3 August  2017  –  Plant Histories  –  Andrew Sankey

What a talk!  We knew that our speaker would be good as he had visited us before but Andrew Sankey really surpassed himself this time! A talk on ‘Plant Histories’ was not at all inspiring but the title belied the content. We heard about the introduction to the UK of various plants over the centuries.  Facts, even dates, were delivered in an interesting and entertaining way.  We even enjoyed the gentle quiz designed to inform but still amuse.

Andrew reminded us that we don’t know how lucky we are to live in this country.  Thanks to the Gulf Stream and our climate – warm and wet – we can grow plants from across the globe.  He cited as an example of a place NOT to live if you like gardening – Minnesota!  Here there are only a few months of gardening weather with ground frost 4 feet deep and snow up to 8 feet deep making October to April no-go months for gardening!

 Back to the UK and Mediaeval times when the monks were the gardening experts, everything was called a herb and ideas were exchanged across the continent through Latin.  Not until the Tudors were gardens created – think of Elizabethan knot gardens ……… but the first ones were full of not herbs but vegetables and flowers – turnips, leeks, primroses,…..

 We were reminded that probably the first plant hunter, John Tradescant was associated with Hatfield House and was sent by Robert Cecil to find new plants in the Low Countries, Virginia and elsewhere.  (Read about him in Phillippa Gregory’s novel ‘Earthly Joys.’) Over the years plant hunters introduced many new varieties – runner beans from South America, marigolds (tagetes) from Mexico, poppies from the Alps….

Andrew whizzed through the centuries describing the escapades of the plant hunters – too many to describe here but I can’t resist telling you about Robert Fortune, employed by the (now) RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) to ‘steal’ tea plants from China.  Dressed as a mandarin with suitable hair pieces (!) he was successful!  The resulting seedlings made their way to Assam and then to Darjeeling!  Read Sarah Rose’s book “For All The Tea In China” which describes his James Bond-like mission.

Andrew’s talk was littered with snippets of information – for instance, did you know that the ‘honesty’ plant, ‘lunaria’ was so named because of its moon shaped seeds which helped those with hints of madness – the ‘lunatics’.

By the way – don’t blame your neighbours for the ground elder which appears in your garden!  It is all the fault of the Romans who brought it to the UK to use as a delicious salad leaf.

Mary Duff  (Chair Fowlmere & Thriplow Gardening Cl

 

 

This entry was posted in 2017. Bookmark the permalink.