Congratulations, Thank You… And Welcome

Crowning a career that spans more than fifty years is the award recently bestowed upon Dr Elizabeth McClintock by the Royal Horticultural Society. The Gold Veitch Memorial Medal is the highest award the society can make to a non-British horticulturist, and recognizes individuals who have worked to advance the science and practice of horticulture. The RHS recognized Elizabeth for her many contributions to horticulture and conservation, particularly in California. The announcement was made in January and published in the February issue of the society’s journal, The Garden. The awards ceremony will be held in London in June of this year.

Elizabeth is quick to point out that she is not a gardener, but she has, nevertheless, had a profound impact on the field of horticulture. Through her many years as botanist with the California Academy of Sciences, she maintained detailed records and herbarium specimens of the trees and other plants of Golden Gate Park and, particularly, of Strybing Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. She worked tirelessly to establish a consistency in the nomenclature of cultivated plants in California. And she worked on behalf of the California Native Plant Society in the area of conservation of endangered species and in documenting the spread of escaped exotic plants in the state.

As associate editor of Pacific Horticulture, Elizabeth brought a degree of accuracy in nomenclature seldom seen in popular gardening journals. She also contributed articles on a variety of subjects, but she will be best remembered for her twenty-four-year series on the trees of Golden Gate Park. That series has been re-edited into a field guide to the trees of the park and of San Francisco. As we go to press on this issue of the journal, our publishers, Heyday Books of Berkeley, are putting the finishing touches on Elizabeth’s Trees of Golden Gate Park, which we expect to have back from the printers later this spring.

Late in the summer of 2000, Elizabeth made the decision to step down from her role as associate editor and take a well-deserved retirement. This was a difficult step for both Elizabeth and for your editor, but one made necessary by her advancing years. Now in her late 80s, Elizabeth has moved to a new home in Sonoma County, closer to her favorite nephew but not too far from her many friends and colleagues in San Francisco. We all wish Elizabeth continued good health and thank her for those many years of service to Pacific Horticulture.

… and Welcome

Sharp-eyed readers will already have noticed, on the inside front cover of our journal, a new individual in the role of associate editor. We are pleased and honored to welcome to that position Dr Roy Taylor of Victoria, British Columbia.

A native of Alberta, Canada, Roy received his PhD in Botany under the supervision of Lincoln Constance at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1962. He returned to Canada as a research scientist for Agriculture Canada in Ottawa, at the same time co-authoring books on various aspects of the flora of Canada. In 1968, he was appointed director of the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden, a position he held with distinction for seventeen years. He then held similar positions at the Chicago Botanic Garden and Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, in Claremont, California, from which he retired in late 1999 and moved to his current home on Vancouver Island. He and his wife Janet are now associated with the Milner Gardens and Woodland, in nearby Qualicum Beach.

Roy comes to Pacific Horticulture with significant experience in the publication of highly respected journals. Through the years, he has been actively involved with a number of journals of interest to the botanist and horticulturist, including: Davidsonia (concerning the flora of British Columbia), which he initiated; Brittonia, Madroño, Canadian Journal of Botany, InSite, and the Occasional Publications from the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, which he also initiated.

We thank Roy for accepting, with such enthusiasm, our invitation to serve as associate editor of Pacific Horticulture. We look forward to a long association—and to the journal’s continued excellence in nomenclature and in the science of horticulture.

RGT