The Late and Clever Mr Green

Charles Green (1826-86) was one of the great Victorian gardeners. His eight remarkable years at Pendell Court, the Surrey home of the hedonistic millionaire Sir George Macleay, made him among the most famous in the world. His tragic death, and the subsequent and rapid decline of the gardens he had created, have caused him to be almost forgotten. Notable for his humility in an age of self-aggrandizement, oblivious to fame and indifferent to fortune, he devoted his life to the astonishing range of plants he grew, nurtured and loved. His realisation that his craft should depend on the ability to set plants free, and not to constrict or control them, was at the forefront of a gardening revolution. This short book seeks to draw Charles Green out of the shadows that he sought, to rediscover a little of his life, and something of the world within which he worked.