"Local Heroes" - Introduction

Wow David....Looks like your going to be taking on a mammoth task there...but I shall look forwatd to reading your "installments"...Good luck with it....

thank you david ~ what a revelation!
just something i have taken for granted and not thought about ~ till now ~ i shall take much more notice now.
the only one i know is a little 'pink' called mrs sinkins ~ this was made for a friend of mine ~ well not her but her grandmother ~ i think?

i just remembered one plant ~ buddleia davidii?? do you know anything about that one?

I look forward to your blogs on the plant hunters David.
Coincidentally, the leader/botanist on my recent holiday was the co-author of a book called The Plant Hunters. I already had this book so re-read it before the holiday - so I can check your facts!
PS. some large plant nurseries also sent out plant hunters to collect seed of 'rare' exotics so they could grow and sell fashionable plants (eg the monkey puzzle tree) and make large profits - perhaps the most famous of these was the Veitch Nursery near Exeter

Very interesting David, it will be really enjoyable seeing the places you visit, I will look forward to your next blog..
Best Wishes to you and the children for 2011.......

Am using this topic as a "focal point" for day trips in 2011, Milky. I know that it will be great fun, and very informative, too. :-))

This is very interesting, Sticki. It would be very interesting to know more! Dianthus "Mrs Sinkins" is named after a Catherine Sinkins, who died in c.1917. Perhaps your friend's Great (or Great Great) Grandmother????

Buddleia davidii. Buddleia, I know, was named after the Rev. Adam Buddle, native of Peterborough, cleric and botanist. The suffix "davidii" refers to a French priest and naturalist, Armand David, who introduced many plants from China. The popular Clematis armandii is also named after him. Incidentally, I have also read several times that it was he who introduced the giant panda to us. :-))

Andrew:- Many thanks for adding the fact that nurseries also had vested interests in acquiring new specimens for sale. I have a 19th century volume of Samuel Beeton's 1s "Guides to Good Gardening" (husband of the famous Mrs Beeton, of housekeeping and cookery fame). I learned far more about them, and the social/gardening history of the time, from the advertisements, rather than the text! Incidentally, one of David Douglas' first paid jobs was to go out in the hills of Perthshire and the Highlands, to seek out new plants, for a local Perth nursery. The "Monkey Puzzle" tree does, in fact, come in my first blog under this topic! :-))

All the Very Best to you and yours, too, Lincslass. Have Fun!!!! :-))

Like you I wonder about those people who plants were named after but never find out lol.
I grow lots of fuchsias and wonder about their names aswell. But I find difficulty discovering anything about the names.
I will look forward to your series of blogs.

Excellent blog, David ... well done :o)

This is going to be very interesting David, I have always known that plants,well most of them, were named after their founders, but I have never thought about following the history of the so called plant up. I've a terrible memory for the names of some plants that I look after down the bowling green, and I constantly get asked " whats that one called " etc., by visiting players, so now I store the names on my mobile phone. I am now going to read up on the history of these plants, so that I can also tell the Questioner a story as well. Thanks for inspiring me, can't wait for next installment. :o))

excellent blog and just the sort of interesting info that I love too.

all the best for 2011 and all your projects.

David i shall follow your journey with interest,the plant hunter book is one i have had for some years.They certainly took there life in there hands.It was not all good though many hundreds of thousands of plants perished at sea,and some of our heroes were ruthless in the way they collected.it would not be acceptable today.
I have a number of antiquarian books written by collectors at the turn of the 20 century including Farrer,and Kingdom Ward. Are you collecting books as well?
For the whole army you i am sure you will convert to your journey,wish you well on your travels.
Of course you have the modern day collecters you can explore but that i think will be a project in itself,
I have bought shares in seed collected by a number of present day collectors over the years including the Late Jim Archibald who i new quite well from my days running AGS shows.

i shall find out more and let you know.

and the very best gardening 2011 to you toooooooooo david ..... all the very best !!!!! hope you had a brill xmas

Great blog David will look forward to seeing the places you visit, never really thought too much about the plant hunters, but can see from your blog and the comments above it'll be a very interesting subject.
A very Happy 2011 to you and your family :-)

mrs sinkins was grown by the gardener of the work[or could be school, unsure?] house in london
which was run by mrs sinkins
mrs sinkins was my friend's great great grandmother [or aunt] !!!!

