{"id":846,"date":"2020-05-31T09:24:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-31T09:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grigadale.org\/?p=846"},"modified":"2022-04-11T11:08:09","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T11:38:09","slug":"bob-berry-portrait-of-an-oak-collector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grigadale.org\/en\/bob-berry-portrait-of-an-oak-collector\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Berry: Portrait of an Oak Collector"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reduced version of this article, focusing on <\/em>Quercus, was published in the Journal of the International Oak Society,<\/em> International Oaks No. 31, in May 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,\u2014that is all
\nYe know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
\nJohn Keats, Ode to a Grecian Urn<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s Bob, absolutely, I mean look at his face. It just sums up Bob, the expression, everything about him.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bob Berry, photographed by Tessa Chrisp www.tessachrisp.co.nz<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Michael Hudson is describing a photo of his late friend and fellow plantsman, Bob Berry. I have come to interview him and his wife Carola<\/em>1<\/a><\/sup>, so as to try to understand how a sheep and cattle farmer in New Zealand devoted his late 60s and early 70s to establishing a collection of Mexican oaks, traveling repeatedly halfway across the globe to collect the seed and overcoming innumerable <\/em>obstacles and frustrations. Surely this was a mild-mannered, tree-hugging enthusiast, seduced by the beauty of trees and their capacity to embellish landscapes. Yet the photo Michael shows me, in a recent magazine article devoted to Bob\u2019s arboretum, depicts a man of dour expression, squinting almost defiantly at the camera lens, his one open eye manifesting a sharpness of gaze that suggests an equally sharp mind behind it. \u201cBob had a scientific mind,\u201d says Michael, \u201che didn\u2019t really stand up and love his trees or appreciate them as much as he should have, they were scientifically or botanically of interest to him.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

In the arboretum he created, Bob had planted around 3,700 trees and shrubs representing 161 families, 478 genera, and over 3,500 taxa. The Mexican oaks were the conclusion of his endeavor, like the late works of certain artists that define their oeuvre. Could mere botanical interest fuel such an enterprise? Would I not need to find a deeper fire to explain his ventures? Perhaps an exploration of Bob\u2019s life and work can yield answers to these questions.<\/em><\/p>\n

Portrait of the artist as a young man<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bob Berry was born in the middle of the World War 1, on Jun 11, 1916, in a place so far removed from the theater of war so as to be in a different season. His family lived on a farm named Hackfalls, near Tiniroto, on the east coast of New Zealand\u2019s North Island, some 60 km west and inland of Gisborne. Bob\u2019s father, James, was a second-generation farmer, whose father had arrived in New Zealand in 1889 from Knaresborough in Yorkshire, UK. Not far from Knaresborough is Hackfall Wood, the origin of the name chosen by Bob\u2019s grandfather for his first farm in New Zealand (it is not clear how the name developed a terminal \u201cs\u201d). Hackfall lies in the valley of the River Ure, near Grewelthorpe in North Yorkshire. It was a tourist attraction in Victorian times, and it was included in one of the scenic routes through the Lake District recommended by Wordsworth.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

James Berry thought he might be called up to fight in the far-off world conflict and in preparation sold the family farm to the Whyte family, Scottish immigrants. James was in fact not conscripted, but Mr. Whyte was not able to pay off his debt to the Berrys and around 1920 in lieu of payment transferred ownership of Abbotsford, another farm.3<\/a><\/sup> Abbotsford, like Hackfalls, was situated in the valley of the Hangaroa River. The original Hackfalls was subsequently divided and in 1984, Abbotsford would be renamed Hackfalls. In 1993, Bob visited the original Hackfall on the River Ure and commented that \u201cthe forested valley is rather similar to the valley of the Hangaroa River, especially as it would have been in 1889, before tree clearance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob grew up on these Hangaroa valley farms and attended primary school at Tiniroto, the local village, till he was 12. After that he was home schooled. He was 14 at the time of the Napier earthquake, centred about 80 km to the southwest of Tiniroto, and the memory of the event would never leave him.4<\/a><\/sup> In his late teens he studied at Massey College (now Massey University), and apparently enjoyed skiing while he was there.3<\/a><\/sup> On reaching adulthood he wanted to be a sailor and join the navy to see the world, but an irregular heart beat put a stop to that, and so like his father and grandfather, he became a farmer: \u201cIn my day if you were brought up on a farm, that was your future and you should count yourself lucky, as good alternative jobs were in short supply,\u201d he would write later.5<\/a><\/sup> But his mother and uncle were keen on plants, and they encouraged Bob\u2019s interest in horticulture. Tree planting in particular interested him, but his father saw little point in a tree that did not provide timber or shelter. <\/em>So he farmed during the week and spent his weekends \u201cplanting and tending trees as a hobby.\u201d5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

