'Made Wild by Pompous Catalogs'
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A Publication of the American Horticultural Society Volume 70, Number 1 • January 1991 $1.50 News Edition 'Made Wild by Pompous Catalogs' fyoujust can't resist those mouth-watering photographs of the Biggest and Reddest and Earliest Yet! tomato .. .Ifyou fmd yourself sending away for three hundred lily bulbs when you have no idea where you'll plant them ... When you hear your mate demanding, "What! Another check to Wayward Gardens?" ... you're in fine company with a long history. In May 1850, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher inveighed in The Horticulturist against the proliferation of posters, seed boxes, trade cards, and catalogs with lavish illustra tions and outlandish promises: "We protest against floral spendthrifts," he wrote. "They will be entrapped by [impressive-sounding] names in seed stores, and made wild by pompous catalogs from florists and seedsmen." H~stories are a bit vague about who issued the first American seed catalog and when. The United States had a commercial nursery- that of William Prince, in Flushing, New York, by about 1730-and the National Agricultural Library has a 1771 list of Prince plants. Seeds, however, were obtained from abroad or through personal swaps until the 1780s, when the first commercial seed companies were established by Philadelphian David Landreth and New Yorker Grant Thornburn. By 1790, the Shakers had begun to make high-quality seeds available to merchants; they developed the small seed packet, which made the purchase of fresh seed practical for the home gardener with only a small plot. Judith Ho, curator of manuscripts and rare books at the National Agricultural Library, says English nurseryman Thomas Furber was producing a commercial, color-illustrated seed catalog prior to 1824. Other growers quickly followed suit. Robert Becker, of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, says the first, very plain, American mail order catalogs probably appeared between 1825 and 1830. 1991 Seed Program Catalog Enclosed! In This Issue The Catalog Tradition 1 Making a Difference 6 Members' Forum . 13 New Plants for '91 3 Regional Notes 8 Gardeners' Bookshelf 14 FloraStar Winners 4 Gardeners' Q&A 10SC Gardeners'Dateline 16 Devious Drainage 5 AHS Bulletin Board .. 12 Classifieds . ... 18 1991 Annual Meeting Program Enclosed! An alternative to the mail-order American catalog, beginning in the 1840s, was the nurseryman's sample book. The Horticultural Society University of Delaware Library has nursery sample books dating from the The American Horticultural Society seeks mid-19th century to the first decade of to promote and recognize excellence the 20th. They contain watercolor and in horticulture across America. stencil paintings, hand-colored lithographs, chromolithographs, and OFFICERS 1990-1991 photographic plates illustrating fruits, Mr. George C. Ball Jr., West Chicago, IL flowers, shrubs, and trees. Many of the President plates were created by lithographers Mrs. Helen Fulcher waJutes, Mount Vernon, VA and publishers in Rochester, New York, First Vice President which was an early center of horticultural Mr. Richard C. Angino, Harrisburg, PA Second Vice President publishing and illustration because so Mr. Elvin McDonald, Brooklyn, NY many nurseries were located there. Secretary The work of Roosier John Prestele was Mrs. Jane N. Scarff, New Carlisle, OH also in great demand, according to Ro. Treasurer From a catalog of these prints, Mrs. carolyn Marsh Lindsay, Rochester, NY nurserymen would choose those that Immediate Past President best represented their stock, bind them in leather, stamp their name on the BOARD OF DIRECTORS cover, and send them out into the world Mrs. Suzanne Bales, Oyster Bay, NY with their traveling salesmen. Dr. William E. Barrick, Pine Mountain, GA Dr. Sherran Blair, Columbus, OH But catalogs were certainly cheaper onions the size of bowling balls. Much Mrs. Mary Katherine Blount, to produce in quantity, and they began as today, many of them touted "new" Montgomery, AL to catch up with the sample books as and "novelty" items. Mrs. Sarah Boasberg, Washington, DC works of art. Before 1870, a catalog By the 1880s, says Ro, "there had Dr. Henry Marc Cathey, Washington, DC might have only one drawing, says Ro. been an explosion" of elaborate, Mr. Russell B. Clark, Boston, MA "Soon after the Civil War," says Patricia brightly colored illustrations. Becker Mrs. Ann Lyon Crammond, Atlanta, GA M. Tice in Gardening in America, 1830· calls the period from 1890 into the Mrs. Beverley White Dunn, 1910, "chromolithographed images were early years of the 20th century the gold Birmingham, AL Mr. K. Albert Ebinger, Boxford, MA regular feature$ of the seed catalog, and en age of seed catalog art. ''For rural Mr. Gerald T. Halpin, Alexandria, VA many customers cheered a winter's day by Americans living isolated lives in the Mrs. Julia Hobart, Troy, OH leafing through its brightly colored pages." days before the telephone, radio, and Dr. Joseph E. Howland, Renp, NV Today's catalog copywriters and television," he says, "the annual arrival Mr. David M. Lilly, Saint Paul, MN photographers are the very soul of of seed catalogs with their tempting Mr. Everitt Miller, Kennett Square, PA restraint compared to some of the illustrations of the newest cultivars Mrs. Flavia Redelmeier, horticultural hucksters of a century was awaited eagerly each year." Richmond Hill, ON, Canada ago. Becker describes drawings from Color had become so expected, writes Mr. Andre Viette, Fishersville, VA Maule's Catalogue ofthe 1880s that Tice, that when the D. M. Ferry Co. Mrs. Jean Verity Woodhull, Dayton, OH show an onion six inches in diameter issued an all black-and-white catalog and a head of cauliflower filling a chair. