Botanical art has been valued throughout the centuries for a wide variety of uses. For a time it was of utmost importance for use in correctly identifying plants to be used for medicinal purposes. In the 17th and 18th century, botanical art transitioned to more aesthetic purposes for viewing pleasure. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this turn in priorities reached its height as wealthy garden owners commissioned artists to chronicle the plants contained in their private gardens.

Nowhere is this more clearly seen then in one of the most famous botanical artist of all time, Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Redouté (late 18th century) was from a family of painters and after an education in the technique of watercolor on parchment in the 1780’s, produced volumes of masterpieces of naturalistic and botanical accuracy. He is well known for his association with Napoleon Bonaparte’s wife, Empress Josephine, for whom he painted numerous compilations of roses, lilies and other plants she contained in her Malmaison château garden. Two hundred years later, Redouté’s works are still highly sought after and found in an abundance of newly published collections of his work. At the rare times original sets or individual drawings appear at auctions, the prices received for them can be millions of dollars. His art captures more than just plants and embodies the neo-classical life of Europe.

Botanical art carries historical, cultural, and scientific importance, and the Southern Bulb Company has sought to continue this tradition through the support and cooperation with the award winning botanical illustrator Ann Swan of England. This project is an effort to assemble a compilation of world class art that captures a certain set of flowerbulbs that are the distinguishing marks of a time tested group of plants. Over the past 75-200 years, these traditional bulbs have proven their ability to adapt and thrive in the new world. Not without irony, many are the original species and first hybrids from whence came many of the cultivars existing in the market today. The grace and simple beauty of these bulbs are making them popular again not only for authentic garden restorations but to enhance newly designed sites as well. Their ability to thrive under natural growing conditions makes them even more valuable and sensible for today’s gardeners.

Great effort has been poured into the botanical accuracy of Ann’s colored pencil drawings. Numerous visits to London, with specimens and pictures in hand, were made to ensure proper texture, dimension, and color matches. Ann has spent time visiting in the United States, and personally oversees the printing of her work in London. All prints of these limited edition drawings are personally signed by Ann and shipped to the Southern Bulb farm for distribution in the United States. Only through such efforts can the proper balance between art and science be so elegantly achieved.

Wealthy garden owners once paid large sums of money to support artisans through private commissioned drawings of their own plant collections. Now, through the support of gardeners and art connoisseurs across the nation, an entire private commission has been made available to those who choose to participate. Ann Swan’s drawings document the essence of these horticulture treasures, and are daily reminders of the importance of preserving our gardening and cultural heritage. The Southern gardener’s bulbs have gone from heirloom gardens and old homesites, to living antiques gracefully adorning walls across the nation with year round color and class.

Ann's latest and most striking Byzantine gladiolus (Gladiolus byzantinus). Below she studies a specimen of the G. communis species, a smaller pink flowered form that regularly sets seed.

Her first and highly valued "Bulbs in a Line"