Newsletter
A small team of volunteers have been producing newsletters three times a year since 1997. Each newsletter includes a report from the Curator, a range of articles that have wide appeal to gardeners, horticulturalists, botanists, and those with an interest in the natural environment and local history.
A list of our newsletters, with a summary of the articles in each one, and a link to the newsletter, can be found below.
The latest issue is not listed, as it is available only to members of the Friends for the first four months after publication. Newsletters are issued at the end of the following months: January, May and September.
Are you already a member? View the latest issue.
If you don’t want to wait four months then Join us.
Newsletter contributions
Would you like to contribute an article to our newsletter? Perhaps you have been facing a particular challenge in your own garden, or have been on one of our Friends of Treborth events, or have visited an interesting botanic garden, or have some thoughts on a current horticultural or environmental topic.
Do write about it – we’d love to hear from you! Please contact us
Issue 80, May 2024
Chelsea Flower Show Garden at Treborth (BU info)
Tenerife field course, Part 2: The Great Search for Andisols (Alex Burnett)
Cultivating Hope in Sarajevo (Richard Storey)
Winter-growing Bulbs from Southern Africa (Erle Randall)
Thunia alba: orchid of the season (Simon Retallick)
Summer Bike Tour, East to West (Jon Keymer)
Met Data January to March 2024(Pat Denne)
The Engrailed, an early spring Moth (Charles Aron)
A Liverwort Herbicide? (John Gorham)
Margery Fish: Author and Doyenne of Cottage Gardening (Hilary Miller)
More than Half of Life on Earth is found in Soil (the Conversation online)
Island Endemics, Part 5: Sundaland, South-East Asia (John Gorham)
A Horticulturist in the Making (Stewart Turtill)
Issue 79, January 2024
Why Bother: the value of Conservation (Rosie Kressman)
Friends’ new Website (Teri Shaw)
Gardening in the Sea (Bob Pethers)
Treborth Met Records/Climate Change (Pat Denne)
Biochar Production on Anglesey (Paul Richardson)
Resuscitation of the South African Border (Erle Randall)
A Student’s Alcohol-Free Guide to Tenerife (Alex Burnett)
Orchid: Laelia anceps (Simon Retallick)
Nepenthes in Sumatra Part 2 (Richard Storey)
Large Yellow Underwing Moth (Val Lane)
Tree Seminar: WHGT (Hilary Miller)
Issue 78, September 2023
Botanic Gardens Conservation International accreditation (BU bulletin)
Garden Escapers (Lisa Toth)
In Memoriam: Dorothy Lloyd Lewis (Nigel Brown)
Friends’ four-day coach tour of some East Midlands Gardens, July 2023 (Angela Thompson)
Orchid of the Season Liparis stricklandiana orchid (Simon Retallick)
The Nitrogen Conundrum: Introducing Perennial Mobile Green Manures (Chloe Ward)
Treborth Rock Garden: Fit for the Future (Richard Birch)
Nepenthes: Plant Hunting in Sumatra, Part 1 (Richard Storey)
Moth Trapping at Treborth (the large elephant hawk moth) (Angela Thompson, Richard Birch)
Treborth Met Records for 2023 from January to July (Pat Denne)
Issue 77, May 2023
Cotoneaster cambricus (Rosie Kressman)
Bodnant Garden visit, Feb ‘23 (Angela Thompson)
Early moths: oak beauty (Val Lane)
Plas Newydd Assistant Gardener (Claire Parker)
Review of Plant Atlas 2020 (NIgel Brown)
Orchid House: 21 years of volunteering (Simon Retallick)
Botanical Models (Kioko Terauchi)
Living Landscapes: Rivers Alyn and Chwiler catchments (Sarah Ellis)
Island Endemics Pt 4: Eastern Indian Ocean (John Gorham)
Met Records: December 2022 to March 2023 (Pat Denne)
Issue 76, January 2023
In Memoriam: Ann Illsley (Sarah Edgar, Rosie Kressman)
Florida Everglades (Sarah Edgar)
Treborth Trails (Angela Thompson)
Goronwy Wynne (David Hill)
Treborth Fungus Foray (Charles Aron)
The Uncertain Moth (Pat Denne)
Cors Goch Visit (Nigel Brown)
In Memoriam: John Savage (Nigel Brown)
In Memoriam: Grace Gibson (Sarah Edgar, Nigel Brown)
A Lithops Table (John Gorham)
Ecosystem Invaders (and more) (Tomos Jones)
Treborth Met Records 2022 (Pat Denne)
Issue 75, September 2022
The Friends need Vegetable Growers for the Plant Sales (Angela Thompson)
My experience as a Student Intern at Treborth (Alex Burnett)
Success for the Friends’ Aaron Marubbi, Winner of a BBC Gardeners’ World Prize (Aaron Marubbi)
Questions, Questions, Questions: Membership Questionnaire (Cath Dixon)
