The alternanthera is grown for its leaves. It was a popular plant in beds during the nineteenth century both in England and in America. In the 1880 issue of Philadelphia seedsman Thomas Meehan's Gardener's Monthly M. Digram wrote an article called "The…
A common theme in the marketing of the garden from the nineteenth century seed and nursery industries is that gardening in Europe, but particularly in England, surpassed American gardening. New York seedsman Peter Henderson (1822-1890) often wrote about that difference.…
In the 1890s advertising took off in a new direction. No longer did the company simply provide information about a product or service in an ad. Ads appeared everywhere, including the streetcar. The goal of course was to persuade the…
Today we take the sales catalog for granted. In our house several arrive in the mail each month, selling everything from flour to clothes. In the nineteenth century the American seed and nursery industries pioneered the use of the mail…
John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843) has been called the Father of the English Garden. I think that is because in his writing he promoted the art of gardening among all classes of people, not just the wealthy. In the first issue…