At Large in the Library: Reinhardt Maitre

The Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners recently received a gift of Reinhardt Maitre's Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of Vegetable and Flower Seeds, Holland or Dutch Bulbs, Tuberous and Perennial Plants, Green-house Hot-house and Bedding Plants. . . (1875). Printed in Philadelphia, the work is known in two extant copies, one at Tulane University and the other at the Kentucky Historical Society Library.

Maitre was a German-born seedsman who immigrated to New Orleans in 1853. He began his career as a vegetable farmer, selling his cauliflower, celery and “ruta bagas” at the Magazine Market. By 1875 his business was so lucrative that he owned a Magazine Street seed store,(*) and operated expansive nurseries and greenhouses along Magazine Street beyond Louisiana.

He encouraged the public to visit:

“The Magazine, or St. Charles and Jackson Street Cars, leaving their depots on Canal between Camp and St. Charles Street, every three minutes will bring STRANGERS and VISITORS from the lower parts of the city, after a most pleasant ride, to the Store, and affording the same convenience to return – both lines having double tracks just before and near the Store. The Nurseries and Greenhouses are only three squares above the Magazine Car Station on Toledano Street, from whence a five minutes’ walk, on a most spacious side-walk brings Visitors to No. 976 Magazine Street.”


(*) 631 Magazine Street in 1875 (lakeside corner of Magazine at Jackson).

Images above:  Title Page. R. MAITRE’S Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of Vegetable and Flower Seeds, Holland or Dutch Bulbs, Tuberous and Perennial Plants, Green-House Hot-House and Bedding Plants, Ornamental and Evergreen Trees, Flowering Shrubbery, Camellias and Roses….  Philadelphia: Spangler & Davis, 1875. Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Sanborn Insurance Company. Insurance Map of New Orleans, Louisiana, Vol. 1. New York: 1876. Sheet 4. Fire Insurance Atlases, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Lost Louisiana

In April 1926, Mrs. Wheeler H. Peckham, honorary curator of the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), addressed the New Orleans Garden Society at the residence of Mrs. L. Kemper Williams. Her presentation focused on preserving Louisiana's native iris. Mrs. Peckham had been touring the region with NYBG curator Dr. John K. Small and botanical magazine editor E.J. Alexander. The team was alarmed at the rapid disappearance of southeastern Louisiana's iris fields.

Small (shown at right in center and bottom images above), in an article for the Journal of the New York Botanical Garden, quoted a letter he received from New Orleans Parking Commission member George Thomas:

'During the past twenty-five years, I have witnessed the most frightful destruction amongst the irises within the city limits of New Orleans and adjoining parishes, even worse than that of the Frenchmen Street location. At the junction of Washington and Carrollton Avenues, there was a patch of several acres, which when in bloom appeared to be a solid mass of iris; today not one remains. At the site of Newcomb College there was a fine stand of Iris fulva. This has disappeared entirely.'

Small considered New Orleans the biological and geographical center of Louisiana iris culture, and lamented  the disappearance of the Bayou Sauvage fields in Gentilly and the dwindling of the Frenchmen Street field:

"The present condition of the well-known Frenchmen Street iris fields attracts one's attention. The marsh along which and through which Frenchmen Street was built was a celebrated iris field, for many years a favorite place for the citizens interested in iris to observe and gather specimens or bouquets. Manufacturing plants finally began to use the marsh as a dumping ground for refuse, and today most of the former iris growth has been buried, and only a few isolated patches of the plants of the several species that once thrived here in countless numbers remain in the landscape."

Small and Peckham called on the citizens of New Orleans to save Louisiana's native irises. They returned to New Orleans many times, with Small collecting specimens for the NYBG, and naming innumerable natural hybrids or species variants.

Quoted matter from John K. Small, "Vanishing Iris." Reports on Florida Explorations 76, offprint from Journal of the New York Botanical Garden 32 (1931): pp. 277-288.  Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Images, top to bottom: 

Top: "In the delta of the Pearl River, Louisiana. A small patch of Iris giganticaerulea in the foreground. The 'weed-wagon' (the popular name for our collecting motor) in the background."

Center: "Collecting iris in swamp at Arabi, Louisiana. Colonies large and small of many kinds of iris occur here. This swamp and those of Gentilly are the richest in various kinds of iris."

Bottom: "Our tallest-stemmed iris--Iris giganticaerulea, growing in a swamp near Cut-Off, Louisiana. In this swamp violet-flowered irises prevailed. The plants were mostly three to five feet tall. The plants in the colony shown above were fully seven feet tall. If some of the dropping leaves were straightened, they would overtop one's head."

