Edward Augustus Bowles
Encyclopedia
London Borough of Enfield
The London Borough of Enfield is the most northerly London borough and forms part of Outer London. It borders the London Boroughs of Barnet, Haringey and Waltham Forest...
, Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
and his name has been preserved in many varieties of plant.
Background
E. A. Bowles was born at his family's home, Myddelton House (1818), near Enfield. He was of HuguenotHuguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
descent through his maternal great-grandmother and his father, Henry Carington Bowles Bowles (sic) (1830–1918), was Chairman of the New River
New River (England)
The New River is an artificial waterway in England, opened in 1613 to supply London with fresh drinking water taken from the River Lea and from Amwell Springs , and other springs and wells along its course....
Company, which until 1904 controlled the artificial waterway that flowed past Myddelton, bringing water to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
from the River Lea. Through his elder brother Henry
Sir Henry Bowles, 1st Baronet
Colonel Sir Henry Ferryman Bowles, 1st Baronet , was a British military officer and Conservative politician....
, who after 1894 lived at neighbouring Forty Hall
Forty Hall
Forty Hall is a manor house of the 1620s in Forty Hill in Enfield, north London. The house, a Grade I listed building, is today used as a museum by the London Borough of Enfield. Within the grounds is the site of the former Tudor Elsyng Palace.-Location:...
, Bowles was related to Andrew Parker Bowles
Andrew Parker Bowles
Brigadier Andrew Henry Parker Bowles OBE is a retired British Army officer. He is the former husband of the Duchess of Cornwall , who is now married to the Prince of Wales....
(born 1939), whose first wife, Camilla Shand, became Duchess of Cornwall on her marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
in 2005.
Education and career
Described as "too delicate for public school", Bowles spent much of his childhood at Myddelton before reading divinityDivinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
at Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
. He had wanted to enter the church, but family circumstances, including the death of two siblings from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, militated against this; so he remained at Myddelton and, in the words of one historian, "devoted himself to social work, painting, and natural history, particularly entomology
Entomology
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...
".
Bowles transformed the garden at Myddelton and, as a keen traveller, especially to Europe and North Africa, brought home with him many specimens of plant. Such was his collecting zeal that, by the turn of the 20th century, he was growing over 130 species of colchicum
Colchicum
Colchicum is a genus of flowering plants containing around sixty species of perennial plants which grow from corms. It is a member of family Colchicaceae, and is native to West Asia, Europe and parts of the Mediterranean coast....
and crocus
Crocus
Crocus is a genus in the iris family comprising about 80 species of perennials growing from corms. Many are cultivated for their flowers appearing in autumn, winter, or spring...
. Many of the foreign expeditions were timed to mitigate the symptoms of acute hay fever
Hay Fever
Hay Fever is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Laura Hope Crews played the role in New York...
, with Alpine
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
or other mountainous regions being favoured destinations in late spring. Bowles' gardening mentor was Canon Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (1822–1916), Rector of Bitton
Bitton
Bitton is a village and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, in the Greater Bristol area on the River Boyd.It is in the far south of the South Gloucestershire district, near the border with Bath and North East Somerset...
, Gloucestershire, who wrote a number of books about gardening, including plant lore in English literature.
In 1908 Bowles was elected to the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society
Royal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...
(RHS), whose grounds at Wisley
RHS Garden, Wisley
The Royal Horticultural Society's garden at Wisley in the English county of Surrey south of London, is one four public gardens run by the Society, the others being Harlow Carr, Hyde Hall and Rosemoor...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, now contain a memorial garden to him. Bowles received the society's highest award, the Victoria Medal of Honour
Victoria Medal of Honour
The Victoria Medal of Honour is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society...
, in 1916 and was a Vice-President from 1926 until his death almost thirty years later. RHS colleagues knew him as "Bowley".
Myddelton House
The garden at Myddelton House, which has been subject to considerable renovation in the early 21st century, is open to the public and contains a museum dedicated to Bowles' life and work. Many of the features that he created remain, including the rock garden (though this is now largely wild), the wisteriaWisteria
Wisteria is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, that includes ten species of woody climbing vines native to the eastern United States and to China, Korea, and Japan. Aquarists refer to the species Hygrophila difformis, in the family Acanthaceae, as Water Wisteria...
that he planted across a bridge that once crossed the New River, and his so-called "lunatic asylum" of horticultural oddities, such as the corkscrew hazel
Hazel
The hazels are a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae, though some botanists split the hazels into a separate family Corylaceae.They have simple, rounded leaves with double-serrate margins...
