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Case six
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| John Rea, Flora, seu, de florum
cultura, or, a complete florilege furnished with all the requisites
belonging to a florist. London: Printed by J.G. for Richard Marriott,
1665. DeBeer Ec/1665/R |
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Cultivation of plants
John Parkinson was an apothecary like Gerard and wrote a massive herbal, Theatrum Botanicum (1640). He is, however, better known for his Paradisi in Sole: Paradisus Terrestris (1629), a book on garden plants and their cultivation. (The title played on his name: Paradisi = Park(s), in, Sole = Sun['s] Paradisus Terrestris = Earthly Paradise.) The book devotes sections to plants for the ‘garden of delight' (the flower garden), the kitchen garden, and the orchard. Some 20th century writers have used his knot garden designs for their herb gardens for an ‘authentic' effect. However Parkinson's text makes it clear that culinary herbs were always grown in the kitchen garden, not in the knot garden. In 1629 the word ‘herb' also included what we now call ‘vegetables'.
John Rea (d. 1681) was a professional nurseryman and garden designer who wrote just one gardening book: Flora Ceres & Pomona (1665). His audience were ‘florists', the term then used for flower fanciers and collectors. Having found Parkinson's 1628 book out-dated, he prepared this work with three sections: Flora, dealing with the making of enclosed flower gardens and ornamental orchards; Ceres, listing the best varieties of annual flowers grown from seed; and Pomona, introducing ornamental fruits, climbers and flowering shrubs. Besides descriptions of the best varieties of bulbs, flowers and fruits, Rea meticulously listed the necessary tools. It was acknowledged as the most important manual on flower gardening of the later 17th century.