Ellen Willmott has been in my mind lately as I see the architectural wintery silhouettes of the dead (yet still stunningly beautiful) Eryngium giganteum. Yet who is she, you may ask? Well, Miss Willmott (1858-1934) is an absolute gardening icon who I gain a lot of inspiration from and whose gardening journey I find to be crammed full of passion, impulsiveness, humour and tragedy.

She came from a gardening family so to speak, and inherited a vast fortune on the death her parents and godmother. Her passion for her 3 large gardens (two of which were in France) was such that she spent all the inheritance money on them.

She could always be found in her garden hard at work whether that be in the meadow, orchard kitchen and formal gardens, vineries and glasshouses. She inherited Warley Place in 1898 and employed more than 100 gardeners!! The gardeners often found Willmott, (whom they described as having an ‘innate love of flowers’) in the garden with trug and trowel, planting or weeding when they arrived at 6am.

Her garden designs were very ambitious and she won a host of awards. By the outbreak of war in 1914 she was bankrupt and upon her death Warley was sold and the mansion demolished. The derelict garden is now owned by the Essex Wildlife Trust.

Ellen Willmott is remembered by many for her habit of scattering Ergngium giganteum seeds. It is often referred to as ‘Miss Willmott’s ghost’ for its ghostly silvery appearance and because it would pop up in gardens she had visited.

She was a knowledgeable plantsperson and botanist and described by the renowned Gertrude Jekyll as ‘the greatest of living women-gardeners,’  aka, absolute gardening legend.

This quote by Miss Willmott truly encapsulates her overflowing passion for her life’s work,

‘My plants and my gardens come before anything in life for me, and all my time is given up to working in one garden or another, and when it is too dark to see the plants themselves, I read or write about them.’ 

Perhaps next time you see Eryngium giganteum growing, you will remember this post, and think of Ellen Willmott and her passion for her gardens, for nature and for life, and hopefully in some small way this will inspire and uplift you.