Hardy Plant SpcietyKBBS Report of the Month
Our Bursary is funded by a generous donation from the estate of Mr Kenneth Black providing small bursaries to students and people who are employed in horticulture. You can find details of the scheme and how to apply on the main bursary scheme page. Here we regularly feature a report from one of the beneficiaries:
August 2020 Report of the Month
Botanising in the Western Spanish Pyrenees
Jamie Todd
July 2019
On the last Sunday in June I travelled from the UK to Pau, France to join the biennial Botanical Excursion of the International Hardy Plant Union, an organisation founded in 1965 by German, Dutch and Swiss nurserymen, with the idea of coordinating their interests on an international basis. From these early beginnings, the ISU has developed into an association of perennial plant growers and persons from related professions, with approx. 300 members in 16 European countries, as well as in the USA and Canada. The ISU is the only worldwide association of perennial plant growers, connecting professionals and promotes contacts all over the world. In three vans we drove across the Pyrenees to Spain and the city of Jaca in the northeast which would be our base for the week. With a population of over 12,000, Jaca, which is located on the Aragón River, is situated at the crossing of medieval routes, leading from Pau to Zaragoza. The valleys, rivers, and mountain ranges in this region have remained relatively unspoiled and provide some majestic scenery. The excursion covered a range of different landscapes and a diversity of vegetation and the excursion allowed me to become acquainted with a wide range of habitats and their corresponding flora and fauna. We visited microclimates, both dry and humid and flora at differing elevations on the mountains. The itinerary was left flexible allowing us to adjust our plans each day with the weather. We arrived in Spain at the tail end of a European heatwave and temperatures remained high in Jaca throughout the week.
Read the full report here
A selection of other reports may be found here