Vermont
Gardens - An Historical Vignette
One of the most influential
botanists was Peter Kalm from the Royal Academy of Sweden.
Kalm arrived in Vermont in 1748 intending to explore botanical
nature of America and in particular, the laurels. His
work was extremely successful and honored a few years
by Linnaeus, who gave him named the genus Kalmia after
him.
Until 1975, Abraham Lincoln's
descendants spent the summers at Hildene, a Georgian Revival
mansion with majestic views of the of the Green and Taconic
Mountain ranges. Lincoln's granddaughter, Jessie Lincoln,
designed the garden in 1907, and inspired by stained-glass
windows of Gothic cathedrals - she used privet hedges
to enclose colorful beds of flowers around rectangles
of green lawn, recalling leaded windows outlining colored
panes of glass.
There are many delightful
stories that recall Vermont gardening tales. Once such
tale is recounted in the first booklet of the Vermont
Folklore Society. Apparently there was a Vermont country
doctor who regularly sprinkled forget-me-not seeds on
the local brooks and streams until they were bordered
in celestial blue.
Bibliography
and Acknowledgments
Shown: Red Clover ( Trifolium
pratense )
