UNH Sponsors Final Poinsettia Open House

December 11, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

UNH sponsors final Poinsettia Open House –

A few days ago I visited the University of New Hampshire’s Poinsettia Open House in Durham. This is an annual three-day event held after Thanksgiving.

This year the exhibit, held in the University’s greenhouse, included over fifty poinsettia varieties. (below)

Colorful holiday poinsettias lined the metal shelves in the greenhouse at UNH a few days ago.

While there, I found out that UNH’s horticulture degree program will end May 30, 2019.

I was sorry to hear that news.

Over the years I have visited UNH’s greenhouses various times for many events they sponsor like the Poinsettia Open House.

Also, part of my training as a Master Gardener took place in the very same UNH greenhouses.

UNH’s Thompson School of Applied Science will continue to offer two-year associates’ degrees. They include Veterinary Technology, Forest Technology, and in an Applied Animal Science program emphasizing livestock animals.

The Thompson School however will no longer offer degrees in Civil Technology, Culinary Arts and Nutrition, Horticultural Technology, or Integrated Agriculture Management.

UNH leadership explains its decision in this way.

The market has changed.

There is increased competition in availability and price for two-year associates’ degrees, fewer students in the applicant pool, and a significant increase nationally for short-term credentials.

All of this has led to decreasing enrollment and offerings not in line with state and regional workforce needs.

I know this was a hard decision for the University to make.

Many people have signed a petition to reinstate the Horticultural Technology program.

Not sure that will help, but I would sign it in a heart beat.

We need more programs in Horticulture, not fewer.

Filed Under: Annuals, gardening

Seventeenth Century Front Garden Restored

December 3, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Seventeenth century front garden restored –

The north shore Massachusetts town of Ipswich claims more First Period houses than any other community in America.

First Period refers to those houses built between 1625 and 1725.

The style of the Whipple House, built in 1677, represents that period.

At the end of the nineteenth century the Whipple House was moved to its current location in Ipswich.

Though it had suffered much disrepair over the years, several historically minded citizens of the time thought it worth saving. In its day the Whipple House was the grandest of examples of early American homes.

At the end of the nineteenth century the Reverend Thomas Franklin Waters became a leading member of the Historical Preservation group in Ipswich.

He said at the time that the Whipple House was “a link that binds us to the remote Past and to a solemn and earnest manner of living, quite in contrast with much of our modern life.”

The Whipple House still stands, thanks to the initiative of this group and its successors. [below]

Whipple House in Ipswich, Massachusetts [built in 1677]

Garden

An extensive kitchen garden at the front of the house greets a visitor to the Whipple house.

The location and design of the kitchen garden continues the English garden tradition of early Plimouth Plantation as well.

In the early 1960s garden historian Isadore Smith (AKA Ann Leighton) and landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff designed and installed the raised beds of the kitchen garden.

Smith and Shurcliff set out to recreate what would have been a typical wife’s kitchen garden of the seventeenth century. They designed a garden with mostly herbs since the wife was responsible for both the food and the medical needs of the family.

There was not much time for a pleasure garden of decorative flowers so the plant choices of the kitchen garden were based on the cooking and health needs of the family.

The English style of an enclosed kitchen garden with raised beds lined up in a certain symmetry was also the style at the restored gardens of Colonial Williamsburg.

Mr. Shurcliff provides a link between the Whipple House and the Williamsburg garden restoration.

In the 1930s Boston landscape architect Shurcliff, who previously had worked with American landscape pioneer Frederick Law Olmsted, also recreated the garden of the Governor’s Palace at Williamsburg.

According to landscape architect and garden writer Rudi Favretti, the Whipple garden style, centered on the practical needs for plants, continued as the predominant form of gardening well into mid-nineteenth century America.

Thus today the Whipple House illustrates the early influence of English garden design on American home landscape.

Filed Under: English garden design, Garden fashion, Garden history

Nineteenth Century Middle Class Home Landscape

November 26, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Nineteenth century middle class home landscape –

The colonial era along the East coast set a landscape design pattern for the middle class, or worker class, in the decades that followed.

A certain kind of nineteenth century middle class home landscape appeared mostly in rural or farm areas. The vegetable and herb garden was close to the house just where the first colonists located it as well.

Historian John Stilgoe wrote a wonderful book about the history of home landscape in America called Common Landscape of America, 1580-1845.

He writes, “Vegetable and herb gardens ought to be near the kitchen so that the farmwife or one of her children can quickly gather fresh vegetables and herbs.”

