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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

August from Eliot Hodgkin's 'The Months', 1950. The colours are warm and rich - vibrant zinnias, cuckoo pint berries, the rust of a sorrel flower, the first pear, apricot and mushrooms of the year, and an ear of wheat.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

July from Eliot Hodgkin's 'The Months', 1950. A globe artichoke takes centre stage, surrounded by heady white nicotiana flowers, a flaked carnation, a poppy head, cornflowers, begonias and Chinese forget-me-not. There are luscious summer berries but also the sinister touch of deadly nightshade.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Eliot Hodgkin, 'June', from 'The Months', 1950. That gorgeous poppy, what I suspect is rosa 'Mermaid', scented pinks and philadelphus, and the first summer fruits and veg. Many things noticeably later than today, especially as Hodgkin gardened in central London.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

An extraordinary photo showing George V cutting the lawn at Adelaide Cottage in 1915 under the supervision of his mother, the Dowager Queen Alexandra. Adelaide Cottage is the current home of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Photo from the personal albums of Queen Mary.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Gardeners carrying in their pots, Chelsea Flower Show, 1931. RHS Lindley Library.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

'May' from 'The Months', Eliot Hodgkin, 1951. There's double hawthorn (may blossom), fragrant lily of the valley, cowslips, magnolia stellata, a tiny red azalea, a head of rhubarb flower, broad beans, garlic, the first summer fruits and a blackbird's egg.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Wondering when to plant your potatoes? A clever tip given to me by a 90 year old award-winning allotmenteer is to wait until the magnolia blossom in your area is starting to go over. That is the perfect time. About another week for me this year ...

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

April from 'The Months', Eliot Hodgkin, 1951. Two beautiful camellias take centre stage, but there are also single and double daisies, auriculas, polyanthus, chaenomeles, 'sticky buds', the first radish and Jersey Royals of the year, a white bluebell, and a dainty tulip clusiana.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

'March' from Eliot Hodgkin's 'The Months', 1951, with Spring in full bloom. There's pale pink bergenia in the centre; a beautiful mauve pasque flower; camellia and early iris just opening; cherry, pieris and ribes blossom; tooth-like blanched chicory and the first 'sticky bud'.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

'February' from Eliot Hodgkin's 'The Months, 1951. Other than a succulent stalk of forced rhubarb, and a florist's tulip, garden flowers now predominate. There's early primula allionii, dainty snowdrops, iris reticulata, celandine, sprays of daphne and winter jasmine, and two gladiolus bulbs.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

It's pussy willow time! I don't know who the photographer is and some of the names seem questionable, but what a brilliant depiction of the different varieties. Each would have had unique properties for basket weavers.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Transatlantic alliance in 1929. British sweet pea breeder Henry Eckford (r) visiting Philadelphia breeder W Atlee Burpee in Burpee's garden. Eckford transformed the sweet pea at his nursery in Wem, Shropshire, raising 153 beautiful, large-flowered cultivars.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Alpine Pansy, Wills's cigarette cards, date unknown.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Just round the corner... Artist Angela J Simpson.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Wishing you a happy, healthy and peaceful 2026 and a year full of gardening enjoyment. Eliot Hodgkin, 'January', from 'The Months', 1950.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Wishing all you lovely people a very Merry Christmas. 'Forcing Garden in Winter', from Humphry Repton's 'Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening', 1816.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

LOST APPLE 'RYMER' REDISCOVERED! Thanks to amazing sleuthing by Stephen Ainsleigh Rice in England and Gary Sully in Australia, this wonderful cooking apple has been confirmed rediscovered. Believed lost for nearly 100 years, DNA testing shows it was a grandparent of Bramley. 1/3

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

'December' from Eliot Hodgkin's 'The Months', 1950. The first Christmas roses, seasonal greenery, a dainty indoor cyclamen, a shop-bought anemone, a clementine from Spain and two shy early violets, with their promise of spring.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

'Exhibition Extraordinary at the Horticultural Society of London' (later the RHS), George Cruikshank, 1826, City of London archives. Presiding over this mockery of the Society's pomposity sit the chairman, John Elliott, 1/2

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

The Greenhouse and The Garden, Eric Ravilious, 1932

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

A selection of more than 100 varieties of apple grown at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, in Norfolk, displayed and labelled for its annual Apple Day.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

'November' from Eliot Hodgkin's 'The Months', 1950. A brocade-coloured chrysanthemum, reddening geranium leaves, the first blanched chicory, arbutus unedo fruits, bulbs and seeds for autumn planting.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Not from Britain, but such a beautiful photo. Workers stripping jasmine flowers for the perfume industry in 1915, at a convent turned into a factory in Notre Dame des Fleurs, Grasse, Southern France. The fragrance must have been intoxicating! Meanwhile, further north, war raged ...

