Background
Nicola Ferguson was born Nicola Hilland Stewart on December 23, 1949, in Belfast, Northern Ireland; the eldest of three children of Walter G. H. and Dilys H. H. Stewart.
Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, United Kingdom
Ferguson attended the University of Edinburgh and, in 1972, got there a Master of Arts degree with honors, and Ph.D., in 1975.
(The unique reference book that will lead gardeners effort...)
The unique reference book that will lead gardeners effortlessly to the plants that will look best and grow best in their own particular garden.
https://www.amazon.com/Right-Plant-Place-Indispensable-Successful/dp/0671523961/?tag=2022091-20
1984
(More than four hundred detailed color photographs enhance...)
More than four hundred detailed color photographs enhance this guide to gardening that focuses on helping readers transform their outdoor spaces with a minimum of cost and effort by choosing plants that not only look good together, but also grow well.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809227681/?tag=2022091-20
1998
(This beautifully illustrated book, begun by bestselling g...)
This beautifully illustrated book, begun by bestselling garden writer Nicola Ferguson before her death in 2007 and completed by her friend, the writer and photographer Charles Quest-Ritson, celebrates some of the many thousands of double-flowered "new varieties" produced throughout history.
https://www.amazon.com/Double-Flowers-Remarkable-Extra-Petalled-Blooms/dp/1910258881
2018
Nicola Ferguson was born Nicola Hilland Stewart on December 23, 1949, in Belfast, Northern Ireland; the eldest of three children of Walter G. H. and Dilys H. H. Stewart.
Nicky Ferguson was sent away to school in England, to Southover Manor, Lewes, chosen by her mother. This institution hardly satisfied Nicky Stewart's needs; no more did St Clare's, the sixth-form college at Oxford. So, Nicky insisted on moving back home to the local grammar school at Dungannon, being finally pleased with the education it provided.
Eschewing the possibility of Cambridge, Nicky Stewart went to Edinburgh University to read Psychology. She achieved a first class degree, and in 1972 carried off the Drever Prize in Psychology.
Later her interest moved more towards linguistics, and it was in this field that she gained her doctorate in 1975, supervised by Professor John Laver, on the subject of overlaps and interruptions in conversation.
Nicola Ferguson began her career as an academic. Graduating from Edinburgh University, she was offered a job teaching undergraduates and was awarded a Carnegie Scholarship to pursue study for her doctorate.
In her thirties, however, Ferguson made herself, almost from scratch, into a gardening expert, and wrote a best-seller entitled Right Plant, Right Place. Originally it was published as Nicola Ferguson's Garden Plant Directory in 1984, when she was unable as a novice gardener to find in one volume the information she needed to help her to plan her own Edinburgh New Town garden. Plants are categorised in many ways according to how they may be used, and in addition to the meticulous cataloguing of the main features of the plant there is a paragraph of description that cleverly captures its unique properties, both good and bad.
In 2005 she brought out, under the same title, a complete revision of her original work. She felt that so much had changed in the world of plants in the intervening years that the entries for the 1,400 plants she described, and the photographs, had to be completely redone.
Nicola Ferguson also published, in 1998, Take Two Plants, in which she gives her recommendations of which plants can be successfully combined to make a pleasing picture and to set off each other's qualities effectively.
When the author died she was working on a book about double-flowered plants, a subject which provided her with the perfect opportunity to use her scientific and research talents.
(This beautifully illustrated book, begun by bestselling g...)
2018(More than four hundred detailed color photographs enhance...)
1998(The unique reference book that will lead gardeners effort...)
1984
Quotations:
"I wrote both my books because I wanted books like them myself, and they didn’t exist. I provide many of the photographs for my books, as well as for some other publications, and find this helps me produce a fuller written ‘picture,’ too."
"I write to highlight and elaborate upon visual features and describe other, non-visual features of plants. Both my writing and photography are from the point of view of a gardener.”
In the 1990s, Nicola was a committee member of Friends of the Royal Botanical Gardens, in Edinburg.
Nicky was an extremely kind and wise; she was extraordinarily modest but had a deep-seated self-confidence and was expert at seeing through pretence. She was also witty and fun to be with and provided delicious and imaginative meals for her friends.
Ferguson had no formal training in taxonomy or gardening. Her own garden, an unpromising north-facing, shady rectangle, was very attractive, but her knowledge of plants came less from her experience in her own garden, and more from her powers of observation and her application in the library. She was frequently to be seen in the excellent library of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. She made herself into an accomplished photographer, and took most of the photographs for her books. She was also an outstanding lecturer.
In 1970 Nicola married James Ferguson, also a native of Northern Ireland; indeed, they had known each other since their mid-teens. Having followed her to Scotland, he began a successful career in Edinburgh's financial sector, eventually becoming chairman of Stewart Ivory, fund managers, from 1989 to 2000. The marriage produced three children.
Nicola's family was enormously important to her and she created a most welcoming and stable home for them. For over 30 years the family have lived in the same house in Heriot Row. She remained very attached to Northern Ireland and returned frequently to a house she owned by the sea in Co Down, where she loved the beach and the views of the Mountains of Mourne.