Astilbe
Mr. Henry Noblett
Brickell Award Winner 2003
This early Plant Heritage Collection started with the acquisition of 38 plants in 1986 from Harewood in Leeds; the collection now has 220 types. The collection is grown and displayed at the Holehird Garden, Windermere. The Lakeland Horticultural Society Garden,
www.holehirdgarden.co.uk. There has been a long history of co-operation between Henry and Malcolm Pharoah, holder of the National Plant Collection of
Astilbe at Marwood Hill Gardens in Devon,
www.marwoodhillgarden.co.uk, where they are grown in drier conditions.
Henry has established links with most countries in Europe, USA, Russia, Taiwan and Japan. He has obtained plants from Russia and Latvia alongside literature which when translated formed a useful basis for describing Astilbe. Henry has visited and corresponded with the great grand-daughter of the early Astilbe breeder, George Arends. Through a contact in Czechoslovakia, a plant, which had disappeared ‘Burgunderrot’ (synonym ‘Johannisnacht’), was sent to Henry. Subsequently, it has been propagated in large numbers and reintroduced into cultivation. Among Henry’s achievements:
· He has assembled a complete set of herbarium specimens
· He has published and printed an Astilbe Manual in 2001, supplemented in 2007
· Henry was the ISHS Registrar for Astilbe
· He has published widely including in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine.
The grower who raised a pink sport from Astilbe ‘Montgomery’ has named it Astilbe japonica ‘Henry Noblett’.