Ellen Ann Willmott (19 August 1858 – 27 September 1934) was an English

horticulturist Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

. She was an influential member 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 ...

, and a recipient of the first

Victoria Medal of Honour The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society. The award was established in 1897 "in per ...

, awarded to British horticulturists living in the UK by the society, in 1897. Willmott was said to have cultivated more than 100,000 species and cultivars of plants and sponsored expeditions to discover new species. Inherited wealth allowed Willmott to buy large gardens in France and Italy to add to the garden at her home,

Warley Place Warley Place is a nature reserve south of Brentwood in Great Warley, Essex. It is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust and the former garden structures are Grade II listed. The now demolished house was home to renowned horticulturalist Ellen Wil ...

in Essex. More than 60 plants have been named after her or her home, Warley Place.

Early life

Ellen Willmott was born on 19 August 1858 in

Heston Heston is a suburban area and part of the Hounslow district in the London Borough of Hounslow. The residential settlement covers a slightly smaller area than its predecessor farming village, 10.8 miles (17.4 km) west south-west of Charing C ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, the eldest of three daughters of Frederick Willmott (1825–1892), a solicitor, and Ellen Willmott (née Fell) ( 1898). Through her mother she was related to the Tasker family, prominent Roman Catholics. She and her two sisters, Rose and Ada ( 1872), attended the exclusive Catholic convent school Gumley House for several years. In 1875, the family moved to Warley Place at

Great Warley Great Warley (also known as Warley Abbess, Warley Magna, Warley Wallet or West Warley) is a village located south of Brentwood, Essex, England. Great Warley was formerly a parish, but today comes under the Warley ward in the Borough of Brentwood ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, which had of grounds; this was to be Ellen's lifelong home. The family were keen gardeners and developed Warley Place's gardens together. One of the most ambitious developments was an alpine garden, including a

gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

and

rockery A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small ...

, which Ellen's father gave her permission to create on her 21st birthday. Willmott received a substantial inheritance from her godmother, another keen gardener, Countess Helen Tasker of Middleton Hall, Brentwood, who died in 1888. This enabled her to buy her first property near

Aix-les-Bains Aix-les-Bains (, ; ; ), known locally and simply as Aix, is a Communes of France, commune in the southeastern French Departments of France, department of Savoie.

Horticultural career

Willmott inherited Warley Place on her father's death and continued to develop the gardens, indulging her passion for collecting and cultivating plants. She is thought to have cultivated more than 100,000 different plant species and cultivars. The garden included a conservatory, glasshouses, an irrigation system, a rock garden partly designed as an alpine gorge, a boating lake and a glass-covered cave for

filmy Filmy is an Indian Hindi-language movie channel based in Mumbai, Maharashtra Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capita ...

ferns. Willmott had tens of thousands of bulbs planted to form naturalistic drifts of blossom when they flowered. Willmott employed up to 104 gardeners, and was known for being a demanding employer; she would reputedly sack any gardener who allowed a weed to grow among her flowers. She only employed men in her garden; she was once quoted as saying "women would be a disaster in the border". Rosa willmottiae 3

Willmott was also known for being a prodigious spender. In 1905 she bought a third estate in

Ventimiglia Ventimiglia (; , ; ; ) is a resort town in the province of Imperia, Liguria, northern Italy. It is located west of Genoa, and from the French-Italian border, on the Gulf of Genoa, having a small harbour at the mouth of the Roia river, w ...

, Italy. Willmott used her wealth to fund plant-hunting expeditions to China and the Middle East, and species discovered on these excursions would often be named after her. The expeditions she sponsored included those of

Ernest Henry Wilson Ernest Henry "Chinese" Wilson (15 February 1876 – 15 October 1930), better known as E. H. Wilson, was a British plant collector and explorer who introduced a large range of about 2,000 Asian plant species to the Western culture, West; some si ...

, who named '' Ceratostigma willmottianum'', '' Rosa willmottiae'' and '' Corylopsis willmottiae'' after her. Over fifty plant species or varieties were named for her and her gardens. It has been claimed that she secretly sowed seeds of the giant prickly thistle '' Eryngium giganteum'' in other people's gardens, leading to it to be colloquially known as 'Miss Willmott's Ghost': this story first appeared in the 1980s and has been debunked, most recently in a 2022 book by Sandra Lawrence. Willmott joined the Royal Horticultural Society in 1894 and became a prominent member, elected to the narcissus and tulip committee in 1896, as well as floral (group B) and

lily ''Lilium'' ( ) is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large and often prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are ...

committees. She helped to persuade Sir

Thomas Hanbury Sir Thomas Hanbury (21 June 18329 March 1907) was an English businessman, gardener and philanthropist. He built the Giardini Botanici Hanbury, or Hanbury botanical gardens, at Mortola Inferiore, between Ventimiglia and Menton, on the coast of ...

