Kate Harwood will introduce us to a German prince with a passion for gardening and his search for an English heiress

Prince Pickle – or Fürst Hermann von Pückler-Muskau to give him his full title – was a Prussian nobleman whose great passion was gardening. He transformed his estate in Muskau and did the same again at Branitz. He also laid out landscapes for the Prussian royal family and others. He travelled round Europe looking at parks and gardens and was very influenced by Humphry Repton, visiting many of his sites here in England. His influence spread across the Atlantic andlandscape architect, Charles Eliot called him the greatest landscape designer of the 19th century. Having spent all his money on improving Muskau he thought the only way to restore his fortune was to marry an heiress – plenty in England so that’s where he went – having first divorced his wife. However, the heiresses were either not rich enough or their families put a stop to proceedings, and he came home without the fortune. One suspects that the prospect of having a menage-a-trois at Muskau with his ex-wife was also not appealing. He turned to book writing and travelled in north Africa. He eventually had to sell Muskau and retire to modest Brantiz – where he began gardening all over again. This talk looks at his gardens, his adventures in Europe and Africa and his surprising legacy.

Kate Harwood has taught Garden History at Birkbeck, University of London. She is now a writer, lecturer, researcher and campaigner on historic gardens and is Conservation & Planning officer for Hertfordshire Gardens Trust.

Picture credits: Babelsberg Rosary by Kate Harwood