In 1866, at the age of 29, he became a fellow of the Linnean Society under the sponsorship of Charles Darwin, James Veitch, David Moore, and seven other distinguished botanists and horticulturists. Two months later, he left Regents Park to write for "The Gardener's Chronicle" and "The Times", and represented the leading horticultural firm of Veitch at the 1867 Paris Exhibition. He began writing many of his publications, beginning with "Gleanings from French Gardens" in 1868, "The Parks, Gardens, and Promenades of Paris" in 1869, and "Alpine Flowers for Gardens", "Mushroom Culture", and "The Wild Garden" in 1870. In 1871 he launched his own gardening journal, simply named "The Garden", which over the years included contributions from notables such as John Ruskin, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Gertrude Jekyll, William Morris, Dean Hole, Frank Miles, Canon Ellacombe, and James Britten. "The Garden: An Illustrated Weekly Journal of Horticulture in All Its Branches" was published from 1872 to 1927.