Andrea Wulf

Evening Standard: Paperback-pick The Brother Gardeners

Click here for the  review

American Scientist: The Brother Gardeners

American writer and former president of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Keith Thomas mentioned The Brother Gardeners in the column "Scientists' Nightstand":

'The Brother Gardeners is beautifully researched and equally well written'

Click here for American Scientist

Talk at the Benjamin Franklin House, London, 22 September 2009

I will be giving a talk about The Brother Gardeners at the Benjamin Franklin House in London on 22 September 2009 at 7pm. Benjamin Franklin was a good friend of John Bartram and Peter Collinson and throughout his life supported the plant exchange. He even helped Bartram become the King's Botanist. 

Click here for Benjamin Franklin House website

Article Early American Life, The Brother Gardeners, April 2009

This is a long article about the friendship between the American farmer John Bartram and the London merchant Peter Collinson. 

In the eighteenth century, American botanist John Bartram fulfilled the desires of British horticultural connoisseurs through his lifelong exchange of plants with Britsh cloth merchant and plant collector Peter Collinson. Together the two men helped transform the English landscape.

 

Click here for a PDF of the full article

Upcoming Events

For endorsements and comments of past events click here

 

Upcoming Events: Founding Gardeners

If you’re interested to host a talk about the Founding Gardeners, please contact me on aw (at) andreawulf.com for possible dates, fees and more information. 

 

19 September 2011 Benjamin Franklin House Annual Symposium, Eccles Centre, British Library, London

21 September 2011 The Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, USA

22-24 September 2011 Conference Restoring Southern Gardens and Landscapes, Old Salem Museums & Gardens, Winston-Salem, NC, USA click here for info

 

27 October 2011 Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Fort Worth, TX, USA

28 October 2011 Lexington Historical Society and Garden Club of Lexington, Lexington, MA

29 October 2011 Adams National Historical Park, Quincy, MA

2 November 2011 James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA

3 November 2011 Poplar Forest, Lynchburg, VA, USA

4 November 2011 James Monroe Museum, Fredericksburg, VA, USA

 

5-6 March 2012 Davidson Horticultural Symposium, Davidson, NC, USA

8 March 2012 Spencer Lecture, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Birmingham, AL, USA

15 March 2012: The Charleston Art & Antiques Forum, Charleston, SC, USA

 

"CHASING VENUS"

May to early June 2012: CHASING VENUS lecture tour, different locations in the USA

 

30 May 2012 Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, USA

1 June 2012 American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, USA

Past Events: 

9 June 2011 Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

8 June 2011 The New York Society Library, New York, USA 

7 June 2011 Spring Lake Public Library, New Jersey, USA

6 June 2011 The Garden Club America, New York, USA 

2 June 2011 Missouri Botanical Garden together with Garden Club of St Louis and Ladue Garden Club, St Louis, USA 

28 May 2011 Martha's Vineyard Garden Club together with Polly Hill Arboretum, Martha's Vineyard, USA

26 May 2011 Massachusetts Historical Society together with the Arnold Arboretum, Boston, USA

25 May 2011 Blithewold Mansion Gardens & Arboretum, Bristol, RI, USA 

22 May 2011 Bartram's Garden, Philadelphia, USA

21 May 2011 Edge of the Woods, Nursery for Native Plants, Orefield, PA, USA 

19 May 2011 Ft.Bend Master Gardeners, Sugar Land Garden Club and Texas Rose Rustlers at Sugar Land Community Center, Houston, Texas, USA

18 May 2011 Chicago Botanic Garden, USA 

13 May 2011 Royal Oak Foundation Lecture "Revolutionary Gardeners: Britain, America and the Seeds of Exchange", at Filoli, CA, USA 

12 May 2011 Huntington Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA, USA 

10 May 2011 Royal Oak Foundation Lecture "Revolutionary Gardeners: Britain, America and the Seeds of Exchange", at Denver Botanic Gardens, CO, USA 

