James Shirley Hibberd (1825-1890), the Father of Amateur Gardening.

Dropping his first name, James, in 1850, Shirley Hibberd was responsible for the following publications illustrated by Benjamin Fawcett.

1856 Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste
1858 Garden Favourites
1858 The Floral World
1869 The Fern Garden
1870 Field Flowers
1870 The Rambling Botanist
1870 New and Rare Beautiful-leaved Plants, published by Bell & Daldy
1871 The Amateur's Flower Garden
1872 Brambles and Bay Leaves
1872 The Ivy
1872 The Seaweed Collector
1873 The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory
1874 The Amateur's Rose Book
1877 The Amateur's Kitchen Garden
1879 Greenhouse Favourites

All but one of these fifteen books were published by Groombridge and it was this relationship that brought writer and illustrator together rather than the close collaborative approach that gave rise to the nine books or sets of Morris and Fawcett. In both cases, Lydon, of course, was responsible for most of the artwork.

Shirley Hibberd "invented" amateur gardening. This was at a time when gardening was the preserve of the horticultural establishment and definitely not a subject for lesser mortals. Shirley Hibberd's canvas was about as far from the rolling parkland of the country house as you could get - Victorian Inner London. If you thought vegetable gardening, vegetarianism and urban bee-keeping were products of the 1970s "good life" or trendy 21st century eco-gardening you couldn't be more wrong! James Shirley Hibberd was a pioneer of all these activities and more over 150 years ago.