Back when I was studying and then teaching and working as a landscape designer, I became very interested in historic gardens. When I was writing PRIDE AND PEMBERLEY, I researched restoring old houses and the renovation of listed properties, meaning those of historic interest, in England. But not only the houses are categorized as listed properties. Certain gardens are as well, and must be planted according to guidelines to keep them looking somewhat as they did in the past. That means a careful choice of plants.

This picture is of all the various flower colors of spiderwort, which hybridizes freely in my somewhat chaotic garden, and a plant that certainly would have been in the gardens of the upper classes during Jane Austen’s time. Its scientific name is Tradescantia virginiana, and it was brought to England by John Tradescant the Younger on one of his collecting trips to the Americas. Tradescant and his father were botanists and gardeners for King Charles the 1st.

Transporting plants from one place to another is now something we undertake with care, or we should, because non-native plants can overtake and smother out native plants in certain environments. Back in the 17th, 18th and 19th century people were mad for new plants from all over the world and I’m sure spiderwort’s lovely blue flowers were in great demand in England, even though it is not suitable as a cut flower. It closes later in the day and has a sap that can irritate some people’s skin.

It’s fun to speculate what plants would have been in the gardens of Roslings and Pemberley, two of the large estates mentioned in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. A piece of dialogue that has always stuck in my head and instantly shows a distinction between classes in Pride and Prejudice is Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s snide remark about the Bennet’s garden. “You have a very small park here,” returned Lady Catherine after a short silence.

“It is nothing in comparison of Rosings, my lady, I dare say; but I assure you it is much larger than Sir William Lucas’s.” (Mrs. Bennet’s reply to show their family ranks below Lady Catherine but above the Lucases in some ways.)

Ah, for the days when people could have live-in gardeners. At my house, that’s me and my husband. I wish I could pass out small spiderworts to everyone who wanted one, because I’ve got so many they are practically weeds in our yard. If you do get ahold of one, plant in either a partly shady or sunny area. The ones in the shade are leggier than those in sunny spots. They bloom here in Ohio from May through June, and then if you cut them back, watching out for the sap, they’ll put on new growth and rebloom in the fall.