i\ •· 
,. 

~·~. ~~~ . \ 
·-, ' 

CELIA THAXTER'S ISLAND GARDEN: 
A 19th CENTURY FLOWER GARDEN & ITS HISTORIC 

RESTORATION 

BY TESSA IZENOUR 
SENIOR SEMINAR: FALL 2004 

INSTRUCTOR: SINCLAIR ADAt\1 
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: DEPARTMENT OF LAt'IDSCAPE 

ARCHITECTURE & HORTICULTURE 



ABSTRACT: 

Celia Thaxter, perhaps the most renowned and popularly successful female poet of her time, was 
also a passionate and knowledgeable gardener, naturalist, and painter. In 1893 , a year before her death, 
she wrote what today is still considered a garden literature classic, An Island Garden, in which she 
described what she called her "old-fashioned" small garden, roughly 15' x 50', on Appledore Island, Isles 
of Shoals, Maine. This book was beautifully, and famously, illustrated with paintings of her garden and 
home by the American impressionist Childe Hassam, and served as a popular literary chronicle of an 
famous American garden as well as an emrninently practical horticultural how-to guide. This small 
garden, lying roughly ten miles off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was renowned in its day 
and a mecca for the pre-eminent artists, writers, and musicians of late 191h century New England, for 
which it was a profound inspiration. Likewise, the recreation ofher garden, begun in 1976, continues to 
attract increasing throngs of visitors to this day. This paper attempts to examine, deconstruct, and 
evaluate Celia Thaxter' s original garden-- i.e. , what she grew, how she grew these plants in such a harsh 
North Atlantic island situation, and to discuss the garden's on-going horticultural, art-historical, and 
cultural significance. It is the author's proposition that Celia's island garden serves as an eminent 
example of the dynamic dialogue between the mediums of painting and gardening, which also succinctly 
and emblematically, embodies the essentially ephemeral nature of gardens as works of art and their 
simultaneous profound potential for affecting lasting impression and significance upon culture. Celia's 
island garden is further analyzed in regards to issues of gender and the Victorian ' door-yard ' garden. 
Finally, the garden's recreation and its popular success is critically examined and discussed in relation to 
the amply documented and described original garden, and its effectiveness as a historical restoration 
effort is evaluated. 

1 
Stephan, Sharon Paiva. One Woman's Work,· Th e Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter, Portsmouth, NH: Peter E. 

Randall, Pub!. , 2001 , p. 84 . 



INTRODUCTION: 

A small, almost insignificant plot of land in a most unlikely and remote location was transformed 

over time into a lush, overflowing flower garden by the daughter of a lighthouse keeper. Celia Laighton 

Thaxter was an extremely talented woman who led a remarkably unconventional and independent life by 

Victorian New England standards. She plied multiple trades and artistic media (including: running a 

hotel, writing poetry and prose, painting porcelain, and flower arranging) to support herself and her 

mentally handicapped son, and was long estranged from her husband. Yet, her garden and its creator 

were famous in their time, and became a tiny beacon for the greatest talent of New England who came to 

see it, paint it, and simply bask in its color and beauty. Indeed Celia Thaxter's garden and flower-filled 

parlor constitute one of the first great artistic 'salons' of 19'h century America, and arguably can be said to 

have inspired some of the best American Impressionist paintings ever created. Ultimately this garden was 

to become a romantic icon of an ' old-fashioned' flower garden which continues to find admirers, and 

emulators, today. Indeed, her garden can be considered an archetypal model of an idealized and nostalgic 

American garden type, the 'Grandmother's' garden. Thus, Celia Thaxter's island garden, and its 

restoration, provide a fascinating context in which to investigate many complex issues surrounding 

landscape and garden history, botanical and horticultural history, garden literature, the relationship 

between painting and gardening, concepts of gender as expressed in attitudes towards gardening, and 

historic landscape restoration. 

Celia Thaxter Cottage. Isles-of-Shoal s, N.H . 

A postcard view of Celia Thaxter's 'cottage' and ga rden (from the late 19'h century?).2 

2
0tis, Denise. Grounds for Pleasure: Four Centuries of the American Garden. New York~ Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 

2002,p.67. 

2 



APPLEDORE ISLAND, OR, "THE SHIFTING INTERFACE BETWEEN LAND, SEA, AND 
AIR"3 : A brief history of Appledore Island and its vegetation: 

r-
- _...._.___ 
- · ,.... ~··· 

I 

~,] 

.. I .......... 

----~-,~·- ._,____.!--=:" .. · -=-=---~- --==-· ~__::,_·). I 
1779 map of Portsmouth & the Isles of Shoals.4 

The first place I set my foote upon in New England was the lies ofShoulds, being Ilands 
in the Sea, about two Leagues from the Mayne. Upon these Ilands I neither could see one 
good timber tree, nor so much good ground as to make a garden. 

-Christopher Levett, A Voyage to New-England, 16285 

The Isles of Shoals, "nine glacier-scaned granite domes"6 lying roughly ten miles off the coast of 

Portsmouth, were among the very first, although under-publicized, places visited and settled by 

Europeans. The Shoals were well known and used by English, French, Portuguese and Basque fishermen 

during the 1500s. Captain John Smith first described the Isles of Shoals in writing in 1614 as "a many of 

3 
Kingsbury, John M . Th e Rocky Shore. Old Greenwich, CT: Chatham Press, Inc., 1970, p. 7. 

4 
Faxon, Susan C. A Stern and Lovely Scene: A Visual History of the Isles of Shoals. Durham, New Hampshire: 

University Art Ga lleries; University of New Hampshire, 1978, p. 10. 
5 Ibid. , p. 9. 
6 

Howard, Richard A. Flowers of Star Island, The Isles of Shoals. Jamaica Plain, MA: Arnold Arboretum, 1968, p. 
1. 

3 



barren rocks, the most overgrowne with such shmbs and sharpe whins (vines) you can hardly passe them; 

without either grasse or wood but three or foure short shmbby old Cedars."
7 

However, despite this 

disparaging description, he attempted to claim and name them for himself, 'Smythe's Isles', a name 

which did not stick, as the fishermen who had preceded him had already bestowed the name ' The Isles of 

Shoals', or 'Shoalds' to the archipelago, perhaps because it aptly described to navigators the perils of the 

semi-submerged rock ledges surrounding the islands, and to fishermen, the schools, or shoal(d)s, offish 

which were to be found in ample abundance in the region surrounding the islands. The early colonization 

of the Isles of Shoals was a by-product of the western European fishing industry. The region offered both 

a seemingly inexhaustible fishery and a convenient and safe stop-over for the processing and curing of the 

catch, as well as a resting spot for these mariners, before returning to Europe. 

Landing for the first time, the stranger is struck only by the sadness of the place, --the 
vast loneliness; for there are not even trees to whisper with familiar voices, -- nothing 
but sky and sea and rocks. But the very wildness and desolation reveal a strange 
beauty to him. Let him wait til evening comes, "With sunset purple soothing all the 
waste," and he will find himself slowly succumbing to the subtile charm of that sea 
atmosphere. 

-Celia Thaxter, Among the Isles of Shoals, 18739 

As one approaches the Isles of Shoals by boat they gradually emerge from the sea and perhaps the 

most immediate impression is one of surprise and alarm at the apparent barrenness of the place. 

7 
Smith, Captain John. Travels and Works of Captain John Smith. Edinburgh: Jolm Grant, 1910. p. 947. 

8 
Photograph taken by Tessa Izenour, 9/2004. 

9 
Thaxter, Celia. Among the Isles of Shoals. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., 1897, p. 26. 

4 



Appledore is the largest of the nine Isles of Shoals, roughly a mile wide and app. 95 acres. There are no 

canopy trees, and the islands contrast markedly with islands further up the coast which are characteristic 

of Maine and dominated by more-or-less mature spruce, fir, and pine trees. It is unclear whether there 

ever existed such a tree canopy on the Isles of Shoals. One initially wonders if the complete deforestation 

is the result of their long history of human settlement. However, early settlers were likewise startled by 

the absence of vegetation, and there are records of long-ago vanquished attempts to plant orchards, 

ornamental trees, and gardens on the Isles of Shoals over the centuries. The open low-lying profile of the 

islands, their lack of protection from the sea and winter storms, and the large migratory bird populations 

which they harbor (and the high-Nitrogen guano loads they deposit), as well as the islands' long history 

ofhuman habitation and abuse of the land may all be factors which have contributed to promoting and 

sustaining their relatively barren vegetative character. 

Celia Thaxter, who was a more-or-less life long resident, historian, and naturalist of the Isles of 

Shoals, apparently believed that the islands were once tree covered-- she wrote, ""It is very probable that 

the islands were wooded many years ago with spruce, and perhaps a rugged growth. I am certain that 

cedars grew then (by cedars, she possibly meant Chaemycyparis thyoides, Atlantic Cedar, or Juniperus 

virginiana, Eastern Red Cedar), for I found on the highest part ofSmuttynose Point, deep down in a 

crevice in the rocks, a piece of a root of cedarwood, which, although perfectly preserved, bore marks of 

great age, being worn smooth as glass with the rain drops that had penetrated to its hiding place... I have 

seen the crumbling remains of the stumps of some large trees in the principal gorge or valley at 

Appledore."
10 

The botanist Richard A. Howard weighed in on the question of whether or not the Isles of 

Shoals once supported woody growth in his 1968 plant inventory of neighboring Star island-- "The 

question may never be answered whether the Isles of Shoals were densely wooded in a fashion 

comparable to islands off the Coast of Maine. The available historical records suggest that they never 

possessed a forest as such but at best had only a vegetation of shrubs with a few larger specimens 

contorted by the wind." 11 

The island vegetation is today dominated by shrubby woody plant species which get to some 

height, up to 13 ' or so. Dominant woody species include: Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) and flex 

verticillata, along with wild berry producers such as, Amelanchier & Aronia spp., Choke Cherry (Prunus 

virgininiana), Blackberry, Raspberry, Myrica pennsylvanica, and of course, Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron 

radicans), which is today rampant on the island. European plants introduced by early settlers have also 

naturalized on the islands such as apple trees, and herbaceous species such as Anagallis arvensis (Scarlet 

10 
Thaxter, Celia, as quoted by Howard, Richard A. Flowers of Star Island, Th e Isles of Shoals. Jamaica Plain, MA: 

Arnold Arboretum, 1968, p. 3. 
11 

Howard, Richard A. Flowers of Star Island, The Isle of Shoals. p. 3. 

5 



Pimpernel), and two plants which have survived and spread from Celia Thaxter's original garden--

Humulus lupulus, and Clematis vitalba. 

The islands provide a fascinating case-study of the effects of both a unique micro-climate and 

isolation upon species, as we II as the naturalization and stabilization of introduced species over almost 

four hundred years time. The aesthetic impression of the contemporary wild flora of the island is unique, 

magical, and unlike anything experienced on the mainland. Botanists who have addressed the Isles of 

Shoals flora have noted and discussed this phenomenon. Richard A. Howard of the Arnold Arboretum 

observed in Flowers of Star Island, "the rugged environment of the Shoals has led to specialization of 

flower forms not often seen on the mainland. Some plants react by growing bushier and larger, in others 

the flowers become more briiliant, in stiii others flowers don't appear. . . Well known species may be 

stunted, contorted, compacted, or unusuaily fleshy. In fact, familiar plants may appear quite different 

when seen growing on these Atlantic coastal rocks ... Strangely, plant forms found on one island are not 

always found on another. ... altogether, over 250 different species have been identified on the Shoals. 

Most of these are naturalized. " 12 

One may be surprised to learn that despite the Isles of Shoals North Atlantic location in the Gulf 

of Maine, it has a relatively mild climate (although the islands have historicaily experienced hurricane 

force storms at least once every ten years) 13 • The sea moderates temperature extremes, and both winter 

lows and summer highs vary significantly from the mainland. Celia Thaxter herself noted in 1873 that 

winter average temperatures on the Isles of Shoals were a surprising twelve degrees warmer that those on 

the mainland, and a corresponding approximate twelve degrees cooler during the summer. 14 Archived 

data accumulated by the Isles of Shoals C-MAN Station, and reported by the environmental monitoring 

portion of the Open Aquaculture Program of the University of New Hampshire, state that "the annual 

mean air temperature of8.7° C (48° F) lays between a minimum monthly average of -1.6° C (29° F) 

during February and a maximum of 19.2° C (67° F) during August." 15 The average minimum 

temperature of29° F would seem to place Appledore Island in an amazing USDA zone 9b, however, this 

is misleading, as "extrema of -20.9 ° C ( -6° F) occurred during January 1988 and 32.3 ° C (90° F) 

occurred during June 1988" 16, and nearby Portsmouth lies within zones 5a-6a. Spring, however, arrives at 

the Isles of Shoals roughly a month later than on the mainland, as the sea takes longer to warm, but, the 

reverse is also true, as fail temperatures linger approximately a month later than on the mainland, as the 

sea holds onto its warmth ... 17 

12 
Ibid., pp. 1-2. 

13 
Boden, Gary. The Vascular Flora of App!edore Island, p. 15. 

14 Ibid. 
15 

Site Description and Environmental Monitoring Report, Larry G. Ward, et. a!. 200 1. 
<http://www .ooa. unh.edu/environmentaVtechnical_ report/chapter_ 4.html> 
16 Ibid. 
17 

Boden, Gary. The Vascular Flora of App!edore Island, p. 15 . 

6 



CELIA THAXTER: A Brief Biography of a Writer-Gardener-Artist: 

Celia Laighton was born in I 835 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to T homas B. and El iza 

Laighton. In 1839, when Celia was four years old, her father moved the young family to tiny White 

Island, Isles of Shoals, when he accepted the position of lighthouse keeper. Her isolated childhood on 

White Island cultivated in her an intense interest in observing nature, and she discovered the joys of 

gardening here early in life. 

"A lonely child, living on the lighthouse island ten miles away from the mainland, every 
blade of grass that sprang out of the ground, every humblest weed, was precious in my 
sight, and I began a little garden when not more than fi ve years old. From this, year after 
year, the larger one, which has given so much pleasure to so many people, has grown. 
The first small bed at the lighthouse island contained only Marigolds, pot Marigolds 
(Calendula officina/is), fire-colored blossoms which were the joy of my heart and the 
delight of my eyes. This scrap of garden, literally not more than a yard square, with its 
barbaric splendors of color, I worshipped like any Parsee. " 18 

Celia Thaxter, An Island Garden 

In 1839 her father purchased Hog, Smuttynose, and Malaga Islands, with the intention of 

developing the Isles of Shoals as a vacation destination for the emerging New England bourgeoisie 

looking to escape urban and increasingly industrialized centers duri ng the summer months. At the age of 

12 in 1847, she moved with her family to Hog Island, which her father had renamed Appledore (after an 

early, and abandoned 1 i 11 century name for the entire group of islands), where he built Appledore House, 

which was to become one of the very first resort hotels in America. 

View towards Appledore House Hotel across Celia ' s garden earl y in the season.19 

18 
Thaxter, Celia. An Island Garden, Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1894, pp. v-vi. 

19 
Bardwell, John D. The Isles ofShoals; A Visual History. Portsmouth, NH: Peter E. Randall, Pub!., 1989, p. 104. 

7 



In 1847 Levi Thaxter, a young Harvard graduate who had come to the Isles of Shoals to 

recuperate from 'nervous exhaustion', was engaged as the tutor of Celia and her two brothers. He was 

obviously quickly smitten by Celia and they were engaged in 1848. There is some conjecture that their 

engagement may have been in part to consummate a business deal between her father and Levi who 

helped fund the building of the Appledore House Hotel.20 They were married in 1851 when Celia was 16 

years old (and Levi 27) and the marriage was unhappy trom the beginning. Their first child, Karl, 

suffered brain damage at birth, and was to be a profoundly difficult child who would be forever dependent 

upon his mother. Two other sons were soon born (John and Roland), and Celia found herself shouldering 

the overwhelming burdens of raising three small children and managing a Victorian household whi le still 

herself a teenager. Levi Thaxter, although a Harvard graduate from a well-off Boston family, refused to 

work for a living and the family was consistently strapped for money and often had to stay with family 

and friends. Eventually, Levi's parents bought the young couple a house in Newtonville, Massachusetts, 

where Celia was never happy and always longed for the Isles of Shoals. Levi, meanwhile would often 

leave his young family to take extensive, months-long hunting and naturalist collecting trips, leaving 

Celia without any form of financial support in his absence. Over the years Celia and Levi were to become 

increasingly estranged and she would return with Karl more and more frequently, and for longer 

durations, to Appledore Island, ostensibly to care for her aging parents and help run the hotel. 

Celia Thaxter with sons Karl (right) and John (left) in 1856.21 

20 
Vallier, Jane E. Poet on Demand: Th e Life, Letters and Wo rks of Celia Thaxter. Portsmouth: Peter E. Randall 

Pub!., 1994, p. 33. 
21 

Stephan, Sharon Paiva. One Woman 's Work; The Vis ual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter. p. 27. 

