Ellen Willmott was a remarkable gardener whose influence on plants, plant hunting, propagation of species and the change in the style from rigid Victorian beds to a more naturalistic way of planting is huge. But she also leaves behind her a wonderful and, at times, intriguing story.
Born in Victorian times in 1858, from an early age, she began accumulating extraordinary wealth — on her ninth birthday, she was give £7,000 by a relative. Her family lived in Warley Place in Essex and, here, the precocious youngster, who was to be educated to marry well and not to have a career, asked her father could she build a rockery. He told her that she could so long as he couldn’t see it from his study.
Miss Willmott commissioned the best rockery builders in Britain, a Yorkshire firm by the name of James Backhouse, to create a masterpiece. On her parents’ death, she inherited the house and the first of a few fortunes, leaving her to indulge in her passion.
She spent lavishly on plants and on gardeners. At one stage, it was reported that she had 140 gardeners working not only in Essex but in two further properties she purchased in the French Alps and Italian Riviera.
Miss Willmott was a hard worker and gifted in propagation. Sometimes she worked as part of a collective with the renowned Irish horticulturalist William Robinson from Co Waterford and garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. It has been said that Willmott supplied the plant materials that Jekyll worked with to “paint” her famous herbaceous borders.
She contributed to the plant hunting expeditions that were so popular in Victorian times and, as a result, became part of a cartel to whom seeds were sent to and had many plants named after her, the best known of which is Ceratostigma willmottianum. This pretty autumn flowering shrub was discovered by plant hunter Ernest Wilson, who sent back seeds to all his supporters, but Willmott was the only one who managed to germinate them. She grew two plants, one of which she dispatched to her sister, and every ceratostigma we grow on these islands is derived from those two plants.
…she would visit other gardens of note and surreptitiously scatter seeds of the prickly giant sea holly Eryngium giganteum. The following year, the uninvited guest would flower and be discovered, leading to its moniker Miss Willmott’s Ghost.
She was famed for her photography, which appeared often weekly in the magazine The Garden — her black and white studies were in sharp contrast to Victorian formality and demonstrated that gardens could be naturalistic in style. Willmott carried a box camera around with her with a footman carrying heavy glass plates.
Her reputation as a fearsome, difficult lady grew, but this may be undeserved. Yes, she was particular, and perhaps even a bit prickly, but how many men of that era or even now would have been labelled difficult simply because they had high standards? An often-told tale about her is that she would visit other gardens of note and surreptitiously scatter seeds of the prickly giant sea holly Eryngium giganteum. The following year, the uninvited guest would flower and be discovered, leading to its moniker Miss Willmott’s Ghost.
Sandra Lawrence has written a book about her life called Miss Willmott’s Ghosts and finds no evidence for this happening. She also threw light on another notorious event that again cast Willmott in an unflattering picture. In a noted incident, she failed to turn up for the awarding of the Victoria medal, the highest award bestowed by the Royal Horticultural Society. The gardening fraternity was stunned. Prickly as she was, why would she snub such recognition? She was a member of so many of their committees, financially supported the organisation and had been instrumental in persuading Sir Thomas Hanbury to leave his Wisley estate to the body.
She carried around with her a revolver and knuckle duster.
The reason for her no-show went to the grave with her. It’s only in recent times that a chest containing all her papers, including letters, has been opened and catalogued. Among those papers was a letter informing her that her lover, Georgiana Tufnell, a lady in waiting to a member of the royal family, was due to be married to a man 35 years her senior the day after the medal awarding ceremony. Distraught, Willmott had fled the country immediately.
Willmott spent so much on her life’s passion of gardening that she went broke. She lost all her money, her gardeners, her chauffeur and was left walking to the train station to travel to London visiting exhibitions and meeting friends. She carried around with her a revolver and knuckle duster. The reason for her weapons was often pondered upon but the most likely explanation is self-protection on that dark walk home, and living alone in faded grandeur surrounded by dust-gathering antiques isolated from other houses must have left her in danger of being robbed.
Miss Willmott’s Ghosts is an extraordinary tale of a true gardening original, a woman who excelled in a male-dominated arena and whose influence is still felt today.
Plant of the week
Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’
Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’
One of the first blues in the borders, pulmonarias have distinctive spotted leaves. In times past, their leaves were thought to resemble diseased lungs and were used to treat pulmonary disorders, hence the name. This variety has uniform dark green leaves and intense violet blue flowers. A boon for early pollinators, this plant is a robust performer in semi-shade in rich, moist soil.
Reader Q&A
I’m struggling to keep plants in my new home, which I feel is down to the underfloor heating. Have you any suggestions for a tree that would be suitable to be grown indoors in this ‘climate’ please. I have a two-storey height where I would like it placed. Sharon
‘You need to create a barrier between the plant and the floor’
Most plants will struggle with underfloor heating directly beneath them as it will completely dry out their roots. Additionally, many of our indoor plants come from hot, steamy jungles, so while they might enjoy the heat, they don’t like the dryness. Ideally, you need to create a barrier between the plant and the floor — either by using a mat or putting the plant on a stand or table. Increase humidity by standing the plant in a tray with moistened pebbles and/or mist the leaves regularly. Check the compost regularly to see if watering is required. Kentia Palms are elegant and not too fussy, or how about a lovely olive tree?
Submit your gardening questions to Diarmuid via his Instagram @diarmuidgavin using the hashtag #weekendgarden