Here’s a list courtesy of Jenny Day, of all the different fruit including types of each grown at Boathouse in the late 19th Century. The former orchards operated as a business, a florists and a market garden and were owned and worked on by Archibald Brown between 1874 and 1912. We may more commonly know this area as Boat Jocks.
Fruits grown:- Strawberries, Gooseberries, Black, White, & Red Currants Apples, Pears, Plums, Quince, Nectarines and Raspberries.
Plums: Maggies (Magnum Bonums) Whitecorns, Victorias, Sulphurs, Black Jack, Jags (harsh gage), Crawford, Julians, St Julien, ind root stock Burnits, measured in Huk’s.
Gooseberries: Sulpher, Warrington, Harvies Red, The Lady, Whitesmiths, Hear reds? Hairy Red Goose
Apples: King of Tomkins County, Spitzbergen, Paradise (grafting Stock), Black Prince, Keswicks (Codlin)
Pears: Crawford (Chalk),Gargonels (Jargonelle)
Strawberries: Viscountess, Wellingtons, Browns, Wonder, Sir Harry Excelsior, Eltons (Elton Pine), Prince, Keens
Flowers grown: Chrysanthemum, Queen of England Primulas + white, Roses, Ericericia, Carnations, Cinerarias , Camellia + white, Calceolarias, Deutzias, Rhododendrons, Vaccinium, Azaleas, Cactus
Today, there’s little sign of any of these species remaining, the land cleared, but I’ve always meant to conduct a more detailed search.
The berry pickers at Boathouse, Blantyre, including some of Jenny Day’s family. Back row 3rd in, Jessie, Arch, unknown male, Robina, front row, Katie, seated, Christina, Jenny’s Grandmother Jessie and Jeannie. This would make the photo probably about 1890. During the berry season Arch also employed girls from Carluke to help with the picking. This is of course mentioned in his diary from 1874 and 1875.
Courtesy: Jenny Day