More snippets from Spring 2019

Magdalen College Fritillaries

I saw a programme years ago about the water meadows of Magdalen College and half remembered it this April 2019 which is when the native snakes head fritillaries flower. I didn’t do much research so approached it from either side of the streams surrounding the college so I didn’t have to pay the £7 entrance. In fact I can tell you from bitter experience that Magdalen College is better fortified than a lot of castles because it is impossible to get to the water meadow without shinning up a drainpipe like a drunken undergraduate of yesteryear or getting impossibly wet. First, I crossed the bridge on the right hand side of the college as you approach it from the front and ended up in a park full of drunks and shady drug dealers. Despite this being the middle of the day I had to quickly retreat to prevent myself being relieved of my valuables. On the other side was an even more dodgy looking overgrown cemetery which looked the perfect spot for some gay camping. I have to say I can’t remember seeing so many undesirable characters in such a short space of time… maybe they pray on the Hooray Henrys and Cynthias after their first big nights in Oxford.

Eventually I arrived at the front desk and paid my admission fee whilst gently sweating. However, it was well worth it. Not only are the Great Hall, cloisters and chapel exceptionally beautiful but the grounds were immaculate. But the best bit was the water meadow which was chock full of fritillaries. There are so many that have self-sown that even from far away it did take my breath away. At the far end of the meadow you can sit and admire them from a bench with the backdrop of the spire of Magdalen College behind it- a remnant of Charles Ryder’s city of aquatint. As a side note to this the fellow’s garden is also a delight- full of spring flowers such as anemones, cow parsley and bluebells. Naturalistic planting is so much more conducive to free thinking in my humble opinion and the fellows of Magdalen College seem to agree!

Plant names-why do we need to know them?

My editor Katie Isbester asked me to come on her podcast for local businesses in Clapham. One of the questions she asked me was why we need to know the names of plants. I was flummoxed and outraged for a moment. Having spent so much time and effort learning the names of plants it had never occurred to me to ask the basic question of why it was so important to me as a gardener to have all this information.

It seems to me that there are two reasons- firstly we need to know the Linnaean Latin name so that we can identify and classify each plant in order to understand its uses and dangers to us as well as determining the best way to cultivate it in case it is commercially profitable. Secondly, as Richard Mabey argued based on the poetry of John Clare the common name gives us a romantic attachment to the plant such as in his description of the “wan-hued lady smocks that love to spring”. John Clare’s story is one of a true romantic. He walked some 90 miles from the asylum in which he was interred ,in Epping forest, to visit his childhood sweetheart in his beloved fenlands. He is quoted as saying  ‘I miss the heath, its yellow furze, molehills and rabbit tracks that lead through besom ling and teasel burrs that spread a wilderness indeed.’

 Robin Lane Fox echoed this sentiment in his book ‘Thoughtful gardening’ where he asked a student what the yellow flowers in the fellows garden outside his study were to which the student ( “with a career in high finance stamped all over her”) replied abruptly ‘I can see the same flowers as you I just don’t know their names!’. He seemed justifiably hurt by this outburst against the primrose which is perhaps the most charming of true wild flowers to have survived the industrialization of agriculture so bemoaned by John Clare.