After 1870 Americans adopted the Victorian garden from the English style of the day. The home landscape had to have colorful flowers, often in carpet bedding, but the essential was color, and lots of it. On Appledore Island, ten miles…
I just finished the new garden book American Eden by garden designer and historian Wade Graham. Graham traces the history of the garden in America from Jefferson's Monticello to New York's High Line Park that just opened. The writing flows easily as…
While on a trip to the University of Delaware located in Newark I visited the nineteenth century Gothic mansion called Rockwood near Wilmington. In 1851 after 20 years in the import/export business in Liverpool, Joseph Shipley returned to his native…
I picked up a recent issue of Horticulture magazine, a periodical I enjoy reading to keep updated on gardening trends. Within the first few pages I saw an ad for the English company Hartley Botanic, purveyor of greenhouses, and also…
Last week while I visited the Chicago Botanic Garden, I had lunch and then stopped in at the Gift Shop. Often I find treasures surface in a such a Shop when least expected. And so it happened. The Shop had…