Stick
Famous at last, we will have you on (Who do you think you are) soon.

not me tho!!!!
would be nice if we all found we were related to a plant hunter/discoverer!
now what plant would i like to be related to?

I wish you well in your research ... look forward to your blogs as it's unlikely I shall ever get up to Scotland!
Happy new year to you all. : o )))

Stick
That's a difficult one,what do i look forward to seeing in flower most each year,Snowdrops in January,& Orchis Foliosa in May.Wont think any more otherwise i shall think of others

David, you've really started something here. Now, whenever we come across a plant with an interesting name we shall know who to ask! Hope you're patient! You certainly have an amazing memory . . . there are so many things that I read these days, that just don't stay put in my brain. So if someone asks me the name of one of the plants in my garden (because I do know most of them), and I can't remember, I say "mmm, I think that's Amnesia", and they nod. :))

i think 2 is fair brian ~ could have one for each season!!?
havent decided mine yet although gentian is tempting ~ cos of its colour and perhaps cos it would be living on the side of an alpine meadow?

A very interesting and thought provoking blog David. I have often wondered if I might be related to Sir William Hooker or Sir Joseph Hooker (my maiden name). My husband does a lot of genealogy and soon burst my bubble on that! So no claim to good gardening genes sadly. :o(

This is all going to be fascinating info, David - I wish you could include the rest of the UK!

I have a book called 'Who does your Garden Grow' by Alex Pankhurst, which is all about quite a number of plants and how they got their names. It's very interesting. :-)

Can't wait...

Fascinating blog, thank you David, and fascinating discussion after - thank you everyone :-)
I'll be looking out for the next instalment.

Hywel:- The first fuchsia was discovered, apparently, by a French monk, on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti). Named after 16th century German botanist, Leonhart Fuchs (I knew me "pirate" approach to our own garden would be useful, sometime) :-)) Variety names can be very intriguing, too, can't they? Among my favourites are the daylilies. I just had to find out about James Marsh, the Chicago and Siloam series. I think you would know all about them, Simbad? :-))

Thank You, Tt (and for pointing out the spelling error, now "sorted") :-))

Littlelegs:- I hope you don't lose your mobile!!! Good idea, though! The scientific names are a real gift to us, often. Some plants are credited to more than one "discoverer", which can be confusing, but the scientific name can often resolve this. One of my favourite trees, Douglas Fir, is, I think, a good example. The common name is in honour of David Douglas, who was first to send seeds of this back to Britain; its scientific name, Pseudotsuga menziesii, however, refers to Archibald Menzies, who was first to "discover" and describe it in its natural location. No clue, however, in the scientific name of another of Menzies' discoveries, the Monkey Puzzle tree (Araucaria auricana). To link in with Andrewr's comment, above: nurseries, like Veitch's of Exeter, sent out planthunters/gatherers to collect large quantities of new "exotics" for retail. One of James Veitch's "employees", William Lobb, brought back large quantities of Monkey puzzle seed, and so this tree came into commercial production in this country.

Good Luck with your research, Littlelegs. I'm sure the visitors will be "bowled over" with your revelations. I hope that you will share them with us, here, too! :-))

Sheila:- What a lovely mental picture you paint with your "amnesia" plants, lol!! Many Thanks for giving me my "smile/laugh of the day!! :-D)

Brian:- I don't have any old books (yet), just some more modern ones. Your books sound fascinating, as does your seed shares. Are the seeds of auricula, or of several different plants? I do have a vague memory of reading an obituary article for Jim Archibald (was this just a few months ago?). I always look forward to seeing the snowdrops, too, but they don't appear, here, until Feb/March. I don't think that I would have time, at present, to include modern planthunters, unfortunately. My ringbinder already has nearly 30 names in it, and i'm sure that the list will grow as I go along.