, her neighbour at Ventimiglia, to purchase the site at Wisley which became the RHS Garden, Wisley and donate it to the society, and was appointed a trustee of the RHS Gardens in 1903. Willmott was one of only two women, alongside

Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British Horticulture, horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United Sta ...

, to receive the

in 1897 (newly instituted that year for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee). In 1904 she became one of the first women to be elected a fellow of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...

. She also received the grande médaille Geoffroi St Hilaire from the Société d’acclimatation de France in 1912, and the Dean Hole medal from the

Royal National Rose Society The Royal National Rose Society (RNRS) (1876–2017) was a specialist horticultural organization in the United Kingdom dedicated to the cultivation and appreciation of roses. Founded in 1876 as the "National Rose Society", it was the world's ol ...

in 1914. In the 1920s, Willmott was commissioned by the

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) is an independent registered educational charity based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, that came into existence in 1847 following the purchase of William Shakespeare's birthplace for preser ...

to advise on garden design and planting at

Anne Hathaway's cottage Anne Hathaway's Cottage is a twelve-roomed former farmhouse where Anne Hathaway (wife of Shakespeare), Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare, lived as a child. It is situated in Shottery about west of Stratford-upon-Avon town centre. ...

garden at

Stratford upon Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-west o ...

. Her designs for the flower garden and orchard were intended to complement the old buildings, and much of her layout and plant choices are in place today, including the three flower beds near the cottage entrance, named Miss Willmott's garden. Many of the plants chosen were mentioned in Shakespeare's plays. This combination created borders that were colourful throughout the year. She published two books; ''Warley Garden in Spring and Summer'' in 1909 and ''The Genus Rosa'', published in two volumes between 1910 and 1914. This included 132 watercolours of roses painted by Alfred Parsons between 1890 and 1908, which are now held by the Lindley Library in London (Cory Bequest). The book only sold 260 copies, leaving her in debt. Willmott also commissioned Parsons to paint her three gardens. Queen Mary,

Queen Alexandra Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was List of British royal consorts, queen-consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 Januar ...

(to whom ''The Genus Rosa'' was dedicated) and Princess Victoria are known to have visited her at Warley Place. In 1914 she initiated a bitter public spat with the horticulturalist E.A. Bowles about some observations on rock gardens made by

Reginald Farrer Reginald John Farrer (17 February 1880 – 17 October 1920), was a traveller and plant collector. He published a number of books, although is best known for ''My Rock Garden''. He travelled to Asia in search of a variety of plants, many of wh ...

in his foreword to one of Bowles' books. Bowles eventually patched up the row by inviting Willmott to his garden at Myddelton House.

Other interests

In addition to her career in horticulture, Willmott also had other, lesser known accomplishments in particular photography and ornamental turning. In 1932, Willmott presented her Holtzapffel lathe, some examples of her ornamental turning work, and a number of photographs and slides of horticultural subjects to the History of Science Museum, Oxford.

Later life

Willmott's prodigious spending during her lifetime caused financial difficulties in later life, forcing her to sell her French and Italian properties, and eventually her personal possessions. She became increasingly eccentric and paranoid: she

booby-trap A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or an animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap may b ...

ped her estate to deter thieves, and carried a revolver in her handbag. Willmott was arrested on suspicion of shoplifting in 1928, although later acquitted. Willmott died of

atheroma An atheroma, or atheromatous plaque, is an abnormal accumulation of material in the tunica intima, inner layer of an arterial wall. The material consists of mostly macrophage, macrophage cells, or debris, containing lipids, calcium and a variabl ...

and

embolus An embolus (; : emboli; from the Greek ἔμβολος "wedge", "plug") is an unattached mass that travels through the circulatory system, bloodstream and is capable of creating blockages. When an embolus Vascular occlusion, occludes a blood vess ...

of the

coronary artery The coronary arteries are the arterial blood vessels of coronary circulation, which transport oxygenated blood to the heart muscle. The heart requires a continuous supply of oxygen to function and survive, much like any other tissue or organ of ...

in 1934, aged 76. Warley Place, which had greatly deteriorated, was sold to pay her debts and the house was demolished in 1939, although plans to develop a housing estate on the site were rejected. It was later designated as a

green belt A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wilderness, wild, or agricultural landscape, land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts ...

and became a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

overseen by the Essex Wildlife Trust. The remainder is in the care of the Warley Place Management Committee and maintained as an abandoned garden.

References

External links

Biography site
* Anne de Courcy
"Gardening’s bad girl: the genius – and malice – of Ellen Willmott"
''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'', 7 May 2022. Review of ''Miss Willmott's Ghosts: A Forgotten Genius and Her Gardens'' by Sandra Lawrence. {{DEFAULTSORT:Willmott, Ellen 1858 births 1934 deaths English expatriates in Italy English gardeners Fellows of the Linnean Society of London People from Heston Victoria Medal of Honour recipients People from the Borough of Brentwood