William Shakespeare, the greatest writer in the English
language, lived during the Elizabethan period (1533-1603), a
relatively peaceful political time that gave birth to enormous
developments in landscape design and an avid search for new and
exotic plants, seeds, and bulbs. Although much about his life is
unknown, Shakespeare certainly had a love and knowledge of
gardens and plants, their symbolism, and their uses. In his
plays he mentioned myriad plants, herbs, trees, and shrubs --
some by names less familiar to us today than to audiences of his
day. Shakespeare assumed that his audiences shared his gardening
knowledge, that they would understand his references in the
plant world. After all, his plays were part of the popular
entertainment of the times. "There's rosemary, that's for
remembrance ... and there is pansies, that's for thoughts"
(Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5). In his works Shakespeare referred to
almost 200 plants, showing an intimate knowledge of plant
growth, propagation, grafting, pruning, weeding