8 



Celia's domestic unhappiness and desperation, along with the need to earn money, seems to have 

stimulated her initial urge to write. In letters to her editor and friends she describes having found her 

poems "among the pots and pans" of her dreary and physically exhausting daily labors. Her first poem, 

"Land-locked", was published in 1861, and it eloquently eluded to her longing and home-sickness for her 

island home. It was submitted anonymously to the Atlantic magazine and catapulted her to relatively 

instant literary celebrity. The publication of "Land-locked" initiated a period of literary output which was 

to enable her a means of gaining financial independence and transformed her into perhaps the most 

successful and popular female writer of her time. However, despite her writing having provided 

essentially the only means of financial support for the family, her husband still forbade her to hire any 

household help. 

Celia had returned to Appledore every summer since leaving the Isles of Shoals to help her family 

run the hotel, and beginning in the 1870s she returned there on a more-or-less permanent basis, ostensibly 

to assist and care for her aging parents. Thus, her family obligations allowed her to escape the drudgeries 

and unhappiness of her life with Levi and pursue a separate existence of her own (with Karl) back on the 

Isles of Shoals. On Appledore "she wrote, read, and discussed her work with friends. She cultivated her 

legendary garden which produced the flowers which decorated the cottage. Celia began to feel 

indispensable at the Shoals, and in the mid-1870s she spent four consecutive winters on Appledore while 

Levi lived in the shabby house in Newtonville."22 

After her mother's death in 1878, Celia took full possession of the house which her parents had 

built in 1863. From the late1870s until her own sudden death in 1894, her garden on Appledore was to be 

arguably the focus of her creative energies, and the source of her greatest happiness. On Appledore Celia 

settled into a comfortable existence surrounded by her son Karl , and her many artist, musician, and writer 

friends. During this period she would return to Appledore in March each year, where she helped her 

brothers run the Hotel, cultivated her garden, and decorated her famous parlor with flowers from her 

garden. In November she would generally return to Portsmouth with Karl to an apartment where they 

would spend the winter. She continued to write poetry and prose, and began to paint porcelain as well. In 

1893 she wrote her last book, An Island Garden, which poetically described her garden on Appledore and 

provided much practical horticultural advice as well. In August, 1894, surrounded by many of her artist 

friends , (including the American Impressionist Childe Hassam) she died suddenly at the age of 59, and 

was buried in the Laighton family plot on Appledore Island. 

22 
Bardwell, John D. The Isles of Shoals: A Visual Histmy. p. 7 1. 

9 



CELIA'S ISLAND GARDEN: 

\\·het·ein so m:my flowers fonnd 

A miracle it seemed to be ! 

Up from the ground, alert and bright~ 

The pansies lunghe<l in go!.l and jet, 

Purple and pied, and mignonette 

Breathed like n. spirit of tleligbt. 

Flaming the rich nasturtiums ran 

Along tl1~ fence, am\ m.u·igolds 

"Opcnc<l afresh their stn.rry fold:!" 

In beauty as the day bcgttn; 

\\' hile ranks of scarlet poppies gay 

". aved wheu the soft south wind dill blow, 

A page of poetry written and illustrated by Celia Thaxter, !886.23 

It is unclear exactly when Celia's garden was begun, however it seems that it evolved over many 

years, probably from the time the house was built by her parents in 1863. The garden occupied the space 

immediately in front of the house, and likely evolved into its mature form from the 1870s onwards, when 

Celia spent increasingly longer periods of time back on Appledore caring for her ailing mother and 

helping to run the hotel. In March each year she would return to Appledore bringing the seedlings which 

she had started in her windows on-shore during the winter, and in April she would transplant them into 

her garden. "In planting her seeds, nurturing her flowers , and finally transporting them to her parlor, 

Thaxter achieved a harmony with nature and with herself that she was unable to reach during the earlier, 

turbulent years of her life."24 

23 Stephan, Sharon Paiva. One Woman's Work; The Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter. p . 129. 
24 

Mandel, Norma H. Beyond the Garden Gate; The Life of Celia Laighton Thaxter. Hanover: University Press of 
New England. 2004, p. 138. 

10 



Celia Thaxter's garden was an intimate extension of her vine covered piazza and house. It was 

enclosed by a simple plank board fence and measured 15 x 50 feet. The house was only reached through 

the garden which was accessed by two gates located to the south and west. Within the fence 9 raised beds 

were created out of additional wooden planks, to which Celia added amended soils. These nine individual 

beds were dominated by annuals and planted with from two to four different species which were massed 

into drifts. Around the perimeter of the garden, inside the fence, was a border which inter-mingled roses, 

vines, annuals and perennials. Further plantings spilled out beyond the confines of the fenc e "and 

tumbled down the bank toward the sea where artemisias and California poppies bloomed."26 

25 Curry, David Park. An Island Garden Revisited. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1990, p. 60. 
26

Hill, May Brawley. Grandmother 's Garden; The Old-Fashioned American Garden: 1865-1915. New York: Harry 
N. Abrams, Inc., 1995, p. 119. 

11 



Steps 

PLAN OF GARDEN WlTH LlST OF FLOWERS 

I~ 

:lQ 
,g 19 

10 r-------~~6-----;, 27 
44 

r···-·-·· 
I l l ' H 

f ~s I 

1 Akebia Quinata •5 Echinoc;ysWs Lobata 
• :\sa Gray Nasturtium• tb Foxglovea 
3 Asters 17 Golden ~aoner Coreopsis 
• Asrers and Lavatera •8 Helianthus 
5 Bachelors' Button •9 Hollyhocks 
6 Bride Poppies zo Honeysuckles 
1 Oematis, white • r Hop 
8 Clematis, blue 2a Hugelia 
9 l.1eome Pungens 23 Iceland Poppies 

'" Columbine 2-4 Jacqnerninol, Dama~k. ~nd La 
r 1 Corellpsis Coronal.'\ and Cora. France Roses 

ftuwen; ~s Japan Honeysuckles 
" t::oreopsi3 Lanceolata 26 Iapan Hop 
•3 Crimson Phlox 27 Larkspur 
·~ Damask R.o~" ~8 Lavender 

tQ Lilies 
10 I.Qve-in·a-Mist 
31 Margaret Pinks 
3a Mangolds 
.13 Mip>enette 
14 Onental Poppy 
35 Peon\<!& 
36 Picotee Pinks 
37 Poppies 
38 Rose-<:olored Iceland Poppie~ 
39 Rose Campiou 
40 Scotch Roses 
41 Shirley Poppies 
-~-t Single Dahllll!l 
43 Snowdrops, etc. 

3l 

H Sweet Pc~s 
~S Sweet Ro•:kct 
41> Sweet W iilm.m 
47 Sunf\oweN 
-.s Tall Phlox 
49 Tea Roses 
so Travelers' Joy 
5' VerbenM 
52 Vines 
53 V:olet~ 
51 Watlllower:< 
55 Wat~r Lili~s 
S(• White Lilie• 
57 Wi5t?.ria 

[ 5 41 

NoTE -The gardcu is ;o ft. long hy r; ft. v.;de, and is ~urroundcd by a border oi all .,>rts of mix•<! fi••W<r.s. ;\ ban~ of flower~ 
at the southwest corner >lupes fmm the garden l~nc~ . 

Celia's 1893 plan of her garden from An Island Garden. 

The garden 's modest size and simplicity of design were substantially camouflaged by its 

abundant style of planting which eschewed the geometric underpinnings of the plan. "The garden was 

without formality except for the narrow paths that separated tiny beds, but even those were half hidden by 

the spreading plants."2 7 The overall effect of the garden was not formal, geometric, or rational, but rather, 

that of a shifting riot of color. "She never combined more than four kinds of plants in one bed, allowing 

each type maximum room to grow during the short island season. Plants clambered high on judiciously 

placed trellises, and Thaxter planted species for a succession of bloom. While the garden was highly 

structured, the overall impression was one of artless beauty."28 Denise Otis describes Celia Thaxter' s 

planting style and its visual impact in Grounds for Pleasure; Four Centuries of the American Garden--

"What really gave the garden its visual richness in her day was the massing of each kind of flower , the 

explosions of poppies, the arm loads of coreopsis and cornflowers, the groves of hollyhocks. "29 

27 
Howard, Richard A . Flowers of Star Island, Th e Isle of Shoals. p. 7. 

28
Gardner, JoAilll. "In Grandmother's Garden." Old-House Journal. October, 2000, p. 51. 

29 
Otis, Denise. Grounds for Pleasure; Four Centuries of the American Garden. p. 70. 

12 



Abstract, exuberant color was perhaps the most dominant element of the garden, and also a 

significant part of its appeal to the many artists who painted it. Anecdotes of those who saw the garden in 

its glory during the early 1890s reflect its colorful, impressionistic effect-- "It has been said that once 

through the gate a visitor would find himself in a new world of color."30 " Her garden, too, was unl ike any 

other garden, although more beautiful, perhaps, than the more conventional gardens I have seen lately; for 

it was planted all helter-skelter, just bursts of color here and there,-- and what color!"
31 

Dexter 's (Celia's) Garden, 1892. By Ch i Ide Hassam32 

Old Photographs reveal the 'Loggia' , or expansive porch, of Celia's ' Cottage' to be literally 

dripping with vines. The cultivation of vines in this abundant fashion was commonplace in Victorian 

30 Howard, Richard A. , p. 7. 
3 1 

Maud Appleton McDowell as quoted in Gerdts, William H. Down Garden Paths; The Floral Environment in 
American Art. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1983, p. 65. 
32 Curry, David Park. An Island Garden R evisited. p. 65 . 

13 



American gardens, and worked to soften the hard lines of the architecture and integrate (and ofte n, almost 

consume!) the house within the landscape. Vines of all kinds were a dominant architectural feature of 

Celia Thaxter's garden and provided a lush green backdrop, or 'vine-scape' for the flowers of the garden 

proper. Celia wrote about her vines which she described as making "a grateful green shade doubly 

delightful for that there are no trees on my island .. . The whole of the piazza is thickly draped with vines, 

hops, honeysuckles, blue and white clematis, Cinnamon vine (by which I think she meant Dioscorea 

batatas33) , Mina Iobata, Wistaria, Nasturtiums, Morning-glories, Japanese hops, Woodbine (by which she 

may have meant Parthenocissus quinquefolia?) and the beautiful and picturesque Wild Cucumber 

(Echinocystus lobata, one of the rare natives she grew) which in July nearly smothers everything else."34 

May Brawley Hill in Grandmother 's Garden; The Old-Fashioned American Garden: 1865-1915 adds to 

the list sweet peas, passionflowers, and Dutchman's-pipe, and Virginia Chisholm, who was involved in 

the garden restoration, adds Akebia quinata. The arch which covered the steps extending down from the 

piazza was likewise "embowered with the Tropaeolum cultivar ' Luc ifer', Cobaea scan dens, and Mexican 

morning glories"
35

. The ample use of vines in her garden allowed Celia to exploit vertical space and 

helped to amplify both the real and perceived proportions of her garden . 

View of Celia's garden and vine-draped Loggia ca. 1890s?36 

33 
Adams, Denise Wiles. Restoring American Gardens; An Ency clopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants: 1640-

1940. Portland, OR: Timber Press, 2004, p. 142. 
~4 Howard, Richard A. F lowers of Star Island, Th e Isle of Shoals. p. 7. 
,s Hill, May Brawley. Grandmother's Garden; The Old-Fashioned American Garden: 1865-1915. p. 119. 
36 

Thaxter, Celia. An Island Garden. 1894. Ithaca, NY: Bullbrier Press, 1985. No page Number. 

14 



It is obvious from the visual documentation of her garden and her writing in An Island Garden 

that Celia was a gifted gardener and an avid plants-woman, however, it is nonetheless surprising to learn 

of the tremendous variety of plants which she grew in such a relatively small (15'x 50') space. Although 

her plan in An Island Garden lists only fifty varieties, in other parts of the book she mentions many others 

which are not included on the plan. A Mrs. Larz Anderson related that " she often counted as many as one 

hundred and fifty different flowers."38 Her small garden even included water plants! " She had ten tubs of 

water plants: the pink lotus of Egypt, purple lily of Zanzibar, and a red one, golden Chromatella, pure 

white African variety, smaller native white one, yellow water poppy, parrot' s feather that creeps all about 

over the water, water hyacinths, Cape Cod lilies."
39 

(*See Appendix B for list of additional plants 

mentioned in An Island Garden, but not included her plan) 

37 Bardwell, John D. Th e Isles of Shoals; A Visual History. P. 102. 
38 

Howard, Richard A. Flowers of Star Island, Th e Isle ofS/wals. p. 7. 
39 Ibid. 

15 



Home of the Hummingbird, 1893, by Childe Hassam. 40 Larkspurs and Lilies, 1893, by Childe Hassam. 4 1 

The garden proper was dominated by annual flowers of all kinds, particularly in the central nine 

beds, and these were harvested extensively and used in arrangements which she decorated her parlor with 

and sold as bouquets in the hotel. Woody plants were limited but she apparently grew quite a number of 

different kinds of roses, including: 'Bon Silene' , 'Catherine', Damask, ' Jacqueminot', 'La France ', 

"Mermets", Polyantha, rugosa, Scotch, "Sunsets", Tea, 'Tuscany'42 . Other woody plants included 

Weigela jlorida43 , and vines such as Honeysuckle, Clematis and Wisteria. Perennials included 

columbines, peonies, Campanula persicifo/ia, Phlox paniculata, oriental poppies, and daylilies. Classic 

cottage-garden biennials such as hollyhocks, Lychnis coronaria, Sweet William, and foxgloves were also 

grown. She loved white flowers which she thought "looked lovely in the moonlight. She had a tall white 

opium poppy she called "The Bride", white petunias, white phlox and white mignonette. Another white 

plant was the clematis or travellor's-joy (Clematis vitalba)."44 

Celia Thaxter was a dedicated seed-starter and although she collected and saved many, if not 

most, of her own seeds, she must also surely have known and enjoyed reading the many catalogs of her 

day during the winters. Annuals were particular favorites of the era, and "the Victorians were well aware 

4° Curry, David Park. An Island Garden Revisited. p. 74. 
41 

Ibid. 
42Ibid, p. 10. 
43 Fell, Derek. The Impressionist Garden. New York: Carol Southern Books, 1994. P. 38. 
44 

Chisholm, Virginia. "Celia Thaxter's Island Garden." Plants & Gardens, Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record: 
American Cottage Gardens, 46, no. 1, 1990, pp. 66. 

16 



of both the old stock of classic annuals and the horticultural gems newly available to them."
45 

Celia 

herself described the plants she grew as "mostly the old-fashioned flowers our grandmother's loved,"
46 

but she also grew many of the newest plant introductions and hybrids as well as her old-fashioned 

favorites. "Although Thaxter sought out and revived old plants, such as the rare black hollyhock, like 

most gardeners she was keen to grow new varieties'>47 like Eschscholzia californica, phlox dummondii, 

and zinnias. 

Poppies, ca. 1890, by Chi Ide Hassam. 48 

Poppies, of all kinds, however, were perhaps Celia Thaxter's favorite flowers above all else, and 

her garden plan in An Island Garden lists five different species, (although she may very well have grown 

more as the plan omits many flowers she was known to have grown). Poppies were a favorite flower of 

the arts-and-crafts movement, along with the sunflower, and her poppies were painted frequently by 

artists visiting the Isles of Shoals. Celia used poppies, above all else, to decorate her parlor. She wrote 

about them in ecstatic terms and devoted a full chapter to them in An Island Garden. "I am always 

planting Shirley Poppies somewhere! One never can have enough of them, and by putting them into the 

45 
Forsell, Mary. "The Victorian Legacy," Plants & Gardens, Brookly n Botanic Garden Record: American Cottage 

Gardens, vol. 48, 1992, p . 11 . 
46 Thaxter, Celia. An Island Garden. 
47 

Gardner, JoAnn. "In Grandmother's Garden." Old-House Journal. October, 2000, p. 51. 
48 Curry, David Park. An Island Garden Revisited. p. 103. 

17 



ground at intervals of a week, later and later, one can secure a succession of blooms and keep them for a 

much longer time,-- keep, indeed their heavenly beauty to enjoy the livelong summer ... "
49 

The Isles of Shoals offered uniquely challenging conditions in which to garden. "The soil is thin" 

(if any) "and dries quickly; the rock is hard and often heats up unmercifully; the wind is strong and laden 

with salt spray and lee nooks are few, while the fog reduces the sunshine, and off-shore winds quickly 

change temperatures."50 Her garden was sheltered, however, from north winds by her house and piazza, 

and using raised beds allowed her to grow a huge variety of plants which she certainly could not have 

grown otherwise. She amended the thin island soil with seaweed, "well-rotted" manure, compost,51 and 

"food ashes"52 and by adjusting and varying the amendments and soils she placed within the raised beds, 

she was able to grow species with drastically different soil requirements in close quarters with one 

another (such as poor soil loving t1owers like California Poppies (Eschscholzia) and rich soil lovers like 

Roses, Delphiniums and Sweet peas). Her garden fence, constructed simply of wide boards, is thought to 

have been designed to provide a further buffer from the constant ocean winds which otherwise would 

have f1attened and dessicated her plants. Water availability was less of a problem on the island during 

Celia's time then it is today, as "there was a large reservoir and rain water was collected from the roofs."53 

Other horticultural challenges which Celia Thaxter faced included pests-Slugs, in particular, 

were her nemeses and she went to elaborate measures to defeat them. Eventually she was to go so far as 

to import toads , on several occasions, from the mainland in an effort to protect her plants from them. She 

wrote in 1889 to her friend Annie Fields, "Oh Annie, you would have laughed to see the box of toads 

which came for me night before last! Ninety toads, all wired over in a box and wondering what fate was 

in store for them, no doubt. Soon as the mowing was done all the million slugs in my grass charged into 

my poor garden and post haste, I sent for more of my little dusty pets, my friends, my saviors! And I 

turned the 90 loose in the fat slugging grounds and such a breakfast as they must have had! If there's one 

thing I adore more than another, it's a toad! They eat every bug in the garden."54 

One advantage to gardening on the Isles of Shoals was the effect of the sea in moderating 

temperature extremes. The cool island summer temperatures were ideal for growing f1owers, and in all 

probability contributed to producing the intensely vivid colors for which Celia's t1owers were famous. 

