantsman and botanist John Veitch, who died of TB at the tender age of just 31.
Still more fell victim to war, failing empires, regional conflicts and political manoeuvrings. The famous early 20th-century Scottish botanist and plant-hunter, George Forrest, for example, was extraordinarily lucky to escape with his life after being pursued by vengeful Tibetan lamas. Similarly, the distinguished German botanist and plant-hunter Franz von Siebold (the man we can blame for introducing the invasive Japanese knotweed into European gardens) was expelled twice from Japan amid accusations that he was a Russian spy.
I did briefly wonder if I’d make it down intact.”
— Pakenham on his most hair-raising moment in botany
In much the same way, a similarly violent fate befell many of the early shipments of live plants and seeds sent back to Britain by so many of these pioneering plant-hunters, which all too often succumbed en route to extremes of heat and cold, rot, pests and diseases or became the casualties of piracy, shipwrecks, uprisings and accidents.
All these stories and more are brilliantly recounted in The Tree Hunters by Thomas Pakenham whose own plant-hunting expeditions to China and the Himalayas serve as testimony to his lifelong passion for trees as well as his love of adventure. Pakenham is a recent recipient of the prestigious RHS Veitch Medal. At the tender age of 80 he was one of a group of gardeners and botanisers whose expedition to Yunnan required a physically taxing climb up a twisting mountain path to an altitude of 3,000ft in an area where wild leopards roamed.
Was he ever scared? “Only when we realised that the light was failing – it was evening – and we had just an hour to make the descent without a single torch between the lot of us. I did briefly wonder if I’d make it down intact.”
On another occasion he and his fellow plant-hunters descended into a mountain valley where Pakenham decided to rest while the rest of the party went off in pursuit of an elusive species of Himalayan poppy. Settling down by a stream to wash his feet, he suddenly realised that he was sitting on a clump of that very same plant, a story he regaled with glee to the rest of the group when they wearily returned empty-handed to camp many hours later.
At his home at Tullynally Castle, he has spent the latter part of his life establishing his very own arboretum, a place filled with curiosities, many of them propagated by Pakenham himself from seed. In doing so he follows in the footsteps of many great historic gardens including Ireland’s own National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, a place of special significance as the site of the world’s very first public arboretum.
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Pakenham’s private arboretum includes many of his personal favourites, such as young specimens of ginkgo – “the first of the great deciduous trees” – as well as tulip trees (both the American species, Lirodendron tulipfera; and the Chinese species, Lirodendron chinense), Japanese acers, maples, oaks, magnolias and silver firs. Each one has its own origin story, from seeds collected on plant-hunting trips to others gathered on holidays abroad or on visits to some of the world’s great gardens. An example is a sweet chestnut propagated from the nut of an 800-year-old parent tree in the UK first recorded by the 17th-century gardener and diarist John Evelyn. They grow amid the shadows of centuries-old giant beech, oak, lime and chestnut trees planted by his ancestors, young “arrivistes” already making their presence felt. Asked if he sees them as something akin to his children, Pakenham laughingly agrees. “Yes, I do rather. With all the great many joys and occasional challenges that come with that.”
The Tree Hunters: How the Cult of the Arboretum Transformed Our Landscape, by Thomas Pakenham, is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (hardback £30; ebook £15.99)
This week in the garden
Late November is a good time of year to plant a grape vine, either directly in the ground outside but positioned so that the vine itself can be trained through a small gap under the frame of a glasshouse or polytunnel to grow under cover, or in a large tub or container under cover. Container-grown plants are the best choice for smaller glasshouses or polytunnels but need to be brought outside in winter to expose their roots to a period of winter chilling.
If you plan on using berried holly from your garden or allotment for Christmas decorations, then the branches will need to be picked soon before the berries are eaten by birds. Place the cut stems in a bucket with a little water and store in a cool, dark shed or cellar until needed.
Dates for your diary
Throughout November: a series of hands-on workshops on hazel coppicing and hedge laying by Hedgerows Ireland, hedgerows.ie.
Thursday, November 28th, 8pm: Scoil Mhuire Naofa Station Rd, Carrigtwohill, Co Cork, T45 PF80, Summer Flowers from Seed, a talk by Derry Watkins of Special Plants Nursery.
Saturday & Sunday, December 7th & 8th, and Saturday, December 14th (10am-1pm): The Grinding House, June Blake’s Garden, Tinode, Blessington, Co Wicklow, seasonal Christmas wreath-making workshops with garden writer and flower-farmer-florist Fionnuala Fallon; see eventbrite or @theirishflowerfarmer for details/to book tickets.
