The man behind the name
We look at the life and work of botanist and horticulturist Peter Collinson (1694-1768)
THE collinsonia, a yellow-flowered hardy perennial, is not grown today. The Royal Horticultural Society’s Dictionary of Gardening says that it is ‘of little beauty’ – yet the man after whom it was named, Peter Collinson, was responsible for introducing 116 new species of plants to this country.
Most of the plants came from eastern North America and include the cucumber tree (Magnolia acuminata), the umbrella tree (M. tripetala) and the calico bush (Kalmia latifolia), once described as probably the most beautiful shrub to be obtained from that region.
An interest in gardening
The man who found them was John Bartram, a Quaker like Peter Collinson and later King’s Botanist to George III. But it was Peter who made it possible for him to devote his life to collecting ornamental plants.
Peter was the son of a haberdasher in Gracechurch Street,
London, but was brought up by his grandparents in Peckham. The Quakers believed that natural history and botany should form a large part of the instruction of children – and he soon began to take an interest in gardening.
When he inherited his father’s business, he was carrying on a flourishing trade with the American colonies, but he was as interested in obtaining new plants from his customers as in receiving their orders.
His agent in Philadelphia put him in touch with John Bartram and a friendship developed between the two men across the Atlantic – for there is no record that they ever met. Peter paid John a retainer of £10 a year and he arranged for the sale of the plants he collected at £5 a box – then a large sum of money.
Peter continued to live at Peckham for some years, but soon the garden was too small for his collection. He was not wealthy so he married Mary