Royal Horticultural Society Librariesさんのイラストまとめ

"All Christmastide may Joy abide."

Who can name the plants featured on this beautiful Victorian Christmas card from the RHS Lindley Library collection?

V is for viper's bugloss!

📸Watercolour of Echium vulgare (viper's bugloss) by Caroline Maria Applebee, 1825.

#AlphabettyBlooms

Apparently Carl Linnaeus chose the genus name Tropaeolum because the plant reminded him of Roman trophy poles (tropaeum) on which the armour and weapons of defeated foes were hung. The plant's round leaves made him think of shields, and its flowers of blood-stained helmets.

#AlphabettyBlooms - letter I is for Iris!

📸Watercolour of 'Iris missouriensis', Miss Williamson, 1908.

1 of 35 paintings made for Ellen Wilmott of varieties from her Essex garden Warley Place. Famous for its vast plant collection, Warley became derelict after Wilmott's death.

The development of tulip varieties became an obsession for working class growers who described themselves as ‘florists’- gardeners devoted to perfecting one plant type. Lacking money to buy expensive bulbs they would grow tulips from seed, waiting 7 years for flowers to mature.

‘Parrot’ tulips arose as natural mutations. The petals, which are deeply slashed at the edges, curl and twist in all directions. The name comes from the appearance of the flower in bud which is thought to look like a parrot’s beak.

In Turkey during the Ottoman Empire, tulips were used to decorate everything from tiles to royal armour. Unusual types were expensive and Sultan Selim II ordered prices to be fixed. He punished those caught overcharging severely - his Head Gardener was also chief executioner.

In its long history the tulip has adopted many identities. It has inspired poets in the courts of Turkish sultans, been the subject of fevered financial speculation in Holland and carpeted municipal parks and gardens in vivid colour.

#AlphabettyBlooms Day 7 - G is for gladioli!

↙️ Gladiolus carneus (painted lady)
👨‍🎨Sydenham Edwards, c.1814

↘️Gladiolus dalenii (dragon's head lily)
👩‍🎨Caroline Maria Applebee, 1833

© RHS Lindley collection #BotanicalArt

#DidYouKnow that people used to think that dreaming about a pumpkin was bad luck? 🎃💤

Have you ever dreamed about a vegetable?