I've never had any interest in botany, but this book managed to make the subject interesting and also included plenty of background information on Victorian life.

At the dawn of the Victorian era, Britain was mad for gardening. Regular discoveries of new flora, the drawings and specimens that survived the journey back to London, and the technological advances of the second industrial revolution helped to fuel that passion. Beginning with Schomburgk’s fortuitous discovery in 1837 of the massive Victoria Regia – the eponymous Flower of Empire – continuing with Paxton’s Crystal Palace and the Great Exhibition of 1851, Holway weaves together an impressive narrative. From never-ending challenges facing Schomburgk in the new British colony of Guiana, to the rivalries described between various botanists and organizations to be the first to publish new species discoveries, and further explored by describing how technological and social change helped raise a humble garden boy, Paxton, to knighthood, the highly researched Flower of Empire recounts the changing world of this colossus flower.

I personally found the story of Paxton the most interesting and developed. We follow his career from the beginning as a humble garden boy at the Horticultural Society’s Chiswick Gardens, to his appointment at just age 20 to the position of Head Gardener of Chatsworth and the changes he brought to that estate, to knighthood by Queen Victoria. His rise to success was facilitated by a favourable relationship with the Duke, Paxton received a gentleman’s education when he assisted the Duke’s travel on the Continent; he returned a changed man. Holway refers to this experience throughout descriptions of his career to explain his comfort with a variety of situations and perhaps as an influence to his innovations. As head gardener he worked to make Chatsworth a haven of botanical wonders by designing new gardens, innovative glass houses, and created elaborate displays for both notables and the press. Becoming the first man to coax the water lily to blossom, he secured the influence to submit and secure the commission to design the Crystal Palace. Paxton was not just a botanical man, he worked with his wife Sarah -- who often supervised and played a prominent role in managing his affairs as he was often away from the Chatsworth gardens– in managing their interests in the railway industry.

Holway’s text is a fascinating botanical and sociological review of the far reaching impact of one flower on the empire.

I received my review copy through LibraryThing Early Reviewer’s Program/Net Galley.