Council Members full addresses are sent to Members every year.
Gabriele Allet, Council Member co-opted, Switzerland
Details to be supplied.
Lyndy Broder, Council Member, USA
" As a young bride in the early 70's, I moved into my new home south of Atlanta, Georgia. The empty trellis was soon planted with clematis 'Belle of Woking'. Although my love of clematis was born, it had to remain dormant for twenty-five years. I was busy raising four children and attending to a career in the mental health field. My early retirement in 1996 gave me the opportunity to pursue my passion of gardening. By then we had moved to a new home on my husband's family dairy farm in Stockbridge, Georgia. I now had a three-acre garden in the middle of a cow pasture, devoid of all plant material except for a solitary persimmon tree.
My first task was to become a master gardener and then I began joining plant societies. Of course, the International Clematis Society was one of my first to join. I then began collecting clematis, which necessitated the planting of many shrubs and trees as supports. Although I now have several hundred clematis, my favorite clematis are the North American natives. I have painstakingly collected a dozen different species mostly from the Southeast. Clematis crispa is native to my county and is prolific throughout my garden. My garden has been featured on the Home and Garden Television network show 'A Gardener's Diary' as a garden of a clematis lover.
I have developed many wonderful friendships through attending the annual conferences of the International Clematis Society. These friendships have been the most valuable benefit of the I.Cl.S. "
Duncan Donald, Council Member, Great Britain
"It was inevitable that I would become a gardener. My paternal grandfather, the son of an estate head gardener, was a market gardener in north-east Scotland. My maternal grandfather, the son of a head gardener, helped my grandmother run the nursery business in Surrey, England that she had inherited from her father. He had trained at the Jackmans' nursery at Woking and was himself the son of a gardener-cum-nurseryman connected with the plant collector, Robert Fortune.
I took a biology degree at Birmingham University, specializing in botany and in particular, taxonomy. Wanting practical experience and knowledge, I first trained at Slocock's Nursery, then the RHS Garden, Wisley before becoming Conservation Propagator at Cambridge University Botanic Garden working with rare native plants. I returned to Wisley four years later to become the first employee of the then newly formed British garden-plant conservation charity, the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG). There I worked closely, amongst others, with Raymond Evison, one of the Council's founding members and who spearheaded its publicity effort, not least its early Chelsea Show displays (which included lots of clematis!). Raymond was then based at Treasures of Tenbury, so visiting him also gave me a chance to see the marvellous clematis collection at Burford House.
I then spent six years as Curator of Chelsea Physic Garden, eleven years as Head of Gardens for the National Trust for Scotland, and four years as Property Manager at Inverewe Garden.
Currently I am the International Clematis Registrar."
Marianne Fistarol, Council Member, Switzerland
"I was born in 1940, have lived in Zürich for most of my life, specialised in orthodontics, got married, brought up two wonderful daughters, shared a private office with my husband until a short time ago.
My gardening interests at first were rather negative, as I had to weed as a punishment in the big garden of my mother - and for inexplicable reasons this happened very often! I started gardening after we had built our own house outside Zürich. I became a member of different Garden Societies, the RHS, BCS and some years later the I.Cl.S. and I often travelled to England and different other countries for garden tours and shows.
Our garden (half an acre) lies on a slope and the situation is ideal for growing plants vertically. One of my daughters has constructed some magnificent rusty iron supports that can be placed in between trees, bushes, roses. They are surrounded by geraniums, daylilies, hellebores... and many Hostas - and they accommodate Clematis ( mainly viticellas). By now there are around 150 different ones - and I love them!"
Sally Geist, Council Member, USA
"One hundred plus clematis grow in my garden, despite my sometimes neglect. Propagation is my current interest.
I have served on the boards of The Portland Garden Club, Hoyt Arboretum Friends, and the Pacific Northwest Clematis Society."
More recently Sally has served as president of the Friends of the Rogerson Clematis Collection (FRCC). She is currently (2011) Director, Tours.
Helga Huber, Council Member co-opted, Germany
Akihito Kaneko, Council Member, Japan
Akihito Kaneko was one of the original members of the International Clematis Society when it was founded in 1984. He has written and published in Japan many clematis books, a number of which have been reviewed in past journals. These reviews are also on the Society website, within the Information, Answers and Questions on Growing Clematis Section under Further Information.
Akihito Kaneko provided help and advice for the fabulous gardens of Clematis-no-Oka, also known as the Clematis Hill White Garden, which the Society visited in Japan in 2008.
Peter Keeping, Council Member, Canada
Peter was born in Rochester, Kent, England, moved to Fulham in 1937 where he lived through the war. He worked for Wills and Seagar in Knightsbridge - Florists to Her Majesty. He emigrated to Canada in 1957 with his family. He started a horse ranch and farmed 1500 acres until 1971 when the farm was sold. Peter moved to Grand Valley in Ontario and then to Scarborough in 1980.
