Category Archives: Fruit

Spring Arrives at Fenton House

Apple blossom in the orchard at Fenton House, Hampstead

Standing in the orchard at Fenton House amongst the apple trees, now covered in blossom, is to experience something close to spring in the English countryside. Mown pathways edged with rustic bent hazel rods invite visitors to wander beneath the canopy of the trees, through meadow grasses and bulbs, surrounded by flowers. Yet, this peaceful place is not at the end of a quiet country lane, but in Hampstead, north London.

Located just a short distance away from the clamour and bustle of Hampstead High Street, Fenton House is reached through a series of winding residential streets. Dictated by the topography of this hilly part of north London, the gardens are laid out on various levels, cleverly connected by steps and pathways, the site bounded on all sides by mellow brick walls. These walls, together with tall, tightly clipped yew hedges divide the garden into distinct areas, each with its own special character. Some are wide and spacious; others smaller and more intimate, but all with a sense of surprise and discovery around each corner.

Fenton House is a rare survivor from a network of similar mansions constructed in this part of Hampstead in the mid 17^th century for wealthy merchants whose business interests required them to live close to London. It’s thought Fenton House was built in the late 17th century and had a succession of owners before it was purchased in 1793 by Philip Fenton, a trader in the Baltic states, and from whose family the house eventually took its name. The house was inherited by James Fenton, who became an active campaigner against the development of Hampstead Heath in the 19th century.

In the early 20th century, the house came into the possession of Lady Katherine Binning and in 1952 the house and garden were gifted to the National Trust. An avid collector, the house now serves as a museum for her collections of ceramics and needlework, and also houses the Benton Fletcher collection of musical instruments which was gifted the the National Trust in 1937.

At Fenton House the style of planting is not fixed to a certain point in the site’s history, and the gardeners enjoy some freedom to develop their own ideas. Retaining certain characteristics from the 1930s when it was still a family garden, albeit a rather grand one, the formal lawn is closest to the house and was once used as a tennis court. Beyond this is the rose garden and a series of formal flower borders, enclosed by box hedges.

Echoes of the 18th century are represented by yew hedges and topiary, forming a perfect backdrop for the painted figure of a young man, and for period garden seats, placed at intervals around the garden for visitors to enjoy its quiet corners.

A wooden sign indicates a narrow path with steps down to the orchard and kitchen garden. An impressive lean-to glasshouse placed against one of the walls is used to house tender plants and raise seedlings and cuttings for the garden. The perimeter path passes the orchard where over thirty heritage apple varieties are planted, and leads to the kitchen garden, enclosed by a series of espaliered apple trees, supported by a metal framework. Here, crops of vegetables and soft fruit are complemented by flowers – now with self-seeded forget-me-nots, and later in the season by perennial geraniums.

Despite the relative grandeur, there’s plenty of inspiration to take away from Fenton House that would work in a domestic garden. The purple flowered wisteria tumbling over the high wall above the orchard has been carefully trained in a relatively tight space, and espaliered fruit trees could easily be used to create a soft division between spaces. Other details, like the outdoor furniture, supports for climbing roses and terracotta rhubarb forcers create their own special atmosphere, whilst also being practical.

Some of us will remember a time when entry to the garden was a contribution by means of an honesty box, somehow adding to the charm of the place. In recent years, the National Trust has introduced ticketed entry to the garden, but fortunately the settled sense of calm throughout the garden hasn’t changed, and Fenton House continues to be a joy to visit.

Fenton House and gardens are currently open (bookable in advance) on Fridays and Sundays from April to October – further details below:

Snakes head fritillaries in the meadow

Espaliered fruit trees border the kitchen garden

Pale pink cherry blossom in the orchard

Further reading:

Fenton House and Garden here

A London Inheritance here

Constant Alexandre Famin’s Foliage and Flowers

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Poppy by Constant Alexandre Famin, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg

Today, if an artist needs visual reference for any plant, whether it’s the form of a leaf, or a flower or seed pod, it’s available instantly in a matter of seconds, via the internet. At the same time, gardening books, magazines and catalogues, also packed with photographs, assist with identification and remind us how a vast array of plants actually look.

We’re so accustomed to the availability of these botanical resources, we take them entirely for granted, but in the 1860s, when these photographs of foliage and flowers were taken, those who worked in creative industries had to rely on physical specimens (if they were in season) or drawings, woodcuts and engravings as references for their work.

Famin’s innovative plant themed photographs were aimed at artists and craftspeople, giving them year round access to accurate and detailed reference images of plants. Each image, taken from a glass negative, was printed onto paper and mounted onto cards – perhaps easier to use in the studio than propping open a book or folder. For fragile flowers like iris, lilac and poppies, with their complicated forms and fleeting blooms lasting just a matter of days, these photographs would have been especially valuable at times when living specimens were unavailable.

Typically in this series, Famin arranges multiple stems from the same plant and photographs them so that they fill, or sometimes spill over, the edge of the frame. The effect is to produce a sense of intensity; for a moment, as we view each image, we are overwhelmed with the special character and presence of each plant.

One of the most evocative photographs depicts a sheaf of oats and corncockle flowers, an annual weed of arable fields, seeming to shimmer against a dark background. The sheaf also contains what appears to be crested dog’s tail grass, demonstrating the diversity of plants present in crops before the widespread use of selective weed killers.

Even though examples of his work are held by some of the world’s leading museums, information about the life of French photographer Constant Alexandre Famin (1827 – 1888) is sparse. We do know that Famin had a commercial photography business with two studios in Paris, producing images of parkland, the countryside, and examples of architecture as reference for painters.

The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg has twenty four examples of Famin’s still life plant images in their collection, but judging from the numbering at the bottom of each of these, there appear to have been at least 200 photographs in the series. A brief online search reveals more of Famin’s plant images – photographs of hyacinths, hollyhocks and foxgloves appear from time to time in auction sales.

Judging by the seasonal variety of the specimens he recorded, Famin’s plant series must have been produced over the course of at least one calendar year. Beginning with spring flowering narcissus and apple blossom, the images continue with summer roses, poppies, strawberries and currants. A range of trees include oak, hawthorn and walnut, often with their late season fruits. Gathering the freshest specimens for the project must have taken some effort and meticulous planning.

