Early American Gardens is a beautiful website filled with interesting history about gardening. I highly recommend it as it includes many delightful posts, such as this brief, but intriguing article about avid women gardeners, including Jane Colden, a serious amateur botanist who catalogued, described and sketched some 400 plants in the 18th century.

Much of the gardening done in this country has historically been the work of domestic deadbeats. Interestingly, none of the major feminist texts, which complain sorely about the lack of things to do in a home, mention the extravagantly interesting diversion of gardening. It simply doesn’t exist. The feminist lives within four walls, without sun, without vines, without bees or butterflies. The history of all those women who would never have traded their gardens for an office is ignored.

Rosalie Stier Calvert lived near Washington, D.C. in the nineteenth century and was an enthusiastic gardener who believed women should consider themselves above the world of politics. Well, Rosalie is not exactly cherished today. In 1807, she wrote:

“I see so many women making themselves ridiculous by discussing politics at random without understanding the subject that I am disgusted with all controversy except about flowers! Their culture absorbs me more every day, for as I go out rarely, it is my chief amusement.”

Rosalie Stier Calvert

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