To fit into any society, a person needs to reflect what is important to the culture at that time. In the case of the Elizabethan gentleman [below] there were certain expectations that society at that time demanded. Robert Dudley, the…
How I remember the day we received the Christmas cactus as a gift. It was 1986 and a sunny June Sunday afternoon. Rita Mae and I were having a party in the back yard to celebrate our wedding . We…
The alternanthera has always held a high spot among my favorite plants for bedding or edging. The popular garden writer Eben Rexford wrote in 1910: "Carpet-Bedding is not the most artistic phase of gardening, by any means, but it has…
Landscape gardener Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852) set as his standard, the English garden landscape. He wrote regularly to John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843), England's voice for what to include in the landscape in the first part of the nineteenth century. Downing's…
Milwaukee's Anthony Mitchell (1817-1887) became the wealthiest man in Wisconsin according to the census of 1860. Alexander Mitchell (1817-1887) Mitchell made his money in banking and the railroad. He also served as a member of Congress. To showcase his wealth…