Earthly Joys & Virgin Earth

Earthly Joys (1998) & Virgin Earth (1999)
By Philippa Gregory

‘Tis the gardening season and these two fiction books tell the story of the Tradescant family, gardeners to royalty during the 1600s in England. Earthly Joys takes place during the reign of James I and is a story of the times as well as the story of how plants and trees were discovered, acquired, and propagated. Tulips were a hot commodity to be traded and killed for. John Tradescant is a gardening pioneer who travels the world in search of the unusual. This is also the story of the beginning of Cabinets of Curiosities. John would also acquire other unusual items which were then displayed in cabinets in his employer’s drawing room.

In Virgin Earth, John Tradescant the Younger continues his father’s quest for the new and unusual. As gardener to Charles I, his travels take him to the Royalist colony of Virginia where he encounters the native people and learns about Native American plants. The gardens he creates back in England are the outstanding gardens of the age.

I enjoyed these books and wanted to share them with our patrons. They inspired me to do some research of my own. First, I wanted to find out more about the Tradescant family and found a book called The John Tradescants: Gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen by Prudence Leith-Ross. Second was my interest in the history of the tulip and I found the following book, The Tulip.

- Pat