While c19th plant gatherers followed the trade routes that grew up with the expanding British Empire, nurseries were busy hybridizing and improving their discoveries, acclimatizing new varieties to the British conditions. The contemporary legacy of this process of conquest and acquisition lives on in the form of the so-called ‘English’ garden, with its enormous variety of plants from around the world.
2004 has been designated the ‘Year of the Garden’ in the UK (marking the 200th anniversary of the Royal Horticultural Society), at a time when gardening has become enormously popular, yet there has been little reflection on the power mechanisms which brought the English garden, as we know it today, into being.
2004 has been designated the ‘Year of the Garden’ in the UK (marking the 200th anniversary of the Royal Horticultural Society), at a time when gardening has become enormously popular, yet there has been little reflection on the power mechanisms which brought the English garden, as we know it today, into being.
