There is an Agatha Christie rose (nice pink flowers) and also an Agatha Christie iris (but to be honest these aren’t so pretty). Christie’s novel Sad Cypress features the Zephirine Drouhin rose, in fact I’ve identified more than 100 named varieties in her works but I digress. Thank you for a lovely post. ❤️
I think that the names of plants was much more common knowledge in times gone by. I don’t think she was much of a gardener herself but she knew plenty of keen plant lovers (one of her grandmother’s was very keen on roses). In the novel ‘Cards on the Table’ the character Ariadne Oliver, a crime writer (and very much Christie’s alter ego) comments that she is always getting letters from gardeners telling her that she has the wrong plants out at the same time, and that she doesn’t actually care - plus they are all out together in the London shops. This might be what Deborah was referring to?
What a lovely post Jane - so enjoyed while looking at the rain and my small Japanese cherry tree covered in buds waiting to blossom. I like the idea of creating and naming your own varieties...is there a Wordsworth Daffodil?! There should be!
I think that’s an activity one has to start in one’s 40s… But if something should come a sport ? I mean, I don’t know the name of this one, but it does remind me of George Eliot. Some would say sombre. But I’d say serious and prolific.
The words from the Housman poem have been swirling around in my head for the last few weeks with the appearance of the blossom, Jane. So much so I shared it on Insta the other day 🤗🥰 https://www.instagram.com/share/_mfUsms9k
What about Clematis Daniel Deronda. Narcissus Anne Brontë is a late daffodil and probably hard to find but very pretty. I also came across a dwarf variety of sunflower called Little Dorrit just 60 cm high. Angie
Love Daniel, but he is prone to be eaten by slugs! Will try him again at Calderstones where not so many as here at home. Will look for AB - one of my favourite Brontes so worth seeking out the daffodil. And Little Dorrit we did try to grow - scores of them at Calderstones last year and even though I say 'not so many slugs', every single slug in South Liverpool seemed to hear the call and made their way to Front Border there and utterly decimated them! Try again, fail again... maybe fail better this year! keep'em coming!
Thanks - we have many of the David Austin 'literary' roses - they donated many to Calderstones Garden. But I like the idea of plants on honour of writers who wrote about them...Courtyard full of pots of Seamus Heaney's 'Mint' etc.
What a lovely post this is. I didn't know of the Barrett Browning narcissi and I hope she was named after that reticent portrait because the connection is so charming. I do love the idea of creating a bookish garden and if I think of anything I will let you know!
To find a plant named after a poet ( or anyone). Just search ‘plant named after ‘name of person’. For instance Leonard Cohen has a Hemerocallis named after him. (As does Tennyson) … happy hunting
The wild cherries I think of when I read the Housman poem are our Scottish wild cherries, very different to bird cherry.
On literary names, there are roses Roald Dahl (which I won't grow because I may be the only person in the world actively to dislike his children's books), and Albertine, which I will and which always makes me think of Albertine Disparue, one of the books that make up Proust's 'A la recherche du temps perdu.'
Thanks, Linda ... I'm not a fan of Dahl's books either but I do love the rose. I hadn't pegged 'Albertine' as a literary name, so thanks to for that pointer to Proust! Again, not keen on Proust, and never got as far as Albertine Disparue! But Albertine may be my favourite rose...
It is a dilemma! I saw the rose Roald Dahl and thought “oh how lovely!” and then I saw the name and thought “hmm”. I was very keen on Proust at one time (wrote my PhD thesis on Proust and Flaubert), but a lot of Proust can go a long way and I’m only now plucking up courage to re-read, many, many years later. I’ve had an Albertine rose in every house I’ve lived in up until now, and feel the lack keenly.
Moved to a garden I'm reclaiming and it's now a blank canvas. I do plan to have Albertine. I'll be posting shortly about it in Slow Growing in Scotland.
There is an Agatha Christie rose (nice pink flowers) and also an Agatha Christie iris (but to be honest these aren’t so pretty). Christie’s novel Sad Cypress features the Zephirine Drouhin rose, in fact I’ve identified more than 100 named varieties in her works but I digress. Thank you for a lovely post. ❤️
She must have loved plants to know so many names!
