Christopher "Christo" Hamilton Lloyd, OBE (2 March 1921 – 27 January 2006) was an English gardener and a gardening author of note, as the 20th-century chronicler for thickly planted, labour-intensive country gardening.

Life

Lloyd was born in Great Dixter, into an upper-middle-class family, the youngest of six children. In 1910, his father, Nathaniel Lloyd, an

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

architect, author, printer and designer of posters and other images for confectionery firms,), bought Great Dixter, a manor house in

Northiam Northiam is a village and civil parish in the Rother District, Rother district, in East Sussex, England, 13 miles (21 km) north of Hastings in the valley of the River Rother, East Sussex, River Rother. The A28 road to Ashford, Kent, Ashford ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

near the south coast of England.

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...

was hired to renovate and extend the house and advise on the structure of the garden. Nathaniel Lloyd loved gardens, designed some of this one himself, and passed that love on to his son. Lloyd learned the skills required of a gardener from his mother Daisy, who did the actual gardening and introduced him as a young boy to Gertrude Jekyll, who was a considerable influence on Lloyd, in particular with respect to "mixed borders". His mother Daisy, to whom he had remained close his entire life, died at Great Dixter on 9 June 1972, aged 91. After Wellesley House ( Broadstairs) and Rugby School, he attended

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, where he read modern languages before entering the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

during World War II. After the war he received his bachelors in Horticulture from Wye College,

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, in 1950. He stayed on there as an assistant lecturer in horticulture until 1954. In 1954, Lloyd moved home to Great Dixter and set up a nursery specialising in unusual plants. He regularly opened the house and gardens to the public. Lloyd did not do all of the gardening himself, but, like his parents, employed a staff of gardeners. In 1991, Fergus Garrett became his head gardener, and continued in that role after Lloyd's death. In 1979 Lloyd received the Victoria Medal of Honour, the highest award of the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

, for his promotion of gardening and his extensive work on their Floral Committee. In 1996, Lloyd was awarded an honorary doctorate from the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

. In 2000, he was appointed as an officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

. Today, the Garden is run by a trust under the direction of Fergus Garrett.

Family

Lloyd was a great-grandson of Edwin Wilkins Field, a law-reforming solicitor, and the great-uncle of Christopher Lloyd, the author of numerous non-fiction books, including the popular ''What on Earth? Happened from the Big Bang to the Present Day'' and a series of children's historical Wallbook titles.

Philosophy

Lloyd was firmly rooted in the Arts and Crafts style of garden. In most ways he was, like his mother and Gertrude Jekyll, a practical gardener. He said "I couldn't design a garden. I just go along and carp." Despite his extensive work with flowers, he had an appreciation for the garden as a whole. He also understood human nature. One professional gardener likes to quote Lloyd from his book ''Foliage Plants'' on how "it is an indisputable fact that appreciation of foliage comes at a later stage in our education, if it comes at all."

Works

Lloyd rapidly felt the need to share his gardening discoveries and published ''The Mixed Border'' in 1957, which was followed by ''Clematis'' in 1965, and ''The Well-Tempered Garden'' in 1970. Lloyd had begun a book on the use of exotic plants in British gardens when he died. This his gardening friends and colleagues completed as ''Exotic Planting for Adventurous Gardeners'' in 2007. In ''Meadows at Great Dixter and Beyond'', published in 2004, Lloyd explored the use of meadow land around his own house.

Notes and references

External links