Billie Crain: Miss Willmott's Ghost I

Macro color photograph of Miss Willmott's Ghost, a white sea holly.

About Miss Willmott

Ellen Willmott (1858-1934) was an independently wealthy British amateur horticulturist who had several plants named after her, including a white double flowering lilac and a pale, pink edged rose. The best known plant that bears her name, however, is a biennial sea holly, eryngium gigantium, known as 'Miss Willmott's Ghost.' Apparently Miss Willmott enjoyed sprinkling the seeds of this particular plant about -- in effect, leaving her "ghosts" to appear in the gardens of her friends and acquaintences long after she had departed those places. These plants were also said to match her 'prickly' personality.

She began gardening at her home at Waverly Place at seventeen years of age. In her later years, the never married Miss Willmott became a bit eccentric and cantankerous. She bought properties in Italy and France and continued creating gardens. At one time she had one hundred gardeners on her payroll. She was arrested for shoplifting (the charges were eventually dropped), carried a revolver in her purse and booby trapped her daffodils to thwart bulb thieves.

When she died penniless in 1934, the garden which once held over 100,000 species of expertly culitvated plants from the world over, was sold to pay her debts.

I've grown this plant in my moongarden for several years. Even though it's a biennial, it's a prolific reseeder. The plant at maturity is approximately 2-3 (or more) feet tall with multiple stems erupting from the main stem, each bearing a 2-3 inch wide set of bracts surrounding umbels of florets similar to thistles.

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Tag #:	11222	Quantity Available:	1	Price:	$225.00
On Display:	Yes	Size:	25" x 20"	Framed:	Yes
Signed:	Yes	Number:		Series:
Medium:	Photography

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