The guru of rhododendrons, Alleyne Cook, dies at age 94
Credit to Author: John Mackie| Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2019 02:04:45 +0000
Some people come to Vancouver for the weather, others for the scenery or the nightlife. Alleyne Cook came for the rhododendrons.
“He knew rhododendrons and azaleas would thrive here,” said his son Nigel. “He’d be able to grow them as well as anywhere in the world.”
And he did.
“He was credited with being the main designer and planter of the Ted and Mary Greig Rhododendron Garden in Stanley Park, which is possibly the best formal-designed and laid-out planted gardens in the park,” said former Vancouver Sun gardening writer Steve Whysall. “He was a gardener for many years at the (Vancouver) park board, but more than that, he became a rhododendron expert. He was given the top award for the American Rhododendron Society, and honoured as a world expert. He was very significant, and much-loved.”
Cook died Sunday at his North Vancouver home after a battle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He was just shy of his 95th birthday, which is amazing, given that he had survived three heart operations over the years.
“He had two triple (bypasses) and a quadruple, so 10 bypasses in total,” said Nigel Cook. “He outlived two cardiologists.”
“No three,” corrected Alleyne’s wife, Barbara.
Alleyne Cook had quite a life. He was born in Kapona, New Zealand, on Nov. 8, 1924, and was turned on to plants by his aunt. He apprenticed at a top nursery, Duncan and Davies, before deciding to move to Britain in 1950.
“The most experienced plantsman in New Zealand is inferior to one who has travelled and gone beyond his horticultural comfort level,” he explained in a profile by Terri Clark, former head of communications at the park board.
Alleyne Cook in 2002.
On-board the ship Rangitata for 28 days, he met his future wife. In England, he went to work for the legendary Sunningdale Nursery and planted the rhododendrons and azaleas at Castle Howard, the setting for the TV series and film Brideshead Revisited.
In 1954 he moved to Vancouver, where he installed gardens for a contractor before becoming a gardener at the school board. He lived frugally — he told Clark he lived at the Salvation Army until he finally married Barbara in 1961, 11 years after they met.
In 1966 Ted Greig had some health issues and he and Mary decided to close their nursery in Royston on Vancouver Island.
“They had probably the best rhododendron collection in North America, certainly on the West Coast,” said Cook’s friend and fellow gardening enthusiast Charlie Sale.
The Greigs offered the plants from the nursery to the park board, which bought them. But there was a catch.
“The Greigs said you can’t have them if you don’t get Alleyne Cook,” said Barbara Cook.
So park board supervisor Bill Livingstone phoned Cook, telling him, “We just bought an entire collection of rhodos and I know nothing about them. Come work for me and you’ll be able to do whatever you want with these plants.’ ”
Cook accepted the offer and worked at the park board for 23 years until his retirement. Besides overseeing the Ted and Mary Greig Garden by the Stanley Park Pitch and Putt, he installed the first rhododendrons at VanDusen Botanical Garden.
His love of plants combined with his love of family — he identified and registered a variety of magnolia “dawsoniana Barbara Cook” after his wife. It’s in Stanley Park, as is another magnolia called Briar Cook, after his daughter, and a rhododendron called Sir Nigel after his son.
Alleyne and Barbara Cook in their garden in North Vancouver on Oct. 16, 2013.
In gardening circles, he was a legend. His citation for the gold medal of the American Rhododendron Society said Cook had “essentially created three of the four heritage rhododendron collections in British Columbia, and contributed significantly to the fourth. You are a mentor, a guru even, to many serious gardeners.”
Post retirement, Alleyne and Barbara became world travellers.
“We never had a bean, but Alleyne took out a line of credit, and off we went,” said Barbara. “The big trip was the Oxiana Trip, from London to Moscow to Tashkent down through Asabad to Iran. That was a good one.”
The couple also “did the Pacific and Tunisia and Morocco and Spain.” Oh, and they went to Tibet and China, twice.
“(One day) he looked up and said, ‘Do you want to go to Tibet?’ ” Barbara recalled. “I nearly fell off my chair — I’d been reading about Tibet since 1948! So in ’88 we went to China and Tibet. Two years later he said, ‘Do you want another trip to Tibet?’ You can’t go to Tibet once, even Alleyne couldn’t. So we went back in ’90.”