Comments
from Mr. PGC: Throughout
history, many people have made lasting contributions to the
world of plants. In these pages, we hope to pay tribute to
some of them. Our concentration will be primarily on those
who have introduced plants to the gardening world, those who
have helped spread the word about gardening and those who
have made significant contributions to landscaping and
landscaping design around the world.
This list will be constantly growing as we add
new names. If you have someone who you think should be on
the list, please send us an
Email.
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Soulange-Bodin, Étienne
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Soulie, Jean Andre
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Sprenger,
Carl Ludwig
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Spruce, Richard
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Steele, Fletcher
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Steller, Georg Wilhelm
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Stern,
Sir Frederick
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Stokes, Dr.
Jonathan
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Stuart, John
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Swain, Roger
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Richard Spruce |
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Sachs was a Professor of Botany at Wurzburg who transformed the study of
plant physiology. Some say he was possibly the greatest of all plant
experimenters. He was credited as the founder of the experimental
approach to plant physiology as well as being the inventor of
devices for quantitative analysis of plant processes.

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English poet, novelist and journalist who from 1930, with her
husband Sir Harold Nicolson, transformed the
neglected garden and
buildings at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent.
She
was daughter of the 3rd Baron Sackville, owner of the Knole estate,
once the largest house in England.
Plants associated with her
name include Populus balsamifera 'Vita Sackville-West'.

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He
was the founder (1872) and director of the Arnold Arboretum
at Harvard University near Boston, Massachusetts. A plant
explorer, he first identified
Malus toringo subsp.
sargentii and
Prunus sargentii
on trips to Asia.
Plants named in his honor include
Cedrus libani 'Sargentii',
Viburnum sargentii
and
Chaenomeles japonica 'Sargentii'.

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Bob Savory introduced many cultivars of
hosta. Perhaps the best known is Hosta
'Golden Tiara' which was the foundation
plant for a
whole series of hostas. Another of
his introductions, H. 'Baby Bunting' has
also spawned a
group of wonderful cultivars. H.
'Lemon Lime' also falls into that
"Classic" category.

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In
1991, W. George Schmid published his landmark book, The Genus
Hosta (Timber Press, Inc., ISBN-10: 1604690488
ISBN-13: 978-1604690484) which made a number of changes in
the way hostas are categorized including moving plants previously
thought of as species into the cultivar category. Before that time, there had been
quite a bit of confusion and disagreement on the taxonomy of the
genus.

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Some people call Dr. Alex Shigo the "Father of Modern
Arboriculture." He has spent his career studying, dissecting,
lecturing and writing about trees. He has a Ph.D. in plant
pathology from the University of West Virginia and started work
with the U.S. Forestry Service in the early 1950's. He
eventually became the organizations chief scientist and has
lectured extensively around the world.
His books
include "A New Tree Biology", "Modern Arboriculture", "Tree
Pruning", and "100 Tree Myths."

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A
Bavarian who went to Japan in 1823 as a doctor at the Dutch
trading post of Deshima. With Zuccarini he published Flora
Japonica in 1833. He documented his collections at the
Leiden
Botanic Garden in Holland, where a Japanese Garden in his
memory may be found.
Plants introduced or named for Siebold include Acanthopanax
sieboldiana, Alnus sieboldiana, Aralia sieboldii,
Berberis
sieboldii,
Castanopsis sieboldii,
Calanthe sieboldii,
Clematis florida var sieboldiana, Corylus sieboldiana,
Dryopteris sieboldii, Fraxinus sieboldiana,
Hosta sieboldiana,
Hosta sieboldii, Hylotelephium sieboldii, Fatsia japonica,
Juglans sieboldiana, Wisteria floribunda, Lilium speciosum,
Hydrangea paniculata, Magnolia sieboldii, Malus floribunda,
Primula sieboldii, Rubus sieboldii, Salix sieboldiana, Sambucus
sieboldiana, Sedum sieboldii, Tsuga sieboldii, Viburnum
sieboldii and Spiraea thumbergii.

