Edward Augustus (Gus or Gussie) Bowles (14 May 1865 – 7 May 1954) was a British horticulturalist, plantsman and garden writer. He developed an important garden at Myddelton House, his lifelong home at
Bulls Cross
Bulls Cross is a road and hamlet in Enfield, England, on the outskirts of north London, forming part of the Metropolitan Green Belt. Although it now lies within the ceremonial county of Greater London, prior to 1965 it was in the historic count ...
in
Enfield
Enfield may refer to:
Places Australia
* Enfield, New South Wales
* Enfield, South Australia
** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb
** Enfield High School (South Australia)
...
,
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
and his name has been preserved in many varieties of plant.
Background
E. A. Bowles was born at his family's home, Myddelton House, in Enfield. He was of
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
descent through his maternal great-grandmother and his father, Henry Carington Bowles Bowles ''(sic)'' (1830–1918), son of Anne Sarah Bowles, who had inherited Myddelton House, and her husband Edward Treacher. Henry Carington Treacher adopted the surname Bowles in 1852 for inheritance purposes and married E.A. Bowles' mother, Cornelia Kingdom (1831–1911) in 1856. H.C Bowles was Chairman of the
New River Company
The New River Company, formally The Governor and Company of the New River brought from Chadwell and Amwell to London, was a privately-owned water supply company in London, England, originally formed around 1609 and incorporated in 1619 by roy ...
, which until 1904 controlled the artificial waterway that flowed past Myddelton House, bringing water to London from the
River Lea
The River Lea ( ) is in South East England. It originates in Bedfordshire, in the Chiltern Hills, and flows southeast through Hertfordshire, along the Essex border and into Greater London, to meet the River Thames at Bow Creek. It is one of t ...
.
Through his elder brother
Henry
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
* Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
, who after 1894 lived at neighbouring
Forty Hall
Forty Hall is a manor house of the 1620s in Forty Hill in Enfield, London, Enfield, north London. The house, a Grade I listed building, is today used as a museum by the London Borough of Enfield. Within the grounds is the site of the former Tud ...
, Bowles was the great uncle of
Andrew Parker Bowles
Brigadier Andrew Henry Parker Bowles (born 27 December 1939) is a retired British Army officer. He is the former husband of Queen Camilla.
Early life and family
Andrew Parker Bowles was born on 27 December 1939 as the eldest of four children to ...
(born 1939), whose first wife,
Camilla Shand
Camilla (born Camilla Rosemary Shand, later Parker Bowles, 17 July 1947) is Queen Consort of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms as the wife of King Charles III. She became queen consort on 8 September 2022, upon the ac ...
, became Duchess of Cornwall on her marriage to
Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...
in 2005.
Education and career
Described as "too delicate for public school", Bowles spent much of his childhood at Myddelton before reading
divinity
Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine ...
at
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...
. He had wanted to enter the church, but family circumstances, including the death of a brother and sister from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
in a three-month period of 1887, militated against this; so he remained at Myddelton and, in the words of one historian, "devoted himself to social work, painting, and natural history, particularly
entomology
Entomology () is the science, scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such ...
".
Bowles transformed the garden at Myddelton and, as a keen traveller, especially to Europe and North Africa, brought home with him many specimens of plant. Such was his collecting zeal that, by the turn of the 20th century, he was growing over 130 species of
colchicum
''Colchicum'' ( or ) is a genus of perennial flowering plants containing around 160 species which grow from bulb-like corms. It is a member of the botanical family Colchicaceae, and is native to West Asia, Europe, parts of the Mediterranean coas ...
and
crocus
''Crocus'' (; plural: crocuses or croci) is a genus of seasonal flowering plants in the family Iridaceae (iris family) comprising about 100 species of perennials growing from corms. They are low growing plants, whose flower stems remain undergro ...
. He also took a great interest in hardy
cacti
A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...
and
succulents
In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...
