EXPLORERS: the Scottish Plant Hunters Garden

Described as a “unique, theatrical phenomenon”, it now receives over 100,000 visitors annually.

The commitment shown by local volunteers, who are not only proud of the Scottish Plant Hunters Garden, but who are also willing to help with its maintenance, is very much appreciated by its manager, Julia Corden. Working in the garden also has health and social benefits as these cheerful ladies indicate.

Julia Corden, garden manager, explained the 6.5-acre site is composed mainly of glacial moraine interspersed with sandy and rocky areas. Its healthy trees were retained and incorporated into the design of the garden.

Inviting glades – the form of which follow the hillside’s rugged contours – represent the areas of the world in which the plants originated.

According to Julia, plant hunting was at its height in Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries. She said: “Scotland has produced some of the world’s most successful plant hunters. Between 1700 and 1950 there were some 120 collectors that we could have celebrated.

EXPLORERS, which focuses on 14 of these diverse characters, aims to celebrate their fascinating lives and give visitors an insight into their amazing contribution to the appearance of today’s gardens and treescapes.”

Approximately 50 volunteers form the basis of the labour force at Pitlochry’s EXPLORERS garden. Directed by its manager, the botanist and plant hunter Julia Corden, their endeavours to ensure the garden is well maintained include clearing the rhododendron-clad Himalayan area surrounding the George Forrest Pavilion.

A challenging profession at the best of times, on occasions, plant hunting was life-threatening. David Douglas’s (1799–1834) explorations of America’s Pacific North-West coast proved very successful, with finds that included the Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and Noble fir (Abies procera). These discoveries caused the botanist to be named the Father of Scottish Forestry, but they were not easily won.

One of the few people to survive an epidemic of fever that swept through the Vancouver area, Douglas was also shipwrecked on the Columbia river. A few years later, a canoe packed with his possessions and a collection of 400 plant species was lost as he attempted to negotiate the treacherous Fraser watercourse.

Exposed over the years to a range of extreme climatic conditions, by the time Douglas reached 30, his vision was seriously impaired. He died in Hawaii, aged 35, in a violent encounter with a wild bull. Whether he fell or was pushed into its pit remains unclear.

Plant hunting remains a dangerous occupation, with two Scotland-based hunters dying in the course of their duties in recent years. Jamie Taggart, who helped his father, Dr Jim Taggart, create the Linn Botanic Garden on Argyll’s Rosneath Peninsula, died in 2013, aged 41. He is believed to have fallen while searching for plants in North West Vietnam’s Sapa Mountains. Michael Wickenden (1955–2016) was the owner of Cally Gardens, Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries and Galloway. A renowned plantsman, photographer and teacher, he passed away after becoming ill in Myanmar, Burma. 

In 1850, Scotland’s Oregon Association appointed John Jeffrey to collect the seed of those Northern American conifers discovered by David Douglas. Unfortunately, a hasty arrangement made with the Hudson’s Bay Company to finance him during his explorations neglected to place a limit on the plant hunter’s spending.

Given subsequent events, argument exists as to whether Jeffrey realised this when he accepted his terms of employment.

Described as “a shooting star, a quick twinkle soon extinguished”, Jeffrey left little to inform the present day of his time spent plant hunting. His employers required him to keep a diary in duplicate, but if they were ever kept, their whereabouts remain a mystery. What is known is that after arriving at Hudson’s Bay it took Jeffrey a year to travel 1,200 miles across country to the north-west coast and the Columbia river. All seemed well and while in the area he found Grand fir (Abies grandis) and Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis).

Jeffrey continued south towards California, from where he sent back seed which had been collected from a Mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana). However, when the progeny started to grow, the experts were confounded by the unusual appearance of its foliage and named it (Tsuga x jeffreyi). Once considered to be a hybrid of the Western and Mountain hemlocks, the conifer is now thought to be a sub-species of T. mertensiana.

When the contents of John Jeffrey’s consignments dwindled to a level that warranted his dismissal, a representative of the Oregon Association attempted to meet him in California, but was unable to ascertain his whereabouts. Last seen in San Francisco in 1854, did Jeffrey use the loophole in his contract to finance his disappearance? The gradually deteriorating handwriting seen in his last missive gave rise to the suggestion that his uninspiring performance as a plant hunter may have been due to bouts of drunkenness. But whether John Jeffrey succumbed to alcohol or joined in the gold rush will never be proven. It is only to be hoped that he was not scalped by American Indian traders.

EXPLORERS was established in 2003. Its glades feature plants discovered by past generations of acclaimed Scottish plant hunters who journeyed to the Himalayas, the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The garden’s manager would like to include a South African area, but the costs involved in providing a greenhouse for heat-loving species prohibit this.

Said by EXPLORERS to be “the greatest plant hunter of all”, George Forrest (1873–1932) has been described as Scotland’s Indiana Jones – with good reason. In 1905, he narrowly escaped a violent death while exploring Yunnan province, China. Isolated in the species-rich rhododendron forests bordering Tibet, he and his local collectors were unaware that hostilities had broken out between the two countries. Inflamed by a hatred of Christian missionaries and those who associated with them, Tibetan Buddhist lamas were bent on slaughter. George was assisted to safety by selfless tribespeople who held him in high esteem. Disguised as a native, he endured a perilous six-month trek through remote forests, mountains and ravines before returning, in a state of near starvation, to his base in China.

Forrest’s fir (Abies forrestii) is a Chinese Silver fir. First described by C Coltman Rogers in the early 1900s, George Forrest introduced the tree into Britain. Despite bouts of malaria which marred his subsequent expeditions, the resolute plant hunter is credited with introducing 30,000 plant specimens belonging to the regions of Yunnan, Upper Burma, Eastern Tibet and Sichuan into Britain.

The horticulturalist, Julia Corden, cannot claim to be Scottish, except for her grandmother. Nevertheless, encouraged by her employers to make world-wide connections, she is a highly regarded modern-day plant hunter and botanical guide who takes part in expeditions to far-flung parts of the world. No stranger to danger, during a recent visit to Canada’s temperate rainforests, she encountered a black bear while studying plant species suitable for inclusion in a 2018 project for EXPLORERS. A range of shrubs and flowers discovered by David Douglas in Vancouver’s surrounds will be planted in the garden before Christmas.  

Convinced that “21st century plant hunters hold the seeds of conservation”, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh collaborates with other institutions to ensure support and training are available for the collectors of the future. Current understanding of global plant diversity is, after all, informed by the contributions made by past generations of plant hunters, many of whom developed their skills in the Edinburgh garden’s confines.