Darwin and his research into plants and how plants grow, and why they do the
things they do, they kind of underpin so much of plant science
I came here with a knowledge of the really quite obscure small experiments that
he did in the glasshouse, experiments that he did in his house, but it was the
bigger picture, The Beagle voyage, The Origin of Species itself. They were the
kind of things that I had to pick up on.
He had all of the questions formulated when he was on The Beagle voyage, but
he had to answer them somewhere. So the local landscape around, the wider
estate, the garden, helped him answer those questions and present his findings
to the rest of the world.
Even as an elderly man, into his 70's, he was developing the site for science all
the way to the end really.
We often get asked questions like, you know, what would Darwin think of this?
it's a charming, private, personal place that they had. Its not this, kind of,
overbearing stately home, it's a very comfortable place to be.
There's a feeling of responsibility because, you know, gardens are these dynamic
things. They're not, its not a museum where you can just get everything just right
and perfectly correct once and then it stays forever like that, you know, the
garden's changing constantly. So making sure that the structure of the garden
isn't lost, that the garden's kept in scale, that the views aren't lost across the
landscape where there should be views.
One thing I really like about the garden is the variety. So there's always scope to
add that little bit more to present things in a slightly more authentic way. The
flexibility of the garden really comes from Emma Darwin's choice in plants,
because though Charles Darwin would want particular things planted and he
would have his experiments set out in the garden he didn't get involved
practically in the ornamental areas.
There are a few times in the year when we have everything prepared nicely in
the garden and it looks as close to as it did lived in. That's really magical, that's
like 'wow' this is the whole complete package.
