Showing posts with label history of seedsman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history of seedsman. Show all posts

Saturday, April 12, 2014

James Vick - Marketing the Garden Dream

Yesterday I posted a piece about the seed exhibits at the Columbian Exposition.  James Vick was acknowledged as a major contributor to Class 180 (seeds) in the guidebook.  Thirty years before, when he started his business in Rochester by importing seeds from Europe he was often disappointed with the quality.  That led to his establishing his own reliable seed fields.  His catalogs and writings were incredibly effective in popularizing his brand!





 




Good Links:






Saturday, March 29, 2014

Rouncival, Not Runcible

The following flower mystery is from Benjamin Townsend's book:  

The Complete Seedsman: Shewing, the Best and Easiest Method for Raising and Cultivating Every Sort of Seed Belonging to a Kitchen and Flower-garden. With Necessary Instructions for Sowing of Berries, Mast, and Seeds of Evergreens, Forest-trees, and Such as are Proper for Improving of Land. Written at the Command of a Person of Honour, Volume 1


Read this flower seed list from 1726 England.  I recognize most. The older form of the modern common name is often close enough to make it known. Holly Oak is fascinating...and a few uses of the "f" for the "s" makes for amusing looking words.

But what the heck are Horns and Hedgehogs, Bottles of All Colors and Snails and Caterpillars?!

I am not going to look them up tonight as I am too amused by just imagining what they might be.

Horns and Hedgehogs, as well as Snails and Caterpillars are pairs of different plants grown together for the amusement value.

The descriptions in this catalog are below.  Not that they help much.

Children would still be fascinated by these.  Take note, seed companies! :-)


By the way, if you read the catalog you might like to know the following.  Me, I don't remember ever hearing the word rouncival.  Edward Lear's runcible spoon, yes...but not rouncival.

Rouncival

Large, of gigantic size. Certain large bones of antediluvian animals were at one time said to be the bones of the heroes who fell with Roland in Roncesvalles. “Rounceval peas” are those large peas called “marrowfats,”