New
York Gardens - An Historical Vignette
The
early settlers to New York, known as New Amsterdam in
1655, the Dutch and the French Huguenots, brought with
them from their Mother countries a love of gardens and
the interest and the ability to cultivate the soil.
Those Dutch gardeners were fond of more formal gardens,
favoring clipped evergreens, sundials, and decorative
iron pieces. A beehive was also considered an essential
addition of the garden.
In 1766, Anna Lee established
a settlement of Shakers at New Lebanon, New York. It was
from this and other Shaker settlements that the seeds
of vegetables and fruits were distributed. These seeds,
mainly grown at Watervliet and New Lebanon, were considered
to be the best to be had in America. The Shakers were
the first to put seeds into packets. Wagons travelled
from village to village distributing seeds to be sold
on commission.
New York saw the first organized horticultural society
established in
in 1818. Its founders and members were leading horticulturists
and prominent botanists-including Dr. Hosack, Thomas Hogg,
Michael Foy, William Prince, Andre Parmentier, and Dr.
John Torrey. Importantly, New York also has the distinction
of giving America her first great landscape architect.
Andrew Jackson Downing, born near Newburgh in 1815, is
one of the great figures in the history of landscape design
who dramatically altered the way Americans gardened.
Downing suggested that
landscapes and architecture should aim to bring two essential
traits: the beautiful and the picturesque, meaning in
practical terms, a more naturalistic garden that drew
their inspiration from the native splendor of America.
His ground-breaking book, "A Treatise on the Theory
and Practice of Landscape Gardening", was the first
of its kind to be published in America and marked a great
departure from the gardens of the Colonial period, ushering
in an entirely new period of American gardening.
Bibliography
and Acknowledgments
Shown: Rose ( Rosa )
