Category Archives: Dahlias

Dahlia Exhibitions in the 1830s

Dahlia Picta Perfecta
The Floricultural Cabinet 1835 (Natural History Museum)

This coloured plate showing a bright crimson ‘Picta Perfecta’ dahlia, with its beautifully shaped petals edged in black, was first published in The Floricultural Cabinet and Florist’s Magazine in 1835. Launched in 1833 by Joseph Harrison, a gardener and florist, his magazine reflects the appetite amongst amateur and professional gardeners alike for the cultivation of dahlias for show.

In the 1830s, dahlias were enormously popular garden and exhibition flowers, loved for their jewel colours, abundance of blooms and long flowering season. Starting in July, dahlia shows took place at regular intervals through the summer and early autumn. Harrison visited floral exhibitions all over the country, many hosted by newly formed horticultural societies, and published his accounts of these in the magazine.

Today his accounts give us valuable insights into the character and atmosphere of these shows. Dahlia shows ranged from those staged in public houses, such as the Baker’s Arms in Hackney Road, East London, and the Bull and Mouth Inn in Sheffield, to large exhibitions attracting huge crowds, such as the Metropolitan Society’s Grand Dahlia Show at Vauxhall Gardens in London. Many of the shows hosted dinners for members after the prizes had been given out, and some enjoyed dancing, and music from brass bands. Whatever their size, all the shows were united by appreciation for the dahlia and the spirit of competition.

Harrison’s attendance at these shows allowed him to meet the horticulturalists producing new dahlias, giving him an important overview of dahlia cultivation in England and contacts in the wider horticultural industry. He soon established himself as an influential voice informing taste and trends in gardening through his magazine, in much the same way horticultural journalists and garden designers do today.

With a format that gave advice on growing techniques from expert growers and seed and bulb suppliers, the magazine also encouraged amateurs to write in with questions and their own gardening tips. The Floricultural Cabinet was an instant success, boasting sales of 50,000 copies in 1833, its first year of publication.

Harrison appears to have understood the power of attractive colour images as a marketing tool to inspire readers to purchase his magazine, and the new plants he showcased. The dahlias in the coloured plates are accomplished artworks, portraying the flowers with accuracy and with a slightly naïve quality in the diagrammatic stylisation of the flowers. The ‘Picta Perfecta’ dahlia, praised in The Floricultural Cabinet for its perfectly round form and spectacular colours, was in fact a seeding raised by Harrison.

Harrison was meticulous in recording the names of prize winning dahlias as well as those of the judges and entrants. From his records, certain grower’s names re-appear, such as Mr Pamplin, a florist who lived in Islington, and raised the beautiful golden yellow dahlia ‘Pamplin’s Bloomsbury’ which was illustrated in the magazine.

Joseph Harrison (1798 – 1856) was born in Sheffield where his father worked as head gardener at nearby Wortley Hall, a position Joseph took over in 1828. He left Wortley Hall in 1837, setting up as a florist in Downham, Norfolk and eventually moving to Richmond, Surrey. As well as The Floricultural Cabinet, Harrison also edited The Gardener’s Record.

While they are an important part of our horticultural history, flower shows are by their nature ephemeral events. The plants, the exhibitors, and in some cases, even the venues where the shows took place are now long gone, but they live on in Harrison’s vivid descriptions.

Here follow extracts from The Floricultural Cabinet of three contrasting dahlia shows, documented by Harrison during his country wide tour of 1835. They start with the East London Dahlia Show, a small and well established local event with sixty stands of flowers on display. At the opposite end of the scale, Harrison is clearly captivated by The Bath Royal Flora and Horticultural Society’s Grand Annual Dahlia Show. Its decorations included an extraordinary figure of a Mexican chief made out of dahlias, to celebrate the country where the plant originated. But later in the season, Bath is topped by The Cambridge Florists’ Society Dahlia Show, with its model of a hot air balloon constructed out of 2,300 dahlia blooms and arranged around a chandelier:

The East London Dahlia Show

‘This exhibition took place, as usual, at the Bakers’ Arms, Hackney-road, and was well attended. Sixty stands of flowers were placed in competition, and the judges, Messrs, Alexander, Catleugh, and Glenny, placed them as follow :—

Stands of Twelve Blooms.—1, Mr. Dandy; 2, Mr. Crowder; 3, Mr. Rowlett; 4, Mr. Wade; 5, Mr. James; .6, Mr. Turner; 7, Mr. Dunn; 8, Mr. Williams; 9, Mr. Brown; 10, Mr. Riley; 11, Mr. Sharp; 12, Mr. Hogarth; 13, Mr. Green; 14, Mr. Buckmaster.