, admiring their "strange beauty" and protective spines. Many of the foreign expeditions were timed to mitigate the symptoms of acute
hay fever
Allergic rhinitis, of which the seasonal type is called hay fever, is a type of inflammation in the nose that occurs when the immune system overreacts to allergens in the air. Signs and symptoms include a runny or stuffy nose, sneezing, red, i ...
, with
Alpine
Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to:
Places Europe
* Alps, a European mountain range
** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range
Australia
* Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village
* Alpine National Pa ...
or other mountainous regions being favoured destinations in late spring. Bowles' gardening mentor was Canon Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (1822–1916), Rector of
Bitton
Bitton is a village and civil parish of South Gloucestershire in England, to the east of the Greater Bristol area on the River Boyd.
It is in South Gloucestershire. The parish of Bitton has a population of 9,307, and apart from the village ...
, Gloucestershire, who wrote a number of books about gardening, including plant lore in English literature.
Bowles inherited Myddelton on his father's death in 1918, but initially found this a mixed blessing, writing the following year to his friend and fellow horticulturalist William Robinson that, with a life interest in the property, he was unable to sell and yet found his income insufficient to maintain it to "as it used to be kept". At the time he was contemplating turning Myddelton into a "semi-wild garden".
In 1908 Bowles was elected to the Council of the
Royal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.
The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...
(RHS), whose grounds at
Wisley
__NOTOC__
Wisley is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England between Cobham and Woking, in the Borough of Guildford. It is the home of the Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Garden. The River Wey runs through the village and Ockham and ...
, Surrey, now contain a memorial garden to him. Bowles received the society's highest award, the
Victoria Medal of Honour
The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society.
The award was established in 1897 "in per ...
, in 1916 and was a Vice-President from 1926 until his death almost thirty years later. RHS colleagues knew him as "Bowley".
Myddelton House
The garden at Myddelton House, which has been subject to considerable renovation in the early 21st century, is open to the public and contains a museum dedicated to Bowles' life and work. Many of the features that he created remain, including the rock garden (though this is now largely wild), the
wisteria
''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae), that includes ten species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north o ...
that he planted across a bridge that once crossed the New River, and his so-called "lunatic asylum" of horticultural oddities, such as the corkscrew
hazel
The hazel (''Corylus'') is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. (1999). ...
(''Corylus avellana'' 'Contorta'), that he developed after abandoning plans to construct a Japanese garden. The old Enfield market cross was salvaged to become the centrepiece of the rose garden, while two lead
ostrich
Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There are ...
es, dating from 1724, that once stood beside the wisteria bridge, have been restored after years of vandalism and are now housed in the museum. On one of the walls overlooking the kitchen garden, Bowles' initials that he carved in 1887 can still be seen.
Two clumps have been maintained of the highly invasive Japanese knot weed, whose architectural qualities Bowles admired. Bowles also grew a gigantic
gunnera
''Gunnera'' is the sole genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Gunneraceae, which contains 63 species. Some species in this genus, namely those in the subgenus ''Panke'', have extremely large leaves. Species in the genus are various ...
, which flourished at Myddelton despite its hard water and dry, gravelly soil, and dwarfed a schoolgirl named Miss Malby whom Bowles photographed beside it in 1927. More generally, he had an eye for unusual and uncommon plants, one of his favourites being yellowroot (''
Xanthorhiza simplicissima
''Xanthorhiza simplicissima'' (yellowroot) is the only member of the genus ''Xanthorhiza'', and one of very few genera in the family Ranunculaceae with a woody stem (the other notable example being ''Clematis''). It is native to the eastern Uni ...
''), which is rarely grown in British gardens, but whose "quaint beauty" he appreciated. Among Bowles' methods of
pest control
Pest control is the regulation or management of a species defined as a pest; any animal, plant or fungus that impacts adversely on human activities or environment. The human response depends on the importance of the damage done and will range ...
was to go out at night with a torch and a
hatpin
A hatpin is a decorative and functional pin for holding a hat to the head, usually by the hair. In Western culture, hatpins are almost solely used by women and are often worn in a pair. They are typically around in length, with the pinhead be ...
to eradicate
slug
Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...
s.
