James Shirley Hibberd
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James Shirley Hibberd (1825 – 16 November 1890) was one of the most popular and successful gardening writers of the
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
. He was a best-selling editor of three gardening magazines, including ''
Amateur Gardening ''Amateur Gardening'' is a British weekly magazine dedicated to gardening. It includes news, advice, feature articles, and celebrity columns and interviews. History and the early years ''Amateur Gardening'' was founded in London in May 1884 by S ...
'', the only 19th-century gardening magazine still being published today. He wrote over a dozen books on gardening and several more on natural history and related subjects. He promoted town gardening,
aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...
s, bee-keeping, vegetarianism,
water recycling Water reclamation (also called wastewater reuse, water reuse or water recycling) is the process of converting municipal wastewater (sewage) or industrial wastewater into water that can be reused for a variety of purposes. Types of reuse include: ...
,
environmental conservation *Environmental protection Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, w ...
and the prevention of
cruelty to animals Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction by omission (neglect) or by commission by humans of suffering or harm upon non-human animals. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm or suf ...
and birds, all before they were taken up as 'causes' in the twentieth century. Most important of all, he taught and promoted
amateur gardening ''Amateur Gardening'' is a British weekly magazine dedicated to gardening. It includes news, advice, feature articles, and celebrity columns and interviews. History and the early years ''Amateur Gardening'' was founded in London in May 1884 by S ...
, before it was acceptable among the gardening establishment, and helped to found the whole consumer industry in amateur gardening that we have today.


Early life

Shirley Hibberd was born in
Mile End Old Town Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...
, now part of
Stepney Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appl ...
, in
east London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...
, England. His parentage is obscure but it is believed that his father died when he was about 14 and he then started work as a
bookbinder Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of ''signatures'', sheets of paper folded together into sections that are bound, along one edge, with a thick needle and strong thread. Cheaper, b ...
or bookseller. His earliest known writing dates to about 1849, when he was active in the
Vegetarian Society The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom is a British registered charity which was established on 30 September 1847 to promote vegetarianism. History In the 19th century a number of groups in Britain actively promoted and followed meat ...
and edited their magazine, the ''Vegetarian Advocate''. During that time he was described as an 'operative chemist', which meant an experimental scientist. As well as editing the magazine he lectured on vegetarianism throughout east London. By 1851, however, he seems to have lost interest in vegetarianism, and then began to lecture more widely on science, natural history and other subjects. He even gave a series of talks on the
Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
at
Wyld's Great Globe Wyld's Great Globe (also known as Wyld's Globe or Wyld's Monster Globe) was an attraction situated in London's Leicester Square between 1851 and 1862, constructed by James Wyld (1812–1887), a distinguished mapmaker and former Member of Parlia ...
in
Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester ...
. As a journalist, Hibberd worked on a succession of popular family magazines and was a frequent contributor to ''Notes and Queries''. After his marriage in 1850 to Sarah Voyer, Hibberd moved into a small house in
Pentonville Pentonville is an area on the northern fringe of Central London, in the London Borough of Islington. It is located north-northeast of Charing Cross on the Inner Ring Road. Pentonville developed in the northwestern edge of the ancient parish o ...
, north London, and began to take an interest in gardening, which seems to have been a natural progression from his childhood interest in wild flowers, birds and insects. He soon discovered the difficulties of gardening in inner city London where the atmosphere was laden with soot, and fog and smog was prevalent throughout the winter. The other problem was that there was very little information available for amateur gardeners, especially those living in towns and cities. The professional gardeners, who dominated the gardening press, refused to believe that city gardening was either possible or desirable. This was Hibberd's opportunity to make a name for himself, and he began to teach himself gardening, discovering what plants could survive in London and how amateurs could learn things for themselves.


