February 8, 2023 at 1:14 pm
While February is the shortest month of the year, oddly enough it sometimes seems like it is also the longest what with winter holding on for its last full month. To get through this season’s last gasp, let’s celebrate greenhouses and their ability to extend the growing season despite Old Man Winter. Who knew that […]
January 5, 2023 at 6:07 pm
Smithsonian Gardens (SG) and the Archives of American Gardens (AAG) had a lot to celebrate in 2022. This year marks a series of institutional milestones, including the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Smithsonian Gardens in 1972, the 35th anniversary of the formation of the Archives of American Gardens in 1987, and the 30th anniversary […]
October 18, 2022 at 12:54 pm
Documentation of America’s garden heritage would not be as sizeable today, if not for the foresight and efforts of Alice G. B. Lockwood and other members of The Garden Club of America’s (GCA) Historical Gardens Committee. In 1925, the committee began assembling information for a book that would illuminate the historic gardens of the United […]
October 5, 2022 at 1:11 pm
October is American Archives Month, a time to celebrate bringing the past to the present with the documentation available in archives across the U.S. including Smithsonian Gardens’ own Archives of American Gardens. It’s easy to forget, what with it being so simple to take and send instantaneous photos to family and friends while on vacation […]
August 18, 2022 at 1:55 pm
Smithsonian Gardens (SG) and the Archives of American Gardens (AAG) have a lot to celebrate in 2022. This year marks a series of institutional milestones, including the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Smithsonian Gardens in 1972, the 35th anniversary of the formation of the Archives of American Gardens in 1987, and the 30th anniversary […]
June 13, 2022 at 5:35 pm
What better way to honor Father’s Day than by celebrating men and their flowers? Here are a few fun photos from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens, which houses tens of thousands of images and records that document gardens and landscapes from the 1890s to today. David Burpee was a seed seller with a strong […]
October 25, 2021 at 11:48 am
Halloween is here! Here are the top five spookiest things floating around Smithsonian Gardens: Spider Orchid The spotted spider orchid (Brassia maculata) uses tricks and treats to get what it wants: pollination. To spider-hunting wasps this orchid looks so much like an arachnid that female wasps will actually land on the flower lips and try […]
October 5, 2021 at 9:15 am
While October is American Archives Month, the Archives of American Gardens (managed by Smithsonian Gardens) celebrates the importance of archives year-round! Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, staff who manage Smithsonian Gardens’ Archives of American Gardens (AAG) have been primarily teleworking from home. Despite the fact that they have not been […]
August 25, 2021 at 12:36 pm
Women from all backgrounds and interests have shaped the course of American gardens. Read on to learn about a few famous names – and some lesser-known garden heroes. Carrie Lippincott, plant breeder and businesswoman 1863 – ? One of the first American women to establish a seed-selling business was Carrie H. Lippincott, who built a […]
January 6, 2021 at 2:00 pm
Now that the holidays are officially over it’s time to shift gears and start thinking about the upcoming spring gardening season. While 2020 proved to be a difficult year in some ways for gardeners, the surge in popularity of both vegetable and ornamental gardening was a great boost for seed companies. This sudden demand left […]
June 24, 2020 at 4:33 pm
It all began during a conversation about archival description with my mentor at the Archives of American Gardens, Kelly Crawford. We stumbled onto the topic of describing sexuality when I wondered aloud about the existence of LGBTQ-related records preserved in the collections. I was intrigued to learn that Perry Hunt Wheeler (1913-1989), a renowned landscape […]
September 11, 2016 at 6:00 am
Last year, I had the opportunity to design an exhibit in the Ripley Center, “Design for Small Spaces.” Featuring stumpery, fairy gardens, green walls, terrariums and dish gardens, I hoped to inspire visitors with some ideas they could try at home, even in the smallest of spaces. A favorite component of the exhibit was the […]
April 8, 2016 at 6:51 pm
What better way to celebrate National Garden Month in April than to spend some time enjoying historic garden images from the J. Horace McFarland Company Collection! Thanks to a Smithsonian preservation grant, thousands of images from this collection at the Archives of American Gardens (AAG) were digitized recently and are now available online through the […]
February 12, 2016 at 6:40 pm
Floral clocks started appearing in outdoor public spaces at the turn of the twentieth century. Not to be confused with botanist Carl Linnaeus’ flower clock which laid out a variety of flowers in a clock-like design according to the hour of the day they opened and closed, the floral clocks referred to here were large-scale […]