"The Brother Gardeners"

Time: 1:00 p.m.

Location: Bartram's Garden / Directions

Andrea Wulf, author of The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession, tells the story of a small group of 18th century naturalists who made England a nation of gardeners in this beautifully illustrated talk. The story begins when American farmer John Bartram sent hundreds of boxes filled with seeds to England, and includes Philip Miller, author of the Gardeners Dictionary, the cantankerous Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, and two passengers on Captain Cook's Endeavour, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. Together, these men introduced lustrous evergreens, fiery autumn foliage, and colorful shrubs that shaped the Georgian landscape. They also brought science and rational thought to horticulture.

Andrea Wulf was born in India and moved to Germany as a child. She now lives in Britain where she trained as a design historian at the Royal College of Art. An acclaimed writer and garden historian, she’s co-author with Emma Gieben-Gamal of This Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of English History. She has written for the Sunday Times, Financial Times, The Garden, the Architects’ Journal, and regularly reviews for the Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement. She is also a regular contributor to BBC Radio and BBC TV.