George Fraser's Hybrid Travels to Massachusetts

Bill Dale of Sidney, British Columbia, the chronicler of George Fraser's horticultural career in Ucluelet on Vancouver Island, in September arranged for a plant of the Fraseri Group, a cross made by Fraser in 1897, to be given to the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. At the ARS Western Regional Conference in Duncan, Dale presented the plant to District 6 Director Barbara Gingras. Barbara and her husband, Eugene, carried it home and gave it to ARS member Dick Brooks, who then presented it to Peter del Tredici, Director of Living Collections at the Arnold Arboretum.

Bill Dale, right, presents Barbara Gingras and Gene Gingras a plant of the Fraseri Group to carry back to Massachusetts after the Western Regional Conference in Duncan, BC.		Peter del Tredici of the Arnold Arboretum in Massachusetts receives the plant of the Fraseri Group. The plant was presented to him by Dick Brooks of the Massachusetts Chapter.

The plant's connection to the Arnold Arboretum dates back to 1919, when Fraser sent a budded plant to the Arnold Arboretum, which failed to acknowledge receipt of the hybrid. With this fall's elaborate transaction completed, George Fraser's hybrid will have a home at the Arnold Arboretum.

In 1897, Fraser received a shipment of cranberry plants from Nova Scotia. He noticed a "weed" in the shipment which he recognized as the East Coast native Rhododendron canadense . He immediately crossed it with R. molle ssp. japonicum . When the seedlings were budded, he sent one to the Arnold Arboretum and one to Kew Gardens. Coincidentally, both gardens named the plant "Fraseri." The registered name of Fraser's cross is now Fraseri Group.