Dr. James Chester Raulston was the founder, director and namesake of the J.C. Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, North Carolina. He traveled around the world with plant collecting trips to Europe and Korea and was credited with introducing many new species and cultivars of plants into the trade.

He received the prized Thomas Roland Medal, given by the Massachusetts Horticulture Society. Other honors for his work, included the Outstanding Public Garden Program Award from the American Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta in 1992. Raulston was the author, with Kim E. Tripp, of ''The Year in Trees: Superb Woody Plants for Four-Season Gardens,'' published in 1995 by Timber Press.

He was killed in a car accident in December, 1996.

Repton succeeded 'Capability' Brown as head gardener at Hampton Court Palace in England, and was the first to assume the title of landscape gardener. Like Brown, he was noted for "destroying" many older style, formal gardens in order to create large, open landscapes. He was the author of Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1803).

His designs were used at Antony House, Bowood, Clumber Park, Hatchlands, Plas Newydd, Sheffield Park, Sheringham Park (Norfolk), Tatton Park and Wimpole Hall.

Mary Richards was born in Wales and married Major Henry Richards in 1907. In 1951, at the age of 65, she made her first visit to the African country of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) to visit a friend. She was encouraged to collect plant specimens for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew for their herbarium. Over the years until 1974, she pursued this with a passion and sent over 29,000 pressed and dried plant specimens to Kew. She also has an herbarium of plants from Wales that is contained at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales in Cardiff.

French royal gardener and botanist for King Henry IV for whom the genus, Robinia (Black Locust trees), is named. His son, Vespasieu Robin, was also a botanist who succeeded his father and lectured on botany at the Jardin Royal in Paris.

 

Born in Ireland, he was the leader of the new landscape school of gardening. He and his followers turned parks into gardens and taught the nation to appreciate hardy plants and herbaceous borders at their true value.

William Robinson's The English Flower Garden of 1883 was reprinted almost annually for over 25 years, while a whole generation of gardeners absorbed his outspoken rejection of Victorian fussiness and formality. Earlier (1870) he published Alpine Flowers for Gardens and The Wild Garden.

His designs were used at Emmetts, his own home Gravetye Manor (West Sussex), Killerton House and Nymans Gardens. There is a so-called "Robinsonian" garden at the  Mt Usher Gardens in Ireland.

The plant Anemone nemorosa 'Robinsoniana' is named for him.

Irish gardener, landscape designer and plantsman. The specific epithet, robinsonianus, was named for him. Plants with this name include Calamus robinsonianus, and Senecio robinsonianus.

Born in Vienna, Austria, Joseph Rock collected for the Arnold Arboretum, in Boston, Massachusetts, which he described as "a garden of Eden". Most of his activity in plant collection came in Southeast Asia. A mountain ash cultivar, Sorbus x 'Joseph Rock', bears his name.

John Rodgers was an Admiral in the US Navy in the 1850s. He was in command of the ship that took plant explorers to Asia when they found the plant now known as Rodgersia podophylla. Asa Gray, the famous botanist named the then unknown genus, Rodgersia in the Admiral's honor.

An American garden designer whose designs were used at the formal gardens at the Royal Horticultural Society garden at Wisley, Claverton Manor, Fairfield House, and the herb garden at Scotney Castle in Kent, England.

 

Irish astronomer whose name was lent to the genus, Romneya.  Also known as the Matilija poppy, it is a tall (6 to 8 feet), majestic plant. Its large white crepe-paper-like flowers have large yellow centers.

John Rose studied under Le Nôtre. In 1666, he succeeded André Mollet as head of the royal gardens at St James Park in London. John Rose's name is chiefly associated with viticulture following publication of his book, The English Vineyard Vindicated, which became a standard work in the field. Rose's name is also associated with pineapples which he grew in a greenhouse for the King of England.

Professor of medicine at Uppsala University and an avid botanist, Rudbeckius taught renowned taxonomist, Carl Linnaeus who honored him by naming the genus, Rudbeckia (Black Eyed Susan), for him.

George Russell of York, England, a railroad crossing guard and home gardener, developed the Russell Hybrid lupines by improving on the common blue and white lupine. He began a breeding project at age 54 and by the time he was 75, his seedlings were renowned throughout the U.K. Russell kept no records, consequently, the exact parentage of this group is unknown. The Russell Hybrids are by far the showiest and most popular of the many types of lupines. They are 3-4 feet tall with pea-like flowers of every color imaginable.

The first Russell Hybrid Lupines were displayed at the Royal Horticultural Society show in 1937 with the help of nurseryman, James Baker. They won many prizes and become very popular with the gardening public thereafter. Bakers Nurseries of Codsall, Wolverhamton once grew as many as 40 acres of the plants which drew many visitors for viewing each year.