Although there’s consistency to the composition across Famin’s botanical series, there’s also some variety in the images, reflecting the character of each plant. Light reflecting from the surface of blackberry, strawberry and holly leaves gives them an unexpected solidity, and a metallic quality. The sculptural spikiness of holly leaves, and the armoured fruit cases of the horse chestnut contrast with softer textures of hydrangea and fuchsia flowers. A magnificent opium poppy shows some unexpected motion blur in one of the leaves – perhaps it escaped from careful positioning during the long exposure. Looking now at these skillful photographs, they seem more than just reference, but artworks in their own right, representing plants in a new way.

Links to sources below.

Dog Rose

41. Apple blossom

56. Narcissus

Lilac

175. Bay

88. Red currants

127. Vine leaves

Iris

194. White lilies

173 Peach blossom

Hazel

170. Holly

198. Horse Chestnut

85. Hydrangea

Roses

143. Oats and corncockle

163. Oak leaves

29. Irises

200. Walnut

23. Fuschia

154. Blackberry

Sweet chestnut

148. Strawberry

Further reading:

Constant Alexandre Famin’s photographs at theMuseum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg here

Photo Central has some of Famin’s work for sale here

Biographical details at Monoskop here

Cecil Beaton at Waterperry House

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‘Pruning pear cordons in the walled garden. Angled method of training ensures maximum amount of sunlight on each fruit tree.’ Women’s Horticultural College at Waterperry House in Oxfordshire, 1943 All photographs by Cecil Beaton from the Ministry of Information Second World War Official Collection at the Imperial War Museum, London. Copyright: © IWM DB252.

Beneath a bright sky, scattered with light cloud, groups of young women dressed in a practical uniform of dungarees and short sleeved shirts are hard at work in the summer sunshine. Captured by photographer Cecil Beaton, these scenes of wartime England in the early 1940s show horticultural students from the Women’s Horticultural College, based at Waterperry House in rural Oxfordshire, cultivating vital food crops for the war effort.

Engaged in an array of tasks, women are shown driving tractors, and operating other horticultural machinery such as the Plant Junior Hoe, as well as planting, pruning and harvesting by hand. The gardens are recorded at a busy moment in the growing season, probably in June or July, with crops of lettuce and ripe strawberries ready for market, alongside onions and tomato plants still growing on. New seed drills are in the process of being marked out with twine in the freshly turned soil, in preparation for successional sowings.

Better known for his stylish studio portraits of celebrities and royalty, Cecil Beaton produced these images of Waterperry for the Ministry of Information between 1940 and 1944. He is thought to have made two visits to the site, one of which was in the summer of 1943.

In his role as war photographer, Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980) produced over 7,000 images recording the war in the Middle East and East Asia, as well as the effects of the blitz in the UK and the domestic war effort. These photographs were the subject of three books published during the war years and the images were transferred to the Imperial War Museum’s collection in 1948. As well as people, Beaton had a lasting interest in flowers and gardens, including his own at Reddish House in Wiltshire, which featured regularly in his work.

Beaton depicts the young Waterperry horticulturalists bent double thinning rows of vegetables, leaning across cold frames to tend courgette plants inside, or heaving crates of produce into the back of a van, bound for the college shop in Oxford market. As Beaton records the physical demands of gardening, his interest in performance and drama is also apparent, his choice of poses giving the women an emblematic appearance, like heroic figures in a patriotic wartime poster.

The captions accompanying Beaton’s photographs are written in the same style as a wartime news reel commentary, with the brisk delivery and clipped pronunciation typical of the era. If some of the assumptions about women’s roles and capabilities seem dated today, so do the horticultural methods – it’s hard to imagine crop spraying now without any face protection for the gardeners. There is hardly any plastic in evidence, however, with tomatoes tied to their supports with raffia and vegetable crates made out of wood.

The Women’s Horticultural College was founded by Beatrix Havergal (1901 – 1980) in 1927 at Pusey House, Oxfordshire. The college moved to Waterperry in 1932, acquiring the site from Magdelen College, Oxford in 1948. Havergal trained in horticulture at the Thatcham Fruit and Flower Farm near Newbury before joining Downe House boarding school as head gardener in the early 1920s. It was here that she met her life-long partner Avice Sanders, the school’s housekeeper. Havergal’s two year courses for women covered both theory and practice in horticulture and secured a high reputation for standards. In failing health in her later years, Havergal eventually sold the site to the School of Philosophy and Economic Science in 1971, who remain the owners.

The formidable looking Beatrix Havergal appears in two of Beaton’s photographs; a portrait shows her in a glasshouse thinning bunches of grapes with a scissors and in another she is with students pruning pear cordons in the walled garden. Head of Fruit Growing, Jo Cockin is shown in another photograph instructing students how to spray trees with noxious sounding Nico dust.

Alpine specialist and photographer Valerie Finnis was, of course, a student and later a tutor at Waterperry, joining the college in 1942. Looking again at the composition of Valerie’s photographs from those early years of her life at Waterperry, it’s likely that Beaton’s wartime images were a significant influence in her portrait work. Garden People (2007), the book about Valerie’s life, contains a striking image of two students balanced on stepladders in the walled garden tying in the shoots of a fan-trained peach tree. Intent on their work and with their backs to the camera, this rather unusual pose, together with the stylised symmetry of the photograph is highly reminiscent of Beaton’s approach.

Waterperry is currently in the process of digitising their archive, which includes glass negatives of some of Beaton’s photographs taken in their gardens for the Ministry of Information. As this work progresses, it’s hoped eventually to be able to attach names to more of the faces in these evocative images, and gain further insights into the lives of those who participated in Beatrix Havergal’s remarkable Horticultural College.

