Carl Linnaeus is known as the father of taxonomy

Sir Joseph Banks possibly the father of Kew accompanied Captain Cook on HMS Endeavour’s voyage to the South Pacific (1768-1771), was involved with the HMS Bounty and breadfruit and many early plant hunts. He was appointed as a of Kew Gardens by George III in 1773. A Joseph Banks Tribute Garden has been established in Lincolnshire which is now part of the National Gardens scheme. Many plants are now named Banksii as a tribute to his collecting, introducing and organising the Plant Hunting of the 18th century.

William Lobb and his brother Thomas Lobb were prolific plant hunters in the Georgian and Victorian era when new plant introductions were in great demand. South America was the terratory where they collected many trees and species for Veitch the nursery.

George Forrest, 1873 – 1932 was a Scot who collected Rhododendron forrestii, R. sinogrande, R. repens, R. griersonianum, R. intricatum and R. giganteum, as well as more than 50 species of primula. Also introduced were numerous buddleias, anemones, asters, deutzias, conifers, berberis, alliums and cotoneasters and plants that now bear his name including Pleione forrestii, Pieris forrestii, Iris forrestii, Acer forrestii.

Joseph Hooker 1817-1911 took part in several expeditions. The first voyage was in 1839-1843 onboard HMS Erebus, an Antarctic expedition. During 1847-1849 Hooker travelled to the central and eastern Himalaya where he collected c.700 species in India and Nepal and added 25 new rhododendrons to the 50 already known.

Robert Fortune smuggled tea plants out of China which contributed to the foundation of a vast cash crop vital to the development of the Empire.

William Hooker Kew’s first public Director and father to Joseph, encouraged the UK colonies to send plants and seeds to Kew in the UK for botanic gardens and ornamental growing.

Frank Kingdon-Ward (1885-1958), often referred to as the last of the great plant collectors, sent 120 plants to Kew. He explored regions such as Yunnan in China, Burma and Tibet in the 1920s and 1930s.His plant hunting financed his treks but it is said he was an explorer first and a plantsman second.

Francis Masson 1741-1805 was a prolific collector credited with Agapanthus, Amaryllis belladonna, Arum Lily, Bird of Paradise Flower, Cineraria, Red Hot Poker and some Protea.

Allan Cunningham 1791-1839 collected many Australian species and also made trips to Brazil

Plant Hunters feature in various books, often with a thrilling component from Amazon

See also Top 100 Gardeners
Joseph Banks Society

3rd Aprill 2011 is Gardening Mothers Day and if your mother is any form of gardener or interested in flowers (and who isn’t) then here are our tips for  presents.

Mothers Day Gardening Gifts and Ideas

• RHS membership is being promoted on special Mums day offer – link

• Have a family day out at a local garden or park. Take a walk looking for wild flowers or you will find a list of places to visit at the National Trust or English Heritage. Most have suitable tearooms for that important cuppa.

• If it is going to be a bunch of flowers then seasonal Daffodils are a firm spring favourite. Do not put Daffodils in mixed bunches.

• Tulips imported from Holland will be on offer as will Alstroemeria, Carnations and other air-mile flowers.

• This year to be different buy a vase for all the flowers your garden is going to supply Mum this year but remember to keep filling it.

• Pot plants in season include the fragrant Hyacinths and the colourful Azaelas.

• Garden tokens may seem to lack thought but they may be very welcome allowing Mum too buy something special when she needs a lift.

• Young children could buy Mum some seeds to be raised together. Sunflowers, mustard and cress or beans are popular.

• A glossy gardening book may be the answer. I wouldn’t go for a detailed tome unless you know what would be appreciated.

• There are many tools that would suit ladies. From pink trowels and gloves to light weight spades, choose wisely.

Gifts from Amazon our sponsor link

A mother is for life, not just for Mothering Sunday, so you can treat her at any time of year.

Greenfingers is a small charity which is dedicated to creating magical gardens for children’s hospices around the UK.

Thrive’s aim is to enable positive change in the lives of disabled and disadvantaged people through the use of gardening.

Trellis is the national Scottish charity that supports, promotes, and develops the use of horticulture to improve health

Perennial is a UK charity dedicated to helping current and retired horticulturists in need.

Horticap is a Yorkshire based handicapped organisation where Alan Titchmarsh is a wonderful ambassador and is incredibly generous with his time and fundraising capabilities.

RHS, Chelsea Physic Garden and the AGS are also charities based on the educational work they do and doubtless for tax reasons.

If you want a garden charity mentioning on these pages send us a comment below.

Terry Wogan,  King Edward VII, Charlies Angels, Alan Titchmarsh and Charles Unwin all have had Sweet Peas named after them and that is a lot easier to say than Lathyrus Odoratus. So surprise your neighbours with a patch of Terry Wogans or 3 Charlies Angels.

Leucanthemum x superbum ‘Esther Read’  now referred to like many Shasta Daisies just as Esther Read was first grown from a stolen railway embankment as a single daisy crossed with the bigger Chrysanthemum maximum by Horace Read. The Read family were plantsmen for over 200 years but it was in 1931 that this plant of it’s time was exhibited. Now the name is eponymous although the original cultivar is seldom available you may have an Esther Read derivative in your garden.