(Corylus avellana 'Contorta'), that he developed after abandoning plans to construct a Japanese garden. The old Enfield market cross was salvaged to become the centrepiece of the rose garden, while two lead ostrich
Ostrich
The Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...
es, dating from 1724, that once stood beside the wisteria bridge, have been restored after years of vandalism and are now housed in the museum. On one of the walls overlooking the kitchen garden, Bowles' initials that he carved in 1887 can still be seen.
Two clumps have been maintained of the highly invasive Japanese knot weed, whose architectural qualities Bowles admired. Bowles also grew a gigantic gunnera
Gunnera
Gunnera is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants, some of them gigantic. The genus is the only member of the family Gunneraceae.The 40-50 species vary enormously in leaf size...
, which flourished at Myddelton despite its hard water and dry, gravelly soil, and dwarfed a schoolgirl named Miss Malby whom Bowles photographed beside it in 1927. More generally, he had an eye for unusual and uncommon plants, one of his favourites being yellowroot
Yellowroot
The Yellowroot is the only member of the genus Xanthorhiza, and one of very few genera in the family Ranunculaceae with a woody stem...
(Xanthorhiza simplicissima), which is rarely grown in British gardens, but whose "quaint beauty" he appreciated.
Visitors and horticultural contacts
Bowles received many distinguished visitors from the gardening world: for example, the great planting designer Gertrude JekyllGertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.-Early life:...
came to Myddelton twice in 1910, while Bowles was a guest at Jekyll's Munstead Wood. An article in the Gardener's Magazine in 1910 observed "it would be difficult to imagine anything more delightful, floriculturally speaking, than to spend an hour or so with Mr. Bowles." A so-called "tulip
Tulip
The tulip is a perennial, bulbous plant with showy flowers in the genus Tulipa, which comprises 109 species and belongs to the family Liliaceae. The genus's native range extends from as far west as Southern Europe, North Africa, Anatolia, and Iran to the Northwest of China. The tulip's centre of...
tea" was held annually at Myddelton to celebrate Bowles' birthday in early May. This usually coincided with the flowering of beds along his Tulip Terrace, which, given the tulip's decline in popularity since its mid-Victorian heyday, made him one of what he described in 1914, with reference to fellow devotees, as the "noble little band who keep up its cultivation [and] are doing a great work for future gardeners".
Bowles was also the frequent recipient of specimens from other plantsmen. For example, in 1921 Sir Frederick Moore, director of the National Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin
Glasnevin
Glasnevin is a largely residential neighbourhood of Dublin, Ireland.-Geography:A mainly residential neighbourhood, it is located on the Northside of the city of Dublin . It was originally established on the northern bank of the River Tolka...
, near Dublin, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, sent him a collection of hellebore
Hellebore
Commonly known as hellebores, members of the genus Helleborus comprise approximately 20 species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, within which it gave its name to the tribe of Helleboreae...
s that have thrived at Myddelton. These included a variety that became known as 'Bowles' Yellow' (although it appears that differing strains originating from Myddelton may have been distributed under this name, while other named varieties may have been descended from one or more of these). Stories differ as to why Bowles named a particular snowdrop
Snowdrop
Galanthus is a small genus of about 20 species of bulbous herbaceous plants in the Amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae...
Galanthus plicatus 'Warham Rectory’, but, according to one version, flowers of it were sent to him in 1916 by Charles Tilton Digby, Rector of Warham, Norfolk
Warham, Norfolk
Warham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated about inland from the north Norfolk coast, south-east of the town of Wells-next-the-Sea and north-west of the city of Norwich....
. Others shared with Bowles information and views about horticulture and botany: in 1929 Frank Anthony Hampton (a physicist who wrote gardening books under the name of Jason Hill) corresponded about some twigs sent to him by Gertrude Jekyll to support the view that the pollen flowers of mistletoe
Mistletoe
Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemi-parasitic plants in several families in the order Santalales. The plants in question grow attached to and within the branches of a tree or shrub.-Mistletoe in the genus Viscum:...
carried a scent that was missing in fertilised ones.
Mentor and talent spotter
Through the RHS, and in other ways, Bowles did much to encourage other gardeners. Among his protégées was an Enfield neighbour, Frances PerryFrances Perry
Frances Mary Perry was a gardener, administrator, writer and broadcaster.She was born Frances Everett in Enfield, Middlesex, where she lived most of her life. She was educated at Enfield County School and Swanley Horticultural College .Her mother took her as a child to the Chelsea Flower Show...
(née Everett), who gained particular distinction as a horticultural writer, broadcaster and educationalist. Another, Richard Durant (Dick) Trotter (1887–1968), who became a leading banker and Treasurer of the RHS, travelled with Bowles to the Alps and Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
in the 1920s. Bowles often visited Trotter's garden at Leith Vale
Leith Hill
Leith Hill to the south west of Dorking, Surrey, England, reaches above sea level, the highest point on the Greensand Ridge, and is the second highest point in south-east England, after Walbury Hill near Hungerford, West Berkshire, high....
