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The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession |  | Author: Andrea Wulf
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $20.13
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Rating:  7 reviews
Format: Deckle Edge
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.6
ISBN: 0307270238
Dewey Decimal Number: 635.092241
EAN: 9780307270238
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780307270238 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
This is the fascinating story of a small group of eighteenth-century naturalists who made Britain a nation of gardeners and the epicenter of horticultural and botanical expertise. Itâs the story of a garden revolution that began in America.
In 1733, the American farmer John Bartram dispatched two boxes of plants and seeds from the American colonies, addressed to the London cloth merchant Peter Collinson. Most of these plants had never before been grown in British soil, but in time the magnificent and colorful American trees, evergreens, and shrubs would transform the English landscape and garden forever. During the next forty years, Collinson and a handful of botany enthusiasts cultivated hundreds of American species. The Brother Gardeners follows the lives of six of these men, whose shared passion for plants gave rise to the English love affair with gardens. In addition to Collinson and Bartram, who forged an extraordinary friendship, here are Philip Miller, author of the best-selling Gardeners Dictionary; the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, whose standardized nomenclature helped bring botany to the middle classes; and Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, who explored the strange flora of Brazil, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia on the greatest voyage of discovery of their time, aboard Captain Cookâs Endeavour.
From the exotic blooms in Botany Bay to the royal gardens at Kew, from the streets of London to the vistas of the Appalachian Mountains, The Brother Gardeners paints a vivid portrait of an emerging world of knowledge and of gardening as we know it today. It is a delightful and beautifully told narrative history.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
The Brother Gardeners by Andrea Wulf April 9, 2009
Robert Williams (Huntersville, NC)
60 out of 60 found this review helpful
The Brother Gardeners by Andrea Wulf
I originally meant to alert a friend about this book and ended up being completely surprised by the scope of the book and it's rapt attention to history, which is my first love.
Prior to the dawn of the 18th Century and into the early 1700's scientists were of the notion that plants did not reproduce sexually. They held forth a myriad of scenarios by which plants were replicated.
Thomas Fairchild, a nurseryman in England, could not have disagreed more. Fairchild took it upon himself to cross pollenate a Carnation with a Sweet William and a new species was born.
By 1733 an enterprising cloth merchant in London received 2 cases of plants from the Colonies
and became the first real merchant of garden plants as we know them today. But this was just the beginning.
Ms Wulf traces the the English love of gardening through history- including the Voyages of Discovery by Sir Lord Banks and his journey around the world- only the 2nd Western vessel to round the Horn of Africa and on into the Indian Ocean, all the while gathering more plants and specimens.
Captain Cooks voyages are chronicled, as well as the acquisition by Lord Banks of the famed Linnaeuss collection from Sweden, all in a most readable style and engaging format.
The book is illustrated throughout and contains a superbly cross referenced Glossary for the uninitiated gardener. With an extensive Bibliography this is a book, that while about garening- is about so much more.
I highly reccommend this book for the Amatuer Gardener as well as the Armchair Historian.
Fascinating and Compelling History June 14, 2009
Philip Calcagno
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession
One of the best written and organized books that I have read in quite some years. What could be a pretty esoteric topic becomes a wonderfully interesting and germane story. To some extent it reminds me of Kurlansky's Cod although this work is even better written.
The book comes alive because the author captures so well the personalities of the people involved. Bartram and Collinson are so human. And their problems in keeping up a relationship at such a distance is beautifully and sypathetically portrayed. Linnaeus is wonderfully and humanly portrayed. What a genius, what a jerk! Reminds me to some extent of Richard Wagner, one of my favorite composers, but one of the most
egotistical and sometimes downright nasty people that one is likely to
meet. The same sort of self-aggrandizing individual as Linnaeus. Banks, who, at first, seems (and evidently was) completely heartless, becomes more humane as he ages. And I love the irascible Miller who is a genius in his own way and knows best about everything (which often he does), but can be irritating to those with less knowledge and ability, and too dogmatic to see the virtue of Linnaeus' system. And the charming Solander, who has the guts to abandon Linnaeus, is amusing as the scholar and drawing room raconteur (some great scenes when Banks saves his life and they enjoy the splendors--and women--of Tahiti together).
I love the way the author naturally weaves into the story the personalities and events of the day--Benjamin Franklin, Lord Petre, James Cook, William Bligh; the American Revolution, the war with France, the colonial ambitions of the major nation players. What a treat to see history written as it should be, fascinatingly and compellingly.
The writing flows so well, the ideas are so well organized, and the pictures that Ms. Wulf paints are so vivid, that it all seems so effortless. However, after reading the acknowledgments and bibliography, I know that is not the case. I can only marvel at what Ms. Wulf has achieved. What a fascinating topic, marvelously presented!!!
plant collectors May 31, 2009
Jeffrey Gross (Memphis, TN USA)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
Brother Gardeners is a delight to read. It is full of interesting stories about the major figures of plantsmanship in the eighteenth century. The illustrations are excellent. I am interested in botanical art, and I thought this would be a fairly dry read, but it is extraordinarily chatty and entertaining.
Fascinating, well-written book October 28, 2009
Catriona Tudor Erler (Charlottesville, Virginia United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Brother Gardeners is a compelling read, chronicling the colorful men who made their mark on the horticultural world in the 18th and 19th centuries. You'll meet John Bartram, the unsophisticated American who in collaboration with his English friend Peter Collinson (who he never met), changed the landscape of Britain with the North American plants he sent to that country. The clash of personalities, egos, and sensibilities are riveting as Wulf describes the English resistance to Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus system of classifying plants because it was based on a sexual system of ordering - and perhaps more importantly because Linnaeus was self-promoting and arrogant. Linnaeus was a genius, and ultimately he transformed plant classification and nomenclature, but he irritated people, and that caused them to resist his innovative ideas. You'll meet Daniel Solander, Linnaeus' protégé, who deserted his mentor in favor of his newfound British colleagues who were enchanted with his engaging personality as well as his botanical skills and knowledge. Another important player is Joseph Banks who built on the achievements of these people by consolidating practical horticulture, systematic botany and imperial expansion into a coherent enterprise. The people involved in the early years of horticultural exploration, classification, and plant trading are fascinating, and the stories and interrelationships of the key men are beautifully told in this excellent book.
The Brother Gardeners August 7, 2009
F. Kellogg (Holderness, NH United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a book that will be of interest to anyone interested in growing plants of all kinds. Infact, every plant lover should have a copy in their library.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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