5 May 2011 Winterthur Museum and Gardens, Wilmington, Delaware, USA 

1 May 2011 Royal Oak Foundation Lecture "Revolutionary Gardeners: Britain, America and the Seeds of Exchange", at Gunston Hall, VA, USA 

29 April 2011 Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, USA 

28 April 2011 Daughters of the Cincinnati & Colonial Dames, New York, USA

26 April 2011 Mosby Heritage Area Association at James Monroe's Oak Hill, Aldie, VA, USA

25 April 2011 Adkins Arboretum, Easternshore Maryland, USA 

21 April 2011 The Garden Club of Georgia, Atlanta, GA, USA 

20 April 2011 Nashville Public Library, Nashville, TN, USA

19 April 2011 US Botanic Garden, Washington DC, USA 

18 April 2011 Monticello, VA, USA 

17 April 2011 Montpelier, VA, USA 

16 April 2011 Mount Vernon and American Horticultural Society, VA, USA @ Mount Vernon

14 April 2011 Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA 

13 April 2011 Old Salem Museums & Gardens, Winston-Salem, NC, USA 

12 April 2011 Greater Greenville Master Gardeners , Greenville, SC, USA

11 April 2011 South Carolina Midlands Master Gardeners Association, Columbia, SC, USA

7 April 2011 Middleton Place, Charleston, SC, USA

6 April 2011, The Woman's Club, Richmond, VA, USA 

5 April 2011 The Mount Vernon Club, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

23 March 2011 De Ferrieres Lecture, Friends of the Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum

24 March 2011 Georgian Group, London 

10 February 2011 Chelsea Physic Garden, London

11 November 2010 The Colonial Dames of America, Jacksonville, FL, USA

11 November 2010 Jacksonville Historical Society, FL, USA

11 May 2010 Monticello, Virginia, USA

8 May 2010 EU Day, UK Embassy Washington DC

6 May 2010 Middleton Place, Charleston, South Carolina, USA 

5 May 2010 Missouri Botanical Garden, St Louis, USA 

4 May 2010 Adkins Arboretum, Ridgely, Maryland, USA 

30 April 2010 Southern Garden History Society Annual Meeting, Mount Vernon, Virginia, USA 

28 April 2010 Daughters of the Cincinnati, New York, USA

15 March 2010 Charlottesville Area Tree Stewarts @ New Dominion Bookshop, Charlottesville, USA 

17 February 2010 Friends of Croydon Libraries, London

2 February 2010 Patrons of the British Library, London

22 November 2009, Thomas Jefferson Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians at the School of Architecture, University of Virginia in Charlottesville, 4pm. Conference Room, 2nd Floor

22 October 2009, Research Seminar " 'Their Temple was Liberty Tree' America and Britain, late 18th century Politics and Garden Design", Victoria & Albert Museum, London

22 September 2009, Benjamin Franklin House, London

6 June 2009 Nashville Public Library, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

4 June 2009 Ralph Brown Draughon Library & Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities, Auburn University, Alabama, USA

