The British have always been a nation of gardeners. Our gardening
history began even before the Romans, who brought Mediterranean plants
which still flourish across Britain. Gardening grew in the sixteenth
century and a distinctively British style became a major export in the
eighteenth century. Today, the annual Chelsea Flower Show is an
international festival, and our garden designers are in demand all over
the world. This book traces the history of British gardening over 450
years through the stories of twenty-six key figures, showing what drove
them, and their role in the evolution of Britain's gardens. Their work
reveals changes in taste and society down the centuries. Familiar names
are featured, such as 'Capability' Brown, Humphry Repton, Gertrude
Jekyll, Vita Sackville-West and Christopher Lloyd, together with less
generally known figures such as John Gerard, whose Herball of 1597
inspired generations of plantsmen, the Tradescants, pioneer plant
hunters, and J. C. Loudon, nineteenth-century champion of smaller
gardens. In the present day, we meet Beth Chatto, advocate of the right
plant in the right place, and John Brookes, who did for gardening what
Elizabeth David did for cooking. Their achievements provide a colourful
history and inspiration to every gardening enthusiast.