Category: MUWAGA Events

Linnaeus’s gift to the scientific community was a systematic classification system for the natural world, aimed at standardizing the naming of species and organizing them based on their characteristics and relationships.

At the heart of Linnaeus’s system was binomial nomenclature, a simple yet revolutionary approach. He proposed that all organisms should be described using only two Latin words: one denoting the “genus” and another its “species”. This concept, quickly gained acceptance as the standard naming convention for animals and plants.

Michael demonstrated with the help of audience participation how tricky it is to describe a simple object in detail without such a system. The concept of “genus” combined with “species” was indeed a revolutionary idea, replacing the increasinly-unwieldy polynomial (many-named) methodology.

Beyond taxonomy, Linnaeus also stirred controversy by devising a method to classify plants based on their sexual floral organs. Linnaeus’ system was based on the idea of counting the male and female elements of plants – the stamens and carpels.

We learned that this so called “sexual system” did not meet with universal approval, especially from one particular Prussian botanist, Johann Siegesbeck, who described it as “lewd” and a “loathsome harlotry”.

However, despite this, Linnaeus is credited with establishing an international code of nomenclature which secures his fame and legacy as a self-styled “Prince of Botany” and “Father of Taxonomy”. We came away also with a sense that Carl Linnaeus, though obviously a genius, was not short of self-belief!

We are grateful to Michael for an informative evening with several surprises and anecdotes – a light touch to describe a complex subject.

About Dr Michael Jones

Dr Michael Jones has worked in education, both here in the UK and in Africa, but is now retired from full-time employment as Head of Science at Newman University, Birmingham. He is an enthusiastic botanist with a particular interest in parasitic plants. His PhD was on the parasitic genus of flowering plants, the Orobanche. 

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Further Info: The Life of Linnaeus

Born Råshult in the parish of Stenbrohult in Småland, Sweden, which was also the birthplace of Ingvar Kamprad founder of IKEA. Though not keen on the metier of his pastor father, Carl Linnaeus was inspired in early life by his father’s keenness on gardening.

At school, due to his interest in plants and science, Carl was encouraged to study medicine as a route to a study of herbal biology In 1728, after spending a year studying medicine at the University of Lund, Linnaeus transferred to Uppsala University.

Between 1732 and 1735, Linnaeus embarked on extensive travels throughout Sweden, focusing particularly on Lapland and northwest Sweden. His purpose was to meticulously document and gather information about the country’s natural resources.

Much detail of this important time of his development is available here:

Crucially, from these journeys, Linnaeus  collected the material to be written about in Flora Lapponica – which was a noteworthy accomplishment of his early output.

Later Life

While continuing to lecture at Uppsala, he remained a student himself until 1735, when he then obtained his medical degree from the University of Harderwijk in Holland. Over the next three years, he spent considerable time in Holland, with additional travels to Germany, France, and England. Notably, Linnaeus supervised the zoo and gardens of the wealthy banker George Clifford during his stay in Holland. It was during this period that he published the first of many scientific papers and books including “Flora of Ceylon”

Upon returning to Sweden, Linnaeus practiced medicine in Stockholm. Later, he assumed the position of professor of botany at Uppsala University in 1741. As a professor and scientist, Linnaeus was both popular and influential. These students, whom he affectionately called his ‘apostles’, collected new plants and animals. Linnaeus then applied his innovative binomial system of nomenclature to name these discoveries.

In 1747, Linnaeus was appointed the chief royal physician, and in 1758, he was knighted, adopting the name Carl von Linné (which explains why we refer to the society as the Linnean Society). Despite illness toward the end of his career, Linnaeus continued to make significant contributions. His legacy extends beyond taxonomy; he was also a trailblazer in the study of ecology, describing relationships between living organisms and their environments.

A full summary of the life of Carl Linnaeus is available here:

Richard described the background to the establishment of Primrose Gardens in Steeple Aston. The gardens are a former walled kitchen garden, part of a much larger estate called The Grange, a large mansion which was sold for redevelopment. The grounds were also divided and sold, including the former Head Gardener’s “Primrose Cottage”.  Richard’s grandfather Richard Wadham was Head Gardener for 40 years until 1939.

In the early 1950s the cottage and an acre of ground was purchased by Richard’s father, who developed the land as a vegetable-growing enterprise until 2001. During this time, produce from the garden was sold via the family van delivery service. Richard became fully involved with this, until a change of direction on retirement, when the story of the development of this acre of farmed land became today’s Primrose Gardens.

Richard and his wife Daphne have changed the plot beyond recognition using their own skills and imagination. This has been achieved with some help from, for example, their son-in-law who had an eye for the contents of a skip or two! Richard’s obvious negotiating skills also enabled him to find extraordinary garden features such as a terracotta warrior, an antique street lamp, a random sundial and much else to give the garden several points of focus.

