I just picked up New Hampshire poet Celia Thaxter's book An Island Garden. I wanted to read it again. Perhaps I was looking for inspiration. Somehow Celia Thaxter (1835-1894) represents the Victorian gardener in late nineteenth century America. The love…
You can see from her book An Island Garden how nineteenth century New Hampshire poet Celia Thaxter (1835-1894) took pride in her garden of perennials and annuals on Appledore Island, a few miles off the coast. The garden reflected the Victorian…
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…