CBE for clematis expert
HE IS no stranger to medals, and now he will be able to claim another one.
Clematis expert and multi- award-winning horticulturist Raymond Evison has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to horticulture and to Guernsey.
‘It was a big surprise to get the award, I was on holiday in Cyprus when His Excellency called to ask if I would accept,’ said Mr Evison.
‘It is a tremendous honour for myself, for my family and for everyone at Guernsey Clematis, and also for the world of horticulture and I hope Guernsey too.’
Mr Evison was awarded an OBE in 2000. The CBE is the highest-ranking Order of the British Empire award outside a knighthood or damehood.
Mr Evison has won 33 gold medals at the annual Chelsea Flower Show, with the first coming in 1967 and the most recent earlier this year.
Now aged 79, he is still working full time and is chairman of two companies, including Guernsey Clematis, which celebrates its 40th anniversary next year. He and the company will be back at Chelsea hoping for a 34th gold with a new variety, the ‘Guernsey Flute’, named as its flowers resemble a champagne glass. ‘We are very proud of it,’ he said.
Mr Evison estimates that in those 40 years the company has produced more than 200 new varieties of clematis and shipped 70m. plants to all corners of the globe.
‘When I started with clematis they were seen as difficult to grow and notorious for disease,’ he said.
‘I think they are a fabulous plant, they are so unusual and can be a real challenge.’
And when he goes to Buckingham Palace later next year for his investiture, it will be to familiar surroundings, with a number of his own clematis on display.
Mr Evison has advised both the late Queen and King Charles on the growing of clematis and his plants can be seen at Highgrove, Balmoral and Buckingham Palace.
He started working in horticulture alongside his father at his nursery in Tenbury, where they grew everything from roses to trees.
It was a visit to the Chelsea Flower Show when he was just 16 that started his love of clematis, part of the buttercup family.
‘I was working alongside an old gardener called Percy Picton, and his love and enthusiasm for clematis just rubbed off on me.’
By 23 he was managing director of his father’s business and starting to specialise in clematis.
The move to Guernsey came in 1984, triggered in part by a devastating winter in 1981 when temperatures dropped to -26C and his UK-based company lost 80,000 clematis, a third of its plants.
‘Guernsey was perfect for clematis, because of the maritime climate, it is almost frost-free and the light levels are 20% higher than the south coast of the UK,’ he said.
‘It meant our propagation period went from April to June to now being February to mid-October.’
As he enters his 80th year Mr Evison shows no sign of stopping. He now has a partnership in China, producing ground-breaking heat-tolerant varieties.
‘There are 300 wild species of clematis and 150 in China alone. We are cross-pollinating with our own varieties. It is very exciting and keeps the adrenalin pumping.
‘I’ve been going there for 40 years. They grow in mountainous regions 3-4,000 metres up, and as long as my impending hip operation goes well, I’ll be back there later next year.’
