The sweet pea man - Graham Martin

Taking you on a journey through nineteenth-century British gardens, The Sweet Pea Man is a minutely researched biography of the Victorian plant hybridist Henry Eckford and his life as a breeder of the famous Grandiflora sweet peas.Born and brought up in Scotland, Henry started as a garden apprentice at Lord Lovat's Beaufort Castle. After working his way through the gardens of Penicuik House and Fingask Castle, he moved to England and bred pelargoniums and dahlias in the garden of the Earl of Radnor, for which he became famous and could then begin his lifework on the cross-breeding of sweet peas which he refined in Wem in Shropshire.Not only a biography of Henry Eckford, this book is filled with detailed, scientific descriptions of the fascinating world of plants.