The Accountant Who Collected Palm Trees: Robert H. Montgomery’s Story

September 21, 1872

My dearest garden enthusiasts, on this day, we celebrate the birth of Colonel Robert Hiester Montgomery, a man whose passion for plants would transform a corner of Florida into one of the world's most remarkable botanical treasures.

While many know him as one of the founding partners of what would become PricewaterhouseCoopers (originally Lybrand, Ross Bros. & Montgomery), his true legacy blooms eternal in the gardens he created.

Though his pen proved prolific in the realm of accounting and tax law - producing over 40 books in these fields - it was his love of plants that would leave an indelible mark on the landscape of botanical research.

Imagine, if you will, the ambition required to create not one but two of America's most significant tropical plant collections.

In 1930, Montgomery established his winter residence in Florida, where he pursued an extraordinary vision: collecting every species of palm tree grown in the state.

His 120-acre Coral Gables estate, the Coconut Grove Palmetum, would eventually house what experts recognized as the finest private collections of palms and cycads in the world.

How many of us, dear readers, have dreamed of such horticultural grandeur?

The year 1936 marked a pivotal moment in Montgomery's botanical legacy when he and his beloved wife, Nell, founded the Fairchild Tropical Garden.

Their generosity extended beyond the mere donation of 83 acres - they provided substantial funding to develop the plant collections that would make this garden a horticultural marvel.

There is something deeply poetic about Montgomery's final day in 1953.

At the age of 80, after completing his daily walk with Nell through their beloved Palmetum, he settled down for an afternoon rest in his Florida home, where he quietly departed this world.

Yet this was not the end of the story, but rather a new beginning.

Nell Montgomery, a remarkable woman in her own right, inherited their botanical paradise and transformed it into something even greater.

In 1959, she established The Montgomery Foundation, Inc., ensuring that their collection would serve not merely as a garden but as a center for scientific research in tropical botany.

For three decades, Nell devoted herself to nurturing both the Montgomery Botanical Center (as it would be renamed in 1998) and the Fairchild Tropical Garden.

Upon her passing in 1990, she bequeathed her estate and an endowment to maintain this living legacy.

Today, the Montgomery Botanical Center stands as a testament to what can grow from the seeds of passion, dedication, and vision.

How fitting that a man who built empires in both finance and horticulture should, together with his equally devoted wife, leave us such a verdant inheritance.