I think that the names of plants was much more common knowledge in times gone by. I don’t think she was much of a gardener herself but she knew plenty of keen plant lovers (one of her grandmother’s was very keen on roses). In the novel ‘Cards on the Table’ the character Ariadne Oliver, a crime writer (and very much Christie’s alter ego) comments that she is always getting letters from gardeners telling her that she has the wrong plants out at the same time, and that she doesn’t actually care - plus they are all out together in the London shops. This might be what Deborah was referring to?
Love the poetry! We have grown Narcissus Rip Van Winkle for the first time this year.
What a lovely post Jane - so enjoyed while looking at the rain and my small Japanese cherry tree covered in buds waiting to blossom. I like the idea of creating and naming your own varieties...is there a Wordsworth Daffodil?! There should be!
Create and name your own varieties? How would you do that - ?
I think that’s an activity one has to start in one’s 40s… But if something should come a sport ? I mean, I don’t know the name of this one, but it does remind me of George Eliot. Some would say sombre. But I’d say serious and prolific.
The words from the Housman poem have been swirling around in my head for the last few weeks with the appearance of the blossom, Jane. So much so I shared it on Insta the other day 🤗🥰 https://www.instagram.com/share/_mfUsms9k
wonderful thing that he was able to write something so specific as to become almost part of the cherry blossom season...
What about Clematis Daniel Deronda. Narcissus Anne Brontë is a late daffodil and probably hard to find but very pretty. I also came across a dwarf variety of sunflower called Little Dorrit just 60 cm high. Angie
Love Daniel, but he is prone to be eaten by slugs! Will try him again at Calderstones where not so many as here at home. Will look for AB - one of my favourite Brontes so worth seeking out the daffodil. And Little Dorrit we did try to grow - scores of them at Calderstones last year and even though I say 'not so many slugs', every single slug in South Liverpool seemed to hear the call and made their way to Front Border there and utterly decimated them! Try again, fail again... maybe fail better this year! keep'em coming!
David Austen has loads of literary roses. I planted an eglantine (also a rose) in honour of Yeats. I‘ll think on others!
Thanks - we have many of the David Austin 'literary' roses - they donated many to Calderstones Garden. But I like the idea of plants on honour of writers who wrote about them...Courtyard full of pots of Seamus Heaney's 'Mint' etc.
What a lovely post this is. I didn't know of the Barrett Browning narcissi and I hope she was named after that reticent portrait because the connection is so charming. I do love the idea of creating a bookish garden and if I think of anything I will let you know!
To find a plant named after a poet ( or anyone). Just search ‘plant named after ‘name of person’. For instance Leonard Cohen has a Hemerocallis named after him. (As does Tennyson) … happy hunting
what good information... thank you
Love Housman Poem.
The wild cherries I think of when I read the Housman poem are our Scottish wild cherries, very different to bird cherry.
On literary names, there are roses Roald Dahl (which I won't grow because I may be the only person in the world actively to dislike his children's books), and Albertine, which I will and which always makes me think of Albertine Disparue, one of the books that make up Proust's 'A la recherche du temps perdu.'
Thanks, Linda ... I'm not a fan of Dahl's books either but I do love the rose. I hadn't pegged 'Albertine' as a literary name, so thanks to for that pointer to Proust! Again, not keen on Proust, and never got as far as Albertine Disparue! But Albertine may be my favourite rose...
It is a dilemma! I saw the rose Roald Dahl and thought “oh how lovely!” and then I saw the name and thought “hmm”. I was very keen on Proust at one time (wrote my PhD thesis on Proust and Flaubert), but a lot of Proust can go a long way and I’m only now plucking up courage to re-read, many, many years later. I’ve had an Albertine rose in every house I’ve lived in up until now, and feel the lack keenly.
why haven't you got Albertine now?
Moved to a garden I'm reclaiming and it's now a blank canvas. I do plan to have Albertine. I'll be posting shortly about it in Slow Growing in Scotland.
Hyacinthus orientalis 'Rossetti':
This variety of hyacinth is a beautiful, fragrant, and pink-colored flower, named after Christina Rossetti by her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti.