Tony Kirkham, head of Arboretum at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, led us on an adventurous evening filled with treetop tales. Throughout his talk on “Great Chinese Trees“, Tony shared anecdotes of his plant hunting travels across China – following the footsteps of arguably the most influential plant hunter to have lived, Ernest ‘Chinese’ Wilson; and the stories behind his many favourite trees!
Ever the explorer, Tony took the audience on a summary expedition throughout his China Exchange talk – with tales of Siberian tigers, bears and persistent swarms of mosquitoes. In the 1800s, the legendary Ernest Wilson brought many Chinese plants to the UK and as such Tony exclaims that “China is the mother of gardens” with, by Tony’s reckoning, all UK gardens probably having a plant that Ernest Wilson had originally collected.