The M9 and rhizotrons

Posted on 29/08/2020 by The Garden History Blog

 

Last week as I was picking  fruit from some small apple trees I noticed how badly grafted one of them was.   It reminded me  that a few weeks ago I wrote about the history of grafting and prompted me to  take that  story into the 20thc and talk about the M9.

By that I don’t mean the motorway from Edinburgh to Dunblane but a dwarfing rootstock for apples developed, along with many others, at East Malling Research station.

So read on if you’ve ever wondered  what all those strange codes and numbers are on the labels of  fruit trees in garden centres and nurseries? Who, for instance,  is St Julien? Gisela 5?  And what does M27 or MM9 actually mean?   How has M9  reshaped the global landscape and the economics of apple production?

And finally do you know what an apple trees roots look like? If you don’t, you might need a rhizotron…so read on to find out what that is!

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In the Glass Garden

Posted on 22/08/2020 by The Garden History Blog

 

Detail of a hanging sculpture in Chihuly’s Glass Hall DM Nov 2019

I was sorting out a huge pile of  magazines  the other day as it was raining, and found last summer’s edition of  Kew Magazine which featured an article on Dale Chihuly and his glass sculptures,  a large number of which were installed to spectacular effect in the gardens at Kew last year.

I’d been to see the exhibition wondering how can something so fragile as a glass sculpture could survive in a garden environment and almost asking why would you bother anyway.  After all glass isn’t a particularly natural material and it clearly wasn’t go to blend in like David Nash’s giant wooden installations from a few years back.

Instead  Chihuly’s work does exactly the opposite and stands out like a beacon or maybe for some people like a  sore thumb.  Based on plant forms but with colours, at least as strong as the brightest flower, some of the pieces almost screamed because of their sheer size and enormity. Others clashed and contrasted as well as complementing their green surroundings or their architectural setting.  Whatever you think of his work it went down well with the public at Kew and with over 900,000 visitors it was their most popular exhibition ever at that point.

So when I was lucky enough last October to visit  friends who have moved  Seattle, we just had to visit Chihuly’s Garden and Glass Exhibition which is, according to Trip Advisor,  Seattle’s No. 1 tourist attraction.

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How naughty! some summer thoughts about erotic gardens

Posted on 15/08/2020 by The Garden History Blog

 

August is traditionally the silly season in the press and today’s post is very much in that tradition.

It was a bit of a surprise when I was searching for an image of garden statuary the other day on the British Museum website  and discovered these rather unusual wind chimes. Obviously given where I found them they’re not “hippy-related” free love ornaments from the swinging sixties, or even from the mild aisle of an “adult” shop, but you might be surprised where they do come from.

Quite quickly the original search for garden statues gave way to a search for a slightly more amusing [but maybe slightly more risqué] idea for a post here, and  I began to wonder what else I might find lurking in the archives to enlighten [enliven?] your Saturday morning breakfast!

But a word of warning: Don’t try this at home. Asking Mr Google to search for “erotic gardens” is not a good idea.

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Immortalising the ephemeral: The painter, his patrons and their plants

Posted on 08/08/2020 by The Garden History Blog

 

I bet you thought Redoute only painted roses! Cactus grandiflorus from Plantarum historia succulentarum

I wrote recently about the gardens and the greenhouse that Josephine, the wife of Napoleon, created at Malmaison near Paris.   Employing some of the leading botanists and gardeners in France, and never short of a franc or two, the empress was able to give rein to all her wildest horticultural desires.  However she knew that gardens are ephemeral and  she was equally  determined that her collection would not be forgotten.

Talleyrand, the cynical French diplomat who acted, amongst other things, as Napoleon’s foreign minister was asked whether Josephine had intelligence. He  replied that no-one managed as brilliantly without it as she did.  However her way of ensuring that the garden at Malmaison lives on eternally gives the lie to that.

These days her way of capturing her garden and its rare plant collection would  be endless photographs, video clips on YouTube and probably a TV programme or two hosted by a prominent TV celeb gardener.

These were not choices open to Josephine. Instead she had to make do with choosing the best botanical artist then alive to paint them and publish the result. By choosing Pierre-Joseph Redouté the job was done, and Malmaison and its plant collection [not just its roses] are still remembered , even though the gardens really only lasted about 25 years.

If that’s not intelligence I’m not sure what is!

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Mapping the 16th century garden

Posted on 01/08/2020 by The Garden History Blog

If I told you that there were about 500 late 16thc maps and views showing landscapes and gardens from  across four continents collected together in one place you’d probably be a bit surprised.  The reason you probably don’t know about them because they’re not detailed measurable drawings and they don’t have  elaborate planting plans BUT they do exist and  can be found  in the first  atlas  of towns published in 6 volumes between 1572 and 1617

I was originally going to use the name of the atlas for the title of this post but I suspect if you’d seen  Braun & Hogenberg’s  Civitates Orbis Terrarum in the subject line  the post would have gone straight into the trash unread.  So I hope you’ll read on when I tell you that although the title maybe a bit of an unpronounceable mouthful the content of this collection of maps of European cities was ground-breaking when it was published and still staggering in its conception, utility and aesthetic appeal.

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