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

A good haul (and a well-loved, hand-knitted gardening cardigan)! Found, mid-century photo.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Golden Crab Apples, Eliot Hodgkin, 1957, private collection.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

First published in 1956, and written by Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, 6th baronet (1897-1988, brother of the eccentric Dame Edith), this remains an excellent bibliographical record of two centuries of finely-illustrated flower books from around the world.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

'October' from Eliot Hodgkin's 'The Months', 1951. Cooking apples take centre stage, flanked by grapes, fungi and the first celery and Brussels sprouts. There's a button chrysanthemum, fluffy Old Man's Beard, a shiny conker and a reddening leaf of Virginia Creeper.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Tea in the garden for an unknown Edwardian family.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

'Yellow Ox-eye daisies', Charles Mahoney (1903-1968), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Mahoney painted this post-war study of telekia speciosa at his garden in Wrotham, Kent, where he had constructed his studio from munition packing cases.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

September from The Months, Eliot Hodgkin, 1950. A soft orange dahlia takes centrepiece, alongside the first sweetcorn cob and first of the autumn apples. There are delicate trails of Virginia creeper and blackberries, and a sprinkling of mushrooms and nuts.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

All I can discover about this painting of terraced back gardens is that the artist is an E N Thurston and that it is 'vintage'. Does anyone know more?

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Postcard of an impressively dressed Edwardian couple on their allotment, 1905. Annotated 78 Cornwall Road, Kettering - probably their home address.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

With allotments under new threat, enjoy this short BBC film from 1971. Allotments aren't just about produce, they're also about community ... www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wci...

youtube.com

1973: The Finest ALLOTMENTS In Britain? | Nationwide | Voice of the People | BBC Archive

YouTube video by BBC Archive

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

'Miss Edith Inspects the Sweetpea', by London artist Charles Mahoney, c.1934. The artwork depicts Mahoney's landlady overseeing work in her garden, and the painting was a significant contribution to the artist's 1976 posthumous exhibition.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Hop picking in Yalding, Kent, 1944. Londoners from the East End joined locals for several weeks each summer, staying in tin huts with straw mattresses and cooking on camp-fires. Despite the hard work, it is remembered with fondness by many London children.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Nectarines were a surprisingly popular fruit among Victorian gardeners, who generally had to grow them under glass. 'Victoria' was most probably introduced by Rivers Nursery of Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire in the 1840s to mark the new Queen's accession.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Land girls harvesting tomatoes, Lea Valley, Hertfordshire, 1944. Although enjoyed in salads, the tomato was still approached with caution in the UK. As a young man during WWII my father was warned by his doctor that they could cause appendicitis.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

July from Eliot Hodgkin's 'The Months', 1950. A superb globe artichoke takes centre stage, surrounded by heady white nicotiana flowers, a variegated carnation, cornflower, begonia and Chinese forget-me-not. There are luscious summer berries but also the sinister touch of deadly nightshade.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

The Dunbar family in the garden at The Cedars, Spring; Evelyn Dunbar, 1938. Evelyn's father, William, is presenting eggs to her mother, Florence. Evelyn is playing badminton with her sister Jessie, and her siblings Marjorie, Alec and Ronald also appear.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

I suspect (am not certain) that this lovely Edwardian photograph was by Etheldreda Laing (1872-1960), a gifted amateur photographer, renowned for her images of daily life at the family home, Bury Knowle House, in Oxford. She was particularly fond of photographing hollyhocks.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Aster Alpinus (alpine daisy), plate from William Curtis' Botanical Magazine, 1 August 1792.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

The Land Girl magazine was launched on 1 April 1940 at the price of 4d to help the girls feel less isolated. It became so popular (selling 21,000 copies a week) that the Ministry of Agriculture decided to fund its production. The last edition was published in March 1947.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Dachshund assistant gardeners, 1910 postcard. No such help from our mini-wirehair - his specialism is sunbathing 😂

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

The Elton Cherry, William Hooker, Pomona Londiniensis, 1817. Raised by Thomas Andrew Knight at Elton Hall, Herefordshire in 1806 from Bigarreau and White Heart. It is still obtainable and still delicious!

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

The Hawthorn Horse, Oakham, Rutland, 1932. Situated at the corner of Cemetery Road and Station Road, this topiary horse was a local attraction. It was in the paddock of Mr J Littler, a veterinary surgeon. The Old Barn, now Oakham School shop, can be seen to the right.

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British Gardening History @britgardhistory.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

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