Lee and Kennedy

Lee and Kennedy were two families of prominent Scottish nurserymen in partnership for three generations at the Vineyard Nursery in Hammersmith, west of London. "For many years," wrote John Claudius Loudon in 1854, "this nursery was deservedly considered the first in the world."

Lewis Kennedy (b. Dumfries, c.1721–1782) was gardener to Lord Wilmington at Chiswick, and had a nursery called "The Vineyard" at Hammersmith. At the beginning of the 18th century, according to Loudon, the vineyard formerly at this site produced annually "a considerable quantity of Burgundy wine."

In about 1745, Kennedy formed a partnership with James Lee (b. Selkirk, 1715–1795). Lee was a gardener who had apprenticed with Philip Miller at the Chelsea Physic Garden. He became gardener to the 7th Duke of Somerset at the nearby Syon House, and to Lord Islay, later the third Duke of Argyll, at Whitton Park. The Duke of Argyll, an enthusiastic gardener who imported large numbers of exotic species of plants and trees for his estate, "continued [Lee's] education and gave him the free use of his library."

Many tropical and sub-tropical plants for British greenhouses and hothouses were first introduced to commerce by Lee and Kennedy. The first China rose was imported by Lee and Kennedy, in 1787, and the next year the first fuchsia, as Fuchsia coccinea now known as F. magellanica, which Loudon remembered they had sold at first for a guinea a plant. In 1807 they introduced the dahlia to public cultivation. In 1818 they introduced the French idea of roses grown as standards.

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