In the meantime, I hope you’ll agree Cecil Beaton has captured something uplifting in the achievement of these women working together as a team to produce much needed food for the nation. Links to the photographs and other sources below:

‘The exterior of Waterperry House. A horticultural school for women now training students in all branches of agriculture and horticulture with special regard to producing disease free crops.’ © IWM DB243

‘Working on the beds which are planned for space saving. Lettuces are planted between tomatoes.’ © IWM DB246

‘Watering time in the frames for the cucumbers and marrows.’ © IWM DB247

‘Expert knowledge of all glass house plants is combined with practical experience of planting and growing.’ © IWM DB248

‘A girl is tying up tomatoes out-of-doors.’ © IWM DB250

‘Beatrix Havergal, Principal of Waterperry, trained horticulture expert, now trains girls to become efficient gardeners and students of both the practical and theoretical side of horticulture. Here she is tending to the grape vines.’ © IWM DB251

‘The tractors and machines used for haymaking in the fields are all worked by the students.’ © IWM DB253

‘Picking tomatoes for market day.’ © IWM DB254

‘Washing lettuces and vegetables before packing them up for the weekly market day in Oxford where they are sold at the school’s own shop in the market.’ © IWM DB255

‘Tomato plants ready for the van to go to Oxford market.’ © IWM DB256

‘Packing the van with vegetables for market. All fruit and vegetables grown for study purposes are sold in the market.’ © IWM DB257

‘The Plant Junior Hoe which saves time and labour and hoes fields of carrots in record time. Easily handled by women.’ © IWM DB258

‘Hard work but fun, digging a trough for seed sowing in the experimental vegetable growing fields.’ © IWM DB259

‘Two girls sowing seeds in a field.’ © IWM DB260

‘Disease free fruit is grown in connection with the research station at East Malling, Kent. Here a student is potting strawberry runners. All the plants are grown in groups widely separated from one another so that should any blight occur it does not spread and the whole group is destroyed.’ © IWM DB261

‘Under the strawberry nets. Pounds are sent to market in Oxford and used for jam making.’ © IWM DB262

‘A young girl carrying onion plants.’ © IWM DB263

‘Thinning onions and assuring a good crop and no more onion shortages for the housewives of Britain.’ © IWM DB264

‘It takes two to spray a fruit tree. One girl pumps at the barrel while the other holds the spray to reach the highest boughs. Spraying fruit trees is one of the most important steps in producing high grade disease free fruit.’ © IWM DB265

‘Dust-blower spraying fruit trees to protect them against insects and pests. Nico dust is one of the modern discoveries of pest control. Miss Cockin Head of the Fruit Growing Staff shows students the correct way to spray trees in the apple orchard.’ © IWM DB265

‘In the tomato houses trimming and training plants takes neat fingers, work for which women are especially suited.’ © IWM DB249

‘Food production demands full time work but the students work on the herbaceous border in their off hours. Learning about plants and flowers and preserving one of the most beautiful borders in Oxfordshire.’

Further reading:

Cecil Beaton’s WW2 photographs for the Ministry of Information at the Imperial War Museum here

Waterperry Gardens here

Beatrix Havergal on Wikipedia here

John Parkinson’s Autumn Fruits

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1. The true Service tree 2. The ordinary Service tree 3. The common Medlar tree 4. The Medlar of Naples 5. The Nettle tree 6. The Pishamin or Virginia Plumme 7. The Cornell Cherry tree From Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris by John Parkinson (Getty Research Institute)

It’s astonishing to see, in the section devoted to the orchard in John Parkinson’s horticultural reference book Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris (1629), the wide range of fruits available in England in the early 17^th century. Some of these, such as apples, pears, plums and even quinces are familiar to us – but others like Cornelian cherries, medlars and service berries are no longer grown so widely, or seen for sale today.

Alongside his notes about cultivation, Parkinson also records how these fruits were prepared and processed both for use in the kitchen, and for medical purposes. As a founder member of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, Parkinson was well placed to advise on issues of health. His detailed notes are a reminder of the importance of the garden as a source of medicine, as well as sustenance.

John Parkinson’s botanical garden in Long Acre, close to Covent Garden, has long since disappeared beneath modern London. But the combination of these coloured woodcuts, mostly by the German artist Christopher Switzer, and Parkinson’s own observations about the plants he collected and grew there, brings his garden to life again.

Here follow just a few examples of ‘fruitbearing trees and shrubbes’ known to Parkinson, taken from the Getty Research Institute’s digitised version of the book with its spectacular coloured illustrations.

1. The true Service tree 2. The ordinary Service tree

Parkinson notes that two varieties of service tree, a close relation of the rowan, were considered to have berries that were edible and were cultivated in orchards. According to Parkinson, the ‘ordinary Service tree’ was introduced by John Tradescant and bears fruits shaped ‘some round like an Apple, and in others a little longer like a Peare’. These fruits are ‘mellowed’, like medlars, before eating:

‘They are gathered when they growe to be neare ripe (and that is never before they have felt some frosts) and being tyed together, are either hung up in some warme room, to ripen them thoroughly, that they may bee eaten or, (as some use to doe) lay them in strawe, chaffe, or branne to ripen them.’

7. The Cornell Cherry tree

The Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), or Cornell tree as Parkinson calls it, is shown both bearing fruit and a cluster of small, yellow flowers which appear in early spring. He records that the cherries are popular when in season, but appears not wholly convinced as to their flavour:

‘the fruit are long and round berries, with the bignesse of small Olives, with an hard round stone within them, like unto an Olive stone, and are of a yellowish red when they are ripe, of a reasonable pleasant taste, yet somewhat austere withall.’

1. The small blacke Grape 2. The great blew Grape 3. The Muscadine Grape 4. The burler Grape 5. The Raysins of the sunne Grape 6. The Figge tree 7.

These splendid bunches of grapes represent just a fraction of the varieties known to cultivation in England the early 17th century. Parkinson records that his friend, John Tradescant has twenty varieties growing in his Lambeth garden, but cannot put a name to all of them. As an apothecary, Parkinson mentions multiple uses for products derived from the vine in the treatment of illness, from wine, to vine leaves and raisins:

‘Wine is usually taken both for drinke and for medicine, and is often put into sawces, broths, cawdles and gellies that are given to the sicke. Also into divers Physicall drinkes to be as a vehiculum for the properties of the ingredients.’

‘The greene leaves of the Vine are cooling and binding, and therefore good to put among other herbes that make gargles and lotions for sore mouths. And also to put into the broths and drinke of those that have hot burning feavers, or any other inflammation.’

Parkinson reports that raisins and currants were imported into England in huge quantities, to be used in cooking and eaten on their own, and that the producers of these dried fruits were amazed at how many were consumed. He says that the evocatively named Raysins of the Sunne ‘are the best dryed grapes, next unto the Damasco, and are very wholsome to eate fasting, both to nourish, and to helpe loosen the belly.’

