Vintage Christmas Flowers

There was a time, long before those brilliant red silk poinsettia at Michaels ( complete with faux gold foil on the pot), and dwarf Kalanchoes, paperwhite Narcissus or white Snowflake Hydrangea’s when the only source for Holiday plants was the local florist, most likely one with a snow covered, glasshouse attached, or, if you were wealthy, from ones own greenhouse,where winter-blooming shrubs and plants cultivated by ones gardening staff could be brought into the conservatory or plant windows for temporary display for Christmas. 

I have to admit that I have a weakness for 18th and 19th Century conservatory plants and growing techniques, perhaps because I am blessed with a heated glasshouse in New England, but more so, because of the rich horticultural heritage which exists from this time period. A time when plant explorers from England (and even a few from the US) travelled by ship to far off lands such as China, Japan and South Africa in search of new species to grow in these relatively new structures called ‘stoves’, glasshouses or greenhouses which suddenly offered the ability to grow tender plants and produce like grapes, nectarines and pineapple for the winter estate table.

Here in the Boston area, many glass and wood greenhouses still exist, but not as many as when I was a child in the 1960’s, and even fewer than when my father was a child, in the 1910’s. He remembers local greenhouses here in central Massachusetts where camellias were available throughout the winter for a corsage for a Holiday party or a freshly picked bunch of fragrant violets, once so traditional as a Christmas flower, long before the poinsettia’s of the 20th Century made their debut.

Those of you who read my posts often, know that I love old-time plants My obsession with Victorian plants and their cultural techniques keep my plant collections unique, with most additions coming from old estate greenhouses or from long searches on-line, as I try to find lost cultivars of Clivia, Acacia species, rare bulbs and many other plants which were once so common in any cold northern greenhouse in London or the North Eastern US. Once in my greenhouse, these plants often perform with surprising regularity, as if they know a secret. Blooming at precise moments of time often dictated more by the moon and Earth’s seasonal cycles, than by chemicals or artificial daylenth with lights. So although my Christmas cactus or Cyclamen may appear to bloom at different weeks each year, at least they all bloom at the same time. 

In my greenhouse, which is kept relatively cold with a nighttime temperature of 40º F., here the classic vintage shrubs and plants like camellias, Daphne odorata, Buddleia asiatica, Osmanthus fragrans, Lily of the Valley, winter bulbs and Correa all bloom during these shortest days of the year. and each becomes a living bit of history for me, whenever I enter the greenhouse in the December and January, as if one could smell a scene in a painting or an old photograph. I can imagine a country gentleman from 1805 appreciating exactly the same scent, perhaps even from the same plant, and many of these ancient greenhouse conservatory plants came from cuttings collected from old estate greenhouses here in the Boston area. 

Camellias and Hellebores were common illustrations on turn of the century Christmas cards, where they appeared along with other common early winter plants such as cyclamen, scented violets and Lily of the Valley.  Single white or red Anemone’s and Ranunculus were also common cut flowers available from local greenhouses during the Christmas season. Along with twigs of broad-leaved evergreens like holly, boxwood, and needled conifers such as spruce, pine and fir, and a truly authentic Chistmas arrangement could be assembled. In the days of Lincoln and Downton Abbey, such plants and flowers had to be grown locally. Pinecones, acorns, nuts and seeds, woodland plants such as mosses, ferns, berries and branches, along with ornamental grasses, feathers and dried flowers, fruits such as oranges, pineapple, lemons, limes and apples rounded out the Christmas displays of the period.