American Gardening

With the rise of chromolithography in advertising in nineteenth century America it was no surprise that the garden industry joined the ranks of those who used such chromos in their business. The Boston Athenaeum houses a collection of nineteenth century chromos.  Last week I attended a lecture there, given by Catharina Slautterback, the curator of the Athenaeum’s [...]

In 1890 W. Atlee Burpee launched a contest that invited his seed catalog readers to come up with the best advertising slogan for his company. The second place winner proposed “Burpee’s Seeds Grow” which has remained the trademark phrase for Burpee ever since. Burpee was a firm believer in the need to advertise. Advertising in American [...]

To add a vertical dimension to the garden, nineteenth century gardeners treasured vines. In 1884 American landscape architect Elias A. Long wrote in his book Ornamental Gardening for Americans: “As growing wild, the hard-wooded climbers and trailers afford some of the most delightful bits of natural scenery to met be with. Many of these serve [...]

The story goes that a few years ago right after Martha Stewart wrote about hydrangeas in her magazine, garden centers around the country couldn’t keep the plant in stock. Garden fashion according to the media inspired those gardeners who wanted that hydrangea. The media-generated garden is a product of late nineteenth century America. Seed and [...]

In my quest to learn more about the Victorian garden, I just finished reading a book with that very name, Tom Carter’s The Victorian Garden. What I liked about it was the connection of  text with sidebars on almost every page.  Carter introduced long passages from garden writers of the day quite regularly. England’s cultural and [...]

Garden historian Thomas A.Brown published a wonderful collection of California nurseries from the nineteenth century . The seed and nusery business began on the West Coast right after  California joined  the United States in 1850 . To meet the increase in population that now wanted a garden, the San Jose Nursery published the first nursery catalog in 1853. [...]

The argument that it is essential to use native plants in the garden has a long history in this country. In the nineteenth century Philadelphia nurseryman Thomas Meehan wrote in the July 1875 issue of his magazine Gardener’s Monthly: “It has been the habit to overlook our beautiful native plants, until some European florist told [...]

Since American gardening in the nineteenth century was closely linked to garden fashion in England, it ought be no surprise that the English sold American seedsmen and nurserymen new plants. Philadelphia nurseryman Thomas Meehan wrote in his magazine of 1875 Gardener’s Monthly: “Most of the new plants described are of English introduction.  It is, however, [...]

Nineteenth century Victorians had a connection with flowers unlike any period before them.  Some referred to this phenomenon as an expression of sentimentalism.  American gardeners of that time shared the same passion for flowers. In her new book A Victorian Flower Dictionary Mandy Kirkby gives us a list of familiar flowers with a short history of [...]

During the Victorian influence in late nineteenth century America, it was important to keep plants in the house in the winter to give the sense of garden even to the indoors.  Plants like hibiscus, abutilons, and palms became quite common for house plants. Seed company and nursery owners made sure their customers learned how important [...]