Sheena Patterson of Oxford Garden Design asks if flowers are upper or working class?

I freely confess to being one of Downton Abbey’s 12 million fans and along with many others am waiting in anticipation to discover the further complications and secrets that abound in the BBC’s award winning series.

Much of the programme is filmed here in Oxfordshire in the idyllic small town of Bampton, where, by coincidence, we are doing a garden transformation at the moment. So I’ve become a bit of a Downton tourist and it’s been interesting visiting some of the locations used for the series. In particular, of course, I’ve been looking at the plants and flowers and wondering if they are truly classless or if the types of flowers favoured by Lady Mary would differ from her maid, Anna.

Many everyday objects that surround us give an indication of social status. The large detached house, the Rolls-Royce are all indicators of class, wealth or importance.

But where plants are concerned is there a difference? The African violet or the flowering cherry may be found in either the aristocratic Downton Abbey (in reality Highclere Castle) or the humble farmer’s cottage.

So, by 1920s England, when the new series takes up, plants had become classless. But this wasn’t always so.

About 200 years ago, the gentry began to reject some of the simple cottage plants as they became popular with the new working classes.

The industrial revolution had created a new breed of workers as farm labourers left the countryside for jobs in cities. But they didn’t entirely forget their roots. In small plots and pots, they started to grow anemones, auriculas, pinks, hyacinths, polyanthus and ranunculus.

Local florist clubs sprang up for men (as yet women weren’t involved) to discuss the latest techniques, plant stocks and show prized blooms.

This humble beginning was the origin of the Royal Horticultural Society and the birthplace of the Chelsea Flower Show. So it was that the lowly working class town dwelling ‘florists’, not the aristocratic estate owners, gave us our garden societies and shows.

By the middle of the 19th century, the popularity of the florists clubs began to wane, and the flowers which had been considered a bit below stairs were starting to be displayed in the middle class villas of Victorian England. Instead the mantle was taken up by different working class plants – vegetables and fruit.

The quest for first prize in the village show for gooseberries or leeks, continues today, but is it still ridden with connotations of class?

The Downton Village Flower Show is an annual event where gardeners can show off their flowers, and here at least, democracy seems to reign.

Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham won with her roses, until Isobel cast her democratising gaze over the entrants. After much hinting from Isobel, Violet, reluctantly, gave her trophy to Bill Molesley whose roses were more worthy of the win. A truly equalising moment!

There is a T-shirt available, displaying the words “Downton Abbey Flower Show 1913.” I’d like to have one but it leaves me pondering, if it might be working class to wear it?

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