Geoff is an inveterate traveller taking lots of photos, mainly of plants. He also donates money to Wells for Cambodia by selling his plants, two types of which he showed today, the long stemmed scented dianthus called "Memories", and an all white Salvia leucantha.
Geoff has been to Chengdu in the Szechuan province of China four times. Szechuan has wildly mountainous terrain and was actually part of Tibet at that time.
Geoff showed many slides, some of which recorded his trek along two-thirds of the route pioneered by Ernest Wilson. Wilson was a famed collector of plants from China and Japan, between 1902 and 1916. He gathered hundreds of species including the yellow Chinese poppy, Meconopsis integrifolia, kiwi fruit, clematis and primula. He earned great fame at home, and was highly respected by his porters who he treated very well.
Geoff's slides captured many interesting scenes, ranging from a Buddhist shrine to apiarists in the high Tibetan plateau. Many of the alpine plants including aquilegia, roses, arums, alpine daisy, crimson slipper orchid and daphne grow well in scree (rocks and gravel) which provides good drainage. Peaches and apricots grow well in the valleys.