Stands of Six Blooms.—1, Mr. Williams; 2, Mr. Thornhill; 3,My. Dandy; 4, Mr. Crowder; 5, Mr, Wade; 6, Mr, Hogarth; 7, Mr, Dunn; 8, Mr, Carp

Sadly this pub that once stood at the corner of Warner Place and Hackney Road is now demolished.

The Bath Royal Flora and Horticultural Society’s Grand Annual Dahlia Show

‘The committee made extraordinary exertions to render this show the most splendid and attractive of the whole season, and they fully realized their purpose. The first object which met the view was a most singular figure on the right-hand lawn: it was that of a Mexican chief, holding a basket of flowers; the whole figure was composed of Dahlias, which, as our readers well know, came originally from that country ; and difficult as the task must have been, even the features of the countenance were very ingeniously delineated. This figure exhibited no less than 150 varieties of the Dahlia, in every imaginable tint, and of every gradation of size. A little beyond was the figure of a tree of considerable size, the trunk and every branch being composed of Dahlias of an equal number of varieties, and in the colour and size of the flowers.’

The Cambridge Florists’ Society

‘This Society had their grand Autumnal Show of Dahlias on Thursday, Sept. 24th, in the Assembly room at the Hoop Hotel. We have witnessed many floral exhibitions here and at other places, but we never before beheld any thing approaching the beauty and magnificence of this exhibition; on no previous occasion was the Dahlia exhibited in so high a state of excellence. We may expect to see great additions made to the colours and varieties of this very beautiful flower, but we much doubt if ever the grand stand of prize flowers displayed on this occasion will be surpassed in size or quality by that of any future show. The task of decorating the room was entrusted to Mr. Edward Catling, florist, of Cambridge; and nothing could possibly exceed the happy and elegant taste with which every ornament was executed. The sides and ends of the room were beautifully decorated with evergreens, wreaths, and Dahlias. At the head of the grand stand was an immense orange tree thickly studded with Dahlias, to represent the fruit in its various stages of growth, backed by a beautiful Fuchsia multiflora, 12 feet high, from the Botanic Garden. At the end of the room, was a prettily variegated crown entirely composed of Dahlias. But the grand attraction of all was a splendid balloon, wholly formed of Dahlia-blooms, suspended from the ceiling, the car of which appeared to be illuminated, from being placed over a gas chandelier. This ariel machine had a striking effect, the flowers being arranged in stripes to represent variegated silk; and we were told that more than 2,300 Dahlias were required to complete the balloon, exclusive of the car, from which two flags were pendent.—The afternoon show was attended by a numerous and respectable company; but the evening exhibition was crowded beyond all former precedent, owing to its being on the eve of the horse-fair, which gave the neighbouring country people an opportunity of witnessing the finest display of Dahlias ever seen in Cambridge. Upwards of 700 well-dressed persons were in the room at one time, and from eight to half-past nine o’clock the number amounted to little, if any, short of 3,000 persons, all with happy countenances, highly delighted with the fairy scene ; added to which were the musical strains of the Cambridge Military Band, who played several new and difficult pieces, with a precision and taste that would have done credit to veteran performers. After the ladies had withdrawn, more than 200 members and their friends sat down, with the splendid flowers before them, and enjoyed the scene with music, song, and toast. Fifteen new members were elected, and we rejoice to learn that the Society meets with the well-merited support of all classes.’

Further details and links below – the dahlia illustrations are taken from various issues of The Floricultural Cabinet across the 1830s.

