In this book Roy Genders compares old fashioned flowers with antique furniture, china, glass or early English water colours.
"They are collecors' plants which are eagerly sought by those who love the quaint old flowers and do not wish to see them disappear, though they have become as difficulr to find as pieces of early Wedgwood (...) They are not only appreciated for their beauty but also for their scarcity value. They are plants steeped in the history of these islands and some of them were taken up by those who worked at home in the early days of the industrial revolution when these lovely flowers brought interest and beauty into the home."
By these "early days" he means the years before 1850, when the workers still worked at home and were their own boss.
"The old plants have not become scarce because they were in any way difficult to manage or because of tender constitution. That many have survived for the last four hundred years, clearly shows them to be almost indestructible but they are plants which require care in their culture, neither do they lend themselves to modern methods of mass production. They have survived in cottage gardens because of the loving care bestowed upon them by several generations of plant lovers."
Ref.: Pelham Books Ltd., London, 1971.
