Is It Art or Is It Gardening

Images: "Tree Clubmosses", "Ipomoea Tricolor Heavenly Blue" morning glory and a wine colored iris all by the famous botanical illustrator, Maud H. Purdy. The cover of "Dreer's" seed, plant, and bulb catalog with an illustration of crocus.

Old catalog and early botanical illustrations provide beautiful art.

They were often done in watercolor and ink, and most done from live specimens.

Burpee has a section of their web site devoted to pictures of their old catalogs. Those prior to 1900 have a delicate and lovely accuracy that are only seen in the work of skilled artists. I would have copied a few of those here but they are copyrighted. If you enjoy this sort of thing (both flowers and vegetables), their site is http://www.burpee.com/ Go to "Garadener's Corner" and then their Catalog Cover Gallery.

Another aspect of these prints is they show what was popular in that era. This is especially nice if you are creating or restoring a historic or period garden.

Of all the old catalog pictures Burpee features, the top flower was the sweet pea and the top vegetable was the tomato. Followed by the pansy and beans.

Today sweet peas are a nearly forgotten garden plant. It was introduced for commercial sale in 1670. Next, in the 1800s, the grandiflora or old fashioned sweet pea was bred. In the middle 1800s to early 1900s, the varieties were so numerous and varied they often featured more than ten new ones a year. The "Spencer" variety, introduced in 1901, is consider the new variety. One thing most valued about the early sweet peas was the strong fragrance. Today, it is difficult to find a sweet pea with any fragrance. You must go to a company that carries heirloom quality plants and seeds and even at that the variety has been limited.

We might have lost the names and descriptions of these old plants (along with the plants) if it hadn't been for the artist's renderings.

The royals and wealthy commissioned artists to draw flowers anatomically correct. It provided accurate and recorded pictures for scientific study and better understanding of plant life. Many of these original drawings are priceless.

There are quite a few old botanical and herbal books in libraries, public botanical garden gift shops, university files & studies, e-Bay and used book stores. Botanical and art museums might also be a possibility. Some are colored but the very old will often be black and white. Occasionally, there will be exhibits of some of the old and beautiful illustrations at some of the bigger universities or musuems.

I enjoy incorporating an old fashioned plant into my garden. It gives a slightly Victorian look and they most often have a stronger scent.

I am not dismissing modern botanical drawings; there are some beautiful ones, too. I just happen to like the old ones for the artist's technique and the historical record.