EVOKING THE NATURAL: DAN PEARSON

At twenty-seven Dan Pearson exhibited for the first time at the Chelsea Flower Show. He’d been gardening since he was five, always deeply fascinated by gardening catalogues and the plant kingdom, followed by horticultural training at the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Wisley, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and plant exploring in Spain and the Himalayas. The press was astounded to find such a young exhibitor who was both presentable and personable, knowledgeable and articulate. Opportunities to appear on television and to write articles for publication followed.

In Pearson’s early years of schooling, a thoughtful teacher, recognizing his deep interest in plants, had introduced him to the world of garden literature. Immersing himself in wonderful word pictures, Pearson developed his own evocative writing style. Later newspaper (a role once held by English poet and garden designer Vita Sackville-West) and many of his landscape observations found there are truly memorable.