Abstract
THE presidential address of Dr. John Ramsbottom to the Essex Field Club provided an opportunity to present much historical gardening knowledge in a pleasant, intimate form ("Old Essex Gardeners and their Gardens", Essex Naturalist, 26, 65-103; 1938). Yucca first flowered in England during the year 1604, in the garden of William Coy at Stubbers, North Okington. This same garden also enjoys the distinction that it was the source whence the ivy-leaved toadflax, Linaria cymbalaria, first spread to become apparently native upon walls throughout England. It would be difficult to over-estimate the valuable work of another Essex gardener, Lord Petre, who stimulated the collection of many foreign plants which have become accepted beautifiers of British gardens. Richard Warner of Woodford introduced the genus Gardenia to English horticulture in 1754, and Dr. John Fothergill, 1712-80, had an influence similar to that of Lord Petre. He stimulated numerous useful projects, and himself cultivated many new and curious plants. No geographical limits were set by these Essex plant collectors, but they appear to have been especially responsible for the introduction of North American species to the gardens of Europe.
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Gardeners of Essex. Nature 142, 949 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142949a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142949a0