I was recently invited to attend the 40th Anniversary of the Ashburton Alpine Garden Society, in Canterbury, New Zealand and held on Tuesday night. I haven't been a member for many years but the Society was started by the late Jim LeComte and me, on 9th June 1970, after Jim, whom some will remember as a speaker at Alpines '81 in Nottingham, had phoned me one day and said "Why don't we start.....?" So we did. Jim is no longer with us but his wife Jean was there and she and I cut a cake made by long time member Joy Stack, the top beautifully decorated with alpine flowers made in icing. Stupidly I forgot to take my camera.
Others present included Betty and Murray Clark. Betty occasionally posts to the Forum about Narcissus and she and another member had pots in flower of Narcissus tazetta patulus, spidery white flowers with tiny gold cups, three weeks before the shortest day and superbly perfumed. (Can anyone give some information about this one please? James S. Wells doesn't mention it at all.)
Jim and I certainly didn't look ahead 40 years and think it would all be going strong, but it certainly IS doing that, and I hope to be there in another 40 years (I'll be 107!) again to read the minutes from that first meeting. It was a lovely evening and I enjoyed it very much. Jean gave me a coloured slide which she'd found in Jim's collection. It was taken in 1981 in the UK and is of Howard Pfeiffer and me. I plan to have it scanned and will then post it here as it shows something quite surprising, to me anyway.
The AGS is South Canterbury, based in Timaru is somewhat older and then NZAGS celebrates its 60th this year. Whatever else comes and goes in the world, gardening and especially the love of alpine plants goes on and on, as this Forum ably testifies.
