Also interesting to learn more about how and why they became such popular “Floristry Flowers” grown for competition. I first became aware of auriculas when reading one of my favourite novels These Lovers Flew Way by Howard Spring, in which one of the characters Uncle Arthur is the pompous but well meaning Town Clerk of a northern town and has two great passions in his life – his whippet Madelaine and his auriculas.

“Why Arthur”, my mother asked. “What is wrong?”
“Unremitting attention, loving attention, and attention informed by knowledge, is necessary throughout the twelve mortal months of the year”, Uncle Arthur said, “to produce a display which has been accepted without a word of comment.”
His gaze rested upon the enormous wire contraption that stood on the table. The wire, white painted, was elegantly twisted to form containers for flower-pots. There were four tiers: five pots, four pots, three pots, and one crowning all. In each pot was an auricula in flower.
“They look very nice, Arthur,” my mother conceded.
Uncle Arthur laid down his spoon. “My dear Edie,”he said, “if a well-balanced life like mine, a life dominated by there cold particularities of municipal administration, may be said to have a dominating passion, that passion is The Auricula.”
He lay a hand on Madelaine’s head. “Madelaine is aware that even she,” he said, holds a second place…

And so on. I had no idea what auriculas were when I first read the book but having seen what they are like, I can understand why they can become a “passion”!

GA, thank you for your piece on auriculas in Spitalfields. Edward Church’s observation that “the weavers were almost the only botanists of their day in the metropolis” is probably the reason they were able to create such imaginative floral designs in their silk fabrics.

Great photos too. My favorite variety was “Mrs Herne – gold-centred alpine auricular.”

The story of the auriculas offers such a genuine touch of spring in this troubled world.

Thank you, GA, and Pat.
Onward and upward.