| Alan Bloom MBE |
|
|---|---|
| Born | 19 November 1906 Over, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Died | 31 March 2005 (aged 98) Bressingham, Norfolk, England |
| Occupation | Plantsman |
Alan Herbert Vauser Bloom (19 November 1906 – 31 March 2005) was a British Horticulturist and steam engine enthusiast. During his life he created over 170 new varieties of hardy perennial plants. These and Alpine plants were his specialities. He wrote some 30 books and appeared on radio and television. He was the founder of Bressingham Steam and Gardens.
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Alan Bloom was himself the son of a nurseryman. Aged fifteen he left school and learned his craft working in various nurseries. In 1926 aged twenty he started his own wholesale nursery business at Oakington. Four years later, Blooms Nurseries had become one of the largest English nurseries of its kind.[1]
During World War II he grew crops in the fens.
In 1946 he purchased Bressingham Hall and 228 acres (0.92 km2) of land at Bressingham. In 1948 he left this for Vancouver Island, leaving the Bressingham nursery in the hands of an agent but returned two years later.
Between 1950 and 1962 he continued to develop Bressingham Gardens.
In 1962 he began to collect steam engines, some of which had been retired from British Railways. His two sons Robert and Adrian joined him in the nursery business. In 1968 they opened the Bressingham Steam Museum alongside the nursery.
In 1985 they began the Blooms of Bressingham company. In 1995 Robert Bloom was killed in a car accident, leaving Adrian in charge of the business.
In 2007 Blooms of Bressingham was taken over and merged with the larger Wyevale chain of garden centres.[2]
The Farm in the Fen, 1944
Hardy plants of distinction, 1965
The Fens, 1953
The Skaters of the Fens, 1958
Alan Bloom's Hardy Perennials, Anova Books, ISBN 0-7136-8039-3
Alan Bloom's Selected Garden Plants, Jarrold Publishing, ISBN 0-85306-040-1
Alpines for Your Garden, Intl Specialized Book Service Inc, ISBN 0-938804-01-4
Bicker's Broad, Bretland Studios Ltd, ISBN 0-904774-00-7 (with Tim Hunt)
Blooms of Bressingham: Choosing the Best Hardy Plants for Your Garden, HarperCollins Publishers Limited, ISBN 0-00-412329-8 (with Adrian Bloom)
Come You Here, Boy!: Autobiography of a Gardener, Aidan Publishing, Ellis, ISBN 0-85628-260-X
Garden Alpines, Aidan Publishing, Ellis, ISBN 0-85628-254-5
Hardy Plants and Alpines, Burall Floraprint, Limited, ISBN 0-903001-62-4
Locomotives of British Railways, Jarrold Publishing, ISBN 0-85306-939-5
Locomotives of the London and North Eastern Railway, Jarrold Publishing, ISBN 0-85306-920-4 (with D. C. Williams)
Locomotives of the Southern Railway, Jarrold Publishing, ISBN 0-85306-886-0
Locomotives of the Great Western Railway, Jarrold Publishing, ISBN 0-85306-837-2
Making the Best of Alpines, Burall Floraprint, Limited, ISBN 0-903001-07-1
Moisture Gardening, Faber & Faber, Limited, ISBN 0-571-06904-5
Perennials for Your Garden, Scribner, ISBN 0-684-13952-9
Perennials in Island Beds, Faber & Faber, Limited, ISBN 0-571-10892-X
A Plantsman's Perspective: Plants, People and Places, HarperCollins Publishers Limited, ISBN 0-00-412262-3
Plantsman's Progress, Dalton Limited,, Terence, ISBN 0-900963-67-0
Prelude to Bressingham, Dalton Limited,, Terence, ISBN 0-900963-60-3
Steam Alive: The Story of Bressingham Steam Museum, Picton Publishing, ISBN 0-948251-56-5
Steam Engines at Bressingham: The Story of a Live Steam Museum, Faber & Faber, Limited, ISBN 0-571-10867-9
Two Hundred Fifty Years of Steam, I P C Science & Technology Press, Limited, ISBN 0-437-01400-2
Your Book of Traction Engines, Faber & Faber, Limited, ISBN 0-571-10413-4