Join the Club

One quirk of the British, which often amuses newcomers to these shores, is our fondness for setting up societies. Rivalling our love for a ‘proper’ cup of tea and an orderly queue is a seemingly very British need to gather in groups of like-minded people to appreciate things. Whatever you can think of, there’s likely a society for its fans – and gardening is no exception.

If one plant in particular has captured your heart, there’s probably a society of people who share the same passion. The oldest societies have associations with traditional florists’ flowers (namely, tulips, carnations, anemones and ranunculus, joined later by hyacinths and auriculas), blooms grown and exhibited by amateurs from the 17th century. A lot of the early florists were handloom weavers, able to give prize plants ample care because they worked at home.

In her book, , Margaret Willes records how strongly Carl Linnaeus, the ‘father’ of botany, disapproved of these growers breeding and selecting