All Our Yesterdays: amazing plant

from the AG archives All our yesterdays

Amazing stories about plants

We look at the giant water lily, the snapdragon, geums and the Glastonbury Thorn

The giant water lily Some plants impress by their sheer size, others by the outstanding beauty of their flowers and some by the curious nature of their growth or the shape of their leaves. There are plants, too, that have achieved fame because of the difficulties of their culture and the challenge they offer to gardeners. But is there any plant that better combines all these characteristics than the giant water lily of the Amazon, Victoria amazonica , with its 6ft [1.8m]-diameter leaves capable of supporting a child? This astonishing plant was discovered in the 1830s, but for some time resisted all attempts to grow it in England. Eventually, Sir William Hooker succeeded in raising it from seed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Surrey, and to this day it is treated there as an annual, with seed being sown in pots in January and placed in the water tank in May –three months later the leaves may be 6ft [1.8m] across. This is hardly a subject for the amateur’s greenhouse, for the water must be kept at a temperature of 85°F [30°C] and a single plant needs several cartloads of loam and cow manure. But such considerations did not deter Joseph Paxton, the Duke of Devonshire’s celebrated gardener, at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. When Sir William offered Paxton a seedling in 1849, he jumped at the opportunity, personally journeying to Kew to fetch it and planting it with his own hands. He had a tank built specially for it, but the amazing lily soon outgrew that and another had to be provided. In November, at Chatsworth, it flowered for the first time in England. No words could describe its grandeur and beauty, Paxton reported to the Duke. The flowers, 1ft [30cm] or more across, opened in the evening, white at first, soon becoming purplish-pink. A few years later Paxton was knighted –not for his triumph with the giant water lily, then called Victoria regia , in honour of the queen, but for his designs for the Great Exhibition of 1851. The leaves of the lily lie flat on the water, but turn up at the rim, and it is this boat-like construction that enables a child to be supported. It was, however, the strong ribs of the leaves, radiating from the centre, that interested Paxton and which he imitated, first in a new The giant water lily (Victoria amazonica ) was said to be the inspiration for Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace in London (inset)

conservatory at Chatsworth and then gardens, the flowers were beautiful

in that remarkable prefabricated edifice and therefore he could not omit it. He

we later knew as the Crystal Palace

said some had red flowers, some white

in London. and some were “red stript with white”.

The snapdragon

They were easily increased from the roots in autumn.

Any child who has ever pinched the Two centuries later [the English author]

flower of a snapdragon or antirrhinum Jane Loudon made the point that wild

to make it open and close will agree that snapdragons are often found growing on

it is appropriately named. Other old the top of old walls or among fragments

names –calves’ snout, lion’s mouth and of limestone, and therefore the cultivated

bulldog –were also expressive, while forms should be considered as “one of

the name antirrhinum follows a similar the most ornamental plants for placing in

train of thought, with anti meaning similar situations”.

‘resembling’ and rhinos a ‘snout’. Today, most of us have been brought

Antirrhinum majus , the great up to regard the snapdragon as a

snapdragon, was the wild bedding subject, unreliable as a

species, originally a native perennial and to be treated

of southern Europe, as a half-hardy annual.

which came to us so When 4ft [1.2m]-tall

long ago and took varieties were

such a liking to our hospitable land that it has virtually

TI Media

introduced from America and we were told that

become naturalised and is the parent of the many fine garden forms we grow today. But how our attitudes to a plant can change with changing times and changing fashions! In the mid-17th century, [the English politician and keen horticulturists] Sir Thomas Hanmer included the snapdragon in his Garden Book almost apologetically, saying that although it was common in over there the snapdragon was a popular cut flower, we wondered whatever they would get up to next. The days of the snapdragon’s glory, after Jane Loudon’s time, were forgotten until the florists took the plant in hand and made it a popular exhibition subject. One such plant reached a height of 7ft [2.1m] and was no less than 5ft [1½m] in diameter. The antirrhinum or snapdragon is available in a range of heights and fl ower types

These extracts from issues of AG in 1969 look at the stories behind various plants and the derivations of some of their names Amateur

