The Garden History Blog

A pineapple? Gosh…thank you Mr Rose!

Posted on 03/10/2015 by The Garden History Blog

detail from John Rose (1619–1677), the Royal Gardener, presenting a Pineapple to King Charles II, National Trust

detail from John Rose (1619–1677), the Royal Gardener, presenting a Pineapple to King Charles II, hanging at Ham House National Trust

I’m sure many of you will know the painting of Charles II being offered a pineapple by his gardener, John Rose. It has been widely used to demonstrate that British horticulture had become so advanced by the later 17thc that it was possible to grow a pineapple in London.

Unfortunately it would seem many writers have fallen for the wanton charms of Google and merely repeated what they found on the internet without doing any further research for themselves. Had they done so they would have discovered the painting probably isn’t quite as simple to interpret as it might appear.

Ananas comosus (L.) Merr. [as Ananas] pineapple Merian, M.S., De metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium, of te verandering der Surinaamsche insecten, t. 1 (1714) drawing:

Ananas comosus from Maria Sybilla Merian, De metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium, (1714)

I’m sure the king would have been very grateful for the gift of a home-grown pineapple – or he would have been if he had actually received one that had been home-grown by his gardener. Indeed he might have been so pleased that he commissioned a painting to commemorate the event. Unfortunately he is rather unlikely to have done so. Yet the legend persists. Why?

So…did it happen? If so, when? Why was it/would it have been important?

Its very difficult to know who grew the first pineapple in Britain, or even in Europe but one thing is pretty clear – it wasn’t John Rose, Charles II’s gardener, talented and justifiably famous though he undoubtedly was. Read on to find out more…. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

The Sweet Pea and its king…

Posted on 26/09/2015 by The Garden History Blog

Lathyrus odorata Cupani
http://www.unwins.co.uk

Sweet peas are one of the glories of the garden. Relatively easy to grow and loved by everybody for their heady scent and delicate colouring, it’s hard to believe that the vast range of varieties we grow all descend from a plant in a monastery garden in Sicily, collected and cultivated by a Franciscan monk, Francisco Cupani at the end of the 17thc. It was Cupani who sent seeds to botanic friends and correspondents all over Europe including Robert Uvedale, an Enfield schoolmaster in 1699 or 1700 who is responsible for introducing this garden favourite to Britain.

That original plant, now known as Cupani, was small, with dark blue, purple-hooded flowers and an intense fragrance, but very little hybridizing was done until Shropshire gardener Henry Eckford cross-bred and developed the modern form of the sweet pea, and turned it from a rather insignificant if sweetly scented flower into one of floral sensations of the late 19thc.

Read on to find out more about Henry who became known the Sweet Pea King, as well as some of the history of one of the country’s favourite flowers.

Sweet peas and summer flowers, 1891

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Mounds & Mounts 2: the heights of fashion

Posted on 19/09/2015 by The Garden History Blog

detail from Wadham College
British School, undated (c) Wadham College, Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

Last week’s post showed how earlier landscape features such as tumuli and castle mottes were reused to create prospect mounds in gardens. But by the mid-16thc mounts were also being deliberately constructed to gain a view not only over the garden but the surrounding countryside. It was a reflection of the way that the architecture of great houses no longer needed a military defensive role, and instead of being inward-looking could become exuberantly outward looking.

Read on to find out how mounts developed and varied and then suddenly seem to have gone out of fashion… Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged John Smythson, Robert Smythson, Wadham College, William Cecil, william lawson | Leave a comment

Mounts and Mounds 1: reusing the past

Posted on 12/09/2015 by The Garden History Blog

detail from View of Lord Hartford’s House at Marlborough, William Stukely, Itinerarium Curiosum 1776

There’s nothing like a good view, and if you don’t have one naturally why not create one? Don’t have high ground? No problem – create it artificially.

Although man-made hills are often associated with fortifications – think motte and bailey castle – they became one of the key features of many Tudor and Stuart gardens, offering views down over the often complex designs but equally importantly looking outwards over the surrounding landscape. As Francis Bacon put it in his famous essay On Gardens of 1625: ‘At the End of both the Side Grounds, I would have a Mount of some Pretty Height…to looke abroad into the Fields.’

But mounds and mounts are sometimes more they might at first seem…read on to find out more

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Aldby, clarendon, Dane John, Dunham Massey, Francis Bacon, Hampton Court, Marlborough, Mediaeval, Thomas Knowlton, Whittington Castle, William Stukely, Wressle | Leave a comment

Mr Loudon & a second-rate suburban villa

Posted on 05/09/2015 by The Garden History Blog

Mrs Lawrence’s Villa, from The Gardeners Magazine, July 1838

As I am sure regular readers will have noticed I’m a great fan of John Claudius Loudon, the energetic Scotsman who tried to bring information about gardens, horticulture and agriculture [and indeed everything else!] to the widest possible audience in the first part of the 19thc. He wrote prolifically including many biblical-sized encyclopaedias as well as editing magazines, aiming his work squarely at the middle classes with their suburban villas and gardens.

Louisa Lawrence
wikipedia

Another of his admirers was Louisa Lawrence who lived in what Loudon described as “a second-rate suburban villa” at Drayton Green on the western outskirts of London. And the admiration was clearly mutual. In labelling it second-rate Loudon was not being dismissive of the fact that she managed to cram in almost every conceivable fashionable garden feature of the day into her few acres – exactly the opposite in fact. She won Loudon’s highest praise for doing so!

Louisa Lawrence was also “the lady who created the biggest upset among the bewhiskered gentlemen of the Horticultural Society” [Catherine Horwood, Gardening Women] so read on to find out more her and her second-rate villa and its garden… Continue reading →