William Robinson: was an Irish practical gardener and journalist whose ideas about wild gardening spurred the movement that led to the popularising of the English cottage garden, a parallel to the search for honest simplicity and vernacular style of the British Arts and Crafts movement, and were important in promoting the woodland garden. Robinson is credited as an early practitioner of the mixed herbaceous border of hardy perennial plants, a champion too of the "wild garden", who vanquished the high Victorian pattern garden of planted-out bedding schemes. Robinson's new approach to gardening gained popularity through his magazines and several books—particularly The Wild Garden, illustrated by Alfred Parsons, and The English Flower Garden.
James Bateman was a British landowner and accomplished horticulturist. He developed Biddulph Grange after moving there around 1840, from nearby Knypersley Hall in Staffordshire, England. He created the famous gardens at Biddulph with the aid of his wife Maria and his friend and painter of seascapes Edward William Cooke. From 1865–70 he was the founding president of the North Staffordshire Field Club, the large local organisation which researched local natural history and folklore.
The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed, is an illustrated publication which began in 1787. The longest running botanical magazine, it is widely referred to by the subsequent name Curtis's Botanical Magazine.
Canongate Books is an independent publishing firm based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Beth Chatto was an English plantswoman, garden designer and author known for creating and describing the gardens named after her near Elmstead Market, Essex. She wrote several books about gardening under specific conditions and lectured on this in Britain, North America, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany. Her principle of placing the right plant in the right place drew on her husband Andrew Chatto's lifelong research into garden-plant origins.
Lady Anne Brewis, was an English botanist. She was a daughter of Roundell Cecil Palmer, 3rd Earl of Selborne.
Peta "Bunny" Guinness is a British chartered landscape architect, journalist and radio personality who is a regular panellist on the long-running BBC Radio 4 programme, Gardener's Question Time. She also writes a weekly column in the Sunday Telegraph. She presented The Great Garden Challenge on Channel 4 in 2005.
Valerie Finnis (1924–2006) was a well-known British photographer, lecturer, teacher and gardener.
Timbuctoo is the fictional account of the illiterate American sailor Robert Adams' true life journey to Timbuktu, and his arrival in Regency London. The novel is written by Anglo-Afghan author, filmmaker, and adventurer Tahir Shah. It was released on July 5, 2012, by Secretum Mundi Publishing.
David J. Howe is a British writer, journalist, publisher, and media historian.
Lilian Snelling (1879–1972) was "probably the most important British botanical artist of the first half of the 20th century". She was the principal artist and lithographer to Curtis's Botanical Magazine between 1921 and 1952 and "was considered one of the greatest botanical artists of her time" – "her paintings were both detailed and accurate and immensely beautiful". She was appointed MBE in 1954 and was awarded the Victoria Medal in 1955. The standard author abbreviation Snelling is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Christian Ramsay, Countess of Dalhousie informally Lady Dalhousie, néeBroun; was a Scottish botanist and natural historian. She married George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie and travelled with him when he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, Governor General of Canada and Commander in Chief of the Indian Army. While travelling, she collected and catalogued many species of plants, presented scientific papers to societies and donated many collections to different botanical groups.
Alicia Margaret Tyssen Amherst, Baroness Rockley was an English horticulturist, botanist, and author of the first scholarly account of English gardening history.
The County Herb Committees were a nationwide medicinal plant collecting scheme, established by the British Ministry of Health during the Second World War.
Vera Higgins (1892-1968) was a British botanist, author, translator and botanical illustrator known for being an authority on succulents and cacti, particularly Crassulaceae. She graduated from Cambridge University and worked at the National Physical Laboratory. Higgins was the first editor of The Cactus Journal of the Cactus & Succulent Society of Great Britain, beginning in 1931 and continuing until 1939 when the Society closed because of World War II. She then edited the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society between 1939 - 1945. She was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1945 and was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society Victoria Medal of Honour in 1946.
Catherine Horwood is an English journalist, author and social historian who writes on horticulture, garden design, and in fashion, the history of dress. She is the authorised biographer of the British plantswoman, garden designer, and author, Beth Chatto. Her biography, Beth Chatto: a life with plants won the European Garden Book of the Year award in 2020.
Potted History: The Story of Plants in the Home is a 2007 book on the social history and horticulture of houseplants by the social and cultural historian Catherine Horwood. It was first published in hardback by the British publisher Frances Lincoln Publishers.
William Gregor MacKenzie ALS VMH (1904–1995) was a gardener and horticultural curator born in Scotland, where his father was head gardener at Ballimore, near Loch Fyne in Argyllshire.
Elsie Margaret Wagg was an English philanthropist. She is credited with creating the idea of opening gardens for charity, and co-founded the National Garden Scheme.
Margaret Moffat (Madge) Elder was a Scottish gardener, plant nursery owner, writer and feminist. She published two books on the history and folklore of the Scottish Borders, as well as regular articles for the Weekly Scotsman and The Scots Magazine. She recognised similarities between the suffrage movement and pioneering women gardeners.