The peculiar, and magical, effect which the sea has upon f1owers has been noted by many, myself 

included, over time. Both the pureness and intensity of the f1ower color in seaside gardens may be the 

49 Thaxter, Celia. An Island Garden. Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1894, 1988, p. 50. 
50

Howard, Richard A. Flowers of Star Island, The Isle of Shoals. p. 1. 
5 1 

Chisholm, Virginia. "Celia Thaxter's Island Garden." Plants & Gardens, Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record: 
American Cottage Gardens, 46, no. 1, 1990, pp. 66. 
52 

Dunhill, Priscilla. "Poet Celia Thaxter: An Island Gardener." Victoria, July 1990, pp. 32-39. 
53 

Chisholm, Virginia. "Celia Thaxter's Island Garden." pp. 66. 
54 

Mandel, Norma H. Beyond the Garden Gate; The Life of Celia Laighton Tha:~:ter. Hanover: University Press of 
New England. 2004, p. 157. 

18 



combined result of cooler summer temperatures which favor the production of higher amounts of 

anthocyanin pigments, greater atmospheric moisture availability, and both the amount and quality of light 

which is reflected by the sea. This particular effect was invoked in a Boston review of an exhibit of 

Childe Hassam' s paintings of her garden-- "the watercolors of Mrs. Celia Thaxter's garden will give the 

world which cannot get to Appledore Island an idea of the peculiar wealth of color which the marine 

atmosphere, or else some fairy spell of the place, lends to the poppies and marigolds which grow in the 

poet's garden ." 55 

STYLISTIC INFLUENCES & PRECEDENTS FOR CELIA THAXTER'S GARDEN: 

Celia Thaxter self-consciously created what she called in I 893 an 'old-fashioned' garden which, 

in its simplicity of design, in what was grown, in how it was planted, as well as in its connection to the 

house, exhibited the characteristics of a traditional American 'dooryard' garden. This kind of 'old-

fashioned' garden was an example of a well-defined and understood vernacular American horticultural 

tradition of the I 9th century which has been called a ' Grandmother's Garden' and described as a 

"uniquely American synthesis of the English cottage garden and the colonial settler's garden which 

emerged at the end of the l91h century ... While its antecedents were planted to be practical as well as 

beautiful, the point of the Grandmother's Garden was sheer Ioveliness."56 The art historian May Brawley 

Hill has given an exhaustive treatment of this type of garden in Grandmother 's Garden; Th e Old-

Fashioned American Garden: 1865-1915 and traces its origins to earlier in the 191" century. In her 

treatment of the ' Grandmother' s Garden ' she firmly establishes that although this type of garden was 

perhaps not one of the dominant 'high-style' garden styles of the 19th century, it certainly represented a 

coherent and continuous horticultural tradition which possessed cultural significance and meaning. 

Two other, much grander, stylistic approaches have traditionally been presented as the prevailing 

modes of 19th century American landscape design: the formal garden and the informal, or landscape 

garden. Patticia M. Tice in Gardening in America: 1830-1910 presents a summary of these two 

horticultural styles as practiced in the 19th century. She writes, 

"The formal and informal styles were derived from the gardening traditions o f seventeenth-
and eighteenth-century Europe, and each was practiced simultaneously in the United States 
throughout the nineteenth century. In the formal style, symmetrical walks, paths, and various 
types of flower beds were arranged to form intricate designs. The main types of flower beds 
described by horticulturists included the carpet bed in which low, dwarf flowers were massed 
to create brilliantly colored beds, the ribbon bed in which flowers of contrasting colors were 
planted in strips or ribbons, and the parterre, a series o f elaborate ly shaped beds in which 
flowers were panted in designs and patterns within the beds ... By contrast, the informal, or 
landscape, school of garden planning stressed a less structured approach to garden design. 
T rees, shrubs, and flowers were planted to suggest a natural setting ... Like formal gardens, 

~
5 

Faxon, Susan C. A Stern and Lovely Scene: A Visual Histmy of the Isles of Shoals. p. I I 8. 
~6Gardner, JoAnn. " In Grandmother' s Garden." Old House Journal, Oct 2000, p. 5 1. 

19 



landscape gardens, which usually relied upon large tracts of land for effect, indicated 
status. "

57 

A V ictorian carpet- bedding scheme. 58 

By contrast, the ' Grandmother' s Garden' was an intimate and personal expression of its owner, usually a 

woman, who was generally its sole creator and maintainer. In all likelihood, the ' Grandmother ' s garden ' 

had been a vibrant vernacular mode of horticultural expression practiced alongside these two dominant, 

more 'high-design ' , landscape traditions throughout the nineteenth century. 

In many ways, the late 19th century revival of interest in the ' Grandmother' s garden ' was a 

reaction against the oppressive formality of the ostentatious carpet bedding schemes which had dominated 

horticulture in the Victorian era. Celia Thaxter hersel f alluded to the drastic differences between these 

two gardening approaches when she wrote in An Island Garden, " I have not room to experiment with 

rock works and ribbon borders and the like, nor should I do so if I had all the room in the world . For 

mine is just a little old-fashioned garden."
59 In his 1884 article "The Gardens ofOur Grandmothers" in 

The Ladies' Floral Cabinet, Fred M. Colby likewise contrasted the ' Grandmother' s garden ' to the 

popular bedding schemes of the day- "What roomy, grand old gardens were those of our grandmothers, 

and what beautiful things grew in them!. .. How di fferent they are from the studied, stereotyped gardens o f 

today with their showy beds of Coleus or ribbons of richly-colored plants, gaudy Geraniums and Tulips 

flanked by every variety of Centaurea and contrasted with the dense blue o f Lobelia!. .. Disappeared are 

57 
Tice, Patricia M. Gardening in America: 1830- 1910. Rochester, NY: The Strong Museum, 1984. P. 68,70. 

53 
Otis, Denise. Grounds for Pleasure: Four Centuries of the American Garden, p. 148 

59 
Thaxter, Celia. An Island Garden. Boston: Houghton Millin & Co., 1894, 1988, p. 7 1. 

20 



those pretty, unaffected gardens ... disappeared, too, are the old-time flower-beds of Lavender, Thyme, 

Sweet-William, Batchelor's-Button and Sweet-alyssium- at least, they are no longer fashionable."
60 

In 1872 Anna Bartlett Warner wrote Gardening By Myselfwhich was "certainly the first book 

devoted completely to the old-fashioned garden"61 • In it she likewise championed the virtues of the old-

fashioned garden over the prevalent formal carpet bedding schemes. She wrote, " Not trim shapes, and 

inlaid figures, and gorgeous masses of colour; but rich, soft mingled bloom, and tender tints, and wafts of 

nameless sweetness ... Fair, rich confusion is all the aim of an old-fashioned flower garden, and the 

greater the confusion, the richer. .. No stiffness, no ceremony-flowers, and not a garden-this is the 

beauty of the old style."62 Charles Sprague Sargent, Director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard 

University, also reflected the revival of interest in this style of gardening in his editorial titled "Old-

fashioned Gardens" which appeared in an 1895 edition of Garden and Forest. He wrote: 

"Contemporaneously with the reappearance of our grandmothers' sleeves and petticoats the taste 
for old-fashioned gardens is revived .. . We are apt to think that we know a good deal more about 
flowers than our progenitors, but the fact is there was, perhaps, more variety than there is to-day in 
many of their collections .... The charm of those old gardens was in their wealth and tangle of 
bloom. One plant leaned upon another. There was no room for weeds, for each flower stood 
cheek-by-jowl with a neighbor and frowned on the intruders ... and always there was perti.1me and 
wild charm and lonely grace in unexplored corners, and to one 's dying day certain flowers, with 
their familiar odor, recall a scene perhaps vanished forever, and the old garden rises before the 
mind's eye ever fresh and fair and fragrant. " 63 

The 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia introduced to a wide audience of Americans 

many aesthetic concepts of decorative art and life which can be correlated to the nostalgic design 

inspirations of the 'Grandmother's Garden'. Although carpet bedding on a vast scale was a major focus 

of the horticultural exhibits, a strong nationalistic current also ran throughout the exposition which 

promoted the revival of more truly "American" decorative styles such as those embodied in the idealized 

colonial gardens of our past. In fact, many historians "attribute the beginnings of the colonial-revival 

movement"
64 

to the Philadelphia exposition of 1876. The 1892 Columbian Exposition in Chicago 

appears to have likewise wielded broad influence in horticultural taste, and "reinforced the popularity"65 

of the 'Grandmother's Garden' . 

The Grandmother's garden had probably always existed as a vernacular, and eminently practical, 

gardening style, however, the revival of interest in this kind of garden in the horticultural press from the 

1870's onwards was in all likelihood fueled by a nostalgia for the old which was in part a response to the 

6° Colby, Fred M. "The Gardens of Our Grandmothers." The Ladies' Floral Cabinet, July 1884: p. 222. 
6 1 

Hill, May Brawley. Grandmother's Garden; T11e Old-Fashioned American Garden : 1865- 1915. p . 28. 
62 Ibid., p. 29. 
63 

Sargent, Charles Sprague. "Old-Fashioned Gardens." Garden and Forest. July, 1895: p. 281. 
64 

Newcomb, Peggy Cornett. Popular Annuals of Eastern North America: 1865-19 14. Washington, D.C.: 
Dumbarton Oaks, 1985. P. 70. 
65 

Adams, Denise Wiles. Restoring American Gardens; An Enclyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants: 1640-
1940. Portland, OR: Timber Press, 2004, p. 159. 

2 1 



rapid rate of cultural and technological change brought on by the industrial revolution. It is interesting to 

consider that Celia's island garden was created concurrently with the first mass-production of the lawn 

mower in the 1870s, the one invention which was truly to mark the death knoll of the traditional dooryard 

garden, and emerge to drastically transfigure and redefine the American front-yard. Celia's close friend 

and fellow writer Sarah Orne Jewett evoked nostalgia for a quickly disappearing, ' old-fashioned' way of 

life in her essay titled "The Mournful ViJlager" which was published in the Atlantic magazine in 1881. In 

it she "laments the demise of front yard gardens and "the type of New England viJlage character and 

civilization with which they are associated."66'' 

Patricia M. Tice in Gardening in America 1830-1910 describes the horticultural passion for the 

new which had seized the middle classes during the second half of the l91h century, which was concurrent 

with an emerging nostalgia for the 'old' flowers. "New forms of specimen plants--<iifferent strains of 

caJla lilies, roses, fuschias-were continually sought, so much so that horticulturist Edward Rand 

commented (in 1864) " . .. we find our gardeners exerting themselves to meet any demand for new, rare, 

and expensive plants, to the neglect of our old and well-tried favorites .. . Tomorrow some new taste wiJJ 

develop, and before our new plants ... have time to grow into good-sized specimens, they are out of date, 

and are discarded or neglected as old-fashioned.""67 It is particularly interesting to note the interest in 

antique, or 'old-fashioned', flower varieties at the end of the 19th century, which paraJlels the same revival 

of interest in heirloom varieties which we are currently witnessing today ... 

"There is a particular charm to all those old-fashioned flowers that grew in our grandmother 's 
gardens. London-Pride, Bache lor's-Button, and the sweet bells of the Columbine affect one 
as the more showy modem ones do not, for they remind one of their lost youth. Each one has 
associations that stir the memory and set the heart a beating ... Many of these humble flowers 
of our grandmothers' day, though outlawed from our gardens, live in the poet's pages 
immortalized by genius." 

-Fred M. Colby, "The Gardens of Our Grandmother's, 188468 

Needless to say, Celia Thaxter knowingly created her ' old-fashioned' garden admist a period of 

interest in, and active discourse surrounding this type of garden. Her close friend the writer Sarah Orne 

Jewett revealed her understanding, and by association, Celia's, of this type of garden when she wrote to 

her artist friend Sarah Whitman about her own garden in South Berwick, Maine, "the garden is so nice-

old-fashioned indeed with pink hoJJyhocks and taJJ blue larkspurs. You might make a sketch with but 

slight trouble, with figures of old ladies wearing caps in the long walks."69 

66 
Nagel, Gwen L. "Sarah Orne Jewett 's New England Gardens. " Colby Litermy Quarterly. 22 (March 1986): p. 

45. 
67 Tice, Patricia M. Gardening in America; 1830-1910. p. 58. 
68 

Colby, Fred M. "The Gardens of Our Grandmothers." The Ladies Floral Cabinet. July 1884: p. 223. 
69 

Nagel, Gwen L. "Sarah Orne Jewett's New England Gardens." p. 44. 

22 



AN ARTISTS' GARDEN, AND A GARDEN FOR ARTISTS: 

Celia Thaxter, the daughter of a lighthouse keeper, was to become a colorful and prominent 

personality within a particularly rich community of literary, artistic, and musical talents of late 19111 New 

England. She was introduced to the leading lights of literary America at an early age. She first met 

Nathania! Hawthorne as a child when he visited the Isles of Shoals, and after her marriage to Levi Thaxter 

and moving to their Newtonville home outside of Boston, she became immersed in a wide literary circle 

which included some of the most successful writers in New England. Her literary contacts and friends 

were numerous and eventually included such luminaries as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John 

Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, among many others. She was even to dine with Charles Dickens 

on his North American tour and met Robert Barrett Browning during her one visit to Europe. 

The many painters with whom she was to become close friends, and for whom her island garden 

was a muse and inspiration, included William Morris Hunt, Frederick Childe Hassam, Ellen Robbins, 

70 Blanchan, Neltje. "The Old-Fashioned Garden", The American Flower Garden , 1913. 

23 



Ross Turner, and J. Appleton Brown, among others. Through Celia, many of these artists were 

introduced to the Isles of Shoals and became frequent summer visitors to Celia's Appledore parlor. 

Eventually, many of her painter friends would build their own small studio/cottages on the island. Thus 

Appledore Island became in the late 19th century a vibrant artists' colony which attracted the cultural elite 

of Boston and New York and which was centered around the magnetic figure and personality of Celia, her 

garden and parlor. 

Celia Thaxter was herself an extremely talented woman who excelled in many creative mediums, 

chiefly, poetry, prose, china painting, and gardening. She began wTiting poetry as a young wife and 

mother, and later in life took up the painting of china and volumes of her own poetry on commission. Her 

skill as a painter was noted in an 1873 article about her in the Portsmouth Journal of Literature & Politics 

which noted, "Not only is she a writer, but an artist of delicate taste. She decorated a volume of her 

poems in dainty fashion, painting across the pages so skillfully that they seemed like pressed flowers."71 

IN 

Y car after year life's long prp.tio'JI 

To hide itself beneath the 

Upon the gm,•e's inexorable 

Amazed with loss the human creature stands; 

Vainly he ~t:rives to reason or to thiuk, 

Left wit.h his aching heart and empty 

hands; 

He calls his lost in vain. In sorrow drowned, 

Darkness and silence all his sense confound. 

Till iu Deat.h's roll-<!all stern he hears Ius 

natne, 

In tum he follows and is lost to sight; 

I 

! 
Page of her poetry illustrated with watercolor by Celia Thaxter.72 

71 
Stephan, Sharon Paiva. One Woman 's Work; The Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter. p. 98. 

72
lbid., p. 128. 

24 



Indeed, she had studied painting formally with many well-known artists-Ross Sterling Turner, J. 

Appleton Brown, William Morris Hunt, and Childe Hassam, all of whom were to become her close 

friends. She wrote in 1874 in ecstatic terms of her enjoyment of this medium-" ! can scarcely think of 

anything else. I want to paint everything I see; every leaf, stem, seed vessel, grass blade, rush, and reed 

and flower has new charms, and I thought I knew them all before. Such a new world opens, for I feel it in 

me .. . "73 Interestingly, her china painting almost exclusively featured botanical subjects, such as her 

favorite poppies, sea weeds, and olive branches, which were depicted "with a delicate realism and a 

naturalist's eye for detai\."74 Art-historical interest in her painting has recently been stirred with a 2001 

major loan exhibition and a book on her painting titled One Woman 's Work; The Visual Art of Celia 

Laighton Thaxter, edited by Sharon Paiva Stephan. 

73 Ibid., p. 114. 
74 

Ibid., p. XV. 
75 

Ibid,, p. 143. 

