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Elisabeth C. Miller Library

Keyword: Horticulture--Pacific Northwest

comparing Carl English and Elisabeth Miller

Do you have any materials written by Elisabeth Miller? I work at the Carl S. English, Jr. Botanical Garden at the Ballard Locks, and I’m interested in comparing her approach to gardening with Carl English’s. Carl did not write much about his work, and I’m curious if I can learn more about him from other people’s work.

I want to learn more about Carl’s guiding ideas about horticulture so in the future we can continue to cultivate a garden that he could still recognize. I’m trying to pin down some concrete guidelines on what and how we add to the botanical collection here in the garden. The more information I have about and from Carl, the better I hope to answer this question.

It’s also interesting to juxtapose Betty and Carl’s careers and outputs. It helps me place his actions in the context of what was going on horticulturally during their working careers.

On the face of it, the two plant-lovers had very different approaches to gardening and life.

Betty (1914-1994) was an activist and advocate for public gardens and green space in the city, but her primary garden was and remains inside a gated community. As far as I know she never ran a business of any kind, although she worked with local nonprofit groups and believed in horticultural education. She was active in the Garden Club of America and the American Horticultural Society. One of her proud accomplishments was raising $40,000 for a comprehensive approach to planting the Lake Washington Ship Canal, a project that brought her into collaboration with the Army Corps of Engineers.

We have in our archives here several things Betty Miller wrote for publication:

  • V. 53 issue 2, 1974, American Horticulturist article “Why Green Turns Brown.”
  • Winter 1978 Arboretum Bulletin article “Challenge to Maintain the Green Scene.”
  • 10/1979,  American Forests magazine issue with article “Seattle’s Freeway Park” by Betty Miller.
  • Summer 1982, “The Roots of the N.O.H.S,” by Betty Miller, reprinted from Horticulture Northwest.
  • 1982 Puget Soundings article “There is Always a Garden.”
  • Her chapter from Rosemary Verey’s 1984 book, The American Woman’s Garden, where she writes about her garden.

There is also an interesting list of biographical data on Betty Miller that I would guess she wrote herself in the late 80s or early 90s.

This 1996 article by David Laskin in the Seattle Weekly gets into more detail about Betty’s personality:

So does Ted Marston’s remembrance of her from the Autumn 1994 Garden Notes (a Northwest Horticultural Society publication). He spoke with Mareen Kruckeberg, Dick Brown, Steve Lorton, Michael Lynn and others about their memories of Betty.

Carl (1904-1976) moonlighted with his nursery business, and of course the gardens named for him at the Locks are a beloved public institution. He participated in plant exchanges with arboreta around the world and joined plant societies worldwide, including the American Horticultural Society, the Scottish Rock Garden Club, the Alpine Garden Society of England, and others. Native plants of this region were also of interest to him and his wife Edith; they botanized and contributed specimens to herbaria. On a personal level, he was said to be outdoorsy, friendly, and a valued member of groups. He gave lectures and led field trips to the mountains.

In our archives, you can read this article by Carl English:

  • Summer 1972, “The Garden at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Seattle,” American Horticulturist, 3 pp.

This promotional text he likely wrote as well:

  • 4/1962, Locks brochure with cover photo of welcome sign and building (see “Seven Acres of Gardens” on the back, which Carl may have written himself.)
  • 1969 “Green Palms” brochure.

Here is a piece about him written before he died in 1976:

  • 9/1957, “Plantsmen in Profile, Carl S. English Jr.” by William J. Dress, rpt. from “Baileya,” 6 pp. (reprinted in Horticulture Northwest, vol. 11, no. 4, 1984 with a different picture of Carl)

We also have obituaries and remembrances of him.

HistoryLink has a couple of articles that may interest you. This is their perspective on Carl S. English, Jr. They also host this article, where Art and Mareen Kruckeberg count both Betty and Carl among their friends.

 

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Notes from the Garden: Creating a Pacific Northwest Sanctuary

Madeleine Wilde was the author of a gardening column in Seattle’s “Queen Anne & Magnolia News” that ran for over 20 years.  Near the end of her life in 2018, she asked her publisher, Mike Dillon, to compile and edit those columns into a book.  “Notes from the Garden” has recently been published, a treasure to be cherished by all local gardeners.

Wilde’s husband, David Streatfield, professor emeritus in Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington, provides a forward that describes the structure and history of their shared garden.  He notes the significant trees and garden places, but also portrays the emotional space their garden provided.  It was a sanctuary.  It was also a place of remembrances, including plantings that were gifts from her parents, memorials to beloved family cats, or evoke places enjoyed on their travels together.  According to her husband, this was also where Wilde “contemplated the issues she wrote about.  These ranged from philosophical musings to seemingly mundane garden management issues.”

These mundane issues are typically very practical advice.  I learned that re-planting annual nasturtiums in the mid-summer as a way to eliminate an infestation of black aphids.  To enjoy early spring ephemerals, bring them inside, washing off bulbs, roots, and all.  This extends the life of the flowers with the added bonus the plant can be restored to the garden without harm, allowing the leaves to naturally mature.  I noted that bulbs, especially those that are spring blooming, are a frequent component of these essays, with several columns providing guidance for the heady rush of shopping for the best selections before planting in the fall.

