Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l'Europe ('Flowers of the Greenhouses and Gardens of Europe')(1845-1888) was one of the finest horticulture journals produced in Europe during the 19th century, spanning 23 volumes and over 2000 coloured plates with French, German and English text. Founded by Louis van Houtte

Louis van Houtte

Louis Benoit van Houtte was a Belgian horticulturist who was with the Jardin Botanique de Brussels between 1836 and 1838 and is best-known for the journal Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l'Europe, produced with Charles Lemaire and M...

 and edited together with Charles Antoine Lemaire

Charles Antoine Lemaire

Charles Antoine Lemaire , was a French botanist and botanical author, noted for his publications on Cactaceae....

 and professor Scheidweiler

Michael Joseph François Scheidweiler

Michael Joseph François Scheidweiler , was a German-born Professor of Botany and taxonomist, whose main area of interest was the Cactaceae. From a collection by Henri Guillaume Galeotti, he first described Ariocarpus retusus, type species of the genus in 1838 in Brussels...

, it was a showcase for lavish hand-finished engravings and lithographs depicting and describing botanical curiosities and treasures from around the world.

The work is remarkable for the level of colour-printing craftmanship displayed by the Belgian lithographers Severeyns, Stroobant and De Pannemaker. Louis-Constantin Stroobant (1814-1872), printed many of the illustrations for the first 10 volumes. P. De Pannemaeker during his career produced some 3000 illustrations for botanical periodicals and books, and was also a noted landscape painter. Most of the plants depicted in "Flore des Serres" were available for sale in van Houtte's nursery, so that in a sense the journal doubled as a catalogue.

The 19th century was an age of discovery, and botanical periodicals were published all over Europe and America to document the beauty of newly found plants and to cater to the burgeoning interest in horticulture. The editors were experienced botanical engravers and horticulturists, combining their knowledge and skills to create a showpiece of novel exotics and familiar cultivated plants. Charles Lemaire came from being an engraver for Redoute's great works Les Liliaces and Les Roses. Louis van Houtte, owner of the most successful nursery on the Continent at that time, sent his own plant explorers to find unknown orchids and other exotics, and to return them to Ghent

Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

for cultivation at his nursery, and later publication in his "Flore des Serres".