Frances Garnet Wolseley was influential in establishing gardening as a career for women. She set up a horticultural college for young women and wrote books about gardening.
She was born in Dublin on 15th September, 1872, the only child of Louisa Erskine Wolseley and Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley (later Baron Wolseley of Cairo and Viscount Wolseley). The family moved house quite frequently until she was in her late twenties because her father was commander-in-chief of the British army.
In 1899, when they finally moved into a permanent home, Trevor House, Glynde, near Lewes in East Sussex, Frances Wolseley was able to concentrate on gardening. In 1902, she decided to start courses in gardening and garden design for young women. Five years later, the Glynde College for Lady Gardeners was such a success that she had to move it from Trevor House's walled garden to a larger site nearby at Ragged Lands.
Around 1907, she became less involved with the day-to-day management of the college to concentrate on promoting the idea of women being professionally involved with horticulture. Her first book, Gardening for Women, was published in 1908.