CHAPTER VI 

 FLOWERS 



IN the course of a paper on ' The Progress of Market- 

 Gardening Cultivation during Queen Victoria's Reign,' 

 which he read before the Royal Agricultural Society in 

 1897, Mr. Assbee, Superintendent of Covent Garden 

 Market, said : 



Large as have been the areas of agricultural land transferred 

 from the farmer to the market-gardener to supply vegetables and 

 fruit, and great as has been the progress of those grown under 

 glass, the crowning-point of modern gardening is most certainly 

 shown in the rise and progress of flower culture for the market. 

 There can be no comparison made between 1837 and 1897 in this 

 branch of market work. The few loads of potted plants and 

 bunches of flowers only obtainable at Covent Garden Centre Row 

 have been changed into the unique and magnificent spectacle 

 presented by the early Covent Garden flower market of to-day. 

 Nothing so much marks the advance of our working and middle 

 classes in material progress, in improved taste and refinement, as 

 their increased outlay upon flowers. At all seasons and under all 

 conditions of life, from the sick-room in a London lodging or the 

 ward of a public hospital, up through all times of joy and sorrow, 

 to the highest function of society (the Drawing-room), we find them 

 shedding their joyous light and delicious perfume, Nature's most 

 charming productions. 



In the matter of flower production supply and demand 

 have, indeed, acted and re-acted the one upon the other. 

 The more that the popular taste for flowers increased, 

 the greater were the efforts made to put attractive 

 flowers on the market ; and the larger the supply of 

 charming blooms at a moderate price, the more willing 



70 



