Hybridizing became popular in the nineteenth century, especially when growers sought new plants for the garden. There was a side effect however. Horticulturist Lawrence Griffith in his book Flowers and Herbs of Early America makes the point that because of…
In 1878 James Vick, nineteenth century seed merchant, in his garden magazine Vick's Illustrated Monthly mentioned cuttings as a way to propagate a plant. He said, "The most rapid method of propagating this plant [Dracaena congesta] is by cuttings of…
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…
A couple of Saturdays ago the spotlight was on Quincy, Mass., home of John and Abigail Adams. The new city center park callled Hancock Adams Common held a special ceremony to unveil the new statue of Abigail Adams. The park…
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…