The ancient man left no record of when he first yearned for those plants, vegetables, and flowers that did not grow around him. However, during the first century of the Christian era, some conservatory or hothouse was in use.
Some authors mentioned mere frames, while others wrote of substantial structures, or “specular,” erected for winter protection of tender plants brought from the East or Egypt.
Although glass had been known for several centuries before Christ, sheet glass, as such, was not available until the third century. The windows of the specular were covered with slabs of talc or thin sheets of mica.
The heat was supplied using flues built into the masonry walls. In 1874, a building was excavated in the Villa of Marcena, Pompeii, which was considered speculation. It had masonry tiers for displaying plants and flues in the walls.
His court physician ordered the ailing Roman Emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero (42 B.C.-A.D. 37) to eat cucumbers. He astonished his friends by having them supplied daily, throughout the winter, by his gardeners who had “forced” them in his speculation.
Forcing Roses In The First Century
Columella, the philosopher, who wrote at least 12 volumes on 36 Roman agriculture during the first century, suggested a way of forcing roses. He said digging a shallow trench close to the bush occasionally fills it with hot water when the buds show.
But, Seneca (4 n.c.-65 A.D.), disapproving of such practices, asked, “Live they not against Nature, that, in winter, long for a rose, and by the nourishment of warm waters and in a fit change of heat in winter cause a lily, a spring flower, to bloom?”
Centuries passed before Albertus Magnus (1193-1280), a Dominican monk, wrote on agricultural subjects.
According to legend, he revived the ancient Roman method of forcing fruits and flowers into a “hothouse.” For this, he was charged with witchcraft by those who were suspicious of his “under glass” achievements.
Introducing Imported And Exotic Plants
Early in the 15th century, prosperous merchants of Genoa and Venice introduced plants from the East. Wealthy Flemings had imported plants from the Levant and East Indies as early as the days of the Crusaders.
Under the Dukes of Burgundy, their gardens contained more exotic plants than any in Europe. However, the civil wars of the 16th century diverted men’s thoughts from their gardens.
Using Wooden Boxes For Protection
In 1613 Gervase Markham, writing in the “English Husbandman,” referred to the use of deep wooden boxes to protect delicate plants during the winter and warned of removing the plants inside during the night and chilly days.
“Where they may stand warms and safe from stormes, windes, frosts, news, blastings, and other mischiefs, whichever happen in the Sunne’s absence.”
He reports having seen growing “all manner of dainty outlandish flowers, but also pomegranate, cinnamon-trees, olive, almond, orange, and Lemon.”
Using Fire For Forcing Flowers
Sir Hugh Plat, a famous English botanist and gardening authority of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, published “The Jewel House of Art and Nature, Paradise of Flora” (Floraes Paradise) in 1608. After his death, this was reprinted in 1653 as the “Garden of Eden.
“The next edition, published in 1660, mentions the possibility of growing plants in the house and using the fire to force gilliflowers (a term used loosely to describe stocks, wallflowers, and clove pinks).
“I have known Mr. Jacobs of the Glasshouse,” he wrote, “to have carnations all the winter by the benefit of a room near the glass-house fire.
“In the same volume, he asks, “Quaere, If peas, beans, pompons, musk melons, and other pulse seeds, put in small pots and placed in a gentle stove or someplace aptly warmed by a fire and then sown in March or April, would they come up sooner?”
It is significant to note at this point how the American Indian (as told by Sagard in his “Histoire du Canada pays des Hurons” and quoted by the late U. P. Hedrick in his “History of Horticulture in America to 1860”) hastened the germination of pumpkin seeds. The Huron women would powder old well, rotted wood and place it in a large bark box.
The seeds were planted in this, and the box was suspended over the smoke of a fire. The sources were thus gently heated and germinated. When the plants had grown sufficiently, they were planted in the fields.
During the early 17th century, “Orangeries” first became popular in England and northern Europe, having been introduced in Italy. Early orangeries were essentially an addition built on large manor houses’ south or southeast ends.
They were glassed in on the sides and covered with a lead roof. Orange and lemon trees, in large tubs, were grown in these structures during the cold months.
The heat was provided by burning fires in hanging pots or shallow pits on the stone floors. Though not used as such, many of these orangeries may still be seen in England today. In 1619, Salomon de Caus built an orangery at Heidelberg, Germany, that consisted of a large wooden frame that protected about 40 large and 300 small trees.