Publications

Hibberd's first gardening book was ''The Town Garden'' (1855), which described his own garden in Pentonville and advised novices how to start gardening. The same year he had already published ''Brambles and Bay Leaves'', a book of essays on science and natural history, largely based on articles he had previously written for magazines or on lectures he had given. These were followed by three books on
aquariums An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, a ...
, another enduring interest for early scientists, who were fascinated with the complexities of preserving living things in water and how
oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...
was used. By 1856 Hibberd had moved to
Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
, further north in London, and there began to keep a variety of aquatic creatures, birds and bees. These experiences led to his best known book, ''Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste''. The book was so successful that a second edition followed in 1857, and in 1858 his publishers, Groombridges, invited him to start a monthly magazine for amateur gardeners, ''The Floral World and Garden Guide''. With the ''Floral World'', Hibberd proved himself to be one of the first successful writers for amateur gardeners. He encouraged correspondence and discussion, answered queries and encouraged local amateurs to write for him. He began to publish a series of books on every aspect of gardening and reported on his own experiments in trying out different varieties of plants. He became particularly interested in the problem of
potato blight ''Phytophthora infestans'' is an oomycete or water mold, a fungus-like microorganism that causes the serious potato and tomato disease known as late blight or potato blight. Early blight, caused by ''Alternaria solani'', is also often called "po ...
which had caused the
Irish famine The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a h ...
, developing his own method of growing potatoes on tiles to combat the disease. By 1858 Hibberd had moved to Lordship Terrace,
Stoke Newington Stoke Newington is an area occupying the north-west part of the London Borough of Hackney in north-east London, England. It is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington the ancient parish. The ...
in north-east London, and maintained his garden there for about thirteen years, writing about it in all his books and providing illustrations of the garden for his readers. In 1862 he took over ''The Gardener's Weekly Magazine'', an ailing publication, which he re-launched in 1865 as ''The Gardener's Magazine''. This became a serious rival to the well-established ''
Gardeners' Chronicle ''The Gardeners' Chronicle'' was a British horticulture periodical. It lasted as a title in its own right for nearly 150 years and is still extant as part of the magazine ''Horticulture Week''. History Founded in 1841 by the horticulturists Josep ...
'' and '' Cottage Gardener'' and put him in the forefront of horticultural publishing. From 1863 onwards he produced titles on every aspect of gardening, including ''Profitable Gardening'', ''The Rose Book'', ''The Fern Garden'', ''The Amateur's Flower Garden'', ''The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory'' and ''The Amateur's Kitchen Garden''. He produced two series of books with coloured plates, ''New and Rare Beautiful-Leaved Plants'' and ''Familiar Garden Flowers'', a book about wild flowers, ''Field Flowers'' and was the first person to make a study of
ivy ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and ...
with his monograph, ''The Ivy''. In 1884 he started another magazine, ''Amateur Gardening'', which still survives today.


Environmental work

Shirley Hibberd always believed that man should live in harmony with the natural world. As an observational bee-keeper he realised the importance of
bees Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...
in pollinating plants and tried out many of the new types of hive which were designed to prolong the lives of bees, avoid swarming and increase the yield of honey. He exhibited his 'town honey' at horticultural shows and promoted the idea of keeping bees on balconies and even inside people's houses, where they could come and go through windows. He was adamant that cruelty to animals should cease, protected garden birds and caged birds, and developed a method of growing
watercress Watercress or yellowcress (''Nasturtium officinale'') is a species of aquatic flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. Watercress is a rapidly growing perennial plant native to Europe and Asia. It is one of the oldest known leaf ve ...
in troughs, to avoid diseases from plants grown in polluted water. This was explained in his book ''Home Culture of the Watercress'' for which he was awarded a gold medal by the
Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...
. He also designed a system of water tanks for collection of rainwater for use in houses, published in a pamphlet ''Water for Nothing – Every House its own Water Supply'' in 1879. He denigrated the 'spoliation' of wild flowers and in particular native ferns, which had become a collecting obsession, known as
pteridomania Pteridomania or fern fever was a Victorian craze for ferns. Decorative arts of the period presented the fern motif in pottery, glass, metal, textiles, wood, printed paper, and sculpture, with ferns "appearing on everything from christening ...
in the 1860s and 70s. In his books he gave detailed instructions for growing plants in glass cases, known as a
Wardian case The Wardian case was an early type of terrarium, a sealed protective container for plants. It found great use in the 19th century in protecting foreign plants imported to Europe from overseas, the great majority of which had previously died from ...
, inside houses. He looked at the science behind the way the plants grew and promoted the idea of growing wild flowers in the cases, rather than the usual ferns and foliage plants.


