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Rhododendron: The Hybrids / Additional Notes

Family

THE WATERERS

In the year 1723 Thomas Waterer of Woking came to live in Knap Hill where he became tenant of a copyhold property known as Ryde Heron. It is not yet known how and when his descendants took to horticulture. We do know, however, that his grandson Michael Waterer I (1745-1827) inherited the property in 1794, that his tenancy was confirmed in 1796 and that in that year he was described as a nurseryman of Woking. The first Michael Waterer founded the Knap Hill Nursery and today the office of the present company is situated a mere three or four hundred yards from Ryde Heron.

During his lifetime, about the year 1810 and possibly earlier, rhododendrons were growing in the Nursery and it is recorded that seedlings were raised from a cross between R. catawbiense and a deep rose-coloured R. maximum. An aged specimen, traditionally the ‘old original’ R. catawbiense of 1810, is still living in the Nursery today. If the elder Michael was responsible for this cross, it was his eldest son, Michael Waterer II (1770-1842), who took the seedlings under his wing, cared for them and thereby founded the ‘Waterer Hybrid Rhododendrons’.

Having managed the Knap Hill Nursery for some years, the younger Michael became in January 1809 his father’s ‘co-partner in the art and mystery of a nurseryman’. He came into full control of the Nursery on the death of his father in 1827 and was able to immerse himself in the production of hybrid rhododendrons and azaleas. The GardenersMagazine wrote in 1834, ‘The stock of standard Rhododendrons is most valuable, and we are persuaded that if a number of them were taken up and put into baskets or tubs and exposed for sale in London, they would be eagerly purchased by the possessors of small gardens. Since this was written Mr Waterer has adopted this idea and has sent some most splendid specimens of Kalmia latifolia to the Horticultural Society’s Show at Chiswick Garden for which he obtained a Silver Medal on the 10th. June.’ Michael had in fact already shown azaleas and rhododendrons in Regent Street in 1832 and on two other occasions at the Horticultural Society’s Garden in 1834.

In 1841 he held his first private exhibition in the King’s Road, Chelsea, with all the success foreseen by the GardenersMagazine. In November 1842 he was a victim of the cholera epidemic. In the spring of that year his hybrid rhododendrons and azaleas had been praised highly both at his Knap Hill Nursery and at his second private exhibition in the King’s Road, Chelsea. In 1829, aware no doubt of the rapidly increasing importance of the main road from London to Portsmouth and Exeter, he had bought the late John Taylor’s Nursery at Bagshot. This property he left to his brother John Waterer I (1784-1868). His Knap Hill Nursery he left to his youngest brother Hosea Waterer I (1793-1853).

There was a brief attempt by the brothers John and Hosea to work together. This was short-lived. John Waterer I had a Nursery in the King’s Road, Chelsea, as well as at Bagshot. In the spring of 1843 he held a private exhibition at his King’s Road Nursery while, more or less at the same time, Hosea Waterer held the third private exhibition from Knap Hill, also in the King’s Road. Both displays were highly praised.

During the years 1844-6 no Waterer exhibitions were reported in the King’s Road and it may be assumed that this was a period of dichotomy in which the Bagshot firm was acquiring individuality. Both firms were among the earliest exhibitors at the Botanic Garden in Regent’s Park and continued to show there for very many years. In 1847 Hosea Waterer returned to the King’s Road and the Pictorial Times had an illustration of his large marquee with paths and beds filled with rhododendrons and azaleas.

In 1850 the GardenersChronicle reported, ‘The Woking and Bagshot American plants are the world’s wonder. The marvellous exhibitons made by Mr. Hosea Waterer and the Bagshot growers have excited much curiosity as to the where and how such results are attained.’ It referred also to ‘Mr. Hosea Waterer, the greatest of these cultivators’.