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
and his daughter Elizabeth Parker-Jervis (1931–2010), herself a redoubtable gardener, claimed to have been "brought up on Bowles's knee".
Bowles had a good eye for talent: in the early 1930s he became acquainted with William Stearn
William T. Stearn
William Thomas Stearn CBE was a British botanist known for his expertise on the history of botany and in the classical languages. His work is widely read, with his etymological dictionary of Latin names of garden plants likely the best-known of the works appearing under his own name...
, then a young assistant in the Cambridge University bookshop Bowes and Bowes, and recommended him to be Librarian of the RHS, a post he held for almost twenty years. Just after the Second World War, Bowles chaired the panel that selected William Gregor MacKenzie as curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden
Chelsea Physic Garden
The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries’ Garden in London, England in 1673. It is the second oldest botanical garden in Britain, after the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, which was founded in 1621.Its rock garden is the oldest English garden devoted to alpine plants...
. MacKenzie remained at Chelsea until 1973, initially restoring the garden from wartime neglect and then reinvigorating it as a centre for horticulture.
Publications
Bowles wrote a number of books about horticulture, notably My Garden in Spring, My Garden in Summer and My Garden in Autumn and Winter, all of which were published (1914–15) around the beginning of the First World War. The preface to the first of these by Bowles' friend Reginald FarrerReginald Farrer
Reginald John Farrer , was a traveller and plant collector. He published a number of books, although is best known for My Rock Garden...
, with whom he often travelled abroad, contained some comments about showy rock gardens which were taken as personal criticism by Sir Frank Crisp
Frank Crisp
Sir Frank Crisp, 1st Baronet was an English lawyer and microscopist.-Life:Crisp's mother died when he was three years old and as a result he was brought up by his grandfather, John Filby Childs. He resolved to take up the law and at 16 was articled to a firm of solicitors...
, the eccentric millionaire owner of Friar Park
Friar Park
Friar Park is the 120-room Victorian neo-Gothic mansion previously owned by the eccentric Sir Frank Crisp in Henley-on-Thames and bought by the musician George Harrison in 1970, as he left his former home Kinfauns, in Esher.-History:...
, Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about 10 miles downstream and north-east from Reading, 10 miles upstream and west from Maidenhead...
, and Ellen Willmott
Ellen Willmott
Ellen Ann Willmott was an English horticulturalist. She was an influential member of the Royal Horticultural Society, and a recipient of the first Victoria Medal of Honour in 1897. She cultivated more than 100,000 species of plants, and sponsored expeditions to discover new species...
, creator of a steep, rocky garden at Ventimiglia
Ventimiglia
Ventimiglia is a city and comune in Liguria, northern Italy, in the province of Imperia. It is located southwest of Genoa by rail, and 7 km from the French-Italian border, on the Gulf of Genoa, having a small harbour at the mouth of the Roia River, which divides the town into two parts...
on the Italian Riviera
Italian Riviera
The Italian Riviera, or Ligurian Riviera is the narrow coastal strip which lies between the Ligurian Sea and the mountain chain formed by the Maritime Alps and the Apennines...
, who had known Gertrude Jekyll since 1873 and, like Bowles, was a leading figure in the RHS. Farrer was thought to have had in mind in particular Crisp's Alpine garden which contained a miniature version of the Matterhorn
Matterhorn
The Matterhorn , Monte Cervino or Mont Cervin , is a mountain in the Pennine Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. Its summit is 4,478 metres high, making it one of the highest peaks in the Alps. The four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, face the four compass points...
comprising 20,000 tons of granite brought from Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. This led Willmott to circulate a uncomplimentary pamphlet about Bowles and his garden at the second Chelsea Flower Show
Chelsea Flower Show
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London...
in 1914, thereby escalating a row which, however, was patched up the following year, when Bowles invited Willmot to Myddelton House.
Bowles' more specialised works included his handbooks on crocuses (1924) and narcissi (1934), which contained his own illustrations. Material that he had collected for a monograph on snowdrop
Snowdrop
Galanthus is a small genus of about 20 species of bulbous herbaceous plants in the Amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae...
s and snowflakes was incorporated after his death in a book for the RHS by Sir Frederick Stern (1884-1967), creator of Highdown Gardens
Highdown Gardens
Highdown Gardens is a garden on the western edge of the town of Worthing, close to the village of Ferring and the National Trust archaeological site Highdown Hill in West Sussex, England. Overlooking the sea from the South Downs the gardens contain a collection of rare plants and trees,...
in Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
.