1. The Quince tree 2. The Portingall Quince 3. The Peare tree 4. The Winter Bon Chretien 5. The painted or striped Peare of Jerusalem 6. The Bergomot Peare 7. The Summer Bon Chretien 8. The best Warden 9. The pound Peare 10. The Windsor Peare 11. The Gratiola Peare 12. The Gilloflower Peare

Today, we enjoy the smell of quinces and it’s noted how the perfume from one fruit can fill a room. Parkinson also remarks on this feature of the quince, but interestingly the ‘strong heady sent’ he records is considered ‘not wholsome, or long to be endured’. However, he reveals great enthusiasm for the quince as a culinary ingredient which is eaten raw when ripe, pickled all year round, baked as a ‘dainty dish’ and preserved as ‘Marmilade, Jelly and Paste’. He also records quinces preserved in sugar which were given as gifts:

‘.. being preserved whole in Sugar, either white or red, serve likewise, not onley as an after dish to close up the stomacke, but is placed among other Preserves by Ladies and Gentlewomen, and bestowed on their friends to entertain them, and among other sorts of Preserves at Banquets.’

At his time of writing, Parkinson records six types of quince grown in England – but the varieties of pear far exceed this. As ever, in this period, there is an overlap between the nutritional and medical value of both quinces and pears, which Parkinson says are the only two fruits that should be eaten by people who are unwell:

‘And indeede, the Quince and the Warden are the two onely fruits are permitted to the sicke, to eate at any time.’

As well as being eaten fresh, pears were dried, baked and roasted, and the juice of ‘choke pears’ which were too bitter to eat, made into perry.

In the final pages of his book, a useful index matches medical symptoms with plant remedies, and supplies other information, such as recipes for making colour dyes and keeping garments free from moths.

There’s a link to Parkinson’s text below – a treasure trove for anyone interested in the uses of plants, and the systems of medical beliefs in 17th century England.

A Table of the Vertues and Properties of the Hearbes contained in this Booke

Further reading:

Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris, or, A garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers: which our English ayre will permitt to be noursed up: with a kitchen garden of all manner of herbes, rootes & fruites for meate or sauce used with us; and, an orchard of all sorte of fruitbearing trees and shrubbes fit for our land; together with the right orderinge, planting and preserving of them and their uses and vertues (1629) John Parkinson
– digital version from Getty Resarch Institute here

John Parkinson on Wikipedia here

Martin Gerlach’s Festoons

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Festoon made from vegetables and beets, from Festons und Decorative Gruppen aus Pflanzen und Theiren, or, Festoons and decorative groups of Plants and Animals, published in Vienna in 1893 by Martin Gerlach. Images courtesy of the Museum für Kunst und Gerwerbe, Hamburg

These festoons with their sumptuous cascades of ripe fruits and fragrant roses suspended from a striped silk ribbon resemble at first glance sections of stone ornament, or plaster moulding. But closer inspection reveals the roses to be cabbages, the delicious looking fruits are in fact beetroots and onions, the elaborate silk bow is a curtain cord, and a wooden finial has been pressed into service as a classical-looking prop, hiding the ends of plant stems at the top of the arrangement.

All the festoons, swags, garlands and other embellishments in Festons und Decorative Gruppen aus Pflanzen und Theiren, or, Festoons and decorative groups of Plants and Animals, are constructed using similarly inventive combinations of flowers, vegetables, taxidermy and domestic objects. Published in Vienna in 1893 by Martin Gerlach, this book of elaborate photographic collages was intended both as reference and inspiration for artists working across a range of crafts using pattern, from wood carving, plaster work, textiles, illustration and wallpaper design.

Judging by the seasonality of the plant materials Gerlach used, the photographs were taken over the course of many months. Early spring blossoms of apple and cherry with nesting birds give way to the lilac, roses and hollyhocks of summer, while autumn provides a profusion of gourds, sweetcorn, grapes, apples and pumpkins. Winter is represented by arrangements of pine cones and stuffed squirrels placed amongst evergreen conifer branches.

Some of the most effective designs use only leaves – the winding stems of creeping cinquefoil form a delicate narrow border, while larger sprigs of oak leaves and acorns could be imagined as infill sections for fabric or wallpaper. Peony flowers and leaves carefully spaced over a diamond grid background would have been helpful for an artist designing a repeat pattern.

Garlands of citrus fruits are shown in half-sections, the smaller fruits at the edges, gradually increasing in size towards the middle. Some of the most elaborate festoons include tools and musical instruments – in one example a gardener’s spade intersects with a watering can, while a straw basket (or maybe an upturned straw hat?) overflows with produce, celebrating the bounty of harvest.

From the middle of the 19^th century photographers such as Adolphe Braun (1812 – 1877) and Charles Aubry (1811 – 1877) saw a commercial opportunity to produce still life studies of flowers as reference material for artists. Although photographs could not entirely replace living specimens, it must have been an immense advantage to be able to see forms of flowers, their leaves and the growing patterns of stems and branches throughout the year, especially in winter, when it was not possible to observe these from life. Gerlach produced a number of reference books in this genre, including plant forms, trees, examples of wrought iron and other architectural details.

Martin Gerlach (1846 – 1918) was born in Hanau, Germany and trained as an engraver. He established a jewellery business in the 1860s but this enterprise was unsuccessful. Having become interested in photography, Gerlach started a publishing house in the 1870s in Berlin which produced his reference books and a crafts magazine, Die Perle. He re-located his company to Vienna in 1872 and continued his work there, eventually publishing more than forty books about design and a series of books for children including songs, poems and fairytales.

By the end of the 19^th century decorative motifs like those celebrated in Festons und Decorative Gruppen, and popular in Europe since Roman times, were soon to be swept away by new ideas and fashions associated with Modernism. Today Gerlach’s plant and vegetable festoons and garlands have almost a contemporary feel to them – it’s not hard to imagine a photographer inspired, perhaps, by carvings or plaster work in a historic house, deciding to re-create them with real materials as a post-modern photographic project. More than one hundred years after publication, this collection of images continues both to inspire and document the complex role of photography in design.

