Series 2 Ep 6 Monkey Puzzle Offshoot
On the left of this image you can see a figure in a top hat - it is head gardener Philip Frost, in front of the Dropmore Monkey Puzzle tree
David Gedye describes this photograph as ‘his inheritance’. It was left to him by his grandmother and in it you see his great great grandfather - Philip Frost. He is standing beside the Dropmore Monkey Puzzle tree which, in the 19th century, was the most famous tree of its kind in the UK; it was written about, photographed and painted. Queen Victoria visited it. Yet this photograph was just the beginning of David’s journey to unravel over many, many years a rather special family story about this tree.
The first time he heard the story he was just 10 years old, looking at a Monkey Puzzle tree, at home in Scotland with his mum. Seeing his interest in the tree she told him that his great great grandfather - Philip Frost, had been the first person in the country to grow a Monkey Puzzle tree from seed which he carried around in a tin, in his waistcoat pocket. David’s 10 year old self took it as fact, as you would at that age.
The next clues to the story came from his grandmother who, when David told her he was going to study Agricultural Botany, told him that his great great grandfather had been the head gardener on a large estate called Dropmore which was built by Lord and Lady Grenville in 1795. It’s near Windsor Castle. She also told him she had photographs - which became his inheritance and set him on his path to look for his grandfather’s trees.
This story has been a part of David’s life for 68 years. He has searched in archives, unearthing documents and poring over old books and magazines. Sometimes the trail has gone cold for a number of years and then suddenly there’s another lead and an opportunity to find another piece of the puzzle. The story also follows the fate of the Dropmore Estate, over that same period and it’s a story of neglect, development and finally restoration. David wrote and self-published a book about the Monkey Puzzle, giving all the profits to a charity’s reforestation project in Chile. The book sold out but luckily for us he shares his extraordinary story in this podcast episode.
Some key dates
Philip Frost 1804 - 1887
He began working as a trainee gardener at Dropmore in 1822, left in 1826, was summoned back as foreman of the frame ground in 1827, left in 1828, was summoned back as head gardener in 1832, a post he held until his death in 1887.
He was photographed beside his two most famous trees, the Monkey Puzzle and the Douglas Fir in 1872.
The Dropmore Monkey Puzzle tree is planted in 1830 and dies in 1903, cut down in 1905.
What was so special about this Monkey Puzzle tree? Well as David says if you look at the photograph you will see that it had held all its branches, all the way down to the ground: that was what made the tree so famous. In the picture he thinks the tree is about 60 feet tall, when it finally died it was 78 feet tall! The tree appeared in numerous books and magazines: “basically if you were writing a book that had a section on the Monkey Puzzle, the tree you wanted to illustrate the section was the Dropmore Monkey Puzzle that my great great grandfather was photographed beside.”
David has a pictorial record of this tree plus notes about its growth written by his great great grandfather - Philip Frost.
The picture below shows Philip Frost with the Douglas Fir tree that he did grow from seed for his boss Lord Grenville. This was from the very first batch of seed sent back by David Douglas to the Horticultural Society (now the Royal Horticultural Society) in 1826 and in 1827 this Victorian head gardener did successfully grow 3 Douglas Fir trees.
But what of the other Monkey Puzzle tree photograph that was part of David’s inheritance? In 2019 David found a book called the Coniferous Trees of Dropmore written around 1865, by Philip Frost, documenting the trees on the estate. “He described tree no 17 as being given to Lord Grenville by his Majesty King William 4 from Kew Gardens and planted near the Douglas Fir by the Walk. And that description, described perfectly my photograph. So I now knew I had inherited a photograph of a Monkey Puzzle tree that had come from Kew given by King William IV in 1830 so the tree had to be an original tree bought over by Menzies in 1795.” The first time these trees arrived in the country.
The King William tree at Dropmore
I said at the beginning of the episode that there are many stories about the Monkey Puzzle tree and as you can imagine David has come across most of them. So there will be a short bonus episode with David which looks at the myths and stories about this tree; how it came to be here, it’s name and the way it spread to gardens across the UK. I have loved making these 3 episodes about the Monkey Puzzle tree; a Plant Story, this Offshoot and the Bonus and meeting people both so knowledgeable and passionate about this extraordinary tree.