Currently viewing the category: "Middlesex Gardeners"

Richard Williams: “an ingenious cultivator of heathers”

by Val Bott on 16/08/2023 · 0 Comments

A black and white image of Erica ampullacea appears in John Harvey’s Early Nurserymen (Phillimore 1974). Harvey gives the source as plate 303 in Volume IX of Curtis’ Botanical Magazine published in 1795. However, a little searching online revealed a tinted copy of the image and Curtis’ accompanying text since the publication has been digitised […]

Thomas Greening and The Gnoll

by Val Bott on 06/04/2022 · 0 Comments

One of the great things about sharing my research on this website is the fact that it brings me interesting queries and contacts. I was recently approached by Ian Baggott of CFP consultancy who has been commissioned to work on a conservation management plan for Neath Port Talbot council which runs The Gnoll as a […]

The Blinde Family of Barnes

by Val Bott on 24/02/2021 · 0 Comments

Though a Blinde family archive does not appear to have survived, as is the case for most 17th / 18th century gardeners, it may be possible to discover his name in some of his customers’ accounts in order to understand the size of his business. Information from other researchers is welcome. When James Wisdom and […]

Brown & Greening

by Val Bott on 23/11/2020 · 0 Comments

For Capability Brown’s 300th anniversary I was invited to speak at a conference at Hampton Court. My role was to reveal the Greenings who worked in the decades before Brown, often in a similar style, and whose landscapes had often been obliterated, wholly or in part, by later owners who commissioned Brown. I rather enjoyed […]