Garden Plants - Gardenia

Alexander Garden was born near Aberdeen and travelled to the American 'colonies' in the early 1750s. Settling in Charles Town, he was a physician and a planter, a plantation owner. His plantation, Yeshoe, grew indigo and produced dye for export to England. Besides this, Garden was a naturalist. He knew the countryside and collected plants and animals for scientific scrutiny. Anyone wishing to explore the Carolinas stopped by Yeshoe Plantation to confer with Garden. Over the years, he made friends with biologists William Bartram and John Ellis supplying them with directions, advice, and plants.

So in 1761, when John Ellis received a specimen of a remarkable new plant from China, he named it for his friend Dr. Garden - this was the Cape jasmine or gardenia with its unforgettable fragrance. Of course, the Chinese had long appreciated the gardenia; they have cultivated it for more than 1,000 years.

However, about the same period, the colonists became dissatisfied with King George III. After the Revolutionary War, Alexander Garden left his family, his Gardenia plants and the Carolinas he loved so well. He died in London in 1791.

The plant took Europe and the Americas by storm - rather as the Revolutionary War had! The famous jazz singer, Billie Holiday, wore gardenias in her hair. She followed an elegant fashion of the period; gardenia flowers graced the bodices of chic gowns and floated in exotic cocktails, and - nestled in cellophane-windowed boxes - the ivory flowers were expensive gifts from hopeful suitors or penitent lovers. Today, when women do not wear or carry flowers except at weddings, we've lost the pleasure of having the glorious scent of gardenias at every formal gathering, but isn't it nice to think that when we do, we have Dr Garden to thank?

Garden Gardenia photograph by aussiegall, used under a creative commons attribution licence