Death and legacy
Bowles continued to chair committees of the RHS until a few weeks before his death in 1954. His ashes were scattered on the rock garden at Myddelton House. Bowles had no family of his own and the house and gardens passed to the University of LondonUniversity of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
. They are now owned and managed by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority is a statutory body that is responsible for managing and developing the long, Lee Valley Regional Park. The park was established by Parliament in 1967. The headquarters of the authority are based at Myddleton House, Bulls Cross in the London Borough of Enfield,...
. The bulk of Bowles' correspondence is held by the RHS's Lindley Library. A charity, known as the E.A. Bowles of Myddelton House Society, seeks to maintain interest in both the man and his work and, since the fiftieth anniversary of his death in 2004, has sponsored a biennial studentship in his name in conjunction with the RHS. At its first annual general meeting in 1993, Andrew Parker-Bowles was elected president of the society, with Frances Perry (who died in October 1993) and Elizabeth Parker-Jervis as vice-presidents.
Named varieties
Bowles gave his name to upwards of forty varieties of plant, and there are others that originated with him. For example, he named a hellebore 'Gerrard Parker' after a local art master, Crocus tommasinianus 'Bobbo' after the boy who first spotted it and RosmarinusRosmarinus
Rosmarinus is a small genus of woody, perennial herbs with fragrant evergreen needle-like leaves in the family Lamiaceae, native to the Mediterranean Basin.-Description:...
officinalis 'Miss Jessopp's Upright' (Miss Jessopp's Upright Rosemary) after a gardening neighbour, Euphemia Jessopp, for whom he also named the small white Crocus x jessoppiae in 1924. Erysimum 'Bowles' Mauve' was among "200 plants for 200 years" chosen by the RHS to mark its bicentenary in 2004. Other significant introductions included Viola 'Bowles' Black', cotton lavender 'Edward Bowles' (Santolina
Santolina
Santolina is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, native to the Mediterranean region. Between five and 24 species are accepted by different authorities....
pinnata subsp. neopolitana), and Bowles' golden sedge
Sedge
- Plants :* Acorus calamus, sweet flag, a plant in the Acoraceae family* Any of the plants in the family Cyperaceae- Animals :* A collective noun for several species of birds, including bitterns, cranes and herons* Sedge-fly, caddisfly- Other uses :...
(Carex stricta 'Aurea'), which he found on Wicken Fen
Wicken Fen
Wicken Fen is a wetland nature reserve situated near the village of Wicken, Cambridgeshire, England.It is one of Britain's oldest nature reserves, and was the first reserve acquired by the National Trust, in 1899. The reserve includes fenland, farmland, marsh, and reedbeds...
and has been described by another doyen of plantsmen, Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd (gardener)
Christopher Hamilton Lloyd, OBE was a British gardener and author. He was the 20th Century chronicler for the heavily planted, labour-intensive, country garden.-Life:...
, as "a plant to treasure, its colour changing in unexpected ways". Vita Sackville-West
Vita Sackville-West
The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...
cited the yellow and brown Crocus chrysanthus 'E.A. Bowles' as among the first bulbs to flower in her garden at Sissinghurst
Sissinghurst
Sissinghurst is a small village in the county of Kent in England. Originally called Milkhouse Street , Sissinghurst changed its name in the 1850s, possibly to avoid association with the smuggling and cockfighting activities of the Hawkhurst Gang.The nearest railway station is at...
in January or early February, while, in the nuttery there, Bowles' golden grass (Milium effusum 'Aureum') is interspersed in spring with wood anemone
Anemone
Anemone , is a genus of about 120 species of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae in the north and south temperate zones...
s and white bluebells
Common Bluebell
Hyacinthoides non-scripta, commonly known as the common bluebell, is a spring-flowering bulbous perennial plant. -Taxonomy:...
.
Some plants bearing Bowles' name have been introduced since his death. An example is Phlomis
Phlomis
Phlomis is a genus of about 100 species of herbaceous plants, subshrubs and shrubs in the family Lamiaceae, native from the Mediterranean region east across central Asia to China. Common names include Jerusalem Sage and Lampwick Plant....
'Edward Bowles', launched by Hiller
Harold Hillier
Sir Harold George Hillier was an English horticulturist.In 1921 he joined the family firm, Hillier Nurseries, his early career spent in assisting his father in rebuilding stocks depleted by World War I...
Nursuries in 1967, which apparently derives from seeds from Myddelton. In February 2011 a single bulb
Bulb
A bulb is a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf bases. The leaves often function as food storage organs during dormancy.A bulb's leaf bases, known as scales, generally do not support leaves, but contain food reserves to enable the plant to survive adverse conditions. At the center of the bulb is...
of the snowdrop G. p. 'E A Bowles', discovered at Myddelton in 2002, was sold on the internet auction site eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
for a record price of £357.