Diana Grenfell


Diana Grenfell was a British gardener and horticultural writer who was a world expert on hostas, a genus of ornamental plants.

Personal life

Diana Margaret Eva was born 29 March 1935 in Surrey, England. She was married to Roger Grounds. She used Diana Grenfell as her professional name.
She died 19 March 2021.

Career

She started her own hosta collection and later, with her husband, founded and owned the Apple Court Gardens and Nursery in Hampshire. This contained around 1000 varieties, including at one time the plants that formed a National Collection of Hostas within the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens scheme. She introduced new cultivars.
In 1981 she was one of the founders of the British Hosta and Hemerocallis Society.

Publications

She wrote several books about hostas and daylilies including The New Encyclopedia of Hostas, RHS Wisley Handbook: Hostas Octopus Publishing Group, pp96,, The Gardener's Guide to Growing Hostas David & Charles, 160pp,, The Gardener's Guide to Growing Daylilies David & Charles, 160pp, and Hosta: The Flowering Foliage Plant Pavilion Books, 192pp,. She also co-authored The New Encyclopedia of Hostas with Michael Shadrack.

Awards

In 1987 she was awarded the Alex J. Summers Distinguished Merit Award by the American Hosta Society. Grenfell was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society Veitch Memorial Medal in 2016.