Who Does Your Garden Grow? by Alex Pankhurst

Aquilegia ‘Nora Barlow, Dianthus ‘Mrs Sinkins’, rose ‘Madame Hardy’, Lonicera nitida ‘Baggesen’s Gold’, rosemary Miss Jessup’s Upright’, Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff’… who were these people and how did their names come to be attached to these plants?

Back in 1992 Alex Pankhurst wrote, and published herself, a little book called Who Does Your Garden Grow? I remember seeing the boxes and boxes of copies of this fascinating book about the people behind the names on some of our flowers stacked in her garage in Essex in England. Well, they quickly sold and the book was reprinted twice in its first year, but for some time it’s been unavailable. Now it’s back thanks to a small American publishing house, B. B. Mackey Books.

The results of many years of dedicated research, Alex Pankhurst presents her findings in an entertaining and accessible style as she reveals who Nora Barlow, Mrs Sinkins, Madame Hardy, Niels Baggesen, the Bishop, and many many more, actually were.

But the book does much more than simply say: Nora Barlow was the granddaughter of Charles Darwin. Alex enriches our knowledge by setting the scene, illuminating the family background and revealing, for example, that Nora studied genetics at Cambridge, that she usually preferred much simpler flowers than this fully double columbine and how Alan Bloom came to introduce the plant.

This 168 page paperback re-issue comes in a slightly larger format than the original, with slightly larger type, with some pictures larger than the original and also with some new pictures. All the pictures are in black-and-white, helping keep the price very reasonable, and as many are taken from historical black-and-white photographs this is less of a loss than it might seem. The text is pretty much unchanged.

My only complaint? I’d love a book that covered ten times as many plants! I once asked Alex if she planned to expand the book into a fat dictionary, but no. Perhaps I’ll have to write it myself!

In the meantime this is both a valuable historical record and an absorbing read. It’s great to have it available again.

In North America Who Does Your Garden Grow? is available from B. B. Mackey Books or from amazon.com. I’d urge you to order direct from B. B. Mackey as a way of supporting this excellent small independent publisher.

In Britain Who Does Your Garden Grow? is available from amazon.co.uk.

Comments

[Carol]

I love a good book about plants and this one sounds like a good read. Thanks for bringing it to our attention!

[OldRoses]

sounds right up my alley. I love history!

[Pam]

I love the Nora Barlow story - and I have a Aquelegia'Nora Barlow' from the Thomas Jefferson historical plant folks in my garden. She was definitely a scientist in her own right - quite a heritage. This book looks like one that I would enjoy.