Lawrence Johnston
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Major Lawrence Johnston (1871-1958) was an American-born British soldier and garden creator.
Johnston was born in Paris, France, into a family of wealthy Baltimore stockbrokers. He went to England to study at Cambridge University. Soon after his graduation, he became a naturalised Englishman. He joined the army and fought both in the Second Boer War and in World War I.
He travelled extensively and was interested in the arts. Johnston is remembered today for the garden he created: Hidcote Manor Garden, now in the care of the National Trust. He and his mother, Gertrude Winthrop, bought Hidcote Manor in 1907, and he started a programme of 40 years’ work on the garden. An enthusiastic plant collector, he sponsored and undertook several expeditions in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America to bring back rare specimens.
After bequeathing his estate to the National Trust, Johnston moved to France in 1948, and was working on another garden at Serre de la Madone, Menton, at the time of his death in 1958.
A rose — the bright yellow semi-double climber "Lawrence Johnston" — bears his name.
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