Levick’s Beauty of Sheffield
The Floricultural Cabinet

Brown’s Royal Adelaide
The Floricultural Cabinet

Harris’s Acme of Perfection
The Floricultural Cabinet

Harris’s Inimitable Dahlia
The Floricultural Cabinet

Dodd’s Mary
The Floricultural Cabinet

Barratt’s Vicar of Wakefield
The Floricultural Cabinet

Cox’s Yellow Defiance
The Floricultural Cabinet

Pamplin’s Bloomsbury
The Floricultural Cabinet

Harrison’s Charles XII
The Floricultural Cabinet

Further reading:

The Floricultural Cabinet and Florist’s Magazine
Vol 3 1835 from the Natural History Museum’s Collection here

Joseph Harrison Wikipedia here

There’s a chapter about florists and the passion for growing all types of flowers for show in The Gardens of the British Working Class by Margaret Willes published by Yale University Press here

Hippolyte Bayard’s Garden

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Self-portrait in the garden
Salted paper print, 1847
All photographs courtesy of the J Paul Getty Museum (unless otherwise stated)

This remarkable image of a man standing in his garden was produced by Hippolyte Bayard (1801 – 1887), an early pioneer of photography. His record of people and the built environment around Paris, where he lived, provides a vivid insight into the character of cultural life during this period.

Vernacular gardens are by their nature ephemeral places, so Bayard’s photographs from the 1840s showing his own garden, clearly a place he valued, and which features repeatedly in his work, is especially captivating for anyone interested in these spaces.

A strong sense of composition is evident in ‘Self-portrait in the garden’ (1847). The photographer leans on an enormous barrel, on top of which a tall ceramic vessel is placed, creating a connection between these two bulky objects, while a simple wooden ladder, balanced against the garden wall, adds more height and balance. If we look closely at the slightly irregular grid of the rustic trellis forming a background to the photograph, stems of a climbing plant are visible, trained along its structure. At ground level we see various terracotta pots, a watering can, as well as low-growing, evergreen plants – probably box – edging the borders. As well as plants, Bayard appears to have appreciated the objects and paraphernalia of gardening.

Bayard’s interest in the natural world is clear from his earliest photographic impressions made in the 1830s using salted paper prints and cyanotypes. He takes great care in the arrangement of plant specimens, feathers, fragments of cloth and lace. A long raceme of wisteria flowers looks elegant placed next to a leaf with a similar form, while in another image Bayard uses a range of different shapes – the spiky structure of a nigella flower contrasting with the softer outlines of sweet peas and nasturtiums.

Plant specimens
Salted paper print, about 1839 – 1841

Arrangement of flowers
Salted paper print, about 1839 – 1843

Arrangement of Specimens
Cyanotype, about 1842

Three feathers
Cyanotype, 1840 – 1841

Further photographs of Bayard’s garden appear to show the trellis later in the season, clothed with vine leaves. In ‘Chair and watering can in the garden’, the vine leaves, combined with tall hollyhocks in the flower border fill the frame with foliage, while the empty chair seems to invite the viewer to take a seat and enjoy the lush growth.

Chair and watering can in a garden
Salted paper print from a calotype negative, about 1843 – 1847

Self-portrait in a garden
Salted paper print, about 1845 – 1849

‘Garden Wall with tools’ (September 1844) suggests late summer warmth, with slanting shadows in the bright light, and an open shutter on the right, allowing sunlight into the house.

Garden Wall with tools
Salted paper print, September 1844

Leaves on a trellis
Salted paper print, about 1847

Still Life in Bayard’s Garden: Baskets, Watering Can and Planter Pots
1848

Potted Plant in a Garden
Salted paper print, 1849

The wooden gate in ‘Self-portrait in front of garden’ (1845), is another example of rustic woodwork, and features in several photographs of various visitors to Bayard’s garden.

Self-portrait in front of garden
Hand coloured salted paper print June 1845

Two Men and a Girl in a Garden
Albumenised salted paper print, about 1847

Group portrait in garden
Salted paper print, about 1847

Portrait of Georgina Benoist at gate
Salted paper print, about 1840 -1849

Bayard also produced still life studies of flower arrangements, often using dahlias. Originally from Mexico, dahlias began to be cultivated as garden plants in Europe in the 1820s. Dahlias were at the height of their popularity in the 1830s and 40s, when dozens of new double varieties were introduced by plant breeders, including a red flowered form which hadn’t been seen previously. These plants were highly collectible and still relatively expensive to buy, so represent a nod to Bayard’s engagement with gardening fashions. ‘Vase of flowers’ (about 1845 – 1846) shows dahlias in pride of place in his arrangement, with the light from a window creating a splash of brightness on a wall and the vase of flowers casting a beautiful shadow.

