John Henry the Tulip, plus Doc Watson

1870 -The Florist and Pomologist: A Pictorial Monthly Magazine of Flowers, Fruits, and General Horticulture

Did you notice the word bybloemen above?  Here is what it means -"Bybloemen, then, is also the name of a flower. Specifically, bybloemen are a variety of old English tulips that are “mauve to dark purple/black on a white base and generally appear elegant and restrained”. Whereas the color is often “broken” into feathered patterns,...the base cultivar is a solid, sensuously dark and rich violet." https://bybloemen.wordpress.com/

Wondering who the John Henry was that lent his name to this tulip I looked around and found this reference.  If John Hepworth had read tulip history this might be the answer.

An American folk song is how I knew John Henry before this!  That's why the tulip's name caught my attention :-)  The great Doc Watson sings this version...

Larkspurs and Potatoes

1880 was a good year for color illustrations in the Vick catalog. A very nicely written short piece on these magnificent catalogs can be found at the New York Historical Society Museum & Library's site.  Written by "sue" last year, I enjoyed reading it.  

I love these turnip illustrations and their appearance on the page.  Why?  I don't know.

An Early 1866 James Vick Flower Catalog - Rochester, NY

 Ah...spring and the promise of summer flowers.  James Vick started to make that promise glow once inexpensive  chromolithography was available around 1880.

But, this first catalog is an early one from 1866, so it is visually plain in comparison.  The one color plate seems more like folk art than advertisement!

To think, the year after the Civil War people were looking at this catalog.

The b&w engravings have a formal charm I like a lot.

 

I forget where I read it, but some of these engravings of flowers may have been used by more than one seedsman in their catalogs.  An engraving business that specialized in botanical illustration to the seed trade would offer the "off the rack" plates for sale at a more attractive price than having your own illustrations custom engraved.  That left more money in the budget for interesting "bespoke" art.

 View the whole catalog, or download it in any format you like, from the Internet Archive.

1882 - The Painted Lady and the Scarlet Invincible - Sweet Peas

The names sound more like good old mystery titles; the ones with "guys and dames", if you know what I am talking about :-)

The article below is from Vick's Monthly Magazine, 1882. It gives a nice overview of the Sweet Pea in more practical terms than the previous post.  

The illustration is from the magazine.  It is used in the article to illustrate the different varieties. A very large image is at the end of the post.  I have added the detail cropped images next to their descriptions.

SWEET PEAS.

The Sweet Pea presents a charming individuality that wins and holds our admiration. Every curve in its peculiar form is graceful and its colors are bright, or soft, and contrasting. Besides, it is one of those flowers that "from the voluptuous June catch their perfumings." 

The petals of the Sweet Pea, which are five in number, and from their peculiar arrangement have received different names, are grouped into two pairs with the odd one standing somewhat erect back of them. The lower pair is called the keel, while the petals enclosing them are the wings, and the uppermost petal is called the banner. 

In the colored plate the center flower is known as Scarlet.

In this it may be noticed that the petals forming the keel are white, the wings rose-colored, and the banner scarlet. 

At the right of this center flower is one with white keel and very dark crimson wings and banner, this variety in the trade is called Black. >>

<<Directly underneath the last mentioned one is what is known as Blue Edged.

 

Above the center flower, Scarlet, is one with white keel and white wings and a rose colored banner, this is Painted Lady.>>

 <<At the upper left-hand corner of the group is Scarlet Invincible, having a white keel and scarlet wings and banner.

Sow the seed as early as possible in the spring, about four inches deep, in good, rich, mellow soil. One way of sowing them, and a very good one, is to mark out a circle two feet in diameter, four inches deep, and sow the Peas around, about an inch apart. A stake about five feet high should stand at the center; just inside the circumference place a barrel hoop and peg it down to the ground, and attach strings to it about three inches apart all around, fastening them also at the top of the stake. On these strings the stems will climb by means of their tendrils, arranging themselves in a form, that of a cone, most advantageous to display their beautiful blooms. 

One of our engravings shows a portion of a hedge supported by sticks. We have made the hedge thin, so as to show how the sticks are placed, but naturally they are almost, or entirely, concealed. 

The other is a clump or group supported by a stake or two in the center.

Another course often pursued is to sow the seed in straight lines, supporting the stems either with strings or brush, thus forming a sort of hedge. 

Mulching the ground with some light litter when the season becomes advanced has the effect to keep the soil cool, which is a most favorable condition for this plant. Cutting the flowers, and thus preventing the seed to form, has a tendency to keep the plants long in a blooming state.


Sweet Peas as cut flowers, odorous and variously colored and tinted, are of the highest value for bouquets, vases, and many other purposes.

