Open As a Single Document

·arno ~a Volume 60 Number 1 2000 Page 2 Gibson Plantswoman Arnoldia USPS is Mary Henry, (ISSN 004-2633; 866-100) Extraordinaire published quarterly by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University Second-class postage paid at Mary Harrison Boston, Massachusetts. 13 Plants and Their Pollinators at Subscriptions are $20.00 per calendar year domestic, Flowering the Arnold Arboretum $25.00 foreign, payable in advance. Single copies of most issues are $5 00, the exceptions are 58/4-59/1 Damd Giblm (Metasequoia After Fifty Years) and 54/4 (A Source- book of Cultmar Names), which are $10.00. Remit- 20 A Fresh Look at a Traditional Favorite: tances may be made m U.S. dollars, by check drawn Rhododendrons on a U.S. international or bank; by money order; Richard Brooks by Visa or Mastercard. Send orders, remittances, change-of-address notices, and all other subscription- related communications to: Crrculation Manager, 27 Rhododendrons, from The Bulletm of Arnoldia, The Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Popular Information, 1934 Jamaica Plam, Massachusetts 02130-3500. Edgar Anderson Telephone 617/524-1718, facsimile 617/524-1418; e-mail arnoldraC~arnarb.harvard.edu. 29 In Pursuit of Ironclads Postmaster: Send address changes to Karen Madsen Arnoldia Crrculation Manager The Arnold Arboretum Front cover: Rhododendron Deal’ 125 ’Big photographed Arborway Dick Brooks Jamaica Plain, MA 02130-3500 by Karen Madsen, Editor Inside covers: Watercolor drawings of petals from Andy Winther, Designer "ironclad" hybnd rhododendrons and their common Rhododendron catawbiense The are Editonal Committee parent, hybnds the oldest rhododendrons m the Arboretum Phyllis Andersen among is m all were Ellen S. Bennett (year planted parenthesis), imported from Pamted C. H L Gebfert as a Robert E. Cook England. by gmde to identification 1931. Archives of the Peter Del Tredici by color, Arnold Arboretum. Gary Koller Stephen A Spongberg Back cover: Hand-colored of rhododen- Kim E. Tnpp photograph drons at ’Wellesley’, where H. H. Hunnewell Copyright © 2000. The President and Fellows of conducted many of the early hardmess tnals. Harvard College Archives of the Arnold Arboretum. Mary Gibson Henry, Plantswoman Extraordinaire Mary Harrison n the eighteenth century the amateur was a breed of botanist, especially in Colonial familiarAmerica. John Bartram, who was to become the king’s botanist in 1765, learned his art through experience in the field and by corresponding with horti- culturists and botanists on both sides of the Atlantic. Jane Colden, sometimes referred to as America’s first woman botanist, learned from her father and the books he procured for her, and through correspon- dence with botanists who admired her ability to rec- ognize unusual species around her home m New York State. In the twentieth century the tradition continued and was represented especially well by Mary Gibson Henry. Mary Henry was born in 1884 at her grandparents’ house near Jenkinstown, Pennsylvania, to Susan Worrell Pepper and John Howard Gibson. Her mother’s family were Quakers who had come from England with William Penn and taken part in the founding of Philadelphia. Horticulture was a traditional pursuit on both sides of the family. George Pepper, a great-grandfather, had been a member of the first Council of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society in 1828, and her Gibson grandfather, a keen plantsman, had his own greenhouse. Her father enjoyed hunting and camping, and contributed to her interest m the natural world. The home of Mary’s family was in the center of Philadelphia and had no garden, but before her father’s death in 1894, the family often visited Moosehead Lake in Maine. There, under her father’s influence, her familiarity with the countryside devel- oped. She became especially interested in native plants, and her first acquaintanceship with twin- Mary Gibson Henry (second from left) photographed m the ballroom of her grandparents’ house, ’Maybrook’, m Wynnewood, Pennsylvama. To her left is her daughter Josephme deNemours Henry, and at her nght is her aunt Mary Klett Gibson. At the far nght is her daughter Mary Gibson Henry Dams. 3 4i flower (Linnaea borealis), a dwarf evergreen distant places-Trees and Shrubs from a nursery shrub, awakened m her "not only a love for and in Tunbndge Wells, England; Coolldge Rare appreciation of the absolute perfection of the Plant Gardens (1923) from a California nursery; flower itself, but also for the dark, silent forest Himalayan and Indigenous Plants, Bulbs, that shelters such treasures." Many years later Seeds (1927) from a nursery in Bengal, India. ( 1932) she came upon this plant again, in north- Seed lists came from the U.S. Department of ern British Columbia, growing "in damp, shady Agriculture’s Office of Foreign Plant Introduc- woods, in lower altitudes and on bare, bleak, tions, and from the Royal Botanic Garden, stony mountain tops up to 6000 feet."" Edinburgh, which she had visited in 1923. (Fol- Mary attended the Agnes Irwin School in lowing that visit Mrs. Henry initiated a corre- Philadelphia for six years; when she left in 1902, spondence with the R.B.G.’s Regius Keeper, her formal education ended. In the years follow- William Wright-Smith, that lasted until he died ing school she visited the Grand Canyon and in 1956. Indeed, Wright-Smith was among the the Colorado Rockies, and on a trip to Europe earliest of several mentors to whom she looked she climbed Mont Blanc with her brother and for professional advice.)