Vase of flowers
Salted paper print, about 1845 – 1846

Vase of flowers
Salted paper print, 1847

Flowers in a vase
Salted paper print, about 1845 – 1849

Hippolyte Bayard was employed as a civil servant in the 1830s and, according to the J Paul Getty Museum, ‘devoted much of his free time inventing processes that captured and fixed images from nature on paper using a basic camera, chemicals and light.’ However, Bayard’s achievements were overshadowed by the launch of the daguerreotype in 1839. With the backing of the French government, the daguerreotype became the first commercially successful photographic process.

Bayard’s response to his disappointment at having been overlooked in favour of Daguerre’s rival process was to produce an extraordinary photograph – ‘Self-portrait as a drowned man (1840). The text written on the back of the image reads:

‘The corpse of the gentleman you see here . . . is that of Monsieur Bayard, inventor of the process that you have just seen. . . . As far as I know this ingenious and indefatigable experimenter has been occupied for about three years with perfecting his discovery. . . . The Government, who gave much to Monsieur Daguerre, has said it can do nothing for Monsieur Bayard, and the poor wretch has drowned himself. Oh the vagaries of human life! . . . He has been at the morgue for several days, and no-one has recognized or claimed him. Ladies and gentlemen, you’d better pass along for fear of offending your sense of smell, for as you can observe, the face and hands of the gentleman are beginning to decay.’

Bayard’s creation of this photographic alter ego, expressing both his personal pain and his unfair treatment by the French government, is full of satirical complexity. Today the image seems extraordinarily modern, bringing to mind the work of artists like Cindy Sherman, Robert Mapplethorpe, and many others, who have used photographic self-portraits in their work.

The powerful message of Bayard’s self-portrait seems to have prompted the French Academy of Sciences to recognise and acquire details of his photographic process and Bayard used the money to purchase better equipment to progress his experimentation. His involvement with photography continued – as well as being a founder member of the Société française de photographie he was also commissioned to record historical sites in France for the Historic Monuments Commission.

Self-portrait as a drowned man 1840
(Wikimedia Commons)

In the studio of Bayard
Salted paper print from a paper negative, about 1845

Links to Bayard’s work at the J Paul Getty Museum below:

Further reading:

J Paul Getty Museum biography of Hippolyte Bayard here

Hippolyte Bayard on Wikipedia here

Curator Carolyn Peter’s reflections on Bayard here

The Stanford Dahlia project here

Gertrude Jekyll’s Cottage Gardens

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Cottage porch from Old West Surrey (1904) by Gertrude Jekyll (University of California Libraries)

Gertrude Jekyll’s Old West Surrey Some Notes and Memories (1904) represents something of a departure from her vast output of books and articles about plants and garden design. This study of the locality around her home at Munstead Wood reveals an enthusiasm for all aspects of vernacular architecture and the rural way of life in this part of southern England, which was rapidly disappearing at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Illustrated with dozens of Jekyll’s photographs, details of farm buildings and cottages, trades, furniture, tools and everyday household articles are documented – and, of course, the people she encountered on her travels. Jekyll dedicates a whole chapter of her book to the cottage garden, praising both the skill of the cottage gardener, and the dedication needed to maintain the displays of flowers over the season.

This style of gardening, with roses framing the front door and a profusion of flowers in the borders, was a favourite of Jekyll’s and examples of cottage gardens regularly appear in her other published works. These gardens are still deservedly popular, despite associations of sentimentality and nostalgia, perhaps because this unpretentious style of planting complements smaller houses so well. Any meanness in the scale of the building is softened and the cottage front garden, in particular, lifts the spirits of passers-by as well as providing pleasure for the owners themselves.

Here follow Jekyll’s photographs of cottage gardens from Old West Surrey together with some of her observations about them. Her detailed knowledge of plants makes this a useful resource for anyone wishing to re-create a cottage garden from this period. Links to the text below:

‘The most usual form of the cottage flower-garden is a strip on each side of the path leading from the road to the cottage door. But if the space is a small one, it is often all given to flowers. Sometimes, indeed, the smaller the space the more is crammed into it. One tiny garden I used to watch with much pleasure, had nearly the whole space between road and cottage filled with a rough staging. It was a good example of how much could be done with little means but much loving labour. There was a tiny green-house, of which the end shows to the left of the picture, that housed the tender plants in winter, but it could not have held anything like the quantity of plants that appeared on the staging throughout the summer. There were hydrangeas, fuschias, show and zonal geraniums, lilies and begonias, for the main show; a pot or two of the graceful francoa, and half-hardy annuals cleverly grown in pots; a clematis smothered in bloom, over the door, and, for the protection of all, a framework, to which a light shelter could be fixed in case of very bad weather.