Stoneware vase painted by Celia Thaxter, ca. 1880-87. 

25 



The art of floral arranging was another of Celia Thaxter's chosen mediums. Throughout the 

growing season she was known to be out in the garden each morning by 4 or 5 am, working and cutting 

flowers (most often poppies) for a daily ritual of decorating her parlor with a succession of exquisite 

floral displays. In fact Celia herself said that her garden was primarily a cutting garden and despite its 

small size "it yielded a hundred or more bouquets of freshly cut flowers each week."
76 

Her flower 

arrangements were perhaps as famous as her garden. Candace Wheeler, a leader of the American Arts 

and Crafts Movement, whom Celia had entertained on Appledore wrote of her flower filled parlor "I have 

never seen such realized possibilities of color! The fine harmonic sense of the woman and artist and poet 

thrilled through these long chords of color and filled the room with an atmosphere which made it seem 

like diving into a rainbow."77 

Photograph and Hassam painting of Floral Arrangements in Celia Thaxter's parlour. 78 

Any discussion of the artistic significance of Celia Thaxter's garden must include the numerous 

paintings which it inspired. Her garden is practically synonymous today with the paintings of the 

76 
Fell, Derek. The Impressionist Garden . p. 37. 

77 
Wheeler, Candace. Content in a Garden." New York: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1902, pp. 56-57 

78 
Curry, David Park. An Island Garden Revisited. pp. 46-5. 

26 



American Impressionist Frederick Childe Hassam ( 1859-1939) which are considered to be among the best 

of his work. Indeed, the watercolors he painted of her garden between 1890 and 1894 have been 

described as "the richest and most colorful excursions into this genre, and probably the most exquisite 

works of his career."79 Childe Hassam is generally considered to be among the best American 

Impressionist painters, and the artist who ftrst introduced the ideas of the French Impressionists to 

America. His work, however, is also firmly grounded in the American Arts-and-Cra fts, or Aesthetic, 

Movement of the 1870s and 80s. "Hassam' s paintings of the Shoals are imbued with a sense of nostalgia 

for pre-industrial landscapes and New England ' s rural heritage. Celia Thaxter's cottage at Appledore 

embodied Aesthetic ideals, and in his representations of her garden especially we see Hassam echoing 

those tenets of spontaneity, harmony, and refuge from urban modernity. "80 

;g Clayton, Virginia T uttle. " Rerrriniscence and Revival: The Old-Fashioned Garden, 1890-1910." The Magazine 
Antiques (April, 1990), p. 903 . 
80 

Gibson, Robin. "Inside a Nineteenth Century Sa lon and Garden: Ce lia Thaxter and Childe Hassam." Winston-
Salem, NC : Reynolda House Museum of American Art, 1994, p. 13. 
81 

Curry, David Park. An Island Garden Revisited. pp. 33. 

27 



Celia Thaxter herself is now considered to be very much at the center of the Arts-and-Crafts, or 

Aesthetic, movement in the United States, and her work in the medium of china painting and her "old-

fashioned" garden are in this tradition. Celia was a lifelong reader and devotee of the concepts of John 

Ruskin, an intellectual, art-critic, and naturalist who advocated for the close study of nature, rejection of 

modernity and industrialization, and revival of the traditional handicrafts at which Celia excelled. Ruskin 

was a progenitor of the Arts and Crafts movement in England and his writings and ideas were central to 

the artistic milieu in which she traveled. Indeed, Thaxter quoted Ruskin several times in An Island 

Garden. 

* * * 

Celia Thaxter's garden on the Isles of Shoals provides a fascinating context in which to examine 

and discuss the affinities between painting and gardening and the broader distinctions between artistic 

media. Where do the boundaries of one medium to another lie? Are these boundaries artificial or 

superficially imposed? What are the relationships between painting, poetry and gardening? The art 

historian William H. Gerdts has explored some of these issues in Down Garden Paths; The Floral 

Environment in American Art and has noted the horticultural focus of so many artists working in a variety 

of media during this era. He writes "American poets took naturally to garden imagery, which in turn, 

reflected the art of the period, two faces of a single coin, and each honoring the fourth art of garden 

design."
82 

(emphases my own.) Derek Fell in The Impressionist Garden also has examined the 

relationship between gardening and painting which many impressionists explored. He writes, "The great 

French Impressionists- painters such as Monet, Renoir, Pissaro, their immediate successors Cezanne and 

Van Gogh, and American Impressionists such as Frieseke and Hassam not only revolutionized the art of 

painting, they also introduced innovative ways oflooking at gardens. The new vision which they brought 

to their art was reflected in their gardens, both on canvas and in reality."83 I would suggest, however, that 

in fact, the reverse was true- it was the gardens, and the act of gardening, which initiated change in their 

painting. 

32 
Gerdts, William H. Down Garden Paths; The Floral Environment in American Art. Cranbury, NJ: Associated 

University Presses, 1983, p. 118. 
83 

Fell, Derek. The Impressionist Garden. p. 6. 

28 



-· 
The Artist 's Garden, by Claude Monet, 1880. 

Celia Thaxter, I would like to suggest, occupies a prominent place in the tradition of artist-

gardeners, for whom there existed no real distinction between painting and gardening. Indeed, for the 

great painter-gardeners, Monet being perhaps the most famous, gardening was the freest, and ultimately 

most satisfying, medium in which they worked. I believe the same to have been true for Celia Thaxter--

her garden was the particularly successful consummation of a lifetime of creative inquiry and exploration 

into the world which she was attempting to understand and render comprehensible. This is what artists 

do, and what gardeners do-we attempt to synthesize and distill the random data, stimuli, and experience 

to which we are all exposed into a coherent expression, which is at best, both meaningful and beautiful. 

The mediums of painting and gardening, it is my feeling, have a special affinity. Both forms of 

visual expression are fundamentally concerned with manipulating and synthesizing the essentially 

abstract elements of color, texture, pattern, and form to create a cohesive, and hopefully, transcendental, 

statement. "The artists used plants as they used paints: to manipulate color effects and to introduce new 

color schemes - by using hues that intensified by contrast with one another, or that blended and 

harmoni zed with each other ... "85 Gardening, however, has the added layer of interest and excitement of 

84 
Curry, David Park. An Island Garden Revisited. p. 96. 

85 
Fell, Derek. The Impressionist Garden. p. 6. 

29 



working with living entities, which are dynamic and evolving in their own right. This is something which 

Celia Thaxter, and all great gardeners, implicitly understood and reveled in as an opportunity to engage in 

a never-ending dialogue with plants, the landscape, the public viewers of their garden(s), and their own 

creative visions. 

ISSUES OF GENDER AND THE LATE 19TH CENTURY FLOWER GARDEN: 

One of the earliest, and most fascinating , court documents pertaining to the Isles of Shoals (dating 

from the early 1 i 11 century) declares that "no wimin (women) shall live upon the Isles of Shoals"86• It is 

fascinating that perhaps the earliest civic documentation of the Isles revolved around a gender dispute, 

which no doubt reflected multiple interests in preserving the islands as a male-only haven and long-held 

bastion of the young, migratory fishermen populace of the islands who were perhaps threatened by the 

increased influx of European, non-fishermen, colonists (including 'their' women/wives). This earliest 

historical record is rendered all the more poignant and ironic, when we consider that the Isles of Shoals 

were eventually to become renowned and synonymous with the life, words, and creations of one woman, 

Celia Laighton Thaxter, the "Island Queen."87 

Celia Thaxter, at first glance, might seem to have led an exceedingly non-conventionallife for a 

Victorian woman-- her unusual childhood isolated from society on a small island, her successful career as 

a poet and writer, her financial self-sufficiency, her having led a quite separate and independent existence 

from her husband, and her role as diva in her own artistic salon. Yet, for all these apparently non-

traditional roles, her life was still very much defined and circumscribed by the societal mores of her day. 

Celia Thaxter' s artistic ouvre was entirely relegated to those mediums which were considered socially 

acceptable for a woman, and generally inferior to other male-dominated mediums-- poetry, china 

painting, gardening, and floral arranging. Indeed, the very life and garden which she created satisfied a 

Victorian concept of femininity-- "The ideal image projected by popular literature and material culture of 

the time was that of a lady surrounded by flowers."88 

8~ Faxon, Susan C. A Stern and Lovely Scene: A Visual Hist01y of the Isles of Shoals. p. 11. 
8

' Older, Julia. The Island Queen. Hancock, NH: Appledore Books, 1994. 
88 

Tice, Patricia M. Gardening in America; 1830-19/0. p. 58. 

30 



Hand-tinted photograph of Celia Thaxter in her garden ca. 1890. 

Interestingly, all of her creative efforts, except for gardening, were motivated, at least in part, by 

the need to make money. She began writing poetry as a young, overworked wife and mother, and her 

success in this field substantially enabled her to develop an independent persona and escape her domestic 

burdens. However, despite her success and popularity as a writer, she was relatively underpaid for her 

efforts, typical of all female authors during the 19th century.90 She began to tum to other artistic mediums 

which were more lucrative, and took up china painting. A contemporary female writer, Lucy Larcom, 

wrote, "Mrs. Thaxter was at Mrs. Fields ' s painting china plates by the dozen; she seems to have 

exchanged poetry for pottery. I doubt not she finds it more profitable business.'m China painting was 

89 
Stephan, Sharon Paiva. One Woman 's Wo rk; The Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter. p. 90. 

90 
Ibid. , p. 98. 

9 1 
White, Barbara A. "Legacy Profile: Celia Thaxter (1835-1894). Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers. 

7 : 1, 1990. p. 62 . 

31 



during this era considered to be a socially acceptable means for women to earn money. Celia Thaxter's 

talents as a flower arranger were also to evolve into yet another method of augmenting her income. A 

Mrs. Emma Anderson noted, "At first, the garden was started entirely for pleasure, but in after years it 

became quite a source of revenue, as the hotel guests gladly availed themselves of the privilege to possess 

the lovely corsage bouquets arranged by her own hands."92 

In a 1900 essay titled "The Artistic Impulses of Men and Women" the author reveals the cultural 

bias and devaluation of these fonns of artistic expression-- "China painting and decorative art in general 

are the specialty of woman, who excels in the minor personal artistic impulses and in this way gives vent 

to her restrictive life.'m (emphases my own) Floriculture, in particular, was encouraged as an acceptable 

past-time, with surprisingly moral dimensions, for 19th century women. In his 1876 catalogue, seedsman 

D. M. Ferry extolled the virtues of gardening as an outlet for Victorian women-- " Ladies should cultivate 

flowers as invigorating and inspiring out-door occupation. Many are pining and dying from monotony 

and depression, who might bury their cares by planting a few seeds, and secure bloom in their cheeks by 

their culture ... The beautiful flower, unfolding to the brightness of the sun, will illustrate the pure heart, 

unstained by immorality, and uncontaminated by vice."94 And, Patricia Tice in Gardening in America: 

1830-1910 wTites that during the Victorian era, " the societal roles for women became more clearly 

defined as those of nurturer, arbiter of taste, and guardian of morals. Few activities were deemed as 

tasteful, or refined, or as wholesome as the cultivation of flowers ... The gentility and spiritual beauty of 

the rose transferred, in part, to the woman who tended it. She herself became like the rose, the emblem of 

gentility and an ornament of the home."95 

The lives of Victorian American women were incredibly circumscribed and the flower garden 

was one arena in which they held dominance and were able to express themselves both physically and 

creatively. For Celia Thaxter, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Emily Dickinson, three contemporary female New 

England women writers, gardening was a shared passion and perhaps the creative avenue which allowed 

them their freest expression. Gardens, and an intense appreciation for the beauty of the natural world, 

featured prominently in the writing of all three women. In her essay titled ' By Pen and Spade' Patrice 

Todisco writes, "The gardens they [Jewett and Thaxter] created were an integral part of their daily lives 

and surfaced in their writings as part of the intimate landscape which was celebrated in their work. In this 

world of household chores and endless rounds of social duties, to be alone and to be creative was an 

incredible act of freedom ... To Claim nature within a personal space was the joy the garden provided, 

92 
Gerdts, William H. Down Garden Paths; The Floral Environment in American Art. p. 62. 

93 
Randall, E. A. "The Artistic Impulses of Men and Women." ( 1900), as quoted by Hill, May Brawley in 

Grandmother 's Garden; The Old-Fashioned American Garden 1865-1915. New York: Harrry N. Abrams, Inc. , 
Publ. , 1995. p. 36. 
9

~ Norcross, Marjorie R. "Cataloging America' s Cultural Roots." Cornell Plantations, vol. 47, no. 1, 1992, p. 18. 
9~ Tice, Patricia M. Gardening in America; 1830-1910. p. 58. 

32 



enabling them to construct an intimate environment from which to observe and record the universe 

beyond the garden gate."96 Gardens featured particularly prominently in all of Sarah Orne Jewett's writing 

in which "she explicitly identifies the New England front yard garden with women: "It was not man-like 

to think of the front yard, since it was the special domain of the women, -- the men of the family 

respected but ignored it.'m 

Despite her popular success as an artist and personality, Celia Thaxter was always hounded by the 

need to support herself, and her dependent son Karl, and never enjoyed the level of financial 

independence and freedom which would have been necessary to fully explore herself as an artist. Barbara 

A. White in her profile of Celia Thaxter's legacy writes, "Thaxter' s true profession was the creation of 

beauty from chaos, to please those around her. Her production of a lush garden from barren rock is the 

most powerful symbol ... This continual beautification was what her friends and readers wanted from 

her. .. but it was not the way of growth and development for. .. a serious and self-conscious artist.''98 

Interestingly, however, she revisits her somewhat dismissive analysis of Celia Thaxter's ouvre several 

years later and writes, "I suspect that 'serious' may be synonymous with 'male' and wonder if(the) 

complaint that Thaxter "chose to pursue minor art forms" really means that she chose art forms often 

preferred by women and thereby defined as minor."99 This is a fascinating and complex point, which is 

further highlighted when one considers the increased appreciation which the garden as an art form has 

gained in the 201h century, as more and more men have ventured professionally into this field. 

* * * 

Celia Thaxter was obviously an extremely talented woman, and her garden and floral 

arrangements were perhaps her most successful artistic expressions. However, considering that Celia 

Thaxter was also a gifted painter and a natural colorist, one can ' t help but wonder what the paintings she 

could have made would have looked like if she had been encouraged to channel these same talents into 

this traditionally male-dominated medium. Indeed, it is fascinating to consider the relationship of Celia ' s 

garden to the many paintings of it. It is ironic that the garden that inspired what are considered to be 

among the best American Impressionist paintings ever made, was created by a woman, and painted 

exclusively by men. Ellen Robbins was the sole female member of the artistic circle surrounding Celia on 

96 
Todisco, Patrice. "By Pen and Spade." Hortus: A Gardening Journal. (Summer 1990): 34-44. 

97 
Nagel, Gwen L. "Sarah Orne Jewett's New England Gardens. " Colby Literary Quarterly. 22 (March 1986): p. 

45. 
93 

White, Barbara A. "Legacy Profile: Celia Thaxter ( 1835-1894). Legacy : A Journal of American Women Writers. 
7 : 1, 1990. p. 62. 
99 

Ibid. 

33 



Appledore and she worked exclusively in the genre of flower still life painting, a genre which was 

considered acceptable for female painters in the late l91h century. 

Ultimately, her work, her gender, and her times provocatively raise many questions which make 

her contribution "difficult to assess." 100 Jane Vallier in her comprehensive treatment of Celia Thaxter's 

literary output described her "career as a sign and symbol for all that women in the nineteenth century 

could- and could not- accomplish."
101 

AN ISLAND GARDEN: A CLASSIC HORTICULTURAL TREATISE: 

Gold-embossed fabric cover of the 1894 edition of An Island Garden. 102103 

An Island Garden was published by Houghton Miftlin in 1894, the year of Thaxter's death at the 

age of fifty-nine. It was gorgeously illustrated with watercolors of her garden by Childe Hassam, and the 

edition was beautifully designed by the arts-and-crafts designer Sarah Wyman Whitman. An Island 

Garden is considered a classic horticultural treatise which some believe "set a standard for American 

garden writing that has never been surpassed."104 Of all of Celia Thaxter's literary output, An Island 

Garden has proven to be perhaps her most lasting work, and while "her verses seem sadly outdated 

100 
Ibid. 

101 
Vallier, Jane E. Poet on Demand: The Life, Letters and Works of Celia Thaxter. 1994. 

102 
Stephan, Sharon Paiva. One Woman's Work; Th e Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter. p. 85. 

103 
Ibid., p. 85. 

104 May, Stephen. "An Island Garden, A Poet's Passion, A Painter's Muse," Smithsonian, 2 1, Dec. 1990, p. 75. 

34 



nowadays, her prose ... has a timeless quality that makes delightful reading today."
105 

An Island Garden 

remains a seminal work in an illustrious tradition of female American garden writers, which includes 

other such writer-gardeners as Helena Rutherford Ely, Anna B. Warner, Alice Morse Earle, and Louise 

Beebe Wilder, who came to dominate this genre of literature from the late 191h century until the end of 

World War II. 

