Frances Mary Perry MBE VMH (19 February 1907 – 11 October 1993) was an English gardener, administrator, writer and broadcaster.

Biography

She was born Frances Everett in Enfield,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

, where she lived most of her life at

Bulls Cross Bulls Cross is a road and hamlet in Enfield, England, on the outskirts of north London, forming part of the Metropolitan Green Belt. Although it now lies within the ceremonial county of Greater London, prior to 1965 it was in the historic ...

. She was educated at

Enfield County School Enfield County is a girls' comprehensive school which was once created as Enfield Chace School in 1967, following the amalgamation of Enfield County School, which had been a girls' grammar school, with Chace Girls School, a secondary modern sch ...

and

Swanley Horticultural College Swanley Horticultural College, founded in , was a college of horticulture in Hextable, Kent, England. It originally took only male students but by 1894 the majority of students were female and it became a women-only institution in 1903. Early his ...

(now

Wye College bio sciences -> social sciences -> business school Pictures of OLT, Old Hall,Cloister, Parlour --> The College of St Gregory and St Martin at Wye, commonly known as Wye College, was an education and research institution in the village of Wy ...

, part of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degre ...

). Her mother took her as a child to the

Chelsea Flower Show The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the ''Great Spring Show'',Phil Clayton, ''The Great Temple Show'' in ''The Garden'' 2008, p.452, The Royal Horticultural Society is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural ...

. Her next-door neighbour, E. A. Bowles, Vice-Chairman of the Council 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 (No ...

(RHS), guided her interest in plants and in 1927 recommended her to Amos Perry, a local plant nurseryman. She worked in Perry's Hardy Plant Farm, soon managing his water-plant department and helping with exhibits at the Chelsea Flower Show. She married Perry's son Gerald, (d.1964) an expert on ferns and water plants. Through her work with Amos Perry she became knowledgeable about hardy

perennials A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

and is known particularly for her writings about them. From 1943 to 1953, she was horticultural adviser to

Middlesex County Council Middlesex County Council was the principal local government body in the administrative county of Middlesex from 1889 to 1965. The county council was created by the Local Government Act 1888, which also removed the most populous part of the coun ...

and later principal organiser for agricultural and horticultural education in

. In 1953 she was appointed Principal of Norwood Hall College for adult education, a post she occupied until 1967. In 1960, she sat on the Royal Commission on allotments. In 1968 she became the first woman council member of the RHS. The absence of women on the council had been fiercely debated in the letters column of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'' and in an editorial article. When Frances Perry was nominated she responded, "If you want me because I am a woman, the answer is no, but if you want me because of anything I have done in horticulture, the answer is yes."''The Times'', 13 October 1993 She became a vice-president of the Society in 1978. In the 1960s, she became a champion of Capel Manor horticultural college near her home in Enfield and she continued to support it until her death She contributed a gardening column to ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...

'' newspaper for over twenty years. She was a contributor to the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

radio programme ''Home Grown'', presented by Roy Hay and Fred Streeter in the two o'clock slot on Sunday afternoon later to be occupied by '' Gardener's Question Time'', and she was one of the first TV gardening personalities. On retirement from Norwood Hall she remained active in horticultural research. She visited over seventy countries, often in the company of Roy Hay (1910–1989), a long-standing gardening colleague, whom she married in 1977. One of her last major journeys was made at the age of 84, when she toured botanical gardens in Germany. After the death of Roy Hay, Frances Perry left Enfield to live with her son in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

Honours and awards

Frances Perry received many honours for her work: * MBE – 1962 * RHS's

Veitch Memorial Medal The Veitch Memorial Medal is an international prize issued annually by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Goal The prize is awarded to "persons of any nationality who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement o ...

in gold – awarded in 1964 *

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 ...

– received in 1971, the RHS's highest honour *Sara Frances Chapman Medal – received in 1973 from the

Garden Club of America The Garden Club of America is a nonprofit organization made up of around 18,000 club members and 200 local garden clubs around the United States. Founded in 1913, by Elizabeth Price Martin and Ernestine Abercrombie Goodman, it promotes the record ...

*Hall of Fame Award from the International Water Lily Society

Bibliography

Books by Frances Perry *''Herbaceous Borders'' (1949) *''Colour in the Garden'' (1951) *''The Woman Gardener'' (1955) *''Collins Guide to Border Plants'' (1957) *''Flowering Bulbs, Corms and Tubers'' (1966) *''Flowers of the World'' (in association with the RHS) (1972) *''Beautiful Leaved Plants'' *''Tropical and Sub-tropical Plants'' (with Roy Hay) *''The Water Garden'' *''The Good Gardener's Guide'' *''The Garden Pool'' *''Gardening in Colour'' (1972) *''Complete Book of House Plants and Indoor Gardening'' *''Beautiful Leaved Plants'' *''The Observer Book of Gardening'' *''The Complete Book of Gardening (with Michael Wright, John E. Elsley and Lizzie Boyd) *''Macdonald Encyclopaedia of Plants and Flowers'' *''Grown for Their Leaves'' *''Beautiful Leaved Plants'' (1979) *''Cacti And Succulents'' (1979) *''Australian Sketches'' (1984)

References

*Fred Whitsey, "Frances Perry – A Memoir", ''The Garden'', January 1994, pp. 10–11
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perry, Frances 1907 births 1993 deaths English gardeners English garden writers Women horticulturists and gardeners Veitch Memorial Medal recipients Victoria Medal of Honour (Horticulture) recipients Members of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Wye College People from Enfield, London English botanists 20th-century British botanists 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers