Royal gardening show digs out Henry VIII's manual and Victoria's petunia passion

[snokitty]

Royal gardening exhibition unearths Henry VIII's thumbed manual and | UK news | The Guardian

Buckingham Palace exhibition explores centuries of royal horticultural effort, unearthing William's pineapple power games and Louis' methane mortalities

The 14th century gardening manual which warned Henry VIII that his cucumbers would tremble with fear in a thunderstorm, and a spectacular painting showing the beautiful garden he created at his Whitehall Palace, are going on display in an exhibition tracking the gardening passions of generations of royal families.

The painting, done in 1545, shows enticing views out to flower beds and paths from the dark interior where Henry sits with Jane Seymour, and his children, Edward, Mary and Elizabeth. It is the only surviving record of the Great Garden which was destroyed along with the palace in a fire in 1698, and the earliest known painting in British art of a real identifiable garden.

With the gardening manual, which Henry acquired on the death of his chaplain, its previous owner, the painting is among treasures going on display in a new exhibition at the Queen's Gallery in Buckingham Palace.

[LouisFerdinand]

I like the fact that King Henry VIII's gardening manual, Ruralia Commoda, expressed that a royal garden should take up 20 acres or more. That is a lot of flowers. Or is that a lot of vegetables? Imagine all those weeds!

[Curryong]

^ I can imagine it being more about herbs and vegetables, (huge Royal households to feed) as well as those 'conceits' that monarchs in those days loved to have in their gardens, fountains and trick statues and hedges sheared into all sorts of fantastic shapes, and arbours and other curiosities. I don't think flowers played as much of a role then as they did in say the 19th and 20th centuries, when huge bunches were taken into the house and set up in vases, though there would have been some of course. Herb gardens would have been important, to flavour food and use in medicines.

Kings and their families and senior courtiers would certainly have had fruits like plums that few ordinary people would have ever seen, so some of the land would have had to be taken up as orchard. Also, things like peas and beans were only in season for a short time and so the first ripened peas etc of the season would have been offered to them.