William MacKenzie

BILL MacKenzie was a plantsman and a horticultural gentleman. The

gardening world will be the poorer for his passing. He was born in 1904

in the head gardener's cottage at Ballimore, Loch Fyne, Argyllshire, the

estate of Colonel John McRae Gilstrap.

Bill recalled that as a boy he never wore trousers until he was 13 or

14; up until then it was the kilt. He was interested in plants from an

early age and from this a lifetime love of plants evolved. He remembered

well the hedge of Desfontania spinosa from Chile and Peru growing at

Ballimore, which kindled his interest in plants.

He started his career as the vegetable boy at Ballimore, but after

seven years his interest in plants took him to the Royal Botanic Garden,

Edinburgh as a student in 1928.

Later while he was a deputy foreman in the propagation department,

there followed what he described as ''a marvellous time'', for it was

then that many new plants were being introduced into the garden from the

great Scottish plant collector George Forrest from China and also from

Frank Kingdon Ward and Joseph Rock.

Bill had a vivid memory of these golden days for it was his job to

look after the seeds of Meconopsis, Omphalogramma, Primula, Lilium,

Nomocharis, and Rhododendron which were arriving for the first time into

cultivation.

Many of the plants nursed from seed by Bill from the great collectors

can still be seen in the botanic garden today. He developed a love for

alpines and was pormoted to assistant curator in charge of the Alpine

and Herbaceous Department.

It was because of his love for alpines that he became one of the

co-founders, in 1933, of the Scottish Rock Garden Club. He became the

club's honorary life president of which he was greatly proud, and was an

active member of the club until his death.

In January 1946, like so many great Scottish gardeners, he moved south

to become curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden, where he remained until

his retirement in 1973. His interest in plants was a lifelong passion

which he continued into his retirement at Frimley Green, Surrey.

In 1961 Bill was awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour, VMH, from the

Royal Horticultural Society, an honour only held by 63 persons at any

one time, representing the 63-year reign of Queen Victoria. He was proud

of this honour for it was accorded to him in the same year as it was to

the Queen Mother.

His name will be well remembered for the yellow Clematis which bears

his name -- a chance seedling he noticed in the garden of Valerie Finnis

who propagated it from cuttings and gave it his name. Like the man, the

plant is now known throughout the world.

Bill MacKenzie never lost his soft Scottish accent, or his enthusiasm

for plants which he freely passed on to many budding gardeners. He was a

great plantsman with as many rare and endangered qualities as the plants

he nurtured into cultivation.