It must have given pleasure to thousands of passers-by; to say nothing of the pride and delight that it must have been to its owner.’

‘There is scarcely a cottage without some plants in the window; indeed the windows are often so much filled up with them that the light is too much obscured. The wise cottagers place them outside in the summer, to make fresh growth and to gain strength. These window plants are the objects of much care, and often make fine specimens.’

‘The deep-rooting Everlasting Pea (Winterbean is its local name) is a fine old cottage plant, and Nasturtiums ramble far and wide. Nowhere else does one see such Wallflowers, Sweet-Williams, and Canterbury Bells, as in these carefully-tended little plots.’

‘Here and there is a clipped yew over a cottage entrance; but this kind of work is not so frequent as in other parts of the country.’

‘China Asters are great favourites – ‘Chaney Oysters’ the old people used to call them – and Dahlias, especially the tight, formal show kinds are much prized and grandly grown.

Sweet smelling bushes and herbs, such as rosemary, lavender, southernwood, mint, sage and balm, or at least some of them were to be found in the older cottagers’ garden plots.’

From Wood and Garden, first published in 1899.

Quintessential cottage garden from Wood and Garden first published 1899.

Further reading:

Old West Surrey

Official Website of the Gertrude Jekyll Estate

Dahlias in North London

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Outdoor growing area at Wolves Lane Flower Company with dahlias.

Every year in August members of the nationwide network of UK flower growers, Flowers from the Farm, open their gates to the public as part of their Big Weekend event. Not really expecting to find a flower farm in the urban heart of London, I was delighted to discover that a company of micro-growers based in Wood Green were taking part.

The Wolves Lane Flower Company is the project of Marianne Mogendorff and Camila Klich, one of several horticultural projects based at a 3.5 acre complex once used by Haringey council to produce bedding plants. Both growers and florists, WLFC is committed to sustainability in floristry by growing organically and selling their product locally. The company is housed in a long glasshouse with an additional outdoor growing space, currently full of dahlias which form an important part of the company’s seasonal flower crop in late summer and early autumn.

In recent years dahlias have seen a resurgence in popularity as cut flowers. Camila credits American growers for their part in this revival with their new range of ‘sunset colours’ – deep pinks, oranges and purples. WLFC grows well over a hundred dahlia plants which are started under glass and planted out in their growing positions in late May or early June. The tubers are generally lifted and stored inside over winter, but this year as an experiment they will leave a proportion in the ground protecting the crowns with mulch.

They are continually experimenting with new varieties and ‘Cafe au Lait’ is currently one of the most popular for weddings. Camila explains the importance of staking the dahlia plants and of cutting out the leading stem, which causes the plant to branch and produce more flowers on thinner stems, more useful to florists. Dahlia flowers are cut when fully open, as the immature blooms will not continue to develop in the vase (unlike tulips or roses).

In the glasshouse Marianne shows us crops of sunflowers, cosmos, zinnias and Nicandra physalodes grown for its seedpods which are used dried in Christmas wreaths. This year they created raised beds which has helped with water retention and they plan to install an irrigation system – ideally using harvested rainwater. At present, all the watering is done by hand.

This part of north London was once home to countless market gardens and plant nurseries, which gradually disappeared under rows of terraced houses as demand for homes and land prices increased. Thanks to the online European Nursery Catalogue Collection we know that Thomas Softley Ware (1824 – 1901) was managing a successful nursery business in the late 19th century at Hale Farm Nurseries in nearby Tottenham. Dahlias were one of his specialities, and some pages from his 1894 catalogue showing popular varieties from this moment in the Victorian era are shown below.

Here on a sunny afternoon in Wood Green it is so good to see a fragment of the area’s horticultural tradition still present in the community, and still thriving. The Wolves Lane site is managed by a consortium including local organic growers OrganicLea (the subject of a previous post – see link below).

Dahlia ‘Creme de cassis’

Dahlia ‘Creme de Cognac’

The Greatest Novelty of the Season. The First and Only Real White Cactus Dahlia ever Raised. Dahlia ‘Mrs Peart’ was perhaps the ‘Cafe au Lait’ of its day.