Spritz:- I have a vague memory of you mentioning this book before? Many Thanks for mentioning it again. Have added it to my wishlist now. If I had, time, money and a Lear jet or helicopter, it would be great to cover the whole country, or even the world......... :-))

Pip:- While you're "waiting", could you pop over to Botany Bay and take some pics? :-))

Sticki, Brian and Lily:- From Spritz' "Who Does Your Garden Grow?" to "Who Do You Think You Are?". Many Thanks for posting the additional info on Mrs Sinkins, Sticki, it is all very interesting! The entertainer, Bruce Forsyth, is a direct descendant of William Forsyth, after whom the shrub, Forsythia, is named (just another bit of trivia to throw in, lol!). Lily, are you sure, positively, absolutely sure, that you are not related in any way? Perhaps, if he has time, your OH could look at their family trees, and see whether even one name, somewhere, fits with yours? Their pages on Wikipedia mention many family names, for starters. Easy for me to say, I know. I think that genealogy is still a bit easier to do, here in Scotland, where every record is in one central place, has been digitalised, and easily available on one official website, and is a resource I am actually using as part of this project. :-))

Well, I have "gone on" a bit, haven't I? But, just had to reply to all your wonderful comments and info.

Thank You all! Wishing you a Very Happy New Year, too, in advance. :-))))

Thanks I knew about their discovery, but I meant the variety names like e.g. Mrs Popple - who was she ? lol

David
The seed depends on where they are collecting and can be anything from trees to the smallest Bulb,If you subscribe you usually receive an infantry of the plants known to be growing in the region,as an example if Turkey was the place planed for the expedition you would expect Tulips and the like ,if it were the Himalayas then Rhododendrons and Asiatic Primulas would be likely and of course some surprises.You are also asked what your particular interests are.
Speaking of Rhododendrons are the Coxes on your list.
Brian

Botany Bay?? Not much to take pics of there, unless you are interested in cungewois, a plaque and mangroves...

David - when I visited Canberra I few years ago, the National Museum was holding an exhibition of old Australian artefacts. In the first hall, carefully mounted in a glass case, was Joseph Banks's diary from his voyage with Captain Cook when they first landed in Australia. The book was open and you could read his entry on Botany Bay! Fascinating stuff.

fantastic blog David~really interesting!

No David I'm not 100% sure if there is a connection but OH is very into genealogy and does a lot of it for other people. Maybe I'll ask him to look into it more closely when he's in between projects. I don't think he delved very far before so you never know I may have better connections albeit somewhat distantly! :o)

Wow, David, what a great idea! I think you are going to have a wonderful and fascinating 2011. I shall very much enjoy reading about your visits and discoveries. I need to go to Pitlochry as I have never been to the plant hunters garden. In fact I have never really even heard of it before coming on here! My married name is Fraser and my maiden name is Richardson and there are, of course, many Fraserii plants and a few Richardsoniis too! It's not something I've ever researched, as I feel no connection to people through my names. However, I find that as I become more interested in plants I do wonder about the people behind the names, especially since visiting Glendoick Gardens and seeing all the wonderful Rhododendrons and other mountain plants that have been collected and grown there. In the past, I have just totally taken all the plants in my garden for granted, but knowledge is an amazing thing..it challenges ignorance doesn't it!! lol :))

I researched the Araucaria auricana as I have one in the garden David so I can tell you a little about it. Great blog by the way and it is certain to get us all off to a wonderful start to our gardening in 2011. I too look forward to the instalments to come.

http://www.pitlochry.org.uk/explorers-garden/plant-hunter-biogs/archibald-menzies.html

Extract below;-

Later Menzies stopped in Chile and there he was dined by the Viceroy. The dessert included some nuts which Menzies did not recognise, so he took some back to the ship and planted them, the seedlings survived and one was planted at Kew which lived for nearly a century. This was the first introduction of the Monkey Puzzle tree - Araucaria auricana. Year 1795. William Lobb brought more seed back in 1844 and the AA (Monkey Puzzle tree) was given an A.M. (Award of Merit) by the RHS in 1980.