Hosea was a protagonist of the truly hardy, late-flowering hybrid rhododendrons. In 1851 he maintained that nine-tenths of the so-called hardy hybrids of that time were early bloomers. ‘Hence,’ he complained, ‘the disappointment which we in common with many others witness nearly every spring.’ In the 1860s it was observed that Dean Herbert and Henry Burn, having crossed R, arboreum with R. catawbiense and other late-flowering kinds, had unfortunately used R. arboreum as the female parent. The progeny of these crosses had flowered too early. Hosea Waterer had crossed R. arboreum with R. catawbiense, using the latter as the female parent and with the result that the seedlings had flowered later at a time when spring frost was not likely to be seriously damaging. ‘The whole race at Knap Hill and Bagshot,’ it was maintained, ‘have sprung from this judicious crossing which, in a commercial point of view, has evidently been most satisfactory.’

John Waterer shared his brother’s views and it is to him that we owe R. ‘Lady Eleanor Cathcart’, ‘Mrs John Waterer’, and ‘Joseph Whitworth’, all of which are still in commerce.

In 1853 Hosea Waterer I died leaving the Knap Hill Nursery to his nephews Anthony Waterer I (1822-96), son of his auctioneer brother James of Chertsey and Robert Godfrey, son of his sister Elizabeth. These two men had already been working in the Nursery for some years. The partners presented in 1856 an exhibition of their plants at Ashburnham House in connection with Cremorne Gardens. The tent was 365 ft long and 95 ft wide. The private view was attended by members of the Royal Family. There was a raised platform at one end of the tent and ‘wander where we will we are never beyond the sound of music both vocal and instrumental’. Presumably this was the event which gave rise to a rumour many years later that the Chelsea Flower Show had its origins in the Waterer Shows.

In 1861 Waterer and Godfrey were crossing hardy Azaleas with ‘the best orange-yellow Chinese sort’. The seedlings had large flowers with great richness and variety of colour. Thus were laid the foundations of the Knap Hill Strain of azaleas into which, a few years later, the blood of R. occidentale was introduced.

This splendid partnership lasted until 1867 when Robert Godfrey, suffering from ill health, withdrew from the firm and Anthony became sole proprietor. John Waterer I of Bagshot died in 1868 having increased the size of his Nursery from 30 acres to more than 200. He was the last of the three remarkable brothers, pioneers and men of vision. It was unfortunate that, in attempting to dispose of his property fairly among his four sons, he gave insufficient thought to the fact that a large part of his fortune lay in real estate and that, as a result, dissension arose among his sons culminating in a famous case at law, Waterer-v.- Waterer.

His third son, John Waterer II (1826-93), determined to maintain the Bagshot Nursery as a family concern, was obliged to raise a very large mortgage which was not redeemed in his lifetime. In spite of this burden he produced a large number of successful hybrid rhododendrons, among them R. ‘Gomer Waterer’ and R. ‘Pink Pearl’, to this day the most renowned of all rhododendrons. Some doubt has been expressed that he was in fact the raiser. Among the papers of his son, Gomer Waterer, there is this note. ‘My father raised this plant and I always understood him to say it was a seedling from R. George Hardy crossed with R. Broughtonii, but as in those days they did not make a note of the crosses they made, I do not guarantee this as accurate. What I do know definitely is that he raised it.’ During the 1950s his grandson was shown an old rhododendron at Littleworth raised by Mangles and reputed to be the ‘original’ Pink Pearl, but this was not the famous Pink Pearl of commerce.

At Knap Hill the years 1860-90 saw the production of many splendid hybrid rhododendrons and it is remarkable how many of them are still leading varieties today. Anthony Waterer I admired the blotched or spotted upper petal inherited mainly from R. maximum which, in his opinion, gave form and substance to the flower. His younger son Hosea Waterer II (1852-1927) emigrated to America and settled in Philadelphia and it was no doubt with his help that Anthony was able to ship 1,500 hybrid rhododendrons to America and to exhibit them in flower at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia. The success of this exhibit was such that a spark of interest in rhododendrons in the USA was fanned into flames. The plants were bought by Professor Charles Sargent, a staunch friend of the family, and by H. H. Hunnewell and were planted at Brookline, Mass., and Wellesley, Mass. Anthony had selected mainly hybrids of R. catawbiense for this venture. These were the first of a series of ‘iron-clad’ hybrids which he raised primarily for the American market, and which were likely in his opinion to withstand the rigours of winter in the Eastern States. Several of them were named for members of Professor Sargent’s family.

