Seeds of Fortune

For fans of The Tulip and Orchid Fever, a captivating account of big business, adventure and family intrigue in the horticultural world.

For over a century and across five generations, one Scottish family pioneered the introduction of hundreds of new plants into gardens, conservatories and houses and became the foremost European cultivators and hybridizers of their day. The story begins in 1768 when a Scotsman named John Veitch went to England to find his fortune, starting out as a gardener for the aristocracy. Realizing that horticultural mania had begun to spread throughout the population, Veitch and his wife opened a nursery and began to send the first commercial plant collectors to North and South America, Australia, India, Japan, China and the South Seas. These plant collectors were among the first people allowed into the countries of the Far East and the tales of their travels, many of them perilous and some fatal, are wonderful adventure stories. Combining an historian's eye for detail with a flair for storytelling, the author charts the fortunes of one family and through them tells the fascinating story of the modern garden.