Visitors and horticultural contacts
Bowles received many distinguished visitors from the gardening world: for example, the great planting designer Gertrude Jekyll came to Myddelton twice in 1910, while Bowles was a guest at Jekyll's
Munstead Wood
Munstead Wood is a Grade I listed house and garden in Munstead Heath, Busbridge on the boundary of the town of Godalming in Surrey, England, south-east of the town centre. The garden was created by garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, and became ...
. An article in the ''Gardener's Magazine'' in 1910 observed "it would be difficult to imagine anything more delightful, floriculturally speaking, than to spend an hour or so with Mr. Bowles." A so-called "
tulip
Tulips (''Tulipa'') are a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm ...
tea" was held annually at Myddelton to celebrate Bowles' birthday in early May. This usually coincided with the flowering of beds along his Tulip Terrace, which, given the tulip's decline in popularity since its mid-Victorian heyday, made him one of what he described in 1914, with reference to fellow devotees, as the "noble little band who keep up its cultivation ndare doing a great work for future gardeners".
Bowles was also the frequent recipient of specimens from other plantsmen. For example, in 1921 Sir Frederick Moore, director of the National Botanic Gardens at
Glasnevin
Glasnevin (, also known as ''Glas Naedhe'', meaning "stream of O'Naeidhe" after a local stream and an ancient chieftain) is a neighbourhood of Dublin, Ireland, situated on the River Tolka. While primarily residential, Glasnevin is also home t ...
, near
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, Ireland, sent him a collection of
hellebore
Commonly known as hellebores (), the Eurasian genus ''Helleborus'' consists of approximately 20 species of herbaceous or evergreen perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, within which it gave its name to the tribe of Helleboreae. ...
s that have thrived at Myddelton. These included a variety that became known as 'Bowles' Yellow' (although it appears that differing strains originating from Myddelton may have been distributed under this name, while other named varieties may have been descended from one or more of these). Stories differ as to why Bowles named a particular
snowdrop
''Galanthus'' (from Ancient Greek , (, "milk") + (, "flower")), or snowdrop, is a small genus of approximately 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leaves and a single sm ...
''Galanthus plicatus'' 'Warham Rectory', but, according to one version, flowers of it were sent to him in 1916 by Charles Tilton Digby, Rector of
Warham, Norfolk
Warham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated about inland from the north Norfolk coast, south-east of the town of Wells-next-the-Sea and north-west of the city of Norwich.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Ex ...
. Bowles named another ''galanthus'' ' Benhall Beauty' after the village near
Saxmundham
Saxmundham ( ) is a market town in Suffolk, England, set in the valley of the River Fromus about north-east of Ipswich and west of the coast at Sizewell. The town is bypassed by the main A12 road between London and Lowestoft. The town is ser ...
, Suffolk where it was grown by John Gray (died 1952), a noted snowdrop specialist who gave his name to the variety ''G.'' 'John Gray'. Another ''galanthus'', 'Mrs Thompson', was named after a lady from
Escrick
Escrick is a village and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England. It was historically part of the East Riding of Yorkshire until 1974. It is approximately equidistant between Selby and York on what is now the A19 road.
Hi ...
in Yorkshire who sent samples to a meeting of the RHS Scientific Committee that Bowles chaired in 1950.Roy Lancaster in ''The Garden'', February 2012, page 76
Others shared with Bowles information and views about horticulture and botany: in 1929 Frank Anthony Hampton (a physicist who wrote gardening books under the name of Jason Hill) corresponded about some twigs sent to him by Gertrude Jekyll to support the view that the pollen flowers of
mistletoe
Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant.
...
carried a scent that was missing in fertilised ones.
Mentor and talent spotter
Through the RHS, and in other ways, Bowles did much to encourage other gardeners. Among his protégées was an Enfield neighbour,
Frances Perry
Frances Mary Perry MBE VMH (19 February 1907 – 11 October 1993) was an English gardener, administrator, writer and broadcaster.