In An Island Garden Celia Thaxter "distilled a lifetime of practical gardening experience"106 and 

lyrically described her island garden, offered much practical cultural advice, provided a plan of her 

garden, listed and described the many flowers she grew, as well as their use in decorating her home. 

Allen Lacy in his essay "Celia Thaxter and Louise Beebe Wilder: Romanticism in the Garden", writes--

"Many of the best passages in An Island Garden are rich and glowing portraits of individual plants, where 

Thaxter writes with very close observation and an obvious satisfaction that is purely aesthetic."107 May 

Brawley Hiii in her discussion of Celia's garden in Grandmother's Garden; The Old Fashioned American 

Garden: 1865-1915 describes Thaxter's language in An Island Garden, as "painterly in its descriptive 

power, ... a moving testament not just to the seductive beauty of such an old-fashioned American garden, 

but to the spiritual grace to be derived from its creation and nurture." 108 

An Island Garden was successfully received upon publication and has been reprinted many times 

over the last century. Garden writer Almon Dexter who wrote And the Wilderness Blossomed ( 1901) 

included Thaxter's An Island Garden "among the six books he considered indispensable for a gardener's 

Iibrary."
109 

(Also included in this list were, "William Robinson 's The English Flo wer Garden, just 

beginning to be widely known .. . Gray's Botany, Liberty Hyde Bailey' s Cyclopedia of American 

Horticulture, Dana's How to Know the Wild Flowers, and Charles Dudley Warner's My Summer in the 

Garden. ''1 1~ 

Interestingly, Virginia Chisholm, who was instrumental in the restoration of Celia Thaxter's 

garden, has noted the usefulness of An Island Garden as an essential text for " those who wish to restore or 

create a garden ofthis period."
111 

The restoration of Celia Thaxter's garden has been based entirely on 

the 1893 plan, planting list, and additional descriptions of plants which Celia included in An Island 

Garden. 

105 Ibid., p. 7 1. 
106 

Ibid. 
107 

Lacey, Allen. The Gardener's Eye and Other Essays. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1992, pp. 144-45. 
108 

Hill, May Brawley. Grandmother's Garden; The Old-Fashioned American Garden: 1865- 191 5. p. 119. 
109 

Ibid. , p. 140. 
11 0 Ibid. 
111 

Chisholm, Virginia. "Celia Thaxter's Island Garden." Plants & Gardens, Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record: 
American Cottage Gardens, 46.1 ( 1990): p. 66. 

35 



THE GARDENS' RECREATION: 

Celia Thaxter died in 1894 and was buried in the Laighton family cemetery on Appledore Island. 

For some time after her death her sister-in-law attempted to maintain her house and garden as she had left 

it to satisfy the visitors who continued to flock to see it. One anonymous author who made the pilgrimage 

to Appledore to pay homage to Celia Thaxter's garden wrote in 1899, 

"I leaned with eager interest over the fence inclosing a little garden just before her island home. 
If the spot of burial just visited told of something gone, the garden told of something going on, 
continued, life taking such beautiful forms. What a blaze and bewilderment of phloxes, larkspurs, 
sweet peas, marigolds, nasturtiums, while humble censers were breathing out the fragrance of 
mignonette; and oh! The tall hollyhocks with blossoms that had generous doors of colors thrown 
wide open to every bee that might call! This might suggest a tangle, that there was no order of 
arrangement, that handfuls of miscellaneous seed had by her been thrown off from the piazza into 
its drapery of green foliage . No, the seed had been dropped into divided space, and then each 
space had been expected with the help from the sun and the rain, in its own way, to do its best. 
The favorites were children of the generation of flowers preceding this day, and not Japanese 
importations. "Old-fashioned," their title, but new-fashioned in their freshness and tinting. Yes, 
flowers do grow at the Shoals, and Celia Thaxter' s flowers grow right along in their own willful 
way of vivid color. I found a teacher in that luxuriant old-fashioned garden, a teacher that said to 
me that the gifts and graces of a rare woman who loved flowers will in another life continue 
finding more beautiful expression than ever. After I had left this fascinating spot I turned and 
gave one more look at the tall hollyhocks so resplendent and soldierly, like sentinels set on guard 
by a beloved mistress over her treasures ." 11 2 

In 1914, however, a fire destroyed both Celia's house and the grand Appledore House hotel 

which her family had built and run since 1848. This marked the end of an era and the island and 

remaining houses gradually fell into abandon and ruin. The old foundations were quickly obliterated by 

staghom sumac, poison ivy, and other indigenous and naturalized species which had long been held at bay 

by the Thaxter' s and other island residents. 

11 2 
"Celia Thaxter's Grave and Garden." Literary World. 19 Aug., 1899. 

11 3 
Faxon, Susan C. A Stern and Lovely Scene: A Visual History of th e Isles of Shoals. p. 82. 

36 



Then, in 1966 Appledore Island began to be reclaimed with the founding of the Shoals Marine 

Laboratory, a summer institute for the study of Marine Sciences jointly administered by Cornell and the 

University of New Hampshire. Dr. John Kingsbury, founder and Director of the Shoals Marine Lab 

possessed an interest in Celia Thaxter and restoring her garden, and in late 1976 he initiated the 

restoration with the aid of students such as Gary Boden (author of the The Vascular Flora of Appledore 

Island) and volunteer members of the Rye Driftwood Garden Club, particularly Virginia Chisholm. 

Plants for the first season's planting in 1977 were propagated at Cornell; however, Chris Robarge of the 

Thompson School of Applied Science of the University of New Hampshire and his students took over this 

responsibility early on. Each year he and his students continue to deliver the season ' s plants by boat at 

the end of May. Mr. Robarge has also assisted in the installation of an irrigation system for the garden. 

Virginia Chisholm took charge of the garden in 1979 when Dr. Kingsbury retired, and the Rye Driftwood 

garden club members continue to supervise the garden's yearly planting and maintenance, as well as 

conduct guided tours of the garden, all proceeds from which are donated to a scholarship fund for the 

Marine Laboratory. 

Cleared and Rototilled plot of the first garden restoration, 1976. 114 

The original garden had been amply documented both in the paintings of Childe Hassam and the 

many photographs made by Celia's son Karl. Although her original garden spilled outside her fence and 

downwards towards the sea, the garden restoration has been limited to the area inside the confines of the 

fence which was described, along with a planting list, in Celia's 1893 book on her garden An Island 

114 
Kingsbury, John M. Here's How We'll Do It; An Informal History of the Shoals Marine Lab. Ithica, NY: 

Bullbrier Press, P. 325. 

37 



Garden. The old foundation of her house was easily located from the many old photographs of the house 

and garden which have survived. It was, however, completely overgrown with staghorn sumac, and other 

naturalized species which had reclaimed the island in the intervening time. The restoration effort first 

involved the removal of these woody plants with a backhow. Fascinatingly, during the restoration 

process, several of Celia's original garden plants were rediscovered once the site was cleared-- among 

these were her Hops vine (Humulus lupulus), snowdrops (Galanthus spp.), tawny daylilies (Hemerocallis 

fulva/ 15, and a "tiny blue scilla" 116 which had survived the 90 odd years since her death! In fact, her hops 

has become somewhat naturalized on the island. 

An interesting early anecdote arising from the restoration process related by Dr. Kingsbury was 

the discovery of why her simple garden fence was constructed of such wide boards. Many had long 

assumed it was to keep wayward livestock from wandering into her garden, which no doubt it served to 

do, but the garden's restorers soon discovered that the fence was also almost certainly designed to help 

diminish the effects of wind, as the garden ' s restorers discovered that the relentless sea breezes flattened 

and dessicated the flowers without the protection of this wide board fence. 

One of the first major challenges which the garden's restorers faced was identifying appropriate 

flower hybrids which Celia grew, or might have grown, in 1893 . Many, if not most, of the varieties 

available in 1893 were no longer available when the garden restoration was initiated. Indeed, Victorian 

gardens such as Celia's present a specific restoration challenge, as the late 191h century was an era of 

"tremendous horticultural instability ... According to Dr. Kingsbury, the garden was more difficult tore-

create than a Colonial garden from the 1660's when plants were more botanically stable. "In Celia' s 

time, plants were 'Luther Burbanked,' with a lot of genetic cross-breeding and experimentation .. . New 

plants coming on the market were discarded a few years later.""m 

Substantial archival research into the historic varieties which Celia would most likely have grown 

was conducted in the early days of the garden's restoration by Joanna Kingsbury Smith, Dr. Kingsbury's 

daughter and then botany student at Colgate University, and she published her findings in her paper, 

"Restoring a Flower Garden of 1893". Using the extensive seed catalog collection of the Bailey 

Hortorium at Cornell University, she researched what varieties would have been available to Celia 

Thaxter in 1893. (*See Appendix C: "List of seeds Celia grew and three companies which carried them", 

which lists the flowers Celia included in her garden plan in An Island Garden and some possible 1893 

sources for these plants.) In her paper Joanna Kingsbury poignantly eluded to the substantial challenges 

of locating Victorian seed varieties at the time of the initial garden restoration and hinted at the vagaries 

of horticultural taste which have historically encouraged the development of always newer, ' improved' 

11 5 Kingsbury, Joanna. Anecdote relayed via email correspondence. 
11 6 

Rayfield, Susan. " Blossoms by a Summer Sea," Americana, 18, May/June 1990, p. 33 . 
11 7 

Dr. John Kingsbury~ as quoted by Rayfield, Susan in "Blossoms by a Summer Sea," Americana, 18, May/June 
1990, p. 33 . 

38 



hybrids. Thus, the old flowers are lost as " the last few packages of seeds gather dust until the seeds are 

no longer viable, and finally the strain dies out and disappears forever." 118 

Celia Thaxter's restored island garden.11 9 

11 8 
Kingsbury, Joanna. Restoring a Flower Garden of 1893. , p. 20. 

39 



Peggy Cornett Newcomb in Popular Annuals of Eastern North America: 1865-1914 specifically 

discusses the dilemma of attempting to restore gardens which were predominately populated by old 

annual flower varieties. She writes in her introduction, 

"In examining sites that were the gardens of a century or more ago, landscape historians look 
to the physical remnants for indications of the shapes of the past. But annuals, the most 
ephemeral of ornamental plants, leave no impressions on the historic landscape- no 
discolored imprints of their decayed roots in the soil, no vegetative regenerations of woody 
crowns. If escaped flowers persist, reseeding themselves yearly among the weeds, it can be 
argued that they are descendants that prove their ancestors once existed in cultivation. But 
these echoes of the past fix neither time nor place. Generations of reversion have most likely 
taken the flower ' s present aspect back toward its aboriginal state, its state before the forms 
were developed that the late-nineteenth century gardener knew. The dilemma remains. 
Among the tangible artifacts yielding to the archeologists ' s trowel, annuals will remain the 
most elusive of garden elements." 120 

Marilyn Barlow, founder of Select Seeds, an heirloom seed company, in her article titled " In 

Search of Antique Annuals" describes the processes involved in reintroducing to trade lost 

antique annual varieties-"Once an antique annual is rediscovered, period catalogs provide the 

means to authenticate it. Trialing (growing the variety and comparing it with as many written 

descriptions and illustrations as possible) is also necessary. If all goes well, these varieties end up 

in my seed stocks and catalog and/or those of heirloom seed merchants around the world, ready to 

flourish once again." 121 

Modem breeding efforts have been rather singularly focused on producing shorter, more compact 

plants with larger flowers . These cultivars and hybrids have a dramatically different effect in the 

landscape from the blousy old-fashioned flowers which Celia Thaxter grew. Virginia Chisholm wrote of 

the difficulty in finding "seeds of some of the old-fashioned flowers that had not been d warfed, doubled 

or so developed that they lost their scent."122 Where possible, species and comparable historic varieties 

were identified and have been used. As interest in heirloom plants has grown in recent years, locating 

appropriate varieties has become easier. Dr. Kingsbury estimated that in 1977, the garden's first season, 

"the garden had about one-quarter of the right plants .. . By 1984 there were many more." However, 

"finding the last of the more than fifty kinds listed in An Island Garden may be a long task . .. As a last 

resort, it may even be necessary to breed back toward certain plant materials, if they can no longer be 

found."
123 

119 
Otis, Denise. Grounds for Pleasure: Four Centuries of the American Garden. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 

2002, p. 67. 
120 Newcomb, Peggy Cornett. Popular Annuals of Eastern North America: 1865-1914. Washington, D.C. : 
Dumbarton Oaks, 1985. P. 1. 
12 1

Barlow, Marilyn. "In Search of Antique Annuals," Plants & Gardens, Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record: 
American Cottage Gardens, vol. 48, 1992, pp. 25-29. 
122 Chisholm, Virginia. "Celia Thaxter's Island Garden." Plants & Gardens, Brookly n Botanic Garden Record: 
American Cottage Gardens, 46, no. 1, 1990, pp. 66. 
123 

Dr. John Kingsbury, as quoted by Rayfield, Susan in "Blossoms by a Summer Sea," Americana, 18, May/June 
1990, p. 33. 

40 



One-by-one, however, historically appropriate plants have gradually been located. Dame's 

Rocket, for instance, was donated by someone whose grandmother was given seeds by Celia Thaxter 

herself. "The correct sunflower variety was found at historic Hamilton House in South Berwick, 

Maine." 124 Marilyn Barlow, founder of Select Seeds (a Union, Connecticut based heirloom seed catalog 

business) has consulted on the garden's recreation, and her catalog, along with the British seed company 

Thompson & Morgan, are used as primary seed sources for the garden today. (*See Appendix D & E: 

2004 Planting List and Seed sources for Celia Thaxter's Garden.) The recreated garden "has been planted 

according to her diagram (in An Island Garden), but as the summer goes on, it is supplemented with other 

plants which she wrote about but did not include in the diagram.'' 125 

* * * 

The recreation of Celia Thaxter's island garden has been a popular success. Full to capacity tours 

are led throughout the summer, and apparently many more people are turned away because of the 

garden's limited viewing times (it is open for tours only one day a week). When one considers the 

garden's meager size, relatively restrained plantings, (particularly when compared to the lush, over-

flowing character of Celia's original garden), and the difficulty in getting there, this success might be 

considered somewhat surprising. The garden restoration, although beautiful, has a manicured appearance 

which is not characteristic of Celia's original garden, and presents a sparse, somewhat arbitrary and 

forlorn appearance in the landscape today without being anchored to her house. The abundance of vines, 

which was such a dominant feature of the original garden, and characteristic ofVictorian gardens, is 

notably absent. If Celia's cottage were recreated, it would not only provide the appropriate architectural 

backdrop and context for the garden and vines, it would also provide substantial protection from north 

winds and recreate the micro-climate that would allow the plants to achieve the lusher, fuller proportions 

which were so characteristic of Celia's original garden. 

Celia's garden was the idiosyncratic and unique creation of one individual, and the successful 

restoration of such an individual garden may present specific interpretive challenges, unlike the 

restoration of a more generic landscape. It is my feeling that the many paintings of the garden by Childe 

Hassam document and reveal the lush aesthetic and stylistic character of the garden and constitute a 

unique and historic resource which should be used as a guide for a painterly reinterpretation of Cel ia 

Thaxter's garden. "It is by studying the gardens ... as well as the potent images that the painters made, 

that it becomes possible to reinterpret their vision in gardens today." 126 

124 Rayfield, Susan. "Blossoms by a Summer Sea." p. 34. 
125 

Chisholm, Virginia. "Celia Thaxter's Island Garden." p. 66. 
126 

Fell, Derek. The Impressionist Garden. p. 6. 

41 



Thus, as a restoration effort the garden proves to be a fascinating study. What is it that draws so 

many people across the ocean to see this small garden on a sparse granite rock? It is my assertion that 

Celia Thaxter's garden restoration is successful for several reasons. First of all, the recreated garden is 

emblematic of her original garden, and is informed by its lasting legacy and mythic aura. Certainly much 

of the influence of the original garden is linked to the powerful and gifted personality which Celia 

Thaxter obviously possessed and transmitted through her garden and writing, as well as in the paintings 

which she inspired others to create. I would also attribute part of the garden restoration's success to the 

attraction, romance, and relative exoticism of the island locale. And finally, it is my feeling that Celia's 

self-described "old-fashioned" (in 1893) cottage garden remains a powerful nostalgic archetype of a 

timeless garden style, the 'Grandmother's Garden', one which still resonates profoundly today. 

"A large part of the charm of old-fashioned gardens .. . arises not so much from their splendor 
and luxuriance as from the affectionate toil and care they represent, which hallows the ground 
to us who remember the toilers . Into our modem grounds must be put the same thought and 
supervision if they are to mean anything to our successors or to bear real significance even to 
ourselves. Only by entering into the spirit which created the old-fashioned gardens can we 
ourselves leave behind others which shall be valued by future generations as those of a former 
day are now ." 127 

-Charles Sprague Sargent, "Old-fashioned gardens", 1895. 