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English plantsman and
gardener at Hillier Nurseries and later at his own nursery
in Dorset. He was also noted for
introducing several cultivars of
hellebores,
hostas and
bergenias.
The specific epithet, ericsmithii,
was named for him. Among the plants named for him include
Helleborus x ericsmithii, Bergenia 'Eric Smith',
Crocus tommasinianus 'Eric Smith', Hosta 'Eric
Smith' and Hosta 'Eric Smith Gold' .

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A Swede from the University of Uppsala and a pupil of Linnaeus
accompanied Sir Joseph Banks on Captain James Cook's first
expedition in the Endeavour (1768-71). His name traversii
has been given to a number of plant names.

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A Zen priest and probably the most important figure in Japanese
medieval garden design. His work marked the real watershed between
the traditional and Pure-Land forms of gardens and the later
gardens that developed under the influence of Zen and the tea
ceremony. His gardens include the pond and waterfall at Tentyuji
(Kyoto), the small garden at Toji-in (Kyoto) and the moss gardens
at Saiho-ji (Kyoto).

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French
horticulturist who was once a cavalry officer in the service
of Napoleon. The specific epithet, soulangeanus, was
named for him. In about 1820, he hybridized the
magnolia, Magnolia x soulangiana.

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This French
botanist and plant explorer was a colleague of the botanist,
Father Jean Marie Delavay. He collected hundreds of new
plants to send back to Europe but eventually was taken
prisoner in Tibet, tortured and shot.
Plants he is
credited with introducing to Europe include Buddleja
davidii, Cynoglossum amabile, and Rhododendron
tatsiense. Aster souliei, Rhododendron souliei
and Primula souliei are named in his honor.

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German nurseryman
working in Vomero, Italy near Naples.
The specific
epithet, sprengeri was named for him. Common plants
with that name include Tulipa sprengeri, Magnolia
sprengeri and Malus x zumi 'Professor Sprenger'.

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Richard Spruce was born at Ganthorpe in North Yorkshire in
1817. When he was 19 he published A List of Flora of the Malton
District naming 485 species. In his early twenties he was
invited to go to the Pyrenees to study plant life. He returned
with a specimen of every known plant growing there and 73 which
had never been found there before, 17 of which were unknown.
In
1848 he went to the Amazon and spent 15 years collecting flowers,
plants and mosses. The hardship he suffered in the jungle nearly
killed him. He listed over 700 species, collecting 500 of them
himself of which 400 were new to botanists.
He returned to his
native countryside and died at Coneysthorpe, North Yorkshire, in
1893. His grave lies in the village churchyard at Terrington.

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He was one of the more recent influential landscape
architects. Although from New York City, he dealt with design for
suburban residential gardens in his first book Design for the
Small Garden, as well as in several subsequent books. He was
especially well known for his criticism of the ubiquitous front
lawn in American home landscapes and was a proponent of creating
privacy in the garden.
One of his most famous landscapes, Naumkeag in Stockbridge,
Massachusetts, incorporated his use of various levels in the
garden and ways to use the garden as an outdoor living space. With
the decreasing need during this century for the functional
elements of the garden (vegetable and fruit gardens and utility
buildings, for instance) during a period of increasing
consumerism, he described the garden as an extension of the house,
a "machine for living in."

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He was a German botanist who explored
remote parts of Russia in the 1730s.
Plants associated with him include
Stellera, Artemisia stelleriana and Allium
stellerianum.
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Plantsman, author and
creator of the garden at Highdown near Worthing, Sussex, UK.
The specific epithets, sternianus and sternii, are named for
him.

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English botanical author
for whom the genus,
Stokesia, was named.

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He was the Third Earl of
Bute and one time British Prime Minister. Although spelled
differently, the genus,
Stewartia, was named for him.

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Known as "The Man in the Red Suspenders," Roger was the host of
"The
Victory
Garden" on PBS for 15 years through the 1990's. He then
became co-host of HGTV's People,
Places & Plants.
He was born and
raised near Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard
College. Later, he earned a Ph.D, in entomology before becoming
science editor of Horticulture magazine in 1978 through
2008. He has
authored several books including: Earthly Pleasures, Field
Days, The Practical Gardener, Saving Graces, and
Groundwork.

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