The Garden History Blog

What is an English Garden?

Posted on 23/07/2016 by The Garden History Blog

“A contemporary re-interpretation of the traditional English garden” ? David Marsh, July 2106

What is an “English Garden”? We all know the answer don’t we? Especially in 2016 The Year of the Garden. Even though not all of the readers of this blog are in England I’m sure the words “English Garden” conjure up familiar and comfortable images in your mind. Maybe grand herbaceous borders or expansive Capability Brown landscapes…maybe cottage gardens stuffed with roses and hollyhocks or neatly trimmed lawn with croquet hoops… box topiary, stone urns and lead statues…suburban bedding plants or workday productive allotments? Actually maybe defining an English garden isn’t quite that simple after all.

The question came to mind when I saw this garden a couple of days ago…

“A contemporary re-interpretation of the traditional English garden” ? David Marsh July 2016

and read this description of it….

“Lawns, generous mixed borders planted with annuals and perennials, winding paths and scented rose-filled alleyways are just a few of the features of this new … garden, a contemporary re-interpretation of the traditional English garden.”

“A contemporary re-interpretation of the traditional English garden” ? David Marsh July 2016

Since most of the garden looked nothing like my idea of a typically English garden, after a little giggling, I was left feeling rather bemused and began to wonder if actually I had any idea of what I was talking about. So then I thought best to check out what other people thought and think, so read on to find out about some possible interpretations of what makes “an English Garden”… Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged alicia amherst, Capability Brown, chaumont, garden festival, Gertrude Jekyll, Horace Walpole | Leave a comment

Lady Dorothy and Dangstein’s ‘aerial orchestra’

Posted on 16/07/2016 by The Garden History Blog

Lady Dorothy Fanny Nevill (nee Walpole), 1844, (1902). Artist: George Frederick Watts, from The Connoisseur, vol.2, 1902

Lady Dorothy Fanny Nevill (nee Walpole), 1844, by George Frederick Watts, from The Connoisseur, vol.2, 1902

It could have been the headline in a red-top scandal-sheet: Earl’s young daughter found in ‘a compromising situation’ in the summer house. Today no-one would care, but in 1846 by being found hidden away in the garden, unchaperoned and with ‘ a notorious rake’ Dorothy Walpole ruined her marriage prospects. But by the end of her life all this was forgotten, and she was revered as a great figure in the Conservative party who helped form the Primrose League, and more importantly a great gardener.

Lady Dorothy, by K
Vanity Fair, 6 November 1912.

It didn’t help that her family had a history of risqué behaviour which placed them on the fringes of polite society. Her father, Horatio Walpole the 3rd Earl of Orford gambled heavily, and once wrote that he “would rather live in the land of sinners than with…saints.” Her brother fathered a child with the notorious Lady Lincoln [google her for details of her divorce case which set London tongues wagging] and then eloped with her.

They could get away with it because they were men and it was Dorothy who drew the shortest straw. Read on to find more about how she overcame the scandal, became friends with Darwin, Disraeli and William and Joseph Hooker of Kew, and developed one of the greatest exotic gardens in 19thc Britain.

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged chamberlain, conservatory, Dangstein, Darwin, dorothy neville, hothouse, Humphry Repton, kew, music, National Trust, pigeons, silkworm, william sawrey gilpin | Leave a comment

Tredegar…Restoration grandeur and a dancing kangaroo

Posted on 09/07/2016 by The Garden History Blog

http://www.visitwales.com/things-to-do/attractions/gardens-country-parks/gardens

No sooner had I finished writing this post [many many months ago now] but Tredegar House was the subject of a TV programme with Griff Rhys Jones. So, as I didn’t want to be thought a copycat, I decided to delay publishing …and inevitably it slipped off the radar. Which is a great pity because Tredegar deserves star billing! It is probably the finest later 17thc building in Wales and, in the opinion of the late Giles Worsley, one of half dozen most important Restoration houses in Britain.

If you saw the broadcast then I hope this will be a slower and more in-depth account …but if you didn’t, then read on and maybe this will inspire you to find out more about Tredegar and the Morgan family or even go and visit!

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged baroque, Cedar of Lebanon, National Trust, orangery, parterre | Leave a comment

The further adventures of Francis Masson – the man with itchy feet

Posted on 02/07/2016 by The Garden History Blog

Massonia depressa with seed capsules, Paul Cumbleton 2007. Wisley Alpine Log. http://www.srgc.org.uk/wisley/2007/071107/log.html

Last week’s post finished with Francis Masson returning to Kew in 1775 after a successful plant collecting expedition to the Cape of Good Hope. But he was clearly a man with itchy feet so the following year he was off again “undertaking an extensive plan of Operations” to “The Spanish Main”. However, the Caribbean wasn’t the Cape, and that was clearly where his heart lay. He eventually returned to southern Africa for another 10 years, although there were still more transatlantic adventures to come.

Massonia echinata L.f. [as Massonia angustifolia L.f.] Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, t. 693-739, vol. 19: t. 736 (1804) [S.T. Edwards]

Massonia echinata [then known as Massonia angustifolia]
Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, t. 693-739, vol. 19: t. 736 (1804)

Masson’s success at getting seeds, bulbs and even living plants back to Britain set off what can only be described as a mad craze for Cape plants. Linnaeus even named a genus of rather strange South African bulbs Massonia in his honour for doing this.

More significantly he is, according to Sir James Smith, the founder of the Linnean Society, the man responsible for the “novel sight of African geraniums in York or Norfolk” and for the fact that “now every garret and cottage window is filled with numerous species of that beautiful tribe and every greenhouse glows with the innumerable bulbous plants and splendid heaths of the Cape.”

There was just one problem with all this globetrotting: the late 18thc was a time of almost continual worldwide warfare with its consequent political upheavals, and plant hunting was, unsurprisingly, not exempt from its influences.

Massonia cordata Jacq. Jacquin, N.J. von, Plantarum rariorum horti caesarei Schoenbrunnensis descriptiones et icones, vol. 4: t. 459 (1804)

Massonia cordata
from von Jacquin, Plantarum rariorum horti caesarei Schoenbrunnensis… vol. 4: t. 459 (1804)

So….read on to find out more about the adventures and discoveries of one of Britain’s greatest, if least well-known, plant hunters…

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Azores, bulbs, Canada, Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Dutch, DUtch East India Compnay, Francis Masson, George III, geranium, Gladiolus, heaths, herbarium, Holland, Hortus Kewensis, houseplant, James Lee, James Smith, Joseph Banks, kew, Linnaeus, Linnean Society, Montreal, Mrs Delany, pelargonium, plant hunters, pot plants, Royal Society, South Africa, succulents, Thunberg, Willaim Aiton | 1 Comment

How Francis Masson found the world’s oldest pot plant…and a few other things

Posted on 25/06/2016 by The Garden History Blog

Francis Masson, G. Garrard, Linnean. Society.

detail of a portrait of Francis Masson, by George Garrard, Linnean Society.

“The country is encompassed on all sides with very high mountains, almost perpendicular, consisting of bare rocks, without the last appearance of vegetation; and upon the whole, has a most melancholy effect on the mind.” So wrote Francis Masson just after starting out on his first plant hunting mission in 1772. But, contrary to what you might think, he was not exploring a botanical wilderness but one of the richest plant habitats in the world.

Read on to find out where he was and why he spent nearly 12 years of his life there, exploring, recording, collecting and dispatching seeds, bulbs and plants back to Kew including what is now the probably the world’s oldest pot plant!