An Abundance of Flowers. Judith M. Taylor
Salter, the grandson of an English cheesemonger, ran a nursery in Versailles from 1838 until 1848. Salter was very clever and thought he would capitalize on the craze for the English garden on the Continent, but was obliged to return to England because of the Communist uprisings in Paris. He is known to have introduced more than seventy-five chrysanthemums, many of them prizewinners.
Once back in London, he set up the Versailles Nursery in Hammersmith, where his son Alfred worked with him. Salter named one of his more successful cultivars ‘Alfred Salter’. Another cultivar that lasted well, ‘Annie Salter’, was named for his daughter. His nursery survived until 1874. When Salter retired, he sold his stock of chrysanthemums to William Bull.
Descendants of John Salter are still very active in pointing out just how remarkable a man he was. (Colin Salter was most helpful in filling in some of the details.) Salter did not start out as a professional horticulturist, but learned everything he needed to know and produced his chrysanthemums in the space of about ten years. Sometime after that, he took up pansies, and once again did stellar work. (See chapter 7.) The Canadian amateur Henry Groff followed much the same path, starting with gladioli, and then, years later, taking up iris, and seems to have been a very similar sort of person, immensely quick and energetic. (See chapter 4.)
John Salter, carte de visite. Photographer unknown.
Reproduced by permission of the Royal Horticultural Society
George Stevens (d. 1902), Putney, London
Stevens introduced ‘Prefet Robert’, “a handsome Japanese incurved flower, deep crimson in color with silvery reverse.” He owned St. John’s Nurseries in Putney and served on the Floral Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society.
Charles Lennox Moore Teesdale (1816–1901)
Unlike some of the men mentioned earlier, Charles Teesdale was an amateur. He was born in Guernsey to a military family just one year after the battle of Waterloo but elected not to follow the family trade. He may have been given the name Moore in admiration of a popular general.
Teesdale chose to work for the Post Office in London, gradually rising in rank. (His career mirrored that of the much better known Anthony Trollope. As part of his duties for the Post Office, Trollope invented the iconic red pillar box to post letters safely.)
Subsequently Teesdale retired to Herne, a very select part of the small Sussex town of Worthing on the south coast. There he was a justice of the peace and a magistrate. The family could afford this pleasant place because his wife had some money. (Alert readers will remember that Ernest, in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, was found in a bag in the railway station at Worthing.)
Growing chrysanthemums was an avocation for Teesdale. He left more than sixteen new cultivars. His retirement to Herne coincided with the advent of many new greenhouses built to supply fresh fruit and vegetables to London and the other big towns. This development may have sparked his interest in flowers.
Veitch and Sons, Exeter and London
The Veitch family ran a distinguished nursery for four generations, starting in Exeter and then moving to London. They were known for very bold business moves, such as sending private collectors to many parts of the world, and offering some of the rarest and most remarkable plants on earth. In Exeter, Veitch employed John Dominy as a hybridizer. In 1861 he was the first person to introduce a hybrid orchid, an astonishing feat at the time. Introducing new chrysanthemums was part of their background activity for Veitch and Sons, not their main thrust, but as in everything else they did it very well. James Morton, the American author of a very useful book about the early chrysanthemum, wrote, “In 1881, Messrs. Veitch & Sons of London imported from Japan six new sorts, called Ben d’Or, Comte de Germiny, Duchess of Connaught, Thunberg, and others, all of which are well known.”
William Wells (1848–1916), Redhill, Surrey
Wells took over Goacher’s nursery at Merstham, Surrey. He published a book about the finer details of raising chrysanthemums in 1898. The book was clearly successful, for it went through several editions.
Channel Islands
The islands of Jersey and Guernsey lie closer to the French coast than the English, but are considered to be part of the United Kingdom as a result of ancient wars and battles between England and France. The islands’ prosperity stems in part from their proximity to the Gulf Stream. This provides the islands with a better climate for growing crops than much of the rest of Britain. Certain commercially important flowers blossom several weeks before those on the mainland, and the Channel Islands’ principal cash crop, tomatoes, ripens earlier too.
Daffodils, violets, and some bulbous plants have been associated with Jersey for a long time, but there has also been a small contingent of chrysanthemum raisers. Morton reported that M. Emile Lebois, an amateur in Paris, grew more than five hundred improved seedlings in 1836 but took advantage of the warmer climate in Jersey to “bulk up” a better crop first. He sold them to Chandlers of Vauxhall. Many of Lebois’s varieties remained in commerce for a long time. Lebois was Marc Bernet’s nephew by marriage (see below), and his primary nursery was in Ivry, near Paris.
Lebois was the most successful of the early breeders in Jersey during the 1840s, but he was not the first. A local baker whose name has not survived grew his plants against a wall behind his oven, protecting them from cold damage. Major Carey, a man named Clarke, James Davis, James Dawnton, Thomas Pethers, and Charles Smith, all from Guernsey, raised new varieties for a while, but then the interest died down. Some of these men are discussed below. Davis introduced ‘Prince Alfred’, ‘Prince of Wales’, and ‘Princess of Wales’. Dawnton introduced ‘Elaine’ and the ‘Fair Maid of Guernsey’. The latter were all in Guernsey. The first exhibition of chrysanthemums was held in the islands in 1865.
BREEDERS
Major Carey, Guernsey
Another amateur, a Major Carey, worked in the Channel Islands and introduced these cultivars: ‘Hackney Homes’, ‘Beaumont’, ‘Yokohama Orange’, ‘Victoria’ (1882), ‘The Czar’, (syn. ‘Peter the Great’), ‘The Khedive’, ‘Sir Isaac Brock’, ‘Sarnia Glory’, ‘Red Gauntlet’, and ‘Mrs. C. Carey’.
The cultivar ‘Lady Carey’ was possibly introduced by the nurseryman James Davis in Guernsey or by Norman Davis in Sussex. Major Carey’s first name is unclear. An English expert, Brian Young, told me he has narrowed down the possibilities to two men: Major de Vic Carey (1866–1904) or Major Charles Le Mesurier Carey, who died in 1905.
Thomas Pethers (b. 1821), Guernsey
Pethers worked in Guernsey and bred a lot of seedlings. John Salter bought plants from him and developed many fine varieties. Pethers introduced ‘Mrs. Pethers’, ‘Mrs. Huffington’, and ‘Sir Stafford Carey’, among others. (Sir Peter Stafford Carey [1803–1886] was the bailiff of Guernsey from 1845 to 1883.) Pethers traveled to South Africa for a time but did not resume breeding chrysanthemums when he returned.
Charles Smith (d. 1921), Guernsey
Charles Smith had the largest nursery in Guernsey in the nineteenth century: Charles Smith and Son, Caledonian Nurseries. He introduced several new camellias as well as the magnolia cultivar ‘Goliath’. He was also very active with chrysanthemums.
Nathan Smith and Son
Nathan Smith also had a nursery in the Channel Islands. He introduced the chrysanthemum cultivars ‘Mrs. E. Miles’ and ‘Mrs. Haliburton’, among many others. As far as is known, he was not related to Charles Smith on Guernsey.
FRANCE
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