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Richard Bibby 1992

Richard Bibby
by Audrey Robinson

Most members will know of my enthusiasm for tracing the origin of different cultivars of Dianthus which I suppose is the reason that the Executive Committee give for making me an historian so when recently a member in conversation remarked on the form of the P.P. Carnation ‘J. M. Bibby’, a form which incidentally provided a standard, I remembered my first encounter with the Bibby strains. It was many years ago, in fact at the time we bought our first greenhouse and we began to grow P.P. ’s among which were ‘Peter Bibby’ which was a white self and J. M. Bibby’ a bright scarlet self. ‘Peter Bibby’ did not survive long but the other grew well for several years until Arthur decided to move it and in so doing killed it off. At that time we regularly took our summer holiday to coincide with Southport Show where we regularly met our Editor who was a regular exhibitor there and Mrs. Ellen Mayoh, another regular exhibitor from Bolton, and who had grown ‘J. M. Bibby’ and was able to tell me that Mr. Richard Bibby was a nurseryman who lived at Singleton near Blackpool and that ‘J. M.’ was his son. Looking through the records Richard Bibby does not appear to have ever exhibited carnations but Mr. M. Hammet of Poulton le Fylde who was a member of the B.N.C.S. in 1964 did exhibit them at Southport. The late Harry Charlson and his sister from Bolton grew ‘Bibbys Cerise’ and 7. M. Bibby’ and exhibited at Westminster where I first saw them. I have been given to understand that ‘J. M.’ was part Border Carnation which in view of its shape is understandable. The old Year Books are an essential source of information and the 1965 edition lists a Mr. J. M. Bibby of Glossops as a new member and the B.N.C.S. publication published about 1958 had an article “An Amateurs Cold Greenhouse” by Richard Birby and the name of the author was corrected to ‘Bibby’ by a letter in the 1971 Year Book by Mr. J. M. Bibby of Glossop.

In the article Mr. Bibby refers to having a small cold greenhouse and few cold frames and no heating of any kind though at the time of writing he had obtained a much larger greenhouse with heating. The following cultivars were introduced by Mr. Bibby and if any are still grown Tom Gillies would be pleased to hear from the growers:

1946 ‘Bibby’s Cream’ yellow self
1957 ‘Bibby’s Cerise’ cerise self
1952 ‘Bibby’s Fancy’ canary yellow splashed pink
1952 ‘Peter Bibby’ white self
1959 ‘Bibby’s Choice’ pink self
1959 ‘Bibby’s Pink’ ice cream pink self
1957 ‘J Bibby’ bright scarlet self
1969 ‘Richard Bibby’ purple self
1960 ‘Bibby’s Coral’ coral pink self