ABSTRACT
Purveyors and consumers of seeds both abide by and negotiate the natural cycles of plants when establishing commercial routines. The consumers’ horticultural calendar determined the sequencing not only of the sourcing of seeds within the trade, but also such tasks as writing and printing the annual catalogue or working in the mailroom to open orders. The variety in the consumer base for seeds was used to advantage by the trade, which frequently published excerpts from customers’ letters in catalogues, advertisements or other ephemera. The hybrid nature of the business of supplying horticultural specimens and the varied ways in which consumers fit horticultural practice into their lives show a variety of approaches to time and the rhythms of tasks that, at least for the consumers, might be coded variously as work or leisure. Horticulture provided a possible bridge between the Jeffersonian vision of a small-scale agricultural endeavour and the American System’s support of larger scale commercial prospects.
