Lady Charlotte and “the job six times too big”

Posted on 30/05/2020 by The Garden History Blog

a pair of Burmese chinthes, mythical lionlike guardian figures, by Rodway Swinhoe

Last week’s post looked at the plant hunting activities of Lady Charlotte Wheeler-Cuffe who travelled around Burma between 1897 and 1921. Today’s continues her story.

In 1913 her husband Sir Otway was posted to Maymyo a small hill station 26 miles north east of Mandalay, which was the summer residence of the governor.   Here Charlotte created yet another of her own gardens from scratch, while at the same time playing the leading role  in the foundation of what was to become Burma’s  National Botanic Garden.  I think this must make her unique as I can’t think of another woman ever having been given such responsibility for a national institution.

Please let me know if I’m wrong!

Sunset over the lake in the Botanic Gardens

 

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Jungling with Lady Charlotte…

Posted on 23/05/2020 by The Garden History Blog

Charlotte Wheeler-Cuffe. Photo courtesy of the National Botanic Garden of Ireland.

A few years ago I spent a month in Burma, and one of the highlights of the trip was to see  the  National Botanic Gardens at Pyin Oo Lwin, way up in the hills near Mandalay.    It was rather strange to discover that neither the Burmese friends I’d gone with nor, indeed the staff we spoke to,  seemed to know much about the history of the gardens other than the little printed on the information boards,  so when I came back I decided to do some research.

I wrote that up for an article in Garden History in 2015 but in the process became very interested in one of the garden’s founders: Lady Charlotte Wheeler-Cuffe.

Don’t be taken in by her title or rather grand appearance in this photo, as she was an intrepid and immensely practical woman who spent 24 years in Burma and let very little stand in the way of her love of plants and gardening.

detail of Dendrobium crepidatum, 1902

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Hard Graft and Devastation

Posted on 16/05/2020 by The Garden History Blog

We tend of think of garden history being just about the history of gardens but not really much about the history of gardening itself ie how things are done rather than what is actually done.  I was reminded of that sharply  when someone got in touch about last week’s post.

When, they asked, did people realise that not only might trees fuse naturally  but that they can be deliberately grafted.

I admit I was stumped as I don’t know the history of every gardening technique off the top of my head but I went away to find out the history of grafting and  I hope this goes some way to providing the answer.

And by way of a diversion  what’s this little bug  got to do with it?

 

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Growing a 4 Legged Giant

Posted on 09/05/2020 by The Garden History Blog

As gardeners we all know that woody plants are very adaptable.  Think  of topiary or cloud pruning, of pleaching or hedging where with a little bit of effort we can manipulate trees and shrubs into doing what we want, using  their natural instincts to keep growing to our own advantage.

When I saw this 16thc miniature  I wondered what was going on but as I started looking closer I realised that our manipulation of plants can be taken to a completely different level.

from My Father Talked to Trees, Wilma Erlandson, 2001

 

And then I found these much more modern images and they  inspired this post.

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The Tradescants and their Tomb

Posted on 02/05/2020 by The Garden History Blog

Carved tree on the corner of the tomb

Just before the virus struck I was at the Garden Museum in Lambeth helping out on a course. We were in the new Clore Learning Centre which overlooks the  courtyard garden designed by Dan Pearson, [featured in March edition of Gardens Illustrated]. I sat at the back listening to the speakers but also watching the rain lash down outside on the two large chest tombs standing amongst the greenery. One is that of  Admiral Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty fame and the other that of the family of the 17thc plant hunters John Tradescant senior and his son John junior. [If you’re not sure who they were check last weeks post which was an introduction to today’s]

Luckily the rain stopped during the lunch break, so I went to take a closer look.  Whilst Bligh’s monument is imposing but relatively austere that of the Tradescants is anything  but plain.

The view from the Clore Learning Centre, in the rain, Feb 9th 2020.  Bligh’s monument is the centre, the Tradescant’s tomb on the right.

In fact, as you can probably tell from even from the photo above,  their tomb is a work of art, or rather a series of works of art, and the more I looked at it and researched it afterwards the more intriguing and unusual it became.

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