test Bedgebury Pinetum (major update)
first version, 2009-06-29
Bedgebury Pinetum is an arboretum, specialized in conifers, at Bedgebury, near Goudhurst in Kent, England. It was established as the National Pinetum of Britain in 1925 by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the Forestry Commission. The pinetum is part of Bedgebury Forest. On 300 acres (1.2 km2) it now holds one of the worlds most extensive collections of conifers.
In 1836 the Manor of Bedgebury was sold to Viscount Lord Beresford. He was a Field Marshal in the Spanish Peninsula Wars under the Duke of Wellington. He sold the largest part of the estate to the Crown in 1919. The house and the surrounding parkland were sold to the Church Eductional Corporation. Bedgebury Forest was one of the first acquisitions of the Forestry Commission[1].
Lord Beresford did a lot of planting on the estate. < - ref !!!!
The tallest tree of Kent, a Grand Fir (Abies grandis), that grows in Bedgebury Pinetum, was planted in 1840 by him. This tree is named "The Old Man of Kent", and was adopted by the Kent Men of the Trees. It measures 167 ft in height (51 metres), 131cm in diameter and over 30 cubic metres in volume[1].
In 1924 Arthur William Hill, director of Kew Gardens, looked for a new site for Kew's pines. He worried about the damage to the conifers, especially firs and spruces at Kew owing to air pollution. The Forestry Commission proposed to establish a new pinetum in a part of Bedgebury Forest, in the High Weald of Kent, near the Sussex border[2]. Although it was not an ideal site, as it suffered from frost pockets[3], in a part of the forest the new National Pinetum was established, as a joint venture between Kew and the Forestry Commission.
maak korte beschrijving op basis van.....
The first 300 trees, raised at Kew in 1921[1], were planted in March 1925. In 1926 1,200 more trees were planted[4].
In 1929 the Forestry Commission began to establish 'Forest Plots' of conifers and selected hardwoods. These plots were set up to compare, in forest conditions, the growth of different species of trees[5].
During the war the Pinetum had to be put on a maintenance basis, and in 1942 there was a serious fire in the forest which spread to the Forest Plots and destroyed some of them.
In 1948 a superintendent of the Pinetum and Forest Plots was appointed.
The first plantings in 1925 were directed by William Dallimore of Kew. His aim was "to grow as many species of conifers as the climatic conditions will allow, planted in generic groupings, using geographically associated plantings where possible"[6].
Dallimore was to remain honorary curator until his retirement in 1945.
The cooperation between Kew and the Forestry Commission has not always been equally intens. There were serious doubts about the climatic conditions at Bedgebury. When Professor Edward Salisbury became director of Kew in 1943, he recommended the closure of the pinetum. Kew remained on the board however until 1965, when Wakehurst Place Garden was acquired[3].
Since 1965 the Forestry Commission has been in charge of the pinetum.
The International Conifer Conference considered Bedgebury Pinetum as "the best conifer collection in the world on one site"[7].
In 1999 the conifer collection consisted of 6,100 plants, belonging to 10 different families, 47 genera, 382 species and 1975 taxa[8]
According to the database of the BCGI the collection holds the following numbers of conifers: 5,407 plants, representing 2,100 taxa, 488 species and 49 genera[9].
Nowadays the collection also includes a significant number of broad-leaved trees.
30% target.
The total number of trees in the database of the pinetum per summer 2008 is 9,194[10].
Bedgebury Pinetum holds the NCCPG National Plant Collections[11] for:
global trees campaign – chinese conifers (Thuja sutchuensis en Picea neoveitchii): http://www.globaltrees.org/chinese_conifers.htm
zie ook: Friends Journal no. 11
Prumnopitys andina zie o.a.: http://forums.forestresearch.gov.uk/newsrele.nsf/web-allbysubject/8EF49E28F1FD5264802571CE0044B3F8
The Friends of Bedgebury Pinetum,
