John Abercrombie (horticulturist)

For other people with the same name, see John Abercrombie.

John Abercrombie (1726 – 2 May 1806) was a Scottish horticulturist important to renovating garden techniques. He is noted for the book Every Man His Own Gardener (1767), which he co-wrote with Thomas Mawe.

John Abercrombie
Picture of Abercrombie from The propagation and botanical arrangements of plants and trees, 1784
Born	1726 Edinburgh
Died	2 May 1806
Nationality	Scottish
Occupation	Horticulturist
Notable work	Every Man His Own Gardener

Biography

Abercrombie was born in Edinburgh. As a young man Abercrombie was employed at the Royal Gardens at Kew, and at Leicester House; and later set up a successful market gardening business in Hackney and later at Tottenham. He wrote a number of works on gardening.

For the last 20 years of his life, Abercrombie was a heavy consumer of tea and a vegetarian. He smoked his pipe for six hours a day and stated that tea and tobacco were promoters of his health. He died from injuries obtained from an accident.

Selected writings

• The Universal Gardener and Botanist; or, a General Dictionary of Gardening and Botany (1778)
• The Garden Mushroom (1779)
• The British Fruit Gardener; and Art of Pruning (1779)
• A General System of Trees and Shrubs (ca. 1780)
• Every Man His Own Gardener, 9th edition (1782)

Further reading

• Chambers, Robert; Thomson, Thomas Napier (1857). "Abercromby, John" . A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. Vol. 1. Glasgow: Blackie and Son. p. 2 – via Wikisource.