With improvements in literacy, and the end of taxes on newspapers, the nineteenth-century garden press emerged with a willing press corps of garden writers, many of whom were private gardeners, florists or nurserymen, who wielded immense power. From the monthly periodical, the Gardeners’ Magazine, launched by J C Loudon to weekly newspapers such as Glenny’s Gardeners’ Gazette and Lindley’s Gardeners’ Chronicle these publications significantly contributed to the professionalization of the horticultural trade. Editors of gardening newspapers needed interesting copy to entertain their readership and advertising to grow their profits. New horticultural institutions needed nationwide coverage to promote their organizational aims to recruit new members and obtain subscriptions. Dialogues of working voices (at the editor’s discretion) can be seen in the gardening newspapers and reveal what was going on in gardeners’ lives and their concerns. JC Loudon pioneered this method of correspondence and knowledge exchange between professional and amateur gardeners. We shall explore his legacy and how it improved the field of horticultural education for all, in this Gardens Trust online lecture on January 21.
After working in the design industry, Francesca Murray studied horticulture and garden design at Berkshire College of Agriculture before running her own garden design business. She has an MA in Garden History and is currently in her fourth year of a PhD at Queen Mary’s University of London, researching nineteenth-century gardeners, nurserymen, and the associations that came to their aid. She is a trustee of the Gardens Trust and a life member of Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust and London Parks and Gardens Trust as well as Archivist and guest speaker for Perennial (formerly known as the Gardeners Royal Benevolent Institution). She leads walks around London on the nineteenth-century horticultural press and is a regular speaker on garden history to horticultural societies around the country. The ticket for this individual talk costs £8. Click HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 2 weeks .
