A Banker’s Blooms: H. Howard Pepper’s 1905 Garden Confessions
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
May 24, 1905
On this day, dear garden enthusiasts, we find ourselves transported to Providence, Rhode Island, where a banker named H. Howard Pepper penned a most illuminating letter to the magazine Country Life in America.
Let us delve into the horticultural musings of this passionate amateur gardener, shall we?
Mr. Pepper begins his missive with a confession that might resonate with many of us:
I have had the gardening fever for three summers.
...All the work in the garden is done by myself, and it takes about two hours a day.
Ah, the gardening fever!
A most delightful affliction, wouldn't you agree?
And how admirable that Mr. Pepper dedicates two hours each day to his verdant pursuits.
He goes on to outline his gardening objectives, which I'm sure many of us share:
- To have cut flowers for the house at all times.
- To have a mass of roses in the backyard.
- To have [flowers] in the garden all season.
Mr. Pepper's urban plot, a modest fifty by one hundred feet, presents challenges familiar to city gardeners.
Two large elm trees, while beautiful, prove troublesome:
They require spraying each spring, and their roots fill ... the drainpipes, causing much annoyance and expense. I should never plant elm trees near flowerbeds or drain pipes.
A word of caution from our banker friend, dear readers.
Choose your trees wisely!
His backyard, a veritable Eden, is enclosed by fences adorned with climbing nasturtiums, woodbine, trumpet-vine, and Clematis paniculata. Can you picture it?
A secret garden, hidden from the world by a tapestry of green and bloom.
Mr. Pepper's enthusiasm for tuberous begonias is infectious:
The single tuberous begonias are the best bedding plants I know; they bloom all summer.
His ingenious solutions to gardening challenges are a testament to the resourcefulness of the amateur horticulturist.
For instance, his method for overcoming hollyhock blight:
One ounce of carbonate of copper made into a paste with one-half pint of water; slowly add one-half pint of strong ammonia water (twenty-six degrees); water, nine gallons.
Our spraying outfit consists of a wooden pail and whisk broom. The broom is far ahead of the ordinary syringe, as it is not so wasteful.
Imagine, if you will, Mr. Pepper wielding his whisk broom with the precision of a painter, tenderly ministering to his ailing hollyhocks.
His dedication to rose cultivation is particularly admirable.
With seventy-five rose bushes, mostly hybrid perpetuals, Mr. Pepper goes to great lengths to ensure their survival and beauty:
Last winter we carried over a number of hybrid tea roses by covering them with nail kegs filled with leaves, the kegs having one stave removed for ventilation.
When the ground freezes, the rose beds receive a three-inch coating of fresh cow manure, part of which is forked in in the spring.
His innovative use of everyday items for gardening purposes is truly inspiring.
Candy boxes, cigar boxes, and even tin marshmallow boxes serve as nurseries for his seedlings:
We have raised hundreds of hardy plants like cardinal flowers, foxgloves, Boston ivies, and Oriental poppies in small candy and cigar boxes placed on the walk in the rear of the house.
Tin marshmallow boxes are excellent for this purpose, as they hold moisture longer than wooden boxes.
And let us not overlook Mr. Pepper's pride in his lawn, a testament to his dedication and perseverance:
We take great delight in the back lawn because we have overcome so much in getting it into its present condition.
The weeds are removed from the lawn at least twice a year. The grass is cut once in ten days and the clippings are not raked up.
Mr. Pepper's obituary mentioned his love for gardening:
Mr. Pepper was much interested and approved of all efforts of city beautification. He was a member of the West Side Garden Club of which Mrs. William Hart was the first president.
In 1926 he served as unofficial guide for garden tours, showing the parks, giving the names of trees, shrubs and flowers to tourists.
He organized the Nature Study Club which made trips to the islands, desert, Lake Louise and many national parks.
His wife, Mrs. Mary Rose Pepper, died Dec. 1, 1944.
She was born of missionary parents in Burma, and both she and Mr. Pepper were greatly interested in foreign missions. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary about nine years ago
As we tend to our own gardens today, let us take inspiration from H. Howard Pepper's passion and ingenuity.
May we approach our horticultural challenges with the same creativity and determination, finding joy in every bloom and blade of grass.