The Amateur Gardener

The Amateur Gardener by A.G.L. Hellyer; 1st edition 1948; London: W.H.& L. Collingridge Limited

8vo; 15cm x 23cm; green cloth board; black and white illustrations; 806pp; damage to the top of front and back cover; mild wear to spine and board edges; slight foxing to edge of pages.

Arthur Hellyer was one of the great names in the gardening world. In his obituary in The Garden, Alan Titchmarsh wrote: ‘Anyone who knew Arthur Hellyer will tell you two things about him. First, that he was one of life’s gentlemen, and second that he had an all-round knowledge of gardening that few could rival…his articles continued to be enquiring and erudite to the end’.

In the Preface, Hellyer tells us when he first learned about gardening: ‘It was in 1915 or 1916 when I was no more than a small boy. My family, in common with tens of thousands of others, started to dig up the lawn and grow vegetables as our own small answer to the U-boat menace. We were endowed with  much enthusiasm and a complete lack of knowledge and I do not think our efforts were crowned with much success.’

After contracting TB at the age of 15, he was advised to work outside and so he began working on a tomato farm in Guernsey before moving to Jersey. And it was here that he fell in love with flowers. After his father died in 1921, he and his mother left the Channel Islands for Bristol where Hellyer found work in a nursery. After he was refused a pay rise by the owners, he left for another Bristol nursery where he became manager within a year.

In 1927, Hellyer had his first article published in Amateur Gardening, later becoming assistant editor and editor in 1946. He was also editor of the monthly magazine Gardening Illustrated.

He married Gay Bolt, a teacher and botanist, and together they built a house on 6 acres at Rowfont in Sussex.

Hellyer also wrote numerous books and countless articles for The Garden, the journal of RHS as well as features in Country Life, Homes and Gardens and a weekly column in The Financial Times.

After retirement, Hellyer and his wife travelled in a caravan visiting gardens in UK: ‘I expect we saw more gardens in those two years than most people see in their whole lives’. This led to Hellyer editing the Shell Guide to Gardens. The couple also travelled around the world.

Hellyer helped found the Hardy Plant Society and the Garden History Society.

In 1976, the RHS awarded him the Victoria Medal of Honour, its most prestigious award.