Images from John K. Small, "Salvaging the Native American Irises." Reports on Florida Explorations 73, offprint from Journal of the New York Botanical Garden 32 (1931): pp. 175-184. Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Beautifying New Orleans

Article by General Allison Owen (1869-1951), as it appeared in the Official 1935 Flower Show Book:

"In 1903, an attempt was made to co-ordinate the care of Parks and Boulevards of New Orleans, through the formation of a federation of Parks and Avenue Commissions, which was known as the Central Commission of Parks and Avenues. This was followed in 1909, by a call to form a Tree Society and out of these grew the Parking Commission ordinance and the setting up by Mayor Martin Behrman of the first Board composed of Dr. Joseph Holt, President; Allison Owen, Vice-President and Secretary; J.C. Matthews, Treasurer; and Wil. H. Douglas, and Gus Oertling, Members.

The question of procuring a nursery site was brought up and a tact of land was secured on December 6, 1909, on Broad Street, bounded by White, Melpomene and Clio Streets, a total of eight acres. A professional superintendent and several laborers were employed in clearing all undergrowth and trees and by February 14, 1910, the ground were ready for planting.

In March 1912, the newly organized Parking Commission's first planting was begun. One hundred and seventy elm trees being planted on Orleans Street. From 1912 to 1918 the Parking Commission had under its jurisdiction a number of parks and avenues and thousands of trees. The work of this Commission grew so rapidly and the everlasting demands for trees by the public, was so insistent that it necessitated a larger nursery site than the present one.

On November 12, 1919, a 68 acre tract of land was purchased for $40,000.00, located on Gentilly Road near St. Anthony Street, which is the present nursery site of the Parkway Commission.

During the past four years a total of 19,997 trees of unusual types and beauty were planted on the streets and parks, which brings the total in all to 90,000 trees planted since its organization, not counting the thousands of ornamental and decorative plants and shrubs that were planted.

Palm gardens were planted on South Claiborne Avenue, also on Jefferson Davis Parkway, which were admired and praised by hundreds of New Orleans plant lovers and this planting also makes our City look tropical in every respect.

Melpomene Street, from Dryades to South Claiborne Avenue has been planted with large Magnolia trees, which in itself forms a beautiful scene.

On West End Boulevard, from Florida Avenue to Robert E. Lee Boulevard, a stretch of two miles, has been planted to Crepe Myrtles much to the delight of the residents of that section, also, the lawn is well kept throughout the year.

The planting of Weeping Willow trees with Oleanders alternating has been accomplished on the banks of the New Basin Canal, from the Black Bridge to West End.

South Claiborne Avenue, from Canal to the New Basin Canal, has been planted to a double Avenue of Magnolia trees, to be known as the only planting of its kind in the country.

Large oak trees that were dug up in St. Bernard Parish are planted on Canal Boulevard, from Florida Avenue to Robert E. Lee Boulevard, also Nashville Avenue has been planted with these large oak trees, from Loyola to South Claiborne Avenue, alternating with Parkinsonia trees.

In addition to the replanting of shrubbery at West End Park, there is also the beautiful rose garden with its 5,700 rose bushes in different varieties and its artistically arranged rose arbors. This garden is visited by a great majority of tourists that enter New Orleans. The Center Avenue of the park has been planted to large Magnolia trees. An Azalea garden has been started in the park, which is the admiration of many, and which will be enlarged from time to time until it becomes one of the most attractive features of our parks. Two large lily ponds were built near the entrance of the park, with fountains throwing their spray upon different varieties of water lilies. In the summer the electric fountain is in operation, three times a week, and is a great source of pleasure to those that frequent this park, especially the visitors.

Lafayette Square and Elks Place, which parks are located in the commercial section of the City, are being planted with thousands of azalea bushes of different types."

Greater New Orleans Spring Flower Show. New Orleans: New Orleans Horticultural Society, Inc., 1935, p. 9. From the Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Libraries.

Longview Camellias

The Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, located in Tulane University's Southeastern Architectural Archive, retains records associated with a 1930's-1940's Alabama camellia nursery business.

