Currently viewing the category: "Scottish gardeners"

Reputations

by Val Bott on 09/04/2014 · 0 Comments

A reputation for  reliability and quality was the key to success in business for 17th and 18th century nursery gardeners. This could be influenced by many factors, from a gardener’s training, through early employment, to the respect of patrons and colleagues. Personal testimonials passed on by satisfied customers were invaluable, while the emerging genre of […]

The Ronalds of Brentford

by Val Bott on 13/05/2012 · 0 Comments

In the Royal Horticultural Society’s Wisley library is a hand-coloured copy of Hugh Ronalds’ handsome book on apples, Pyrus Malus Brentfordiensis,  published in 1831. The illustrations were lovingly prepared by his daughter, Elizabeth, a talented artist who may personally have coloured a number of copies of the book. I was delighted to go to see […]

A confusion of Lewis Kennedys

by Val Bott on 27/12/2011 · 0 Comments

For the historian, the practice of naming sons after fathers and/or grandfathers can cause no end of confusion. This has certainly been the case with a family of Scots gardeners called Kennedy.What follows is an attempt to clarify which gardeners called Lewis Kennedy had links with the Chiswick area. A Lewis Kennedy prepared Notitiae, elegant […]

The Scott brothers

by Val Bott on 22/03/2011 · 0 Comments

Two brothers, probably Scots and both pineapple specialists, were working in Chiswick from about 1740. James Scott ran a nursery at Turnham Green while Henry was Lord Burlington’s gardener at Chiswick House until he set himself up as a gardener in Weybridge in the 1750s.