Hay and I went with my younger daughter to Sherston on Saturday and visited a local nursery, where I was extremely surprised at the low cost of the plants. I was so impressed that I bought a wisteria (which I've always wanted to grow against the house) and a climbing rose (for the other end of the house).
While there I spotted some bags of compost containing a John Innes mix. Now I always thought John Innes was a horticulturalist from the 1950s, but he was born in 1829 and his father owned a number of sugar plantations in the Indies, which made his father a slave owner. Surprisingly, his father became an abolitionist and ended up selling off his West Indian investments and ploughing his money into property development, an occupation John Innes continued with great success, developing Merton Park in London.
When Innes died in 1904, never having married, he left a bequest in his considerable will to set up a horticultural institute, which took his name. He himself had an extensive house and garden in Merton, which became the foundation of his institute, moving to Norfolk in the 1960s and becoming the John Innes Centre.
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