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OverviewA wonderfully readable investigation of the origins of the modern garden in 18th-century England. Popular history at its finest. One January morning in 1734, cloth merchant Peter Collinson hurried down to the docks at London's Custom House to collect cargo just arrived from John Bartram in the American colonies. But it was not bales of cotton that awaited him, but plants and seeds... Over the next forty years, Bartram would send hundreds of American species to England, where Collinson was one of a handful of men who would foster a national obsession and change the gardens of Britain forever- Philip Miller, author of the bestselling Gardeners Dictionary; the Swede Carl Linnaeus, whose standardised botanical nomenclature popularised botany; the botanist-adventurer Joseph Banks and his colleague Daniel Solander who both explored the strange flora of Tahiti and Australia on Captain Cook's Endeavour. This is the story of these men - friends, rivals, enemies, united by a passion for plants. Set against the backdrop of the emerging empire and the uncharted world beyond, The Brother Gardeners tells the story how Britain became a nation of gardeners. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Andrea WulfPublisher: Cornerstone Imprint: Windmill Books Dimensions: Width: 12.90cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 19.80cm Weight: 0.278kg ISBN: 9780099502371ISBN 10: 0099502372 Pages: 384 Publication Date: 05 February 2009 Recommended Age: From 0 years Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , General , Professional & Vocational Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order  Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsReviewsThis absorbing and delightful book about 18th-century botanists stands out among histories of plant hunting ... Works superbly -- Jenny Uglow Sunday Telegraph Rounded, generous and exhaustively researched ... She is very adept at telling a good story, and in the history and origins of gardening she has found the perfect vehicle ... An excellent, hugely entertaining and instructive tale, and Wulf tells it very well -- Mark Cocker The Guardian Wondrous ... I have learned so much from her book -- Jon Snow, Channel Four News A delightful book ... Remarkably vivid -- Adrian Tinniswood Engrossing ... A gripping story, told here with grace and aplomb -- Tim Richardson Country Life British journalist Wulf (co-author: This Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of English History, 2005) explores into the personalities that spurred the evolution of the 18th-century English garden.Renaissance and baroque gardens on the European continent were characterized by smooth lawns, clipped hedges and topiary in a formal, geometrical structure, writes the author. When Thomas Fairchild, already famed for his luxuriant nursery outside of London, developed the first hybrid in 1716, he set in motion a chain of events so momentous that in time no gardener would ever think about plants in the same way again. Wulf loosely follows these developments in smart, stylish prose without delving very deeply. Fairchild's mule, a cross between sweet William and a carnation, proved that plants reproduced sexually, an incendiary notion that Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus underscored in his binomial nomenclature. This encouraged gardeners to meddle empirically in their own garden plots, just as Philip Miller's enormously accessible Gardeners Dictionary (1731), a catalogue of all plants then in cultivation in Britain, transformed gardening from an aristocratic preserve into the passionate pursuit of amateurs. Profoundly influenced by Miller's dictionary, London cloth merchant Peter Collinson began importing seeds and plantings from the North American colonies, specifically from Pennsylvania, with the help of Philadelphia farmer John Bartram. These floral dispatches, much desired because their hardiness precluded the need for hothouses, continued for more than four decades and helped make the English garden a natural-growing perennial marvel. Another contributor to this sea change was the treasure of botanical specimens brought back from Captain Cook's South Seas expedition, organized and bankrolled by celebrated botanist Joseph Banks, who was elected president of the Royal Society in 1778. Banks' economic use of such plants as cotton and the Indian gum tree propelled British industry, but Wulf skirts this crucial subject. She also gives scant attention to the idea of the English garden as an Enlightenment ideal.An ornamental study, frustratingly lacking in contextual cultivation. (Kirkus Reviews) The Brother Gardeners is a delightful book. It brings the story of 18th-century gardening to life in a remarkably vivid way, and sheds new light on the personality clashes and prejudices which lay at the root of the Georgians' passion for plants. <br>--Adrian Tinniswood <br> A wondrous telling of the history of the very English love affair with gardens and growing things...I have learned so much from this book. <br>--Jon Snow <br> Andrea's wonderful in-depth narrative of The Brother Gardeners provides a vivid horticultural contrast to the stark destitution instigated by the Enclosure Acts of the same period. A fascinating read for all those with an interest in plants, gardens and social history. <br>--Steven Poole <br> Andrea Wulf captures the spirit of the tenacious men who made Britain the epicentre of horticultural knowledge and expertise in the 18th century. A totally engrossing read. <br>--Rosie Atkins, Curator, Chelsea Physic Garden <br> Immaculately written and researched, this book brings to life the dramas and dangers of eighteenth-century plant collecting. You will never look at the plants in your garden in quite the same way when you know what these intrepid men went through to find them. <br>--Catherine Horwood <br> The Brother Gardeners were a group of men involved in the 18th-century quest for new plants, at a fascinating period in garden history. They were dedicated and in some cases eccentric - Andrea Wulf brings their personalities vividly to life in her thoroughly researched and lively account. <br>--Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall <p> From the Hardcover edition. Author InformationAndrea Wulf was born India and moved to Germany as a child. She trained as a design historian at the Royal College of Art and is the co-author (with Emma Gieben-Gamal) of This Other Eden- Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of English History. She has written for the Sunday Times, the Financial Times, Mail on Sunday, The Garden, the Architects' Journal, and regularly reviews for several newspapers, including the Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement. She is a regular contributor to BBC radio and television. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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