One of the trees that could be safely planted on weekdays was poplar. Traditionally used for windbreaks, on New Zealand farms they are used as living fence posts and to stabilize land. Soil erosion has been a major issue since land clearance began in New Zealand. By the 1930s flooding and soil erosion were a serious concern and the government took steps to reduce their extent. Erosion control material had to be grown in the presence of grazing animals, so trees that could be grown from poles were favoured over seedlings. Poplars and willows were ideal, and in the 1950s a breeding and selection program began that resulted in the release of superior clones.6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Lombardy poplars (Populus nigra<\/em> \u2018Italica\u2019) were introduced in the Tiniroto District by Bobby Sinton, a Scots nurseryman and one of the first permanent settlers in Tiniroto. The oldest poplars at Hackfalls are from that source and are recorded in the catalogue as \u201cmany along fences.\u201d They were later used as a source of poles for new fences. In 1946 new species were obtained from Goudie\u2019s Nurseries in Rotorua, including Populus yunnanensis<\/em> and P. trichocarpa <\/em>as well as European hybrids. A research center was established in 1968 at Aokautere, near Palmerston North, to centralize the national breeding and selection programs. A further need for greater diversity arose after 1973 when poplar rust (Melampsora larici-populina<\/em> and M. medusa<\/em>) reached New Zealand with devastating effect. As new cultivars became available, Bob accessioned and planted them. The catalogue includes 215 accessions, representing 106 taxa and constituting what is probably the most complete collection of the hybrid poplar gene pool in New Zealand.7<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

\"Poplars\"<\/a>

Poplars line the entrance road to Hackfalls, along the southern bank of Lake Kaikiore<\/p><\/div>\n

The old master<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the year 1950 Bob took over management of the farm, and the number of accessions at Hackfalls spiked significantly. Bob\u2019s father died in 1954 and that must have freed his hand (\u201cIt took a few years after he died before I really got going,\u201d Bob would say later.8<\/a><\/sup>) Another key event was a visit to a horticulturally minded neighbor. Bob joined the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture, and on one of their field trips in 1953 visited Douglas Cook\u2019s farm at Ngatapa, about 35 km northwest of Gisborne. Cook had bought his farm in 1910 and had begun planting trees and other plants. The First World War had interrupted his project, but after being injured in France, Cook convalesced in English country homes, which would serve as models for his horticultural and dendrological pursuits. He named his farm Eastwoodhill and it would later become New Zealand\u2019s National Arboretum. Plants and seeds arrived from Hillier\u2019s Nurseries in the UK and from Arnold Arboretum in the U.S., among others. This would be the beginning of a fruitful friendship between Bob and Douglas (always \u201cMr. Berry\u201d and \u201cMr. Cook\u201d to each other) that further increased accessions at Hackfalls. Bob had initially thought he would focus his collection on maples, and indeed some of the first plants he grew from Eastwoodhill seed were Acer<\/em>, but Douglas also introduced him to the possibilities of oaks and he was to find that Quercus<\/em> prospered in Hackfalls\u2019 conditions.9<\/a><\/sup> This marked the beginning of Bob\u2019s oak focus that would culminate in the collecting trips to Mexico 30 years later.<\/p>\n

Michael tells me a slightly different version of the story: \u201cThere was a meeting at Eastwoodhill when Bob went there I think for the first time, it was something to do more with farming than trees. His father was there, and he was on the farming side the whole time, but Bob suddenly was looking round and seeing these different trees at Eastwoodhill, and that set him off onto the tree side of things quite a bit, going there. And then talking to Douglas I suppose too, but he was always upset that Douglas never actually went to Hackfalls.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

