Wandering Willies

Yesterday a friend told me of a visit she’d made to the London Garden Museum, where she’d been surprised to see carvings of the father and son, John Tradescant, after whom our plant Tradescantia was named. Later that day a book I was reading referred to people travelling widely to seek new plants as Tradescants, which inspired me to seek further information.

Wandering Willie/Tradescantia

I have tradescantia growing in a corner of my garden, where it hides under winter irises and a climbing rose. Originally from South America it was once grown as an ornamental garden plant, but sale in garden centres in Aotearoa is now banned, because of its invasive nature.

The London Garden Museum is housed in the medieval church of St Mary at Lambeth, and was set up to save this abandoned church and knot garden where the two John Trandescants were buried. The elder was gardener to Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, later succeeded in this role by his son, and in the seventeenth century they each travelled widely, visiting three of the four known continents, to seek new plants. Trandescantia, named in their honour by Swedish botanist Linnaeus, was introduced to England in 1629 from the American colonies, and the blue and white flowered versions were grown in the Oxford Botanic Garden from at least 1648.

I presume the carvings my friend saw at the museum may have been part of the family tomb erected by Hester, the widow of the younger John.

The English climate may be chilly
not so benign for Wandering Willie