Mr Cuthbert’s Guide to Growing Tomatoes
‘Why’, the reader may ask, ‘should I waste my time growing tomatoes when I can buy all I need in the shops?’
Mr Cuthbert’s guide first published 1953, republished 1956
I recently found this small pamphlet, tucked in amongst books on a shelf in my parent’s house. Mr Cuthbert goes on to tell us, in answer to that reader’s question: ‘the homegrown tomato, fresh picked with the warm glow of sun still upon it, is immeasurably superior to what I may call ‘market produce’. I wonder what he would make of the ice cold tomatoes sold today, in plastic containers, grown in greenhouses, that may never have seen the warm sun?
My father did like to grow tomatoes and one of my earliest garden memories is the strong smell of the leaves and then in Autumn when we pulled the plants up, the smell and seed heads of the marigolds that were planted around them. Curiously I don’t seem to have a memory of harvesting the tomatoes!
Later when I moved into a house in London with a small shady garden, Dad would appear each year with a large grow bag and two or three tomato plants that he had grown from seed. He would say, as he always did, ‘they’ve got two chances’….and then looking at my small space, crowded with pots and sandpit and swing …’but maybe less than two here’.
This year I am growing two tomato plants and finding Mr Cuthbert’s book is timely. I am about to go out and following the advice in Diagram A - A Tomato Plant Displayed, check to see if I now have 4 trusses, 2 setting fruit and 2 in flower meaning it should now be ‘stopped’ by pinching out the growing tip of the main stem. Apparently many beginners are hesitant to take this necessary step, perhaps in the hope of getting a larger crop.
However I am sorry to report that I have just discovered that Mr Cuthbert was in fact a fictional character! He was the invention of Clayton Russon, owner of a seed company. The Garden Museum tells me: Cuthbert’s, named after a long vanished 18th century nursery, was the most popular brand of seeds in post-war Britain. Business owner Clayton Russon was a marketing showman who promoted seeds and bulbs under the name Mr Cuthbert’s Weekly Gardening Talk.
I have to admit that I do have a weakness for old gardening books. A favourite is the The ABC of Gardening by W.E. Shewell-Cooper published in 1946. It has a plain green cover with the silhouette of a robin perched on a spade handle in the right hand corner and inside it is dedicated to: My dear wife who typed every word of this and very patiently. He also thanks ‘the officers and men in the South Eastern and Eastern Commands, who worked so hard during the 1939 -1946 War in the gardens and allotments when I was Command Horticultural Officer’. W. E. Shewell-Cooper has a slightly different take from Mr Cuthbert on when I should ‘stop the tomato plant’ recommending this action to remove the growing point takes place in the second week of August.
I wonder if others also like to peruse the gardening sections of second hand bookshops looking for these gems?
If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the Daffodils in July with Taylors Bulbs episode that was published this week, it is below. I had a brilliant morning asking all the daffodil bulb questions I could think of while a very patient Ian Clark answered them and gave me a tour of the whole operation from field to packing shed. It has certainly changed the way I will view daffodil bulbs this Autumn…let me know if it does the same for you.
Have a lovely weekend - I am off to sort out my tomato plants.
Sally
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