He started gardening with Clematis in 1986 when most of the children had left home. It was a large garden. He moved to a 1/2 acre property in Bowmanville, Ontario in November 2000, where he and his partner Sheila, had to start the garden from scratch.
Ute Klatt, Council Member, Germany
To be supplied.
Szczepan Marczyñski, Past President, Poland
"I was born in 1946, in Warsaw. I am married and I have three children: Katarzyna (34), Grzegorz (30) and Julianna (17), and two grandchildren: Anna (5) and Tomasz (3). I graduated from Warsaw Agricultural University in 1969 and received a doctoral degree in 1974, later completed post doctorate studies at Cornell University, N.Y., U.S.A. (1977-78). In 1987 I spent 6 months at the Research Station for Nursery Stock in Boskoop, Holland. I worked as an Assistant Professor at Warsaw Agricultural University in Poland between 1970 and 1998, teaching and researching on plant propagation and ornamental nursery management.
I first grew Clematis in my own garden in 1975. Since 1988, I have been running my own wholesale nursery on 5 ha, growing mainly Clematis, but also other climbing garden plants. I have bred and introduced to the market seven Clematis cultivars: 'Barbara', 'Hania', 'Julka', 'Jerzy Popieluszko', 'Lech Walesa', 'Polonez' and 'Solidarnosc'.
I have published over 50 extension and popular articles about Clematis. Together with my son, Grzegorz, we have developed an interactive encyclopaedia of Clematis and other climbing plants on the Internet. I have been a member of I.P.P.S. since 1978, the International Clematis Society since 1992, the British Clematis Society since 1994 and The Royal Horticultural Society since 2003. I have also been a founding member of the Polish Nurserymen Association since 1992, in which I held the post of chairman in years 1997 - 2000."
Mathias Münster, Council Member, Germany
"I was born on 29th October 1974 in Elmshorn, Germany. From 1991-1994 I was learning the job in a nursery with shrubs and trees. During 1995 and 1996 I working in a nursery with rhododendron, maples and other rare plants.
Since 1996 I have worked in the nursery of my father, Baumschulen Münster, at our home.
During 2001 and 2002 I did a Master Degree in a school in Elmshorn. In 2005 I took over the nursery from my father and I currently run it together with my uncle.
In the nursery we have approximately 250 clematis varieties. We also have many other climbers, for example Aristolochia, Wisteria, Campsis,Vitis,etc., and rarities such as Acer palmatum varieties, Cornus kousa varieties, Viburnum, Pinus, Picea, etc."
Berit Østby, Council Member, Norway
'Born in Trondheim, Norway in 1938 in the middle of the city, and moved to Bærum, a suburb of Oslo, in 1961. My interest in flowering plants must have been in the genes, with a mother who enjoyed gardening when young, and a father with an open mind to everything within science (on an amateur basis), and also a good lecturer. I got my first small garden in 1973, and with enthusiasm I set off, everything was of interest.
The first time I saw any clematis was a C. 'Jackmanii' growing on a white farmer's house, and I instantly fell in love. Luckily, I got acquainted with Magnus Johnson, who became my mentor. I have a file of long, beautifully hand-written letters that I still return to now and then. My first import was from his nursery, though others followed later from different sources, mainly England.
After two smaller gardens, Eivind and I have now finished the seven year construction of our new garden. It contains many different plants, but the main feature is our ~150 clematis. These are all types, except C. montana, which does not flower in our climate. Being only an amateur in the field, I'm keen beyond the ordinary. For the last 20 years I have been giving talks on clematis, mainly in gardening clubs around Norway.'
Werner Stastny, Council Member, Sweden
"I was born in 1940 in Vienna, Austria during the war. At the age of 14, I had to decide whether to go on with my studies or to start a more practical education. First I wanted to practice in oenology, but I was too young at the time, so I started to be a gardener. After 3 years I studied again, this time for 4 more years at the horticultural school in Vienna. Every holiday we students went abroad to practice in another country. I myself travelled to Holland, Switzerland, France and Sweden. Sweden I liked most, so I decided to stay another year. I am still in Sweden.
From the beginning I worked as a landscape gardener and after 2 years when I was fluent in Swedish, I worked for the next 20 years as a landscape architect in several bureaus. In 1975 I started my own business, always as a one man business.
Clematis became important to me after I met Magnus Johnson in 1966. After every meeting with him I got more and more interested. I joined the International Clematis Society when it was founded by Raymond Evison. When I look at the member list in the yearbook from 1984, I still see some persons who are still in the I.Cl.S.
In 1988 the Swedish Clematis Society was founded and in 1989 the new I.Cl.S. I was the Chairman of the SClS for 13 years and the President of the I.Cl.S. for 4 years. My best memories were all the excursions we did to Baltic States right after the dissolution of the Soviet empire.
At the general meeting in Portland Oregon 2010 I agreed to join the council again.
I could never believe to make so many listening contacts all over the world just because of an interest in the genus CLEMATIS."
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