Novelties Offered by James Veitch & Sons, Ltd. 1904. (Click for more images)
Seeds. 1913. (Click for more images)
Great Britain’s most influential and prestigious seed and nursery company before the first World War was the firm of James Veitch & Son.1 Its 1904 brochure of novelties shows some of the plants brought from China by their collector, E.H.Wilson. It also presents some of the many new hybrids of ornamental plants developed at the Royal Exotic Nursery, which was famous for its collection of orchids. Before closing in 1914, the Veitch company operated several nurseries and produced a range of catalogues devoted to different species of plants and trees; these are listed on p.100 of their 1913 seed catalogue. Veitch’s tool selection from 1913 is another measure of how specialized gardening knowledge had become by the early twentieth century.
In addition to James Veitch & Sons, several other important British fruit tree nurseries are represented in the OSU collection, such as George Bunyard & Co. of the Royal Nurseries, Maidstone, and Thomas Rivers & Son, who also specialized in roses. The George Bunyard & Son catalogues edited by Edward A. Bunyard, such as that of 1914, are particularly interesting for fruit historians, since they contain information on the raisers and dates of introductions for many varieties of fruit and nut trees, grapes, and berries.2 An example is shown in this scan of Bunyard’s 1914 apple varieties. The catalogues also contain information such as lists of apples in order of ripening, varieties for show or home gardeners, planting tips, and a calendar of fruit tree care.
Catalogue of Fruit Trees and Roses. 1914. (Click for more images)
Catalogue of Fruit Trees, Roses and Shrubs. 1913-1914. (Click for more images)
Clarence Elliott's 1914 Catalogue of Alpine and Herbaceous Plants. 1914. (Click for more images)
A group of catalogues starting in 1910 comes from Clarence Elliott, a well-known collector, who wrote on alpine plants. He operated the Six Hills Nursery (est. 1907), immortalized in his introduction ‘Six Hills Giant’ catmint, which is widely available today. Elliott was friendly with many contemporary authors and nurserymen such as Reginald Farrer, with whom he traveled in the Alps.3 Some of his catalogues contain botanical engravings by the botanical artist and landscape painter John Nash. (See Seed and Nursery Catalogue Art in the OSU Collection).
Notes
- See Seeds of Fortune
- For more information about Edward A. Bunyard, who was a celebrated pomologist and author, see Edward A. Bunyard, The Anatomy of Dessert : with a few notes on wine. Originally published: London, Dulau, 1929 (New York, The Modern Library, 2006) xxi-xxiii
- Miles Hadfield, Robert Harling, and Leonie Highton, British Gardeners: A Biographical Dictionary (A. Zwemmer Ltd./Condé Nast Publications Ltd., 1980) 114