Over the last 5+ decades of growing plants indoors and out, I have been blessed to meet some wonderful landscape designers, growers, houseplant enthusiasts, hybridizers, collectors, plant specialists, and overall lovers of plants.
My knowledge has grown from sharing my plant adventures in collecting plants with others. But I’ve gained so much more by learning from the experience of others. I’ve been fascinated with the trials and experiences from that grand golden age of gardening – the 1940s-1960s.
This was long before we could send an email, snap a picture on our phone or the internet.
Over the past 20+ years, I have read and collected thousands of articles from the Golden Age.
Some of the plants, annuals, perennials, shrubs, and flower varieties you will not find at your local garden center. Other plants have been hybridized and improved upon with familiar names.
The writers in the articles shared their experiences, tips, tricks, success, discoveries, and warnings. Read what they did and throw out the dates. There are plenty of plant care nuggets to learn.
Sharing their learned lessons is a pleasure, and there is much to learn from these plant pioneers.
NOTE: The articles appear with minimal edits. Some plants are no longer available, and others have been changed or reclassified.
Portland, Oregon, has been a plantsman’s stronghold since the early days of northwest exploration. In its immediate surroundings are many botanist landmarks, such as the old Hudson Bay trading post at Fort Vancouver, Washington (just over the river from Portland). David Douglas and other collectors after him used it as a base for their plant-hunting … Read more
The popular expression, to gild the lily, means to attempt to improve something that is already perfect. Hybridizers, however, never believing that the lily could not be improved, have strived to produce finer lilies. Most intriguing is the long search for the pure yellow trumpet lily which has commanded the attention of many hybridizers. Starting … Read more
The year was 1953, the month of September. This month in the city of Columbus, Ohio. The American Rose Society is setting up its new headquarters. Its modern-style new home in the capital of the Buckeye state will be dedicated at the Society’s three-day fall meeting just a week or so away. Its current home … Read more
Whenever anybody wants to see an ideal private rose garden in or around Columbus, Ohio, he’s taken to look at the one built by Mr. and Mrs. Ezra C. Anstaett in the Upper Arlington section. Members of the American Rose Society—expert rosarians themselves—made a special point to visit it in 1946 and again in 1953 … Read more
Every year the 23rd of May marks the anniversary of the birth of Carl Linnaeus, who had a greater impact on botany than almost any other man. Born in southern Sweden, this son of a poor country parson became acquainted with plants at an early age. In fact, his father taught him the names of … Read more
Senior citizens who reside in Cleveland, Ohio’s Golden Age Center, are helping to develop a great arboretum in the nearby community of Mentor. “Never too old to learn” is the maxim of this unique group of “golden age” gardeners who travel by station wagon each week to the Holden Arboretum, located in the heart of … Read more
March 7, 1949, marked the 100th anniversary of Luther Burbank’s birth. For half a century or more, the public schools of the nation taught the children in the lower grades that Burbank was one of our national heroes, placing him on a pedestal almost alongside Washington and Lincoln. Garden clubs, too, have been effective in … Read more
Roy Fields was a specialist in orchid seedlings. A native Floridian, he makes his home in the village of Miami Shores, where he grows orchids on a plot that is 140 square feet. Raising plants from seed is nothing new to Roy Fields; as a boy, he experienced great delight in planting seeds from choice … Read more
So many times during my recent stay in the United States, gardeners asked me if I knew Maye Bruce and what she is like. I was happy to answer then that I know her, and nothing gives me greater pleasure now than to pay tribute to this great enthusiast who is one of our pioneers … Read more
If ERNEST H. WILSON, the Arnold Arboretum’s famous plant hunter, were alive today he would be about 140 years old. In the 80+ years which have elapsed since the date of his untimely death, he would have seen scores of the plants introduced by him from China and neighboring countries finding their way rapidly into … Read more