Biography
She was born Frances Everett in Enfield, Middlesex, where she lived most of her life at Bulls Cross. S ...
(''née'' Everett), who gained particular distinction as a horticultural writer, broadcaster and educationalist. Another, Richard Durant (Dick) Trotter (1887–1968), who became a leading banker and Treasurer of the RHS, travelled with Bowles to the Alps and
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
in the 1920s. Trotter was Treasurer of the RHS 1929–32, 1933–38 and 1943–48. He became a Director of the
National Provincial Bank
National Provincial Bank was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales from 1833 until 1970 when it was merged into the National Westminster Bank. It continued to exist as a dormant non-trading company until 2016 when it was vo ...
and later Chairman of the
Alliance Assurance Company
Sun Alliance Group plc was a large insurance business with its main offices in the City of London and later Horsham. It was created in 1959 by the merger of Sun Insurance, founded in 1710, and Alliance Assurance founded in 1824. In 1996 Sun Alli ...
: ''ibid.''. Bowles often visited Trotter's garden at Leith Vale, Surrey and his daughter Elizabeth Parker-Jervis (1931–2010), herself a redoubtable gardener, claimed to have been "brought up on Bowles's knee".
Bowles had a good eye for talent: in the early 1930s he became acquainted with
William Stearn
William Thomas Stearn (16 April 1911 – 9 May 2001) was a British botanist. Born in Cambridge in 1911, he was largely self-educated, and developed an early interest in books and natural history. His initial work experience was at ...
, then a young assistant in the Cambridge University bookshop Bowes and Bowes, and recommended him to be Librarian of the RHS, a post he held for almost twenty years. Just after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Bowles chaired the panel that selected William Gregor MacKenzie (Bill MacKenzie) as curator of the
Chelsea Physic Garden
The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries' Garden in London, England, in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to grow plants to be used as medicines. This four acre physic garden, the term here referring to the sc ...
. MacKenzie remained at Chelsea until 1973, initially restoring the garden from wartime neglect and then reinvigorating it as a centre for horticulture.
Publications
Bowles wrote a number of books about horticulture, notably ''My Garden in Spring'', ''My Garden in Summer'' and ''My Garden in Autumn and Winter'', all of which were published (1914–15) around the beginning of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The preface to the first of these by Bowles' friend
Reginald Farrer
Reginald John Farrer (17 February 1880 – 17 October 1920), was a traveller and plant collector. He published a number of books, although is best known for ''My Rock Garden''. He travelled to Asia in search of a variety of plants, many of wh ...
, with whom he often travelled abroad, contained some comments about showy rock gardens which were taken as personal criticism by Sir
Frank Crisp
Sir Frank Crisp, 1st Baronet, (25 October 1843 – 29 April 1919) was an English lawyer and microscopist. Crisp was an enthusiastic member, and sometime officer, of the Royal Microscopical Society. He was generous in his support of the Society, ...
, the eccentric millionaire owner of
Friar Park
Friar Park is a Victorian neo-Gothic mansion in Henley-on-Thames, England, built in 1889. It was originally owned by eccentric lawyer Sir Frank Crisp and purchased in January 1970 by English rock musician and former Beatle George Harrison. ...
,
Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buc ...
, and
Ellen Willmott
Ellen Ann Willmott (19 August 1858 – 27 September 1934) was an English horticulturist. She was an influential member of the Royal Horticultural Society, and a recipient of the first Victoria Medal of Honour, awarded to British horticulturists ...
, creator of a steep, rocky garden at
Ventimiglia
Ventimiglia (; lij, label=Intemelio, Ventemiglia , lij, label= Genoese, Vintimiggia; french: Vintimille ; oc, label= Provençal, Ventemilha ) is a resort town in the province of Imperia, Liguria, northern Italy. It is located southwest of ...
on the
Italian Riviera
The Italian Riviera or Ligurian Riviera ( it, Riviera ligure; lij, Rivêa lìgure) is the narrow coastal strip in Italy which lies between the Ligurian Sea and the mountain chain formed by the Maritime Alps and the Apennines. Longitudinall ...