Links to source materials below:

Festoons and decorative groups of plants and animals by Martin Gerlach, Vienna. Gerlach & Schenk

Festoons and still lifes made from sunflowers, mallow, lilies, vegetables, paradise apples, melons, radishes, peppers, crabs, goblets, grapes, bottles, hay, etc

Festoon made of chestnuts, fruits, medallion and bird

Frieze and festoons made from pumpkins, medlar leaves, corn, etc

Frieze, festoons and vignette made of hazelnut, oak, grapes, pumpkins, paradise apple, Kukuk, etc

Group of apple blossoms with birds

Group of cherry plum and almond blossoms with a bird

Group of apple blossoms with medallion

Group of apple blossoms with butterflies

Infill and festoon of apple blossoms with fruits, orange branch with fruits and kingfisher

Festoons made from thorn blossom, lilac, garlic and pomegranate

Infill and festoon made from laurel, lemon and orange with butterflies

Groups of plums and Reine-Claude branches

Festoon groups made of quince, sweet chestnut, tulip tree fruit, lemons, pumpkin, pomegranate

Festoons made from vegetables, beets, cereals and garden tools

Threads made of grapes, apple of paradise and hops

Festoons made of musical instruments, palms, pomegranates, lemons, grapes, pumpkins, bay leaves, quinces, corn, coconuts, etc

Decorative stripes and threads made of roses with mask, shell and medallion

Hanging groups of pumpkins and cucumbers

Vignettes made of roses, sign, bottle, palette, palm and mallow

Borders and still lifes made of house leek, carrion flowers, orchids, water lilies, grapes, crabs, lobsters, fish, mussels, reeds, vessels, musical instruments, books, sheet music, laurel etc

Hanging groups and moldings made of thorn, peonies (seed pods), blackberries, marshmallow, mountain ash and apples

Festoon, vignette and group of coconuts, quinces, corn, animal skulls and conifers with birds

Frieze, group and decorative strip of laurel, animal skulls and butterflies

Group of hazelnut branches with squirrels

Festoons and conifer infill with fox heads and squirrels

Trims and infill made of strawberry, cypress and oak (note: I think the plant at the top of the photograph is actually cinquefoil which has strawberry-like fruits)

Groups of peonies

Friezes made from firethorn fruit, silver spruce, aralia, silver bush and trout

Group of acanthus

Further reading:

Festons und Decorative Gruppen aus Pflanzen und Theiren – pages from the book digitized by the MK&G here

Martin Gerlach on Wikipedia here

Gerlach’s photographs are collotypes – Wikipedia definition here

The Photographer in the Garden (EastmanMuseum/Aperture) here

Pruning Pears with William Forsyth

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William Forsyth (1737 – 1804) stipple engraving by Samuel Freeman (Wellcome Institute Collection)

When William Forsyth published his Treatise on the culture and management of fruit trees in 1802 he had been gardener to King George III for eighteen years, during which time he was credited with the transformation of the royal orchards at Kensington Palace. His experimental pruning techniques rejuvenated the Palace’s old fruit trees making them productive once more. Forsyth was also celebrated for his invention of a dressing for damaged trees, which was believed to assist in restoring them to good health.

Before his royal appointment, William Forsyth already had a prestigious career in horticulture. Born in Aberdeenshire, Forsyth re-located to London to train at the Chelsea Physic Garden under another Scottish gardener, Philip Miller (1691 – 1777), eventually becoming head gardener there in 1771. He took up the position of superintendent of the royal gardens at Kensington Palace and St James’s Palace in 1784. The now familiar garden shrub forsythia was named for him and he is an ancestor of the late entertainer, Bruce Forsyth.

William Forsyth’s employment brought him to the attention of the English establishment, who saw his work in the royal gardens. They were impressed by his success with the King’s fruit trees, and persuaded by the efficacy of his ‘composition’ or remedy for damaged trees. Against the background of the Napoleonic Wars when access to good timber was essential, the composition was discussed in both houses of Parliament and the recipe published in the national interest. It was printed in local newspapers across the country to encourage landowners across England to adopt it for the health of their forest trees.

This dressing, or ‘composition’ as Forsyth called it, was made out of cow dung, lime plaster (‘that from the ceilings of rooms is preferable’), wood ashes and sand. It was applied to tree wounds after careful preparation of the surface, first removing any dead or diseased wood. Gradually, the damaged area was restored and covered over by new bark.

In his book, Forsyth explains how his work with trees started. As the new gardener to the royal family in 1784, Forsyth was expected to produce abundant and tasty fruits for the royal tables, but when he arrived at Kensington Palace he was faced with a dilemma.

The gardens contained dozens of fruit trees, some large orchard trees, dwarf standard trees, and others wall trained, but the trees were old and had stopped bearing well. He observes the pear trees are ‘in a very cankery and unfruitful state’, but after changing the soil around the trees and pruning them, 18 months later he notices no improvement. Forsyth says,

‘I began to consider what was best to be done with so many old pear-trees that were worn out. The fruit that they produced I could not send to his Majesty’s table with any credit to myself, it being small, hard and kernelly.’

But rather than grub up the old trees and wait for new stock to start bearing – Forsyth estimates this would have taken ‘between twelve and fourteen years’ – he decides to ‘try an experiment, with a view of recovering the old ones.’

In 1786 Forsyth began a process of ‘heading down’ seven old trees, probably best explained by the illustrations below. Some large branches were removed as close to a bud as possible, allowing the tree to produce new, vigorous shoots. In the case of wall trained pear trees, the new growth was carefully tied in.

St Germain Pear Tree
This plate represents an old decayed Pear-tree, with four stems, which was headed down, all but the branch C, and the young wood trained in the common way, or fan-fashioned.

Branches marked A show young wood, producing the fine large fruit B.

C. An old branch pruned in the common way, having large spurs standing out a foot or eighteen inches, and producing the diminutive, kernelly and ill-favoured fruit D, not fit to be eaten.

White Beurre Pear Tree
Fig. 1. An old decayed Beurre pear-tree, headed down at f, and restored from one inch and a half of live bark.

