1844 - The Pansy, Grand Duke of Russia; A Lovely Litho

My mother always bought me a pot of pansies for my birthday so they have become a flower that always makes me feel good when I see them.  While I buy my own now, her gift is always there.  This litho stands out for its charm!

1884 - D.M. Ferry's Pansies - Collection of the Nine Best

Tis the season...almost...here in Connecticut!  I have some flats out on the porch but the snow is still piled where they are to go.  Perhaps a big pot this year?

I am researching lettuces at the moment but when this colored plate turned up in the D. M. Ferry catalog on the way to an illustration for Early Tennis Ball lettuce I could not resist!

1887 - Borage, #5 of Root's Honey Plants

Zorn, J., 1796

Finally, a plant A. I. Root promoted that I have  grown a patch of (10'x10') to treat my bees!   

You know how things usually go when you do something to please an animal - they ignore it. (Maybe that is just cats?) Well, the bee didn't actually turn up their noses but they did not work it heavily.

Somewhere I read in my time-warp readings that borage is good for wet weather nectar when other plants are washed out or something.  I might have that backwards.  When I find it I'll update this post :-) 

Here is the blurb from  A.I. Root's 1887 and 1888 catalogs' Bee Plant section, with Root as the writer.  

Borage. (1887 and 1888)

A strong, hardy, rapidly growing plant, bearing a profusion of blue flowers. It may be sown any time, but will, perhaps, succeed best, at about corn planting time. As it grows tall, and branches out considerably, it should have plenty of room. I know that bees are very busy on it, all the day long, from July until Nov., but I do not know how much honey an acre of it would furnish. 

It is easily tried, because it grows so readily, and if sowed on the ground after early potatoes are dug, you will get a nice crop of fall bloom. Sow broad cast, or in hills like corn.

In 1888 only: Borage is also used as a salad or cooked like a spinach. 

Price 10c. per oz., or 75c per pound.
If wanted by mail, add 18c. per lb. for bag and postage.

Now I'll throw in my experience with growing borage.  

• First, it is floppy.  
• Second, it falls over.  
• Third, rain beats it down.  

So grow it next to something strong, or fill the area with pea sticks.   
It is pretty up close when not covered with mud.
 (Connecticut had a drought in 2017 punctuated with borage flattening rains.)  

Chaumeton, F.P., Flore médicale, 1829

Among the prettiest of those wandering plants which find their most congenial haunts upon rubbish heaps on the outskirts of towns or villages, the borage certainly occupies a prominent place. Plants of such regions are wont to be dull in foliage and flower; but the borage, although its leaves are rough and inelegant, amply compensates for this by the brilliant blue of its five pointed star-like flowers. 

This beautiful blue is, especially among our British plants, very characteristic of the Boraginaceœ, an order of which our borage is the type; we find it in the viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare), the small bugloss (Lycopsis arvensis), the various species of forget-me not (Myosotis), and in the alkanets (Anchusa), which, however, are doubtful natives of our soil; but none of the varying shades presented by these plants are more beautiful than the blue of the borage blossoms.

The uses of borage are, perhaps, open to the charge of being more imaginary than real—that is, if we take into consideration the exaggerated eulogisms bestowed upon it by the older writers.

 "Those of our time," says Gerard, "do use the flowers in sallads, to exhilarate and make the minde glad. There be also many things made of them used everywhere for the comfort of the hart, for the driving away of sorrowe, and increasing the joie of the minde." 

And then he goes on to tell as how " the leaves and flowers of borage put into wine maketh men and women glad and merrie, and driveth away all sadnesse, dulneese, and melancholic"; how "sirrupe made of the flowers of borage comforteth the hart, purgeth melanoholie, quieteth the phrenticke or lanatioke person"; and how "the flowers of borage, made up with sugar, doth all the aforesaid with greater force and effect." 

The use of borage in claret cup and similar beverages at the present day is a relic of the belief in the above "vertues," as well as an agreeable and cooling addition thereto, while its blue flowers floating in the liquid have a pretty appearance.

But the use of borage against melancholy goes mach farther back than the days of Queen Elizabeth. According to Burton, who may be considered an authority on the subject, 

"Helena's commended bowl to exhilarate the heart had no other ingredient, as most of our criticks conjecture, than this of borage;" 

this "commended bowl" being the nepenthes of Homer, which was "of such rare vertue that if taken steept in wine, if wife and children, father and mother, brother and sister, and all thy dearest friends should dye before thy face, thou couldst not grieve nor shed a tear for them".

Incredulous persons might be inclined to regard this cheering property to be rather due to the medium in which the borage was taken, whioh a yet more ancient writer has characterized as that which "maketh glad the heart of man".

As a favourite plant of bees, borage is worthy of somewhat more attention than it generally receives. We know a good beekeeper who has a large bed of it near his hives, and heartily do the winged inhabitants appreciate the attention thus paid them. There are, indeed, few more cheerful combinations of sight and sound than that which is presented by such a borage bed on a bright July afternoon, when tho beautiful blue flowers are in full perfection, and the "murmuring of bees" pervades everything with its soothing hum.                  J. B. Q.

