Category Archives: Gardens

Plant of the Month: February 2017

Posted on 17/02/2017 by carolinemmurray

I was thinking in terms of primroses, as mine (in a very sheltered position under a south-facing wall) are flowering bravely, but I haven’t seen any elsewhere yet, so I though I would go for winter aconites, which flower reliably … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, Natural history | Tagged aconite, Aconitum, Eranthis, poisonous plants, spring flowers | 1 Comment

Professor Martyn Writes to Dr Pulteney

Posted on 30/01/2017 by carolinemmurray

One of my current voluntary activities consists in part of thumbing through an elderly card index, which reposes in an elderly and beautiful wooden card index case. In the course of this rummaging, I have noticed with alarm the increasing … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, History, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Cory Library, CU Botanic Garden, John Martyn, Richard Pulteney, Thomas Martyn | 11 Comments

Plant of the Month: January 2017

Posted on 09/01/2017 by carolinemmurray

My mahonia is looking pretty cheerful at the moment: as good a reason as any to find out a bit more about it – including, I hope, the reason for its flowering in the coldest months of the year, when … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Exploration, Gardens, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Bernard McMahon, botany, horticulture, mahonia, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Nuttall | Leave a comment

Dr Ducarel Writes to Dr Watson

Posted on 01/01/2017 by carolinemmurray

Whether history has been kind to Andrew Coltée Ducarel (1713–85) rather depends on which source you use. Francis Grose and Horace Walpole seem both to have loathed him (but didn’t the latter loathe almost everyone?). Others, including John Nichols, have … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliography, Biography, Botany, Gardens, History, London, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Andrew Ducarel, garden history, Garden Museum, herbals, horticulture, Lambeth, plant collections, Tradescant, William Watson | 10 Comments

Plant of the Month: December

Posted on 17/12/2016 by carolinemmurray

For the avoidance of doubt (as we lawyers like to say), I’m talking here about European mistletoe: Viscum album (Linnaeus). There are about 70–100 species worldwide, as well as New World and southern hemisphere ‘mistletoes’ of quite different species, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, History, Literature, Natural history | Tagged 'The Mistletoe Bough', Christmas, gardens, mistletoe, myths and legends, Victorian Web | 2 Comments

Plant of the Month: November 2016

Posted on 13/11/2016 by carolinemmurray

I was parking my car outside a friend’s house in leafy western Cambridge when something squidged from above on to the bonnet and disintegrated most messily. I opened the car door and was assailed by a most appalling smell of … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Exploration, Gardens, London, Natural history | Tagged Engelbert Kaempfer, fossil trees, Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgo tree, Joseph Banks, Kew Gardens | 18 Comments

Plantin and Moretus

Posted on 30/10/2016 by carolinemmurray

Not quite a Proustian moment, as no madeleines were dunked in lime-flower tea, but the other day a friend with unexpected time on his hands in Belgium enquired of the world via Twitter what was interesting in Antwerp. Immediately, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Bibliography, Biography, Gardens, History, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged Antwerp, Arthur Rank Hospice, Christophe Plantin, history of printing, Jan Moretus, Peter Paul Rubens, Philip II, Plantin-Moretus Museum, Polyglot Bible | 7 Comments

Plant Of The Month: October

Posted on 20/10/2016 by carolinemmurray

This may sound a perverse choice, given all the possibilities, not least autumn-flowering bulbs and corms (and even ivy, the flowers of which are still attracting bees and butterflies), but here goes, anyway.

Posted in Botany, Gardens, Natural history | Tagged daisy family, pellitory, plant of the month | 6 Comments

A History of Gardening in England

Posted on 29/09/2016 by carolinemmurray

The author of this work, Alicia Amherst, was subject more than most to changes of nomenclature. Her father was William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst (1835–1909). His father was William George Daniel-Tyssen, but in 1852 both father and son had taken the name … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliography, Botany, Gardens, London, Natural history | Tagged Alicia Amherst, gardening, history of gardening, London parks and gardens | 1 Comment

Plant Of The Month: September

Posted on 12/09/2016 by carolinemmurray

Bramble or blackberry, friend or foe? I can afford to regard the bramble as a friend because I don’t have any in my garden. Another (human) friend, who is slowly reclaiming an overgrown allotment, reports that brambles (along with nettles … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Botany, Gardens | Tagged blackberry, bramble, Rubus species | Leave a comment