The Garden History Blog

Robert Gauen & his ingenious horticultural inventions No.1

Posted on 27/02/2016 by The Garden History Blog

from Robert Gauen’s “The Art of ornamenting…” The Gardener’s Magazine Vol.3 1828.

And here’s a picture starter for 10? What on earth is this contraption for? If you’re a regular reader of this blog then think back a few weeks…and there is another clue below.

from Tom Carter’s, The Victorian Garden, p.97

The object, whatever it is, was invented in the 1820s by Robert Gauen, a gardener and nurseryman from Hampshire and is recorded in John Claudius Loudon’s The Gardener’s Magazine. Read on to be …. impressed? bemused? surprised? amused? or at least find out more about this and other ingenious products of Mr Gauen’s extremely fertile imagination because this is not the only piece of horticultural gadgetry that he devised.

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged fruit, John Claudius Loudon, nurserymen, vegetables | 2 Comments

Cannas

Posted on 20/02/2016 by The Garden History Blog

The Indian Reed from Robert Thornton’s Temple of Flora

This posts picks up from last week’s on Robert Thornton’s Temple of Flora. One of the exotic plants that Thornton’s writes about is “the Indian Reed”or Canna indica. Although often called a canna lily, the canna is actually a member of the ginger family [Zingiberales] along with bananas and maranta.

Although no longer rare cannas still have an exotic air even though they are actually quite hardy – especially the newer hybrids – and with flowers in the hotter part of the spectrum – predominantly red but ranging from pink, through orange to yellow – they are regularly used in ‘tropical’ bedding displays, or to add a ‘hot’ touch to a border.

Read on to find out how this American rhizome moved from being a mundane food crop to being a colourful addition to our gardens….

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Antoine Crozy, Besler, Christopher Lloyd, George Paul, John Parkinson, John Reeves, Shirley Hibberd, William Robinson, William Roscoe | 2 Comments

Robert Thornton & The Temple of Flora

Posted on 13/02/2016 by The Garden History Blog

The Queen Plant

Dr Robert Thornton was the brains behind one of the most impressive and quirky of all flower books: The Temple of Flora. Despite not being either an artist or a professional botanist, he was fascinated by the rapid development in botanical knowledge of his time and convinced that Britain should be in the worldwide vanguard of both the arts and the sciences. He was also, one suspects, appropriately enough for a Valentine’s day post, at least mildly in love with George III’s wife, Queen Charlotte.

Robert Thornton, by John Russell, 'Portarit Pianter to the King'

Robert Thornton, by John Russell, ‘Portrait Painter to the King’

Writing at the time of the French Revolution and then Napoleon, Thornton was an ardent conservative, royalist and patriot, and intended The Temple of Flora to be a book in ‘which in Point of Magnificence is intended to exceed all other Works of a similar Nature on the Continent’. It was also designed to prove that Britain and its system of government were naturally the best in the world. Thornton, like Sir Joseph Banks, was a pioneer of botany with an imperial purpose.

Read on to see if he succeeded, and to take a closer look at some of the plates from his magnificent but wallet-breaking magnum opus. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged botanical art, Linnaeus | Leave a comment

The straightness of cucumbers…

Posted on 06/02/2016 by The Garden History Blog

http://www.mfordcreech.com

Here’s a picture starter to get you in the right mood for this week’s post. Any guesses as what it might be? Answer at the end.

Did you know we had a cucumber industry in Britain? or that we’ve had one for several centuries? Either way you should know it’s facing extinction because of cheap foreign imports undercutting British growers. There is now less than 100 hectares dedicated to the crop – the lowest figure for over 100 years.

The industry is still largely based in the Lea Valley where it was established in the 19thc and, of course, it is fighting back as best it can. Its latest wheeze is Cucumber Day held at Waltham Abbey, complete with a ‘decorate the cucumber’ competition and prizes for the largest fruit!

http://www.cucumbergrowers.co.uk/promotions/waltham-abbey-cucumber-day

You can find out more about the modern industry and Cucumber Day by following the links from:

Home 12

But what’s the history of this industry? When did the cucumber arrive in Britain? When did it enter mass production? How big can a cucumber grow? And why do people always seem to prefer their cucumbers to be straight? Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Henry Lyte, John Claudius Loudon, John Gerard, John Parkinson, nurserymen, Pliny, Stephen Blake, Thomas Hill, vegetables, Vilmorin | 3 Comments

The Yokohama Nursery Company

Posted on 30/01/2016 by The Garden History Blog

1904 catalogue http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bloomsbury-auctions/catalogue-id-blooms10063/lot-6eb5a736-7756-4704-88a4-a4e500e2813c

The cover of the 1904 catalogue
http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bloomsbury-auctions/catalogue-id-blooms10063/lot-6eb5a736-7756-4704-88a4-a4e500e2813c

I was researching for a lecture on the influence of Japanese plants and garden design on British gardens when I discovered a catalogue for the Yokohama Nursery Company. It was more a work of art than a business sales catalogue.

The cover of the 1900 catalogue http://collection.hht.net.au/images_linked/43073a.jpg

One thing led to another and very soon I found the afternoon had drifted by as I became engrossed by the range and quality of the images, and then intrigued by the company’s commercial acumen. So…. read on for a brief introduction to probably the single most important historical commercial horticultural link between Britain and Japan.