[Umbrian]

My friends regard me as something of a garden "guru" and often ring me with their gardening problems. Usually I am able to give them an aswer or at least point them in the right direction for further information but the latest  question has stumped me and although not strictly a "Mediterranean " topic I thought I would try to access the Forum's "brains trust".
Thye question is "What flowers were most commonly grown in gardens 100yrs ago?" My mind immediately went to Sweet Williams, Michaelmas daisies, Lupins, Japenese Anemones etc - flowers that featured in all the gardens I knew when I was a child, but of course that was not 100 years ago, quite!, although it may seem so after a hard session in the garden.
Can anyone help please?

[yvesans]

This article is worth a read

http://www.expressandstar.com/lifestyle/gardening/2012/12/25/back-to-the-future/

[MikeHardman]

I'm tempted to go look for nursery catalogues, and this is a good place to start
http://www.rhs.org.uk/About-Us/RHS-Lindley-Library/Projects/Nursery-catalogues.
That's of limited use online, however.
For anyone who has the time and opportunity to visit the Lindley Library, however, I must warn you that browsing their most excellent collection of nursery catalogues can consume much more time than you might have planned!

Also: collectable seed packets, eg.
http://pinterest.com/kellief/vintage-botanicals/.
Lots of lovely piccies there, but often without dates - so can't be sure of the '100yrs ago' aspect.
Some do have dates, however, eg. these pansies http://media-cache-ec2.pinterest.com/upload/279293614360652537_mwvIiihR_b.jpg

Off the top of my head, I would have to suggest carnations (thinking of Allwood's).
And I know pansies were very popular because of all the local pansy and viola societies in the UK at the time.

[JTh]

I have an old book (from 1988) I bought in the States many years  ago, Antique Flowers, by Katherine Whiteside. With antique, she does not go all the way back to the antiquity, but there is a selection of 49 flowers used more than 100 years ago both in the US and in Europe. I scanned the the list of contents:

Alchemilla vulgaris (Lady's Mantle),  Aquilegia vulgaris (Columbine),  Aruncus dioicus (Goatsbeard) Calendula officinalis (Pot Marigold), Campanula medium (Canterbury Bells), Centaurea cyanus (Cornflower), Centranthus ruber (Red Valerian), Cheiranthus cheiri (Wallflower), Chrysanthemum parthenium (Feverfew), Corydalis lutea (Yellow Fumitory), Crambe cordifolia (Colewort), Dianthus barbatus (Sweet William), Dianthus deltoides (Maiden Pink), Dianthus plumarius (Cottage Pink), Dicentra spectabilis (Bleeding-Heart), Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove), Dipsacus fullonum (Teasel), Eremurus robustus (Eremurus, Fritillaria meleagris (Checkered Lily), Gladiolus byzantinus (Sword Lily), Hesperis matronalis (Sweet Rocket), Iberis umbellata (Candytuft),  Lilium lancifolium (Tiger Lily), Lunaria annua (Honesty),
Lysimachia punctata (Yellow Loosestrife), Lythrum salicaria (Purple Loosestrife), Macleaya cordata (Plume Poppy), Meconopsis cambrica (Welsh Poppy), Narcissus poeticus (Poet's Narcissus), Nicotiana alata (Flowering Tobacco), Papaver nudicaule (Iceland Poppy), Papaver orientale (Oriental Poppy), Papaver rhoeas (Field Poppy), Papaver somniferum (Opium Poppy), Phlomis samia (Phlomis), Polemonium caeruleum (Jacob's Ladder), Primula vulgaris (English Primrose), Pulmonaria officinalis (Lungwort), Rosa rugosa (Rugosa Rose), Salvia sclarea (Clary), Saxifraga umbrosa (London Pride), Sedum telephium (Orpine), Stachys byzantine( Lamb's Ears), Tagetes erecta (African Marigold), Tagetes patula (French Marigold), Tradescantia virginiana (Spiderwort), Tulipa batalinii (Tulip), Viola cornuta (Horned Pansy), Viola tricolor (Johnny-jump-Up).

[Umbrian]

  MANY thanks to those members replying to my request, I am sure my friend will be most impressed and grateful when I pass on the information.What a wonderful service this Forum provides

[Trevor Australis]

Well, here's another perspective. It all depends on where you were 100 yrs ago. If you were anywhere in the southern hemisphere it didn't include a lot of those 'Northern' flowers. There were strong elements representing South Africa, South America and bits of Asia.

Most Europeans who settled Australia and NZ would have sailed (3 - 5 months at sea) around the Cape of Good Hope. Few went around Cape Horn because the passage was much more dangerous and with extended periods on the open sea well away from land. Cape Town was the last port of call for most settlers travelling 'out' and it was there that they purchased the supplies they would need for the last leg of the journey across the Indan and Southern Oceans. They had to carry their own food for the journey - live animals to kill, a milking cow/ goat, fodder etc as well as livestock for their new farms + fodder. All had to be kept on deck with the food animals purchased by the captain, officers and crew. Also on deck, out in the salt spray were the trees, seeds and plants needed to establish the new farms as well as a few decorative plants that may have been bought from private gardeners and the Dutch East India Company's (botanic) garden at the foot of Table Mountain. Most plants and seeds were packed in sawdust filled barrels/ casks but the rats and salt water still got in and killed most of them - if the hungry goats, horses, cows, bulls, pigs, poultry etc didn't get them first. Some surviving diaries kept by settlers show they also filled such cabin space as they had with pot plants, cuttings, bags of seed, bulbs etc. - most South African natives. Often the rats got these too, or the cockroaches, weevils, mice etc.

None-the-less significant numbers of plants did arrive safely and used to make cottage type mixed gardens here.

Not much later, say around the 1880's, many missionaries were sent out by various denominations and Tract Societies to evangelise and get converts in the Pacific Islands, Australia, NZ. Many of these spread the Word of God by missions based on sailing ships, or they used mission ships to maintain links with their outposts. by this means many common garden flowers were distribted far and wide eg China roses throughout Polynesia, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji etc.

In the same era a few very determined free traders travelled around the Pacific doing business. Some of them loved plants too MacLeay in Sydney was one such and he bought plants directly from places where his ships traded, in particular southern China treaty ports, Yokohama, Hong Kong. American free-trade whalers travelled much further and also distributed some plants as favours between captains and business contacts on shore. Some idea of the scope these men had to distribute plants and seeds can be had by knowing their circuits of the globe. Most were based on the E coast of the US - Boston, Charleston, area where many also had plantations and factories. They sailed to deliver their own cotton to England, then crossed the Atlantic to the W coast of Africa where they bought a cargo of slaves to sell back in the US or further south in Brazil. Having made some serious money they would then turn around and head south for the whaling in the Southern Ocean from Tierra del Fuego to the Great Australian Bight. With the whale oil rendered and barrelled they would head north to the trading ports for Oriental luxury goods using some of the oil as tender to buy porcelain and other small, high value things. then they would head home across the central Pacific trading and whaling as they went; around Cape Horn and back to their home bases in the Sea Island region off Charleston and the Tidewater region around Boston.

Although my researches in the records of the Charleston Circulating Library (one of the oldest in the US and a fantastic archive) haven't turned up much direct evidence I think this circuit of trade explains how some camellias, roses, spider lilies and other things were spread around.

More detailed info will be found in my early books.

tn