Confused with snowdrops, denied as being a British native, Leucojum have had a chequered history. Mark Griffiths celebrates this misunderstood, but brilliant garden flower
ON a day in May, sometime in the 1770s or 1780s, the botanist William Curtis was exploring the Thames-side between Greenwich and Woolwich when he encountered a plant he’d never expected to find. Although bulbous, it was flourishing amid reeds and marsh marigolds, ‘just above high water mark’, he recalled. Standing in sheaf-like clumps, its leaves resembled a daffodil’s in shape, but were deep glossy green.
Over them, hanging in clusters from 2ft-tall stalks, the flowers hovered: dazzling white bells with an emerald spot at each petal tip and yolk-yellow anthers that were revealed by the breeze’s ruffling.
Before long, he witnessed these blooms again—this time, joined in a dance of breathtaking brightness and delicacy along the muddy shore of the Isle of Dogs.
This was Leucojum aestivum, a species that, in England, had only ever been recorded as a garden plant, one that first became popular with Elizabethan horticulturists, who imported the bulbs from its native countries in Continental Europe. And yet the specimens that Curtis had found were, he contended, ‘undoubtedly wild’ and growing ‘where no garden, in all probability, could ever have existed’.
He commented: ‘For my own part, I am perfectly satisfied of its being a native of our island, and have no doubt but it will be found in many other parts of it.’ He announced these discoveries in Flora Londinensis, his botanical survey of the capital and its environs. At the same time, he proposed a new English sobriquet for this unlikely Eastender.
Denne historien er fra November 28, 2018-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra November 28, 2018-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
