Alan Herbert Vauser Bloom (19 November 1906 – 31 March 2005) was a British

horticulturist Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

and steam engine enthusiast. During his life he created over 170 new varieties of hardy

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

s. These and Alpine plants and conifers were his specialities. He invented the garden feature of freestanding island beds, set in open lawn. He wrote some 30 books and appeared on radio and television. He was the founder of

Bressingham Steam and Gardens Bressingham Steam & Gardens is a steam museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or sci ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, England.

Career

Alan Bloom was the son of a

market garden A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to ...

er at

Over, Cambridgeshire Over is a large village near the River Great Ouse in the English county of Cambridgeshire, just east of the Prime Meridian. The parish covers an area of approximately . It is east of the town of Huntingdon and is also northwest from the city o ...

. Aged seventeen he left school and learned his craft working in various nurseries. In 1926 aged twenty he rejoined his father at

Oakington Oakington is a small rural Anglo-Saxon village north-west of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire in England, and belongs to the administrative district of South Cambridgeshire. Since 1985 the village has formed part of the parish of Oakington and West ...

, transforming the family business to a wholesale nursery. Four years later, Blooms Nurseries had become one of the largest English nurseries of its kind."Alan Bloom" ''Times Online'' April 9, 2005
/ref> He exhibited at 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 (Nor ...

's Chelsea Flower Show for the first time in 1931, and was awarded the Society's Victoria Medal of Honour in 1972.Reed 1984:40. During

World War II 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 opposing ...

he grew crops in the fens. In 1946 he purchased Bressingham Hall and of land at Bressingham. In September 1947, following a destructive gale in March, he left this for

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

, with his partner Violet Holt, his children and their half sister Phillipa (Ship Aquitania dep 8 September 1948); leaving the Bressingham nursery in the hands of an agent but returned twenty months later. Between 1950 and 1962 he continued to develop Bressingham Gardens. In 1962 he began to collect steam engines, some of which had been recently retired from British Railways. His two sons Robert and Adrian, from his marriage to Doris Heavens, joined him in the nursery business. In 1968 they opened the Bressingham Steam Museum alongside the nursery. In 1985 they began the Blooms of Bressingham company, which expanded worldwide with heathers and conifers alongside the core perennial production business. In 1995 Robert Bloom was killed in a car accident. The Garden centre was taken over and merged with the larger Wyevale chain of garden centres."£30m bid to merge Blooms with Wyevale" ''The Daily Telegraph'' February 14, 2007
/ref> The Blooms of Bressingham nursery was sold to Meredith and Sons Blooms Ltd, which gradually abandoned the large nursery area, whilst the original perennial nursery continues today to be part of the Bloom family business 'Blooms nurseries Ltd', as do the gardens, which were mainly developed by Adrian Bloom from 1963 onwards, expanding them to 17 acres.

Awards

* 1997 – MBE * 1971 – Victoria MedalLeapman, Michael (5 April 2005) "Obituary: Alan Bloom: Innovative Norfolk nurseryman" ''The Independent'' London, UK, April 5, 2005
/ref>"Tributes to a renowned plantsman" 31 March 2005 ''BBC News''
/ref> *

Veitch Memorial Medal The Veitch Memorial Medal is an international prize issued annually by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Goal The prize is awarded to "persons of any nationality who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement o ...

Bibliography

''The Farm in the Fen'', 1944
''Hardy plants of Distinction'', W.H. Collingridge Ltd, 1965,
''The Fens'', 1953,
''The Skaters of the Fens'', 1958,
"Hardy Perennials", Faber & Faber Ltd, 1957,
"Perennials for trouble-free Gardening", Faber & Faber, 1960,
"Alpines for trouble-free Gardening", Faber & Faber, 1961,
"Alpine Plants of Distinction", Collingridge Books, 1968,
''Alan Bloom's Hardy Perennials'', 1991, Anova Books,
''Alan Bloom's Selected Garden Plants'', 1968, Jarrold Publishing,
''Alpines for Your Garden'', Intl Specialized Book Service Inc, 1980,
''Bicker's Broad'', Bretland Studios Ltd, (with Tim Hunt)
''Blooms of Bressingham: Choosing the Best Hardy Plants for Your Garden'', HarperCollins Publishers Limited, (with Adrian Bloom)
''Come You Here, Boy!: Autobiography of a Gardener'', Aidan Publishing, Ellis,
''Garden Alpines'', Aidan Publishing, Ellis, 1994,
''Hardy Plants and Alpines'', Burall Floraprint, Limited,
''Locomotives of British Railways'', Jarrold Publishing,
''Locomotives of the London and North Eastern Railway'', Jarrold Publishing, (with D. C. Williams)
''Locomotives of the Southern Railway'', Jarrold Publishing,
''Locomotives of the Great Western Railway'', Jarrold Publishing,
''Making the Best of Alpines'', Burall Floraprint, Limited, 1975,
''Moisture Gardening'', Faber & Faber, Limited, 1966
''Perennials for Your Garden'', Scribner,
''Perennials in Island Beds'', Faber & Faber, Limited, 1977,
''A Plantsman's Perspective: Plants, People and Places'', HarperCollins Publishers Limited,
''Plantsman's Progress'', Dalton Limited, Terence,
''Prelude to Bressingham'', Dalton Limited, Terence,
''Steam Alive: The Story of Bressingham Steam Museum'', Picton Publishing,
''Steam Engines at Bressingham: The Story of a Live Steam Museum'', Faber & Faber, Limited,
''Two Hundred Fifty Years of Steam'', I P C Science & Technology Press, Limited,
''Your Book of Traction Engines'', Faber & Faber, Limited,

References

External links

Blooms Company History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloom, Alan Members of the Order of the British Empire 1906 births 2005 deaths People from South Cambridgeshire District People from South Norfolk (district) Victoria Medal of Honour recipients Veitch Memorial Medal recipients British people associated with Heritage Railways English horticulturists