The hybridising of azaleas which had started at Knap Hill in the 1820s was carried out with great success by Anthony Waterer I. Thousands of seedlings were raised year after year from which selections and fresh crossings were made. Having seen a seedling flower and having assessed its merit his interest in it ceased. He was concerned with the constant improvement of his strain of seedlings and consequently very few of his azaleas were named and vegetatively propagated.

During the second half of the 19th century the standard of cultivation in both the Knap Hill and Bagshot Nurseries was extremely high. Meticulous attention was paid to land drainage, to soil fertility, and to the eradication of disease. The Waterers of those days were firm believers in the principle, ‘If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.’ Eagle-eyed, they were quick to perceive and to burn any plant which was ‘not right’. They were blessed with a plentiful supply of devoted labour which supported their endeavours with loyalty and skill. The high degree of skill and concentration was remembered with envy and wonder in later years. Not the least of their blessings were armies of women for whom flower-picking in June was one of the year’s greatest pleasures. The two Nurseries were visited annually by thousands of people from all parts of the world and great efforts were made to exhibit in many parts of England as well as in London rhododendrons and azaleas brought to perfection in flower and foliage.

When John Waterer II died in 1893 it was learned that the Bagshot Nursery had become a Limited Company. His sons John Waterer III (1865-1948) and Gomer Waterer (1867-1945) were appointed managers. A career in the army for Gomer Waterer had been thwarted by a threat of blindness. He left Wellington prematurely and received successful treatment for his eyes in Weimar. In order to boost the trade of the Bagshot firm he had paid the first of many successful visits to the USA in 1892. A year later he transported about 50 rhododendrons, 7 to 9 ft tall, and 150 smaller ones to the Andorra Nursery in Philadelphia where he supervised their preparation for the Chicago Exhibition.

Azaleas did not interest him particularly. He was governed by great enthusiasm for the breeding and cultivation of hardy hybrid rhododendrons and many of his hybrids are in constant demand today. If his suspicion of the hardiness of some ‘modern’ hybrids seemed excessive, it should be remembered that he was nurtured in the tradition of Hosea Waterer I for whom any hybrid rhododendron which flowered at a time when spring frost would ruin its flowers with monotonous regularity was a ‘so-called Hardy Hybrid’. This was a tradition which has helped so many of the Waterer hybrids to survive with flying colours into the second half of the 20th century.

Gomer Waterer was a talented showman and to him must be given the credit for launching Pink Pearl in 1897 and for having made it a best-seller by 1902. His efforts to bring increased trade to the Bagshot Nursery were successful but unfortunately the spectre of his grandfather’s will remained to haunt him. In 1914 the Bagshot Nursery ceased to be a family business. His interest in rhododendrons continued at Bagshot in collaboration with Percy Wiseman until 1931 and thereafter at Knap Hill with Robert Jenkinson and Frank Knight. He died at Knap Hill in 1945.

Anthony Waterer II meanwhile was improving his strain of azaleas and his hybrid rhododendrons were remarkable. The latter were stamped with extraordinary individuality. He admired the work of the Moser family at Versailles and was a frequent visitor to their Nursery. It may well be that some of Anthony’s hybrids owe part of their individuality to material obtained from that great firm and to ideas formulated on French soil. Today the two Anthonys, father and son, are remembered as a composite personality – ‘Old Anthony’. Frederick Street has referred to the ‘collective anonymity’ of the Waterers and, indeed, there is no hard-and-fast line between the work of one generation and the next.

Anthony Waterer II was a bachelor. When he died in 1924 Hosea Waterer II inherited Knap Hill and returned from America to manage it. He showed some of his brother’s named Knap Hill azaleas and rhododendrons at the Royal Horticultural Hall in 1926. He died the following year and his American sons sold the business to the present Knap Hill Nursery Ltd in 1931.

