BibliOdyssey: The Practical Garden

German botanical magazine

hand-coloured engravings

Cyamus nelumbo

(Egyptian Bean Lily)

Aloe picta

(Spotted-leaved Aloe)

Justicia coccinea

(Cardinals Guard)

Pflaume mit gefüllter Blüthe

(Plum blossom)

Die Arakatscha

(similar to potato, native to the mountains of Colombia and Ecuador)

Der rothe Klapper-Apfel

(variety of red apple)

Neue Erfindung mehrerer Geräthschaften zur

Wartung der Pflanzen in den botanischen Gärten

(New garden maintenance inventions..

Portable glass-house and wire lattice)

Pfirsche mit gefüllter Blüth

Peach & peach flowers

Protea ochroleuca

(native to South Africa)

Cobbea scandens

'Cup and Saucer' vine or 'Cathedral Bells', native to Mexico

Erythrina crista galli

Commonly known in English as the Cockspur Coral Tree,

the Ceibo (in Spanish) is the national plant of Argentina.

Rochea falcata

South African succulent^, commonly known as the Airplane or Propeller plant

Amarelle mit gefüllter Blüte

Fruit, flowers and leaves from the sour cherry tree

Der graue Junker Hanns. (Messire Jean-gris.)

Variety of pear

Plan eines groſsen Kinder-Gartens

(plans for a large children's garden)

New garden maintenance inventions..

including swings, flower beds, gardener's

house, bird-feeder, lawn for gatherings and

ball games, cow shed, monuments &c

'Allgemeines teutsches Garten-Magazin oder gemeinnützige Beiträge für alle Theile des praktischen Gartenwesens' 1809, is online at Lower Saxony Heritage (Kulturerbe Niedersachsen) under the auspices of Gottingen State and University Library. The title roughly translates as: 'General German Garden Magazine or Useful Articles about all Disciplines of Practical Gardening'.

The magazine was issued regularly during the early part of the 19th century. It was one of the first periodicals to include coloured plates and advice on garden maintenance. It seems that these magazine issues were in fact compilations sourced from a variety of contemporary gardening and botanical-related accounts, pamphlets and (more obvious to me) botany books. At least a few of the illustrations are copied from, or modelled after, original sketches by the eminent British naturalist/illustrator, James Sowerby (eg.). So, this magazine compilation is more like the gardening Reader's Digest of its day, than a completely original publication. But perhaps that's a little unkind; it was ground breaking in its own way.

The written text dominates these 'general garden magazines'. Microfiche(?) or photocopy scans of the writing from the magazines can be seen here (compiled as yearly collections): this is within the Digital Garden Collection (newspapers, periodicals, company catalogues) of the German Horticultural Association, hosted by TU Berlin Universitätsbibliothek.