November 2025 talk: The Great Geranium Robbery

It was a pleasure to welcome back Dr David Marsh, garden historian, academic and former trustee of The Gardens Trust. The intriguing title of his talk was ‘The Great Geranium Robbery’, about an Old Bailey trial in 1795 following the theft of numerous expensive plants…

The scene:

Daniel Grimwood’s Nursery (formerly The Kensington Nursery) in West Kensington.

The context:

In the 18th century, the combination of world events, the growth of the British Empire and the rise of plant hunters led to an enormous influx of exotic plants to nurseries in the UK. In direct but (usually) friendly competition with each other, nurseries built up enormous stock lists of rare and newly introduced plants, and began to advertise in increasingly inventive and eye-catching ways. Dr Marsh showed us some exquisite examples of this development, moving from long lists of plant names to catalogues with illustrated plates and eventually to Robert Furber’s extraordinary (and expensive!) marketing ploy of ‘Twelve Months of Flowers’ in 1730 and ‘Twelve Months of Fruit’ in 1732 – labelled illustrations of a cornucopia for each month of the year. Furber’s nursery was later taken on by Daniel Grimwood.

The crime:

In August 1794, Daniel Grimwood Jnr. noticed many missing plants from the nursery greenhouses, with empty pots and piles of soil left behind. This was not the first time plants had gone missing. A search warrant was sought from the local magistrate.

The suspect:

An artist and plant lover, Charles Fairchild, was found to have many of the missing species in his own garden and glasshouse.
Were they the same plants? Fairchild said no.

The trial:

Numerous witnesses were called, from Grimwood gardeners to rival nurseryman James Colville. Views differed as to whether specific individual plants could be reliably identified in different places and after time had elapsed.

The verdict:

All the evidence having been presented, Dr Marsh asked we CABAHS members to deliberate on the evidence and announce our verdict. It was not unanimous, but the majority voted GUILTY.

Was Fairchild found guilty? I won’t disclose that here, but it led to further discussion and more interesting contextual information from Dr Marsh. You can read the full details in two posts on his own Garden History blog: The Great Geranium Robbery Part 1 and Part 2.

Many thanks to Dr Marsh for his fascinating insights into the world of horticulture, and horticultural crime in the 18th century !

Ali H