At that time most people lived on farms or in rural areas. Their home landscape was more utilitarian than the elaborate designs of that period at the country homes of more wealthy Americans.

Home Ownership

Stilgoe writes, “By 1840 the notion of home ownership was deeply rooted in the national imagination; only a small percentage of farm families rented their farms, and those hoped to own farms someday.”

It was owning a single family home that became important to the nineteenth century middle class.

Clifford Edward Clark, Jr. refected that same idea in his book, The American Family Home, 1800-1960.

In the Introduction to his book Clark commented on what motivated him in writing the book.

He said, “I was struck by the persistent antiurban bias and the glorification of the single-family dwelling that has dominated middle-class consciousness.”

Once people became home owners, the way the home landscape was to look became important to reflect tradition and what neighbors included in their own yards.

The kitchen garden near the house, an idea inspired by the early colonists, continued in that middle class home landscape design.

Filed Under: Garden fashion, Garden history, Garden style, gardening

Plimouth Plantation’s Home Landscape

November 19, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Plimouth Plantation’s home landscape

It is mid November and our thoughts turn of course to the Thanksgiving holiday.

That means we remember the pilgrims who sailed from England in 1620, landing in Plymouth, south of Boston.

Today we can learn about the pilgrims from Plimouth Plantation, a site that replicates that early period of our country’s history.

The colonists represent an important example of early home landscaping in this country. They designed a landscape that fit their needs.

The English colonists knew of course of their homeland’s landscape and garden style.

Before they made the voyage, they had no idea what the land and weather would be like in their new home.

They would however build a house, resembling the style they knew in England.

Architect Gerald Foster wrote a practical guide to home architecture called American Houses: A Field Guide to the Architecture of the Home.

He says, “Arriving on the New England shore, the 17th-century English settlers immediately erected Native American huts and wigwams or dug into the earth for temporary shelter.

“For permanent housing, they drew on their own experience and built simple cottages based on familar English homes.”

Here is a reproduction of an early colonial house you can see at Plimouth Plantation. [below]

Replica of an early colonist’s house at Plimouth Plantation [Courtesy of Plimouth Plantation]

They would also adopt a landscape similar to what they knew from England of the seventeenth century.

Because they were concerned from the beginning with their own survival in the new land, any landscape making or gardening had to be simple and useful.

Notice in the image [above] that a bed of vegetables and herbs lies in front of the thatched roof house. That kitchen garden takes up a substantial part of the front area.

The garden shows rows of plants, mostly vegetables and herbs but with a few flowers as well. In England a walled garden held such rows to create what the English referred to as their ‘kitchen garden.’

As with all landscape design, Plimouth Plantation reflects a form that is particular to a time and culture.

Filed Under: English garden design, English Style, Garden history

Squirrel Stashes Pignuts in My Garden Shed

November 12, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Squirrel stashes pignuts in my garden shed –

I know of a squirrel that has been quite busy lately.

A few days ago I opened my garden shed and discovered a pile of pignuts.

The pointed mound measured almost two feet high in the center. A lot of pignuts.

The yellow pignut looks a great deal like a walnut. The large pile shocked me at first.

I thought to myself, “How could this amount of nuts accumulate in this one spot?”

I presented the issue to the Master Gardeners at our monthly meeting a couple of days later. As if in unison, they all agreed that it had to be a squirrel.

Pignuts [Courtesy of Illinois Wildflowers]

Carya glabra Tree

Pignuts come from the Carya glabra or hickory tree.

The 1900 edition of Liberty H. Bailey’s Cyclopedia of Horticulture described the value of the wood from this tree.

It said, “Most of the species [of Carya] have hard strong and tough wood, much valued for many purposes, especially for handles of tools, manufacture of carriages and wagons, also making baskets and for fuel.”

University of Georgia horticulturist Michael Dirr also gives a bit of history to the tree in his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. He writes, “It is native from Maine to Ontario, south to Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. Introduced 1750.”

Here in New England it is considered a hardy native ornamental tree.

Nineteenth century Rochester, New York seed company owner James Vick (1818-1882) mentioned the Carya in his magazine Vick’s Illustrated Monthly. In 1880 he wrote that the nut, “On account of its delicate flavor and excellent keeping qualities, is the most highly prized of our native nuts.”

Bailey too discussed the nut.

The COF said, “The species of some varieties of C. glabra are edible, and are sold in large quantities; mostly gathered from the woods though in later years orchards of improved varieties have been planted.”

Somewhere out there, scurrying around, is one industrious squirrel who has been quite busy carting these edible pignuts off to my garden shed.

Unfortunately he will have to find a new storage spot since I have sealed up the opening in the shed’s foundation.

