The Garden History Blog

from the Aztec Herbal

Gardens and medicine are closely intertwined in every culture, and were even more so in the past when most remedies were derived from plants. Yet much of that knowledge has been lost and  I suspect few of us these days would have a clue about their useful properties – the only one I can think of immediately is using dock leaves to counter nettle stings.  So perhaps you can imagine the surprise on the face of Dr. Charles Clark when he discovered the subject of this post in the Vatican Library in 1929.

Now usually known as the Aztec Herbal it turned out to be a remarkable find- although probably not really because of the efficacy of its medical recommendations or even of its horticultural significance. I’m not sure you’d want to try its suggested treatments either- but even if you did you might have problems finding them. Read on to find out more about the gardens where these plants grew and which ones could help if you have a headache, scabies, a pain in the eye or worse….

from the slightly later Florentine Codex

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Elsie Reford admiring her martagon lilies

In 1926 a 54 year old woman who had  inherited a riverside house decided to create  a garden.  Nothing particularly startling about that although it was thought  at the time by some of her friends that she didn’t know the difference between a dandelion and a daisy.

Those friends were soon proved wrong, and over the next thirty years she made a garden that stretched to 20 acres and boasted one of the largest plant collections of her day, including newly introduced rarities such as Meconopsis, the Himalayan Blue Poppy.  It was all the more remarkable because it was created  in and around a largely coniferous forest and is under snow for about half the year.

Image of Meconopsis and Forget-me-nots by Tim Glass taken from the exhibition

The woman was Elsie Reford, and, as I discovered recently at an exhibition about her life,  garden-making was just one of her talents.

So read on to find out more about this extraordinary woman who  broke almost every glass ceiling she encountered during her long life, and about her garden now usually better known as Le Jardin de Metis,  where an acclaimed international garden festival  has been held annually since 2000.

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Montreal  is home to one of the great botanic gardens of the world. You might be forgiven for thinking  that since Canada was once part of the British Empire that the garden was one of the wide network linked or founded by Kew in the 19th century.  But it wasn’t.  

Instead, like the gardens at Niagara I wrote about last week, it was only set up in 1931 in part as response to unemployment caused by the Great Depression. Its great protagonist   was a Catholic monk, enthusiastic botanist, and Quebec nationalist, Brother Marie-Victorin.

He was a charismatic and persuasive figure and after a long campaign convinced the authorities that laying out a new botanic garden would not only be a good way of providing employment but also bring in tourists and of course be good for encouraging research and interest in plants and botany.

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Parr of the School of Horticulture building in Niagara Botanical Gardens

What is Niagara doing on a blog. about the history of  parks and gardens?

Well, if,like me until last  week, you thought that Niagara meant only the world famous Falls and nothing else, you might be surprised to know there are other less heralded, indeed almost unknown, important sights within easy distance of the Falls:  the area’s gardens and parks – many of them historic.  They are some of the best planted and maintained examples of public planting I have seen anywhere, a mix of the high quality and very colourful Victorian-style bedding  and modern sustainable planting, often using indigenous plant. There’s also a historic floral clock, a 99 acre [44 ha] botanic garden, and a world class horticultural college, as well as a whole range of nature conservation and environmental stewardship projects.

I should confess that I’d mentioned one of these gardens  in a post way back in June 2023 but had completely forgotten about it until I walked into it last week on holiday in Canada!  So give yourself a gold star if you remember who designed the garden in the photo below, otherwise read on to discover more…

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detail from “The Great Fire of London”, unknown artist, c1670

Detail of “An Exact Surveigh of the Streets Lanes and Churches contained within the ruins of the City of London”  by  Leake & Hollar, 1667

Last week’s post ended on a gloomy note and said worse was to come. And there couldn’t have been much worse than the Great Fire of London of 1666 which  burnt 80% of the old walled city. In the aftermath  Moorfields was quickly overrun.  People set up shelters and tents, then wooden sheds and then shops until one of the walks became known as New Cheapside and was paved over.  The rails and trees were used as firewood and there was even debate about whether to allow brick-makers to dig for clay  “to incourage the more free and plentifull supply of Bricks for rebuilding”. It was nearly ten years before Moorfields were clear again and replanting and repair could begin.

After that although there was constant renewal of the walks it was against a background of threats of development and neglect, before, at the end of the 18thc, the builders eventually won the battle and most of Moorfields disappeared.

The booksellers of Moorfields using the rails of the walks as their counter, detail from an undated early 18th century print, private collection

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