Horticulturist and “nurseryman” Robert Furber is credited as the author of Twelve Months of Flowers. The first seed catalogue produced in England, it details trees, fruits, and flowers that thrive in the English climate and includes twelve hand-colored engravings illustrating seasonal plants in bloom. The April spread features a vibrant arrangement of thirty flowers, each identified in the caption below. Furber’s meticulous cataloguing and the attention to detail in the illustration remind us to pay attention to the beauty and possibility in what grows and blooms around us every day.
Robert Furber (1724–1732), Twelve Months of Flowers, 1730, engraved by Henry Fletcher after a design by Pieter Casteels (1684–1749). Gift of Henry S. and Junius S. Morgan, from the estate of Jane Norton Morgan, 1958; PML 49791.