Early Scottish Gardeners and Their Plants, 1650-1750

RR 2001/166

Early Scottish Gardeners and Their Plants,1650-1750 Forbes W. Robertson Tuckwell Press East Linton 2000 223 pp. ISBN 186232 085 3 L25.00

Keywords History, Scotland, Horticulture, Plants, Gardening

This is a refreshingly original work covering a period of Scottish garden development largely neglected in the literature, apart from what appears in Stuart, D. and Sutherland, J., Plants from the Past, 1992. The book is not concerned with the more general aspects of garden history and does not deal with the design of gardens or landscapes, but with the plants and the men who grew them and in some cases sold them. Therefore, as stated in the Introduction, "Plants and people are our theme." An important aspect of the book is that much of the work presented results from using primary sources of information relevant to seventeenth and eighteenth century Scottish gardens and in particular relating to the gardens of members of the landed gentry.

The period chosen, apart from having been previously much neglected, is one which sees the introduction of new shrubs from Eastern North America...