In 1915, Robert O. Rubel, Jr. began growing camellias at his Longview estate in Crichton. His Oriental garden was planted there in 1917, its entrance at the terminus of a pine thicket. By 1928, Rubel sought to develop scientific data sets recording his exhaustive soil analyses and hoped to disseminate this information to all camellia growers. He also became an avid forager, locating unusual camellia varieties in rural gardens and purchasing them for other collectors. He considered camellias "the most valuable ornamental plants in commerce" and sought to educate his customers about proper nomenclature, growing habits, and horticultural history. A book collector as well as a gardener, Rubel acquired a library of camellia books and manuscripts, which he touted as "the only trustworthy source" for correctly identifying plant names. He commissioned ex libris cards for his book collection, and stored his precious volumes in a fireproof safe.

Between 1931 and 1932, Rubel sold thirteen carloads of collected specimens to one South Carolina customer, a transaction that he believed to be the largest sale of camellias since their introduction to Europe in the early eighteenth century. The meticulous plantsman sold his camellias with embossed copper labels attached to each plant, so that the tag could serve as a permanent means of correct identification.

The Garden Library is open to researchers Mondays-Fridays from 9-12 and 1-5.

Afton Villa Gardens

The Southeastern Architectural Archive's Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners houses the collection of Afton Villa Gardens, a garden located outside of St. Francisville, Louisiana (shown above). Genevieve Munson Trimble has been working tirelessly to restore the former plantation gardens since 1972. In the process, she has comprehensively documented her preservation efforts. Her personal gardening journals are augmented by the reports of Louisiana State University landscape architecture professor Neil Odenwald.

Her entry from 22 January 1983 reads:

"We are here at Afton again to meet Neil Odenwald. We toured the garden which looks very much like January -- only a few camellias in bloom and a very gloomy cold January day. Usually at this time I feel: Why garden at all? Then, comes the realization of coming spring. This year we are concerned that everything will come too soon. Today we see daffodils already beginning to bloom -- and a few white azaleas, also! We planted 3400 tulips during December, as opposed to 1623 tulips last year, so we ought to see a difference in the garden. . . "

Read more about Genevieve Munson Trimble and the Afton Villa Collection here. Or consult her gardening journals and landscaping reports in the Garden Library.

Images above: Afton Villa Gardens, as photographed 21 March 2010 by K. Rylance.

The Two-Bit Chair Design

In November 1880, New York's Adams and Bishop Company advertised a 25-cent Eastlake Chair Design in The Ladies' Floral Cabinet and Pictorial Home Companion. Named after British architect and designer Charles Locke Eastlake (1836-1906), chairs such as this were very popular in late nineteenth-century Britain and the United States. Eastlake's Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and Other Details (U.K., 1868; U.S., 1872)* disseminated his style to a wide audience.

Adams & Bishop of New York published patterns for DIY household items, including the chair shown above. For 15-25 cents, interested parties could purchase these individual designs; for $6.75, folks could purchase the entire 8-volume collection, containing approximately 1,000 different patterns.

Come and see the new CHAIRS exhibition in the Southeastern Architectural Archive.....

Image above from The Ladies' Floral Cabinet and Pictorial Home Companion (November 1880), p. vi. Paid advertisement for Adams & Bishop's "Latest Designs." Adams & Bishop, 46 Beekman Street, New York. The Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

*Tulane's Special Collections Division retains a copy of the 1883 Boston edition.

New Titles in the Garden Library

Ladies in Antebellum Costume under the Moss Draped Oaks of Glenwood Plantation, home of Mr. and Mrs. Edward P. Munson, Near New Orleans, LA. Undated photograph from Clarke and Marjorie Wilson's In Southern Gardens. Gulfport, MS: Stewart Welch Wilson, 1940. [Glenwood was located near Napoleonville on Bayou Lafourche. The house burned 10 October 1955].

The Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, housed in the Southeastern Architectural Archive, has recently acquired the following publications:

Ceo, Rocco J. and Joanna Lombard. Historic Landscapes of Florida. n.p.: The Deering Foundation & the University of Miami School of Architecture, 2001.

Costain, Maud. “Japan on the Gulf of Mexico.” Article reprinted from the March, 1935 issue of Country Life.

Deutsch, Herman. "The Jungle Gardens of Avery Island." Avery Island, LA: Jungle Gardens, c. 1935-1941.

Howett, Catherine. The Gardening Book of James L. Hunter, a Southern Planter. Chillicothe, IL: The American Botanist, 1996.

Krall, Daniel. "Ellen Biddle Shipman and Her Design for Longue Vue Gardens," in CELA 89: Proceedings. Gainesville, FL: Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, 1989.

