{"id":8133,"date":"2021-01-10T12:31:59","date_gmt":"2021-01-10T12:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=8133"},"modified":"2021-01-10T12:32:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-10T12:32:03","slug":"horticultural-wife-the","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/horticultural-wife-the\/","title":{"rendered":"Horticultural Wife, The"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>The broken-hearted gardener<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1839<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writer\/composer<\/td>Alexander Lee<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN7966<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Mr Rees, The Hutchinson Family<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singer<\/strong>
unknown 1933 N. Ireland<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
 THE HORTICULTURAL WIFE.\n Sung by Mr. Rees in the \u201c King\u2019s Gardiner.\u201d<\/strong>\n\n She's my myrtle, my geranium,\n My sunflower, my sweet majorum,\n My honeysuckle, my tulip, my violet,\n My hollyhock, my dahlia, my mignionette.\n \n Oh, oh she's a fickle wild rose,\n A damask, a cabbage, a china rose.<\/em>\n\n She\u2019s my snowdrop, my rununculus,\n My hyacinth. my gilliflower, my polyanthus,\n My heart's ease, my pink, my water-lily,\n My huttercup, my daisy, my daffydowndilly.\n\n We\u2019ve grown up together like young apple trees,\n And clung to each other, like double sweet peas,\n Now they are going to trim her, and plant her in\n a spot\n And I am left, to wither, neglected and forgot.\n  \n I\u2019m like a scarlet runner that has lost its stick,\n Or a cherry that\u2019s left for the dicky birds to pick ;\n Like a watering pot I weep, like a paviour I sigh,\n Like a mushroom I'll wither, like a cucumber I\u2019ll die. \n\n I'm like a bumble bee that doesn't know where to settle,\n She's a dandylion, and a stinging nettle,\n My heart\u2019s like beet root, choaked up with chicken-weed, \u2018\n My head\u2019s like a pumpkin, a-running to seed,\n \n I've a great mind to make myself a felo de se<\/em>,\n And finish all my woes on the branch of a tree,\"\n But I won\u2019t for I know at my kicking you would roar,\n And honour my death with a double encore.\n\nFirst verse in later (?) versions:<\/strong>\nI'm a broken-hearted gardener and don't know what to do, \nMy love she is unconstant and a fickle one too; \nOne smile from her lips will never be forgot, \nIt refreshes like this shower from a watering pot<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Sam Henry collected this song in Northern Ireland in the 1930s, but did not record the name of his source singer. He describes it as “an old popular street ballad”. The song does indeed appear in many 19th-century broadsides and songbooks. The earliest records of the song seem to indicate it was written to be sung as part of C. Selby’s burletta The King’s Gardiner<\/em> (a burletta is a brief comic opera). The King’s Gardiner<\/em> seems to have had its debut in London in 1839, and the song was sung by Mr Rees, who played a character called Galochard. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Age, May 5 1839<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The “Mr Rees” who played the part in London is presumably the “Mr David Rees” who played the part with great success and many encores at the Theatre Royal in Dublin in 1840. Such was its success that the burletta was revived several times in the 1840s in Dublin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song was popular in the early precursors to Music Halls in London, and Charles Rice describes it being sung in tavern concerts in 1840. There are reports of it being sung in halls and theatres throughout the 1850s, but this may represent a revival of the song – as it became an important part of the repertoire of the Hutchinson Family Singers in the 1850s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hutchinson Family were an extremely successful close harmony singing group from America: formed in 1842, they toured the UK in 1845 . They may have picked up The Horticultural Wife <\/em> during that tour.  A four-part harmony version “as performed by the Hutchinson Family” was published in America in 1850 and is available in the Levy Sheet Music Collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
 There are regular instances of it being performed in amateur concerts from 1865 on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some later versions published under the name The Broken-Hearted Gardener<\/em> and had an extra verse at start<\/a>. It’s pure speculation but I suspect that the additional verse was needed when the song was being sung in isolation rather than as part of the burletta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This song has often been confused with The blighted gardener<\/a><\/em> by GW Hunt, a later song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n