Miss Willmott of Warley Place


Book Description

Born in 1858 to a wealthy family Ellen Willmott owned three gardens, in England, France and Italy, and employed one hundred and four gardeners. She mixed with royalty and her name was associated with the greatest gardeners of her time, Gertrude Jekyll, William Robinson and E. A. Bowles. In 1894 she joined the Royal Horticultural Society and in 1897 she was one of the first sixty recipients (and one of only two women) to receive the Victoria medal of honour. Warley Garden in Spring and Summer, a book of photographs, was published in 1909 and in 1912 she published The Genus Rosa. In the same year she was awarded the grande médaille Geoffroi St Hilaire from the Société d'Acclimatation de France and in 1924 received the Dean Hole medal from the National Rose Society. An acknowledged and admired expert in her field Ellen Willmott died in 1934 aged 76, alone and nearly bankrupt. First published in 1980 this carefully researched biography is a fascinating account of a woman who was infamous in her time and whose mark can still be seen on the horticultural world today. Miss Willmott of Warley Place is republished to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Ellen Willmott's birth.







The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland


Book Description

This well-illustrated seven-volume work (1906-13) covers the varieties, distribution, history and cultivation of tree species in the British Isles.




The Gardener's Botanical


Book Description

The definitive guide to botanical Latin Unlock the secrets of botanical Latin with this beautifully illustrated encyclopedia. The Gardener's Botanical contains definitions of more than 5,000 plant names—from abbreviatus ("shortened") to zonatus ("with bands")—along with more than 350 color illustrations. Scientific plant names are an invaluable tool for those who understand them. Formed from Greek and, more commonly, from Latin root words, not only do they make it possible for gardeners and botanists to communicate, they also contain a wealth of hidden information. The Gardener's Botanical is the key to unlocking these secrets. This guide contains a breathtaking array of botanical names in alphabetical order. Each word is listed with a pronunciation guide, definition, example plant, and, where appropriate, etymology. Also included in this illuminating guide are special features on important plant genera, fact boxes, essays focusing on the history and importance of Latin names and botanical illustrations, and an index of common names with more than 2,000 popular plants, cross-referenced with their binomial name in Latin.




The Pursuit of Paradise


Book Description

Full of fascinating characters and vignettes - from ancient Greeks to suffragettes, from eccentric military men to Catholics in hiding from persecution - this text looks into how society's changes have altered our views of gardening, who does it, and how we do it. What drives people to risk their lives in search of a rare Himalayan flower? Why are so many gardeners homosexual? How did gardening become a respectable career for women? When did looking at other people's gardens become a national British pastime?




Miss Willmott of Warley Place


Book Description




A History of Women in the Garden


Book Description

From the early misfortunes of Eve, condemning her descendants to a dubious reputation for fruit management, to the acclaimed successes of plant breeders such as the eccentric Ellen Willmott who combined bankruptcy with iris breeding, the fortunes of the female gardener have been as varied as their roles. Telling the tales of the sixteenth-century housewife, who neatly sidestepped accusations of herbal witchcraft while working her plot, and the unconventional Ladies of Llangollen, who eloped together and created their gothic garden and many other women besides, A History of Women in the Garden showcases female horticulturists through the centuries. An enlightening and entertaining read that will allow the reader to gain fresh enthusiasm for even the most menial of garden tasks, and realise that hundreds of women have trod the garden path before.




Jaqueline Tyrwhitt: A Transnational Life in Urban Planning and Design


Book Description

Jaqueline Tyrwhitt’s life story is truly a gap in the planning and urban design literature: while largely unacknowledged, she played a central role in twentieth-century design history. Here, Ellen Shoshkes provides a full and insightful appraisal of the British town planner, editor, and educator who was at the center of the group of people who shaped the post-war Modern Movement. Beginning with an examination of her early work planning for the physical reconstruction of post-war Britain, Shoshkes argues that Tyrwhitt forged a highly influential synthesis of the bioregionalism of the pioneering Scottish planner Patrick Geddes and the tenets of European modernism, as adapted by the Mars group, the British chapter of CIAM. The book traces Tyrwhitt’s subsequent contribution to the development of this set of ideas in diverse geographical, cultural and institutional settings and through personal relationships. In doing so, the book also sheds light on Tyrwhitt’s role in the revival of transnational networks of scholars and practitioners concerned with a humanistic, ecological approach to urban and regional planning and design following World War Two, notably those connecting East and West. The book details Tyrwhitt’s role in creating new programs for planning education in England, North America and Asia; pioneering methods for registered, overlay mapping (a forerunner of GIS), shaping post-war CIAM discourse on humanistic urbanism and assisting CIAM president Jose Luis Sert establish a new professional field of urban design based on this discourse at Harvard University (1956-69); consulting to the United Nations; collaborating with Sigfried Giedion on all of his major publications in English from 1947 on; and helping Constantinos Doxiadis promote a holistic approach to the study of human settlements, which he termed Ekistics, as a founding editor of the journal Ekistics and in the ten Delos Symposia Doxiadis hosted (1963-1972). The book concludes with an a




Lessons from the Great Gardeners


Book Description

Like heirloom seeds and grafts from trees, advice from great gardeners handed down through the centuries has shaped the science and art of gardens across the globe. Spanning gardeners from fifteenth-century Japan to the contemporary United States, Lessons from the Great Gardeners profiles forty groundbreaking botanists, nurserymen, and tillers of earth, men and women whose passion, innovation, and green thumbs endure in the formal landscapes and vegetable patches of today. Entries for each gardening great highlight their iconic plants and garden designs, revealing both the gardeners’ own influences and the seeds—sometimes literal—that they sowed for gardens yet to sprout. From André Le Nôtre in seventeenth-century France, who drew on his training as an architect and hydraulic engineer to bring the topiary form to Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles, to the work of High Line and Lurie Garden designer Piet Oudolf, and Thomas Jefferson’s advice on creating protected garden microclimates for help growing early crops and tender fruit like figs (with peas, a Jefferson favorite), Lessons from the Great Gardeners is a resource as rich as the soil from which it springs. Featuring lush illustrations harvested from the archives of the Royal Horticultural Society, as well as sections on a dozen international gardens that showcase the lessons of the greats, this homage to the love of good, clean dirt is sure to inspire readers to get out in the sun and dig.