Book Description

Women and Gardens celebrates the achievements of women in gardening and horticultural history. Today, women outnumber men in landscape architecture and related fields. But for centuries, male historians overlooked women's important contributions to horticulture. During her long and distinguished career, feminist historian Susan Groag Bell (1926-2015) published several seminal works on women's place in history and how it had been written out. Upon her death, Bell left behind a fascinating, unfinished project, exploring women's roles as gardeners and founders of horticultural schools. Now, horticultural historian Judith M. Taylor has completed Bell's work. Women and Gardens expands upon Bell's original research and features new material from Taylor-including a full chapter on the accomplishments of women flower breeders and a comprehensive listing of women rose breeders in Australia. In Women and Gardens, Taylor and Bell offer gardening and horticulture enthusiasts an exclusive look into the previously unexplored world of women and gardens. Order your copy today. ----- Praise for Judith M. Taylor's Work "For many years, the distinguished pioneer feminist historian, Susan Groag Bell, was fascinated with women's involvement with gardens, gardeners themselves and also as teachers through the schools they established for other women. Over the years she had worked on this project but hadn't completed it at the time of her death. Now the superb horticultural historian, Judith Taylor, using and expanding Susan's material, has created a joint work devoted to the extremely interesting and important world of women and gardens." - Dr. Peter Stansky, Frances and Charles Field Professor of History, Emeritus, Stanford University "One of the most important studies in garden plant history in English for a long time...for anyone interested in the history of garden plants and plantmanship it is essential reading." - Noel Kingsbury on Taylor's Visions of Loveliness ----- About the Cover The famous early twentieth century artist Childe Hassam painted Celia Thaxter's garden in the Isles of Shoals off the Maine coast in 1896. Thaxter was a noted poet in her day. She ran an hotel on Appledore Island and planted many flowers to decorate the hotel's rooms. Writers and artists spent their summers at the resort.