Thomas Rivers (1798–1877) was an English

nurseryman A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to a desired size. Mostly the plants concerned are for gardening, forestry or conservation biology, rather than agriculture. They include retail nurseries, which sell to the general p ...

, known for developing new varieties of roses and fruits.

Life

Cross section of Thomas Rivers, National Fruit Collection (acc

The son of Thomas and Jane Rivers of

Sawbridgeworth Sawbridgeworth is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, close to the border with Essex. It is east of Hertford and north of Epping. It is the northernmost part of the Greater London Built-up Area. History Prior to the Norman ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

, he was born there on 27 December 1798. His ancestor John Rivers from

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

, established the Rivers family nurseries at Sawbridgeworth in 1725. On the retirement of his father in 1827, Rivers concentrated on the cultivation of

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

s. As a practical nurseryman, by the introduction of the "Early Rivers" plum, Rivers both extended the fruit season and enabled British fruit-growers to compete with European rivals. He also developed small fruit trees, and in 1854 took part in founding the British Pomological Society. Rivers died at Bonks Hill, Sawbridgeworth, on 17 October 1877, and was buried at Sawbridgeworth.

Works

Rivers published: * ''Catalogue of Roses'', 1833. * ''The Rose Amateur's Guide'' 1837, 11th edition 1877. * ''Miniature Fruit Garden; or the Culture of Pyramidal Fruit Trees'', 1840, 20th edition 1891. * ''The Orchard House; or the Cultivation of Fruit Trees in Pots under Glass'', 1850; 5th edition, 1858
6th edition, 185916th edition edited by his son T. F. Rivers, 1879
He also contributed to gardening journals, beginning with a paper on apple cultivation in ''Loudon's Gardener's Magazine'' in 1827.

Family

By his marriage in 1827 to Mary Ann, Rivers had two sons and four daughters. His son Thomas Francis Rivers took over the family business and edited his father's works. It was Thomas Francis Rivers who introduced the

Conference pear A Conference pear is a variety of pear. It is an autumn cultivar (cultivated variety) of the European pear (''Pyrus communis''). This variety of pear was developed in Britain by Thomas Francis Rivers from his Rivers Nursery in Sawbridgeworth, He ...

. His granddaughter, Thomas Francis's daughter May Rivers, was a notable botanical illustrator.

Notes

External links

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Rivers, Thomas 1798 births 1877 deaths Nurserymen English writers People from Sawbridgeworth Veitch Memorial Medal recipients