But it was Richard’s lively description of the past 20 years of development from what was an originally (possibly tongue in cheek?) idea of a low maintenance stretch of lawn with a few borders. It has now become a haven of flowers, shrubs, smaller trees, and an ever-decreasing amount of grass!  A  tour-de-force, amongst many, is a large pond created by Richard on what is a sandy loam and now looks like it has been there for ever.

Richard’s description of the changing face of the garden through the past 130 years, and his own involvement since the 1950s, was a true eye-opener. His talk was certainly an inspiration for us to think about visiting as a group before too long.

For the past three years Kate has been Head Gardener at Trinity College, bringing her team-building and creative expertise to a set of challenging projects at the College.

Kate abandoned her Civil Service career in her mid 30s to follow her passion for gardening and the outdoors. Amongst much else in her career development, Kate worked as a volunteer in gardens near the Inns of Court in London, whilst studying for an RHS Diploma as part of a training pathway which included work at the Cotswold Wildlife Park and the Oxford Botanical Gardens.

Kate’s arrival at Trinity coincided with the end of a building development project for 50+ additional student rooms and lecture halls, and so she began her tenure faced with some challenges around building work residues and structures. Inevitably during these refurbishments, parts of the grounds had been lost or neglected.

Kate described her work with her small, dedicated team around four main areas.

Herbaceous Border

The first of these was a 25-yard long herbaceous border, which had certainly seen better days. In a series of images, Kate showed us the development of the border over time. With knowledge of her team who knew the history of the border, she dug up and split the existing perennials such as achillea, replanted them and, by adding bought-in plants including striking purple dahlias, created an environment of close planting, thus suppressing weeds (especially bindweed) and obviating the need to water often.

Library Quad

In an area called the Library Quad, there was a request to lay the area to lawn and create imaginative planting to contrast. This was achieved with a randomly-spread range of approximately 9,000 bulbs, accompanied by “natural look” effects in what Kate described as a loose matrix-style. Blues and golds predominate – the Trinity College colours – in a meadow effect.

Meadow-Planting

The meadow theme is continued in the next area described by Kate: a small area as part of a building plot. This became a fine display of wild meadow flowers, helped for sure by the poor-quality soil and the creativity of the team.

Woodland Planting

Kate finally described her work in a woodland area, where tons of bought-in mulch and over 1,000 shade loving plants helped to restore the area to a natural look and feel for visitors – the theme of sustainability and regenerative planting never far from the ethos at Trinity.

Kate’s talk stimulated much interest among the group, as evidenced by possibly a record number of questions in the Q and A which followed. Subjects included the possibility of creating compost (lost during building works, but progressing), ability to use walls for climbing plants (tricky with listed buildings), use of greenhouses and whether the work was appreciated by the students!

Visiting the Gardens

Trinity Gardens are open to visitors, and details can be found here

What a delight it was to see an extraordinary range of fine photographs of her selection of twelve Cotswold ( and nearby) gardens, described with obvious enthusiasm as well as incisive comments on the key qualities of each of them.

Included in the gardens Mandy presented were some surprises – for example, a fascinating garden in Cirencester lovingly developed by Susan Beck and featured on Mandy’s website here .

Mandy described this garden for us under the title “An Unusual Setting”. Indeed, Mandy’s use of such simple titles in her slideshow of her chosen twelve gardens drew us into each of them thematically. This echoed the idea of a garden vista, designed to draw us into the essence of each.

Under another title “Dreams Come True”, Mandy described how Roger Head took the seriously-neglected Highnam Court gardens back to and beyond their former glory. Highnam is described on their website here , but Mandy’s own photos showed us the delights, for example, of Highnam’s “Monet Lake” and huge rose garden from her own expert eyes.

Included in Mandy’s presentation we had an update on the activities at the Cotswold Wildlife Gardens. Members will recall our February 2022 talk by Jan Lambourn, Head Gardener at the park. Mandy had her own stories to tell about her visits there.

The evening went quickly, and we were left with plenty to think about when it comes to planning our own garden visits for 2024.

About Mandy Bradshaw – “The Chatty Gardener“

Mandy described herself inter alia as “a writer who takes photos” – a modest epithet for one who has upwards of 25 year experience in writing about and visiting gardens nationwide, and engaging with owners and developers as an integral part of her journalism. More about Mandy is on her website here.

Stephen is a specialist in historic gardens. He introduced his work at Stowe as a long-term project with a great deal of work commissioned by the National Trust.  This involves a watching brief to advise on placement of new cables or buried gas tanks, plus archaeological and structural surveys and the creation of historical records.

