The John Tradescants: Gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen

The John Tradescants, father (1570-1638) and son (1608-1662), were two of the most remarkable and significant gardeners in British history. Working for a series of eminent patrons, including Robert Cecil, Charles I and the Duke of Buckingham, they supervised the creation of some of the greatest gardens of the seventeenth century. Their own botanic garden in Lambeth, south London, became the centre of horticultural interest in Britain. They travelled widely in pursuit of exotic plants, as far as Russia, Algiers and Virginia, and imported many exotic species now commonplace. Keen collectors, their museum of books, coins, weapons, costumes, stuffed animals and curiosities from all over the world, known as The Ark, was the first public museum in Britain and was to form the basis of the Ashmolean in Oxford after the widow of John Tradescant the younger was cheated out of her inheritance.
As well as charting the lives and achievements of the Tradescants and providing a vivid picture of this age of enterprise and exploration, the book discusses the plants introduced by the pair and features substantial appendices reproducing their original plant lists, with the addition of the modern botanical names. This definitive biography is essential reading for all those interested in the history of the garden and of European plants.