Filed Under: Native plants

19th Century Advertising Featured People as Vegetables

November 5, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

19th Century advertising featured people as vegetables –

Tower Hill, near Worcester, Massachusetts, ranks high on my list of favorite public gardens.

On a recent visit I saw their newest exhibit.

The exhibit featured several trade cards from the nineteenth century garden industry.

In their effort to market vegetable seeds, companies used trade cards that included people as the vegetable. This trade card from Jerome B. Rice and Company promoted beet seeds. [below]

Jerome B. Rice and Company sold beet seeds with this colorful chromolithograph, copyrighted in 1885.

Notice the phrase beneath the beet-man. It says, “I AM FREQUENTLY MISTAKEN FOR A DEAD BEET.” The lettering appears all in uppercase for greater emphasis.

It was not uncommon for several seed companies to share the same image, changing only the name at the bottom of the card.

The Tower Hill exhibit used this same beet image with another seed company’s name. The name ‘John B. Varick Company of Manchester, New Hampshire,’ appears at the bottom of the card.

Trade Cards

In her book The Adman in the Parlor: Magazines and the Gendering of Consumer Culture, 1880s to 1910s cultural historian Ellen Gruber Garvey writes about the history of trade cards.

She says, “Beginning in the 1880s, trade cards dominated advertising for national distributed products, until they were largely supplanted by national magazine advertising during the 1890s.

“Manufacturers had put colorful advertising trade cards into the hands of thousands but nationally circulated magazines were a more efficient tool.”

By the 1890s national magazine advertising had outpaced the effectiveness of the trade card.

At one time these small cards, some with people as vegetables, proved popular both for businesses and customers around the country.

Some people even turned to collecting them as a form of amusement.

The Tower Hill seed trade card exhibit in the library will be up for only a few more days.

Filed Under: Advertising, Garden fashion, Nursery business, Seed business, Victorian

Opium Enriched Nineteenth Century Boston Merchant

October 29, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Opium enriched nineteenth century Boston merchant –

Nineteenth century Boston merchant Thomas H. Perkins (1764-1854) cultivated a landscape at his country estate in Brookline, Massachusetts in the English landscape style.

This portrait of Perkins by Thomas Sully today hangs in the large first floor meeting room of the downtown Boston Athenaeum. [below]

Boston Athenaeum’s portrait of Thomas Handasayd Perkins

Perkins became one of America’s first millionaires.

To increase his sale of goods to China Perkins found himself in the opium trade.

In 1815 he opened an office in Afghanistan in order to buy opium there to sell to China.

Stephen Harris wrote a great book called Planting Paradise: Cultivating the Garden 1500-1900, which covers the history of gardening.

Harris writes, “Ultimately, tea transformed English society, was a driver of the Industrial Revolution in the early nineteenth century, maintained the opium trade with China and became a new crop for colonial India.”

He draws a link between the sale of tea and the sale of opium in the nineteenth century. Both made certain people quite wealthy.

Perkins’ Fortune

Perkins built his fortune by selling opium more than any other product.

At the same time he offered substantial financial assistance to local institutions like the Boston Athenaeum and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Today these institutions as well as Perkins School for the Blind, another of his charities, have had to respond to this part of their history. People inquire how they could have accepted money made from selling opium.

In their book Merchant Prince of Boston: Colonel T. H. Perkins, 1764-1854 Carol Seaburg and Stanley Peterson write, “They cheerfully rationalized that the opium habit was not nearly so debilitating as the habit of drink.”

I don’t know what the word ‘cheerfully’ means here. I would say they saw opium as a business. It was, after all, legal in America at that time.

Filed Under: English garden design, English Style, Victorian

Nineteenth Century Boston Merchant’s Country Estate

October 22, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Nineteenth century Boston merchant’s country estate –

Recently I attended a short talk at the Boston Athenaeum where a staff member discussed three Athenaeum portraits.

My intention in taking the train to participate in this session was to hear about the Athenaeum’s portrait of Thomas Handasyd Perkins (1764-1854).

Thomas Handasyd Perkins

Sending his ships primarily to China, Perkins became a wealthy merchant in nineteenth century Boston.

The speaker’s remarks at the Athenaeum centered on what a philanthropist Perkins had been for the city.

He founded the Perkins School for the Blind, which today is located in Watertown.

Perkins owned a downtown home, first on Pearl Street and later on Temple Place, but also escaped the summer heat to his country home in Brookline, a few miles from Boston.

Brookline Estate

Perkins purchased the land for his Brookline estate in 1799.

