[2][3] Gairdner joined the John Innes Horticultural Institution (now the John Innes Centre) in 1919 as a student, joining the so-called 'Ladies Lab' along with Caroline Pellew, Dorothea De Winton, Dorothy Cayley, Aslaug Sverdrup and Irma Andersson-Kottö.
[1] Gairdner investigated male sterility in flax, initially with Bateson, and continued the work after his death.
[1] With Haldane, she studied the genetics of Antirrhinum, leading to the publication of two papers in 1929 and 1933 on the inheritance of two linked factors that could interact to produce a lethal phenotype.
[6][7] These papers indicate that Gairdner was solely responsible for the practical work (continuing crosses set up by her predecessor, Ida Sutton), and Haldane for the theoretical interpretation.
[2][8][9] Gairdner also published several articles with Cyril Darlington describing chromosome pairing and ring formation during meiosis in Campanula.