Myrtus: Difference between revisions

In England it was reintroduced in the 16th century, traditionally with the return from Spain in 1585 of [[Sir Walter Raleigh]], who also brought with him the first [[orange tree]]s seen in England.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} ''Myrtus communis'' will have needed similar protection from winter cold and wet. Alice Coats<ref>Coats (1964) 1992.</ref> notes an earlier testimony: in 1562, [[Queen Elizabeth I]]'s great minister [[William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley|Lord Burghley]] wrote to Mr Windebank in Paris to ask him for a lemon, a pomegranate and a myrtle, with instructions for their culture—which suggests that the myrtle, like the others, was not yet familiar.

By 1597, [[John Gerard]] lists six varieties being grown in southern England,<ref>Gerard, ''The Herball'', 1597.</ref> and by 1640 [[John Parkinson (botanist)|John Parkinson]] noted a double-flowering one. Alice Coats suggests that this was the very same double that the diarist and gardener [[John Evelyn]] noted "was first discovered by the incomparable [[Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc]], which a mule had cropt from a wild shrub."

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, myrtles in cases, pots and tubs were brought out to summer in the garden and wintered with other tender greens in an [[orangery]]. Fairchild, ''The City Gardener'' (1722) notes their temporary use, rented from a nurseryman annually to fill an empty fireplace in the warm months.