102212 | GREAT BRITAIN. Royal Horticultural Society silver Award Medal.

102212  |  GREAT BRITAIN. Royal Horticultural Society silver Award Medal. Engraved and awarded to Knud Stormly Hansen in 1957 (55mm, 71.86 g, 12h). Originally by W. Wyon at the Royal Mint in London.

 

Female allegory of Horticulture standing facing, head lowered slightly right, holding bouquet of flowers and wreath; around in background, four muses in circular pattern and holding open wreaths / Floral wreath with many components containing legend THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY and engraving in five lines "TO / K. STORMLY HANSEN / FOR AN EXHIBIT OF / CARNATIONS / 5 NOV. 1957." Edge: A few light marks, otherwise plain.

 

BHM –; Eimer –. Mint State. Highly prooflike, with some argent frosting upon the devices and a great deal of mirrored brilliance in the fields; some lightly scattered hairlines are noted for completeness.

 

Knud Stormly Hansen was a commercial gardener who began with growing vegetables in the years leading up to World War II, switching to the much more profitable tobacco during the war years. Afterward, he returned to the more mundane crops, such as onions, mushrooms, and strawberries. By the 1950's, nearly all carnations were being attacked by disease, and Hansen, along with Professor Ernst Hellmers, developed a method whereby mother plants could be tested for disease. Knud clearly had a great role in the world of carnations, as nearly 16 years after receiving this medal, he is mentioned as having grown "...his first pixie (Elegance) in the summer of 1960 near Copenhagen. None of the Danish florists would buy them so he gave a van load of flowers to the major department store in Copenhagen as a promotion venture to popularize spray carnations. Stormly continued these promotions in Copenhagen and Stockholm for several years and no doubt helped start the popularity of this new crop. Lennard Hakansson has taken up where Stormly left off and today miniatures make up at least 35 percent of carnations grown in the Scandinavian countries. Their popularity is on the increase in most of Europe." (Breeding Pixie Carnations, by W. D. Holley in Colorado Flower Growers Association, Inc., Bulletin 278, July 1973.).

 

Upload: 1 December 2022.