[2] Her mother, Margaret Susan Mitford, was an avid gardener and gave Amherst her own plot to care for at the age of ten.

[8] More scholarly but less eloquent than her contemporary Gertrude Jekyll, Amherst never became nearly as popular or influential a writer on gardening.

[2] But with its meticulous footnotes and exhaustive annotated bibliography, The History of Gardening in England became the authoritative work in its field and remains of value to historians today.

[2][9] Amherst's collecting expeditions took her to Mozambique and South Africa (1899), Rhodesia (1900), and Ceylon, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada (1927).

[1] This was a period when horticultural schools were being founded in England, and Amherst advocated on behalf of women entering the field.

[2] In 1900, her husband published On the Eve of the War: A Narrative of Impressions During a Journey in Cape Colony, the Free State, the Transvaal, Natal, and Rhodesia and several of its illustrations were from sketches or photographs by Amherst.