John Baggensen was brought up in his family nurseries in Cardiff and Pembury Kent before introducing a widely used honeysuckle Lonicera nitada ‘Baggensen’s Gold’. You may well be growing this golden small-leaved plant as a hedge or specimen shrub named after John Baggensen who made very little money out of his introduction cultivated over years from a sport he discovered in the 1940′s. Also introduced by John was the Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Pembury Blue’ which also failed to initially take the horticultural world by storm.

Molly Sanderson from Northern Ireland gave a ‘Viola niger’ plant to a doctor friend This may have been a cross between Viola triclour and Pansy ‘Penny Black’. Dr Stone named the plant after the donor Molly Sanderson and he launched the strain of black Viola that is very popular today.

Another famous female Nora Barlow has the double Aquilegia named after her despite it having been known in botany circles for many years previous. It was a marketing triumph for Blooms of Bressingham to name the plant Aquilegia ‘Nora Barlow’ as Nora was the granddaughter of Charles Darwin.

Nora Barlow’s grandfather in her book about Charles Darwin.

Roses have been named for many different people including the wives of Aaron Ward, Anthony Waterer, Dudley Cross, Fred Danks, Herbert Stevens, John Laing, Norman Watson, and Richard Turnbull. All prefixed with Mrs but ignoring the ladies own names. Not very PC for the garden now a days.

References have been included from ‘Who does your garden grow’ by Alex Pankhurst who gave me the idea for this post.

photo by Twiqa05 on flickr

Originally Lupins (Lupinus polyphyllus) were introduced into Britain from North America in 1826. They had the blue flowered spikes we occasionally saw on railway embankments with some whiter flowers. Fast forward to 1937 and the RHS awarded its highest honour to a ‘ jobbing gardener’ George Russell for developing a strain of Lupins that caused a sensation.

Photo CC  by Thor Thorson 1

Russell developed his Lupins by rigorous selection of seedlings, aiming and achieving a central stalk or spike totally obscured by colourful flowers. Many of us would cut back Lupins after flowering to prevent the setting of seed and weakening the plant, but to George Russell that was the opposite of his intent.

Below are some of the Lupins you can now grow. These were exhibited at last years Chelsea Flower Show.

Photo cc by steve 2.0

Lupins are available as plants or seeds from Thompson Morgan

See Old Lupin photo

Lancelot Brown is the most famous gardener who popularised English landscape design. Lancelot Brown’s nickname ‘Capability’ came from his saying about an estate he was commissioned to work on ‘It has great capabilities’ .

During his life he was Sheriff of Huntingdon, gardener to King George III, architect and innovator of ‘Landskip’ gardening. At the age of 24 he went to Lord Cobhams garden at Stowe where he learnt from William Kent who had studies Italian and Grecian gardens and John Vanbrugh. In 1764 Lancelot Brown was appointed Master Gardener at Hampton Court.

Lancelot Brown described himself as a ‘place-maker’ not a ‘landscape gardener’. He didn’t want a series of tableaux within a garden, he wanted a piece of countryside. Formality and straight lines had to go and to avoid fences he created the Ha-ha a sunken version. Flowers were cosigned to walled gardens and trees imported to suit his design.

Some of his designs were elaborate and involved changing hills and lakes and some thought them lavish. After his death the strong vision he had carried through in his work fell out of favour and only in the last century was he fully rehabilitated.

Capability Brown is believed to be responsible for over 170 gardens surrounding the finest country houses and estates in Britain. He never worked in Ireland saying ‘he hadn’t finished England yet. His work still endures at Blenheim Palace, Warwick Castle, Harewood House, Milton Abbey and below is a further edited list of his work. Get out and visit some of these 18th century landscapes:-

• Alnwick Castle, Northumberland
• Althorp, Northamptonshire
• Aske Hall, North Yorkshire
• Burghley House, Lincolnshire
• Battle Abbey, East Sussex•Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire  e
• Burton Constable Hall, East Riding of Yorkshire
• Cambridge, The Backs
• Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire
• Chatsworth, Derbyshire
• Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire
• Grimsthorpe Castle
• Hampton Court Palace, Surrey
• Harewood House Leeds
• Holkham Hall, Norfolk
• The Hoo, Hertfordshire
• Hornby Castle, North Yorkshire
• Kiddington, Oxfordshire
• Kirtlington, Oxfordshire
• Knowsley, Liverpool
• Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire
• Leeds Abbey, near Leeds Castle, Kent
• Lleweni Hall, Clwyd
• Longleat, Wiltshire
• Lowther, Cumbria
• Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire
• Petworth House, West Sussex
• Ragley Hall
• Roche Abbey, near Sheffield
• Scampston Hall
• Sheffield Park Garden
• Sledmere House
• Stowe Landscape Garden
• Syon House
• Temple Newsam
• Warwick Castle
• Wentworth Castle, South Yorkshire

Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown is one of our top 100 gardeners of all time

Acidity and alkalinity are measured on a pH scale. Below pH 7.0 is verging towards acidic so pH 4.5 is very acid. Test kits are available from many sources.