Botanists are Disappearing – just when the World Needs them Most (the Conversation online)
Dawn Chorus (Nigel Brown)
Island Endemics Part 3: Madagascar (John Gorham)
A Marvellous Mollusc in Wales: The Freshwater Pearl Mussel and Me (Katie Fincken-Roberts)
Treborth Met Records, January to July 2022: Droughts and a Heatwave (Pat Denne)
Farewell to Judith and Ann (Sarah Edgar)
Issue 74, May 2022
(No such thing as) A Typical Week at Treborth Botanic Garden (Rosie Kressman);
Zantedeschia odorata (P. Perry), a Species of Calla Lily (Erle Randall);
Plant Recording at Treborth Botanic Garden (Paul Smith);
Hybrid Succulents (John Gorham);
Being a Volunteer Gardener at Treborth - Good for the Body and the Soul (Sue Hofsteede);
Work Placement at Treborth (Pete Oswald);
Bangor’s Hidden ‘Green’ Gem: Valuing the Health and Wellbeing Benefits of Treborth Botanic Garden (Bangor Uni online news);
Ecological Experience: Life at the Rockface (Richard Birch);
The Ponds at Treborth (Andrew Dixon);
In Memoriam: Alfred Williamson (Nigel Brown);
Do the Treborth Botanic Garden Meteorological Data (1991-2021) show changes in Climatic Extremes? (Pat Denne)
Issue 73, January 2022
Friends’ Membership Questionnaire (Cath Dixon);
Behind the Scenes: Preparing for a Plant Sale (Judith Hughes);
Conservation Propagation: A Legacy Project (Rosie Kressman);
Mosses and Moths, Ferns and Fungi: a Walk in the Woods of Meirionnydd (NigelBrown);
Christchurch (New Zealand) Botanic Gardens: Surviving the Earthquake (Andrew Dixon);
A Walk Round Christchurch Botanic Gardens (Cath Dixon);
The Treborth Intern and Placement Experience (ed Angela Thompson);
Lammas Growth (John Whitehead);
Wild Flowers in Britain: Some Observations (Peter Marren);
Teasels: A Teasing Plant (Angela Thompson);
A Wartime Story: Margaret Beal (Sarah Edgar);
Meadow Plots at Treborth Botanic Garden (Sarah Edgar);
Protecting Our Precious Trees (Hilary Miller);
Island Endemics Part 2: The Smaller Islands of the Western Indian Ocean (John Gorham);
Treborth Met records: August to November 2021 (Pat Denne)
Issue 72, September 2021
In Memoriam: Joan Benington, Hazel Cave and Morag McGrath (David Toyne, Nigel Brown, Jane Cherrett, Sarah Edgar);
90th Birthday Celebration for Pat Denne (Nigel Brown);
Len Beer Memorial Lecture 2021: Fergus Garrett, Great Dixter (Hilary Miller);
October (verse, Chris Howard);
Memory and Imagination Cycle of the Garden (Sokyo Jung, Korea);
Island Endemics Part 1: Atlantic Islands (John Gorham);
Finding the Nightjar in Gwydir Forest (Sarah Edgar);
Treborth Met Data up to July 2021: a Continuing Saga of Extremes (Pat Denne);
Going Peat-Free in our Gardens (Sarah Edgar);
The Woodland at Treborth (Sarah Edgar);
Is the IUCN Red List Fit for Purpose? (John Gorham)
Issue 71, May 2021
Dr Shaun Russell, retired Director of Treborth Botanic Garden (Sarah Edgar);
Reports from our recent Interns at Treborth (Jacob Parry, Roseanna Hunt, Pete Oswald);
Taming a Monster: the Strangler Fig (Rosie Kressman);
A New Life for Natur Cymru Magazine (Lizzie Wilberforce);
Inscription for the Moss-Hut at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, Lake District (verse, William Wordsworth);
The Flora of Llansannan (Shaun Russell);
Dwarf Shrubs: a Baker’s Dozen (John Good);
My Greenhouse (Erle Randall);
Honeybees and the UK’s Changing Landscape over the last 65 Years (Dr Natasha de Vere, NBGW);
The National Seed Bank of Wales, and Treborth’s Contribution to it (Angela Thompson);
Treborth Met data summary for 2020, then on to 2021 (Pat Denne)
Issue 70, January 2021
Life Lessons from the Garden: Coping with COVID (Rosie Kressman);
Inscription from a Moss House in the shrubbery at Weston Park, Shropshire (verse, William Cowper);
Heritage Seeds (Hilary Miller);
Lockdown Finds: Floral Novelties in Foxgloves (Dr Paula J Rudall, Kew Science);
The Flowers of some Broad-Leaved Trees (Angela Thompson);
An Intern's Perspective (Will Usher Smith);
On being Addicted to Potatoes (David Shaw; Agroforestry (Terry Thomas);
Wollemi: Background and the trees at Treborth (Angela Thompson, Pat Denne, Rosie Kressman);
Thirty years of Met Data for Treborth Garden- August to November 2020 (Pat Denne);
2020 in the Carnivorous House (Pam Bower);
New Woodland Footpaths (Adam Cross);
Growing Cacti and Succulents from Seed (John Gorham).
