After serving an apprenticeship in Ludlow under the bookseller Thomas Griffiths, on Christmas Day 1813, Benjamin Maund purchased the Bromsgrove printing business of Sarah Thompson. He quickly prospered and soon moved to a property on the High Street where he experimented with seeds and plants from around the world in the large garden to the rear.

Wanting to share his passion, he sought to publish an affordable illustrated periodical that described flowering plants. Published in 13 volumes between 1825 and 1851, Maund’s Botanical Garden was issued in monthly parts of eight pages with an engraved and hand-coloured plate depicting four ornamental plants. The work was done by a range of artists including Mrs Edward Bury (Priscilla Susan Bury, 1799-1872) and Mrs Withers (Augusta Innes Withers, 1792-1877), ‘flower painter in ordinary’ to Queen Adelaide, as well as Maund’s daughters Susan and Elizabeth. Dedicated to Queen Victoria, many of the plants illustrated were drawn from specimens found in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.