Plants with a Story

​Our speaker, Samantha Hopes, began her career as a geologist until she realised that she preferred plants to rocks. She became a student at Birmingham Botanical Gardens then moved her training to the RHS Garden Wisley, where she specialised in Rock and Alpine plants. After graduating she went to work alongside John Massey, helping to look after his Hepatica collection at Ashwood Nurseries.
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Samantha holds the national collection of Roscoea, hardy gingers, in her own garden. She explained that many plants have a story which was the focus of the talk, from where they were collected, how they are pollinated to folk law and old wives tales.

She began by telling us about Stromatalites which look like rocks; the first plants to
photosynthesise around 3.2 billion years ago. Next an amusing explanation of Mare’s tail, a
plant unchanged for 400 million years, and how to defeat it. Samatha talked about Ginko Biloba and about Wollemia nobilis, a tree which is critically endangered in New South Wales, Australia and is so protected that not even David Attenborough is allowed to visit it.

In the next section of Samantha’s talk, she introduced us to three plant hunters; Frank Wingdon Ward, Reginald John Farrar and Ernest Henry Wilson. We heard the amazing and at times amusing stories of their adventures and their contributions to horticulture in the UK. We heard about plants that grow in dangerous places, like the Gladiolus flanaganii, the suicide lily, so names because of the steep cliff sides on which it grows.

Samantha talked about pollination to seedlings and plants which ‘come at a cost’. This included the 800 year old bonsai which sold for £1.3 million and Galanthus ‘Elizabeth Harrison’ sold on ebay for £725 to Thompson and Morgan, who subsequently killed it. It is now possible to buy one single bulb for just £70.
In the section of the talk, ’Plants with interesting names’ sempervivum or Welcome - home -husband -however -drunk-you -be, was my favourite plant.

Samantha finished the talk with examples of deadly poisonous plants; Aconites, Ageratina and Nicotiana.
This was a fascinating, funny and informative talk and I have already booked Samantha to visit us again next year.

If you would like to join us, please come along to Stoke St Milborough Village Hall where the door opens at 2.00pm and the meeting begins at 2.30pm. You are guaranteed a warm welcome, a nice cuppa and some delicious home bakes. If you would like more information about the gardening club, then please get in touch with me.
Bev Harris, Secretary, [email protected]

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