John Grimshaw came to Colesbourne in February 2003 as Gardens Adviser, with the task of restoring the gardens to their former state of interest. He has a degree in Botany from Oxford University, and was awarded his doctorate from Oxford for a thesis on the ecology of the Afromontane forest of Mt. Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, where he lived for several years studying the forest and its elephants. Before coming to Colesbourne he was Research and Development Manager for the seed company K. Sahin, Zaden B.V. in the Netherlands.A lifelong plantsman, he has been gardening for over 30 years, and has travelled widely to see plants growing wild. He has very wide tastes, but special interests are African plants, ferns, alpines and bulbs, particularly Arisaema, Crocus, Galanthus, Narcissus and Lilium. John was introduced to snowdrops by the galanthophiles Primrose Warburg and Richard Nutt. With Matt Bishop and Aaron Davis he is co-author of the monograph Snowdrops published by the Griffin Press in 2002, so is well-qualified to look after the collection here at Colesbourne. His first book was The Gardener's Atlas (1998) on the origins of garden plants, and he has contributed to many other books and journals. His blog, John Grimshaw’s Garden Diary, is updated regularly.
From 2004-2009 he was occupied with his most significant book project to date, New Trees, Recent Introductions to Cultivation, with co-author Ross Bayton, published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in May 2009. It describes and discusses 850 species of trees introduced to cultivation in the past 40 years. He is currently deeply involved with the Royal Horticultural Society’s review of the Award of Garden Merit.
Dr Grimshaw is available to speak on a range of horticultural topics, but not in January or February.
With thanks to Andrew Lawson for permission to use the portrait of Dr. John Grimshaw.