Ranunculus ficaria / Ficaria verna 2015

[Alan_b]

One that I found a few years ago, flowering already.

[astragalus]

What nice markings on the leaves.

[Alan_b]

Thank you, astragalus.  They're big leaves too, have a nice sheen and really contrast well with the dark soil of that bed.  I split off a few of the small 'root nodules' last year in my first attempt at propagation and have a few small leaves showing from those.   

[Alan_b]

Does anyone here know a Dr Gwen Black, supposedly located somewhere in Scotland.  At one time she held a duplicate of John Carter's National Collection of Ranunculus ficaria (as it then was).  Perhaps she is an SRGC member?

[mark smyth]

She went very quiet after moving to Scotland. She is/was a member of SRGC

[Alan_b]

I hoped to ask her whether she still maintains her collection.

[Maggi Young]

Gwen and Johnnie Black moved to Inverness-shire from Cumbria a few years ago- I think they have been very busy with their new house and garden!

She did indeed have a huge collection of R. ficaria types - I cannot remember offhand if they are documented in this incarnation of the forum or if they were one of the very sad losses with the old forum.

Gwen hasn't been around he forum for some time and does not have her email enabled for contact from forumists so I will contact her  on your  behalf, Alan.

edit to add : it was indeed  in the "lost" fortum that Gwen showed the bulk of her  celandine collection. 

[mark smyth]

I sent an email today to both of her email addresses and both came back undelivered

[Alan_b]

Thank you Maggi and Mark.  I found out recently that I'm not the only crazy galanthophile who also has a soft spot for (lesser) celandines.  A gentleman called John Carter of Rowden Gardens ( http://www.rowdengardens.com/ ) used to hold a National Collection of what is now Ficaria verna but this suffered badly from mice and he gave up.  Dr Gwen Black held a 'back-up' collection but at present there is no longer a National Collection anywhere in the UK.  I'm very curious to know if Gwen's collection remains intact.

Despite the lack of a National Collection, cultivars have started to appear in garden centres.  My upmarket local garden centre has sold 'Brazen Hussy' for the last two years.  So at the same time that some commercial nursery is undertaking mass propagation of a few celandines, the more obscure cultivars lack a champion.     

[Alan_b]

Bits of the 'Lost Forum' do survive in an archive such as this: http://web.archive.org/web/20080202215642/http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/8/6606.html?1109317676 (unfortunately without the original pictures, just the text)  In 2005 Gwendolen Black was asking on the subject of Ranunculus ficaria: "IS THERE ANYBODY THERE".  Now it is 10 years later and the situation is reversed with someone with an interest in Ranunculus ficaria seeking Gwen Black.

Revised to improve clarity 

[astragalus]

Since my garden is very dry, the Ranunculus ficaria are well behaved here and very welcome.  They start early in the spring usually, but we haven't had much sign of spring.  Yet another dusting of snow last night, very boring.

[Maggi Young]

I've heard from Gwen Black - who was having some problems with getting her email through to me - I don't know what's been going on lately - bit of a pest though.

Anyhow, Gwen is fine and now growing Lewisia up on the Black Isle, near Inverness. The celandine collection was dispersed some time ago, she tells me.
Bad news for  those wondering about it, but very good to hear that Gwen is well and Johnnie too. 

[Alan_b]

As you say, Maggi, good news about Gwen but bad news about her celandine collection.  Does dispersed mean that it was split and passed on to a number of different people or is it just a polite way of saying abandoned?   

[Maggi Young]

Gwen is not the type of person to abandon anything, Alan.

[Alan_b]

National Collections fall under the auspices of Plant Heritage (formerly NCCPG).  Although I am a member, I must admit that I don't fully know what is required to qualify as a National Collection holder but what I have observed leads me to doubt that Plant Heritage put much emphasis on a succession plan or a 'back-up'.  If, as I think, Gwen Black was once a holder of a National Collection of Ranunculus ficaria then there were two such 10 or 15 years ago and none today - which seems a pity.  Hopefully the plants from a collection that has been dispersed continue to thrive but the opportunity to see them all together has gone.