Gardeners' Chronicle

The Gardeners' Chronicle

The contents page from a 1914 edition of the Chronicle
Categories	Horticulture magazine
Year founded	1841
Final issue	1986
Country	UK

The Gardeners' Chronicle was a British horticulture periodical. It lasted as a title in its own right for nearly 150 years and is still extant as part of the magazine Horticulture Week.

Founded in 1841 by the horticulturists Joseph Paxton, Charles Wentworth Dilke, John Lindley and the printer William Bradbury it originally took the form of a traditional newspaper, with both national and foreign news, but also with vast amounts of material sent in by gardeners and scientists, covering every conceivable aspect of gardening.

Its first editor, John Lindley, was one of the founders. Another founder, Paxton, later also became editor. Prominent contributors included Charles Darwin and Joseph Hooker.

By 1851, the circulation of The Gardeners' Chronicle was given as 6500. Compared with that of the far more eminent Observer at 6230, and The Economist at 3826, the The Gardeners' Chronicle did astonishingly well. Possibly these figures include the Chronicle's large international readership.

It was noted for its large advertising section and when the glass tax was abolished in 1845 and the huge interest generated by the Great Exhibition made personal, small-scale greenhouses possible, it became full of adverts for these, many designed by Paxton himself, and from the sales of which he generated a tidy income.