Fig. 2. An old branch of the same tree before it was headed down, trained and pruned in the old way, with spurs standing out a foot, or a foot and a half from the wall; and the rough bark, infested with a destructive insect

The diagram of an old White Beurre pear tree shows detail of an old branch which has been removed – the bark was infested with insects, so the pruning has the effect of eliminating persistent pests as well as promoting new growth.

As well as the headed down trees, Forsyth kept seven trees as a control group and pruned these in the regular way. Forsyth observes that in the third year after ‘heading down’, the trees were producing more fruit that they did previously, and that it is larger and of better quality. After four years the trees are producing ‘upwards of five times the quantity of fruit that the others did’. Here’s an excerpt showing the improved yield and also the systematic nature of Forsyth’s records.

Trees treated according to the common method of pruning:

‘A Crasane produced one hundred pears, and the tree spread fourteen yards.
Another Crasane produced sixteen pears, and the tree spread ten yards.’

Trees headed down and pruned according to my method:

‘A Crasane bore five hundred and twenty pears.
A Brown Beurre bore five hundred and three pears.
Another Brown Beurre bore five hundred and fifty pears.’

Forsyth’s crops were even greater using his pruning method on smaller, standard trees; so much so, he ‘is obliged to prop the branches, to prevent their being broken down by the weight of it.’

In other chapters, Forsyth records similar successes with apples, plums, apricots, peaches and grape vines, and towards the end of the book publishes a series of endorsements from prominent people who have tried his pruning methods and his composition in their own gardens.

What’s inspiring today about Forsyth’s treatise is his willingness to use his vast horticultural experience pragmatically – and creatively – to address a problem. He teaches us that from time to time it’s worthwhile to step back from the ‘correct way’ of doing things and experiment with a different approach to address the challenges that gardening presents us with.

Links below to Forsyth’s Treatise. I’ve included a plate of the pruning tools used by Forsyth and an explanation of these from the text.

Standard Pear Tree
An old Bergamot Pear, headed down at the cicatrix a, taken from the wall and planted out as a dwarf standard.
b. A wound, covered with the composition, where a large upright shoot was cut off, to give the leading shoot freedom to grow straight.

Figs 2 and 3 show the insect (probably the Codling moth) so destructive to fruit trees.

Tools used by Forsyth both for pruning and for preparing wood to receive his healing composition

Forsyth’s directions for making his Composition from 1791

Gardener with pear tree, Ote Hall, Sussex. Photographed by Charles Jones circa 1901 – 20 (V&A Collections)

The above photograph gives a sense of the abundance of a wall trained pear, when pruned skillfully.

Further reading:

William Forsyth’s Treatise on the culture and management of fruit trees

William Forsyth (horticulturalist) Wikipedia

Johann Hermann Knoop’s Pomologia

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Pomologia, dat is, Beschryvingen en afbeeldingen van de beste soorten van appels en peeren by Johann Hermann Knoop. (1758) Pomologia, that is, descriptions and pictures of the best varieties of apples and pears (The Getty Research Institute via archive.org)

Caroline d’Angleterre, Witte Ribbezt, Spaansche Guelderling, Peppin d’Or, Calville Blanche d’Hyver – what do these names have in common? All are European apples, grown in the mid-18^th century and recorded by Johann Hermann Knoop in his spectacular book, Pomologia, that is, descriptions and pictures of the best varieties of apples and pears (1758).

Exceptional coloured engravings reveal the immense variety in the shapes, scale and colour of these fruits. Some of the apples have elongated shapes like plums or melons, looking quite different from those available today. Others, like the Bruindeling and Reinette de Montbron, are exceptionally dark shades of brown, while the skin of the Reinette Grise appears to have a slightly rough texture, as well as its unusual colouring.

The pears are just as diverse. Some, like the Bergamotte d’Oré and another, simply named Parfum, are small and round like apples. Bourdon and Muscat-Fleury are conventionally pear shaped, but miniature. The appropriately named Grande Monarche is a huge green pear, with a touch of redness on the side of the fruit that was exposed to the sun while growing on the tree, and ready to eat in February and March.

Born in Germany, Knoop (early 18^th century – 1769) followed his father into horticulture and began his career as gardener at Marienburg, near Leeuwarden in The Netherlands. By 1747 the estate had lost its status as a royal residence, and not long after this Knoop left his position there, with a suggestion that alcoholism might have been a factor in the termination of his employment.

Whilst still at Marienburg, Knoop’s interest in science resulted in his first publication in 1744 – an update of an existing handbook for engineers and surveyors – but it was the publication of Pomologia in 1758 that brought him wider recognition. After Pomologia Knoop published Dendrologia (about garden trees) and Fructologia discussing fruit trees such as cherries and plums, and these three publications were sometimes sold bound together as an encyclopedia. Reflecting Knoop’s breadth of interests, further books on subjects as diverse as heraldry and architecture followed.

Knoop’s ambitious survey of apple and pears covers varieties from the Low countries, Germany, France and England. Information about each of these is organised in chapters to accompany the numbered plates, and includes details of the size and vigour of the trees as well as the relative merits of the fruits, such as flavour and keeping qualities – especially important before modern refrigeration. It also served as an identification manual for readers to match fruits from their gardens to illustrations in the book.

According to the university of Utrecht, the engravings for Pomologia produced by Jacob Folkema and Jan Casper Philips were hand coloured by the daughters of the publisher, Abraham Ferwerda. The skillful use of shading in the engravings conveys a sense of weight and solidity, while the depiction of irregularities and blemishes on the skins of the fruits lends both charm and a sense of authenticity.

Are any of the apples and pears from Knoop’s work still cultivated today? A brief search reveals the apple Calville Blanche d’Hiver for sale at specialist growers Bernwode Fruit Trees. Bernwode notes the cooked fruit keeps its shape and that, ‘Victorian gardeners grew the trees against a wall or under glass, for the best flavour and because chefs valued the fruit so highly.’ Calville Blanche d’Hiver can also be used as dessert apple. The pear Jargonelle is available, and the Poire d‘Angleterre, or Engelse Beurré, with its reddish-brown skin, the flavour described as ‘melting, very juicy flesh, sweet and rich’.

Links to Pomologia (1758) and a French translation (1771) below, plus links to the universities of Delft and Utrecht for biographical information about Knoop published on their websites.

Calville Blanche d’Hyver is the green apple at the bottom right of the page.