STANDISH AND NOBLE

The firm of Standish and Noble is often mentioned in connection with the Hardy Hybrids, though only one – ‘Cynthia’ – has retained its popularity and even that is not characteristic of the group. The senior partner – John Standish – was a Yorkshireman, born in 1814. He served his garden apprenticeship at Bowood, Wilts, where his father was forester to the Marquess of Lansdowne, and later became foreman at Bagshot Park under Andrew Toward. Some time in the 1830s he set up his own nursery at Bagshot and became known as a breeder of calceolarias. Other groups in which he made crosses at some time or another in his career, apart from rhododendrons, were clematis, gladioli, phlox, peas, and grape-vines. But the hybrid that first brought him fame, and really launched him on his career, was his cross between Fuchsia ‘Globosa’ and F. fulgens, the latter being a species of recent introduction whose taxonomic status as a member of the genus Fuchsia had been disputed by some botanists. Through this cross he made the acquaintance of the great John Lindley, the leading horticultural botanist of his day, and the two became friends.

Charles Noble entered into partnership with Standish in 1847, but unfortunately nothing can be ascertained about his early life. In the following year Robert Fortune set out for China on an expedition the primary purpose of which was to introduce the tea-plant to India, but it was arranged, probably through Lindley’s influence, that Standish and Noble should handle Fortune’s sendings of ornamental trees and shrubs – a remarkable coup, considering that Standish was then aged only thirty-four and Charles Noble probably even younger. Two azaleas were sent to them by Fortune – the famous ‘Amoenum’ and R. indicum ‘Crispiflorum’, but the richest fruits belonged to other genera (Clematis lanuginosa, Mahonia bealei, Skimmia reevesiana, etc.).

In 1850, these two young men published an interesting note on the hybridisation of rhododendrons, which gives the parentage of several of their crosses – or rather of Standish’s crosses, for most of the work must have been done by him much earlier, probably starting while he was still at Bagshot Park. The remarkable range of woody plants that they were able to offer is shown by their advertisement in the GardenersChronicle for September 10, 1853 (pp. 578-9). This includes, among the rhododendrons, many hybrids raised by the firm, none of which has survived in commerce. Of more interest is the offer of plants raised from the seed that Hooker had sent from Sikkim three years previously; twenty-four Sikkim rhododendrons could be bought for from five to ten guineas the set.

The Standish and Noble partnership lasted only ten years – ‘two suns could not shine in the same horizon’ is said to have been Standish’s explanation for the breach. The dissolution took place in the autumn of 1856, and shortly after­wards Noble announced that he was setting up a nursery of his own near Sunningdale station – the present Sunningdale Nurseries. Standish retained the Bagshot nursery until 1864, but a few years previously he had acquired 80 acres of barren land near Ascot, where he set up a completely new establishment – the Royal Nurseries of John Standish and Co. The new nursery was still in preparation when he staged his famous exhibit at the R.H.S. Show on June 5-6, 1861, of the plants sent to him by Fortune from Japan. They had arrived only a few days previously, but ‘were as fresh and healthy-looking as though they had all their lives been revelling in the pure air of Bagshot, and had never known the discomforts of a long sea voyage’. The plants included Sciadopitys verticillata and the normal green-leaved Aucuba japonica in both its male and female forms. After his removal to Ascot, Standish put out the rhododendron hybrid ‘Ascot Brilliant’, still common in cultivation. There are also some white-flowered hybrids of R. griffithianum in gardens under the name ‘Standishii’ which were probably raised by him at Ascot. He died in 1875, and most of the information given here comes from the obituaries published in the horticultural press, and from various notes, announcements, and advertisements in the GardenersChronicle for the years 1846-64. Little is known of Charles Noble’s career after he left Standish, but he carried on a large and successful business at Sunningdale and retired in 1898. Like many other nurserymen of his time and later, he seems to have suffered from the pressures of urban development. On three occasions he had to auction stock, or sell it off at bargain prices because rented land had to be given up or, in 1865, because it was needed for the construction of two new public roads and a new railway-line. An account of the Sunningdale Nurseries in Charles Noble’s time will be found in Gard. Chron., Vol. 18 (1882), p. 596.


Footnotes

Contributed by Mr Donald Waterer.

Species articles

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