127 
Sargent, Charles Sprague. "Old-Fashioned Gardens." Garden and Forest, July, 1895: p. 282 . 

42 



CONCLUSION: 

Celia Thaxter's island garden stands as an icon and model of an historic and still very vital 

American garden style. Indeed, the 'old-fashioned', or 'Grandmother's garden' continues to be a popular 

American horticultural aesthetic which is particularly dominant in New England. The garden of Beth 

Straus, Senior Vice Chairman of the New York Botanical Garden, for instance, in Sommesville, Maine, 

has a rectangular cutting garden which is "in feeling, very much like Celia Thaxter's rectangular garden 

as portrayed in Childe Hassam's paintings, burgeoning with the brilliant seaside hues of poppies and 

roses against the silver gray of a weathered board fence." 128 Thus, Celia ' s island garden stands as a model 

and paradigm with lasting influence which continues to be emulated . 

An example of a contemporary New England door-yard, or 'Grandmother's' garden, 
which is very much in the tradition of Celia Thaxter's. 129 

128 
Dietz, Paula. "A Cultivated Coast; Between Meadow and Water, Beth Straus's Garden Continues a Maine 

Tradition." House & Garden, Sept 1991: 126-131. 
129 

Fell, Derek. The Impressionist Garden. p. 115 

43 



At the very least it can be said that Celia Thaxter's small island garden is a complex entity which 

embodies many idealized concepts and symbols of l91h century American art and culture. The original 

garden and its recreation serve as an archetypal model of a 'Grandmother's garden', an American garden 

type which remains a powerful cultural symbol signifying a nostalgic and idealized vision of American 

life which continues to be a vibrant and influential horticultural mode today. Patricia M. Tice wrote in 

Gardening in America, 1830-1910, "The cyclical life-giving properties of the garden cut across time and 

space to touch upon emotions as basic as the human condition itself. " 130 This statement ultimately 

alludes to the potential which gardens, and their restorations, have to wield lasting influence upon culture, 

and points to the case for the preservation, and restoration, of such gardens as Celia Thaxter's. 

"And yet, for all the changes and challenges which the nineteenth-century gardener 
encountered, the traditional image of the garden held fast, like a fixed point, and anchor in 
the tempests of change. This steadfast ideology of the garden underscores not only the 
w1changing bond with the organic but also the human striving to turn the environment into 
a true garden, a paradise, a place of delight." 131 

-Patrice Trice, Gardening in America, 1830-1910 

Celia seated on her vine-clad porch, date unknown. 

130 
Ibid., p. 12. 

131 
Tice, Patricia M. Gardening in America, I 830- I 9 I 0. p. 73. 

132 
Stephan, Sharon Paiva. One Woman's Work; Th e Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter. p. 17 1. 

44 



35 

_,., 

34 

33 

32 

APPENDIX A: AN ILLUSTRATED PLAN & PLAL'l'T LIST OF CELIA'S FLOWER GARDEN 
(from The Impressionist Garden, by Derek Fell, p. 38) 

3 4 5 12 n 14 1; t6 t7 15 16 18 19 

8 11 3 f 30 18 24 29 8 27 26 8 2.5 24 

CELIA Tl-IAXT[;R'S CUTTING CARDf:N 21 T agetes erecta 42 Papaver nudicaule 

Akebia quinata 22 Helianthus annuus 43 C lematis terniflora 

2 Rosa x damas cena 23 Phlox paniculata 44 Delphinium hybrtds 
3 Humulus japonicus 24 Lathyrus odoratus 45 Nigella damascena 

4 Hemerocallis citrina 25 Lilium Asiatic hybrids 46 Papaver somniferum 

5 Weigela florida 26 Lavate ra trimestris 47 Paeonia lactiflora (pink) 
6 lberis sempervirens 27 Lilium longiflorum 48 Dianthus plumarius 

7 T ropaeolum majus 28 Aquilegia vulgaris 49 Digitalis purpurea 
8 C onsolida ambigua 29 Rosa pimpinellifolia 50 Coreopsis grandiflora 

. 9 C leo me hassleriana 30 Helianthus x multiflo rus 51 Shirley poppies 
10 Lonicera japonica 31 Dianthus barbatus 52 Reseda odorata 
1·1 Alcea rosea 32 Paeonia lactiflora (silvery-pink) 
12 Echinocystis lobata 33 Centaurea cyanus 
13 Clematis x jackmanii 34 Coreopsis tinctoria 
14 Rosa hybrids 35 Sweet violets 
15 Verbena x hybrida 36 Callistephus chinensis 
16 Lonice ra sempervirens 37 Es chscholzia califomica 
17 Wisteria sinensis 38 Wallflowers 
18 Red dahlias 39 Lavendula angustifolia 
19 C lematis 'Henryi' 40 Linum perenne 
20 Papaver orientale 4 •1 Silene coe li-rosa 

3 

1/ 

20 

2 ·1 

22 

23 

24 

H 

45 



APPENDIX B: OTHER PLANTS CELIA GREW AND MENTIONED IN AN ISLAND GARDEN: 
(Sources: An Island Garden, by Celia Thaxter; The Flowers of Star Island, by Richard A. Howard; Jamaica Plain, 
MA: Arnold Arboretum, 1968; Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants: 
1640-1940. by Denise Wiles Adams; The Impressionist Garden, by Derek Fell; Botanica, by R.G. Turner, Jr.) 

Aspemla 
Begonia - tuberous rooted 
Candy-tuft 
Carnations - 'Margaret' 
Cinnamon vine 
Chrysanthemums 
Cohea Scandens 
Crocus 
Daffodils 
Dahlias- 'Star of Lyon' 
Delphinium 
Erysimum 
Erythronium 
Eschscholtzia (Californa Poppy) 
Eyebright (Euphrasia) 
Flax - crimson and blue 
Forget-me-knot - blue and white 
Gaillardia 
Gill-over-the-ground 
Gillyflower (Annual Stocks) 
Gladiolus 
Hyacinth 
Lavatera 
Mina lobata 
Morning fringe 
Mourning Bride 
Mullein pink 
Nasturtium 
Nicotiana 
Nigella 
Pansy 
Penstemon 
Phlox 'Dmmmond's tall' 
Plumbago 'Lady Larpent' 
Zinna 

Water Plants mentioned: 

'Pink lotus of Egypt' 
'Purple lily of Zanzibar' 
'a red one' (assuming Water lily; Nymphaea) 
'Golden Chromatella' (Nymphaea 'Chromatella') 
' Pure white African variety' (assuming Nymphaea) 

'smaller native white one' (Nymphaea odorata) 

Poppies-- 'The Bride' (somniferum) 
Iceland 
Oriental 
Shirley 
Thorn 

Primrose- English 
Ragged Robin (Lychnis jlos-cuculi) 
Rose - Bon Silene 

Catherine 
Damask 
Jacqueminot 
La France 
Mermets 
polyantha 
mgosa 
Scotch 
Sunsets 
tea 
Tuscany 

Scilla siberica 
Stock 
Sweet pea (Lath1yrus odoratus) 

' Adonis' 
'Blanche Ferry' 
'Butterfly' 
'Carmine Invincible' 
'Orange Prince' 
'Princess Beatrice' 
'Queen Victoria' 

Thunbergia 
Tropaeolum lobanum lucifers 
Tulips 
Weigela florida 

'yellow water poppy' (Hydrophyllum 
nymphoides or Nuphar lutea?) 

'parrot's feather' (Myriophyllum aquaticum) 
'water hyacinths' (Eichhornia crassipes) 
' Cape Cod lilies' (??) 

46 



APPENDIX C: APPENDIX OF PLANTS AND HISTORIC VARIETIES POSSIBLY GROWN BY 
CELIA THAXTER IN 1893 (Used here with permission of the compiler, Joanna Kingsbury Smith): 

Name of plant Seed catalogues 

Burpee's Burpee's Greer's Gardener's 
Farm Autumn Garden. Gard. Annuals. 
Annual Bulbs Calendar & Fall Bulbs 

1893 1893 1893 1893 

Akebia quinata - X 
A1cea rosea X X X X 
Aquilegia sp. X X 
Argemone mexicana 
Callistephus chinensis X X X X 
Cheiranthus cheiri X X X X 
Clematis Xjackmanii (white) X X 
Clematis X jackmanii (blue) X X 
Cleome spinosa X X X 
Coreopsis basalis - X X X 
Coreopsis coronata X 
Coreopsis lanceolata- X X 
Centaurea cyanus X X X 
DahJia pinnata X X X X 
Delphinium exa1tatum X X X X 
Dianthus barbatus X X X X 
Dianthus caryophyllus (Picotee) X X 
Dianthus sp (marguerite) X X X 
Digitalis purpurea X X 
Echinocystus lobata 
Eschscholtzia californica X X X 
Gilia sp. X X X 
Helianthus annus X X X X 
Hesperis matronalis X X 
Humulus japonica- X X 
Humulus lupulus X 
Lathyrus odorata 

cvs: Adonis X X X X 
Blanche Ferry X X X 
Butterfly X X X X 
Carmine Invincible X X X X 
Orange Prince X X X X 
Primrose X X X X 
Princess Beatrice X X X X 
Queen Victoria* 

Lavatera trimestris 

*Celia could easily have confused the Queen Victoria with the Queen of England variety which fits 
her description and was available from each of the four catalogues above. 

47 



Burpee's Burpee's Greer's Gardener's 
Annual Bulbs 

1893 1893 1893 1893 
Lavandula angustifolia 
Lilium auratum X X X X 
Lilium candidurn X X X 
Lilium longiflorurn X X 
Lonicera sp. 
Lonicera japonica 
Lychnis coeli-rosa 
Nigella darnascena X X X X 
Papaver alpinum X 
Papaver nudicaule X 
Papaver orientale X X X 
Papaver pavonium X 
Papaver rhoeas 

var. Com X 
Scarlet X 
Shirley X X X 

Papaver somniferurn X X 
Papaver sp. 

Cv. Carnation X X X 
Snowdrift X X X 

Paeonia lactiflora X X 
Phlox drumrnondii X X X X 
Phlox paniculata X X 
Ranunculus asiaticus X 
Reseda odorata X X X X 
Rosa centifolia parvifolia 
Rosa darnascena X 
Rosa gallica 
Rosa odorata 

var. Bon Silene X 
Catherine Mermet X- X 
Gabrielle deLuizit' X X 
General Jaqueminot X X 
La France X X 
Sunset X X 

Rosa X rehederana X X 
Rosa spinosissirn 
Tagetes erecta X X X X 
Tagetes patula X X X X 
Tropeolum lobianum X 
Verbena X hybrida X X X X 
Viola odorata 

Cv. White Czar X 
Wisteria sinensis - X 

48 



APPENDIX D: THE 2004 PLAN AND PLANTING LIST OF THE GARDEN RESTORATION: 

49 
14 

53 
17 
18 
34 

51 
35 49 

35 

THE PLAN OF THE GARDEN AND THE LIST OF FLOWERS 
Celia Thaxter's garden (15x50) is planted by the plan in her book AN ISLAND GARDEN. It is 

very evident in reading her book that she grew many more plants than are listed on her plan. 
Over the years these "other" flowers have made their way back into the garden. It is hoped that 
by updating her plan it will be easier to find the nowers that interest you. 

36 36 36 

18 1 34 
72 

75 
63 

74 -5- 34 
-79- 71 18 

11 .48 63 49 80 18 49 13 34 35 
51 88 70 711 28 84 --19-- 82 54 

78 

I~ 61 41 37 I 83 23 
58 58 • 

57 
· 67 
66 

47 

I 52 22 
126 

26 
261 88 26 42 45 43 

21 24 

64 60 

57 
67 
88 

57 57 89 
88 

82 

4 

66 

16 

15 

7 
10 

48 

5
1
5 80 I 1-89- 331 
I 

7

j 
65 

12 

14 67 

40 
57 
58 

57 57 
89 
88 
67 
57 
'58 

62 

47 

31 30 
-19-
49 --80-- 73 80 ;; _13-60~ 18 76 21l 

59 
~ ~a.---.6~9~·~6--~65-~a ~ 
Gelo 21l 48 48 80 49 

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
15. 
16. 
17. 
18. 
19. 
20. 
21. 
22. 
23. 
24. 
25. 
26. 
27. 

- 28. 

29. 
30. 
31. 
32. 
33. 
34. 
35. 
36. 
37. 
38. 
'39. 
40. 
41. 
42. 
43. 
44. 
45. 

35 

Akebia, Vine 
Anemone, Japanese 
Artemesia 
Aster 
Balsam 
Begonia, Tuberous 
Calendula, Pot Marigold 
Campanula, Persicifolia 
Candytuft 
Chrysanthemum, Annual 
Clematis, Paniculata 
Cleome, Spider Flower 
Columbine 
Coreopsis, Perennial 
Coreopsis, Calliopsis 
Cornflower, Blue 
Cornnower, Pastel Mix 
Cosnios 
Dahlia, Single> 
Day Lily, Celia's 
Delphinium 
Dianthus, Pinks 
Diantl'iu$, Sweet William 
Digitelis, Foxglove 
Flax, Blue 
Flax, Crimson 
Four 0' Clocks 
GamardTa, Blanket Flower 
Geranium 
Helianlhus, Perennial 
Helianthus, Sun Flower 
Heliotrope, Garden 
Heliotrope, Marine 
Hesperia, Sweet Rocket 
Hollyhock 
Hops\ Japanese, Celia's 
Lantana 
Larksj)\Jr, Giant Imperial 
Larkspur, Blue Cloud 
Lavatera, Pink & White 
Lavender 
Lily, Auratum 
Lily, Rubrum 
Lily, Easter 
Marguerite 

35 

46. Marigold 
4 7. Mignonette 
48. Moonftower 
49. Moming Glory 
50. Nasturtium 
51. Nicotiana, Alata 
52. Nigella, Love-in-a-Misl 
53. Pansy 
54. Peony, R&d 
55. Penstemon 
56. Petunia, Single, White 
57. Phloll, Drummondii, Tapestry 
58 . Phlox, Drummondii, Leopoldii 
59. Phlox .• Perennial, White 
60. Plumbago 
61 . Poppy, Eschscholzia, California 
62. Poppy, Iceland 
63. Poppy, O'riental 
64. Poppy, Peony, Pink 
65. Poppy, "The Bride' 
66. Popp~ Prickly,Wh~e 
67. Poppy, Shirley, Mixed 
68. Poppy, Shirley, Double 
69. Rose Campion, Lychnis 
70. Rose, Damask 
71. Rose, Polyantha, "The Fairy" 
72. _ fiose._Rugosa _ 
73. ,Rose, Scotch 
74. Rose, York 
75. Rose, Lancaster 
76. 5cabious, Pin CushiOn, Dark Maroon 
77. SCabious. Pin Cushion, Pink & White 
78. Snowdrops, Celia's 
79. Stock; Gillyftower 
80. Sweet Pea, Annual 
81. Sweet Pea, Perennial 
82. Venidium 
83. Verbena 
84. Viola 
85. Violet 
86. Viscaria, lychnis "Rose of 1-teaven' 
87. Wisteria 
88. WoodrufY 
89. Zinnia 

Select See>ds 
180 Stickney Hill Rd. 

Seed Companies 
Thompson & Morgan 

POBoxj~ 

~ackson, NJ 08527-0308 

Pinetree Garden See>dS. 
P.O. Box300 

Union, CT 06076-4671 New Gloucester, ME 04260 

35 13 

49 



;z 
~ 

~ 
~ 
Co-' 
00 

~ 
~ 

~ 

~ 
0 
0 
N 

0. .., 
1/J 

6 
0 

e 
0 

.D 

"' -l 
~ .., 
:t: ·§ 
E-< "' 
~ ~ - -....J ~ 
~ ..<: 

u ~ 
~ -5 
0 'o 
~ t:: 
Co-' ~ 
;z __g - -E-< E 
r:r; 0 
- <.':: ....J c 
r:r; •• - ~ ,_, ;z ::l 
-0 ·-;::_§ 
~E-<g_ 
- ~..<: ~~.";::: 
~0 ~ 
>E-<"E 
~ oo ·a 
Q~O = u N ~ 
~ 

~ -Q 
;z 
~ 

=-=-~ 

: Utltlnn m· Ihgqppt Qiijjj 
OPNAME. 

