John Richardson (Curator 1871-1896)

He was Assistant Curator of the Botanic Garden under Tyerman. When Tyerman resigned, John wrote to the Committee, offering himself as a candidate for the curatorship of the Botanic Gardens. He was the first curator who was not a trained botanist.

 It is interesting to notice that he was only offered £5 more than his predessor when he started a decade earlier! The Council must have thought they could get away with this, as an in-house promotion did not need to be a competitive salary, only more than he was on before?  

He was clearly a safe  pair of hands for 25 years, mainly dealing with repairing and painting what was already there, though he did have to manage the creation of the new Palm house that Tyerman had designed.

He also had to deal with the Shipperies Exhibition together with first ever RHS Show outside London in 1886.

He had quite a shock in October 1893 when the Parks committee decided to change the allocation of responsibilities between himself (Curator of all the Parks and Gardens bar Sefton) and Henry Herbert (just Sefton Park).  Richardson was now limited to the Botanic Gardens at a salary of £150, and Wavertree Park at a salary of £50, instead of his previous salary of £275. This was a 27% cut in pay!

  In July 1871 his main focus was on the erection of the plant houses with the conservatories and a central conservatory, boiler house, as well as 2 propagating houses. This was the design that Tyerman had created.

Work did not go to plan and it was only in November that they could could say good progress had been made.

By February 1872 Richardson reported on the completion of one glass house, the East wing. They were repotting and rearranging the plants in there. The other houses were also in an advanced state.  No menbtion was made when it was finally completed.

Over his 25 years, he had to cope with re-painting and renewing the many glasshouses.

When Richardson started as the Curator, he was allowed to use a "car" (horse and trap) when he needed to inspect the other Gardens and Parks. 

In May 1876 there is a note that the six month's hire of a horse and trap to enable him to visit all his responsibilities was due to expire at the end of July and that this had cost £75. He was very happy with the arrangement and wanted it to continue. The Committee paid the £75 and said that the arrangement could continue only for another month!

In September Richardson said that the plan to find the comparative cost of hiring the horse and trap, just for one month, had not yet been possible as he had been away from home!

In January 1877 the garden pony, which had done good service for the last 14 years, was now unable to do the work required. He said that in the last month she had fallen down twice on the road, and they had the greatest difficulty getting her up. A lifting apparatus had to be used whenever she lay down. He wanted her destroyed and a young pony procured to take her place. This was agreed.

This  horse was taken seriously ill in October 1885 and although placed immediately under the care of of the vet, died the same night. Mr Reynolds stated that the cause of death was the rupture of the small intestines. The horse appeared very well in the evening before the carter left him. As a horse is was necessary, Richardson asked the Committee to instruct Mr Reynolds to purchase a new one at a cost not exceeding £50.

 In January 1881 it was decided that future applications for the loan of plants for decoration of events should be declined owing to the limited supply and the damage done to the plants during transit. 

The Finance Committee was to be told about the damage to the plants on the numerous occasions when they're sent to the Town Hall for the use of the mayor and that it be suggested that a special house be erected at the Botanic Gardens for the care of plants for the exclusive use of the town hall! 

 By 1886, the Botanic Gardens had become the production site for all bedding and municipal display plants. 

The Forster Collection  

In February 1885 Professor Thiselton-Dyer, Director of Kew asked if they could have the Forster collection that Roscoe had bought for Liverpool back in 1800. It seems that there were 1,320 specimens, of which 171 were indigenous to Australia. 

John Reinhold Forster and Georg Forster, father and son were the botanists on Captain Cook's second voyage from 1772 to 1775.

The Corporation did not see any merit in a lot of dead dried plants and readily agreed, fortunately  they did request an equivalent number of "live" plants in return.

It should be noted that not all the “The Forster Herbarium” specimens were actually sent to Kew. The Liverpool Herbarium’s Forster collection is still one of their “treasures.” Though small, it contains many Type specimens, and the Liverpool specimens are often requested for consultation for taxonomic research.