As I read Wilde’s articles, in my head I was responding to her ideas as I would with any friend who is also a keen gardener.  Most often, this was agreement over shared experiences.  Sometimes, I felt the need to disagree, but I might do that with any friend I trusted not to take offense.  Throughout, it was a healthy dialog, very much alive and vibrant.

Spring is celebrated for its exuberance, but this is not always a good thing.  “The brilliant dandelions appear to double in numbers and showiness every hour.  The chickweed mats ooze across the terrain, while that perky pest, named shotweed, seems to be in fast-forward on its second go-round…All dedicated gardeners have their special choice of vigorous thugs to conquer.  The ridiculous absurdity is that each year we think we can control all this extravagantly beautiful spring growth.  I try to stay amused.”

 

Excerpted from the Spring 2022 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin

Vegetable by Vegetable: A Guide for Gardening Near the Salish Sea

Marko Colby and Hanako Myers are organic gardeners in Quilcene, Washington, growing both vegetables to sell in markets and vegetable starts for home gardeners.  From their experiences answering the questions of their seedling buyers, they have put together a small (83 pages) but very useful book titled “Vegetable by Vegetable: A Guide for Gardening Near the Salish Sea.”

The sub-title recognizes the similarity of climates over a wide range of coastal British Columbia and Washington.  As an example, they note how the growing season around Puget Sound is more comparable to northern Vancouver Island than to much closer areas just east of the Cascade Mountains.

The advice is very direct and encouraging.  For tomatoes, “few varieties have complete resistance to fungal disease and some amount of disease is normal (Try not to worry too much!).”  I recommend you give this user-friendly little book a try.

Excerpted from the Spring 2022 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin

Legacy of a Passionate Gardener

Pat Roome has been a gardener for almost all of her 87 years, has lived and gardened at the same Bellevue home for 56 years, and has been a Master Gardener for 45 years.  That’s a lot of experience, and she decided it was time to share her accumulated knowledge in a self-published book, “Legacy of a Passionate Gardener.”  We are all the beneficiaries.

This is an informal book, with many charts and how-to sheets that I could imagine as handouts for a Master Gardener clinic.  Examples include “How to Grow Tomatoes Easily” (in the Seattle area) and a homemade “Soil Composition Test.”  The chapters cover a comprehensive list of topics relevant to the home gardener with many examples, all helpful and many amusing.

“Don’t even think of digging out a full-sized Juniper by pulling it out tied to the bumper of a pickup.  I have seen this done with disastrous results.”  This illustrate one of Roome’s common themes: don’t try to do everything yourself – money to bring in a pro is well spent.  I found her chapter on tips for the older gardener to be especially good, with advice relevant to the physical well-being of gardeners of any age.

She freely admits her mistakes and encourages continual learning to make a garden that gives one pleasure without a lot of stress.  She takes this advice to heart in concluding “my garden continues to give me a lot of happiness and satisfaction.”

 

Excerpted from the Fall 2020 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin

 

Growing Berries and Fruit Trees in the Pacific Northwest

Tara Austen Weaver became smitten on growing fruit in Seattle after planting raspberries during an extended summer visit.  Later, she moved here permanently to a house with nine mature fruit trees and proceeded to add 14 more plus many berry plants.  Her new book, “Growing Berries and Fruit Trees in the Pacific Northwest,” is based on that experience and is an excellent choice for the beginning fruit grower in Washington, Oregon, or British Columbia, especially west of the Cascades.

I found the book is especially helpful for cultivating berries by giving recommended varieties and culture methods specific to this region.  The emphasis is on the most popular, including strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, but the author is adventuresome.  She maintains a small but controlled (she claims) patch of Himalayan blackberries and recommends trying wild fruit such as our native huckleberries, or even salal.  Her definition of “berry” is broad and she also recommends kiwi, lingonberry, currents, and even elderberries.

 

Excerpted from the Fall 2020 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin

Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides

The NCAP published the Journal of Pesticide Reform and works to educate the public about the dangers of pesticides. Go to their Publications section to download information on alternative solutions to pest problems, pesticide fact sheets, and special reports about issues of pesticide reform.

Oh, La La! : Homegrown Stories, Helpful Tips, and Garden Wisdom

[Oh, La La!] cover

“I am a storyteller.”

Ciscoe Morris is an expert gardener, eager to share his knowledge with those at all levels of gardening ability. But this self-assessment from the introduction of his new book is also very accurate. He grew up in a large family of storytellers and that skill came first. Later, gardening became the framework for his tales.

“Oh, La La!” is a fine collection of short essays, each no more than a few pages. You can open the book anywhere and immediately be engaged, no matter the topic. Later, you’ll realize how much you learned.

There are three main settings: his home garden, the Seattle University campus where he worked for many years, and the many locations from his travels. While the plants take center stage, the interactions of the gardener with other people and with animals – especially beloved dogs – are the memorable highlights.

I have several favorite stories. One of the longer chapters lays out the many – usually unsuccessful – ways to control moles, concluding, “if nothing else works, you can learn to live with moles.” Another lesson confirms my personal experience with the Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens var. glauca). It belongs in Colorado, safe from the spruce aphids that devastate this species in our mild, maritime climate.

Ciscoe promises this is not his last book. “I already have an idea for the next one. Oh, la la: I can’t wait to get started!” I can hardly wait to read it.