Andrea Wulf

Article The Garden, Franklinia alatamaha, June 2008

This article tells the story of this magnificent summer-flowering tree and John Bartram's discovery of it in 1765 in Georgia. Named after Benjamin Franklin, the Franklinia is today extinct in the wild and reputedly all of today's specimens across America and Europe derive from the seedlings that Bartram's son William grew in their nursery just outside Philadelphia.

Link to PDF    [full article] 

Call for Specimens:

The Florida Museum of Natural History is conducting a survey to establish if all Franklinia are descended from William Bartram’s tree. They are asking gardeners in the USA and Europe to send samples for DNA identification. If you can spare material and would like to help, place one to three fresh leaves in 80-100g of silica gel desiccant (granules) in a plastic zip-lock bag, together with information of the location, date of harvest, and any other data about the specimen, a photograph and contact details. Send in a padded envelop to Charlotte M. Porter at the Florida Museum of Natural History, P. O. Box 117800, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL  32611-7800, United States.

Review TLS: Fruits and Plains. The Horticultural Transformation of America by Philip J. Pauly

When Thomas Jefferson arrived as the American minister to Paris in the 1780s to negotiate commercial treaties with the French and other European powers, he had in his luggage the manuscript of his Notes on the State of Virginia, information on native trees, the weights of American mammals and, for good measure, the pelt of a particularly enormous panther. These were his latest weapons in the battle for the independence of the United States, because Jefferson was intending to refute the French theory of the “degeneracy of America”. Noting how European grains, vegetables and fruits often grew quickly but then failed to mature in America, some French scientists insisted that people as well as the flora degenerated when “transplanted” from the Old World to the New. Like the imported plants, they argued, people in America did not mature properly (they had children early, their health declined while still young, and, to the French, the colonies had never produced a man of genius). In order to prove that everything was in fact larger and grander in America, Jefferson had compiled sets of information about the great size of native trees and animals as well as the spectacular landscape of Virginia.

Link to full review in the TLS

Podcast from the Hay Festival

Today's Haycast kicks off with the sounds of Hay, accompanied by haunting kora music from Seckou Keita.In the programme, Claire Armitstead talks to writer Colin Tudge and John Reader, who has written a book extolling the virtues of the potato. We also visit one of Herefordshire's most lovely gardens to discuss rhododendrons and other 18th century imports with Andrea Wulf, author of The Brother Gardners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession.

Tudge is in Hay to talk about trees, but his interests range widely over the environment and the problems of feeding the world. On the eve of next week's meeting of world leaders in Rome to discuss the current food crisis, he gives them advice on averting global catastrophe.

Reader's book, Propitious Esculent, tells the story of how a humble south American tuber became the world's most efficient food source. He discusses the belief, strongly held by some scientists, that the potato might yet be the key to the survival of the human race. Plus: Sarfraz Manzoor asks if Jeremy Clarkson is for real, and Matt Seaton sets off on a cycle ride in the Black Mountains with Jeremy Whittle, who tells him all about the drug scandals blighting the Tour de France. Listen to the podcast

Interview: BBC Countryfile, 25 May 2008, BBC1 @ 11am

John Craven interviewed me in Painshill Park about the influence of the brother gardeners on the English landscape garden. Painshill Park is the finest example of a landscape garden populated with the amazing American trees and shrubs that the American farmer John Bartram and the London cloth merchant Peter Collinson introduced to Britain in the 18th century. The programme will also be on BBC IPlayer for seven days after broadcasting. 

Article The Guardian, 20 May 2008, How Does Your Garden Grow?

If you aspire to the horticultural perfection of Chelsea Flower Show, your rusty spades and hoes may not be enough. Expert gardeners keep a vacuum cleaner, a hairdryer and bags of cotton wool in the shed, too. Andrea Wulf reveals some surprising trade secrets.

Link to full article

Review The Guardian: The Morville Hours. The Story of a Garden by Katherine Swift

When Katherine Swift arrived at Morville Hall in 1988 she suggested to its owners, the National Trust, that she make a garden. Instead of providing three-dimensional drawings or elaborate planting plans, she wrote about an imaginary garden - in the present tense - as if walking along its paths and borders. She managed to convince the National Trust by using words alone. Swift, who lives in the Dower House of the Shropshire mansion, writes beautifully: her apples are not the flawless fruits from supermarkets but "the Quasimodos and Cyranos of the apple world, humped and bossed ... with basins ribbed, puckered and russeted". They are easy to pick, last all winter and have solid English names such as "Cornish Aromatic" or "Norfolk Beefing". Her pears, however, remain a mystery to her. Varieties such as "Duchesse d'Angoulême" or "Doyenne du Comice" are like "voluptuous heavy-eyed French empire beauties who demand absolute obedience", for it is said that a classic dessert pear is only perfect for one day. Link to full review

Link to Amazon

Review The Guardian: The Brother Gardeners

'Wulf's portrait of the "brothers" ... is rounded, generous and exhaustively researched. She is particularly good at showing the links between botany and the wider political life of 18th-century England ... she is very adept at telling a good story, and in the history and origins of gardening she has found the perfect vehicle. The Brother Gardeners is an excellent, hugely entertaining and instructive tale, and Wulf tells it well.', Mark Cocker, The Guardian, 10 May 2008

Click here for full review

Review Irish Times: The Brother Gardeners

'[A] revealing book', Irish Times, 10 May 2008

Review House & Garden: Beechcombings by Richard Mabey

Click here for review

Article The Guardian, 5 May 2008, Steal Magnolias

Gardeners now spend £4bn each year on making the land around their homes more beautiful. But our green-fingered obsession has set off a crime wave, with thieves uprooting plants, trees, lawns, ornaments and even ponds full of fish. Andrea Wulf reports
Link to full article