Conrad Loddiges & Sons orchid watercolors

In its prime, Loddiges Nursery was home to the world's largest hothouse, the largest named tree collection, and many innovations in tropical plant cultivation. It was a tourist attraction in London and helped to spark the Victorians' interest in ferns and orchids. Joachim Conrad Loddiges (1738-1826) built the company from a seed shop and small nursery that he acquired in the 1770s in the London borough of Hackney. The grounds were scattered around Mare Street until 1785-1786, when Loddiges acquired two adjacent fields on that street where he could consolidate the nursery. Loddiges's youngest son George (1786-1846) oversaw several additions to the nursery, including an arboretum, improved steam-heated "stove houses," and a tropical rain forest display with a sprinkler system (for which George received a medal from the Royal Horticultural Society). In 1818 the nursery began publishing its own journal, The Botanical Cabinet. Loddiges was known for its singular success raising orchids, particularly epiphytic orchids, which were one of George Loddiges’s special interests. It is thought to have been the first British company to cultivate orchids commercially. In 1839 the nursery put out its first orchid catalog listing more than 1,600 species and varieties. By 1845 the number had increased to 1,916. Two orchids, Acropera loddigesii from Mexico and Cattleya loddigesii from Brazil, are named in tribute to the Loddiges family. The business closed in 1852, after the deaths of George Loddiges and his brother William in 1846 and 1849. The combination of an expiring lease, rising land prices, and growing industrialization and pollution in the area made the move necessary. The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew could not afford to buy the Loddiges collections even at a generously reduced price, so some of the stock was sold to the new Crystal Palace Company and the rest was auctioned. Surviving trees from the Loddiges arboretum can now be seen in Abney Park Cemetery.

References:

Solman, David. 1985. Loddiges of Hackney: the largest hothouse in the world. London: Hackney Society.