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Welcome to the Home of the Natal Orchid Society
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The Natal Orchid Society was established in 1962 to further the study,
appreciation and cultivation of orchids in the greater Durban area of KwaZulu
Natal. The emblem of the society is Calanthe sylvatica, an
indigenous terrestrial which occurs in deep shade in coastal forests.
The society meets on the second Monday of every month at 19:30. The
venue is the education centre of the Durban Botanic Gardens. Guests are
always welcome.
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Click on emblem to go to latest newsletter
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Joyce Stewart at the
Tokyo Grand Prix International Orchid Festival,
Tokyo, Japan,
in February 2010
photo © Johan Hermans
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Joyce Stewart MBE VMH
1936 - 2011
A Tribute to a true English Lady
Joyce Stewart was the eldest of five children and grew up near Salisbury in England. Her passion for plants and orchids especially, started as a child, during their regular family walks in the Wiltshire countryside on Sunday afternoons. She recalled seeing Early Purple Orchids amongst the bluebells and Bee Orchids flowering with the cowslips. Her early interest in wild flowers was encouraged by her parents and she wanted to learn the plants’ names and where they grew. The first books she possessed were about plants and she received a copy of Bentham and Hooker’s Genera Plantarum which inspired her quest to understand plant systematics. She recalls meeting Victor Summerhayes as a schoolgirl when he came to Wiltshire from Kew to see some Helleborines which she thought were different; she told him categorically that she wanted to be a botanist when she grew up!
Studying Botany at Reading University in the 1950’s the habit of botanical excursions on Sundays continued. Led by Professor Harris they cycled out to look for plants, building on her passion for botanical fieldwork.
Her first teaching job took her to Switzerland to discover new flowers. This phase came to an end when she married Donald, who had been a fellow student, studying zoology, at Reading and then had gone to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia), to be a wildlife biologist. Two weeks after their wedding in 1960 they moved to Kenya where Don had set up a research unit for the Game Department, she worked in the Coryndon Museum herbarium. This posting gave her an opportunity to travel around the country during which she discovered the extraordinary variety of the African flora. She recalls being awestruck by a fine flowering specimen of Aerangis thomsonii that she came face-to-face with on a trout fishing trip. This was the beginning of a fascination with the orchids of Africa and also the beginning of a lifelong hobby of growing orchids.
In May 1964 she joined the Kenya Orchid Society when her life-long friend Heather Campbell found out that they would receive six free orchids if they joined the Society! Joyce’s interest in orchids then blossomed, and she became the secretary to the KOS two years later. She steadily amassed a fine orchid collection. Meeting other orchid people through the Society inspired her to make a career in orchids.
In 1972 Don was offered a senior post in the South African Wildlife Service in Natal where, inter alia, he was in charge of the Hluhluwe National Park and its famous white rhinos. Joyce taught botany at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg while also completing an M.Phil.
Encouraged by John Blowers, then editor of The Orchid Review, she started to write up some of her research with her first article appearing in 1968 about a recent adventurous trip to the Comoro Islands.
This was followed two years later by her first book, Orchids of Tropical Africa (W. H. Allen, London, 1970), illustrated with Bob Campbell’s photographs. Another of her early orchid publications was the contribution of the orchid part for Andrew and Shirley Agnew’s Upland Kenya Wild Flowers (Oxford University Press, 1974; 2nd ed. East African Natural History Society, 1994). Soon a number of other orchid books appeared, including: Orchids of Africa (HM, Boston, 1981) with beautiful paintings by Esmé Hennessy and Wild Orchids of Southern Africa with Ted Schelpe, Peter Linder, and Tony Hall (Macmillan South Africa, 1982). She developed a great expertise in the genus Aerangis and her monographs in Kew Bulletin and the AOS Bulletin are still the standard reference for the genus. These articles also brought her in contact with Isobyl la Croix with whom she became a life-long correspondent and friend; they jointly described two horticulturally important Aerangis from Malawi; A. distincta and A. splendida. For five years she was editor of the South African Orchid Journal and also qualified as a judge of the South African Orchid Council, supervised by Ted Schelpe.
In 1975 she attended her first World Orchid Conference in Frankfurt where she met Phillip Cribb who had just joined the staff at Kew. From then she attended all subsequent WOCs and was closely involved with the 1981 Conference in Durban, for which she co-edited the Proceedings.
In 1982 Joyce and Don ‘retired’ to England and settled in Dorset with a large glasshouse full of orchids and half an acre smallholding. The plan was to grow things and write but she soon became active in British orchid circles: she joined the Bournemouth Orchid Society and in 1984 was invited to join the RHS Orchid Committee and remained a very active and committed member of this august body. She was immensely proud of the two awards she received from the Committee for Euryangis Victoria Nile ‘Lisa’ AM-RHS and Sphyrarhynchus schliebenii ‘Heather’ BC-RHS.
