Botanizing

Yes, apparently "botanizing" is a verb. Who knew? You'll find that out and much more in the very interesting book Flower Hunters by Mary Gribbin and John Gribbin. This is a book for people who like plants, gardening, and adventure stories. For it is all of these in one.

I often complain about the lack of historical accuracy in novels. Little did I realize that the wary historical novelist must now beware of plants too! Many of the common garden plants we use today have been introduced into European/Western gardening within the last 200 years. These include such things as nasturtiums, azaleas, and rhododendrons. Here in North America, we are aware that many of our favourite plants are not from around here - they were brought by settlers (purposely or inadvertently) to the New World. However, many of these plants were also not native to the European world we thought they originated from. Instead they were gathered by intrepid explorers from around the globe - the Flower Hunters!

These brave men (and woman!) faced adversity, hardship, and danger to send back interesting and unusual plant specimens for the scientists of Europe to study and the gardeners of Europe to plant. Whether gathering plants in the name of science or of profit, the amateur or professional flower hunters had a difficult time botanizing. Travel was not the easy thing it is today.

Flower Hunters is a tremendously interesting book about the men and woman who introduced many plants to Europe whether through science or commerce. Until I read it, I had not realized how many common plants that we have today did not originate in the gardens of Europe, but elsewhere. I was truly fascinated - as will other readers be, I am sure.

The book contains 11 short sketches of each profiled flower hunter, but each story contains so much more information about the whole culture of gardening and science at the time. I almost wished that each sketch was a Wikipedia entry so I could click onto an interesting name as the story unfolded. The writers begin in England and Sweden with two men whose primary interest in plants involved their categorization into neat groups: John Ray and Carl Linnaeus. The remaining botanizers are men (and one woman) who traveled the globe searching for new specimens to send elsewhere, mostly to Europe. Some of these men went in the name of science, such as Joseph Banks, who traveled the world with Captain Cook in the Endeavour, discovering many new plants along the way. Some went in the name of profit, such as William Lobb who introduced the "monkey-puzzle" tree to England. (His brother Thomas brought back orchids.) Gardening was a passion in the Victorian era, and new plants could be sold for high prices. Others moved plants around within the British Empire: Richard Spruce brought quinine to India from South America, and Robert Fortune smuggled tea plants into India from China.

Many women did not participate in botanizing, due to various sociological factors that I won't get into here. One woman who did was Marianne North. She traveled the world looking for new and interesting plants for her paintings. While she did not take physical specimens of the plants, she captured them for posterity and her paintings can still be seen today in the Kew Gardens in England.

At the end of each sketch, the authors have noted gardening ideas to honour each explorer as well as discussing the plants named for the flower hunter. I thought that added a charming and personal touch for any gardener interested in knowing the provenance of their plants and who may want to honour a special botanist for their service to science, and gardeners, everywhere.

This is a lovely book to read in the dead of winter, as it involves a lot of long travel on boats to warm places. You will wish to be in those warm places, but be very happy that you no longer have to travel by sailboat eating sauerkraut for months (to avoid scurvy) to do so!

This is a very interesting read for gardeners and non-gardeners alike. It is not too technical or academic and is a fun and, dare I say, swashbuckling read. A good time was had by all!