“Middlegate Japanese Gardens.” Pass Christian, MS: Middlegate Japanese Gardens, n.d.

Turnbull, Martha Barrow. The Sixty Year Garden Diary of Martha Turnbull, Mistress of Rosedown Plantation 1836 to 1896. St. Francisville, LA: Rosedown Plantation and Historic Gardens, 1996.

Waters, Alice. Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2008.

Westmacott, Richard. African-American Gardens and Yards in the Rural South. Knoxville: U Tennessee Press, 1992.

Wilson, Clarke and Marjorie. In Southern Gardens. Gulfport, MS: Stewart Welch Wilson, 1940. Signed by the authors.

Louisiana Cypress 1809

The Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners features an early thirty-page pamphlet on the Louisiana bald cypress:

Mémoire sur le cyprès de la Louisiane: (Cupressus disticha, de Linné)
By M. de Cubières, Simon-Louis-Pierre de Cubières
Versailles: Imprimerie de la Société d'agriculture de Seine et Oise, chez J.-P. Jacob, 1809.

The short treatise includes a history of the tree's identification by various naturalists, its distinctive features, its potential uses in France, as well as a discussion of its appearance in Great Britian's Kew, Stowe and Blenem Gardens. Cubières credits Henry Compton (1632-1713), the Bishop of London, with transporting the first seeds from America. Compton's Fulham Palace gardens did include the American magnolia and azalea, but John Tradescant the Younger (1608-1662) is generally believed to have first imported the bald cypress seed.

Cubières claims that it was not until 1750 that the bald cypress was cultivated in France, the first seeds brought by the renowned botanist Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau(1700-1782), whose Art de rafiner le sucre (Paris, 1764) also graces the Garden Library.

In 1963, the bald cypress was designated as the Louisiana State Tree.

Above: Lauxan, delineator; Bessin, engraver. Cupressus Disticha/Cyprès de la Louisiane. Plate 1, from M. de Cubières, Simon-Louis-Pierre de Cubières. Mémoire sur le cyprès de la Louisiane. Versailles, 1809.

At Large in the Library: Nicolas de Bonnefons

The oldest book in the collection of the Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, a special research space housed in the Southeastern Architectural Archive, is by Nicolas de Bonnefons, the valet du chambre of King Louis XIV (1638-1715). He first published his Le Jardinier François in Paris in 1651. It was a vastly popular book and numerous editions appeared through the early eighteenth century. British diarist John Evelyn translated the work in 1658 and referred to it as "the first and best [. . .] that introduced the use of the olitoire [i.e. kitchen] garden."

The Garden Library's 1664 copy was the gift of Marion Leverick Miller, Marjorie Leverick Moran, and Elaine Leverick Collenberg. Published in Rouen as a small duodecimo, it was an affordable version intended for a growing bourgeois female readership. It is dedicated and prefaced "To the Ladies." The printer for this edition was also a woman, Catherine Housset (d. 1681?), who was the widow of Louis II Costé (1585?-1635) and operated this regional dynasty's printing establishment at the "Trois Croix couronnés" on the Rue Écuyère until the fourth quarter of the seventeenth century. The family was noted for its vernacular production of almanacs, romances, and dialogues. The front endpapers include a series of gift inscriptions, as one owner passed it to a friend, who passed it on, and so on, the earliest owner's mark from 1685.

Garden Library Gift

Detail of Woodrow Ogden, photographer. Ante-Bellum Louisiana Home, Afton Villa, St. Francisville, Louisiana. n.d. Printed by H.N. Conray, Inc., New Orleans.

The Southeastern Architectural Archive is home to the Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, a local garden club affiliated with the Garden Club of America and the Smithsonian Institution.

Last week, through the efforts of New Orleans Town Gardener Ruthie Frierson, the Library was the recipient of an important gift from Genevieve Munson Trimble, who has spent nearly the last forty years preserving the gardens of Afton Villa Plantation. Ms. Munson Trimble has generously donated her gardening journals, both the originals and copies, as well as landscape architect Neil Odenwald's related reports, to the Garden Library.

Although the plantation home, shown above, was destroyed by fire in 1963, Trimble's vigorous preservation efforts have resulted in a revitalized series of terraced gardens and a romantic garden amidst the ruins, the latter inspired by Vita Sackville-West's Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Kent. Trimble's journals provide a wealth of information, from records of hardy (and not-so-hardy) plant varieties to accounts of personally significant events, wedding together her landscaping and her life.