A plantsman is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable gardener, nurseryman or nurserywoman. "Plantsman" can refer to a male or female person, though the terms plantswoman, or even plantsperson, are sometimes used. The word is sometimes said to be synonymous with "botanist" or "horticulturist", but that would indicate a professional involvement, whereas "plantsman" reflects an attitude to plants. A horticulturist may be a plantsman, but a plantsman is not necessarily a horticulturist.
In the first edition of The Plantsman, Sandra Raphael contributed a short article on the history and meaning of the word. Her first example came from an issue of the Gardeners' Chronicle of 1881, when it seemed to mean "A nurseryman, a florist". She added that a modern definition should point out that "plantsman" In her article, Raphael also quotes botanist David McClintock on how to distinguish a botanist from a plantsman, beginning with the simple definition:
Notable plantsmen and women
and his son, John Tradescant the younger, must head the list of historic plantsmen. Charles de l'Ecluse, better known as Carolus Clusius, and Carl Linnaeus are other examples. These early botanists, who certainly grew many of the plants they described, can therefore be described as plantsmen. By contrast, adventurous plant-hunters such as David Douglas, who dedicated his life to searching out and collecting plants from the wild, were seldom gardeners and rarely grew the plants they had collected, so perhaps do not count as plantsmen, despite their great knowledge and dedication. Augustine Henry was a pioneering plant-collector in Western China in the late 19th century who became a professor of forestry in later life. On the other hand, EH Wilson, also famed for his work in China, began as a gardener and, after working at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, became a plant collector, first for James Veitch & Sons and later for the Arnold Arboretum. Irish nurseryman William Baylor Hartland specialised in daffodils in the late 19th century from his nursery in Cork. He was also an authority on apples. Because of their in-depth knowledge, specialist plant-breeders may be considered as plantsmen in their own fields. Influential garden writers such as William Robinson and garden-designer Gertrude Jekyll disseminated their knowledge of plants through their writing, as did a later generation of plant-lovers including Margery Fish and Vita Sackville-West, whose garden at Sissinghurst Castle, created with her husband Harold Nicolson, is now owned by the National Trust and one of the most popular in Britain. Reginald Farrer was a notable plant-hunter and influential writer in the more specialised area of alpine plants and rock gardening.