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR in 1886, they felt compelled to offer an Mr. Frank L. Robinson Another shows several men harvesting explanation. "... ifit seems lacking in brilliantly colored plates of impossible vegetables and glowing descriptions of AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST the superlative excellence of new sorts EDITOR : Kathleen Fisher ASSISTANT EDITORS: which are meant to revolutionize Thomas M. Barrett, Mary Beth Wiesner garden practice, it is because our aim EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Martha Palermo has been to give in its pages informa MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR: tion which will enable our readers to Kathleen B. Amberger have a good garden rather than to ADVERTISING: American Horticultural tempt them to purchase at exorbitant Society Advertising Department, 2700 prices a few seeds of some untried Prosperity Avenue, Fairfax, VA 22031. Phone novelty liable at least to result in (703) 204·4636. failure and disappointment." Address all editorial correspondence to: The Editor, American HorticultUrist, American Horticultural You will find no "brilliantly colored Soclety,7931 East Boulevard Drive, Alexandria, VA plates" in the enclosed AHS Seed 22308. AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST, ISSN 0096·4417, is published by the American Horticultural Society. 7931 Catalog. We do hope that you will fmd East Boulevard Drive. Alexandria, VA 22308, (703) 768· some novelty and a minimum of 5700, and is issued six times a year as a magazine and six times a year as a News Edition. The American disappointment. Horticultural Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to excellence in horticulture. Botanical nomenclature in AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST is based 0n HORTUS THIRD. National membership dues are $35; two years Catalog illustrations courtesy of the Na are $60 . Foreign dues are $45. $12 of dues are tional Agricultural Library, Special Col designated for AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST. Copyright © 1991 by the American Horticultural Society. Second· lections, Seed Trade Catalog Collection; class postage paid at Alexandria, Virginia, and at addition· Judith J. Bo, curator of manuscripts al mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send Form 3579 to AMERICAN HORTICULTURIST, 7931 East Boulevard and rare books. The collection contains Drive, Alexandria, VA 22308. more than 150,000 catalogs. 2. American Horticulturist • January 1991 New! Improved! Colorful! Small! The magic word in the catalogs of 'Fair', an orange; 'Montreux', a pink; yesteryear seemed to be ''big.'' Today, and 'Symphony', a golden yellow; and a while we may want clematis the size Before You Buy daphne, 'Eximea', a dwarf with deep of dinner plates and pumpkins big pink, fragrant flowers. enough to transport Cinderella, An 1888 Burpee catalog described New to Klehm Nursery's ''Estate "dwarfer" plants are in demand by city what it called a 'Faultless Early' Peonies"-those introduced by the Klehm dwellers who lack room for sprawling tomato thusly: "After two years' family-are the pink and cream 'Pink annuals or squash vines. But other impartial trials we cannot recom Parasol Surprise', whose center petals wise, little has changed. Ornamentals mend this new variety. It is very pop out of the middle of the flower like an are still getting hardier, vegetables are early, but far from faultless,-nearly umbrella, and 'Cheddar Charm', whose still getting earlier, and both are all the fruits being rough; in color it cheese-colored center is more prominent becoming more colorful. Growers are is bright red. Per. pkt S cts.; oz. 20 than its petals. They are also offering "the still seeking a true blue rose or daylily. cts.; 1/4 lb. 60 cts.; per lb. $2.00." only hosta with a valid plant patent," In the meantime, orange geraniums, Refreshing honesty? Clever 'Solar Flare', bred by Henry Ross of white lavenders, purple peppers, and gimic? Whichever, you're not likely Cleveland. Its mint green foliage changes red "greens" will have to do. to see such a description in most to chartreuse gold in summer. If you haven't succumbed yet this catalogs. For one thing, there are Monrovia Nursery, through local winter to Catalog Offering Fever, here's too many wonderful plants available nurseries and other distributors, will a sampling of the press releases that to offer anything substandard. offer golden Japanese forest grass crossed our desks this fall: Nevertheless, as you wade through (Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola'), an the adjectives, a bit of caveat emptor is in order.