Charles Turner (May 3, 1818 Wilton - May 9, 1885), nurseryman and breeder
1885, May 14. Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener page 401
Death of Mr. Charles Turner. Horticulture, and especially Floriculture, has sustained a great loss by the death of Mr. Charles Turner of Slough, who has for some considerable time past been in failing health, and who eventually sank to rest early on Saturday morning the 9th inst. at the age of sixty-seven years. For forty years Mr. Turner was a prominent figure in English floriculture - perhaps the most prominent figure. There was no branch of the art which he did not adorn, and no flower which he took under his fostering care ever left his hands that was not improved by the skill he bestowed upon it. Mr. Turner was a native of Salisbury, and began life in the nursery of the late Mr. John Keynes, the noted florist. On leaving Salisbury he came to Chalvey near Slough, where he began business on his own account, and subsequently on the retirement of the Messrs. brown of Slough, Mr. Turner removed frm Chalvey and entered into possession of those nurseries for which so many years have been famous through the enterprise and great business talent which he bestowed upon them. This brief notice must suffice at present. The portrait is taken from Mr. Douglas's work i>Hardy Florists' Flowers by permission of the author, and is an excellent likeness of Mr. Turner in his "best days."
[From The Garden, May 16, 1885, p. 468:] THE death of Mr. CHARLES TURNER, of the Royal Nursery, Slough, on the morning of Saturday, the 9th inst..... He was born at Wilton, near Salisbury, on May 3, 1818...In early life he showed a great love for flowers; he commenced the culture of the Pink when quite a stripling, and at the age of
14 he won his first prize... In 1834, by which time he had secured other first prizes for Pinks and the same award
for Dahlias, he was apprenticed to a nurseryman at Salisbury....From Salisbury he went to Messrs. Cormack's Nursery at New Cross, and after a time to those of Messrs. Brown, of Slough. Here he added to his reputation as a successful cultivator, and, taking advantage of the rising tide in favour of a more extended culture of florists' flowers, he went into business on his own account at Chalvey, a small village near to Slough. Then about 1844 or 1845, on the retirement of Mr. W. Cutter from the proprietorship of the Royal Nursery-he having succeeded the Messrs. Brown-he removed there, and has occupied this nursery for forty years.
[From Climbing Roses, by Stephen Scanniello and Tania Bayard, p. 73:] Charles Turner, Turner Nurseries, Slough, England
Charles Turner of Slough appears repeatedly in The Garden: An Illustrated Weekly Journal of Gardening In All Its Branches, not only in association with the introduction of roses but also carnations and dahlias. Turner was probably a nurseryman rather than a hybridizer, repeatedly introducing roses of others' breeding.
