Ellen Willmott. A Book Review.

As gardeners we perpetually come across plants bearing the name of Ellen Willmott or her garden , Warley Place . She was one of the direct gardeners of the Edwardian age . Her cognition of plant was encyclopedic , she hold up industrial plant expeditions in distant land and her ability to make thing grow was fabled . Her garden was illustrious . Along with Gertrude Jekyll , she was one of the first women to win the Royal Horticultural Society ’s in demand Victoria Medal . At one fourth dimension there were plan to admit her garden as part of Kew . In its efflorescence , there were 104 gardener and over 100,000 species of plants . Today , the house and garden lie in ruins .

There is a bully life of Ellen Willmott written in 1980 by Audrey le Lievre . It is calledMiss Willmott of Warley Place . Her Life and her Gardens . If you are passionate about garden you will be fascinated to read about someone whose obsession was on such a really heroic ordered series .

Warley Place

Warley Place

Ellen displace into Warley Place , a Queen Ann mansion , with her parent and sister when she was 17 . Her Mother was a piercing gardener and she and her baby presently became very much involved too . Her father came from quite a modest background signal but he had managed to do very well with his investments . Ellen was favorable enough to have a godmother who gave her the plush sum of £ 1000 for each natal day , so she learnt the habit of incredibly , overweening self - indulgence from a untested age .

Reading this book , I wondered whether Ellen suffer from a kind of mellow go Autism or Asperger ’s . She was extremely well-informed and was totally obsessive about her interest . She was understandably not very dear at personal relationships and show other hoi polloi ’ responses . She never married and in fact , when walking round her garden with a booster , she discontinue at a blush wine and say : ‘ This is Cupid : I knew him not . ’As she got former she became unquestionably freakish . She booby - trapped her Narcissus pseudonarcissus to stop people stealing them and carry a gun in her bag .

Ellen and her sister Rose have tea in the gazebo

Warley Place

When her sister , Rose , had conjoin and her parent had both died she dedicated her animation and her fortune to her garden . Already at 24 , with her Church Father ’s permission , she had built a rock garden to top all rock gardens in the garden . She employed a ship’s company from Yorkshire to come and construct a huge garden using monolithic rocks and creating a gorge with a stream which run into a pond . There was a special grot for ferns .

In her thirties she bought a property in Aix -les -Bains , France and one in Ventimigla , Italy , both of which she furnished with great extravagance . She spent a fortune on the two gardens . She help to finance the expeditiousness to China of E.F. Wilson and was furious when his young married woman object to him run away on a wild 2 year trip . She predict her ‘ a tiresome , ignorant woman’ . She receive her elbow room and was rewarded with many rare seeds , lily lightbulb and plants .

In the garden there were hothouses , a medallion house and an orchid house and heated frames . There were summer house and gazebos and a beautiful conservatory on the side of the household , Everyone who came was overwhelmed by the looker of the place and the rare plants growing in abundance . Everything was mature to paragon . Perhaps visitors were impressed by the USA of gardeners in their smart uniform . life history was hard for these nurseryman with such a demanding employer . They had to wear green ties , navy blue apron and boaters and I ca n’t imagine how they keep open them on . They set forth employment at 6 a.m . and went on until 6 p.m. Ellen who start work at dawn was constantly checking up on them . She was very harsh with any of them who did not come up to itch .

Warley Place

Warley Place

It is a pity that Ellen did not indite about her garden like Gertrude Jekyll did . It would be rattling to have a written record of it . She did release a playscript of opprobrious and blank photographs of the garden called : ‘ Warley Garden in Spring and Summer . ‘ There is a copy of it usable on Amazon for £ 125 . I am afraid I shall have to give it a miss . The other Good Book she wrote was a two volume , very learned subject area , call ‘ The Genus Rosa ’ . It was beautifully illustrated and took geezerhood to complete . It also imply endless arguments with her poor publishers who must have regretted the day they ever carry it on .

It is sorry that having spent a immense fortune on her beautiful garden she ended her living very hard up and presumptively rather lonely , give her habit of manufacturing quarrels with everybody . She died in very straitened fate , in 1934 and deplorably in 1939 her star sign was demolished . The warfare come and people had not time to worry about beautiful gardens . If it had been 20 years later the National Trust could have stepped in to save the most important garden of the historic period . A property developer , Mr Carter bought it in 1938 for £ 14.000 , but Brentwood District Council refused planning permission for the theatre he wanted to build . Eventually it was designate greenish belt and so no one could build up on it . The garden was a wilderness but in 1978 it was leased to Essex Wildlife Trust . They have done an enormous amount of clearance and made paths through it so that the populace can now enjoy its peace and wild beauty .

Yesterday I chat Warley Place and so in my next post I will show you what this once renowned garden looks like today .

Ellen and her sister Rose having tea in the gazebo

Ellen and her sister Rose having tea in the gazebo

44 Responses toEllen Willmott. A Book Review.

This is an interesting story of compulsion but it leaves me feeling distressing that someone who understandably understood the life spans of plants and had , at least at one time , the funds to make the gardens of her dreams , did n’t recall forward about how to preserve them . I ’m glad to hear that the Essex Wildlife Trust has contend to save and recreate a portion of what she left .

Oh I would care to read that biography Chloris . I wonder if it ’s still in print or whether it ’s a matter of scouring second hand book shops which is of course of study no hardship 🙂 Off to inquire forthwith .

I count forwards to your post on what is lead of her garden . She must have been a fascinating person ( in a Reginal Farrer way ) – not one you would want to experience with , but one you would wish to know .

an interesting review about a nurseryman who was unknown to me – give thanks you for share-out !

I describe Warley Place a few years ago – it ’s only 20 minutes by car from where I inhabit . As presently as I put down it I feel like I was enter a Secret Garden . It is full of spell and enchantment and of course lots of history . Ellen Willmott became my passion and I ’ve done much enquiry on her and written article about her . It ’s a wonderful place and the Essex Wildlife Trust have done a magnificent job in making the whole estate into a raw tempestuous garden . I read the book by Audrey Le Lievre and exhaustively urge it . you could enjoin it from your local library and they will get it for you . I call up Brentwood Library have some copies . Spring time is witching when carpets of daffs and croci flourish all over . sensational !

Ellen Willmott. A Book Review.