Personal life

Shirley Hibberd's first marriage to Sarah Elizabeth Voyer (1823–1880) was childless, and she spent much of her life as an invalid. He refers in his writing to a 'tragedy' that befell them in the early part of their marriage, possibly relating to a lost pregnancy, which might also have been connected with a heart defect suffered by his wife, who died of heart disease at the age of 56. He wrote a moving account of their life after 1870, when they took on a new garden, fraught with difficulty, which he believed contributed to her death. Four years later, however, he married his cook, Ellen Mantle, who was 28, while he was 59. They moved to a large house in
Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...
, south-west London, where Ellen gave birth to a daughter, but she died a few days after giving birth. The daughter, also called Ellen, survived. Hibberd himself died five years later at the age of 65, and his daughter was adopted by his nephew, Charles Montague Mitchell. She subsequently trained as a nurse at the
Royal London Hospital The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and spe ...
,
Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...
, in east London.


Conflicts

Shirley Hibberd never flinched from argument if he felt justified in his own position. During the 1860s he used the pages of the ''Gardener's Magazine'' to criticise the workings of the Royal Horticultural Society because he believed it was badly run and was not giving a fair chance to working class amateur gardeners. Later, however, when the society had been reformed, he worked closely with them, and the main reason he moved to Kew was to help re-organise the neglected RHS garden at Chiswick. During the 1870s and 80s he had a series of arguments with the gardener and writer William Robinson. Hibberd had helped Robinson in the 1860s by publishing articles by him in the Floral World and giving good reviews of Robinson's early books. However, in 1871 Robinson started his own gardening magazine, ''The Garden'', closely followed by ''Gardening Illustrated'' and set himself up as a rival to Hibberd. This in itself did not worry Hibberd, but Robinson was a well known plagiarist and also frequently picked quarrels with other writers to gain publicity. Resentment surfaced after Robinson had copied an article on vegetables that first appeared in Hibberd's magazine and then criticised Hibberd's book, ''The Ivy''. Hibberd then reported on an asparagus competition organised by Robinson that was a failure. In a series of articles in 1881 the two men hurled abuse at each other which Robinson chose to take as racist remarks (he was Irish). Hibberd ended the quarrel with a quotation from
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''King John'' implying that Robinson was of so little account that a drop of water would drown him.


Legacy

Shirley Hibberd is rarely given the credit he deserves as a pioneer in amateur gardening. Other well-known Victorian gardeners, such as
Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote ...
and William Robinson, have gardens still remaining that have been restored. Hibberd's gardens, being town gardens in inner London, have all disappeared through being built over. The only garden connected with him that does remain is Islington Green, a small park he laid out in 1865. Unlike the books of Jekyll and Robinson, Hibberd's books are all out of print, although two were re-issued as facsimiles in the 1980s. It is sometimes thought that he promoted what is considered as typical Victorian formal gardening, based on half-hardy 'bedding plants' and that his books are therefore old-fashioned and irrelevant today. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Hibberd constantly condemned the use of bedding plants by amateurs as he felt they were unsuitable for small gardens whose owners would not have the facilities for growing them in glasshouses or the finances to buy them in sufficient quantities, and nor would they be able to maintain such displays adequately. He stated that the most important part of a flower garden was the display of herbaceous perennial plants and shrubs. He also taught amateurs all the skills of growing fruit and vegetables, secrets so closely guarded by professionals that they refused to write about them for general readers. Hibberd's true legacy is his promotion of amateur gardening as a self-contained market where plants, equipment, tools, books, magazines and every other consumer product connected with gardening were made cheaply available to anyone who wanted to use them, and the practice and love of gardening effectively brought together people of different classes as equals.


Selected publications


''Familiar Garden Flowers''
(1879)


References

*


Bibliography

*Anne Wilkinson (2012), pub.: Cortex Design. ''Shirley Hibberd, The Father of Amateur Gardening: His Life and Works 1825–1890''.


External links

* *
Shirley Hibberd: The Father of Amateur Gardening
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hibberd, Shirley 1825 births 1890 deaths British animal welfare workers British vegetarianism activists English conservationists English garden writers English magazine editors English male non-fiction writers English nature writers People associated with the Vegetarian Society People from Stepney