EPISODE 1,230 : PLANT COLLECTORS CATALOGUES 1879 AND 1883 …AND A BOTHY WHERE UNDER GARDENERS STUDIED

alan skeoch

february 5, 2025

Estate owners like those at AUDLEY END loved novelty plants.  plant collectors scoured the world for them.

Head Gardeners expected their under gardeners to study plantings in the tiny bothy room that was often

built into the brick surrounded gardens.  New estate owners often brought their gardeners with them to plan

the estate gardens.  The salaries varied from 50 to 100 pounds per year plus room and possibly board.

There  was dignity in being a head gardener.  Only thing wrong was tipping your hat to accept inferiority.

But life was good.  life might even be better in Canada.  It was not so.

When Edward Freeman migrated to Canada he expected something similar.  He was wrong…and had to

become a carpenter and during World War One he was a munitions maker…artillery shell casings on a metal lathe.  His gardening days

were nearly forgotten.  But not quite.  He eventually created his own estate garden on a piece of rock strewn

swamp land in Erin Township, Wellington County.  That took time and he had many shocks in the adjustment

to Canadian life.  Why did he migrate?  I think he was tricked by false advertising. Canada was not all bread and honey.

More of that story is yet to come.

Have you ever had your house burn down?  Have you ever had to step on the bottom rung of a ladder…i.e. start all over again?

Take a seat in the bothy below and read the plant catalogues. Note the fire place.  Lots of fires in Canada in those days.

alan