Elbert Hubbard: The Philosopher Who Would Trade Bread for Hyacinths

June 19, 1856

On this day, dear gardeners, we celebrate the birth of one Elbert Green Hubbard—a man whose flowery words have seeded themselves across the literary landscape with as much vigor as the most determined of dandelions.

This writer, artist, and philosopher proved himself to be quite the cultivator of thought, though his pen rather than a trowel was his implement of choice.

While many may know of his numerous publications, the discerning among you might appreciate his piece on the founder of the Burpee Seed Company entitled, The business of distributing flower seeds.

How fitting that a man so given to philosophical musings would turn his attention to the very business that brings beauty to our borders and flavor to our tables!

Hubbard, much like the most unexpected garden volunteer that becomes the star of one's collection, gifted us with observations that continue to bloom in minds centuries later.

"Our finest flowers are often weeds transplanted."

"A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world."

"To me, flowers are happiness.
If I had but two loaves of bread
I would sell one of them
& buy White Hyacinths to feed my soul."

"Without love, the world would only echo cries of pain, the sun would only shine to show us grief, each rustle of the wind among the leaves would be a sigh, and all the flowers fit only to garland graves."

One cannot help but feel a kindred spirit in Hubbard—a man who understood that gardens feed more than merely the body.

Indeed, his affinity for the white hyacinth reveals a soul that recognized the spiritual nourishment that blooms provide.

How many of us have stood amidst our garden beds, surrounded by the fruits of our labor, and felt that same satisfaction that transcends the merely physical?

Tragedy, however, stalks beauty as surely as aphids pursue our roses.

In 1915, Elbert Hubbard and his wife, Alice, met their untimely end aboard The Lusitania when it was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland.

Perhaps there is something poetically fitting about a man who spoke so eloquently about beauty and transience being claimed by the sea—that most changeable and eternal of forces.

As we tend our gardens today, let us consider Hubbard's wisdom.

Perhaps that persistent "weed" might, with the right perspective and proper placement, become the finest flower in your garden.

After all, is not gardening itself an exercise in perspective and placement, in seeing potential where others see only problems?

And should you find yourself debating between that extra loaf of bread or a packet of seeds—well, Hubbard has already offered his opinion on the matter. The stomach may rumble temporarily, but the soul, fed by beauty, sustains us through far longer winters.