What a pleasure to come upon this quiet garden novel published in 1950. It was re-issued in 2002 as part of the Random House Modern Library Garden Series. Michael Pollan, the series editor, explains his raison d’etre for the series.
“I’m thinking of the power of plants to change us in mind and body, the gratuitous beauty of a flower, the moral lessons of the pest, the ancient language of landscape design, and the endlessly engrossing ways that cultivating a garden attaches a body to the earth.”
The moral lessons of the pest? That’s a mouthful of food for thought.
Think of Old Herbaceous as Downton Abby from the point of view of the formidable head gardener at a great manor in an English village. The story of Herbert Pinnegar begins at the end of the Victorian Age and spans 70 years to post World War II. All the changes those years brought about are seen through the eyes of this kindly curmudgeon. He starts out as a foundling with uneven legs who has the good luck to be mentored by a wise teacher who schools him in growing things. He enters the annual flower show competition and wins with his artistic collection of wildflowers. This catches the eye of the lady of the manor who hires him as a garden boy, saving him from becoming a farm boy as was expected. He rises slowly to head gardener and acquires Lady Charteris’ lifelong affection along with the nickname “old herbaceous.”
Not a lot happens in this novel except a lot of changes in the world of gardening. In war years Pinnegar watches his flowers dug up and replaced with potatoes and the manor’s beautiful iron fencing melted down for the war effort. The enormous body of laborers needed in the Victorian age is no longer needed and no longer available. Some estates are demolished because of high inheritance taxes and others fall into disrepair.
From the beginning of his employment as a shy fourteen year old, Pinnegar was always on the lookout to please his lady. He devised a foolproof way to coax strawberries into April fruiting, earning her praise. As a little girl she loved morning glories. Traveling on the French Riviera she spotted this tropical dawn flower.
“It rioted over everything, as though someone had torn great masses out of a morning sky. It was so blue, so blue that it positively hurt. She felt that her heart was being drowned in loveliness, and she could scarcely breathe.”
Mrs. Charteris told Pinnegar of the fabulous sight she couldn’t forget. Secretly he wrote to the Curator of Kew Gardens. He received a reply that it was the lovely Ipomea Leari. A few seeds were kindly enclosed. Of course Pinneger managed to grow them under glass and surprise his lady one morning after her early cup of tea.
Over the years the owner of the garden and the head gardener had their ups and downs. When Mrs. Charteris pushed to be mistress of her own garden she had to deal with Pinnegar who felt he knew better.
“There is something about a garden that brings out a fiercely competitive streak in the best of us. All our triumphs, to be really satisfying, must stem from our own individual efforts; and we look with a cold eye upon innovations for which we are not personally responsible. Even a suggestion, however tactfully introduced, is not always taken in good part. “Alone I did it,” is the motto of all really keen gardeners.”
After their long years of sharing the planning and tending of the British great house garden, Mrs. Charteris’ fondness for Pinnegar is truly authentic. Will she think to provide for him after her time as matron of the estate is over? What will happen to “old herbaceous” in his twilight years is the most riveting part of the story.
Field Guide to Garden-Friendly Fiction 