23 May 2009 Historic Plant Center, Tufton, Virginia, USA

13 May 2009 ICJS Monticello, Virginia, USA

4 May 2009 American Friends of the Georgian Group, New York, USA

4 May 2009 Horticultural Society of New York, New York, USA

3 May 2009 Bartram’s Garden, Philadelphia, USA

1 May 2009 English Speaking Union, Washington DC, USA

1 May 2009 US Botanic Garden, Washington DC, USA

29 April 2009 American Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, USA

16 March 2009 Royal Geographical Society 

5 March 2009 Bath Literary Festival

26 January 2009 Stony Stratford Literary Festival

17 October 2008 Global Arts Conference, Museum of History of Science (Oxford) and Warwick University

16 October 2008 Cheltenham Literary Festival

25 August 2008 Edinburgh Literary Festival

14 July 2008 Review Book Shop Peckham

27 May 2008 Hay Festival of Literature

14 May 2008 Chelsea Physic Garden, London

6 May 2008 Georgian Group, London

25 April 2008 Royal Society, London

22 April 2008 Royal Botanic Garden Kew

31 January 2007 Annual Lecture Friends of Greenwich Park, London

8 January 2007 Chelsea Physic Garden, London

13 November 2007 Kit-Cat Club, London

16 June 2006 Friends of Haddon Hall, Derbyshire

26 November 2005 Peak Festival of Writing

23 October 2005, Off the Shelf. Literary Festival, Sheffield

13 October 2005, Cheltenham Literary Festival

About The Brother Gardeners

Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2009 

Winner of the American Horticultural Society 2010 Book Award

Winner of CBHL 2010 Annual Literature Award

One January morning in 1734, cloth merchant Peter Collinson hurried down to the docks at London's Custom House to collect cargo just arrived from John Bartram, his new contact in the American colonies. But it was not reels of wool or bales of cotton that awaited him, but plants and seeds... 

Over the next forty years, Bartram would send hundreds of American species to England, where Collinson was one of a handful of men who would foster a national obsession and change the gardens of Britain forever, introducing lustrous evergreens, fiery autumn foliage and colourful shrubs. They were men of wealth and taste but also of knowledge and experience like Philip Miller, author of the bestselling Gardeners Dictionary, and the Swede Carl Linnaeus, whose standardised botanical nomenclature popularised botany as a genteel pastime for the middle-classes; and the botanist-adventurer Joseph Banks and his colleague Daniel Solander who both explored the strange flora of Tahiti and Australia on the greatest voyage of discovery of modern times, Captain Cook's Endeavour. 

 

This is the story of these men - friends, rivals, enemies, united by a passion for plants - whose correspondence, collaborations and squabbles make for a riveting human tale which is set against the backdrop of the emerging empire, the uncharted world beyond and London as the capital of science. 

 

From the scent of the exotic blooms in Tahiti and Botany Bay to the gardens at Chelsea and Kew, and from the sounds and colours of the streets of the City to the staggering vistas of the Appalachian mountains, The Brother Gardeners tells the story how Britain became a nation of gardeners.

 

To buy the paperback from Amazon UK

 

To buy the paperback from Random House UK

 

To buy the book from Amazon US

 

To buy the book from Random House US

 

To buy the paperback from Amazon US

Reviews (for full reviews click 'Reviews Brother Gardeners' in Categories and then go to individual reviews)

 

Reviews US

'Splendid new book ... Throughout "The Brother Gardeners," Wulf’s flair for storytelling is combined with scholarship, brio and a charmingly airy style … She has written a delightful book — and you don’t need to be a gardener to enjoy it.' - New York Times Book Review 

"With the deft insight of a seasoned biographer, Wulf illuminates their singular and combined efforts in a dazzling narrative that reveals the personal appreciation and professional animosity that fueled this halcyon period in horticultural history." - Booklist 

 ‘Wulf, a German-born journalist, wonderfully conveys the allure and cultural importance of the garden … readily accessible book … entertaining account.’ - Publishers Weekly 

'The Brother Gardeners is beautifully researched and equally well written.' - American Scientist

‘The Brother Gardeners glows with Wulf's love of her subject, a love fed by her prodigious research. And her prose is elegant, humorous and accessible to the general reader … rendered with clarity and grace … erudite, pleasurable and handsome book.’ Richmond Times-Dispatch 

 “A lavishly researched and very funny group biography … Wulf never allows her material to overwhelm a vivid sense of the big picture, which keenly informs her sparkling narrative: a nation in revolution, bursting from a drab, monotonous engagement with the outside world into a creative, explosively variegated, frequently domineering one.” - Bookforum 

"In Wulf’s engaging account, the origin of the English country garden appears as a matter of friendship as much as of flowers” – The New Yorker 

"Fascinating and beautifully researched story" - The Philadelphia Tribune

"'The Brother Gardeners' by Andrea Wulf is a beguiling tale ... this tale of many surprises" - Free-Lance Star