In 1985 she returned to professional botany and became the first ‘Sainsbury Orchid Fellow’ at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. This gave her the opportunity to continue research and travel to orchid meetings throughout the world. Her main roles were to run the Sainsbury Endangered Orchid Project, co-edit the Orchid Research Newsletter, and promote orchid cultivation and research at Kew. One of the consequences was the publication of Orchids at Kew (RBG Kew, 1992), which she compiled and edited. She was also an active member of IUCN’s (The World Conservation Union) Species Survival Commission’s Orchid Specialist group. The post also offered an opportunity to become involved in the Sainsbury Orchid Conservation project, raising European orchids from seed.
Her special involvement in World Orchid Conferences culminated in the 1993 WOC in Glasgow when she was Chairman of the organising Committee. In 1994 she was awarded the Gold Veitch Memorial Medal from the RHS not just for her role in making the Glasgow WOC such a success but also for her work on the International Orchid Commission, its remit including nomenclatural matters, registration of orchid hybrids, and orchid conservation. The same year she was appointed as one of the five World Orchid Conference Trustees, she served as its President from 1999 to 2005. The Trust works with organizers and supports them in preparing and running each triennial World Orchid Conference and Show.
In 1998 she became one of the 61 holders of the Victoria Medal of Honour, the RHS’s premier award, in addition she was an Honorary Fellow of the Society. Joyce was also President of the British Orchid Council and became a BOC judge. Judging standards and quality of judging were of great importance to her and she supported this through her work on the BOC judging sub-committee. She was a dedicated RHS judge and participated and chaired a great number of judging panels at the Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court, Tatton Park etc. She also was one of the most respected judging moderators, her observation and diplomatic skills were always impressive to watch. She also took a great interest in the European Orchid Council of which she was an honorary member.
For many years she was vice-chairman and member of the RHS Advisory sub-Committee on Orchid Hybrid registration the work of which underpins orchid hybridizing to this day, she skilfully helped this Committee through some controversial times.
She became a consultant to The Orchid Review and joined its editorial panel; always freely giving her advice and religiously proof-reading hundreds of issues of the journal before it went to press.
In 1995 she moved from Kew to the RHS when she joined the staff as Director of Horticulture. This post included responsibility for the Society’s gardens as well as its scientific, advisory services, plant trials and education work. Joyce often joked after her retirement from this job in 2003 that her post had now been filled by three people, each undertaking part of her old job. During her time at the RHS she also found time to complete a book on the Orchids of Kenya (St Paul’s Bibliographies, Winchester, 1996); her succinct text and photographs by Bob Campbell contributed much to making the orchids of the region more widely known.
Her work for the RHS and for horticulture was recognised in 2003 by an MBE for ‘services to Horticultural Science and Botanical Education’.
She was awarded numerous other honours throughout her career with some of the most prestigious being Fellowship of the Linnean Society, the AOS Gold medal of Achievement, a Gold Medal from the South African Orchid Council, Honorary membership of the D.O.G. and many more, she was also very proud of the beautiful Spathoglottis Joyce Stewart which was named for her by the Singapore Botanic Garden.
After her retirement she devoted her time to voluntary activities for the RHS, the WOC Trust and others.
Her work on African Orchids culminated in the publication of Angraecoid Orchids with Johan Hermans and Bob Campbell (Timber Press, Oregon, 2006). The publisher originally asked for a simple revision of Hillerman’s 1980’s work but after discussion with her co-authors she negotiated hard and was virtually given carte blanche to produce a thorough and lavishly illustrated book. It is a fitting tribute to a life devoted to the orchids that inspired her when she first went out to Kenya as a young and newly married woman. Her literary skills were not confined to African orchids; she also wrote on other subjects; including The RHS Manual of Orchids with Mark Griffiths (Timber Press, Oregon, 1995), popular orchid guides for the RHS, an introduction to Dendrobiums with Sybelle Schelpe (Orchid Sundries, Dorset, 1990) and a notable book on The Orchid Paintings of Franz Bauer, co-authored with William Stearn and Julia MacKenzie (The Herbert Press and Natural History Museum, London, 1993).
There is not much doubt that she was one of the best lecturers around; her talks were always informative, clear and very well presented; they inspired many.
Joyce was a formidable lady; she did not suffer fools gladly and especially not those who were less than sincere. She had a remarkable knack of putting someone in their place, just by a well-placed stare or a few poignant words (they often deserved it!).
Her generosity was boundless, both in friendly advice and encouragement; always without fuss or a hidden agenda. She gave large amounts of her time and finance to causes that she believed in, including the WOC Trust for which she sponsored the Website and other initiatives.
She enjoyed some of the finer things in life; a quiet dinner with friends at her beloved Sloane Club, or even a cold beer and a good chat in a Paris Café after a long day’s work in the herbarium.
Rather appropriately her last trip abroad was to South Africa where she met up with many of her old friends and was positive in encouraging their work towards the 21st World Orchid Conference in 2014.
Joyce will be sorely missed in horticultural circles. She was well known to many orchid lovers for her lectures on various aspects of the orchid world. She was also the focus and dynamo for many organizations and groups, ranging from local orchid societies to world events and an energetic and very well-connected driving force wherever she worked.
Joyce passed away on the 7th of January 2011 after a short illness. She will be fondly remembered throughout the world as a true English Lady with a great passion for plants.
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Last Modified: 4 May 2011
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