OI'Jt .. -rfijd --
'NAM~ ~IIDr.:ll= 

IQ.I\11.,.. .... 

r~ (}Luj_~ 0rc1 
~~ .,.. - ''1..()" 

~bii 
!Vlemone 

~ ,-Select Seeds I I I n ; (/\A lh~ Vine . . . re T-Stokes I ./ ..._..,.I'L.-V y '-
Anemone & M-Thompson & Mora an 

~r 
B8llim 
Beaonia. Tuberous 
:alendula 
:ampanula 
• .. ~1ft 

'mum 
:tematis 

:otum~bl~ne"':-::=== 
' l8nceolatll 
~al 

~flower 

:O.mo$ __ _ 

»>''lia 
>ahJta 
lianthUIIS. WUiiam 

Uver Queen - -- - --- n . . ~T -Pine Tree-Garden Seeds 
4iladv Mix & M SA5-UNH Greenhouse 
>bl Camellia t:lfd Mix 1ST_ IVC-Vlrglnla Chisholm I 

INon-StoPMix IP~ _ !MS-Mary Smith 
ncfian. Prinoe IS ---lPB-Pam Boutilier 

IPirCicifolia jApgfedore --ll\ppledore-Winterover rose/perennial 
~lWfixed - -- ~ & M IE-EIIison's Greenhouses. Exeter 

ummer Festival & ~-
Wliculala-Autumn IAi)pledore 
Vhllle Queen --Queen 
ICIPB 
lalli8 {C8fllooslsl 
unburst 
:ut Flower-Mbcad 
lueOtadem 

~edore 
iT 

&-M 
&M 
&M 

.llisons 

t8ved) 'ianthus 5.~~ Pinks(pheasaut eyed)' 
:?igita!is rea:!;IYbrid ~ & M 
'lax. Sc:arfet ed scarlet flax. & M 
lax, Blue Annual IUI'Ium anmdiflorum_ 'Blue Dress' ----If & M 
·~ax. Perennial --ILinum:Derenne-- rr & M 
our O'Ciocks !Broken Colors IS 

IG8illardial8i8nket Fl Mortarch IE 
Geraniums rtSAS Geraniums Pink & Red lfSAS 
~el~s Gmon .Queen, Annual SUnflower ~ I 
Hehanthus rennal ppledore 

1ium arine · 
arcten-Valeriana otficinafis ledore 

Sweet Rocket - PPiedore 
IHollyhOeks IAicea-rosea- Fia "HaooY LiQhts" --l$ 

'·" 

' ·· .. 
\._.../ 

0 
V) 



Hollyhocks IAicea-rosea-Fig "Nigra" s ·r---
Hops !Japanese (Celia's) IAppledore +--
Lantana Mixed Hybrids E 

V) 

Larkspur Giant Imperial s 
larkspur Blue Cloud ~ 
Lavatera !Mont Blanc IT&M 
Lavatera Silver Cup s 
Lavender English 'Lady' PB 
lily, Auratum Appledore 
LilY, Rubrum Appledore 
LilY. Easter Appledore 
Ma~ !Yellow E 
Marigold ITSAS Marigold Yellow Bonanza ITSAS 
MiQnonette Machet ~ 
Moonflower IPOmOea Alba s 
Mominc GlorY Scarlet O'Hara s 
Morning Glory PearlY Gates PT 
!Morning Glo,Y HeeverilV Blue IS 
Na$turtium LJewet of Africa IS 
NicOtiana !Jasmine Tobacco IS 
NiQella Damaseena Persian Jewels PT 
Pansv rTSAS Pansv Mix ITSAS 
Penstemon Earlv BirdMfxed rr&M 
Peonv Red ~ppledore 
Petunia !White-Celebrity E 
Phlox Orummondii laoestrv s 
Phlox Drummondii Leoooldii s 
Phlox, Per. !White "Miss Lingard" E 
Plumbago Plum68ao IAppledore 
Poppy White Cloud s 
PODDV PrickiVPOPPY 'Purity' s 
Poppy/rhoeas Sinale Shirley 
Poppy/rhoeas SinQie _5hirtev 'Anael Wings' 
Poppy/rhOeas Double Shirfev Mixed PT 
Poppy Peonv Tvoe Pink s 
Pop~/Eschscholtzia Californ_ia 'Golden West' s 
Poppy/Eschscholtzia Aurantica PT 
Poppy Iceland Meadow Pastels s 
Rose Campion Lvchnis Coronaria MS 
Rose, Damask IAppledore 



Rose, Polyantha The Fairy" 
Rose, Rugosa Transplanted from Star-Most likely Celia's 
Rose, Scotch 
Rose, York 
Rose, Lancaster 
Scabious, Sweet Black. Knights 
Scabious atropurp_urea Summer Sundae 
Snowdrops Celia's 
Stock Trysomic-"7 week stock" Tall 
Stock L~acy Crimson-12" 
Sweet Pea, Ann. Old Spice Mix 
Sweet Pea Ann. Mammoth Mix 
Sweet Pea Per. Lathyrus Latifolius 
Sweet Rocket HesQ_eris Matronaliks 
Venidium Fastuosum 'Jaffa Ice' 
\[erbena Dwarf Jewels 
~sea ria Lychnis coelirosa 'Rose of Heaven' 
Viola Lemon Swirl 
Viola Hybrid-Mixed 
!Wisteria 
!Woodruff, Sweet Galium odoratum 
~innias Senary Giant Mix 

lApp led ore 
IAppledore 
IAppledore 
IAppledore 
~ppledore 
s 
s 
Appledore 
E 
E 
s 
PT 
PT 
Appledore 
l&M 
rr&M 
HUMESEEDS 
PT 
E 
~ppledore 
PB 
s 

~~· -

-~ 

-..... -
-

: 

I 

N 
V) 



BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Adams, Denise Wiles. Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants: 
1640-1940. Portland, OR: Timber Press, 2004. 

Arber, Edward, ed. Travels and Works of Captain John Smith. Edinburgh: John Grant, 1910. 

Bailey, Liberty Hyde, ed. How to Make a Flower Garden. New York: Doubleday, Page, 1903. 

Bardwell, John D. 'flze Isles of Shoals: A Visual Histmy. Portsmouth, NH: Peter Randall Publisher, 
1989. 

Barlow, Marilyn. "In Search of Antique Annuals," Plants & Gardens, Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record: 
American Cottage Gardens. 48 ( 1992): 25-29. 

Beecher, Catherine E & Harriet Beecher Stowe. The American Woman's Home: or, Principles of 
Domestic Science; Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, 
and Christian Homes. New York: Arno Press, 1971 (reprint of the 1855 edition). 

B1anchan, Neltje. The American Flower Garden. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. , 1909. 

Boden, Gary T. The Vascular Flora of Appledore Island. Ithaca, NY : Shoals Marine Laboratory at 
Cornell University, 1979. 

Boris, Eileen. Art and Labor: Ruskin, Morris, and the Craftsman Ideal in America. Philadelphia: Temple 
University Press, ca. 1986. 

Breck, Joseph. New Book of Flowers. New York: Orange Judd & Co. , 1866. 

Burke, Doreen Bulger. In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and th e Aesthetic Movement. New York: 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. 

"Celia Thaxter' s Grave and Garden." Literary World. 19 Aug. 1899: 265 . 

Chisholm, Virginia. "Celia Thaxter's Island Garden." Plants & Gardens, Brooklyn Botanic Garden 
Record: American Cottage Gardens, 46.1 ( 1990): 62-67. 

Clayton, V .T. "Reminiscence and Revival, The Old-Fashioned Garden 1890-1910. Antiques. April 1990: 
892-905. 

Clayton-Payne, Andrew. Victorian Flower Gardens. London: Seven Dials, Cassell & Co. , 2000. 

Colby, Fred M . "The Gardens of Our Grandmothers." Th e Ladies' Floral Cabinet. July 1884: 222-23. 

Curry, David Park. Chi/de Hassam : An Island Garden Revisited. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1990. 

Davies, Jennifer. The Victorian Flower Garden. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. , 1991. 

Dietz, Paula. "A Cultivated Coast; Between Meadow and Water, Beth Straus' s Garden Continues a 
Maine Tradition." House& Garden. Sept 1991: 126-131. 

53 



Downing, Andrew Jackson. A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to 
North America; with a View to the Improvement of Country Residences." New York: Orange Judd 
Agricultural Book Publisher, 1865. 

---. Cottage Residences, Rural Architecture & Landscape Gardening. 1842. Watkins Glen, N.Y.: 
Library of Victorian Culture, 1967. 

---. "On the Drapery of Cottages and Gardens." The Horticulturist. Aug. 1849: 353-59. 

Dunhill, Priscilla. " Poet Celia Thaxter: An Island Gardener." Victoria. July 1990: 32-39. 

Earle, Alice Morse. Old Time Gardens, Newly Set Forth: A Book of the Sweet O'the Year. New York: 
Macmillan, 1928 (ca. 190 1 ). 

Elliot, Charles. "Field Notes: Lost Gardens," Horticulture. Jan . 1989: 22-25 . 

Emmet, Alan. So Fine A Prospect: Historic New England Gardens. Hanover, NH: University Press of 
New England, 1996. 

Farr, Judith & Louise Carter. The Gardens of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University 
Press, 2004. 

Favretti, Rudy & Joy. For Eve1y House a Garden: A Guide for Reproducing Period Gardens. Hanover, 
NH: University Press ofNew England, 1990. 

---. Landscapes and Gardens for Historic Buildings. Second Edition, Revised: A Handbookfor 
Reproducing and Creating Authentic Landscape Settings. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 1997. 

Faxon, Susan C. A Stern and Lovely Scene: A Visual History of the Isles of Shoals. Durham, NH : 
University of New Hampshire Art Galleries, 1978. 

Fell, Derek. The Impressionist Garden . New York: Carol Southern Books, 1994. 

Forsell, Mary. "The Victorian Legacy," Plants & Gardens, Brookly n Botanic Garden Record: American 
Cottage Gardens. 48 (1992): 6-11. 

Gardner, JoAnn. "In Grandmother's Garden." Old-House Journal. Oct. 2000: 49-53. 

Genders, Roy. The Cottage Garden and the Old-Fashion ed Flowers. London: Pelham Books, 1969. 

Gerdts, William H. Down Garden Paths: The Floral Environment in American Art. Cranbury, NJ: 
Associated University Presses, Inc., 1983. 

Gibson, Robin. "Inside a Nineteenth Century Salon and Garden: Celia Thaxter and Childe Hassam." 
Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House Museum of American Art. 1994. 

Griswold, Mac & Eleanor Weller. The Golden Age of American Gardens: Proud Owners, Private Estates 
1890-1940. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991. 

Hill, May Brawley. Grandmother 's Garden: The Old-Fashion ed American Garden 1865-1915. New 
York: HarryN. Abrams, Inc., 1995. 

Hoopes, Josiah. "How to Plant a Rural Home." The Horticulturist. June 1872: 164-7. 

54 



Hottes, Alfred C. A Little Book of Annuals. New York: A.T. DeLaMare Co., 1925. 

Howard, Richard A. Flowers of Star Island, The Isles of Shoals. Jamaica Plain, MA: Arnold Arboretum, 
1968. 

Jacobs, Katherine L. "Celia Thaxter and Her Island Garden." Landscape 24 ( 1980): 12-17. 

Johnson, Mrs. S.O. Every Woman her Own Flower Gardener: A Handy Manual of Flower Gardening for 
Ladies, th ed. New York: Ralph H. Waggoner, 1889. 

Keeler, Harriet L. Our Garden Flowers. New York: Charles Scribner's & Sons, 1910. 

Kent, Crystal Ward. "The Restoration of an Island Garden." Accent on Home & Garden. July/ August 
2004: 62-72. 

Kingsbury, Dr. John. Foreward. An Island Garden. By Celia Thaxter. 1894. Ithica, NY: Bullbrier Press, 
1985. 

---. E-mail interview. Sept. 2004. 

---. Here's How We'll Do It: An Informal History of the Shoals Marine Laboratory, Appledore Island, 
Isles of Shoals , Maine. Ithica, NY: Bullbrier Press, 1991. 

Lacy, Allen. "Celia Thaxter and Louise Beebe Wilder: Romanticism in the Garden" The Gardener's Eye 
and Other Essays. New York: Henry Holt & Co., Inc. , 1992. 

Leighton. Ann. American Gardens of the Nineteenth Century: "For Comfort and Affluence." Amherst, 
University of Massachusetts Press, 1987. 

Long, Elias. Ornamental Gardeningfor Americans. New York: Orange Judd, 1893. 

Loudon, Mrs. Jane. Gardeningfor Ladies, and, Companion to the Flower Garden. New York: John 
Wiley, 1862. 

---. The Ladies' Flower Garden of Ornamental Annuals. 2nd Edition. London: W.S. Orr, 1849. 

Mandel, Norma H. Beyond the Garden Gate: The Life of Celia Laighton Thaxter. Hanover, NH: 
University Press of New England, 2004. 

Marranca, Bonnie, ed. American Garden Writing. New York: Penguin Books, 1988. 

Martin, Tovah. Victoria: Mom ents in a Garden. New York: The Heart Corp., 1991. 

May, Stephen. "An Island Garden, A Poet's Passion, A Painter' s Muse," Smithsonian. 21 Dec. 1990: 68-
76. 

McGuire, Diane Kostial, ed. American Garden Design: An Anthology of Ideas 111at Shaped Our 
Landscape. New York: MacWilliam, 1994. 

Moberly, Susan 0. "The Bed of Annuals." The Mayflower. April 1899: 172. 

55 



Nagel, Gwen L. "Sarah Orne Jewett's New England Gardens." Colby Literary Quarterly 22 ( 1986): 43-
62. 

Nevins, Deborah. " Poet's Garden, Painter's Eye." House & Garden. August 1984: 93ff. 

---. "The Triumph of Flora: Women and the American Landscape, 1890-1935." The Magazine Antiques. 
April1985 : 904-19. 

Newcomb, Peggy Cornett. Popular Annuals of Eastern North America: 1865-1914. Washington, D.C.: 
Dumbarton Oaks, 1985. 

Norcross, Marjorie R. "Cataloging America' s Cultural Roots." Cornell Plantations. 4 7 .I ( 1992): 15-22. 

Norwood, Vera. Made From This Earth: American Women and Nature. Chapel Hill, University ofNorth 
Carolina Press, 1993. 

"Old-fashioned Flowers." Vick's Monthly Magazine. Dec. 1882: 360-2. 

Older, Julia, ed. Celia Tha'Cter: Selected Writings. Hancock, New Hampshire: Appledore Books, 1997. 

---. The Island Queen. Hancock, NH: Appledore Books, 1994. 

"An Ornamented Cottage". New England Farmer. May 1856: 224-5 . 

Otis, Denise. Grounds for Pleasure: Four Centuries of the American Garden. New York: Harry N . 
Abrams, Inc., 2002. 

Packard, Wilnthrop. Literary Pilgrimages ofa Naturalist. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1911. 

Parker, Constance. "The Garden of Forgotten Flowers." Good Housekeeping. April 1907: 390-96. 

Piscataqua Garden Club. Gardening from the Merrimack to the Kennebec. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 
Inc. , 1978 . 

Plan of the Garden and List of Flowers. Appledore Island, ME: Shoals Marine Laboratory, 2004. 

Rand, EdwardS. Popular Flowers and How to Cultivate Them. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1876. 

Rayfield, Susan. "Blossoms by a Summer Sea," Americana. May/June 1990: 28-34. 

Reed, Helen Leah. "Celia l11axter and Her Island Home." New England Magazine. Nov. 1893 : 208 . 

Robarge, Christopher. E-mail interview. Sept./Oct., 2004 

Robbins, Ellen. "Reminiscences of a Flower Painter." New England Magazine. July 1896: 532. 

Sargent, Charles Sprague. "Old-Fashioned Gardens." Garden and Forest. July 1895 : 281-82. 

Schenker, Heath M. & Ouellete, Suzanne C. "The Garden As Women ' s Place: Celia Thaxter and 
Mariana van Rensselaer." Proceedings of the 'Gendered Landscapes; An Interdisciplinary Exploration of 
Past Place and Space' Conference. State College, PA.: Pennsylvania State University, 2000. 

56 



Scott, Frank J. The Art of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds of Small Extent. New York: John B. 
Alden, 1886. 

Shurtleff, Arthur A. "Some Old New England Flower Gardens." Ne~v England Magazine. 21 Dec. 1899: 
422-24. 

Sitwell, Sacheverell. Old Fashioned Flowers. London: Country Life Limited, 1939. 

Smith, Joanna M. (nee Kingsbury). "Restoring a Flower Garden of 1893", or 
"The Identity and Source of Plants Celia Thaxter Grew in Her Garden." Honors paper, Colgate 
University, 1979. 

---. E-mail interviews. Sept.-Oct., 2004. 

Smith, Mary. Telephone and E-Mail interviews. Sept./Oct., 2004. 

Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll. Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. New York: 
Alfred A. Knopf, 1985 . 

Sorelle, Eugene. "An Old Fashioned Garden and What Grows in It." Indoors and Out. Mar. 1907: 278-
80. 

Spain, Daphne. Gendered Spaces. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. 

Stephan, Sharon Paiva. One Woman 's Work: The Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter. Portsmouth, NH: 
Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2001. 

Stuart, David. Gardening with Heirloom Plants. Pleasantville, NY: Reader 's Digest Assoc., 1997. 

Tabor, Grace. Old-fashioned Gardening; A History and a Reconstruction. New York: McBride, Nast & 
Co., 1913 . 

Tankard, Judith. "An Impressionist' s Garden: Celia Thaxter's Island Garden." Labyrinth 2 (1992): 8-9. 

Taylor, Geoffrey. The Victorian Flo wer Garden. Essex: Anchor Press, 1952. 

Thaxter, Celia. Among the Isles of Shoals. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., 1897. 

---. An Island Garden. Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1894, 1988. 
(facsimile reproduction with original Childe Hassam watercolor illustrations.) 

---.Letters of Celia Thaxter Edited by Her Friends A.F. (Annie Fields) and R.L. (Rose Lamb). Boston: 
Houghton Mifflin, 1895. 

Thaxter, Rosamond. Sandpiper: The Life and Letters of Celia Thaxter. Hampton, NH: Peter E. Randall 
Pub!., 1999. 