The pear Jargonelle is seen at the bottom of this page.

The beautiful brown Poire d’Angleterre appears at the top right of this page

Further reading:

Pomologia (1758)

French translation published in 1771 Pomologia (1771)

Biography of Knoop from University of Utrecht

Discussion of Knoop’s career from Prof Cor Wagenaar, University of Delft

Bernwode Fruit Trees

Late Summer at Forde Abbey

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Glasshouses in the kitchen garden at Forde Abbey, Somerset

Last week temperatures soared, making the south of England feel almost Mediterranean. Shade becomes invaluable in a heatwave, as we seek the relief of a garden seat carefully placed on a woodland walk, or close to the cooling sound of a stream.

Both trees and water are major elements at Forde Abbey gardens. We arrived just as the Centenary fountain was due to be activated – at certain intervals in the day, a single jet of water powers 160 feet into the air, making this the tallest fountain in the UK. Although the air was relatively still on the day we visited, the plume of water is sensitive to any variation in the direction of the breeze, changing its shape continually, and covering the surrounding area in a fine mist – a welcome effect in the 90 degree sunshine.

The Great Pond at the southern boundary of the garden was established over 800 years ago by Cistercian monks, and by means of channels, water from this source supplies the more recently added canal and ponds. The gardens have been developed by a succession of owners over the centuries, including the most recent, the Kennard family, who installed the fountain.

The impressive walled kitchen garden was constructed in the 19^th century and is now planted in a colourful, contemporary style against a background of traditional stone walls and glasshouses. Sweet peas are trained against a tunnel made of rustic poles, covering a central pathway, and alongside the array of vegetables and fruit is a profusion of flowering plants. Whether grown for cutting, or encouraging crop pollinators, all the blooms contribute to the sense of abundance and generosity which characterises the entire garden.

The large growing beds are edged with low box hedges. Sometimes, hedging around smaller vegetable beds can look fussy as well as being a lot of work to maintain. But here, and on this scale the box looks perfect, and has a practical purpose, in some areas acting as a retaining barrier for the soil which has been built up higher than the paths with the addition of compost over years of cultivation.

Permanent crops such as asparagus, rhubarb and peonies are planted in rows alongside annual sowings of brassicas, squash, courgettes and salad vegetables. Orange flowers always seem to feel at home in a kitchen garden and there are many examples here, including French marigolds (tagetes), alstroemeria and Tithonia rotundiflora.

The outer walls of the kitchen garden form the backdrop for a spectacular herbaceous border and it was here that, rather unexpectedly, we met Alice Kennard, working in a large brimmed hat alongside her gardeners. Alice tells us that the border is at least fifteen feet deep – about five paces from the wall to the lawn edge. Ordinarily, without the complications of Covid 19, much of the produce from the walled garden would be used in Forde Abbey’s kitchens catering for visitors and events, but this year much is for sale in the estate’s shop and staff are encouraged to take home what they can.

In the intense heat, I found a few precious pockets of shade in the walled kitchen garden, from which these photographs were taken. Forde Abbey’s Grade 1 listed buildings currently remain closed, but the 30 acre garden is open daily. More photographs of the gardens and information about Forde Abbey’s history and opening times here: Forde Abbey Some of the covetable plants seen in the herbaceous borders are available from the Abbey’s excellent plant nursery.

Low box hedges surround the growing beds

Aramanth ‘Red Army’

Sweet peas on a rustic framework

Rhubarb in a cooler section of the garden

Beautiful clematis on a shady wall

The peach house

Tithonia rotundiflora

A ripening squash

Further reading:

Wikipedia entry for Forde Abbey: Forde Abbey on Wikipedia

Pruning the Brogdale Bramley

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Bramley’s Seedling apples on the tree at the National Fruit Collection, Brogdale (photo Wikimedia Commons)

Venturing out on my first horticultural visit of the year, last Saturday I headed for Brogdale, home of the National Fruit Collection just outside Faversham in Kent. February being an ideal time to prune apple trees, my purpose was to attend a pruning demonstration, whereby a large Bramley apple tree left unpruned for the last six years would be re-shaped.

Bramley’s Seedling is still one of the UK’s best known cooking apples. The original tree was raised in 1809 from seed planted by a young girl Mary Ann Brailsford in her Nottinghamshire cottage garden. By the 1840s the cottage (and apple tree) were owned by one Matthew Bramley, a butcher, who allowed cuttings to be taken for commercial propagation by local nurseryman Henry Merryweather on condition that the trees bore his name.

The Bramley apple tree produces delicious fruit, but has some special requirements for successful cultivation. They are vigorous trees, needing a large space to grow well and are triploids meaning that they need two separate apple varieties nearby to ensure successful pollination.

The Bramley apple tree that greeted us at Brogdale was a confusing prospect – tall, asymmetric, with an over-abundance of sprawling branches. It was clear that pruning was required, but how to begin with such a tangle of growth?

Our guide, the horticulturalist and fruit tree specialist John Easton encouraged us to stand back from the tree, walk around it and examine it from every angle. We should also try to imagine the tree as it might appear from above – ideally up to five major branches would radiate out like the spokes of a wheel.

John identified two main problems with the tree. There were large branches shading the centre of the tree, preventing new shoots from developing, (which would eventually form a framework of new branches). The tree also had too many lateral shoots, causing the tree to be very congested.

We were then asked to suggest which large branches should come out, and after some deliberation, these branches were marked with tape at their junction with the trunk of the tree. John emphasised the importance of sticking to a decision about removing branches as a loss of confidence half way through the process could result in a tree that was unbalanced.

Using both a small hand held chainsaw and a pole mounted chainsaw, Martin (John’s assistant for the day) started to remove branches. John then used a pruning saw and secateurs to thin growth on the branches that we’d decided to keep and raise the level of the lowest of these so the crop would not be splashed with soil and the grass beneath could be mown easily. Under John’s guidance Martin next removed a vast quantity of 5 year old upright shoots from the centre of the tree, leaving those remaining with enough space to develop and bear fruit.