Stowe Gardens Landscape

The landscape here is sensitive from both the horticultural as well as historical point of view. These points were developed as Stephen took us through the various projects he has undertaken. In doing so, he covered in his talk some insights into the function and significance of the various monuments which have decorated the landscape over time.

In his introduction Stephen also reminded us of the geology of the area, dominated by a kind of rough limestone with the soil above this a narrow and unforgiving band of mostly glacial sand and clay.  Good, he said ironically, for pathways.

An outline map of the site showed streams going East to West and North to South to create bodies of water. Each with their own functions – and challenges – over time.  

Among the areas covered were the Bourbon Fields where excavations yielded a flint hand axe, maybe 10 to 15,000 years old. But for various reasons no Roman evidence was found.

Looking at individual monuments, we were able to understand a little of the historical development from the early 1700s until the later stages of Stowe’s history, particularly during the ownership of the three generations of the Cobham family. The Cobham Era (1697–1749) saw garden designer Charles Bridgeman and architect Sir John Vanbrugh working on the garden.

Stephen highlighted the huge changes in fashion for the large-scale picturesque gardens championed by Capability Brown. This did much to obscure or remove entirely, any evidence of previous formal gardens. 

Viscount Cobham died in 1749 and the estate passed on to his nephew Richard Grenville, Earl Temple, in 1752.  It was during Earl Temple’s ownership that he naturalised Stowe, softening the edges of woodlands and reshaping lakes. Various monuments were moved, including the Lake Pavilions and the Fane of Pastoral Poetry. Meanwhile, both Oxford Bridge and the Corinthian Arch were added to the landscape.

Stephen included in his talk the work he has undertaken on the Rotunda and the area around the Queens Theatre, the Grafton Lawn, The Worthies Causeway and William Kent’s Elysian Fields.  Of particular interest were Apollo and his Nine Muses with the 10 statues reinstated (more than once) which had previously been moved to create a welcome for minor royal Princess Amelia. Discovering where these statues were originally was part of a brief undertaken by Stephen’s team.

Other areas covered the Bridgemans Canal, the Lower Copper Bottom Lake and the 19th century engineering added to it, the restoration of Bell Gate Lodge and the Temple of Modern Virtue.

Website Records

Stephen has an informative and detailed website here, where much information of work on these – and all his Stowe Gardens activity – can be found. Included are:

The Worthies Causeway

The Lower Copper Bottom Lake

The Doric Arch

Bell Gate Lodge

The Cascade below the Octagon Lake

We learned that the name Alhambra means “red fortress”, and initially it was built in the mid-14th century as an Islamic military stronghold. A key point to note is that Granada is in the foothills of an area dominated by the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The Alhambra itself is perched high above the city. Seasonal temperature differences can therefore be extreme, with dry summer heat, and often cold temperatures in winter months. These combinations enable us to understand the architectural, decorative and horticultural styles which dominate both the Alhambra itself and the Generalife palace – a palace constructed as a retreat for the elites and their families in the hot summer months.

Additionally, of course, the importance of water supply and irrigation was a key factor. Natalie showed images of the channels and shallow fountains embedded in the original Islamic structural designs in the palace, which enabled efficient use of water from the river Darro. These designs continue to maintain an efficient irrigation system today, feeding plants from below.

Scent ( Myrtle is a feature) rather than colour dominates the planting in the palace, as it does also in the Generalife. Additionally, the importance of the number four in Islam is reflected in courtyard shapes. Orange trees in square patterns allow for the creation of shade. A sense of a desire for control is reflected in perfectly arranged hedgerows. In addition, the colour green dominates – the colour of “Life” in Islam.

Highlights of Natalie’s talk included the Courtyard of the Lions. Its fountain is said to represent the heavenly garden of Islam. A large bowl sits on twelve lions, and underneath the base of the fountain run four water channels, symbolising the four rivers of paradise.

Moving from the Alhambra, we have the gardens of the Summer Palace, the Generalife. In summertime the court would move to this cooler area, higher up than the Alhambra palace and set amongst the trees of the Alhambra woods. Here there are plenty of open spaces (including allotments!). We have water features, lush gardens, ponds and long paths. Here,  Magnolia Grandiflora makes its mark in autumn months.

Natalie’s talk was entertaining and insightful, with her multi-dimensional exploration of these historic buildings and the dramatic landscape which influenced their garden designs.

Here is a summary of recent MUWAGA gatherings during summer 2023

18 June – Wildflower walk led by Craig Blackwell. Notes on the walk are here >>

16 July – Gerald Stratford (Mr Big Veg) opened his garden at  12 The Sands to members . Another successful event for us all. Notes and pictures here >>

29 July – MUWAGA held a summer social gathering in Jim and Sandy Bradshaw’s Garden at Quakers Meet in Milton. Lively conversation, time to wander through a beautifully-maintained garden, afternoon tea and a raffle were the order of the day.