"Wulf brings these characters and their quests vividly to life in an eminently readable narrative. The book itself is beautifully designed, with more than a score of well-chosen illustrations and 16 pages of color plates. Like a well-kept garden, The Brother Gardeners is a delight." - Providence Journal

"A garden will never look quite the same after you've read this book on the 18th-century British botanists who exploited the colonial system to acquire thousands of previously unknown plant species. ... Wulf's book will be of interest to anyone with a garden, even if it's on a windowsill."  - Library Journal

“Engrossing new book … The American seeds and plants thrived in the English soil and climate, and a national obsession was born. Origins and ironies aside, we are all the richer for it, and for Wulf's book, too.” – Hartford Courant

"Well-written ... Andrea Wulf brings this formative period of plant history to life" - American Gardener

"History is fascinating when an author is able to write like historian Andrea Wulf" - Muskogee Phoenix

“This is a rarity - an entertaining history of those plant-crazed founding fathers of horticulture, as we practice it today … If I can get sucked into this book during my summer vacation, you'll definitely enjoy it over the winter” – Philadelphia Inquirer

“The author has produced a fascinating study” - Pacific Horticulture

The Brother Gardeners, Best Gardening Books of 2009 - Tuscaloosa Magazine

 The Brother Gardeners, 10 Favourite Books of 2009 - Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Brother Gardeners, Best Gardening Books of 2009 - Baltimore Sun

The Brother Gardeners, Best Reads of 2009 - Providence Journal

Best New Book: "one of the most interesting horticultural books I've read in a long time” - Minneapolis Star Tribune, February 2010

The Brother Gardeners wins American Horticultural Society 2010 Book Award

From the judges: “Lest you fear the book is set in staid drawing rooms filled with rattling tea cups and powdered wigs, the text is peppered with tales of English playboys on high seas plant adventures, Tahitian orgies, and glimpses into Benjamin Franklin’s passion for horticulture” and 

“This book is an important contribution to our horticultural heritage”

 

 

“Wulf gives us a read that is more like a novel than a ponderous history”, The Commercial Appeal Memphis

Reviews UK

'As Wulf triumphantly shows, plants and gardens reveal a wider view of the forces that shape society ... An antidote to dry garden history; rarely has the story of English plants been told with such vigour, and such fun.' – The Times Literary Supplement 

‘The best book this year is The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession’, Independent on Sunday 

‘Andrea Wulf has written a wonderful book, using a clutch of fascinating men to remind us the British Empire was once as much about white pine and Camellia japonica as it was about guns and steel … enthralling story … gripping story … brilliantly readable book.’ – Mail on Sunday 

‘This absorbing and delightful book about 18th-century botanists stands out among histories of plant hunting ... It is about friendships, frustrations and rows, as well as about new species. The approach works superbly because Andrea Wulf makes us see her subjects so vividly … Wulf is admirably clear about the botanical discoveries (amplified by a fascinating glossary of plants, detailing their discovery and introduction).’ – Sunday Telegraph 

‘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.' – The Guardian 

‘Engrossing history of botanical obsession in England in the 18th century … seamless tale … the author has a good eye for interesting detail and a fine sense of literary economy … a gripping story, told here with grace and aplomb’ – Country Life 

‘Wulf’s absorbing narrative not only makes you gaze at garden plants with something like the fascination of her six botanical protagonists at these alien species from America, Australia and the South Seas, it also shows those actors in a convincing new light.’ – Financial Times 

‘In her excellent book, The Brother Gardeners, Andrea Wulf tells the story of these men, admirably conveying the excitement and horticultural advancements of the age and bringing everything to life with vivid contemporary detail.’ – House & Garden 

‘A 'biography' of the quintessential English garden, taking in Captain Cook, Carl Linnaeus, and the simultaneous rise of the British Empire and flower arranging – a delightful look at horticultural history.’ – Scotland on Sunday 

