Heritage varieties connect us to growers of the past
Some of our familiar seed companies have been on the go for over a hundred years. Covers of their early catalogues were works of art. As today, descriptions of available seeds were written in glowing terms to encourage gardeners to buy them.
With the outbreak of the First World War and the desperate need to increase home food production, seed catalogues also carried important educational messages. A Sutton’s Seeds catalogue of 1917 included a letter from the firm’s owner justifying his inclusion of gardening advice and cultural information for the benefit of first time gardeners as so many experienced and trained gardeners were away fighting at the Front.
Books and magazines were important sources of information too in the days before television, radio and internet. Amateur Gardening magazine was founded in 1884 and its wartime editor was author TW Sanders. Browsing in my battered copy of his book Kitchen Garden and Allotment, I found a comprehensive timetable of sowing and planting for a year round supply of vegetables. New to me was Couve Tronchuda; a Portuguese kale renowned for being able to withstand hot weather.
Seed companies produced separate vegetable and flower catalogues. Paper shortages meant that the number of pages allowed for flowers was restricted, but the Royal Commission on Paper lifted the restrictions for vegetable catalogues. Nonetheless, it was acknowledged that even in wartime there should be a place for flowers. Among the hardy annuals, candytuft, nasturtiums and sweet peas were popular.
War and Peas (www.
There is a demonstration allotment plot in Glasgow’s Pollok Park
warandpeasplot.co.uk) is a new project uncovering some of what happened on the Home Front. It’s exploring the heritage of Glasgow’s allotments, looking at how sites developed in response both to food shortages and social changes. There is a demonstration allotment plot in Glasgow’s Pollok Park where some of the varieties available at that time are being tried out. Two gardening clubs meet there and everyone is welcome to go along to their regular sessions and join in.
Archaeologist Hannah Connelly explained to me that there would have been demonstration plots in parks during the First World War so that inexperienced gardeners would be able to see what tasks needed to be done each week.
As well as cultivating the plots, there are some workshops. The first one, by expert John Marshall, the “Potato Professor”, looked back at some of the popular potato varieties of that time. Nostalgia is just part of what makes growing heritage vegetables so beguiling. n