Garden Plants - Forsythia

Forsythia

William Forsyth (1737-1804) - was born in Aberdeenshire. He was invited to London and later became gardener to the company of apothecaries, at their physic garden in Chelsea. He became responsible for starting an international seed and plant exchange.

In 1779 he was appointed by George III as chief superintendent of the royal gardens at Kensington and St James's. He made a particular study of the diseases of trees and created a mixture to treat wounds caused by cankerous growths. During the Napoleonic Wars there was concern about defective oak timbers and as his remedies were found to be beneficial, he was awarded a naval payment of gratitude. He also built Britain's first rock garden, at the Chelsea physic garden, using forty tons of old stone from the Tower of London! And he helped to found the Royal Horticultural Society. Quite a guy, one way or the other.

He wasn't a man of total probity though - that famous Forsyth Plaister for which the government paid him the princely sum of fifteen hundred pounds? Well it turned out to be simply cow dung, wood ash and sand mixed with soap. He was challenged by another botanist who said no tree with canker could have been cured by this method but Forsyth himself died before the case could be tested. To be fair to him, it may just be that his treatment, which involved cutting out damaged areas before applying the probably pongy poultice, was enough to stop the damage - as excising the diseased area was probably much more efficient than what was applied afterwards.

He is best remembered now for the family of plants known as Forsythia.

Garden Forsythia photograph by danteclaus, used under a creative commons attribution licence