1882 - Painting of Tropælum for James Vick, Seedsman

Spring, 2017...snow everywhere.  I need these yellows and reds!!!

Let your imagination jump into this nasturtium, 

courtesy of James Vick's Vol 5 of

Vick's Monthly Magazine for 1882.

1856 to1921 - Obituary for John Lewis Childs, Seedsman

This joyous nasturtium catalog cover is a fitting memorial to a fine seedsman.  

It is always interesting to get a glimpse of the individual as it is not easy to find personal information beyond the society page sort.  This obit shows  a man who was having trouble with with the "melting pot" theory of immigration as a strength of our country.

John Lewis Childs.

John Lewis Childs, well known mail order seedsman and gladiolus specialist of Floral Park. N. Y.. died March 5 of heart failure on the New York Central Railroad‘s Twentieth Century train between Albany and New York, returning from Los Angeles. Calif.

On February 11 he passed through Chicago en route to Los Angeles leaving on the Santa Fe Railroad's forenoon train the Missionary.   He then stated he had been unwell during the fall and early winter but had almost regained his normal health by a sojourn in Florida. He looked worn, as if from overwork, but was active, methodical and full of plans for future business.

Returning to Chicago from Los Angeles on the Santa Fe about 10 a. m., March 4, leaving on the Twentieth Century,  our representative, an old friend, spent upwards of an hour with him at the LaSalle street station and his health had apparently greatly improved. He spoke at length of general and trade conditions in Los Angeles and discussed various political and mercantile matters with all his usual vigor, among other things expressing himself as emphatically opposed to the presence of the Japanese in California, his objections being social as well as economic.

Mr. Childs was born in Maine in 1856 and at the age of 17 went to work in a greenhouse establishment at Queens. N. Y.    The following year he rented a few acres of land near the railroad, a mile and a half from Queens. and started business for himself as seedsman and florist. For five years it was uphill work but perseverance won out.   Subsequently the land occupied was purchased and from time to time more acreage was added. The railroad company built a station and at Mr. Child's request, it was called Floral Park. Greenhouses, storage houses and dwellings for employee followed in rapid succession. His mails became so large and important that the government established a post office at his place. Progress continued until Floral Park became a thriving village. built up mainly on this one industry. He early specialized in bulbous plants. on which he was well informed. At one time he had the most complete collection of garden lilies ever brought together in this country. but these were so persistent in running out that he was obliged to abandon the Long Island culture of most of them. He acquired the late E. V. Hallock’s fine strain of gladioli and gave a wonderful impetus to the culture of this plant.

The soil at Floral Park having been worn out by a long period of intensive cultivation, some years ago the plantations of gladioli and other specialties were removed to a large tract of land about 35 miles from the home establishment. The new place, with its station, post office and warehouses has been named Flowerfield, this growing and shipping point being reserved for the heaviest products. The principal business and offices are continued at Floral Park. which is only 20 minutes from the center of Manhattan by direct train service. The catalogues are printed and mailed at these headquarters and it was here the Mayflower ran a highly successful career so many years as an amateur gardening monthly, the paper being later sold to an Ohio concern. He also had a 10-acre seed growing branch at South Pasadena. Calif.

In his mail order business, Mr. Childs had a remarkable faculty in the selection of attractive common names for plants, many of which will be recalled by our readers as the cigar plant (Cuphea ignea), the Chinese lantern plant (Physalis Franchetii,) the black calla, Chinese wool plant, the wonder berry and many others, these names, well advertised, creating an extraordinary demand in most cases.  Perhaps the best example of his ability in this direction was in his purchase from Frank H. Banning, Kinsman, OH. of Gladiolus Reuben H. Warder, which he renamed America.

Besides the details of his great business and close personal attention to the wants of his customers. Mr. Childs found time to perform many public duties. He was a member of the state senate during 1894 and 1895. when that office was more important than that of congressman, New York state having more of the latter than of the former. He was a director in the Preferred Accident Insurance Company of New York. and for a long time treasurer of that well known institution. He was a director of the National Agency Company of New York. the Queens and Suffolk Fire Insurance Company. and of the Bank of Jamaica, a member of the board of managers. also treasurer and trustee of the Union Free School at Floral Park. He was a member of the Society of American Florists, the American Seed Trade Association and many other trade organizations.
He was greatly interested in wild birds and in means for their preservation and protection.

This lush illustration is from the back cover.

1917 - Good News that Makes You Smile (and a seedsman)

"Mrs. Dibble and Miss McGowan played the "Poet and the Peasant" as a piano duet."  

This sort of news does not make the  cut these days!  The newspaper I pulled this from was delightful, sharing the good news for many New York State towns.  Included was mention of Mr. A. T. Cook who has appeared many times in this seed blog.

 I like the caterpillar :-)

1895 - A Fragment of Spring!

We just had a foot of snow today, March14, in Connecticut...I need to post this!!!