http://www.gardenology.org/wiki/Araucaria

see extract below;-

Araucaria is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. There are 19 species in the genus, with a highly disjunct distribution in New Caledonia (where 13 species are endemic), Norfolk Island, eastern Australia, New Guinea, Argentina, Chile, and southern Brazil.
The genus is familiar to many people as the genus of the distinctive Monkey-puzzle Araucaria araucana. The genus is named after the Arauco Indians of central Chile and south-west Argentina whose territory incorporates natural stands of this species, where it is known as the Pehuén. These Native Americans, who name themselves the Pehuenche ('people of the Pehuén'), harvest the seeds extensively for food. No distinct vernacular name exists for the genus; many are erroneously called 'pine', despite their being only very distantly related to pines (Pinus).

Thank You, Beattie. William Lobb was a Cornishman, born at Perranarworthal. :-))

Hywel:- Mrs Popple? She was a real person, from Stevenage, Herts. Here is a link to an article which describes its "discovery" (you have to read well down the article to find the relevant part). :-))

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/8009493/How-to-grow-Fuchsia-Brutus.html

Many thanks for this very interesting info, Brian. Yes, the Cox family is on my list. One of my favourite gardens and nurseries, Glendoick, near Perth, sometimes have lectures by Cox family members. I must check out dates for 2011. Here is a link to the Cox page on the Glendoick website:-

http://www.glendoick.com/index.php?page=history-expiditions

Glendoick is a great place, Karen, isn't it? Yes, you must visit the Explorers Garden next summer. You could combine this with a visit to the grounds of the Atholl Palace Hotel, in Pitlochry. They are open to the public, and there are many old trees, such as Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, Tulip Tree, etc. Also formal gardens, an oriental garden, herb, fruit and veg garden. :-))

Oh dear, Pip! I remember being rather disappointed when I visited 22 years ago. Was hoping that it had changed. :-( Hmmm, I think I would choose the plaque, lol! :-))

That must have been amazing to see and read, Andrew! :-))

Thank You, Arlene! :-))

Will keep my fingers crossed for you, Lily! :-))

Welcome back, Scotsgran!! Many, many Thanks for posting all this info!!! The Explorers garden website is a great source of detail about the planthunters, isn't it? I wish I had space for a Monkey Puzzle tree, but looks like I will be getting one soon at "The Haven". For some reason, every independent GC around here has been selling these for the past 2 years. :-))

Thanks David. I didn't know about William Lobb. I wrote and then deleted some stuff about Cornish plant collectors, earlier. I think the "williamsii" Camellias have a Cornish connection to Caerhays Castle. But that may be more plant breeding than plant collection.

Beattie
That may well bring David south as the crosses carried out by Williams were from seed brought back to this country by George Forrest , another Scotsman.

Thank you David that was interesting. Do you, by any chance, know of a way I can find out about other fuchsia variety names ?

Thanks for that David! I shall!

Beattie - the Williams family owned (and still own) Cearhays Castle in Cornwall. They started a major breeding program with camellias starting with a cross between C. aluenensis (recently introduced at that time by George Forest) and C. japonica. The resulting plants were hardier than either parent, were vigourous plants which flowered earlier, longer and with more blooms. Caerhays Castle now has a link-up with Burncoose Nursery and continue to introduce new varieties of camellias and magnolias.

Thank you for clarifying that Andrew. Burncoose is one of my favourite nurseries - and a walk round the gardens is interesting in spring. I've bought several Camellias and Azaleas there in the last year or so.

Fascinating David I shall follow with interest :o)

This is going to turn into the "hottest" theme of the year it seems!

I've picked up a few things on the history of plant collectors over my many years of interest in plants but have never thought of investigating any of them! I've often found documentaries on TV to be very interesting but I've always been too lazy to do any research for myself! Nowadays with the ease of finding info on practically anything under the sun on the Internet there really is no excuse for laziness! You only need to tap in a few words into a search engine to be faced with 100s of pages of info from many different sources - one of the best being Wikipedia - or it variants!

