RHS Award for Philip Baulk

Philip Baulk of Ashwood Nurseries has been awarded the prestigious Veitch Memorial Medal by The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the UK’s foremost gardening charity. RHS awards recognise both horticultural excellence and personal endeavour and are regarded internationally as being among the highest distinctions in horticulture.

The Veitch Memorial Medal is awarded for outstanding contribution to the advancement of the art, science or practice of horticulture. The RHS said  that ‘Philip has made an exceptional impact in his area of expertise having won 50 consecutive RHS Flower Show Gold Medals, as well as playing a significant role in establishing Ashwood’s worldwide reputation for quality and innovation’.

Philip recently retired from Ashwood after 39 years of service. During his long career at Ashwood, he worked closely with nursery owner John Massey to develop certain genera into specialist crops, for which Ashwood has become nationally and internationally known. While John focused on hepaticas and Kevin Belcher concentrated on hellebores, Philip took charge of Cyclamen, Lewisias, Primula auricula and Anemone pavonina.

Through careful selection and hand pollination, the results of the breeding programme were remarkable, producing some outstanding new plant introductions and seed strains that have never been bettered. Lewisia ‘Ashwood Pearl’, Lewisia  ‘Ashwood Ruby, Lewisia cotyledon Ashwood Strain together with the unique Lewisia ‘Ashwood Carousel Hybrids’ are arguably the most notable of these. Philip was also responsible for developing hydrangeas as a major crop with a superb range of species and cultivars being acquired and propagated.

Additionally, he and John have featured most of these specialist plant groups in single genus exhibits at the RHS London Flowers Shows, including Chelsea, and our record of 50 RHS Gold Medals speaks for itself: for this to be achieved with such a diverse range of single genus exhibits is rare in the show bench world. It certainly did much to enhance Ashwood’s reputation. Many other awards were bestowed including 5 Farrer Trophies, 2 William’s Memorial Medals and the coveted Lawrence Medal. In 2007, Philip was presented with The Kath Dryden Award by the Alpine Garden Society in recognition of his work with the genus Lewisia.