A Rose by Any Other Name

with thanks to Alex Pankhurst

Friday 13th! Suite101.com off the air, both ride-on mowers broken down and now my server is off the air and it is raining. The grass must get mowed because next Sunday a small garden group is to visit the country garden and then the following weekend, another official Australian Garden Scheme Open Garden weekend. There was nothing for it but to catch up on my reading.

The journals have been piling up with their plastic paper still wrapped around them. In desperation, I have put some in a rack in the lavatory and some next to the bath. The consequence of this is that Kees knows a lot more about the Royal Horticulture Society, London, than he knew a few months ago. There were so many on the back burner, I didn't know where to start and, unfortunately, my hand happened upon my favourite "fill in ten minutes" book, Who does your Garden Grow by Alex Pankhurst. And I am no further advanced in keeping up with the garden news!

Have you ever wondered how some garden plants got their names? Who were the people to be so honoured and have a beautiful flower named after them. Great gardeners? Grand titled people? Wonderful lovers? Yes, the short stories in Mr Pankhurst's book reveal all these things.

What about "Mrs Sinkins" Dianthus? Who exactly was Mrs Sinkins?

John Sinkins was a keen florist who, in middle life, became Master of Albert House, the Slough Poor Law Institution and his wife became Matron. This still left him with plenty of time to dabble in his horticulture pursuits and in 1870 he came up with a pink with very full, fringed petals and a marvellous scent. Slough was the home of the Royal Nurseries and Sinkins sold the pink to the Head Nurseryman with the stipulation it must be named after his wife. It was slow to take on amongst the gardening public but after being awarded a First Class Honour by the Royal Horticulture Society in 1880, became a great favourite for the cottage gardens

I do not knowingly grow the following but think it may be in existence in the Town garden. I just love the name, Fuchsia "Mrs Popple" Can you get anything more English than that? Mr and Mrs Popple had a home next to the famous Six Hills nursery in England. They had a tennis court in the garden and at the end of the court ran a path and a grass bank. All along the top was growing a very strong and attractive fuchsia. Again, a nursery man with eagle eyes noted the hardiness of this hybrid of F. magellanica and admired the large, purple and red flowers, found it quite hardy and distributed it under the name fuchsia "Mrs Popple".

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