A Brief History of Oxford Botanic Garden

Founded in 1621 by Sir Henry Danvers, the first Earl of Danby, it was established as a Physic Garden. 
Physic gardens are collections of medicinal plants. Many botanic gardens developed from them.

The Danby Gate, at the entrance to the Botanic Garden, was completed in 1632.

At the top of the Gate sits the bust of Sir Henry Danvers. In 2018, Danby Gate underwent some conservation work, restoring it to its former glory.   

Bobart the Elder (c1599-1680) was appointed first Superintendent of Oxford Physic Garden. Bobart was an eccentric. Besides running the Garden, he owned a pub on Oxford High Street, called the Greyhound, was accompanied by a goat, and placed pieces of silver in his beard on days of celebration.

The year in which Bobart was appointed Superintendent was also the year in which the English Civil War commenced. However planting of the Garden continued throughout this period. 

In this year the first scientific list of the Garden’s plants was published. Entitled ‘Catalogus plantarum horti medici Oxoniensis’. It was published anonymously but is generally attributed to Jacob Bobart the Elder. 

Ostensibly it served as a compendium of the 1369 plants grown in the Botanic Garden at the time, with species described by both Latin names and colloquial (local) names. Today it provides an historic reference for the plant collection established by Bobart in the early years of the Garden.
 
Care has been taken to include representatives of Bobart’s original plant collection to show the plants that were first cultivated in at the Botanic Garden.

Scottish botanist Robert Morison was appointed the first Professor of Botany in 1660. In 1669 he began a project, Historia Plantarum Universalis Oxoniensis, to classify all the plants then known.  

In 1679 Bobart’s son Bobart the Younger (1641-1719) was made Superintendent of the Garden. Bobart the Younger worked at the Botanic Garden for the duration of his career, first working for his father and then as the Superintendent himself. Bobart had a life-long friendship with English diplomat William Sherard (1659-1728) and together they shared an enthusiasm for herbaria (dried plant collections).
Bobart’s herbaria comprised the founding collection of the ‘Oxford University Herbaria’, which today contain over a million plant specimens.

William Sherard (1659-1728) leaves a legacy to endow a professorial chair of botany at Oxford University. This professorship still exists and is known as the Sherardian Professor of Botany.

Two conservatories designed by William Townsend (c.1676-1739) were constructed. This allowed the Garden to grow ‘about 900 exotics in pots’, including coffee, tea, cotton, sugarcane and pineapples.
Glasshouses were expensive to run and they consumed approximately 40 percent of the Garden’s budget between 1735 and 1754.

Johann Jacob Dillenius (1684-1747), a German botanist, became the first Sherardian Professor of Botany at the University of Oxford.

Dillenius wrote and illustrated Hortus Elthamensis, published in 1732. This flora described the exotic plants cultivated by the apothecary James Sherard (1666-1738). Reproductions of the illustrations from this flora can be seen printed on the walls of the Garden’s Herbarium Room.

In 1736 there was an important historic visit to the Garden by the ‘Father of Taxonomy’, Carl Linnaeus. Carl Linnaeus was an important Swedish botanist noted for his work on taxonomy (the science of classifying living organisms). 

The first pineapple was grown.
 
Pineapples were once a symbol of status and wealth. Homegrown pineapples presented on banqueting tables were perceived to be a mark of social and intellectual distinction.

Charles Daubeny was appointed Professor of Botany.
Upon appointment he renamed the Oxford Physicke Garden to the ‘Oxford Botanic Garden’.

Daubeny had a close professional relationship with botanist William Baxtor (who was appointed Curator of the Garden in 1813) and together they redesigned the Garden, creating planting schemes to make the Garden appealing to the public.

The glasshouses were built in the location they occupy today. The pond in the Water Lily House is the original structure that was custom-built to cultivate the giant Amazonian water lily (Victoria amazonica), which is still grown at the Garden today along with its relative V. cruziana. 

This was an important period for plant sciences at Oxford. The Department of Botany was established at the Garden, along with the Taxonomic Beds and Charles Daubeny oversaw the introduction of a new lecture theatre, now known as the Daubeny Lecture Theatre. The room later became the Daubeny Laboratory, before reverting back to a lecture theatre.

The first female gardeners were employed by the Botanic Garden during the 1940s.

During the same decade the Lower Garden was annexed and in 1949, the dawn redwood, (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) raised from one of the original seed collections following the tree’s discovery in 1941, was planted in the Walled Garden.

The glasshouses were rebuilt. These are the glasshouses that exist in the Garden today.

The ‘Friends of the Botanic Garden and Arboretum’ were established. In 2006 the Friends supported the purchase of Palmer’s Leys, dramatically expanding the footprint of Harcourt Arboretum. 

The Oxford Florilegium Society was established. The Oxford Florilegium produce botanical illustrations for archival purposes, documenting the living collections at the Garden and Arboretum, providing Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum with an invaluable resource for the future.​

The cunning smile of the Cheshire Cat appeared in our Literary Woodland in the form of a sculpture by Julian Warren, inspired by Lewis Caroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’.

Will and Lyra’s bench from Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ is located in the Lower Garden, by the Water Garden. In 2019 a sculpture by Julian Warren was placed behind the bench. The sculpture features the Dæmon of Will and Lyra as well as Philip Pullman’s very own Dæmon, the raven.

In February 2018, Storm Ciara swept across the UK causing national disruption. Formerly standing tall, two thirds of the yew fell victim to the storm. Devastating though this may seem, yews have an incredible ability to rejuvenate, and the tree is anticipated to make a full recovery.
The longevity of yews is owed in part to their ability to regenerate. Dying or dead wood may look disconcerting, however collapsing branches are able to take root self-propagate. This can make it very difficult to age a yew accurately, however thanks to old records we know the exact year this particular yew was planted.
 
Bobart’s yew is still a youngster and doubtless will recover to endure many storms in the future.

25 July 2021 marks the 400th anniversary of Oxford Botanic Garden and four centuries of botany in Oxford.