Curiosity, Commerce, and Conversation: Nursery-Gardens and Nurserymen in Eighteenth-Century London

This article examines the cultural history of early commercial nursery-gardens in London (c. 1670-1730). It aims to establish nursery-gardens and their operatives as the objects of serious cultural-historical analysis, and to situate these sites and practitioners in relation to broader contemporary phenomena that are routinely cited as fundamental to the life of the eighteenth-century city: knowledge production, commercial prosperity, and urban sociability. The first section charts the growth of commercial nursery-gardening, with particular attention to questions concerning elite patronage. The second section interrogates the interwoven careers of the nurseryman Thomas Fairchild as a writer, experimental horticulturist, and successful businessman.