Travel tips :
"Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands, about 15 miles from France and 100 miles south of mainland England. Its climate is mild, tempered by the Gulf Stream. From May to September the average temperature is 68 degrees. In winter Jersey is often windy but rarely frigid, and snow rarely sticks...
I knew I'd find flowers, though, because my main reason for making the trip was to visit the Eric Young Orchid Foundation, one of Jersey's � and, arguably one of the world's � greatest floral treasures...
orchid aficionados know the foundation because it wins awards at almost every competition it enters, including four gold medals from the Royal Horticultural Society at a recent Chelsea Flower Show.
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Technically, Jersey isn't part of Britain � or the European Union, for that matter. Traded back and forth between England and France throughout its history, Jersey chose to ally itself with Britain in the 13th century and, as a reward, was granted the unique status of "crown peculiar," which means it remains self-governing. It is subject only to the English monarch, not to the Parliament, though England handles Jersey's affairs by treaty.
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afternoon appointment with Chris Purver, curator of the Eric Young Orchid Foundation...
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The private orchid collection and breeding center was established in 1986 by Eric Young, an English eccentric who had three Rolls-Royces but bristled at the high cost of compost. Young came to Jersey after World War II and became a successful businessman, which enabled him to collect snuff jars and indulge his passion for orchids.
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Eric Young, who died in 1984, had the foresight to buy the contents of Sander's St. Albans Nursery, one of the world's best-known orchid collections, from which he carried on the work of orchid perfection.
The foundation is open to the public, but curator Purver had agreed to take me on a special tour before he flew off to London, where he was taking a hanging Stanhopea platyceras orchid in full bloom, for judging by the Royal Horticultural Society.
We met in the foyer of the display house, small compared with the adjacent production houses, where newly bred orchids emerge and eventually flower.
... a plant discovered in Peru in the 1980s enabled the foundation to jump-start breeding of long neglected genus Phragmipedium, or Mandarin orchids.
Among the first hybrids bred from it was foundation star, Phragmipedium Eric Young...
Fortunately, Purver has the means to experiment, unfettered by the need to produce orchids for the commercial market. That's thanks to Young's financial planning, which allowed the foundation to pursue its esoteric work, free of market influences.
"We have no commercial constraints," Purver says. "There's no place like this in the world."
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Adjacent to the show house is a viewing gallery overlooking the production houses. Because I was with the director, I got to go inside one of these long, glass-roofed structures filled with orchids at various stages of development. There, Purver showed me several extraordinary hybrids, such as subtle, sylph-like Phragmipedium Jason Fischer, and explained the criteria that judges use when giving awards. Chief among them are size and color, but something far less quantifiable is involved as well. Purver calls it character, the quality that makes a flower stand out.
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Eric Young Orchid Foundation, Victoria Village, Trinity, 1534-861-963, http://www.ericyoungorchidfoundation.co.uk "
source and complete article :
http://www.nynewsday.com/travel/la-tr-jersey6mar06,0,4646134.story?coll=nyc-header-extraheadlines
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