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New items- 1st March 2013

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Maggi Young:
Jim Archibald - The Gap Years - added to the main Archibald page.


In the years 1961 - 1964 after university and before wandering south to form The Plantsmen Jim started to lay the foundations of his future business ventures.
Indeed, during his school years Jim had a mail order business for exotic butterflies and moths, but that's another story.
Without being too firm about the dates, around 1961, Jim worked at Jack Drake's alpine nursery in the Scottish Highlands and carried on a mail order exotic plant business from his parents' home address.
During this period 1961 - 1963 he issued four and probably five plant lists.
We publish here four of them, although we believe there is a fifth list that precedes these, in Spring 1961 - if anyone has this list,  please let us have a copy.
David Stephens

1 Rare Bulbs, Corms and Tubers Summer- Autumn 1961
2 Rare Plants Winter 1961- 62
3 South African Bulbs Spring 1962-Autumn 1963
4 Rare Bulbs, Corms and Tubers for Spring Planting ,February-May 1962

.....find the links to these lists from the main page under JIM ARCHIBALD : BOTANICAL / HORTICULTURAL CV IN A SEED-CAPSULE :http://www.srgc.net/site/index.php/features-mainmenu-47/articles/259-the-archibald-archive

Maggi Young:
Two more items loaded today :

1961 'Cypripedium macranthum subsp. ventricosum' -  a plant note from  SRGC Journal 28/245 

1981    Jim Archibald wrote the introduction to and edited, a new edition of Wilhelm Schacht's "Rock Gardens"

Find all of the Archibald Archive via
https://www.srgc.net/add-archibald-intro.asp

Gerry Webster:

--- Quote from: Maggi Young on March 01, 2013, 11:56:56 AM ---Jim Archibald - The Gap Years - added to the main Archibald page.........

--- End quote ---

Jim's bulb list from 1961 makes fascinating reading. The fritillaries are especially impressive but I wonder how many people could afford  (or were willing to pay) 21 shillings per bulb for a Japanese frit? I can't translate this into today's prices but for comparison a scientific monograph I own cost £3.00 in 1960 while  a roughly comparable recent one is priced at £80.00 on Amazon.

Maggi Young:
I've wondered the same thing myself, but I suppose there were folks then prepared to pay such sums ( and it's not likely that Jim had a great many to sell in total) in the same way as there are people today wiling and able to spend hundreds on a snowdrop or orchid, or spend thousands on a holiday trip to see plants in China or South America......

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