Carol Michel is a garden author and co-host of The Gardenangelists podcast. She boasts of having the world’s largest hoe collection…which is overshadowed only by her library-worthy collection of gardening books. Among the hundreds of volumes on her shelves are hard-to-find copies of books by a number of American women who were horticultural experts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but who have been all but forgotten by history. To honour them, Carol started a Substack called the Lost Ladies of Garden Writing. On this week’s episode of Plants Always Win, she invites us into some of their stories. 

Publishing styles and garden trends change over time, but some things stay the same. People want to know how to make their poinsettia re-bloom, how to get rid of pests, how to find the hottest new cultivar. Carol uses genealogical records, newspaper archives, and Google Books to piece together the lives of the women who were answering those questions in decades past, then shares them with her subscribers. It’s a project of passion and dedication, and it has given her some extraordinary stories to tell!

Lost Ladies featured in this episode include:

• Cynthia Westcott, who saved the Azaleas of the southern United States 
• Grace (G.A.) Woolson who was, as America’s foremost fern expert, often assumed to be a man
• Viola Brainerd Baird, whose 1940s Wild Violets of North America is still unmatched
• Kate Brewster, whose book The Little Garden for Little Money was somewhat hampered by her own wealth
• Alma C. Guillet moved from Toronto to New York City and catalogued all the trees and shrubs in Central Park
• Mrs. L.L. Huffman, who wrote under her husband’s initials and was actually called Minnie Enola

Some better-known ladies of garden writing are also mentioned:

• Cassandra Danz, A.K.A. Mrs. Greenthumbs
• Elizabeth Lawrence, whose Charlotte, North Carolina garden was so beloved it’s now part of a bird sanctuary
• Jean Hersey, whose book The Shape of the Year is still read and enjoyed

To enjoy more garden gab with Carol, find her in the following places:

• The Lost Ladies of Garden Writing Substack, which is updated weekly with new lost ladies
• Her helpful weekly gardening newsletter, In the Garden with Carol J Michel
• The Gardenangelists Podcast, which she co-hosts with Dee Nash
• Her website, caroljmichel.com, where you will also find her books of humorous and helpful gardening essays:
• Potted and Pruned: Living a Gardening Life
• Homegrown and Handpicked: A Year in a Gardening Life
• Seeded and Sodded: Thoughts from a Gardening Life
• Creatures and Critters: Who’s in my Garden
• Digging and Delighted: Live your Best Gardening Life

Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment? Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon. 

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Credits

Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin

Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-plays

License code: GWOIMMBAS15FG6PH

Timestamps

00:30 Introducing Carol Michel

01:30 The World's Largest Hoe Collection

04:45 Carol's Gardening Book Library

07:40 The Lost Ladies of Garden Writing Project

10:30 Garden Writing Then and Now

11:34 Cynthia Westcott, PhD: The Gardener's Bug Book

13:48 Can We Trust Old Gardening Books?

15:18 Buckner Hollingsworth, Gardening on Main Street

16:51 Carol convinces Sean to Become a Collector

19:57 G.A. (Grace) Woolson, Ferns

24:39 Elizabeth Lawrence, A Southern Garden

26:29 How Carol Does her Research

27:38 Writing Under their Husbands' Names

29:33 Kate Brewster, The Little Garden for Little Money

30:41 Jean Hersey, The Shape of the Year

34:36 Alma C. Guillet, Make Friends of the Trees and Shrubs 

35:20 Cassandra Danz, Mrs. Greenthumbs

38:54 Carol's "Humorous but Helpful" Gardening Books

39:07 Find Carol Online

40:53 Contact us and Outro