‘Wulf’s pacy and readable history stands as an admirable corrective to received ideas about the landscape garden, since it emphasises the role of plants as status symbols in garden-making … [The Brother Gardeners is] compelling, well-edited and cleverly structured, it stands … as a valuable addition to the existing small library of paeans to the art and architecture of the landscape garden.’ Literary Review 

‘Fascinating account of the major figures who drove British horticulture forward. Well-researched, this covers a broad subject authoritatively and does so in a highly readable way.’ – The Garden 

‘We are a nation of gardeners, and what we have now in our gardens is because of the pioneering work of the extraordinarily dedicated men whose stories feature in this excellent book. The author has indeed written a book worth of the subject. She has tracked the story using primary sources, packing the narrative with interesting anecdotes and gardening facts.’ – Oxford Times 

‘Andrea Wulf tells the fascinating story of the British obsession with gardens and plants … an absorbing and important story … Wulf brings alive the personalities and outlook of the great collectors and botanists … an entertaining read.’ – Notes and Records of the Royal Society 

Monty Don's Best Gardening Books of the Year: ‘Wulf tells the story of the 18th-century passion for plants that transformed British gardens through the lives of the men obsessed with discovering and growing new species. Anyone who's keen on plants, history and biography will love this book.’ – Daily Mail   

“Vigorous book … powerfully pulled together …Wulf draws the threads of her story compellingly together and lights up an “American connection” in Georgian garden growth as never before” - Robin Lane Fox, Financial Times

What the Critics Say 

‘A wondrous telling of the history of the very English love affair with gardens and growing things … I have learned so much from this book.’ – Jon Snow, Channel 4 

‘The Brother Gardeners is a delightful book. It brings the story of 18th-century gardening to life in a remarkably vivid way, and sheds new light on the personality clashes and prejudices which lay at the root of the Georgians' passion for plants.’ – Adrian Tinniswood, author of The Verneys 

‘Andrea’s wonderful in-depth narrative of The Brother Gardeners provides a vivid horticultural contrast to the stark destitution instigated by the Enclosure Acts of the same period. A fascinating read for all those with an interest in plants, gardens and social history.’ – Steven Poole 

‘The Brother Gardeners were a group of men involved in the 18th century quest for new plants, at a fascinating period in garden history - Andrea Wulf brings their personalities vividly to life in her thoroughly researched and lively account.’ – Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall, author of The Garden. An English Love Affair 

‘Immaculately written and researched, this book brings to life the dramas and dangers of eighteenth-century plant collecting. You will never look at the plants in your garden in quite the same way when you know what these intrepid men went through to find them.’ – Catherine Horwood, author of Potted History. The Story of Plants in the Home 

‘Andrea Wulf captures the spirit of the tenacious men who made Britain the epicentre of horticultural knowledge and expertise in the 18th century. A totally engrossing read.’ – Rosie Atkins, Curator, Chelsea Physic Garden 

‘Andrea always succeeds in breathing life into history - what an incredible account of an amazing century. I will never be able to look at a modern day nursery again in quite the same way! Incredible to think that Linnaeus and Madonna have so much in common, both of their work being banned by the Vatican!’ – Kim Wilde 

‘The Brother Gardeners tells a fascinating and important tale … Andrea Wulf argues, and comprehensively proves, that this was a defining period in the growth of horticulture in Britain and in the availability of plants from around the world … She wears her considerable knowledge lightly’ – Neil Chambers, Executive Director, The Sir Joseph Banks Archive Project

The Times: Daily Universal Register, 3 February 2009

Out Now: The Brother Gardeners

Click here to see listing

 

Paperback Pick The Guardian: The Brother Gardeners

'Charming and well-written study', 7 February 2009

Click here for the review

Paperback Pick Daily Express: The Brother Gardeners

" A story of friends, enemies and discoveries", 6 February 2009 

 

Paperback Pick Sunday Telegraph: The Brother Gardeners

"Appealing book", 1 February 2009 

Click here for the review