The Friends of The Savill Garden Committee would like to congratulate John Anderson, Keeper of The Gardens, who was awarded the RHS Loder Rhododendron Cup at the RHS Rosemoor Main Rhododendron Show on Saturday 22 April.
The history of the Loder Cup
The Cup was gifted to the RHS in 1921 by Sir Giles Loder (1861 – 1936), the then owner of Wakehurst. Sir Giles Loder was the younger brother of Sir Edmund Loder (1849 – 1920), who bought the Leonardslee House and Garden in Sussex from his wife’s family in 1889. Sir Edmund was noted not only for his cultivation of rare plants but also for his hybridisation of rhododendrons.
The Rhododendron Society was established in 1915 and their first AGM was held at Chelsea in 1916. Between 1916 and 1931, the Rhododendron Society Notes were published, culminating with the publication of The Species of Rhododendron, which was the first monograph of the genus. In 1927 the society’s membership was opened more widely, and it became the Rhododendron Association.
A joint committee with the RHS was established in 1930 to judge rhododendron hybrids at Exbury, with Gerald Loder becoming its first Chairman in 1931. When the Association was ‘absorbed’ into the RHS in 1945, it became the Rhododendron Group.
Sir Giles presented the ancient Irish-designed silver gilt Loder Rhododendron Cup to the RHS in memory of his brother, to be awarded annually to an individual. In awarding the Cup, the RHS judges are asked to consider “not merely floral displays of rhododendrons and azaleas, but the value to horticulture of the work of the recipient, whether such work shall include the production of flowers or not”. It is therefore particularly fitting that it has been presented to John following his fact-finding expedition to India following in the footsteps of such important plantsmen as Frank Kingdon-Ward and Ernest Wilson.
Connections with Windsor Great Park
Each year at the RHS Main Rhododendron Show there is also an award called the Loder Challenge Cup and it is given to the best exhibit of any hybrid rhododendron in the show. The Crown Estate has won this a number of times.
The list of recipients of the Loder Rhododendron Cup contains many important names including Thomas Hope Findlay in 1975 and then in 1983 – exactly forty years ago, to John Bond, both former Keepers of the Gardens for Windsor Great Park.
Written by: Diana Bendall, Chair of The Friends of The Savill Garden
