Barbara Hulme

Barbara studied botany at the University of Edinburgh from 1948 where she achieved a first class degree. She stayed on to study for a PhD, which she gained in 1957. Her thesis was entitled "Studies on some British species of Atriplex L", in which she clarified the classification of four british Atriplex species, performed cultivation studies including hybridization, and revealed that many of the traits used for classification are genetically determined but can be influenced by environmental factors.^[3][4] She also assisted botanist Peter Hadland Davis in his study of the flora of Turkey.^[2]

It was also during her time at Edinburgh that she met her future husband Ken Hulme, who was then working as a foreman at the Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh. The couple married in 1955 and moved first to Birmingham, where Barbara finished writing up her thesis, and then to the Wirral in 1957, where Ken had become the first Director at Ness Gardens, University of Liverpool. After the birth of her three children, Barbara's life revolved around caring for them and other family members but her interest in plants stayed with her for the rest of her life, and many of her holidays with Ken, including a trip to China to attend a symposium about botanic gardens, revolved around plants and gardens.^[2]