Jane Webb Loudon’s most significant work was “The Ladies’ Flower-Garden,” a multi-volume set with each volume focused on a particular type of plants. The Miller Library has the first volume in this series devoted to annuals. While this book is in the Library’s Rare Book Room and only available to view by appointment, many of the illustrations appear in “Garden Flowers,” a book in the general collection by Robert Gathorne-Hardy. These were noteworthy for the time by including many different species on the same plate, set in loose arrangements that show contrasting features while maintaining scientific accuracy. The illustrations were also a big selling point for “The Ladies’ Flower Garden” because, at the time, they were expensive to produce–and Loudon was able to show a greater number of species in a single book.
Excerpted from the Winter 2019 Arboretum Bulletin.