American Gardening

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 [...]

How we welcome the flowers of spring after that hard winter we suffered. The California poppy, Eschscholzia californica, is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae, native to the United States and Mexico, and the official state flower of California. It’s now blooming in California. On December 12, 1890, the California State Floral [...]

English garden writer Edward Hyams in his book The English Garden discusses rock gardening, something that I love in my own garden, where I have a substantial amount of ledge. He claims that the English garden gave the world the ‘rock garden’.  Perhaps a bit of exaggeration, but let’s look at what he said. Hyams writes: [...]

I have been reading a bit this week on how some people think advertising works since my interest is marketing the garden in nineteenth century America. Michel Foucault in his book Birth of the Clinic discussed how the langauge about medical issues creates the way we deal with sickness and death. The names we give [...]

Just finished a great book called Sunshine, Fruits and Flowers, an 1896 souvenir book, published by the San Jose Mercury newspaper, and reprinted in 1986 by the San Jose Historical Museum Association. Black and white photographs from California in the late 1890s appear on almost every page. In the book you will find the four pictures below. [...]

Rochester, New York  seedsman James Vick (1818-1882) often wrote in both his catalog and magazine about carpet bedding. In fact, outside his seed company offices he had a bed of annuals on the lawn that formed the name ‘Vick’. As a popular form of Victorian gardening, carpet bedding swept the country. Flowers and plants with colorful [...]

I remember that my early books on gardening were often written by English authors. I sometimes wondered why I was reading a book by an English garden writer. American gardeners have been doing so for a long time. British horticulturalist  William Robinson wrote the book The English Flower Garden in 1883. Philadelphia nurseryman Thomas Meehan wrote in [...]

The colonial revival movement is important here because it began about 1870 and lasted well into the twentieth century.  The movement gave America many houses and gardens from the colonial period. The most famous example of colonial revivalism has to be Colonial Williamsburg, completed in 1938. Charles B. Hosmer, Jr. wrote a chapter in the [...]

As I read about the history of the English garden, I come across an assortment of books and articles, some recent, some not. The other day I came across an article, written a few years ago, in the Los Angeles Times, “Just Add Tea and Crumpets”  by writer and photographer Ariel Swartley. She wrote: “Few phrases are [...]

A few days ago I had to travel to Columbus, Ohio.  I stayed downtown which was both easy to find and  quite convenient for me. When I travel and have time,  I sometimes seek out a local public garden to visit.  Since I discovered that Columbus had a fine park, called Franklin Park Conservatory, not [...]