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THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Very few nurserymen then specialized in herbaceous plants,
but a certain number of old plants occasionally found their way
to Prothero and Morris' Sale Rooms. Mrs. Berkeley was as
keen to recover the old plants that were to be found as was her
mother, and she begged to be allowed to attend the sales with
her governess. There are still at the Cheapside Sale Rooms
some of the old hands who remember her sitting at the table
keenly awaiting her chance to buy any unusual herbaceous plants
which might be offered.
Growing up in such favourable surroundings and under the
influence of such a keen gardener as Mrs. Willmott, it was small
wonder that the eager little plant-lover should have developed
into an accomplished gardener and a good botanist.
As a child her greatest joy was to slip away after lessons
to the garden, where no gardening jobs came amiss, from catch-
ing slugs and caterpillars to collecting seeds.
The herbaceous borders at Warley Place, as they are now,
are largely due to her efforts. She had always a keen sense of
proportion, and a rare taste in effective grouping. The lessons
learnt at Warley stood her in good stead when she came to make
the thousand yards of herbaceous borders at Spetchley into
the finest in the whole country. But she had previously had
her own Essex garden, for the first years of her married life were
spent at Warley Lea. The land lent itself to skilful treatment,
and the flower garden she made there soon became remarkable
for its beauty and charm. It was here she commenced to cross-
fertilise primroses, a work which was to give the garden primrose
a new and wonderful development. Its aim was a right combina-
tion of colour, size and form, with robust constitution. In many
instances development in hardy plants has led to monstrosity,
deformity or coarseness, but Mrs. Berkeley never lost sight of
the prime importance of refinement, and her work of 25 years
upon the primrose has produced results that entirely satisfy
the most fastidious taste, for the perfection attained is of the
foremost yet reached in any race of hardy plants.
Although Essex rightly claims the beginning of this excellent
work we must yield to Worcestershire its full achievement, as
well as the fame of the wonderful gardens she made at Spetchley,
where the beautiful setting, fine trees, and ideal climate, all lent
themselves to her magic touch. No description could do justice