Elizabeth Lawrence Archives

Puppy-Proofing Gardening Illustrated

by Elizabeth Lawrence January 20, 1945 … I can’t imagine anything worse than a square of dogwoods back of the house. I thought your idea was that you wanted to clear that all out (except for the serviceberry, which is to one side) so you could look out of the kitchen window and up the…

January 20, 2021 January Garden Chores, Henry Danvers, Carl Linnaeus the Younger, Elizabeth Lawrence on Dogwoods and Spider Lilies, All Along You Were Blooming by Morgan Harper Nichols, and the first female botanist in America: Jane Colden

Today we celebrate the pardoned outlaw who donated the land for the Oxford Botanic Garden. We’ll also learn about Carl Jr. – Linnaeus’s son – Linnaeus filius, who surely felt some pressure growing up in his father’s shadow. We’ll hear one of my favorite letters from the garden writer Elizabeth Lawrence. We Grow That Garden…

Gardens in Winter by Elizabeth Lawrence

by Katharine S. White I have had to enjoy the winter garden vicariously, with the help of books. The best for this purpose I’ve found is Elizabeth Lawrence’s new one. Gardens in Winter (Harper), which has allowed me to share the delights of the author’s garden in Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as the gardens and woods…

Elizabeth Lawrence

Leaves Falling November 19, 1934 On this day, the garden writer Elizabeth Lawrence wrote to her sister: “…The first of the week I picked the last of your red and yellow zinnias, just before the frost finished up everything. But Ithink gardens are just as pretty in winter. The winter grass is so fresh when…

November 19, 2020 The Next Generation of Gardeners, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Calvert Vaux, Elizabeth Lawrence, Julia Wilmotte Henshaw, Amy Stewart, Mini Farming by Brett Markham, and Roger Williams’ Autumn Leaves

Today we celebrate the English poet who often wrote of the Natural World and the garden. We’ll also learn about the man who coined the term “Landscape Architect.” We’ll read a letter written by a garden writer about the last flowers in her fall garden. We’ll learn about the Canadian botanist and writer who had…

August 20, 2020 Maximize Your Potting Soil, Sharing Your Garden, the Patron Saint of Beekeepers, Thomas Jefferson, Carlos Thays, Elizabeth Lawrence, World Mosquito Day, French Country Cottage Inspired Gatherings by Courtney Allison, and Edgar Guest

Today we celebrate the Patron Saint of Beekeepers We’ll also revisit the letter Jefferson wrote about gardening – it contains one of his most-quoted lines. We remember the French Landscape Architect who designed ninety percent of the public spaces in Argentina. We’ll eavesdrop on another letter from Elizabeth Lawrence – the garden writer – who…

Elizabeth Lawrence

Love of Gardening On this day, Elizabeth Lawrence wrote a letter to her sister Ann. In the letter, she mentions their mom, Bessie, who shared both her daughters’ love of the garden. “I am so happy to get back to my rickety Corona; Ellen’s elegant new typewriter made anything I had to say unworthy of…

August 19, 2020 Michael Drolet’s Paris Apartment Design, National Potato Day, Jane Loudon, Ellen Willmott, Elizabeth Lawrence, Potato Poetry, Dahlias by Naomi Slade, and Ogden Nash’s Victory Garden

Today we salute the English orphan girl who wrote her own destiny with science fiction writing. We also remember the English gardener who is still ghosting us after many decades. We revisit a letter from Elizabeth Lawrence to her sister Ann. We’ll celebrate National Potato Day with some Potato Poems. We Grow That Garden Library™…

Elizabeth Lawrence

Campanula Seeds 1946 On this day Elizabeth Lawrence wrote to her sister: Dear Ann, I am going to send you, as soon as they are ripe, some seeds of Campanula americana, which came to me from one of my delightful farm women correspondents. I asked Mr. Krippendorf if he knew it, and he said yes,…

July 25, 2020 L.A. Music Producer Mark Redito, Cleome, Oxford Botanic Garden, William Forsyth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Joseph Sauriol, Elizabeth Lawrence, Walt Whitman, Weeds by Richard Mabey, and A Case of Floral Offerings

Today we remember the founding of a garden that inspired the book Alice in Wonderland. We’ll also learn about the botanist remembered with the Forsythia genus. We’ll salute the Lake poet who likened plant taxonomy to poetry. We also revisit a diary entry about a garden visitor and a letter from a gardener to her…

July 20, 2020 Thomas Rainer’s Garden Tips, David Nelson, Gregor Mendel, Daylilies, Brian Shaw, Katharine White, The Garden as Sanctuary, Shrubs by Andy McIndoe, and Katharine White

Today we remember the beloved botanist who served on Captain Cook’s third South Seas trip. We’ll also learn about the Austrian botanist and monk who pioneered the study of heredity. We celebrate the usefulness of daylilies. We also honor the life of a young man who was killed paying his florist bill and the life…

The Hum of Bees

by Elizabeth Lawrence The hum of bees is the voice of the garden. As featured onThe Daily Gardener podcast: Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of all. Elizabeth Lawrence

January 23, 2020 Orchid and Tropical Bonsai Show, How To Grow Microgreens, John Drayton, Edouard Manet, Agoston Haraszthy, Pierre Joseph Lenne, Al Schneider, Peggy Lyon, January by John Updike, The Cabaret of Plants by Richard Mabey, Owl Planters, and Elizabeth Lawrence

Today we celebrate the amateur botanist who was a two-time governor of South Carolina and the birthday of a French modernist painter who left peonies. We’ll learn about the man who brought European grapes to California and the most important Prussian garden-artist of the 19th century. Today’s Unearthed Words feature a poem about January. We…

Elizabeth Lawrence

Bud and Blossom Bonaro Overstreet once wrote, “Autumn asks that we prepare for the future —that we be wise in the ways of garnering and keeping. But it also asks that we learn to let go—to acknowledge the beauty of sparseness.” This little saying had me thinking of the gardener Elizabeth Lawrence. In late October…