Harry Hay?

[PEAK]

I have on several occasions received bulb seeds from plants said to originate from Harry Hay. I have tried to find more information about Harry, but have not come much further than "Harry Hay of Tadworth, Surrey". I would be very glad if someone could provide me with more information about Mr. Hay, here at the forum or private. I have understood that there is (were) a garden, is it still there, can it be visited? Is there a plant/seed list? Perhaps this is a stupid trivial question, but here where the polar-bears walks the streets there is little knowledge about Harry!

Cheers

[Maggi Young]

Hello, Per-Åke,
I must confess that I do not know very much about Harry Hay, myself. Certainlt not as much as I expect I should. I know that one sees many photographs that are credited to "Harry Hay's Garden" and so on and I believe I have seen this in AGS bulletins. I think that Mr Hay's Garden in England was the place used to source and photographs many plants for the Phillips and Rix books.  I cannot however, seem to find much about him in the AGS index book that was the nearest to hand as I read your query.
I must check the P and Rix books to see if I can learn more there. I have turned up this page from one of my favourite online sources, the Pacific Bulb Society Wiki !
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Harry%20Hay's%20gardens
This has a photo of Mr and Mrs Hay in their kitchen!
I am sure some of our more southerly English memebers will know lots more about this gentleman... though this is Friday evening... there will be a show or even shows, to prepare for tomorrow... an answer may be a little while in coming!

[PEAK]

Hi Maggi,
no problem waiting, Harry has become a mythical person for me, and don't he look a bit Harry Potterish at the picture! People were there 2004 so both Harry and garden could be still going strong.
How I wish that we had this gardening culture you have in Sweden, not a single show during the whole year. 
Do you need to hire people in biotech business in Scotland and what's the price for a decent house with a reasonable garden (and some alpine houses)?

Have a nice Friday evening Maggi

[afw]

Maggi
I googled UK Harry Hay & found www.rhs.org.uk/Learning/publications 
From RHS Journal The Garden August 1999

This might help.

Alan

PS There is another Harry Hay!!

[PEAK]

Alan
found the article

Actinidia polygama , which he received from plantsman Harry Hay of Surrey

We are closing up on Harry a bit, but still a mystery for me!
This other Harry seems to have lived a stormy life, perhaps he should have tried bulbs instead


Cheers

[David Shaw]

Google is an amazing site.
When I google on my own name I come up with an American politician/political writer and a writer if serious erotic fiction!
It's no better when I google the name of my village - Dyke!

[Lesley Cox]

Don't know that I'd be proud of any of those options David? Can't you do better?

[KentGardener]

Hi Per-Åke (was very tempted to write grandad then...)

I do not know Harry Hay personally - but I know a man who does.  I am overdue to send this man an email so will ask for any Harry info too.  All I do know is that my Galanthus Yvonne Hay was given to my friend by Harry himself and then onto me (so I can be pretty sure of the provenance of this plant at least).

I will probably not receive a reply to my email staright away but will report back anything I am told in due course.

with kind regards

John

[PEAK]

Thanks John, it's always nice to have info about the origin of ones plants. Looking at the Pacific Bulb Soc. page given by Maggi makes me feel he is more well known in USA than i UK?

Like your haircut John, think I'm going to get one like that myself today

Cheers

[Diane Whitehead]

I asked the same question in 1998 on Alpine-L and received this reply:
There is profile about him in the Horticultural Who's Who section of the Oct./98
issue of Gardens Illustrated, plus a good photograph.

I read about him elsewhere, too.  As I recall, his property was cut by a new
motorway.  Dreadful thing to happen to a farm.

[PEAK]

Thanks for your input Diane, I don't have the journal, but the PBSwiki give some info!
An awful thing to happen to a garden, have you read what happened to Peter Korn's first garden

http://www.peterkornstradgard.se/english/eindex.htm   (Background)

How could anyone do such a thing
Btw, I am about to receive some seeds of Whiteheadia bifolia, you should be an expert on the germination of these. Any hints?

Cheers

[Diane Whitehead]

I haven't grown Whiteheadia.  I germinated it easily, but can't remember what happened
to the seedlings - they never got very large.  I plan to try again, more carefully this time.

The plants grow in shaded places among rocks so they ought to like growing in a pot.

[PEAK]

A very nice picture Diane!
Read at the PBS wiki page about Whiteheadia
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Whiteheadia

Rodents are said to sip its nectar

Not quite shure that I would like that in the greenhouse

Cheers

[Lesley Cox]

That is surely a wonderful website of Peter Korn's. As you say Per-Ake, an awful thing to happen. I can't understand someone who would buy a property like than UNLESS they wanted the garden as it was. When younger and house-hunting, I bought a garden which happened to have a house in it. However, Peter says he took his plants with him, so not all was lost. That I CAN understand. First pack the plants and almost as an afterthought, the furniture. Where I go, so do my plants, along with troughs and a lot of other stuff as well.

[Diane Whitehead]

I hope that Peter Korn's website shows his second garden, the one he made with
the plants he moved from his first garden.  Is this right?