In later years, Bob would make a significant contribution to Eastwoodhill when he compiled a catalogue of the plants there. After Douglas Cook died in 1967, Bob became concerned that labels of Eastwoodhill\u2019s plants were being lost or transposed, and that the value of the collection would suffer. He obtained from an architect a map based on aerial photography overlaid with a grid system. Starting in 1971 he would drive 60 km to Eastwoodhill at least once a week and spend the day exhausting one square of the grid at a time, finding and identifying the plants, many of which were hidden amongst the overgrown ferns. It took him more than a year to complete the process, often having to bring home plant material to try to identify a plant using the books in his library, even studying German in order to use Kr\u00fcssmann\u2019s Manual of cultivated broad-leaved trees and shrubs.<\/em>7<\/a><\/sup> When he came to prepare the catalogue, he realized handwritten notes would not suffice, so he bought himself a manual typewriter and taught himself to type, producing the first 39-page, single-space document listing Eastwoodhill\u2019s accessions. His own records of Hackfalls would merit similar efforts, using the same grid system and evolving with time into ever-better formats as modern technology offered more efficient software and geolocation options.<\/p>\n

The journeyman years<\/strong><\/p>\n

The late 1950s and the 1960s saw the Hackfalls collection grow steadily, with plants sourced from local nurseries and seed companies, as well as Bob\u2019s own collections in parks and botanical gardens all over New Zealand. The Peter B. Dow Seed Company in Gisborne had a wide variety of species available, some sourced from foreign collections, allowing Bob to receive plant material from the Arnold Arboretum and Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (RGBV), among others. He also started to request seed directly from foreign gardens and in 1966 travelled to Melbourne to collect personally at RBGV.<\/p>\n

In 1977 the International Dendrology Society (IDS) toured New Zealand, visiting Eastwoodhill and Hackfalls (still Abbotsford at the time). It turned out to be a fateful event for Bob. He joined the Society, thus extending his network of seed and plant sources, and would participate in IDS tours that took him to Mexico, Japan and Korea, Northern Ireland, and the Eastern United States. The 1977 tour was organized by Lady Anne Palmer, a renowned horticulturist who created Rosemoor Garden in North Devon, UK. This would be their first meeting, but not their last: thirteen years later Anne and Bob would marry, a \u201cmatch made in botanical heaven, with Anne\u2019s contributions evident in Hacfkalls\u2019 stunning homestead garden which she extended, introducing a variety of new plants\u201d 10<\/a><\/sup>. Of particular importance was the IDS Tour to Japan and Korea in 1980, during which Bob made contact with Carl Ferris Miller, founder of the renowned Chollipo Arboretum on the east coast of South Korea. \u201cRecords show just how many new trees seeds were received via this source. This relationship gave access to many species of maple and collections made in Taiwan. Paulownia kawakamii<\/em> was first introduced into New Zealand from this source along with Photinia davidiana.<\/em>\u201d9<\/a><\/sup> Accessions listing Chollipo Arboretum ascend to 117 and span two decades, from 1979 to 1998.<\/p>\n

But by far the greatest impact the IDS had on the history of Hackfalls was the Tour to Mexico in October-November 1982, which Bob participated in together with his first wife, Amy.11<\/a><\/sup> Initiated at Eastwoodhill, Bob\u2019s focus on oaks was restricted at first to species from Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the United States. Before 1982, his only Mexican oak was a Quercus rugosa<\/em> planted in 1975, obtained from a group of trees established near McLaren Falls in Tauranga, some 300 km northeast of Hackfalls. The origin of these plants is not certain, but likely to have been grown from seed obtained in Mexico or southwestern USA. The species grew well at Hackfalls, and Bob was keen to obtain other Mexican species, being aware, thanks to studying Trelease\u2019s The American Oaks<\/em>, of the large diversity of Mexican oak species. As reported in Heino Heine\u2019s account of the Tour, the three-week trip covered:<\/p>\n

a vast, strictly tropical but largely mountainous area with one of the richest and most varied and complex woody vegetation in the Northern Hemisphere. It led a party of 16 IDS members to some of the most interesting places of the central and southern part of Mexico, extending from the 21st parallel north to the frontier with Guatemala and to the coasts of both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Long-needle pines and evergreen oaks as typical representatives from the cooler and higher mountainous regions abound there. They were, from a dendrological point of view, undoubtedly the favourites of any woody plants seen and the very goal of some of the participants.\u201d12<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Itinerary of the 1982 IDS Tour of Mexico. Source: IDS Yearbook<\/p><\/div>\n

