The National Botanic Gardens of Burma
David Marsh
- Region:
- Anywhere
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Professional/academic/Hobby/Rotary/sometimes charity
- Fee:
- Paid: 100 online , more for travelling depending on distance etc
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 30th January 2023
- Tagged:
- Gardens | Horticulture | Burma | Great British Eccentrics
Sounds a bit obscure doesn’t it? But the story of the foundation and then the slow decline of the botanic gardens at PyinOoLwin in the hills above Mandalay is both fascinating, and a moving commentary on Burma’s isolation in the world.
They were established by a small group of colonial plant lovers almost as a private initiative and flourished despite all the odds. Constructed by convicts, soldiers and an army of Burmese labourers the gardens were planned & laid out under the supervision by Charlotte, Lady Cuffe, an Irish botanist of great distinction, helped by an eccentric solicitor & a Scots forester who were backed by the wonderfully named governor of Burma, Sir Spencer Harcourt Butler.
The gardens fell into decline in the 1930s and suffered badly during the war and then Burma’s increasing isolation under military regimes. Nowadays they have been “privatized” and being revitalized, although very much as a commercial proposition rather than a true botanic garden.
The talk features many original photographs from family collections and even a short video interview with the daughter of one of the founders, as well as lots of stories about British eccentrics and their love of gardens.
Views: 272 | Enquiries: 0About David Marsh
I've been lecturing "live" and on-line about every aspect of the history of gardens, landscapes, as well as plant hunting /plants/botany for more than 25 years to gardens clubs, U3A groups, and to museums like the V&A & across higher education. I discovered the subject because after a career as a head teacher I took very early retirement and went back into education full time on my own account. I did a four year diploma course in Garden History which led on to an MA in Historical Research and then a PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London on The Gardens and Gardeners of Later Stuart London.
I was a trustee of The Gardens Trust, the national campaigning body for the protection and support of our historic parks, gardens and designed landscapes and chaired their education committee from 2016 until 2023. I also write a weekly blog for them which you can find at thegardenstrust.blog
I've run courses on the history of gardens [and many other things] at Birkbeck and City Lit. I'm currently an honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham and run a Masters Course in Garden History as well as offering supervision to PhD students.
If all that sounds posh - rest assured I'm not!
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by David Marsh
- The Little Men in Red Hats
- Castles for Cows & Palaces for Poultry
- What Made Your Garden Grow?
- The Joys [and Problems!] of Making a Garden in France
- The History of the London Square
- Plants on Paper: A Potted History of Botanical Art
- The Opposite of Chelsea: The Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire
- Humphry Repton: Britain’s First Landscape Gardener
- Tools of the Trade
- Puzzle Pictures
- The Elephant in the Garden
- The History of the Cottage Garden
- The Tradescants
- The palaces of Tudor London and their gardens...and their beasts!
- The Great Geranium Robbery
- An Introduction to Tudor and Stuart Gardens
- The Loudons
- The Picturesque
- Moorfields: The Story of London's First Public Park
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