Who was Andrew Murray I can hear you asking and how did he lose a garden, especially one in Kensington? Well, of course he didn’t actually personally lose the garden, but he did record it before it was lost. A Scottish lawyer and natural historian Murray held a variety of posts before becoming the assistant secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society between 1860 and 1865. Although its quite hard for us to imagine, the RHS was once thought incapable of running a garden, or at least of running a garden that didn’t lose money hand over fist.
The lost garden of the title – more than 22 acres of prime real estate in Kensington – was planned to be their financial salvation and it opened to great acclaim in 1861 with an extraordinary collection of buildings, canals, statuary and embroidered parterres. However it didn’t solve the society’s money problems or even pay its way, so after some acrimonious court cases the RHS was evicted and the gardens built over less than 40 years later.
Some flowers – like tulips, peonies or roses – are important or famous enough to have their stories told in books that make the best seller list. But while some others have champions who’ve written about them, or are the subject of serious monographs there are some other well-known flowers that don’t seem to have attracted that much attention. One of them is that stalwart of the cottage garden the hollyhock.
The Garden History Blog 
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