Miss Willmott's Ghosts: the extraordinary life and gardens of a forgotten genius

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Prefers full sun in a light well-drained soil. Will tolerate very light shade. Plant into final position while the plant is young. The roots are often several feet long and do not like to be disturbed. Stuart Thomas, OBE, Graham (1987). A Garden of Roses. London: Pavilion Books Limited. p.160. ISBN 1-85145-059-9. Liberating” Seeds in Other People’s Gardens Miss Willmott’s ghost, with its appropriately ghostly silver coloration, pops up here and there in some of the world’s best gardens. Photo: www.gardenia.net a b "A Short History of Warley Place". Warleyplace.org. Essex Wildlife Trust. Archived from the original on 24 May 2010 . Retrieved 12 April 2010.

Such was her passion for plants and gardening that later in life Miss Willmott managed to spend most of her vast inheritance. Today Warley Place exists as ruins and is run as a reserve by the Essex Wildlife Trust. In addition to her career in horticulture, Willmott also had other, lesser known accomplishments in particular photography and ornamental turning. [3] In 1932, Willmost presented her Holtzapffel lathe, some examples of her ornamental turning work, and a number of photographs and slides of horticultural subjects to the History of Science Museum, Oxford. [21] Later life [ edit ] True, it is not winter yet, but in colder climates the temperatures remain below 10C during the day now and the night temperatures often dip below 0C. In these conditions, if sown and put outside right away, the seeds cannot imbibe properly for the cold stratification to be effective.

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Ellen Ann Willmott gardener and botanical rosarian". The Garden. 104 (6): 241–246. June 1979. {{ cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year ( link) a b c d e f g h i j k Le Lièvre, Audrey (2004). "Willmott, Ellen Ann (1858–1934)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/48838 . Retrieved 12 April 2010. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) Ellen Ann Willmott FLS VMH (19 August 1858 – 27 September 1934) [1] was an English horticulturist. She was an influential member of the Royal Horticultural Society, and a recipient of the first Victoria Medal of Honour, awarded to British horticulturists living in the UK by the society, in 1897. Willmott was said to have cultivated more than 100,000 species and cultivars of plants and sponsored expeditions to discover new species. [2] Inherited wealth allowed Willmott to buy large gardens in France and Italy to add to the garden at her home, Warley Place in Essex. [3] More than 60 plants have been named after her or her home, Warley Place. [4] Early life [ edit ] Man-made gorge at Warley Place verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Sadly, the performance is coming to an end and Miss Willmott’s Ghost will leave the stage. I’ve yet to work out how to replace her. Any suggestions?

a b c "Special Exhibition Label: 'Eccentricity: Unexpected Objects and Irregular Behaviour' (10/5/2011 - 16/10/2011) (MHS Narratives: IRN 15071)". Museum of the History of Science . Retrieved 28 October 2019. a b c d Greer, Germaine (19 April 2003). "Country Notebook: Ellen Willmott". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 12 April 2010. The seeds can be sown indoors from January to April in trays of seed compost and transplanted to 7.5cm individual pots when big enough to handle. Once acclimatized they can be planted out in the garden where you want them to flower. Needless to say, garden owners were surprised to find drifts of this the giant sea holly appearing a couple of years after her visits, and this is how the plant earned its popular name of Miss Willmott’s Ghost. Portrait of A Ghost It takes half a dozen individual plants to get this dense of a display. Photo: plantlust.comThere are other sea hollies ( Eryngium spp.) that you can grow, all perennials and much smaller, but with similar flowers. As the name suggests, E. giganteum is the giant of the genus and the only biennial.

Sow indoors. Surface sow onto moist well-drained seed compost. Just cover with vermiculite. Propagate 18-22°C. for 2-4 weeks. Do not exclude light. Germination can be slow. Seal seed container in a polythene bag and leave for 2 further weeks, then cold stratify. Move to a fridge 4°C for 3-6 weeks. After this return to warmth but no more than 18°C. If germination does not occur within 6-10 weeks return to fridge for further 3-6 weeks. Examine regularly whilst in fridge and immediately remove any seeds which show signs of germination. Move to 8cm pots. Acclimatise and plant out after danger of frost has passed. The garden looks tranquil, trouble free. But things are on the turn. By early afternoon, the dark shade that hid in corners and under bushes during summer emerges with preternatural speed and subjugates the garden. Leaves are already changing colour on deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers. Once storm Babet arrives there will be more leaves on the ground than those remaining on stems and branches. Nature restores herself. Fallen leaves return fertility to the soil, rotting down, ready to feed next year’s growth. She was also known for being a prodigious spender. In 1905 she bought a third estate in Ventimiglia, Italy. [1] Willmott used her wealth to fund plant-hunting expeditions to China and the Middle East, [1] and species discovered on these excursions would often be named after her. The expeditions she sponsored included those of Ernest Henry Wilson, who named Ceratostigma willmottianum, Rosa willmottiae and Corylopsis willmottiae after her. [9] Over fifty plant species or varieties were named for her and her gardens. [8]

Botanical Style Photographs taken against a white background

Giant sea holly is a tall biennial, easy to grow in cooler temperate climates (USDA zones 4 to 7) and able to survive in poor, well-drained, even dry soils where it maintains itself by self-sowing. It can be a tall plant, usually about 1.2m (4 feet) tall, but sometimes 1.8m (6 feet). In my garden, it’s the latter, rising on stiff stems from well above most of the plants around it. The upper part of the plant is silvery blue green and very spiny. Photo: www.whiteflowerfarm.com Looking out at the garden, through the kitchen window, the shrub roses are still, in mid-October, blooming in the beds. The morning sky is fine, and the low sun is shining on the lawn. Hobhouse and Wood, Penelope and Christopher (1988). Painted Gardens. English Watercolours 1850-1914. London: Pavilion. p.208. ISBN 978-1-85145-638-3.

Miss Willmott’s Ghost is the most famous tale associated with this pioneering and eccentric gardener. The story exists in different forms. Ellen Ann Willmott: a Woman of Horticultural Destiny". Shakespeare Birthplace Trust . Retrieved 29 May 2022. Miss Willmott’s Ghost lurks in a rough corner of my garden. It branches like a candelabra, with many metallic heads all dressed in silvery-white bracts, each resembling an Elizabethan ruff. It was at its peak as July ended. But if moonlight falls on them, the silvery white skeletons remain wonderfully spooky. Gordon, Susan. "Ellen Ann Willmott - a true genius of the place - A disagreement with E.A. Bowles". Parks & Gardens Data Service. Archived from the original on 25 February 2011.Miss Willmott of Warley Place: Her Life and Her Gardens. London: Faber and Faber. 2012. ISBN 9780571280810.