I'm really looking forward to reading your blogs over the coming year! You've already whetted my appetite!

Have a great year 2011! :-))

interesting david and looking forward to your blogs, happy newyear to you and the children ;o) x

Well you are certainly stirring up a whole lot of new interest David! How do you find time for it all? I really admire the scope of your projects and feel your children must be benefiting by the wonderful knowledge they are taking in. Our two daughters taught their children at home and received high commendation from the School Inspectors on their visits to check their work and discuss things with them. Living nearby I was able to help in a small way with arts and crafts, while they also learned a lot about gardening from helping on our two allotments and in their gardens. Roy taught the boys sailing and now a Grandson is a keen sailor.

It is never too late to stretch one's mind but it is hard to cram in everything one would like to do! Even with my wakeful nights I can't get everything done!

I am reading Alan Titchmarsh's book at present recounting how he started as a gardener. It is very interesting. At College he had to learn about the history of plants and their botanical names etc., Once I had a 'photographic' memory, but that was a long time ago! Now I find it much too clogged with all kinds of scrappy bits and pieces. Therefore, I envy you and wish you a wonderful time as you take in such a diverse amount of information and dispense it to others who are interested.
I am sure some will also get inspired to do their own personal research.
What a great year ahead..................

Many Thanks. Lyn! I've always meant to read his book, too, but haven't, yet. :-))

Beattie:- Why did you delete your plant collectors material????? :-(( Could you post any of it, again?

Beattie, Brian and Andrew:- Many Thanks for all this info! I'd really like to visit Cearhays. :-)) George Forrest is, of course, in my ringbinder, somewhere. :-))

Hywel:- This latest one has me stumped! :-(( Will keep a lookout, though. :-))

Balcony:- and all that info often creates as much confusion as it solves difficulties! :-))

A Very Happy New Year to you, too, Sandra and Neellan! :-))

A happy New Year to James , Eilidh and yourself David , after reading through all of this I'm left feeling very lucky that I have a Monkey Puzzle ( Araucaria araucana ) tree in my garden ~~ good luck with your projects for this year I shall look forward to reading them ... :-)

A Very Happy New Year to you, too, Amy! Was on the 'phone to "M'lady" at "The Haven" earlier today, and raised her earlier wish to have a Monkey Puzzle on her "estate". She definitely wants one, so it looks as if I shall be getting one when the weather improves! :-)))))

If I were in Norfolk, 2 of my "local heroes" would be Capt. George Vancouver (born king's Lynn), and Sir William Jackson Hooker (born Norwich). :-)))

Thanks David but don't worry about it. It's just something I've been wondering about for a while. But if you ever do find anything, I'd be interested :o)

I will certainly let you know of any more "gems" I find, along the way, Hywel. :-))

Thank you :o)

I can understand that David , Vancouver was only 40 when he died he lived ,travelled and saw more than most of us will ever do in our lives . the connection with William J. Hooker and Glasgow Uni. / city's Botanical Gardens is bound to appeal to you plus his travelling , I think you could easily be a modern day adventurer given the chance ;o))

You're Welcome, Hywel - don't delete that blog!!! :-))))

Amy!! And, you said on another thread that you know nothing!!!!! The "Glasgow Connection" with William Hooker and his son, Joseph Dalton Hooker, is, of course, of great interest to me, as is the Glasgow Botanic Garden, with its ongoing research,and preservation. I was a student at Glasgow Uni (over 30 years ago, now), and the Botanic Garden was a fave place to go on Sundays. Of course, I didn't realise half of what I have found out, since! Easily visitable, less than 1 hr drive, so looking forward to a few visits this year!! I now even know all the cheap/or free, carparks in the vicinity!!!!!! (LOL).

Such a pity that Vancouver was, ultimately, a "victim" of his own personailty. :-((

Not sure about being a "modern adventurer"!! If my surname was Tennant, I might have been able to claim to be a time-travelling, virtual, cyber "Dr"! :-))))))