The Garden History Blog

As usual I’ve been wracking my brains for the last few weeks trying to think of something original and garden-related to say about Christmas.

Over the last ten years I’ve tackled  all sorts of things  Christmasy from Hellebores to Brussels Sprouts and Amaryllis to Ivy. I’ve even looked at artificial Christmas flowers whilst  studiously avoiding the obvious things such as Christmas trees . Sadly I thought this year I might have to give in, and for want of anything better  finally give in and look at firs, spruces and pines but  in starting my research  I discovered another seasonal subject which allows me to avoid them for at least another year!

So if you don’t know much about Moodjar  or Pōhutukawa then read on…

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These days there’s only one famous Mrs Richmond – my friend the media star Advolly – but I hate to tell her she has, or at least had, a rival!

Who was this other Mrs Richmond ?

Advolly is very up-to-date. She has a splendid website, appears on Gardeners’ World and Gardeners’ Question Time, and does podcasts.  She’s even started writing for the on-line platform Scribehound.  But as a plant and garden historian  she also does that more traditional thing and writes articles and has just published a book: A Short History of Flowers.   The other Mrs R was equally modern in her own day as a gardening columnist for The Queen magazine, a contributor to other gardening magazines and author of a popular book, but despite all that she remains a very sketchy figure…

Water lily  “Mrs Richmond” growing in Mrs Richmond’s pond – photo courtesy of Advolly

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A little way along the Thames from Marble Hill which I wrote about last week is  perhaps the most important of those 18th century riverside sites:  the last remaining part of the villa, grotto and garden built on the banks of the Thames  by the poet Alexander Pope in the 1720s.

Although the house itself was demolished less than a hundred years later, and the garden has long been built over,  somehow the grotto survived, although it has lost most of its decoration and its view. (and yes grottos can have views!).  Although listed as Grade 2* it was also listed as  Heritage at Risk,  but now supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund the grotto is now slowly being conserved by the Pope’s Grotto Preservation Trust.

Pope’s villa from The Prospect of the River Thames at Twickenham by Peter Hillmans, c1724-30, Richmond Borough Art Collection, Orleans House Gallery

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