2016 saw the Society visit Berlin and Poland. The meeting was in two locations; initially based in Berlin, Germany and then in Poznań and Warsaw, Poland.
The Society has visited Germany a number of times before but never the area round Berlin. We visited Warsaw in 2000 prior to the Conference held that year in Dresden and visited Poland again in 2002 so it has been a number of years and another visit was well overdue.
In this, the fourth and final of my informal reports on the meeting, I will concentrate on the last day of our visit to Poland. For my other reports, please click Berlin and Warsaw – Part 1, Berlin and Warsaw – Part 2 or Berlin and Warsaw – Part 3. Please note that these reports have been written by myself, Fiona Woolfenden.
Clematis Container Nursery Źródło Dobrych Pnączy (Source of Good Climbers)
Our final day and we were looking forwards to spending the majority of it at Clematis Container Nursery Źródło Dobrych Pnączy (Source of Good Climbers) at Pruszków, just outside Warsaw.
We were welcomed to the Nursery by Szczepan Marczyński and his Business Partners Władysław Piotrowski, Andrzej Gruszczyński and Andrzej Rafaląt. We were also introduced to Szczepan’s nephew who had recently become involved with the business.
Szczepan performed the introductions and then took us on a thorough guided tour of the nursery. We saw many of the nursery processes from taking cuttings, rooted cuttings growing on, potting on rooted clematis, the outside areas where the plants mature and getting the clematis ready to sell. It was a rapid tour covering a lot of ground at the nursery.
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| Welcome to Źródło Dobrych Pnączy | Potting up clematis |
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| Clematis liners in greenhouse | Szczepan Marczyński in a ‘field’ of clematis |
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| Nursery workers readying plants of ‘Warsaw Nike’ for sale | Clematis growing everywhere |
It seemed that there were clematis growing throughout the nursery. These were all labelled which was exceedingly useful. One could take a picture of the clematis and then a picture of the label. You will find photos of clematis bred and introduced by Szczepan Marczyński and Brother Stefan Franczak below.
Alongside the Nursery is a garden built round a water reservoir displaying clematis growing in a number of different ways. There are a number of evergreen and structural plants with clematis growing up and over them. Clematis ‘Arabella’ was also spotted growing as ground cover.
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| Clematis in the garden at the nursery | Clematis in the garden at the nursery |
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| Clematis in the garden at the nursery | Clematis ‘Arabella’ growing as ground cover |
The Nursery hosted us for a fantastic lunch which included some Polish specialities such as borsch soup which was delicious. A nice touch were a number of mature flowering clematis plants surrounding the tables and the table decorations which contained clematis flowers. Finally, it was time to load up the coach with our purchases and to thank Szczepan and his Business Partners for their hospitality.
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| Lunch at the nursery | Clematis table decoration |
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| Loading up the coach | We thank the Nursery for their hospitality |
Szczepan Marczyński’s Clematis Introductions
Szczepan Marczyński has introduced a large number of clematis and we saw a number of them growing and in flower at the nursery. We even looked at a couple which Szczepan was considering introducing and he asked us for our opinion.
C. ‘Barbara’, named after his wife, was one of the first which was presented to the public and introduced to the market in the summer 2001. C. ‘Copernicus’ is a new introduction this year which has just won a gold award at the Flowers Expo in Moscow.
In this section I give you some of Szczepan’s introductions, old and new, for you to enjoy. These were all in flower on our visit.
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| Barbara Marczyńska and C. ‘Barbara’ | C. ‘Skyfall’ |
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| C. ‘Beautiful Bride’ | C. ‘Blue Pillar’ |
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| C. ‘Solidarnosc’ | C. ‘Jerzy Popieluszko’ |
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| C. ‘Copernicus’ | C. ‘First Love’ |
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| C. ‘Maria Sklodowska Curie’ | C. ‘Viva Polonia’ |
Finally, a relatively new cultivar introduced by Szczepan in 2014 is C. ‘Stefan Franczak’. Szczepan and the Nursery kindly gave us all a plant as a memento of our visit. Such a thoughtful gift. The tepals unfurl in an interesting way as shown in the Nursery’s photo below. The colour blue is delightful and with the white bar down the centre is attractive. I was able to cut the stems and flowers off my gift plant and take it home in its pot and it has flowered again as in the second picture below but the tepals have not really unfurled as the earlier flowers did. I suspect that I will need to wait for next year’s flowers!
