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Council Officers full addresses are sent to Members every year.
Dan Long, President, USA
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"I come from a family of avid home gardeners and decided back in the early 80's to pursue horticulture as a career. Clematis can be particularly challenging in production for several reasons, but I decided to make it my specialty when I founded Brushwood Nursery in 1998. I love them and it makes work more enjoyable! It's been great sharing about the genus with others and learning from the fine folks in the Society as well."
Jeff Jabco, Vice President, USA
Jeff Jabco is the Director of Grounds and Coordinator of Horticulture for the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College, where he has worked since 1990. In his role, Jeff oversees the gardeners, the College's 400 acres, and the maintenance and development of its plant collections, gardens, and natural areas. Jeff is co-founder and vice president of the Mid-Atlantic Peony Society. He is an instructor at Longwood Gardens, where he teaches the Certificate in Ornamental Plants program, courses in landscape design and construction, and the two-year Longwood Professional Gardener program. He has written for Fine Gardening magazine; Green Scene, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's magazine; American Nurseryman; and The Hybrid, the quarterly publication of the Scott Arboretum; and the International Clematis Society's journal. He also serves on the board of The International Clematis Society. He began teaching in Longwood's Continuing Education program in 1985 and has taught in the Professional Gardener training program since 1998. Jeff was named Teacher of the Year in 2009 by the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture. He was awarded the Rutgers Gardens Hamilton Award in 2017. The Hamilton Award recognizes "an unsung hero, a quiet leader, or patient mentor in the field of horticulture". In 2014, Jeff initiated a trial of over 50 cultivars of clematis that were not readily available in the United States. The trial sites are located mainly in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and consist of public and private gardens. The goal of the trial is to evaluate performance of these plants and to create a market for the outstanding performers.
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Guy Opie, Vice President, UK
Guy Opie, Vice President, UK, is also our UK Seed Exchange Administrator and Co-Ordinator. Guy Opie works in Lincolnshire for Pennells of Lincoln, looking after the plant retail side of the business, buying the stock and looking after it for the Lincoln store. Shortly, he will be moving over to the nursery side of the business, shadowing the current grower, who will be retiring early next year. Previously he worked in garden centres around Lincolnshire for the last ten years. Before this, his first career was as a chef, travelling the UK, but mostly based in the Cotswolds. He started a herb garden outside the kitchen of one of the gastro pubs and was soon spending more time outside than in the kitchen! Moving back to Lincolnshire, he met his now wife, got the gardening bug, got his first job in a garden centre and has not looked back. They now have twin girls and live in Lincoln. His main interest is Clematis. He is the I.Cl.S. Seed Administrator for the UK. He is also currently working on two plant heritage national collection applications which he hopes to complete next spring, as he is still working on building stock up. These collections are the second national collection of Texensis, and a new collection, titled "Clematis raised by Walter Pennell", which the former will be housed on the grounds of Pennells Garden Centre.
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Ken Woolfenden, Editor & Treasurer, UK
"Born in 1950, I graduated from Sussex University, England with a BSc in Applied Engineering. Almost by chance I applied for a job as a trainee computer programmer. I stayed in this fascinating industry, in various roles, until 2001 when I opted for early retirement.
Fiona and I met whilst we were both working on the same computer implementation project. After getting married in 1984, I gave her a one-year membership to the International Clematis Society, and we haven't had a free moment since.
My involvement with, and knowledge of, clematis has grown through my relationship with Fiona and my other interests, particularly photography, which I learnt as a child from my parents.
Working with computers for many years, including using them for many presentations and proposals, has provided useful experience when it comes to the production side of our journal, 'Clematis International'. With PCs of today, even complex formatting is achievable, if you know how.
I created the I.Cl.S. Web Site in 1996, I was interested in this new and emerging 'Internet' technology and wanted to understand more about it, how it worked, what you could do with it, whether it could benefit the Society. The first site was a very simple affair, 7 pages, today we have over 400 pages. The site features a different clematis each month.
As well as photography, I'm interested in cooking, wine and travel. With a little imagination we've used our membership of the I.Cl.S. to extend our experiences in all these areas."
Fiona Woolfenden, Secretary, UK
"My interest with Clematis started with a visit to Jim Fisk's Clematis Nursery in the mid 1980's. We bought three and never looked back. Now we have over 100 in our small garden either planted in the ground or in large pots. I prefer alpina types and late flowering varieties to the early large flowered varieties. I also have several herbaceous varieties, which I admire for their late colour and scent.
In 1989-90 I was the Secretary of the Great Britain and Ireland Branch of the I.Cl.S. and then became the Secretary of the British Clematis Society after its formation in 1991 until 1993. I was elected Secretary of the I.Cl.S. in 1994 and I have remained Secretary ever since. Over the last few years we have managed to involve other Members of the Society in the work that Ken and I do in order to distribute knowledge of how the Society works.
Ken and I live on the outskirts of north London. Now we are both retired and still very busy with the garden and seeing familiy and friends. We also have a horse which I ride regularly and I belong to a local yarnbombing group!
I've always enjoyed gardening including as a child earning holiday money by weeding! When I was young we had a very large garden, which was partly cultivated as a garden, and partly a fruit orchard. I remember the garden having peonies, roses and conifers but no Clematis!"
The MHH Partnership Ltd, Chartered Certified Accountants, Auditor, Great Britain
The Society thanks Roy Nunn for finding The MHH Partnership Ltd to audit our accounts. The Society also thanks Michael Hawes, FCCA, for auditing our latest accounts.
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