, who had known Gertrude Jekyll since 1873 and, like Bowles, was a leading figure in the RHS. Farrer, who was widely published and candid about his likes and dislikes, was thought to have had in mind in particular Crisp's Alpine garden which contained a miniature version of the
Matterhorn
The (, ; it, Cervino, ; french: Cervin, ; rm, Matterhorn) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the ...
created from 20,000 tons of granite brought from
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
. This led Willmott to circulate a uncomplimentary pamphlet about Bowles and his garden at the second
Chelsea Flower Show
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the ''Great Spring Show'',Phil Clayton, ''The Great Temple Show'' in ''The Garden'' 2008, p.452, The Royal Horticultural Society is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural ...
in 1914, thereby escalating a row which, however, was patched up the following year, when Bowles invited Willmot to Myddelton House. Ellen Willmott and Gertrude Jekyll were the first female recipients of the RHS's Victoria Medal of Honour, instituted in 1897 and, as noted, bestowed on Bowles in 1916. One of Jekyll's biographers wrote that Willmott "was in many ways as unusual as Gertrude".
Bowles' more specialised works included his handbooks on crocuses (1924) and
narcissi
''Narcissus'' is a genus of predominantly spring flowering perennial plants of the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. Various common names including daffodil,The word "daffodil" is also applied to related genera such as '' Sternbergia'', ''I ...
(1934), which contained his own illustrations. Material that he had collected for a monograph on
snowdrop
''Galanthus'' (from Ancient Greek , (, "milk") + (, "flower")), or snowdrop, is a small genus of approximately 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leaves and a single sm ...
s and
snowflakes
A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, which falls through the Earth's atmosphere as snow.Knight, C.; Knight, N. (1973). Snow crystals. Scientific American, vol. 228, no. ...
was incorporated after his death in a book for the RHS by Sir Frederick Stern (1884–1967), creator of
Highdown Gardens
Highdown Gardens are gardens on the western edge of the town of Worthing, close to the village of Ferring and the National Trust archaeological site Highdown Hill, in West Sussex, England. Overlooking the sea from the South Downs, they contain a ...
in
Worthing
Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...
, West Sussex.
Death and legacy
Bowles continued to chair committees of the RHS until a few weeks before his death in 1954. His ashes were scattered on the rock garden at Myddelton House. Bowles had no family of his own and the house and gardens passed to the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
. They are now owned and managed by the
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) is a statutory body that is responsible for managing and developing the long, Lee Valley Regional Park. The park was established by Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1967. The headquarters of the a ...
. The bulk of Bowles' correspondence is held by the RHS's Lindley Library. A charity, known as the E.A. Bowles of Myddelton House Society, seeks to maintain interest in both the man and his work and, since the fiftieth anniversary of his death in 2004, has sponsored a biennial studentship in his name in conjunction with the RHS. At its first annual general meeting in 1993, Andrew Parker-Bowles was elected president of the society, with Frances Perry (who died in October 1993) and Elizabeth Parker-Jervis as vice-presidents.
Named varieties
Bowles gave his name to upwards of forty varieties of plant, and there are others that originated with him. For example, he named a hellebore 'Gerrard Parker' after a local art master, ''Crocus tommasinianus'' 'Bobbo' after the boy who first spotted it and ''
Rosmarinus
Rosmarinus ( ) is a small taxonomic clade of woody, perennial herbs with fragrant evergreen needle-like leaves in the family Lamiaceae, native to the Mediterranean Basin.
