A care organisation has paid a touching floral tribute to one of Britain\u2019s first black gardeners who lived most of his life in Gwynedd.<\/p>\n
Pendine Park has planted a bed of 18 roses that were bred in honour of John Ystumllyn who was abducted in western Africa in the 18th<\/sup> century and raised in Criccieth<\/p>\n The striking yellow bloom is taking pride of place outside Pendine\u2019s Bodlondeb centre of excellence for dementia care in Wrexham.<\/p>\n It went on display for the first time at this year\u2019s RHS Chelsea Flower Show and has also been planted at Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n The rose was bred by Harkness Roses in Hertfordshire which is also responsible for a rose selected by the Queen to mark her Platinum Jubilee.<\/p>\n Pendine has planted a bed of the Queen Elizabeth roses at its Bryn Seiont Newydd care home in Caernarfon.<\/p>\n At the time John Ystumllyn was abducted Britain was still engaged in the transatlantic slave trade which it\u2019s believed how he arrived in Gwynedd.<\/p>\n Early in his life he was taken by the Wynn family to its Ystumllyn estate in Criccieth .<\/p>\n He was christened with the Welsh name John Ystumllyn and learned to speak English and Welsh and worked as a gardener on the estate.<\/p>\n The campaign to have the rose bred was led by Zehra Zaidi, who founded the group, We Too Built Britain, which tells the stories of under-represented people.<\/p>\n Planting the commemorative roses outside Bodlondeb has been a labour of love for Pendine\u2019s head gardener, Andrew Jones.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cIt\u2019s a really beautiful rose and has a wonderful scent. The rose is very, very nice. It starts off a creamy white and then goes a gentle sort of yellow as it opens.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a gardener myself, the fact that it\u2019s commemorating a gardener is quite meaningful for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Bodlondeb and the other three care homes on the site in Summerhill Road are surrounded by 11 acres of land tended by Andrew and his six-strong team of green-fingered staff.<\/p>\n The vast array of thousands of varieties of flowers and plants at provide a blaze of colour\u00a0and a profusion of mother nature\u2019s perfumes.<\/p>\n Offering everything from roses to rhododendrons and alliums to geraniums, the gardens across each site have been described as looking \u201cabsolutely stunning<\/p>\n Andrew has been given free rein by Pendine\u2019s nature-loving owners, Mario Kreft MBE, and his wife, Gill, to choose exactly how the gardens should look, working without the constraints of \u201ca plant budget\u201d as he continually eyes up ways to further enhance the grounds.<\/p>\n Bodlondeb manager Ann Chapman said: \u201cThe bed of roses to\u00a0honour John Ystumllyn is absolutely stunning.<\/p>\n \u201cThis rose is perfect for us because our residents are diverse, our staff are diverse, and really, it\u2019s absolutely just perfect. It depicts who we are and it\u2019s so pretty \u2013 absolutely fabulous.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gardening and maintenance team do an absolutely incredible job led by Andrew.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe garden gets so many compliments from the people who come here. You could open up this garden to the public and people would come flocking here.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew, who previously worked for the John Lewis Partnership at their Leckford Estate in Hampshire, added: \u201cThere\u2019s something to see at Pendine all year round and it\u2019s been designed with that in mind.<\/p>\n \u201cIt creates a lovely atmosphere for the residents, the families and the staff \u2013 it\u2019s for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n