The pruned tree still had a wide spread, and while it might be tempting to tidy away the tips of the branches to make the tree neater, John explained why this should be avoided in a Bramley. As a partial tip-bearer, fruit is produced at the ends of the branches, and also on short spurs that appear along the fruiting laterals. As new, upright shoots develop the weight of the apple crop has the effect of ‘bringing down’ the branches which are quite flexible. But if the ends are removed this has a stiffening effect on the branch and interrupts the growth pattern of tree.

Finally, John explained the current thinking about the treatment of watershoots, which spring up in great numbers on the main branches and sometimes the tree trunk, where the sap flow is at its greatest. Rather than remove them all (for aesthetic purposes) he suggested removing a third entirely with a saw, cutting a third back to around three inches with a secateurs and bending in the final third to curtail their upward growth. He explained that the roughness of the saw cut damaged the tree cells more than a cleaner cut with secateurs, and stopped re-growth more effectively.

Ideally apple trees should be pruned on a three year cycle with a maximum of one third of the growth removed at any one time. John emphasised the importance of knowing when to stop – although there were more laterals that he could have removed, the danger of damaging the tree after the major work he had carried out was too great. And so it being time, as John put it, to ‘walk away from the tree’ we finished our day.

A tangle of branches – the tree before pruning.

Having decided which branches to remove, these are marked clearly with tape.

Fruit tree expert John Easton (on the ground) and Martin (on the ladder) discuss which branches are to be removed.

Martin uses a pole chainsaw to take out a vertical branch.

John uses a pruning saw and secateurs to thin fruiting laterals closer to the ground.

Expert cut to thin out growth on a fruiting lateral.

Bark of the Bramley tree in the early February sunshine.

The Brogdale Bramley after pruning.

A fraction of the mass of material from the tree after pruning.

Blossom of the Bramley’s Seedling apple, National Fruit Collection, Brogdale (photo Wikimedia Commons)

Bramley Tree Cottage in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, where the first Bramley apple tree was raised from seed by Mary Ann Brailsford. Photograph: Alan Murray-Rust Wikimedia Commons

Permaculture in the Lea Valley

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Inside the glasshouse at Hawkwood Plant Nursery the home of Organiclea, fruit and vegetable producers in the Lea Valley, Chigwell.

Tempted outside by the February sunshine last weekend, the unseasonable warmth happened to coincide with an open day at organic growers OrganicLea in Chingford. And so it was at the very beginning of the vegetable growing season I found myself with a group of visitors exploring twelve acres of fields and glasshouses in the Lea Valley guided by Tim Mitchell, one of the garden’s organisers.

The OrganicLea market garden is to be found, somewhat incongruously, between streets of semi-detached houses typical of the outer suburbs of London and the eastern edge of Epping Forest. It occupies what was previously Hawkwood Plant Nursery, the London borough of Waltham Forest’s propagation centre for amenity plants grown for use in local parks and gardens. When this facility closed ten years ago, OrganicLea saw an opportunity to expand – they had previously operated from a community allotment – and they now lease the whole site from the council.

The majority of the gardens are on a slope and several large oak trees, some of which experts believe date from the 17^th century, punctuate the growing area. According to conventional horticultural wisdom, this might not be considered an ideal position for a market garden. However, by following principles of permaculture, OrganicLea has been able to work with the existing topography to create a productive garden.

Tim’s personal interest in permaculture came out of an interest in ecology. “I was interested in how humans can work alongside other species without destroying the habitats or poisoning those other species. Ecological food-growing seemed to be the best working model. Although other species often thrive in our absence, it would be nice if we could join the party without ruining it.” he explains.

Permaculture is a term first used in the 1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, the two Australian pioneers of the concept. It stands for ‘permanent agriculture’ and seeks to find ways of cultivating food crops sustainably, in harmony with the natural environment. Their book Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human Settlements (1978) was followed by the establishment in 1979 of a Permaculture Institute in Tasmania. Although Mollison spent some time as a campaigner against commercial agriculture, which he believed was damaging the environment in Tasmania, eventually he found it more worthwhile to develop ideas and teach others about sustainable growing practice, which is now a worldwide movement.

The diagram below shows how the permaculture design concept works, with the most intensive cultivation nearest to the house or settlement and much of the perimeter of the site left in a natural state, as a ‘wilderness zone’ for ‘foraging, inspiration and mediation’.

The French translation of Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human Settlements (1978)

Standing at the top of Entrance field, the first part of the site to be cultivated by OrganicLea, Tim pointed out a swale, or ditch, running the length of the cultivated area. This, he explained, is the first line of defence against the force of rainwater running off the wooded hill above, catching some of it and and preventing erosion of the soil. Beneath this, long, curved beds of vegetables divided by bark chipping paths follow the natural contour of the hill and absorb the remaining rainwater, reducing the frequency the beds need to be hand watered.

All the outdoor crops are cultivated by hand using the ‘no dig’ method. Compost is added to the beds annually which smothers weeds and builds up topsoil without disturbing the soil structure beneath. These beds operate on a ten year crop rotation plan, with two years of this cycle devoted to feeding the soil using a green manure crop.

At the centre of the site are the commercial glasshouses OrganicLea inherited ten years ago. Tim explained, “The glasshouse is a boon as it allows us to run a viable commercial operation. We can grow higher value crops like tomatoes and chillies which are sold to the public but also to restaurants.” Up to sixty varieties of chillies are grown and are popular at OrganicLea’s three local market stalls. Except for some propagation tables, the glasshouse is unheated, but even in February many of the long beds bordered by old scaffolding boards are full of winter salads.

The surrounding woodland has not been cleared but is managed for wildlife. Out of twelve acres, just six are under production and the OrganicLea team is trying to monitor and increase biodiversity. At the edge of this ‘wilderness zone’ there’s a poet’s corner dedicated to John Clare. Tim says, “We like to think he passed through the woods here when he was living in Epping Forest.”

So today the last word goes to Clare – these lines are from London versus Epping Forest written when Clare was resident at the High Beach Asylum in Epping Forest between 1837 – 41. Although London has now overwhelmed so much of the natural landscape, from this spot surrounded by trees it is somehow possible to experience a sense that nature is still greater than human activity.

Thus London like a shrub among the hills
Lies hid and lower than the bushes here.
I could not bear to see the tearing plough
Root up and steal the forest from the poor,
But leave to freedom all she loves untamed,
The forest walk enjoyed and loved by all.