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| C. ‘Stefan Franczak’ | C. ‘Stefan Franczak’ |
Brother Stefan Franczak’s Clematis Introductions
As well as Szczepan’s clematis the nursery has a large collection of clematis by Polish breeders such as Brother Stefan Franczak and Władysław Noll. Szczepan does a lot of work to promote clematis by Polish breeders.
Those of you who are Members of the International Clematis Society and interested in Brother Stefan Franczak should consult the Society’s Journal, Clematis International 2010 for details about Brother Stefan and the clematis that he bred. For Władysław Noll please consult Clematis International 2014. The pictures below of clematis introduced by Brother Stefan Franczak were taken on our visit in June. I’ve included these photos here because our next event was the unveiling of a memorial commemorating Brother Stefan Franczak at the monastery where he lived and worked.
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| C. ‘Warszawska Nike’ (‘Warsaw Nike’) | C. ‘Kryspina’ |
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| Gisela Stäbler with C. ‘Gizela’ | C. ‘Rozalia’ |
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| C. ‘Syrena’ | C. ‘Fryderyk Chopin’ |
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| C. ‘Grażyna’ | C. ‘Piotr Skarga’ |
Memorial to Brother Stefan Franczak
We travelled from the Clematis Nursery to the Society of Jesus College in Warsaw for the unveiling of a plaque to Brother Stefan Franczak. We entered a hall which soon became full of people and a number of pictures of Brother Stefan Franczak were shown while we waited. There was a greeting and initial presentation by the Reverend Rector Robert Bujak of the College in both Polish and English. This was followed by a presentation on Brother Stefan Franczak and his clematis by Szczepan Marczyński in Polish.
Then we moved outside to the pavement on the street where the plaque was situated. In the area surrounding the plaque were stood some of Clematis ‘Stefan Franczak’ which made a nice display.
The Rector Robert Bujak made a short introduction and then Zdzisław Sipiera, the Governor of the Mazowieckie Province, unveiled the plaque. Mazowieckie Province is the area of Poland which includes Warsaw where the Jesuit College is situated. Zdzisław Sipiera is wearing the blue suit in the photos below. The press was there and televised the event.
After the unveiling of the plaque Zdzisław Sipiera met and conversed with the people who had looked after Brother Stefan Franczak in the College.
Then we went into the garden where Brother Stefan Franczak used to work and grow his plants. A number of people including our President, Linda Beutler, said a few words appreciating the work and clematis of Brother Stefan Franczak and we walked round the garden. Situated around the garden were a number of boards displaying photos of Brother Stefan in it. The photos included one taken in 2002 when the International Clematis Society last visited Warsaw and met with Brother Stefan. A number of the Members of the Society who were present then were also present today.
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| Presentation | Presentation |
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| Unveiling of the memorial plaque | Unveiling of the memorial plaque |
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| The Memorial Plaque | Advertising poster |
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| Garden reception | Garden reception |
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| Garden reception | Picture board in garden with photo from 2002 |
Gala Dinner
Our final event was the Gala Dinner at a traditional Polish Restaurant ‘Dom Polski’. We walked through a garden courtyard to enter the dining room and the room setting was lovely with botanical prints on the walls. The meal was excellent and conversation flowed.
After the meal we had a number of ‘thank you’s. Our President, Linda Beutler, thanked the organisers; Helga Marie Huber, Heidrun Kläser and Werner Stastny. We really appreciated the amount of effort that they had put into the event to make it so memorable. Thank you once again!
The organisers then thanked our coach driver Tomasz Banasik for looking after us in Berlin and Warsaw and for getting us safely from Berlin to Warsaw.
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| President Linda thanking Heidrun, Helga Marie and Werner | Thanking our driver, Tomasz |
2016 Group Photo
To conclude this report here is our customary group photo which was taken at the Clematis Nursery Źródło Dobrych Pnączy. Most of the time the people behind the cameras taking photos were either Ken Woolfenden or our excellent coach driver, Tomasz Banasik, so I was pleased to find that the Źródło Dobrych Pnączy Nursery photographer had managed to take a photo that included both Tomasz and Ken, who are kneeling on the right hand side of the photo.
[Editor’s note: If you want a high resolution version of the above image, please click here but please note, this file is more than 6 Mbytes in size, also it is ©Źródło Dobrych Pnączy. My thanks to Tomasz Banasik, Źródło Dobrych Pnączy and Fiona Woolfenden for their photos.]
For my other reports, please click Berlin and Warsaw – Part 1, Berlin and Warsaw – Part 2 or Berlin and Warsaw – Part 3.