Issue 69, September 2020
Gardening in Lockdown (Sarah Edgar);
Woodland Management and Glasdir (Gerry Downing);
Lockdown Experiences (Angela Thompson, Pat Denne, Val Lane);
Membership Matters (Teri Shaw);
Thirty years of Met Data for Treborth Garden (Pat Denne);
In Memoriam: Stephen Bristow (Sarah Edgar);
Coronavirus: Wastewater can tell us where the next Outbreak will be (Davey Jones, BU, the Conversation online);
UCNW Bangor Expedition to British Guiana 1963: Malcolm Cherrett (Jane Cherrett);
Life in Lockdown, the view from the Garden (Nigel Brown);
Le Jardin Botanique de Nice (Chris Howard);
Peat Free Potting (Rosie Kressman);
Plant Blindness and Wildlife Conservation (Angela Thompson);
Phenology (Shaun Russell) ;
Living at Treborth under Lockdown (Adam Cross)
Issue 68, May 2020
Normal Service will be Resumed as Soon as Possible (Angela Thompson);
In Memoriam: Dr. George Argent (Sarah Edgar);
From Home to Hampton Court (Stewart Turtill);
Book Review: ‘Wilding’ by Isabella Tree (Angela Thompson);
Natural History: To be, or Not to Be, a Subject Option at GCSE (Nigel Brown);
Why Plants don’t die from Cancer (the Conversation online; Plastic Pots: Better the Devil you know (Rosie Kressman);
Out in the Garden (verse, Katherine Mansfield);
The Two Dragons Chinese Garden Project (Berta Rosen);
Surveying on North and South Uist (Jen Towill)
Issue 67, January 2020
If the Earth were only a Few Feet in Diameter (Rosie Kressman);
Thoughts on the Bubble House (aka Carnivorous House) (Pam and Rob Bower);
Moving Up in the World (Val Lane);
Ash Die-back (Hilary Miller);
Strange Beasts found in a Garden: Musings on Invasive Species (Dave Thorpe);
The Dead Stick Plant (John Gorham);
Fungus Foray (Charles Aron) ;
Helen Hughes (Nigel Brown);
Healing Garden (Fatima Ammar);
Newborough Warren (Mike Dilger);
Oil Palm: Too Much of a Good Thing (Nigel Brown);
STAG: Student Treborth Action Group (Katie Bolton);
University College Bangor Nepal Expeditions: Digitising Len Beer’s slides (John Gorham)
Issue 66, September 2019
Propagation of Cotoneaster cambricus (Rosie Kressman);
Monocarpy (Bamboo): Going Out with a bang (Adrian Bell);
Forestry; Friends of Treborth and Welsh Historic Gardens Trust visit to Gardens of South Wales;
Giant’s Tale (Echium wildpretii);
Alaska; UN Assessment Report, May 2019: Human Activity threatens Nature’s Sustainability;
The effects of Anthropogenic Noise on Bird Foraging and Vigilance;
Wild Elements;
The Rhizotron Taking Root;
Intern Paul Golding
Issue 65, May 2019
New Membership Database;
February Gold (fine spring weather Feb 19);
Fred Whowell;
Gardening for Health and Well-Being;
Updating the Flora of Anglesey;
University College Bangor Nepal Expedition 1971;
Roy Lancaster's Plant People: John Whitehead;
Every Plant has its Place;
Ornamental Plants: Our future invaders? (Chelsea Flower Show);
After Whom is Bangor University's "Thoday" Building named?;
Tales of Adventure from Borneo - The cave of Gomantong
Issue 64, January 2019
A day in the Life of a Treborth Volunteer Gardener;
Ornamental Plants: Our Future Invaders?;
A Tour de Wales; Surviving Winter: In the Garden;
The Marine Botany of the Shoreline at Treborth Botanic Garden;
Two European Gardens: Puerto de la Cruz Botanic Gardens (Tenerife) and Vallon du Stang Alar, Brest (Brittany);
An Update on the Life and Story of Your Slug-Obsessed 2016 Intern;
Into Chile: The Tea Horse Road;
New Zealand: Bike, Boots, Beeches and Beaches.
Issue 63, September 2018
The Lucombe Oaks;
Interns Reports;
Autumn Clear-up;
Treborth Photography and Archive internship;
Moth Trapping;
Adlington Hall visit;
Southern Lake District visit (Levens Hall, Rydal Hall, Holker Hall, Gresgarth House, Holehird Gardens);
Adam Frost;
Myrtus apiculate;
The role of BCGI;
Summer stress;
Into Chile part 1.
Issue 62, May 2018
Paul Hibbert and Hefina Chamberlain tributes;
Gardening Idioms;
Chilean Patagonia;
Citizen Science;
Yellowstone and Grand Teton in the Fall, US; Travelling for Trees;
An Anglesey Garden;
Seven Clever Ways Bluebells win the Woodland Turf War
Issue 61, January 2018
Anheddau Outdoors Walking Group;
Internships at Treborth;
Orchids and Treborth;
An Anglesey Garden (Llangefni);
A Bicycle a Tent and Boundless Nature for Company;
Wildlife and Gardening at Siambra Gwynion (Tregarth);
Sophie Williams;
Shorelines; Gait Barrows, National Nature Reserve, N Lancs;
Of Mice and Men (South Georgia)