Increasing Alkalinity.

For vegetables a pH of around 6.5 is ideal and to achieve this it may be necessary to add some lime into the top 6 inches of your soil.
Garden lime is available from most garden centers. Builders lime or quick lime is more aggressive to plants.
If your soil is around a pH of 7.0 (neutral) I would not bother to try adjust it. Above that it is limey soil and less suitable for acid lovers like rhododendrons and blueberries.
Adding lime helps vegetables take up nutrients. It also suppresses club root in members of the brassica family.
Manure then a couple of weeks later lime your soil during winter, it helps to break up the soil.
For lawns, shrubs, roses, fruit or trees, apply lime before planting.
Calcified seaweed and ground chalk or powdered limestone are other forms of calcium carbonate that will help reduce acid soil.

The RHS has a table of lime quantities needed to correct different levels of acidity read more

Acidifying Soil

To change the pH of the top 6inches of soil from neutral pH 7.0, or slightly alkaline pH 7.5 to slightly acid pH 6.0-pH 6.5 sulphur powder may be required.
Aluminium sulphate or Ferrous sulphate can also be used as a soil acidifiers. The effects are rapid, but large quantities can interfere with phosphorus levels in the soil and may also reduce pH excessively.
Soil-acidifying materials can be applied at any time of the year but products containing sulphur take longer to work when the soil is cold so are normally best applied from spring to autumn.

Easy Step by Step Hedge

Clear the ground to remove weeds and old roots by digging or using Glyphosphate based weedkiller. Leave for a few weeks.
Pick a frost free day and when ready to plant put bundles of bare rooted plants into a bucket of water to give them a drink.
Mark out the line of the hedgerow bearing in mind you will want two staggered rows of plants. You can put down mulch matting and plant through it if you wish.
You will need 4-5 plants per square yard.

Push in the spade and lean it backward to create a planting pocket into which you can drop a bare rooted plant.
Do not plant any deeper than the plant was previously grown (there will be a soil mark or obvious crown where the stem starts and roots finish.)
Remove the spade and stamp the soil down around the new plants as they need to be in good contact with the soil.
Cut back thorny plants by half to encourage bushy growth.
Water plants well and keep watering regularly if the conditions are dry.
Taller trees may need some early staking support.
If you are troubled with rabbits fit a spiral protectoron each plant.

Edible Hedge Plants to Grow

Wild Pear and Crab apples for the fruit
Hazel both male and female plants for pollination.
Blackberry are a top hedge row favourite.
Blackthorn for the Sloes and height
Dog Roses and Hawthorn for the Hips and Haws
Elder for the flowers to make cordial or berries for home made wine.
Damsons for jam if space permits
Wild Cherry
Raspberries but they try to move away from the hedge looking for moisture.

Prune or trim like a normal hedge but cut blackberries down to the ground alternate years to keep them under control.
Even if you do not eat all the fruit and berries the birds will be grateful.

John Cushnie the landscape gardener, author and radio pundit has died suddenly from a heart attack on 31 December 2009 at the age of 66.

For the last 15 years John was a regular panelist on Gardeners’ Question Time, the Hedge Man on Radio 2’s Chris Evans Show, and presented Greenmount Garden for BBC One in Northern Ireland. He always used his quick wit when offering tips and guidance to his audiences. As a feature writer with the Daily Telegraph he has a list of New Years Resolutions in todays paper that were printed before news of his untimely death was available.

An experienced landscape gardener, who ran his own business, Mark Damazer controller at the BBC Radio 4 said “John Cushnie was a towering figure on Gardeners’ Question Time,” “His trademark acerbic wit was deployed with terrific timing against a wide variety of plants he did not like – and it was always done with an affectionate twinkle in his eye, with an exuberance of voice and with unrelenting sympathy for fellow gardeners.”

John Cushnie Landscapes web site focuses cleverly on ‘About You’ and has useful information for those considering landscape changes. As a good employer in Northern Ireland we hope the business continues in John’s name.
John Cushnie also wrote for the Belfast News Letter, Gardens Illustrated magazine, Gardeners World magazine, Amateur Gardening, Ireland’s Homes Interiors and Living magazine and several books.

Top 100 Gardeners John Cushnie

Your nomination may be a gardener who inspired you or has left a legacy in the form of an outstanding garden. Both are true for me with Geoffrey Smith and his Rhododendron garden at the Royal Horticultural Garden Harlow Carr where this memorial stone is displayed.

Celebrity gardeners are well represented in our list but you may know of one we have forgotten. As we admit the plant hunter/gatherers are not well represented and we would appreciate nominations is this category.

Sponsors of gardens are becoming a regular feature at shows like Chelsea but the well-to-do have long financed the gardening exploits to create beautiful surroundings for their homes and estates. Do they deserve more recognition or should that only go to the more earthy recipients of the Victoria medal (VMH).

International gardeners deserve a bigger profile and multiple nominations would be welcome. We would all like to know whose work to look out for when visiting new places.