Reginald Farrer

Reginald John Farrer
Born	17 February 1880 Marylebone, London
Died	17 October 1920 (aged 40) Min Mountains, China
Occupation	Gardener, writer, plant collector
Nationality	English
Period	1904–1921

Reginald John Farrer (17 February 1880 – 17 October 1920), was a traveller and plant collector. He published a number of books, although is best known for My Rock Garden. He travelled to Asia in search of a variety of plants, many of which he brought back to England and planted near his home village of Clapham, North Yorkshire.

Farrer was born in Marylebone, London into a well-to-do family who resided in Clapham, North Yorkshire, England. Due to a speech defect, because of numerous operations on a cleft palate, he was educated at home. This developed in him a passionate and lifelong enthusiasm for high places and the mountain plants that grow in them. By 10 years of age he was a well-qualified field botanist with a "fair knowledge of plant anatomy." At 14 years he made his first rock garden in an abandoned quarry.

He entered Oxford University at 17 years of age and graduated in 1902, during his time there he helped make the rock garden at St John's. In 1902 Farrer embarked on the first of his expeditions to Eastern Asia, visiting China, Korea and, particularly Japan. He was there for eight months and influenced by Japanese gardening tastes and traditions, he developed his characteristically strong views on rock garden design, 'where naturalism superseded formal artificiality, and where alpine plants were to grow in surroundings which, though ordered by man, copied as far as possible their original habitats'. These travels resulted in The Garden of Asia (1904).

Returning to England he attempted to become a novelist and poet but these publications were only mediocre. He eventually realised that his talents lay in gardening. In 1907 he published My Rock Garden, which was a very popular and influential book and was kept continuously in print for more than 40 years. His next publications were Alpines and Bog Plants (1908), In a Yorkshire Garden (1909) and Among the Hills (1910). In 1913 he published The Dolomites: King Laurin's Garden, which deals with plant hunting in the Italian Dolomites. In 1913 he wrote The English Rock-Garden: Volumes 1 and 2 (1918), which was very popular with at least 4 impressions, although it was not published until later.

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