Jamie Taggart

[fleurbleue]

I think so too    RIP Jamie

[Richard Green]

It is indeed sad, but good for everyone to have the final confirmation at last.

Botanising is often a very serious and dangerous business, as has been clearly demonstrated many times over the last few hundred years.

[Maggi Young]

News piece from BBC, with some comment from  Dr Taggart, Jamie's Father
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-35123672

[ChrisB]

I am so sorry to hear this sad news.  My sincere condolences to his family and friends.

[Maggi Young]

James Taggart gone but not forgotten.

 James (as we knew him, though SRGC folks called him Jamie) went to Auchincruive College just outside Ayr from 1991 to 1994 studying Higher National Diploma in Horticulture. James was always very keen on plants and interested in his surroundings trying to find out the names of the different trees and shrubs on campus.  His interest  in plants was  how the different genera are related to each other - unfortunately Auchincruive did not focus a lot of time on plant identification to the degree James would have liked.

James was a good friend at college sharing  with me the same interest in plants.   Coming from a famous Scottish garden, Linn Gardens it was very clear  that he got his passion for plants from his father. We went on a number of trips with other friends throughout Scotland and he came over to Northern Ireland at holiday times from college always wanting to see plants and the geology of the area. He loved going to see the Giants Causeway on the North East coast of Northern Ireland. For a while James dated  a girl from Northern Ireland who was in our year and who had attended Greenmount college, Antrim with me the year before Auchincruive so we were all very good friends and helped each other out with projects and plant idents. James kept in touch via email after leaving college as I went off to work in New Zealand after college for 6 months before returning home to my own nursery. He always had great vision and plans for Linn gardens. When he took over the running of the gardens in 1997 I put him in touch with some local botanists and plant collectors to increase the plant variety at Linn Gardens.
 I am so pleased to have known James.

Ian W Scroggy
 Bali Hai Nursery, Northern Ireland. 

[Maggi Young]

OBITUARY for JAMIE TAGGART which will appear in the SRGC Year Book
 
In early November 2013, Jamie Taggart of the Linn Botanic Gardens in Cove, Argyll went missing on a plant-finding trip to the mountains of northern Vietnam. He had returned alone to an area where he had been two years previously, hoping to explore at a higher altitude. In spite of searches his whereabouts remained unknown until very recently when a body with his personal items nearby was found. It is believed he may have fallen, a tragic end to the life of a dedicated plantsman. Jamie took over the running of the garden from his father in 1997, having trained at Benmore Botanic Garden, Auchencruive and Glenarn, then on the botany degree course at Glasgow University. He introduced a greater generic and species diversity to the gardens, already home to many rare and unusual rhododendrons; fern cultivation was one of his interests and he developed a large scree area for southern hemisphere plants, all of which thrived in the mild climate and sheltered conditions of the garden. Before Phytophthora, the Glasgow show was much enhanced by his wonderful displays of rhododendrons.
Jamie’s death is an irreplaceable loss to his family and friends.


 Anne Chambers

[arillady]

So sad to read the news finally that Jamie Taggart died in Vietnam. I kept hoping but I guess this was the only outcome after so long. Condolences to the family.