Marnock’s Plantation

Horticulture

29 May

Marnock planted and maintained a 70-acre arboretum in Leighton Buzzard for philanthropist John Dollins Bassett from the mid-1840s. The site was not the grounds of a mansion, but - in Bassett’s words - an ‘arboricultural Arcadia’ intended to make amends for the destruction caused by industrialisation. The highlight of the planting was a range of hundreds of fine conifers, including deodars, pines, firs, spruce, monkey puzzles and redwoods.

Although the site of Bassett’s Plantation has since been developed, many specimens remain among the housing and golf course, and several glades in between, as shown by these photographs from May 2023 by Paul Rabbitts.

Featured

Marnock-Themed Plant Tour

Chris Beevers of the Yorkshire Gardens Trust reports on a guided tour of plants used by Marnock.

Plant Histories 3

Tracing the story of how one of the conifers planted by Marnock came into cultivation in Britain.

Marnock’s Plantation

Many thanks to Paul Rabbitts for these photos of conifers planted by Marnock in Leighton Buzzard over 150 years ago.

Plant Histories 2

Marnock used many exotic horticultural species in his designs. Garden historian Jill Sinclair traces the history of one of them.

Marnock in Canada

Marnock researcher Kay Keeton has alerted us to a Canadian garden that is a copy of a lost Marnock design.

Plant Histories

Students Hannah Baber and Robert Curtis, both at the University of Sheffield, have been researching the history of plants that Marnock used in Sheffield Botanical Gardens.