GARDEN HISTORY GIRL

Selection of plants offered for sale in a Veitch catalogue of the 1890's Introduction During the 19th century, plant collecting in new and exciting areas of the world increased on a grand scale with nurserymen, botanic institutions and private individuals employing collectors to seek out new ornamentals suitable for cultivation in British gardens. One of the greatest, and probably most famous, of the commercial firms was the family-run Veitch nursery established in Devon c.1

"Embothrium Coccineum". From 'Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l’Europe', Vol.13, 1858 Introduction Many of the historic images of tropical or rare plants I use in my blogs are from the celebrated Curtis’s Botanical Magazine , a wonderful resource not only for the botanical plates, but also the information it provides about the plants’ history and introduction into the UK [see Notes ]. More recently however, some of the best images I’ve found have been from a Belgian publ

'Garcinia mangostana' (the mangosteen), watercolour by Deborah Griscom Passmore, 1909 – said to be agricultural explorer David Fairchild's favourite fruit. From USDA, Pomological Watercolor Collection This is the follow-on to my blog The Fruits of America Part 1: The US Department of Agriculture's Pomological Watercolor Collection , where I looked at its beautiful, but not particularly well-known, collection of watercolours of fruit and nuts begun in the late 1880's – an ex