( several guides. In 1926 the Henrys bought Gladwyne, a run- In 1909 she married John Norman Henry, a down farm of ninety hilly acres twelve miles physician who later became Philadelphia’s from the center of Philadelphia, where they director of public health as well as president of hoped to combine the functions of their Phila- the General Alumm Society of the University of delphia and Maryland homes. As the Henrys’ Pennsylvama. The couple first lived in Philadel- architect described it, a greenhouse was built phia where Mrs. Henry had "a nice backyard ... with a house attached. Planting must have and a tiny greenhouse." In 1915 they acquired a begun immediately, for a 1928 inventory of large farm in Maryland with a view to building the Gladwyne garden records over 200 shrubs a home there. The plan was abandoned when and plants, with multiple varieties of several World War I interfered and Dr. Henry volun- species-seven Cornus florida and three Hama- teered for duty overseas. Nevertheless, long melis vernal1s, for example. Mrs. Henry’s inter- summers spent in exisring bungalows on the est in diversity within a single species was property allowed Mrs. Henry to develop a large later reflected in her passion for collecting kitchen garden, acquire some exotic ornamen- and hybridizing and an unflagging pursuit tals, and experiment with native rock plants. of particular colors and dimensions. By 19311 In addition to gardening in Maryland, she there were some 850 trees and shrubs in her gar- cultivated orchids in the Philadelphia green- den, some of them new Asiatic finds acquired house, and in 1924 she published an essay on from the collectors Forrest, Wilson, Rock, the subject in Garden Magazine. She read Farrer, and Ward. widely in horticulture and botany, and it was Another of Mrs. Henry’s early mentors was her reading during this period that first devel- Francis Pennell, curator of botany at the Acad- oped her interest in wild plants of the southeast- emy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, from ern United States. Two books were of special whom she sought help with identification. significance to her, Manual of the Southeastern When she expressed an interest in collecting Flora by J. K. Small and The Travels of Willlam wild plants for her garden, it was he who urged Bartram, which she found an "unending source her to collect herbarium specimens along with of inspiration."" the plants and schooled her in how to document Time to indulge horticultural interests was her finds. limited, however, for Mrs. Henry quickly In part, Mrs. Henry attributed her desire to became the mother of five children, the young- collect to William Bartram. His glowing descrip- est of whom died at the age of six. Although tion of Rhododendron speciosum flammeum basically confined to home during the twenties, (now R. speciosum) had fired her desire to she continued to expand her knowledge about acquire a specimen, and when her search in plants by studying nursery catalogs, often from commercial outlets and botanical gardens 5 Henry was also accompanied by her daughter Josephine, a skilled photog- rapher who took color photographs of plants later used by Mrs. Henry in her lectures. On her first trip to the Southeast she covered 2,000 miles and on that and later trips collected seven color varia- tions of Rhododendron speciosum. Later expeditions were made along the Atlantic Coastal Plain, on the Piedmont Plateau, m Appalachia, and in the mountains of east Tennessee and Alabama. Mrs. Henry planted her finds at Gladwyne and sent herbarium specimens to the Academy of Natural History in Philadelphia and the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. Experience quickly taught her that "rare and beautiful plants can be found m places that are difficult of access.... Often one has to shove one’s self through or wriggle under briars, with awkward results to clothing ... Wad- mg usually bare legged through count- less rattlesnake infested swamps adds immensely to the interest of the day’s work ... On several occasions I have been so deeply mired I had to be pulled One of the showiest of natme Amencan azaleas, Rhododendron out." She also learned that the habi- speciosum (now R. flammeum), the Oconee azalea Mrs. Henry’s tats of many of the plants she sought repeated ~ourneys m search of this plant resulted m seven color were in need of In vanants Its range is confmed to USDA zones 6 and 7.

Load more