Who's Miss Wilmott?

Ever wonder where the names of plants come from? I’d like to know who Miss Wilmott is. She must have made a huge impression on a number of hybridizers. There’s a sweet pea, potentilla, scabiosa, and a campanula named after her. There’s even an erygium named after her ghost. These are only the plants I’ve found…. I’m sure there’s more I haven’t come across yet. Who is this Miss Willmot anyway? Anyone know?

Ellen Wilmott was a rich headstrong British gardener.Her own garden-Warley Place was very impressive.At its peak she employed 104 uniformed gardeners to tend to it.
She felt she knew best about everyone else's garden-so she took to scattering seeds about when she visited gardens.
Sea holly was one of her favorites & she scattered its seeds freely.It appeared so often in her aftermath that it was later named after her.

Thank you christmascactus! I knew there had to be a story behind her. Did she hybridize plants? I wonder how many other 'Miss Wilmott' hybrids there are out there.

Potentilla :-)

Thanks for posting that question Sue, I have wondered that myself, and thanks for the answer christmascactus!!

The history of plant names is fascinating. Sue, thanks for posting the question! (Now, if being headstrong gardener is all it takes to get plants named after you, I should be leaving a wake about a mile wide behind me :)

HA! It cracked me up to see a write up about Miss Wilmott in this months "Country Gardens" magazine. What are the chances of that?

It says says that her passion for plants consumed her fortune and she died a "penniless mistress of a derelict wilderness". Phew!!... I thought I was a plant addict! It's a good thing I'm not rich.

Wasn't she also a close friend of Gertrude Jeckyl, the renowned British gardener?

Poppysue,did it have any pictures of her gardens in it?
They must have been something to see.
I think she also,had gardens in France & Italy.

What a gal' Such an inspiration to many of us'

Just to elaborate just a little on the Eryngium "Miss Wilmott's Ghost"....she did love that plant and thought it was underused..so scattered the seeds in other people's garden on the sly....they didn't know she had been there until the plant bloomed the next season....hence the ghost reference. I love that story...thanks for reminding me. Dee

Just for Poppysue, who I thought would enjoy this :) We had two Hardy Plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides) entries in the Plants Database (I personally created the duplicate - gasp!)

Well, lo and behold, in my search for another species so I could modify my entry, I came across another member of this genus called, you guessed it: Ceratostigma willmottianum, named after Miss Ellen Ann Wilmott herself. My entry is now here: http://davesgarden.com/plants/go/886.html

And - as always - if anyone has a photo or more info to add, please feel free!

I guess she certainly made her mark!

And here's another one: Syringa vulgaris 'Ellen Wilmott' http://www.colorwithplants.com/ts/ts_lilacs-white.asp

There's also a Darwin tulip named for her, although I haven't found a picture yet.

And a hybrid tea rose.

And Crocus chrysanthus 'Warley' is named for her gardens, Warley Place.

And an Epimedium x warleyense 'Ellen Willmott'

And...that's all I found :)

ChristmasCactus - That article didn't have any pictures of her gardens. Too bad. I found this site with a directory of famous gardeners. Of course she's listed in here - http://www.sisley.co.uk/gardners.htm

Just for PoppySue. (When I saw this article, it set bells to ringing in my brain, and I vaguely remembered this thread): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/main.jhtml?xml=/gardening/2003/04/19/ggerm19.xml

I think it answers the question of how many (and which) plants are named for Miss Willmott.

Ha! Good article :) I wonder what she booby-trapped her daffy feilds with?