Robin Lane Fox: The Scholar of Gardens and Drains

October 5, 1946

On this day, Robin Lane Fox was born — the English classicist, ancient historian, and long-serving garden columnist for The Financial Times, a post he has held with enviable stamina for more than fifty years.

Imagine it: a lifetime of coaxing history and horticulture to share the same column, like vines entwining around a marble column from antiquity.

Lane Fox is known for his wit as well as his scholarship. In his 1982 book Better Gardening, he made a confession that surely raised more than a few horticultural eyebrows:

“I will keep returning to the virtues of sharp and swift drainage, whether a plant prefers to be wet or dry…

I would have called this book Better Drains, but you would never have bought it or borrowed it for bedtime.”

One can almost hear the chuckle behind those lines. While other writers extoll the romance of roses or the charms of herbaceous borders, Robin Lane Fox points unapologetically to drains.

Vital, unglamorous drains.

The gardener’s true foundation, if we are honest.

For what hope has a rose without dry feet?

What splendour can a tulip muster in stagnant soil?

It is this mixture of erudition and plain-spoken humor that has made Robin’s writing so enduring.

He slips from Alexander the Great to autumn planting without missing a beat, reminding us that gardens — like history — are a matter of deep roots and constant renewal.

His secret, perhaps, is knowing that behind every lush border lies something very unpoetic indeed: a well-laid drain.