---. "My Grandmother's Garden on the Isles of Shoals." New Hampshire Profiles. April, 1989: 48ff. 

Thomas, H.H. Everybody 's Flower Garden. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1916. 

Tice, Patricia M. Gardening in America, 1830- 1910. Rochester, NY: The Strong Museum, 1984. 

57 



Todisco, Patrice. "By Pen and Spade." Hortus: A Gardening Journal. Summer, 1990: 34-44. 

Turner, R.G., Jr., and Ernie Wasson, eds. Botanica. New York: Random House Australia, 1997. 

Vallier, Jane E. Poet on Demand: The Life, Letters, and Works of Celia Thaxter. Portsmouth, NH: Peter 
E. Randall Publisher, 1994. 

Vick, James, ed. "Flowers and Flower-beds." Vick's Monthly Magazine. 1878, Feb.: 39-41. 

"The Victorian Lady and Her Flowers;" American Heritage. Aug./Sep . 1978: 99-103 . 

Ward, Larry G. , Raymond E. Grizzle, FrankL. Bub, Richard Langan, Gwynne Schnaittacher, and 
Jennifer A . Dijkstra. Site Description and Environmental Monitoring Report, Open Aquaculture 
Program, University of New Hampshire. 2001. 
<http://www.ooa.unh.edu/environmental!technica1_report/chapter_ 4.html> 

Westbrook, Perry D. "Celia Thaxter, Seeker of the Unattainable." Colby Colleg e Quarterly 6 (1964): 
500-12. 

Wheeler, Candace. Content in a Garden. "New York: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1902. 

White, Barbara A. "Legacy Profile: Celia Thaxter (1835-1894)." Legacy: A Journal of American Women 
Writers 7 ( 1990): 1. 

Williams, H.T. "Climbing Plants as Helps to Home Adornment." The Gardener 's Monthly. Dec. 1870: 
361-65 . 

2004 Varieties Listing/or Celia Thaxter 's Garden Restoration. Appledore Island, ME: Shoals Marine 
Laboratory, 2004. (Copied with permission from the staff of the Shoals Marine Laboratory, Sept., 2004) 

58 



Ter-.a Izenour 
(Completed, Fall 2004) 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 
"Celia Thaxter's Island Garden: A 191h Century Flower Garden and its Historic Restoration" 

Adams, Denise Wiles. Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants: 
1640-1940. Portland, OR: Timber Press, 2004. 

Arber, Edward, ed. Travels and Works of Captain John Smith. Edinburgh: John Grant, I 9 I 0. 

Bailey, Liberty Hyde, ed. How to Make a Flower Garden. New York: Doubleday, Page, I 903. 

Bardwell, John D. The Isles ofShoals: A Visual History. Portsmouth, NH: Peter Randall Publisher, 
1989. 

Barlow, Marilyn. "In Search of Antique Annuals," Plants & Gardens, Brookly n Botanic Garden Record: 
American Cottage Gardens. 48 ( 1992): 25-29. 

Beecher, Catherine E & Harriet Beecher Stowe. The American Woman's Home: or, Principles of 
Domestic Science; Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance ofEconomical, Healthfol, BeautifUl, 
and Christian Homes. New York: Arno Press, 1971 (reprint of the 1855 edition). 

Blanchan, Neltje. The American Flower Garden. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., I909. 

Boden, Gary T. The Vascular Flora of Appledore Island. Ithaca, NY: Shoals Marine Laboratory at 
Cornell University, I 979. 

Boris, Eileen. Art and Labor: Ruskin, Morris, and the Craftsman Ideal in America. Philade lphia: Temple 
University Press, ca. 1986. 

Breck, Joseph. New Book of Flowers. N ew York: Orange Judd & Co., I 866. 

Burke, Doreen Bulger. In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement. New York: 
Metropolitan Muse um of Art, I 987. 

"Celia Thaxter' s Grave and Garden." Literary World. I 9 Aug. I 899: 265. 

Chisholm, Virginia. "Celia Thaxter's Island Garden." Plants & Gardens, Brooklyn Botanic Garden 
Record: American Cottage Gardens. 46. I (1990): 62-67. 

Clayton, V .T. "Reminiscence and Revival, The Old-Fashioned Garden 1890- I 9 I 0. Antiques. April I 990: 
892-905. 

Clayton-Payne, Andrew. Victorian Flower Gardens. London: Seven Dials, Cassell & Co., 2000. 

Colby, Fred M. "The Gardens of Our Grandmothers." The Ladies' Floral Cabinet . July 1884: 222-23. 

Curry, David Park. Chi/de Hassam: An Island Garden Revisited. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., I990. 



Davies, Jennifer. The Victorian Flower Garden. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1991. 

Dietz, Paula. "A Cultivated Coast; Between Meadow and Water, Beth Straus's Garden Continues a 
Maine Tradition ." House & Garden. Sept 1991: 126-131. 

Downing, Andrew Jackson. A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to 
North America; with a View to the Improvement of Country Residences." New York: Orange Judd 
Agricultural Book Publisher, 1865. 

---. Cottage Residences, Rural Architecture & Landscape Gardening. 1842. Watkins Glen, N.Y.: 
Library ofVictorian Culture, 1967. 

---. "On the Drapery ofCottages and Gardens." The Horticulturist. Aug. 1849:353-59. 

Dunhill , Priscilla. " Poet Celia Thaxter: An Island Gardener." Victoria. July I 990: 32-39. 

Earle, Alice Morse. Old Time Gardens. Newly Set Forth: A Book of the Sweet O 'the Year. New York: 
Macmillan, I 928 (ca. I 901 ). 

Elliot, Charles. "Field Notes: Lost Gardens," Horticulture. Jan . 1989: 22-25 . 

Emmet, Alan . So Fine A Prospect: Historic New England Gardens. Hanover, NH: University Press of 
New England, 1996. 

Farr, Judith & Louise Carter. The Gardens ofEmily Dickinson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University 
Press, 2004. 

Favretti, Rudy & Joy. For Every House a Garden: A Guide for Reproducing Period Gardens. Hanover, 
NH: University Press of New England, I 990. 

---. Landscapes and Gardens for Historic Buildings. Second Edition, Revised: A Handbook for 
Reproducing and Creating Authentic Landscape Settings. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 1997. 

Faxon, Susan C. A Stern and Lovely Scene: A Visual History of the Isles ofShoals. Durham, NH : 
University of New Hampshire Art Galleries, I 978. 

Fell , Derek. The Impressionist Garden. New York: Carol Southern Books, 1994. 

Forsell, Mary. "The Victorian Legacy," Plants & Gardens, Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record: American 
Cottage Gardens. 48 ( 1992): 6-11. 

Gardner, JoAnn. "In Grandmother's Garden." Old-House Journal. Oct. 2000: 49-53. 

Genders, Roy. The Cottage Garden and the Old-Fashioned Flowers. London : Pelham Books, 1969. 

Gerdts, William H. Down Garden Paths: The Floral Environment in American Art. Cranbury, NJ: 
Associated University Presses, Inc., 1983. 

Gibson, Robin. "Inside a Nineteenth Century Salon and Garden: Celia Thaxter and Childe Hassam." 
Win ston-Salem, NC : Reynolda House Museum of American Art. 1994. 

2 



Griswold, Mac & Eleanor Weller. The Golden Age of American Gardens: Proud Owners, Private Estates 
1890-1940. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. , 1991 . 

Hill, May Brawley. Grandmother's Garden: The Old-Fashioned American Garden 1865-1915. New 
York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995. 

Hoopes, Josiah. ''How to Plant a Rural Home." The Horticulturist. June 1872: 164-7. 

Hottes, Alfred C. A Little Book of Annuals. New York: A.T. DeLaMare Co., 1925. 

Howard, Richard A. Flowers of Star Island, The Isles ojShoals. Jamaica Plain, MA : Arnold Arboretum, 
1968. 

Jacobs, Katherine L. "Celia Thaxter and Her Island Garden." Lands·cape 24 ( 1980): 12-1 7. 

Johnson, Mrs . S.O. Every Woman her Own Flower Gardener: A Handy Manual of Flower Gardening for 
Ladies, 1h ed New York: Ralph H. Waggoner, 1889. 

Keeler, Harriet L. Our Garden Flowers. New York: Charles Scribner's & Sons, 1910. 

Kent, Crystal Ward. "The Restoration of an Island Garden." Accent on Home & Garden. July/August 
2004: 62-72. 

Kingsbury, Dr. John. Foreward. An Island Garden. By Celia Thaxter. 1894. Jthica, NY : Bull brier Press, 
1985. 

---. E-mail interview. Sept. 2004. 

---. Here's How We 'II Do It: An Informal History of the Shoals Marine Laboratory, Appledore Island, 
Isles of Shoals, Maine. lthica, NY : Bull brier Press, 1991 . 

Lacy, Allen. "Celia Thaxter and Louise Beebe Wilder: Romanticism in the Garden" The Gardener's Eye 
and Other Essays. New York: Henry Holt & Co., Inc., 1992. 

Leighton. Ann. American Gardens of the Nineteenth Century: "For Comfort and Affluence." Amherst, 
University of Massachusetts Press, 1987. 

Long, Elias. Ornamental Gardeningfor Americans. New York: Orange Judd, 1893. 

Loudon, Mrs. Jane. Gardening for Ladies, and, Companion to the Flower Garden. New York: John 
Wiley, 1862. 

---. The Ladies' Flower Garden of Ornamental Annuals. 2"d Edition. London: W.S. Orr, 1849. 

Mandel, Norma H . Beyond the Garden Gate: The Life of Celia Laighton Thatter. Hanover, NH : 
University Press of New England, 2004. 

Marranca, Bonnie, ed. American Garden Writing. New York: Penguin Books, 1988 . 

Martin, Tovah. Victoria: Moments in a Garden. New York: The Heart Corp., 1991 . 

3 



May, Stephen. "An Island Garden, A Poet's Passion, A Painter's Muse," Smithsonian. 21 Dec. 1990: 68-
76. 

McGuire, Diane Kostial, ed. American Garden Design: An Anthology ofldeas That Shaped Our 
Landscape. New York: MacWilliam, 1994. 

Moberly, Susan 0. "The Bed of Annuals." The Mayflower. April 1899: 172. 

Nagel, Gwen L. "Sarah Orne Jewett's New England Gardens." Colby Literary Quarterly 22 ( 1986): 43-
62. 

Nevins, Deborah . "Poet's Garden, Painter's Eye." House & Garden. August 1984: 93ff. 

---. "The Triumph of Flora: Women and the American Landscape, 1890-1935." The Magazine Antiques. 
April1985: 904-19. 

Newcomb, Peggy Cornett. Popular Annuals of Eastern North America: 1865-1914. Washington, D.C.: 
Dumbarton Oaks, 1985. 

Norcross, Maijorie R. "Cataloging America's Cultural Roots." Cornell Plantations. 4 7.1 ( 1992): 15-22. 

Norwood, Vera . Made From This Earth : American Women and Nature. Chapel Hill, University of North 
Carolina Press, 1993 . 

"Old-fashioned Flowers." Vick 's Monthly Magazine. Dec. 1882: 360-2. 

Older, Julia, ed. Celia Thaxter: Selected Writings. Hancock, New Hampshire: Appledore Books, 1997. 

---. The island Queen. Hancock, NH: Appledore Books, 1994. 

"An Ornamented Cottage". New England Farmer. May 1856: 224-5 . 

Otis, Denise. Grounds for Pleasure: Four Centuries of the American Garden. New York: Harry N . 
Abrams, Inc., 2002 . 

Packard, Wilnthrop. Literary Pilgrimages of a Naturalist. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1911. 

Parker, Constance. "The Garden of Forgotten Flowers." Good Housekeeping. April 1907: 390-96. 

Piscataqua Garden Club. Gardeningfrom the Merrimack to the Kennebec. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 
Inc., 1978. 

Plan of the Garden and List of Flowers. Appledore Island, ME: Shoals Marine Laboratory, 2004. 

Rand, Edward S. Popular Flowers and How to Cultivate Them . New York: Hurd and Houghton , 1876. 

Rayfield , Susan. "Blossoms by a Summer Sea," Americana. May/June 1990: 28-34. 

Reed, Helen Leah . "Celia Thaxter and Her Island Home. " New England Magazine. Nov. I 893: 208. 

Robarge, Christopher. E-mail interview. Sept./Oct., 2004 

4 



Robbins, Ellen. "Reminiscences of a Flower Painter." New England Magazine. July 1896: 532. 

Sargent, Charles Sprague. "Old-Fashioned Gardens." Garden and Forest. July 1895: 281-82 . 

Schenker, Heath M. & Ouellete, Suzanne C. "The Garden As Women ' s Place: Celia Thaxter and 
Mariana van Rensselaer." Proceedings ofthe 'Gendered Landscapes; An Interdisciplinary Exploration of 
Past Place and Space' Conference. State College, PA.: Pennsylvania State University, 2000. 

Scott, Frank J. The Art of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds of Small Extent. New York: John B. 
Alden, 1886. 

Shurtleff, Arthur A. "Some Old New England Flower Gardens." ,\few England Magazine. 21 Dec. 1899: 
422-24. 

Sitwell, Sacheverell. Old Fashioned Flowers. London: Country Life Limited, 1939. 

Smith, Joanna M. (nee Kingsbury). "Restoring a Flower Garden of 1893", or 
"The Identity and Source of Plants Celia Thaxter Grew in Her Garden." Honors paper, Colgate 
University, 1979. 

---. E-mail interviews. Sept.-Oct., 2004. 

Smith, Mary. Telephone and E-Mail interviews. Sept./Oct., 2004 . 

Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll. Disorderly Conduct: Visions ofGender in Victorian America. New York: 
Alfred A. Knopf, 1985. 

Sorelle, Eugene. "An Old Fashioned Garden and What Grows in It." Indoors and Out. Mar. 1907: 278-
80. 

Spain, Daphne. Gendered Spaces. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1992. 

Stephan, Sharon Paiva. One Woman's Work: The Visual Art of Celia Laighton Tha'Cter. Portsmouth, NH: 
Peter E. Randall Publisher, 200 I . 

Stuart, David. Gardening with Heirloom Plants. Pleasantville, NY: Reader' s Digest Assoc., 1997. 

Tabor, Grace. Old-fashioned Gardening: A History and a Reconstruction. New York: McBride, Nast & 
Co., 1913 . 

Tankard, Judith. "An Impressionist' s Garden: Celia Thaxter's Island Garden." Labyrinth 2 (1 992): 8-9. 

Taylor, Geoffrey . The Victorian Flower Garden. Essex: Anchor Press, 1952. 

Thaxter, Celia. Among the Isles of Shoals. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., 1897 . 

---. An Island Garden. Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1894, 1988. 
(facsimile reproduction with original Childe Hassam watercolor illustrations.) 

5 



--- . Letters ofCelia Thaxter Edited by Her Friends A.F. (Annie Fields) and R.L. (Rose Lamb). Boston: 
Houghton Mifflin, 1895 . 

Thaxter, Rosamond. Sandpiper: The Life and Letters of Celia Tha-.:ter. Hampton, NH : Peter E. Randall 
Publ., 1999. 

---. "My Grandmother's Garden on the Isles of Shoals." New Hampshire Profiles. April, I 989: 48ff. 

Thomas, H.H. Everybody's Flower Garden. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1916. 

Tice, Patricia M. Gardening in America, 1830-1910. Rochester, NY: The Strong Museum, 1984. 

Todisco, Patrice. "By Pen and Spade." Hortus: A Gardening Journal. Summer, 1990: 34-44. 

Turner, R.G., Jr., and Ernie Wasson, eds. Botanica. New York: Random House Australia, 1997. 

Vallier, Jane E . Poet on Demand: The Life, Letters, and Works of Celia Thaxter. Portsmouth, NH: Peter 
E. Randall Publisher, 1994. 

Vick, James, ed. "Flowers and Flower-beds." Vick 's Monthly Magazine. 1878, Feb.: 39-41 . 

"The Victorian Lady and Her Flowers;" American Heritage. Aug./Sep . 1978: 99-103 . 

Ward, Larry G., Raymond E. Grizzle, FrankL. Bub, Richard Langan, Gwynne Schnaittacher, and 
Jennifer A. Dijkstra. Site Description and Environmental Monitoring Report, Open Aquaculture 
Program, University of New Hampshire. 200 I . 
<http://www .ooa. unh .edu/environmental/technical_report/ chapter_ 4 .html> 

Westbrook, Perry D . " Celia Thaxter, Seeker of the Unattainable." Colby College Quarterly 6 ( 1964): 
500-12. 

Wheeler, Candace. Content in a Garden. " New York: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1902. 

White, Barbara A. " Legacy Profile: Celia Thaxter ( 1835-1894)." Legacy: A Journal ofAmerican Women 
Writers 7 (1990): 1. 

Williams, H.T. "Climbing Plants as Helps to Home Adornment." The Gardener 's Monthly. Dec. 1870: 
361-65 . 

2004 Varieties Listing for Celia Thaxter's Garden Restoration. Appledore Island, ME: Shoals Marine 
Laboratory, 2004. (Copi ed with permiss ion from the statT of the Shoals Marine Laboratory, Sept. , 2004) 

6