In 2017 the species in the genus ''Rosmarinus'' were moved into the large ...
officinalis'' 'Miss Jessopp's Upright' (Miss Jessopp's Upright Rosemary) after a gardening neighbour, Euphemia Jessopp, for whom he also named the small white ''Crocus x jessoppiae'' in 1924. ''
Erysimum
''Erysimum'', or wallflower, is a genus of flowering plants in the cabbage family, Brassicaceae. It includes more than 150 species, both popular garden plants and many wild forms. The genus ''Cheiranthus'' is sometimes included here in whole o ...
'' 'Bowles' Mauve' was among "200 plants for 200 years" chosen by the RHS to mark its bicentenary in 2004 and, to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the Chelsea Flower Show in 2013, was shortlisted (from among introductions between 1973–83) as one of ten "plants of the centenary". Other significant introductions included ''
Viola
The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
Santolina
''Santolina'' is a genus of plants in the chamomile tribe within the sunflower family, primarily from the western Mediterranean region.
They are small evergreen shrubs growing tall. The leaves are simple and minute in some species, or pinnate ...
pinnata'' subsp. ''neopolitana''), and Bowles' golden
sedge
The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...
(''Carex stricta'' 'Aurea'), which he found on
Wicken Fen
Wicken Fen is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Wicken in Cambridgeshire. It is also a National Nature Reserve, and a Nature Conservation Review site. It is protected by international designations as a Ramsar wetland si ...
and has been described by another doyen of plantsmen,
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and on television since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in the ''Back to the Future'' tril ...
, as "a plant to treasure, its colour changing in unexpected ways".
Vita Sackville-West
Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, CH (née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer.
Sackville-West was a successful novelist, poet and journalist, as wel ...
cited the yellow and brown ''Crocus chrysanthus'' 'E.A. Bowles' as among the first bulbs to flower in her garden at
Sissinghurst
Sissinghurst is a small village in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. Originally called ''Milkhouse Street'' (also referred to as ''Mylkehouse''), Sissinghurst changed its name in the 1850s, possibly to avoid association with the smu ...
in January or early February, while, in the nuttery there, Bowles' golden grass (''Milium effusum'' 'Aureum') is interspersed in spring with wood
anemone
''Anemone'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Plants of the genus are commonly called windflowers. They are native to the temperate and subtropical regions of all continents except Australia, New Zealand an ...
s and white bluebells. Another spring plant, the slow growing ''
Muscari
''Muscari'' is a genus of perennial bulbous plants native to Eurasia that produce spikes of dense, most commonly blue, urn-shaped flowers resembling bunches of grapes in the spring. The common name for the genus is grape hyacinth (a name which is ...
'' (grape hyacinth) 'Bowles's Peacock', was commended by Richard Hobbs, holder of the British National Plant Collection of ''Muscari'', as "charming ndsmall ... but
ith
The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is immediatel ...
superb peacock-blue flowers, which in a pot are easily admired at close quarters".
The vigorous ''Galanthus plicatus'' 'Augustus' was named for Bowles by the plantswoman Amy Doncaster. Some other plants bearing his name have been introduced since his death. An example is ''
Phlomis
''Phlomis'' is a genus of over 100 species''Phlomis''. Flora of China. of '' 'Edward Bowles', launched by Hiller Nursuries in 1967, which apparently derives from seeds from Myddelton. In February 2011 a single
bulb
In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...
of the pure white snowdrop ''G. p.'' 'E A Bowles', discovered at Myddelton in 2002, was sold on the internet auction site
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
for a record price of £357. This surpassed by almost £100 the previous record for a snowdrop bulb, set in 2008.David Wheeler in ''The Oldie'', January 2013
References
Bibliography
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Recommended Reading: "The Crocus King:E A Bowles of Myddelton House "by Bryan Hewitt, with a foreword by Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, gt, gt, nephew of E A Bowles The Rockingham Press. 1997. And soon to be published "The Crocus King E A Bowles of Myddelton House, The Garden Restored." An updating of the previous biography, it covers the past 20 years and the restoration of the garden as the result of Myddelton House Gardens winning 500,000pounds Heritage Lottery Fund money in 2009 .