American Gardening

It was no surprise that since garden writer William Robinson (1838-1935) was so important in England that he would also assume a role in the development of the American garden. The Pittsburgh seed company owner Benjamin A. Elliott, who began his company in 1840, gave a considerable amount of space in his catalog to instruction for [...]

William Robinson (1838-1935)  became an important influence in English garden history during the second half of the nineteenth century. He preferred the English naturalistic style, and fought with those who encouraged a formal and symmetrical look to the landscape. His intolerance for the ‘landscape architect’ guided much of his writing.  He thought plantsmen and horticulturists [...]

The alternanthera is grown for its leaves. It was a popular plant in beds during the nineteenth century both in England and in America. In the 1880 issue of Philadelphia seedsman Thomas Meehan’s Gardener’s Monthly M. Digram wrote an article called “The Alternanthera as a Lawn Plant.”  He said, “A carpet-like effect may be producted with the [...]

A common theme in the marketing of the garden from the nineteenth century seed and nursery industries is that gardening in Europe, but particularly in England, surpassed  American gardening. New York seedsman Peter Henderson (1822-1890) often wrote about that difference. Henderson admitted that American garden ingenuity outpaced that of England in some areas. He once [...]

One of the research activities I enjoy is scouring library archives for their treasures. Recently I spent an afternoon in the Special Collections at Harvard’s Loeb Design School.  There I came across the book The Gardens of England (1857) by artist E. Adveno Brooke. The book was filled with page-length drawings of prominent English gardens from [...]

Advertising in nineteenth century America moved from simply product information to creating icons for the culture. At least that’s want Mary Cross writes in her book A Century of American Icons. Products became recognizable as brands, linked to a visual symbol that eventually became an American icon. For example, the Quaker Oats figure sold oatmeal, [...]

In the spring time one of my favorite public gardens to visit is Blithewold in Bristol, Rhode Island. In the bosquet area, near the house,  thousands of spring bulbs will bloom for the next several weeks. American gardeners owe the encouragement of  such naturalizing of spring bulbs to the popular Irish plantsman and writer William [...]

When John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843) began his garden publication Gardener’s Magazine in England of 1826, his goal was to educate gardeners but especially cottagers, the working class, or peasant population, to learn more about gardening. He made that goal clear in the first issue of the magazine. Early on in the magazine he also wrote that [...]

A couple of summers ago we visited England’s Stourhead where the garden illustrates the eighteenth century view of the landscape. I arrived at 9 a. m. and found that I was the only visitor on the property for at least an hour. I enjoyed that aloneness. I first made a stop at the Information Center [...]

The meaning of the expression ‘English garden’ depends on what time period in English garden history one chooses. Here its meaning comes from the nineteenth century. John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843) has been called the father of the English garden.  He made the middle class feel that gardening was worthwhile, and not simply for the aristocracy. [...]