Jane Loudon (1807 – 1858)

the only known image of Jane Loudon

John Claudius Loudon and his wife Jane were a veritable powerhouse duo of garden writers; advising instructing, and informing Victorian readers what they should know, aspire to, and appreciate in the world of plants, gardens and horticultural science.

By 1828, J.C. Loudon was well-established in his career, although frequently in debt and in poor health, when he reviewed a novel entitled The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century  for his own publication The Gardener’s Magazine.  It was a futuristic fantasy which foretold of a world which included, amongst other things, telephones, radio, air-conditioning, coffee machines and cheap air travel.  Excited by these ideas he arranged to meet the author – Jane – and within six months they were married.

Jane, 25 years younger than her husband, knew nothing about plants: ‘It is scarcely possible to imagine any person more completely ignorant of everything relating to botany than I was at the period of my marriage with Mr Loudon’, but she was a very quick learner.  She attended botany lectures at the Royal Horticultural Society, visited gardens to understand garden design, and learnt practical skills.  During the evenings after dinner, and well into the nights, she would act as secretary to her husband writing down his plans, ideas and thoughts for his many publications and clients.

Jane wrote on her own account as well, producing a magazine, The Lady’s Magazine of Gardening, and the first of many publications, Instructions in Gardening for Ladies in 1840.  Her books were aimed at the ladies who had recently acquired gardens and provided clear, unpatronising, and practical instructions to ‘not only have the satisfaction of seeing the garden created…but she will find her health and spirits wonderfully improved by the exercise, and by the reviving smell of the fresh earth’.

Dianthus, Jane Loudon, 1843, VAM

In just three years she wrote and published five more books, and also began to illustrate them herself in a style that could be easily copied for those ladies interested in handicrafts as well.  She had also learned enough botany to publish her own  Botany for Ladies in 1842 which provided for the first time a clear and easily understandable introduction to the subject.  She later wrote that: ‘I sincerely hope the time may arrive, though probably I shall not live to see it, when a knowledge of botany will be considered indispensable to every well-educated person’.    

After her workaholic husband’s death in 1843 she worked harder than ever for although his output had been prolific he was also deeply in debt, largely brought about by his eight volume magnum opus Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum. When Jane Loudon died she was virtually penniless, but she had succeeded in bringing the art and craft of gardening to women.