The Boston Athenaeum archives include a landscape plan for the Perkins’ Brookline property.

The plan illustrates the modern form of landscape gardening, begun in England in the eighteenth century. This style, because it was the fashion, attracted wealthy Americans throughout the nineteenth century.

The landscape in his estate reflected the English style of rolling lawns, trees, and shrubs.

The extensive lawn, dotted with several greenhouses, takes up most of the space in the plan. The plan shows a kitchen garden and orchards as well.

According to their book Merchant Prince of Boston, Carol Seaburg and Stanley Peterson write that the Perkins’ Brookline property, on the corner of Heath and Warren, became “one of the show places around Boston.”

There Perkins cultivated plants from around the world, including a grape-vine from England’s Sir Joseph Paxton, the head gardener at Chatsworth. Paxton became one of the most important gardeners in England. He also designed the Crystal Palace for the London Exhibition of 1851.

Like other prominent men of his time who owned such country estates, Perkins chose to design in the modern English landscape style.

Seaburg and Paterson note that at the Perkins’ garden, “Encouragement was given to ornamental gardening, with an eye to the art of landscaping.”

Filed Under: English garden design, Garden history, Garden style, Victorian

Crockett’s Compost Bin Works Well

October 15, 2018 by admin 4 Comments

Crockett’s compost bin works well –

A few days ago the Boston Globe featured an editorial called “Time to embrace composting. No, really.“

The message struck me in a somewhat personal way since I just had my compost bin rebuilt.

The final words in the title made me see the importance the writer attempted to give this message.

The world is full of too much garbage. Where possible, we need to recycle it as compost.

I have had a compost bin in the backyard, behind the shed, for almost twenty years.

The old one was decaying, and the wood no longer held together.

Three compartments make up the bin. One is full of the newest material that I add right now; the second is material from last year decaying so I can use it next year; and the third is the ready compost which I can use right now for any need in the garden. Next summer I just rotate each of them.

In having it built I followed the design of the drawings and photos from the original design that appeared in Crockett’s Victory Garden published in 1977.

That is where I first saw this version of a compost bin. Some have called it “the Cadillac of compost bins.’

It is easy to use and offers plenty of space.

This photo of my old compost bin illustrates how I desperately needed a new one. This is the bin just a few days ago:

My old compost bin has certainly seen better days.

Here is a photo of the new version which I just had built this week:

My new bin ready for making that ‘black gold’ called compost.

Gardeners and Compost

Gardeners have long seen the value of compost, even for a lawn.

Rochester, NY seed company owner James Vick (1818-1882) saw the value of compost in putting in a lawn.

He wrote in his magazine Vick’s Illustrated Monthly in 1879 how a new lawn, installed in the spring, needs a bit of compost. He said: “Compost should be spread evenly over the surface and raked in.”

Filed Under: Garden fashion, Garden history, Nature

Victorian Annuals Still Popular

October 8, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Victorian annuals still popular –

I have visited the downtown Georgian Mansion called the Moffatt-Ladd House in Portsmouth, NH many times.

What I like about it is that the garden skeleton basically dates back to the Victorian period. Today the gardeners, mostly volunteers, have sought to use garden drawings and written material as a guide for how the garden should look.

Luckily in 1990 Joseph Copley, curator of the Portsmouth Historical Society, found the garden journal of the late nineteenth century owner Alexander H. Ladd (1815-1900).

Ladd took possesion of the mansion in 1862. Over the years he lived there he became passionate about his garden, located behind the house.

In his journal Ladd writes about several annuals he regularly planted that are still popular today.

He mentions these annuals that he grew in his garden: pansy, petunia, sweet pea, verbena, and zinnia.

To make room for his spring narcissus, Ladd planted narcissus bulbs in an area where he had earlier planted verbena.

He wrote on November 7, 1889, “I planted Verbena bed with my largest selected Poets Narcissus – of which 608 (illegible) put in this bed.”

Rochester, New York seed company owner James Vick (1818-1882) also wrote about the verbena in his seed catalog under the section called ‘Annuals.’

Vick wrote in 1873, “Well-known and universally popular bedding plants; may be treated as half-hardy annuals.”

Here is a colorful illustration from Vick’s Illustrated Monthly of 1880. [Below]

Verbenas, Vick’s Illustrated Monthly [Courtesy of the New York Public Library]

The tradition of planting Victorian annuals like verbena continues.

Little did Ladd suspect that his favorite annuals would remain popular with gardeners over a century later.

Filed Under: Advertising, Annuals, Bulbs, Flowers, Victorian

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