It was used from Christmas until Easter. Since it was very cumbersome, it was later replaced in favor of a permanent stone structure.
First Botanical Garden In England
The first botanical garden in England was laid out by Inigo Jones, an architect and surveyor, at Oxford in 1621. Jones had recently returned from Italy, where he had been impressed with the Botanical Garden at Padua, established 100 years earlier.
The Oxford Garden was founded by Henry, Earl of Danby, who gave five acres on the Chiswell River, endowed the institution, and built a stab-roofed greenhouse to care for tender plants. A wooden greenhouse was erected in 1734.
The Physic or Apothecaries’ Garden was established at Chelsea in 1673, and a greenhouse was erected in 1680 for 138 pounds.
By 1685 the expenses of the committee, which managed the garden, were getting a little high, so John Watts, the gardener, was given but 100 pounds yearly, out of which he had to keep up the garden.
The Royal Botanical Gardens
The Royal Botanical Gardens, better known as Kew Gardens, were established in 1759 by Princess Augusta of Saxe Gotha, widow of Frederick, Prince of Wales.
The greenhouses originally had been orangeries. Later, when glass was cheaper and more plentiful, glass-roofed structures appeared.
The Musec d’Histoire Naturelle, (Jardin Royal des Plantes Medicinales its name until 1790) was established in Paris in 1635.
In 1701 Sabastian Vaillant erected the first greenhouses. The French were not experienced in the culture of exotic plants and lost many of the early plants, including a coffee plant.
Progress In Scotland
In 1670, the Edinburgh Botanical Garden was established, but it was moved to a new site in 1776.
Here a magnificent range of hothouses was erected under the direction of Dr. John Hays, who was the first to teach the Linnean system in Scotland.
After seeing the Chelsea Physic Garden, Sir Arthur Roden, an early Irish plant lover, sent James Harlow, a gardener, to Jamaica for specimens. He built a hothouse at Moise, probably Ireland’s first.
In 1785 Loudon quotes Robertson, a horticulturist of Killarney, as saying that within 12 miles of the city, there were a dozen or more greenhouses, each of which contained pot stoves that were 50’ to 100’ feet in length.
A botanical garden was established in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1714 to advance the study of alien plant life. However, visiting botanists brought back from Russia a great wealth of material that had not previously been studied nor classified.
Czar Alexander is said to have erected “three parallel greenhouses, each 700’ feet long, connected across the ends by two more of similar length, the tropical sections of which were 40 feet high.
The Curious “Pine”
Wanderings of British seamen, explorers, colonizers, and missionaries proved fruitful for the homeland’s botanical gardens and private conservatories.
Among the plants brought back from the West Indies was the ananas or pineapple. Its culture greatly interested the gardeners of the 17th century.
John Rose is said to have been the first man in England to have successfully ripened a “pine,” which he presented to Charles II, who reigned between 1660 and 1685.
It was nearly 50 years before Henry Tellende, a gardener to Sir Matthew Decker at Richmond, could repeat the feat and grow the pine in numbers. One hundred years after Rose’s first “pine,” were at least three books devoted to its culture.
Use Of Glass For Structures
Early conservatories, orangeries, and greenhouses were covered with lead or clay roofs. It was not until glass became cheaper and more plentiful (about 1717) that glass-roofed structures appeared. The heavy tax on glass windows, which existed throughout Europe, was removed.
The early glass-roofed houses followed the general slope that would have been used if the roof had been opaque.
Early attempts to obtain the best pitch were numerous, including the curvilinear and polygonal forms for attached greenhouses and conservatories.
In about 1800, it was shown that a slope or angle of 45° was the best for practical purposes. This is still the accepted pitch since it best catches the winter sun’s rays.
Fifteen years later, it was proved mathematically that a hemisphere roof outline was ideal, but because it would not readily shed rain and water, it, too, was abandoned. This type is generally used for large conservatories in botanical gardens, but with the center and section raised and sloping at 45° degrees Fahrenheit.
Heating Methods For Greenhouses
The heating of greenhouses has always presented a complex problem. The flues of the ancient Roman specular have been mentioned, as well as the hanging baskets and open pits of the early English houses. Greenhouse heating has also improved with the heating of homes and public buildings.
Greenhouse books and articles of the late 18th and early 19th centuries describe many fantastic and exciting plans and schemes. With the development of circulating hot water and steam plants, the product and erection of vast ranges of greenhouses were made possible.
