I need a photograph of a Nux vomica plant, the strychnine tree for the book that I am writing about poisonous plants, ‘Death in the Garden.’ Gerard the herbalist wrote about the medical use of the seeds; the name…
Blog Archives
The Georgian Garden
The Georgian period was one of great advances in gardening, but also one of changing fashions and taste. The formality of the grand parterres in the French Style were soon to fall out of favour and be grubbed up as…
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Illegal Mandrake Collecting
I have just read about an online petition that has been set up by the RSPCA to ban the illegal use of dogs to harvest mandrake roots. Mandrake, Madragora officinarum, has been harvested for millennia for its medicinal properties. …
William Cowper- A critic of Lancelot Brown
Although we are celebrating Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown this year, he was not without his critics. One was the poet William Cowper who lived in Olney – famous for the Pancake Race- and later Weston Underwood, a short distance away. Cowper…
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A Valentine’s Day Rose
Who Saint Valentine was is not at all certain. He may be a conglomeration of more than one saint, and although no churches in England are dedicated to him, his popularity is now virtually un-rivalled across the world. Chaucer…
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The Georgian Surveyor. The equipment that Capability Brown could have used
The Georgian period was a good time for to be a surveyor. At home estates needed mapping to ensure that you could fend off land-grabbers, so you needed to know where your boundaries were. Surveying was needed so that you…
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Mascall’s ‘Hare Pipe’ Trap
I was preparing some items to take to Aston Court to give my talk, ‘Those Tempestuous Tudors.’ The talk is about the use of plants during the Tudor period, but it includes poisons and a few other gruesome gardening subjects. I…
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 | unfoldingenlightenme… on Growing Nux vomica- The Strych… |
 | rosbott on Being Lancelot Brown |
 | Michael Brown on The Georgian Garden |
 | gardentourist on The Georgian Garden |
 | Michael Brown on The Georgian Garden |
