Garden History Shorts with Advolly Richmond, Sandra Lawrence and Noel Kingsbury

Overview

Short and sharp! Episodes or subjects from Garden History that three of us would like to share. Advolly Richmond on the late Victorian craze for archery in the garden, Sandra Lawrence on Ellen Willmott’s alpine gardener, Jacob Maurer, and Noel on ‘Weimar Germany, Gardening’s Forgotten Golden Age’.

‘Miss Willmott’s Secret Weapon – the Alpine Garden at Warley Place and its keeper, Jacob Maurer’

There are many famous garden designers, writers and makers, but few of our historical garden celebrities worked alone. We know precious little about the majority of gardeners who actually did the work in these hallowed grounds, the coal-face labourers who usually knew as much – or more – than their employers. 

For the last eight years Sandra Lawrence has been investigating horticultural maverick Ellen Willmott’s Swiss Alpine Foreman, the expert who made her rock garden the sparkling jewel case of world-renown. Quietly spoken, humble, yet deeply feeling, Jacob was never celebrated in his lifetime. It’s about time we discovered him now.

The March of Archery: An Elite Pastime (1780-1900)

The use of landscapes and garden over the centuries has always been fascinating. The March of archery is a light-hearted look at the very social aspect of archery in the grounds and gardens of country houses. The talk is based around the activities of the Royal British Bowman Society in the Welsh and Shropshire Marches. Unlike other societies, the British Bowmen were very progressive and included women from the outset. Each bow meeting had purpose. Think speed dating, think Cupid and shrubberies!

Over the years archery grounds and lawns have become part of the overall design of the gardens at many well-known places such as Harewood House’s exotic planting in their ‘Archery border’.

‘Weimar Germany, Gardening’s Forgotten Golden Age’.

Weimar Germany was 20 years of chaos, violence and upheaval: it also saw an explosion of artistic and cultural creativity. We’ve all heard of Bauhaus but there was SO much more going on. Gardening in particular enjoyed huge popularity. The horticultural scene was dominated by the extraordinary figure of Karl Foerster, but he was only the icing on the Kuchen; the nursery industry exploded to cope with an insatiable demand for new varieties, chiefly of perennials; rock gardens were all the rage, whilst weird and wonderful theories abounded about how to grow vegetables. 

I feel I have only just begun scratching the surface of this extraordinary era. I’ll focus on Foerster and talk us through the contents of several issues of the magazine he edited, but also draw on studies of innovation in breeding of bulbs and perennials.