Strange Blooms

the long version

In seventeenth-century Britain, a new breed of 'curious' gardeners was pushing at the frontiers of knowledge and new plants were stealing into Europe from East and West. The man responsible for introducing many of these plants to Britain was John Tradescant. His fabulous collection became Britain's first public museum. Tradescant's only son (also John) was his apprentice. This work tells the Tradescants' story - as gardeners, as collectors and above all as exemplars of an age that began in wonder and ended with the dawning of science.