The Garden History Blog

Almost everyone’s least favourite tree…

Posted on 17/01/2015 by The Garden History Blog

article-1309450-0B0EB85C000005DC-940_634x486

Daily Mail, 8th Sept 2010

Shouldn’t be too hard to decide what that is! Horror stories abound – and it must be one of the few plants ever legislated about. Yet it all started out innocuously enough on a beautiful country estate in Mid-Wales in the 1880s. I’m referring, of course, to that chance cross between the Nootka cypress and the Monterrey cypress which currently rejoices in the botanical name of x Cupressocyparis leylandii although it’s better known as just Leylandii.

Read on to discover the amazing Welsh estate where it all started, why it almost didn’t happen, and then how the monster was encouraged in the name of horticulture!

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Edward Kemp, Italianate garden, kew, Leylandii | 2 Comments

Five vicars and some roses…

Posted on 10/01/2015 by The Garden History Blog

Most Interesting Show” from A Summer Rose Show.Illustrated London News, 23rd June 1884

Over the holidays I’ve been planting new roses and thinking how nice it will be when they flower this summer…. that led to me to thinking about rose shows. If you’ve ever been to one then you have several Victorian clergymen to thank. One was the Rev Henry Honywood D’Ombrain about whom I wrote recently. You might be surprised to learn that the Rev.Henry had any time to spare after helping start gladi-mania, his ministry, his journalism, his gardening, hybridizing and exhibiting but the industriousness of Victorian gardening clerics was seemingly endless.

“Awfully slow business these shows” from A Summer Rose Show, Illustrated London News, 23rd June 1884

In December 1876 D’Ombrain and Canon Reynolds Hole called a meeting of rose enthusiasts at the Adelphi Terrace in London. There were 5 clergy amongst the 20 or so attendees.

“The proceedings were enthusiastic and unanimous” and as a result the National Rose Society was formed.

So who were these rose-loving vicars ?

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged D'Ombrain, Dean Hole, exhibiting, Floral Magazine, James Andrews, Journal of Horticulture, Metropolitan Floral Society, nurserymen, Rev Charles Bulmer, Rev JB Camm, Rev Townsend Boscawen, Roses, Royal Horticultural Society, Tennyson, The Garden, Thomas Rivers, Tregothnan, Victoria Medal of Honour, William Paul | Leave a comment

The first English books on gardening…

Posted on 03/01/2015 by The Garden History Blog

Thomas Hill, aged 28 from his treatise on bees which was added to The proffitable arte of gardening, 1568

Thomas Hill, aged 28 from his treatise on bees which was added to The proffitable arte of gardening, 1577

Happy New Year – after the frivolity of the festive season it’s time to get back to some serious stuff – but don’t panic the gardening vicars will return to lighten the tone again next week!

The English pride themselves on being a nation of gardeners. We have great gardens, great gardeners and great writers and great books about gardening. But when did that all start? The answer to some of those questions is difficult to pin down exactly but in the case of gardening books we can fix the date fairly precisely to 1558 the year that Queen Mary died and Elizabeth I came to the throne. Read on to discover more about England’s first gardening writer and his books…

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged knot garden, maze, Thomas Hill, Tudor, watering | 1 Comment

Birthday Quiz Time….

Posted on 27/12/2014 by The Garden History Blog

Birthday cake for a gardener
http://www.cakecentral.com

Happy birthday dear blog!

Its hard to believe but its virtually a year ago that I sat down and wracked my brains for something to say for the first post on the blog… now I have about 20 ideas underway at any one time and could probably post almost every day if I had the time to type them up and anyone had time to read them. Don’t worry tho – roughly once a week is quite enough for me too!

The blog got off to a pretty slow start – 2 viewers the first day – probably just me logging in on two different machines BUT now its built up to well over 100 separate viewers for each post, around 1,000 views in total every month and over the course of the year, from a very slow start we’ve have had nearly 7,000 views in total.

So thank you for reading & please carry on doing so….and if you belong to a garden related group then why not pass on the word via newsletters or announcements & encourage your friends to sign up too.

Anyway, by way of light relief I thought I’d offer a quiz this week to see how much of what I write has sunk in! I’ve tried not to make it too hard so good luck! All the answers can be found in earlier posts… but if you get stuck the answers are at the end. Continue reading →

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A touch of festive red…

Posted on 20/12/2014 by The Garden History Blog

It’s that time of year again when the whole world seems to go red. Love them or loathe them poinsettias dominate the Christmas flower market, and because of that they are are the most economically important potted plant world-wide. Incidentally although less than 1 person in 5 buys one in Britain, in Germany the figure is almost 1 in 2.: a frightening thought if you’re not that fond of them!

The scarlet monstrosity [maybe you can see where I stand on the like/loathe spectrum] comes from Mexico and its surrounds, and is a member of the vast euphorbia family. It has the scientific name euphorbia pulcherrima, (‘very pretty/beautiful) given in 1833. So why is it always called Poinsettia and what’s it got to do with Christmas? Read on and find out more than you could ever possibly have wanted to know about them….

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