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Article: OBITUARY: Bill MacKenzie
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- October 20, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1995 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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In gardens all over Britain now the last stray blooms of a
yellow clematis are sprawling between the powder puffs of its silky
seedheads. The flower is stiff, like lemon peel, and its four
petals curve in a gentle bell round prominent reddish- purple
stamens. It is named after Bill MacKenzie who spent a long lifetime
in gardening, first in the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, and
then as curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden, in west London.
MacKenzie first noticed this clematis, a much stronger, larger
and more vigorous type than the ordinary species, in 1968 while he
was visiting the Waterperry School of Horticulture, near Oxford.
Another eminent gardener, Valerie Finnis, named it after ...