Name William Bates | Died 1946 | |
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William John Bates van de Weyer (1870–1946) was a major in the British Army who won more lasting fame in horticulture as the first to hybridize a South American species of Buddleja with an Asiatic species while on leave during World War I.
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Working in the nursery of his home, Smedmore House, Corfe Castle, he crossed B. globosa with B. davidii, naming the new hybrid Buddleja weyeriana. The initial F1 progeny were aesthetically poor, but Weyer persevered, back-crossing them to produce more strongly coloured F2 plants from which he made two selections he named 'Moonlight' and 'Golden Glow', which remain in commerce to this day. Over half a century later, 'Sungold' was raised from a sport of 'Golden Glow' in the Netherlands, and was used in hybridization experiments in the USA, leading to the release of small, sterile Buddlejas such as 'Blue Chip'.
Weyer also hybridized B. globosa with B. madagascariensis circa 1920 and, several years later, B. globosa with B. brasiliensis, though neither appears to have had much horticultural merit and no cultivars are known.
Career
Van de Weyer was the son of Lt. Col. Victor and Lady Emily van de Weyer, of New Lodge, Berkshire, and a grandson of Sylvain Van de Weyer. Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, he was appointed aide de camp to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland before gaining the rank of Major in the service of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment. Van de Weyer held the office of High Sheriff of Dorset in 1942.
Personal life
Van de Weyer married the Hon. Olive Elizabeth Wingfield (1885–1978), eldest daughter of Mervyn Wingfield, 7th Viscount Powerscourt, on 17 December 1908. She bore him five children, three daughters, Myrtle (1910-1997), Daphne (1911-2000) and Jasmine (1914-?), and two sons, Sylvain (1917-?) and Adrian (1919-1940), the latter killed in action in the Pas de Calais in 1940 aged 20. Major Van de Weyer died 1 April 1946, aged 75.
Honours
Van de Weyer was invested as a Member, Royal Victorian Order (M.V.O.) in 1900. His hybrid buddleja cultivar 'Golden Glow' was accorded the Award of Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1923.
Publications
Weyer, van de, W. (1920). Buddleja weyeriana. Gardeners' Chronicle ser. 3, 68: 181. 1920.