It is tempting to imagine that this last phrase referred to Bob, who later wrote: \u201c[d]uring this tour I managed to do a small amount of acorn collecting, some of these germinated and grew on successfully, a very encouraging result which made me keen to get more.\u201d13<\/a><\/sup> Accessions from this trip were predominantly Quercus<\/em> and included nine taxa from Hidalgo, Chiapas, Michoacan, and Veracruz. Bob\u2019s keenness \u201cto get more\u201d resulted in six subsequent trips, firstly on his own, and the last two accompanied first by his friend Peter Murphy and then by Lady Anne. The IDS Tour had visited the central states of Mexico, Michoacan, Jalisco, Puebla, and Morelos, and the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. His later trips focused mainly on the central states (1984, 1985, and 1987) and those in 1989 and 1991 also extended further north into the states of Durango and Nuevo Le\u00f3n. This reiteration of itineraries may seem unusual, but as Bob explains, \u201c[s]eed production is variable with some species being regular annual croppers while others fruit irregularly, hence the trips in different years.\u201d13<\/a><\/sup> In 1984 he retired from farming and his niece Diane Playle and her husband took over. Just as taking over the farm had released him from patriarchal restrictions on planting, retiring released him to travel and collect.<\/p>\n

I ask Michael why Bob chose Mexican oaks. \u201dHe went on that IDS trip, that first time. And saw them there. He wondered whether they\u2019d do better than maples, which don\u2019t do terribly well at Hackfalls. There is not a sufficient demarcation between the seasons and maples want a clear autumn, winter, spring. And up there, there is a marvelous climate, but there is no distinct difference between the seasons.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Mexican period<\/strong><\/p>\n

The IDS Tour would have provided Bob with a useful introduction to the practicalities of travelling and collecting in Mexico. It included a 1,500-km, two-day trek from Guadalajara to San Crist\u00f3bal de las Casas, with no stops or observations, a \u201cvery long and strenuous journey\u201d12<\/a><\/sup>, necessitated by a flight cancellation. In future journeys Bob would avoided this risk, travelling by hired taxi with a trusted driver, but evidently he would cover similar or longer distances than in 1982. He collected oaks \u201cfrom road sides where oaks were in second growth after earlier clearances\u201d9<\/a><\/sup> and also in some gardens, such as Francisco Javier Clavijero Botanic Garden in Xalapa, Veracruz.<\/p>\n

An account by Peter Murphy, his companion on the 1989 trip, gives us an indication of what these trips were like:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bob and his driver Jes\u00fas. Photo by Peter Murphy.<\/p><\/div>\n

On our first morning in Mexico, Bob contacted Jes\u00fas at the nearby taxi stand, which was only a few minutes\u2019 walk from where we were staying. Jes\u00fas had already gone home on the previous night when Bob had tried to call him. When I inquired if Bob had contacted him, he told me that he did not think Jes\u00fas would have a phone and as he could not read, Bob had not written to him. Jes\u00fas [. . .] had driven Bob all around Mexico on his last trip there [. . .]<\/p>\n

In order to collect acorns we had to know where the oak trees grew. Bob had made a study of this and with the help of Jes\u00fas we did pretty well. It meant getting off the beaten track into areas frequented by bandits and opium smugglers who travelled throughout some of these areas. We were given the tip-off one day and we made a hasty exit.<\/p>\n

Bob had found Quercus insignis<\/em> on his last visit, but it was not bearing acorns. This time he and our driver could not agree on its location and after a bit of an argument, Bob got his way and the tree was found, this time with a large crop of acorns which were each the size of a bantam egg.<\/p>\n

Each night after a day in the field, the acorns had to be closely examined for bugs or disease, packaged and labelled. Bob was most particular and he traced around the edges of the leaves and made notes. We came to Mexico to collect acorns and we did just that.<\/p>\n

The language used was Spanish and Bob spoke a smattering of it, but in Jes\u00fas we had a good interpreter who also spoke good English [. . .] We bought back a total of 800 acorns, all carefully checked under a magnifying glass to ensure they were bug-free.14<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

\"Bob<\/a>

Bob with an unidentified large-leafed oak in Mexico (photo by Peter Murphy)<\/p><\/div>\n

Bob\u2019s smattering of Spanish seems to have been sufficient for him to be able use botanical publications in that language. In a note on his Mexican oak collection written in 2001, he provided a brief bibliography of the books he used to seek and identify oaks on his collecting trips:<\/p>\n