Harry Hay
Lee Poulsen (Mon, 19 Jan 2004 00:17:32 PST)

Oh my gosh, if you ever get an invitation to visit Harry Hay's gardens,
take it! I had the great opportunity to visit him and his plants for an
entire afternoon (which wasn't nearly long enough to more than just
glance at everything he has planted).

We were in the UK for a wedding and sightseeing, and Paul Chapman very
graciously arranged a visit to Harry Hay's on my last day there. (This
was only a few days after the record-breaking day when the temperature
in London reached or exceeded 100° F for the first time since they
started measuring temperature in London several hundred years ago.) As
David says, Harry's collection is mindblowing. We had spent a day some
days before this visiting Kew Gardens, and while it is very nice, and
the various greenhouses and alpine houses are fantastic, I was slightly
disappointed at the grounds themselves, especially when compared to
botanical gardens I've visited such as the Huntington Gardens here in
California or the ones in Perth, Australia; Honolulu, Hawaii;
Singapore; Kandy, Sri Lanka; or Kirstenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa,
to name just a few that are amazing in my unlearned opinion. I would
have to say that Harry's place far outshines what is on display at Kew.
(It was also quite amusing to listen to Harry complain about Kew not
being as helpful and interested in material he has provided them in
recent years compared to further in the past.)

Paul knows all the details, but apparently Harry has been doing this
ever since the construction of the M25 London Orbital (is that the
correct name for the freeway loop that encircles London similar to the
Beltway that encircles Washington, DC?) took half his land when he was
a pig farmer. They paid him quite a bit for it and he set about
collecting and growing just about every bulb imaginable as well as a
number of other plant and tree species (such as 25-30 different species
of Eucalyptus trees that are now quite tall and growing in the ground
outside!). Harry seems to have corresponded with every famous and
well-known plant personage the world over. As well as traded with them
all.

Anyway, I happened to take a few general pictures of his place as well
as one of him and his wonderful wife. There is also a not very
flattering, yet very candid shot of Paul Chapman and Harry showing what
it's typically like visiting Harry in his gardens. Paul knows his age
exactly, but I believe Harry is 80 years old or more and still runs
around the entire acreage like he was in his 20s and knows every detail
about every plant there. And if he likes you, he keeps digging up
offsets or breaking off seedpods of truly unique species and handing
them to you. So be sure to come prepared with your import permit in
hand should you get this opportunity and want to take those treasures
back with you to your home country. (He also liked the fact that I as
an American still used and comprehended the good old English system of
measurements instead of the French's metric system!)

Anyway, Harry should be declared an international treasure himself,
IMHO. The images are located on the wiki on the Places page under
"Harry Hay's gardens"
<http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…>.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena area, California, USDA Zone 9-10

On Jan 18, 2004, at 3:51 AM, David Victor wrote: