The Himalayan Woodland Series, Part 2
Exploring the four corners of the world, the introduction of exotic plants, being a world leader and saving rare beauties
The Great War changed Carclew forever.
The male workforce left to fight and those who returned home came back to a collapsed economy with few jobs. In an attempt to bring in revenue, the government created the 1920 land tax with the result that Carclew had to sell off huge portions of the estate. But it held on to the rhododendron woodland, leasing it in 1927 to a talented and farsighted horticultural entrepreneur, the Penryn nurseryman Richard Gill, who then acquired the freehold in 1937.
So highly regarded was Gill that in the land agent’s copy of the sales before going to auction is handwritten in pencil in the margins, “Let Gill have it”. These four words changed the landscape of some of the most important gardens across the world.
Using the plants introduced through Hooker and directly employing plant collectors, Gill skillfully propagated and hybridized an astonishing array of his own varieties of rhododendrons, e.g. Rh. Shilsonii, Rh Gill’s Triumph, Beauty of Tremough, etc.
Tremough, in Penryn, became the demonstration garden. Richard Gill (senior) was originally head gardener for the Shilson family of Tremough, and later rented the walled garden there.
The glass houses and nursery were situated in a ten acre site at Kernick on the edge of Penryn.
The shop was located in Falmouth.
The stock was grown to enormous sizes and density in a naturalistic setting at Carclew by Richard Gill (junior) and described as:
“A miniature rhododendron forest, where all types of rhododendrons – some dainty little Lilliputian varieties, and others with tremendous spreads of leaves – grow side by side in astonishing profusion.”
The West Briton newspaper, 1938
The nursery received accolades at the Chelsea Flower show year after year, with their prize winning displays at the Royal Horticultural Society shows, and it stocked the grand gardens across the world.
Following the death of his son, Bernard Gill in 1982, the wood was acquired by the family of the current owners.