LILIES - RHS Lily Group

Mrs D.A. Martyn Simmons
Richard Dadd writes in appreciation of our late President,
Mrs D.A. Martyn Simmons, who was an inspiration and driving force
within the Lily Group for more than 30 years.
RS D.A. MARTYN SIMMONS, who died at home on 17 November 2004 at the age
Mof
92, was one of the most outstanding lily growers in England during the
second half of the last century. She joined the Lily Group Committee in 1963;
was its Chairman from 1982 to 1990, and 1994 to 1995; and thereafter became
President. She also served on RHS Floral Committee B (whose main remit was
trees and shrubs) from 1965 to 1997. Her name will forever be associated with
Quarry Wood, the large woodland garden in Burghclere where she cultivated
lilies and many other plants from 1954 until her death.
Mrs Simmons – Dee to all her friends – was born Daisy Adeline Halpin
(her given names not always spelt thus) on 23 October 1912 in Janesboro,
Co. Limerick (now in the Republic of Ireland) where her father was an engineer.
She spent her childhood in Ireland where she acquired an interest in plants from
her mother, but later moved with her family to the Southampton area. In 1939
she married Martyn Alan Simmons, a miller and engineer.
By the early 1950s Mr and Mrs Simmons were living near Newbury in Berkshire,
but looking for a larger property. They found Quarry Wood, a large house and
woodland garden of 15 acres, on the road to Winchester a few miles south of
Newbury but just across the border in Hampshire. It had come onto the market
following the sudden death of its owner, Walter Bentley, in April 1953. He had
been a keen lily grower and one of the founder members of the Lily Group in
1933. When he acquired Quarry Wood in 1934 it consisted ‘largely of an expanse
of unkempt, rough grass, drifts of bracken and scarcely controlled weeds. It
was bounded on east, west and south by neglected woodland, overrun with
brambles and tangled undergrowth.’ In 19 years Mr Bentley had transformed
this wilderness and planted magnolias, rhododendrons and many other trees and
shrubs to create a haven for the rare species lilies that interested him. But nature
is always keen to reassert herself, and with the property standing empty and
neglected for over a year, and proving difficult to sell, it was going downhill.
When Mr and Mrs Simmons purchased Quarry Wood in 1954 they were
comparative novices, and had not quite realized what they were taking on. These
difficulties were compounded by a series of bizarre events recounted by Anthony
Hayward in ‘A Garden called Quarry Wood’ (Lilies & Related Plants, 1992-1993,
pp. 133-138). The only ray of sunshine at this time was the arrival of west
countryman Maurice Woodgates to take up the post of gardener. The subsequent
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