Unearthing the female pioneers of professional gardening with Fiona Davison
There are a few well-known Edwardian lady gardeners - Gertrude Jekyll, Ellen Wilmot are two. They tended to be wealthy and able to forge their trade in their own large gardens.
"Less well known are the professional gardeners and particularly women professional gardeners", says Fiona Davison, the head of libraries and exhibitions at the RHS.
While looking for stories of gardeners at RHS Garden Wisley, she "uncovered a bundle of letters in the Lindley Library... [telling of a woman] claiming a scholarship which was the prize for coming top in the RHS's professional exam in 1898. And the letter…
The skinny
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