William John Bates van de Weyer

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 commercial use to this day.

[1] 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'.

[4][7] Soon afterwards he was appointed as an aide de camp to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland[8] and later acted as his Military Secretary, for which services Weyer was awarded an MVO.

[9] He retired from the militia on 3 May 1905 with the honorary rank of Major,[10] and emigrated to Kenya, where he bought and managed a dairy farm 15 miles west of Nairobi.

They had five children, three daughters, Myrtle (1910-1997), Daphne (1911-2000), and Jasmine (1914-1968), and two sons, Sylvain (1917-1976) and Adrian (1919-1940), the latter killed in action in the Pas de Calais in 1940 aged 20.