Though steam predominates in large commercial greenhouses, the search for an ideal heating method persists.
First Greenhouse In New England
Early settlers in America had to concentrate on providing for their everyday needs, so it was not until the 18th century that the first greenhouse appeared.
Andrew Faneuil, who died in 1737, is believed to have erected the first greenhouse in New England. By 1750, greenhouses are said to have been erected in the gardens of prominent Philadelphians.
Theophilus Hardenbrock, a practical surveyor and architect who conducted evening classes for these subjects, designed “a greenhouse, in 1750, for preserving Herbs with winding Funnels through the walls to keep them warm.”
James Beekman of New York built a greenhouse in 1764. It was a primitive little building with glass sides and an opaque roof.
John Bartram had established a botanical garden in 1728 at Kingsessing on the Schuylkill banks near Philadelphia, wrote to Peter Collinson, a famous English Quaker botanist, “I am going to build a greenhouse — to put some pretty flowering winter shrubs and plants for winter’s diversion; not to be crowded with orange trees.
Or those natural to the Torrid Zone, but such as will do, being protected from the frost.” About 1737 (letter undated), Collinson had written to Bartram that Col. Custis of Williamsburg had informed him of Col. Byrd’s fine garden and greenhouse.
George Washington erected a greenhouse at Mount Vernon in 1789. It contained many plants and flowers that had been sent as gifts while he was in charge of the Continental Army and later when he was president of the young republic. It was destroyed by fire in 1835. Twenty-five years later, a new greenhouse was raised on the same site.
Thomas Jefferson had a greenhouse at Monticello. It was essentially a glassed-in piazza on the southeastern end of the house, unlike England’s older conservatories and orangeries. In his letters to his granddaughter, he frequently inquired about or gave directions for caring for his greenhouse plants while in Washington as president.
His correspondence with Bernard McMahon, a seedsman of Philadelphia, is interesting in that it reveals the plants and seeds that were available for early 19th-century Americans for gardens and greenhouses.
Oldest Greenhouse In Use
The oldest American greenhouse in continuous use is built about 1800 in Waltham, Massachusetts. It is a bottomless pit built into the side of a hill, with a low-sloping glass roof facing south. It is still heated by a large brick flue that runs through the center of the building.
The early New England greenhouse gardeners were especially interested in forcing grapes, peaches, and pineapples. Later, their interest shifted to flowers, especially the camellia.
Many excellent camellias were hybridized in these houses. Acacias, azaleas, and other woody plants were also raised and hybridized.
First Greenhouse In The Midwest
The first greenhouse in the midwest is believed to have been erected by Mr. Thomas in Chicago in 1836. The sides were glass, but the roof was made of alternate glass and wood panels.
Before 1850, there were few greenhouse builders in America. Frederic A. Lord of Buffalo erected his first house in 1855.
In 1870 he moved to Irvington, New York, where he entered into a partnership with W. A. Burnham to form the Lord and Burnham Co., which was incorporated in 1883 and is widely known today for all types of greenhouses.
Their earlier houses were curvilinear and used for conservatories in botanical gardens. Today, their techniques vary from the small home greenhouse to the large commercial ranges covering acres.
Other early greenhouse builders were Hitchings & Co. and Thos. W. Weathered’s Sons of New York, and John C. Moniger of Chicago.
In his preface to “The Greenhouse Companion,” published in 1824 by Loudon (who is accredited as the author by the New York State Library at Albany), the author says, “A Greenhouse, which fifty years ago was a luxury seldom met with.
Is now become an appendage to every villa and many town residences; — not indeed one of the first necessity, but one which is felt to be appropriate and highly desirable and which mankind recognize as a mark of elegant and refined enjoyment.
“A hundred and twenty years passed before an American author, Ernest Chabot, in the preface to “Greenhouse Gardening for Everyone,” wrote, “There was a time, not very long ago when a greenhouse was considered an expensive luxury . .. someone had to be on hand much of the time to look after the heat, ventilation, and water.
New materials, designs, and manufacturing methods have brought down costs, and automatic electrical equipment, controlled by thermostats and time switches, does much of the work for you.“
One wonders what the cautious Seneca would say if he could see the many tiny home greenhouses and large commercial ranges. Would lie not ask again, “Live they not against Nature?”
44659 by Dr. Gomer Richards