The Veitch Memorial Medal is an international prize issued annually by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
The Veitch Memorial Medal is an international prize issued annually by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
The prize is awarded to "persons of any nationality who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement of the science and practice of horticulture". [1]
The prize was first planned in 1870, in memory of James Veitch of Chelsea. At first, the prize was issued by the Veitch Memorial Trust and awarded at local horticultural shows, but from 1885 the Medals were awarded at the Orchid Conference. Since 1922, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), having taken over the Trust, has awarded the Medal. [2] By 2010 over 500 medals had been presented.
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(See the Royal Horticultural Society Green Manual [35] for further reference.)
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.
Graham Stuart Thomas was an English horticulturist, who is likely best known for his work with garden roses, his restoration and stewardship of over 100 National Trust gardens and for writing 19 books on gardening, many of which remain classics today. However, as he states in the Preface to his outstanding book, The Rock Garden and its Plants: From Grotto to Alpine House, "My earliest enthusiasms in gardening were for....alpines." p8
RHS Garden Wisley is a garden run by the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, Surrey, south of London. It is one of five gardens run by the society, the others being Harlow Carr, Hyde Hall, Rosemoor, and Bridgewater. Wisley is the second most visited paid entry garden in the United Kingdom after the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, with 1,232,772 visitors in 2019.
Frederick William Thomas Burbidge (1847–1905) was a British explorer who collected many rare tropical plants for the famous Veitch Nurseries.
John Gilbert Baker was an English botanist. His son was the botanist Edmund Gilbert Baker (1864–1949).
William Thomas Stearn was a British botanist. Born in Cambridge in 1911, he was largely self-educated and developed an early interest in books and natural history. His initial work experience was at a Cambridge bookshop, but he also had a position as an assistant in the university botany department. At the age of 29 he married Eldwyth Ruth Alford, who later became his collaborator, and he died in London in 2001.
The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society.
Sir Harry James Veitch was an English horticulturist in the nineteenth century, who was the head of the family nursery business, James Veitch & Sons, based in Chelsea, London. He was instrumental in establishing the Chelsea Flower Show, which led to his being knighted for services to horticulture.
Andromeda Botanic Gardens is an organic 8-acre (3.2 ha) botanical garden and a historic cultural attraction in the village of Bathsheba, Saint Joseph in Barbados. It is an authentic garden created by multiple award-winning horticulturalist Iris Bannochie, a female, Barbadian, self-taught scientist. It is unique, having been created from the 1950s as both a private botanical garden and a pleasure garden by an individual. Named from the Greek mythological figure of Andromeda it started as a private plant collection around Ms Bannochie's home, who was also the leading expert on horticulture on the island. Ms Bannochie wrote various academic papers from topics including the lifecycle of the whistling frog, and the vitamin C content of the Barbadian cherry. She was a mentor to many and considered the queen of Barbadian horticulture. At one point, she was responsible for introducing over 90% of the ornamental plants found in Barbados. Iris Bannochie created the garden from 1954 on land owned by her family since 1740. During the 1950s Barbados was a plantation economy with no history of garden creation. Iris Bannochie travelled the world and collected plants for Andromeda. She showed plants from Andromeda both independently and with the Barbados Horticultural Society many times at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, winning numerous medals. In 1982, Ms Bannochie's display was titled Andromeda Gardens at the Show and her exhibition of palms was the largest selection of that plant family ever seen at the Chelsea Flower Show. She was also the recipient of the RHS Veitch Medal and a fellow of the Linnean Society. In 1990, the garden had 40,000 visitors.
Frances Mary Perry MBE VMH was an English gardener, administrator, writer and broadcaster.
Charles Roy Lancaster CBE is a British plantsman, gardener, author and broadcaster.
Percival Stephen Cane (1881–1976) was an English garden designer and writer.
Buddleja davidiivar.veitchiana was collected in Hubei and introduced to cultivation by E. H. Wilson; it was named for the British nurseryman and horticulturist James Veitch by Rehder. The taxonomy of the plant and the other five davidii varieties has been challenged in recent years. Leeuwenberg sank them all as synonyms, considering them to be within the natural variation of a species, a treatment adopted in the Flora of China published in 1996.
Lilian Snelling (1879–1972) was "probably the most important British botanical artist of the first half of the 20th century". She was the principal artist and lithographer to Curtis's Botanical Magazine between 1921 and 1952 and "was considered one of the greatest botanical artists of her time" – "her paintings were both detailed and accurate and immensely beautiful". She was appointed MBE in 1954 and was awarded the Victoria Medal in 1955. The standard author abbreviation Snelling is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Graham Ross AM is an Australian horticulturalist, author, television presenter and radio presenter. In 2011 he was presented with London's Royal Horticultural Society's Veitch Memorial Medal (VMM) in recognition of his contribution to gardening and horticulture in Australia. The VMM is an international award issued annually by London's Royal Horticultural Society. Ross is only the fourth Australian to receive the VMM since its inception in 1870. He is the only Australian in history to have been appointed a Life Fellow of the prestigious Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Guild, London.
Frederick James Chittenden (1873–1950) was a British horticulturalist and first director of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Wisley Garden. He was the author of a number of books on horticulture.
Nellie Roberts was an English botanical and scientific illustrator.
William Gregor MacKenzie ALS VMH (1904–1995) was a gardener and horticultural curator born in Scotland, where his father was head gardener at Ballimore, near Loch Fyne in Argyllshire.
Susyn M. Andrews is a British taxonomic horticulturist. Her research has focussed on temperate and subtropical woody plants, especially Holly and Lavender.
Veronica incana, the silver speedwell, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae. It is native to parts of Eastern Europe and Russia, all of Siberia, Mongolia, and northern China, and has been introduced to Czechoslovakia. A number of authorities consider it to be a subspecies of the spiked speedwell Veronica spicata; Veronica spicata subsp. incana. It is a parent of the hybrids Veronica × czemalensis and Veronica × grisea.