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The Maple Society's Maple Symposium Fall 2002
Westonbirt, England
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The International Maple Symposium at Westonbirt Arboretum was a study group for maple enthusiasts, and included the annual meeting of The Maple Society. We felt privileged to be among the luminaries of the maple world for this truly international gathering, rubbing shoulders and sharing fun with Peter Gregory, author of Japanese Maples Third Edition, Cor van Gelderen, co-author of Maples for Gardens, and Piet de Jong, co-author of Maples of the World. Included among the delegates were representatives from botanical gardens and arboreta from around the world, like Susan Wiegrefe, Plant Breeder (specializing in maples, of course) from the Morton Arboretum, Doug Justice from the UBC Botanical Garden in Vancouver, BC, Canada, Tony Aiello from the Morris Arboretum of the Univ. of Pennsylvania, Piotr Banaszczak from the Rogow Arboretum in Poland, and Mari Rusanen from Finnish Forest Research Institute, and well as many others. Hugh Angus, curator of Westonbirt and the Maple Society hosted us at Westonbirt, which is the National Arboretum of England. There we got the opportunity to see the newly donated National Collection of Japanese Maples, as well as mature specimens of many other maple species in the Acer Glade. We had many hobbyists and nurserymen in the group also, making the discussions lively and with diverse perspectives. I'm sure you can understand that we felt overwhelmed by our good fortune to have so much knowledge about our favorite subject available to us, and to be in gardens and arboreta with such beautiful trees to view and compare.
During the symposium we spent our mornings at the Great Oak Hall, where we heard presentations on such diverse subjects as "Recent Wild Collections of Maples in China" by Doug Justice, "Seed Germination and Seedling Production of Maples" by Mark Krautmann, and "Sorting Out Japanese Maples" by Peter Gregory. Many of the talks were very technical, although the beauty and love of the maples came through every talk. There was interest in making the next meeting of our Maple Society - North American Branch directed more toward the poetry and beauty of maples. We hope this will attract more gardeners, garden designers and collectors of maples to the Maple Society, so that we can sustain ourselves with new members.
After lunch we were off to the trees. I can not do justice to this beautiful arboretum with words, I am no poet, but can only hope that the photographs can give you a glimpse of this, the most magical, incredible arboretum that I have ever visited. The size of the arboretum, 600 acres, gives it majesty, the design gives it grace, and one of the world's greatest tree collections gives it endless interest. Hugh Angus and Peter Gregory led us on walks with talks. There were lively discussions among us and moments of stunned and silent admiration.
Our visits to Kew, Savill, Valley and Hillier Gardens were in contrast to this. Not that they were any less beautiful, but just that they were gardens rather than woodland arboretum, and I was so in love with Westonbirt that I could not truly see them. I am the same way about art museums. I loved the Van Gogh in Amsterdam so much that I could hardly appreciate the Orsay.
We will keep you posted about the Maple Society-North American Branch annual meeting, which is scheduled to be here at Mountain Maples in June of 2003. Hope to see you then, so you can be a part of making the Maple Society
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