1884

136 years of practical advice The World’s Oldest Gardening Magazine 2020

The geums To older generations, the name Bradshaw suggests railways [Bradshaw’s Guide is a series of travel guide books that years later inspired the Great British Railway Journeys TV series presented by Michael Portillo in 2010]. Yet ‘Mrs J. Bradshaw’ is the name of what was, and still is, one of our most popular border plants, a rich crimson-scarlet semi-double geum that flowers for most of the summer. At one time, the name ‘Mrs J. Bradshaw’ was linked with that of ‘Lady Stratheden’, another geum, but with rich double golden-yellow flowers. They make a splendid contrast together. The gardener Frances Perry tells how her father-in-law, the late Amos Perry, used to exchange interesting plants from his nursery in Winchmore Hill with a Southgate amateur named John Bradshaw in north London. One day in 1906, Mr Bradshaw gave Mr Perry a box of geum seedlings that his gardener had raised. One of these seedlings proved to be an outstanding semi-double scarlet and was named ‘Mrs J. Bradshaw’ and given the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit in 1909. The late Arthur Simmonds, in his book A Horticultural Who Was Who , had a different version of this anecdote. He said that Mr Perry sold the two boxes of seedlings to Mr Bradshaw and it was Mr Bradshaw’s gardener who was able to recognise a winner when they flowered. Incidentally, Mr Bradshaw’s gardener was the late George G. Whitelegg, who later acquired such a reputation for his gold-medal rock gardens at Chelsea. The name geum was the old Roman one, used by Pliny, and probably derived from the Greek word geuo , to taste –a reference to the aromatic flavour of the roots. Our garden geums are descended from a South American species, G. chiloense , which came from the island of Chiloé and reached us in 1826. The water avens, G. rivale , is a species found wild in North America, Europe, including Britain, and Asia. The name avens is supposed to come from the old French avence [from Medieval Latin avencia , a variety of clover], but how or why nobody seems to know. Another native of Europe is G. urbanum , otherwise known as herb bennet, a contraction of herba benedicta , the blessed herb. It was supposed to have medicinal value and was often

Geum ‘Mrs J. Bradshaw’ is a clump-forming perennial that grows to about 2ft (60cm)

depicted in church decorations. It was probably for this reason that it was ‘blessed’, rather than for its other uses –as a flavouring for gin or a perfume that would repel moths from clothes.

The Glastonbury Thorn Before the North Somerset drains were dug to form a pattern of waterways, the whole area was marshland subject to the tides of the sea. Although the Tor of Glastonbury is now more than a dozen miles from the sea, we can understand how here it was that, according to legend, Joseph of Arimathea landed, bringing the Holy Grail with him from Palestine. According to tradition, the landing place was commemorated by the planting of an oak tree at the foot of Stone Down. In fact, there was an ancient Druidic grove of oaks there and they were cut down in 1906. Two thousand annual growth rings were counted on one specimen, so the tree must have already been there when Joseph arrived somewhere about 70AD. Joseph and his party, the story

continues, marched round the Tor and, becoming tired on a hill, they rested and it was there that Joseph stuck his hawthorn staff into the ground. The hill became known as Wearyall Hill –a century ago it was spelt Werrall, now the map gives it as Wirrall. Joseph left his stick in the ground and it took root. Then the miracle occurred. Instead of blooming in May, it flowered on Christmas Day and became the object of great veneration, a popular ‘draw’, which must have been the envy of every other great religious house in England. Pilgrims begged to take away even a thorn and a business sprang up to provide rooted cuttings from the thorn of Glastonbury Abbey. By Elizabeth I’s day the miraculous thorn had acquired two trunks and a zealous Puritan tried to cut down the tree. He severed the larger stem, but then was miraculously punished: he cut his leg and a chip of wood flew up and put out an eye. He gave up. During the Civil War a Roundhead dealt with the remaining trunk, apparently without evil results, but by that time the tree had a number of offspring flourishing in the district. In 1752, Britain changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, bringing us into line with most of Europe, and 11 days were omitted. A crowd collected at Glastonbury on Christmas Day to see whether the thorn would blossom. However, it did not, but obliged, punctually, 11 days later. Today we call the Glastonbury Thorn, or the Holy Thorn, Crataegus monogyna praecox . It was featured on British postage stamps in 1986.

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