 

Robert Buist's Gardening Book Has the Longest Title I Have Ever Seen

Go to the bottom of the page for a very large image of Buist's nursery in 1840 and enjoy touring it!  I like the system for controlling the heat in the cold frames.

Advertisement depicting a bird's eye view looking northwest at Robert Buist's enclosed nursery and greenhouses on Twelfth Street, south of Lombard Street. Two long rows of hotbed frames extend west from Twelfth Street and run the length of Rodman Street behind a three-story building marked "140" (a preconsolidation address). Men and women stroll along the central walk that separates the two rows of hotbed frames inside the grounds, accessed from Twelfth Street by the entrance gate adorned with the proprietor's name "R. Buist". Outside of the nursery, several men and women converse on the sidewalk. One of the men holds a driving whip, and is presumably the driver of the stalled horse-drawn carriage in front of the entrance. Another driver stands in front of a team of horses pulling a covered cart, grasps the reins, and leads them along Rodman Street toward a man attempting to rein in a rearing horse. Also shows men, women, children, and dogs on the sidewalk. A few trees dot the empty landscape behind the nursery. Buist established his business in 1828, which was known as Robert Buist Company well into the Twentieth century.

ABOVE: philadelphiabuildingsproject.org

The 1839 book, by the respected Philadelphia nursery 

and seedsman Robert Buist, has the longest title I have seen!

 The American Flower Garden Directory: Containing Practical Directions for the Culture of Plants in the Flower Garden, Hot-house, Green-house, Rooms, Or Parlour Windows, for Every Month in the Year. With a Description of the Plants Most Desirable in Each, the Nature of the Soil, and Situation Best Adapted to Their Growth, the Proper Season for Transplanting, &c. Instructions for Erecting a Hot-house, Green-house, and Laying Out a Flower Garden. Also, Table of Soils Most Congenial to the Plants Contained in the Work. The Whole Adapted to Either Large Or Small Gardens, with Instructions for Preparing the Soil, Propagating, Planting, Pruning, Training, and Fruiting the Grape Vine. With Descriptions of the Best Sorts for Cultivating in the Open Air          Link

Not much to look at now with its faded embossed cloth binding which
may have been green originally.  Green is an extremely fugitive color .

In 1840, Loudon wrote in his London periodical, 

The Gardener's Magazine and Register of Rural and Domestic Improvement, the following review. 

This differs from most of the American works on gardening, in being an original composition from beginning to end. It is most judiciously adapted to the country in which it is published ; and the author is one of the best cultivators in the United States. There is no American work that we know of at all to be compared with it in point of usefulness. We owe the author an apology for not having sooner acknowledged the receipt of the copy he kindly sent us above a year ago.

I am beginning to wonder at the number of horticulturists that came from Scotland!!  Robert Buist was one of them arriving here in the United States in 1828 after having served his apprenticeship in Scotland.  Once here he first worked for David Landreth who was one of the earliest nurserymen in our history. 

This is Buist. from Gardener's Monthly and Horticulturist, vol.XXII, 1880

 In only two years, he went into business with a Mr. Hibbert as a florist in Philadelphia.  They were very successful.  One of their famous plant introductions was the poinsettia obtained through the Minister to Mexico,  Mr. Poinsett.  When Mr Hibbert died, Buist continued on his own, and was succeeded after his death in 1880 at age 75 by his son  of the same name.  His obituary, in 

Gardener's Monthly and Horticulturist,  goes into great and affectionate details of his life.  It is a good read! 

1851 Buist building in Philadelphia.

Buist made trips to Europe for new varieties of plants and seed which he brought back and raised in his nursery.  It was noted he was going in an issue of the  Philadelphia Florist and Horticultural Journal of early 1852, saying - We shall look anxiously for the return of Mr. Buist, with the plant novelties of Paris and London, he set out on his important journey on last Saturday, in the "Arctic" in good spirits—we hope we will be borne out in our statements, that Philadelphia is not behind the time in Horticulture...

 An entry later in the year in the same Journal asked, while Buist's trip was of interest to be sure, why was it important enough to be mentioned in the minutes of the society?    (A wee bit of rivalry perhaps?)

This title page is too cool to leave unshared :-)

The Gardener's Monthly in 1870, in a piece about bedding plants and how they were being improved, contained this...

These colorful catalog covers are the son's.  And I think this above building is his period as well.

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More books by the first Robert Buist:

• The Family Kitchen Gardener: Containing Plain and Accurate Descriptions of All the Different Species and Varieties of Culinary Vegetables ... Also, Descriptions and Characters of the Most Select Fruits, Their Management, Propagation, Etc. Illustrated with Twenty-five Engravings 
• The Rose Manual: Containing Accurate Descriptions of All the Finest Varieties of Roses, Properly Classed in Their Respective Families, Their Character and Mode of Culture, with Directions for Their Propagation, and the Destruction of Insects