19th CENTURY GARDENS: Recalling tactics of a bygone era
August 17, 2024
By Victoria County Master Gardener Betty Tovar
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY BETTY TOVAR/VICTORIA COUNTY MASTER GARDENER – Grandmother’s Flower Garden, La Grange, Texas
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY BETTY TOVAR/VICTORIA COUNTY MASTER GARDENER
In this Bicentennial year of Victoria, we have read some great Gardeners’ Dirt articles pertaining to life and gardening in the 19th Century. In this article, I may repeat some subjects already mentioned in previous articles, but I feel it is necessary in establishing a timeline of the 19th century. Many events and happenings in Texas as it evolved to modern times, affected not only everyday life, but also gardening.
Timeline: 1824-1850:
Looking back to the early 1800’s, settlers in Victoria and the surrounding areas would have relied on small kitchen gardens for survival, sometimes located right outside their front door, making it more convenient to maintain and harvest. These gardens contained vegetables and herbs, the main culinary essentials for feeding their families and for medicinal and other purposes. Fruit trees also were grown. Gardens focused more on practicality and less on flowers.
As immigrants began arriving from European countries, they brought seeds from their home countries, along with all their other possessions. The seeds they planted and grew would certainly have helped to remind them of the home they left behind.
1850-1900:
In the mid 1800’s things gradually began to change as towns and villages grew. Colorful flower gardens became a trend along with cottage gardens. Yards that were previously little more than dirt, were replaced with lawns.
Vegetable gardens once by the front door, moved to the back or side yard. Seeds became commercially available from local general stores or by mail from catalogues. Neighbors shared seeds and cuttings from their favorite plants with their fellow neighbors.
Sometime during the Civil War period, Archduke Charles, a beautiful pink and red rose, was introduced to Victoria by Captain Laurent Jessell. He bought land in Victoria, now known as the Jessel Addition, and Laurent Street is believed to have been named after him.
According to The Victoria Sesquicentennial “Scrapbook” 1824–1974, it is said that he gave cuttings of this rose to Mrs. William Wheeler and her neighbors. As a result, Victoria in later years, was coined as the “City of Roses.”
This rose has thrived to the present day by the sharing and propagation of cuttings. You still be find the Archduke Charles rose in some of the gardens in beautiful downtown Victoria.
In 1872, Victoria’s Horticulturist and pioneer nurseryman, Gilbert Onderdonk, published his first catalogue of plants available at his nursery in Mission Valley. Later in 1883 he extended his plant business to the town of Nursery, aptly named, which he helped to establish. The railroad there helped him to ship out large volumes of plants and trees.
Just 74 miles north of Victoria, in downtown La Grange, you will find the Texas Quilt Museum. Adjacent to the old historic building which houses the museum, is a gate and sign that welcomes you into “Grandmother’s Flower Garden.”
Within the fenced area markers give you information about the garden and how it is set out in a design that suggests several old quilt patterns. In the center of the Garden is a sundial, a feature used in ancient times for telling time.
One of the markers in the garden reads, “…the garden was planned to be typical of “town gardens” found in Fayette County and surrounding Central Texas areas. It contains flowers, shrubs, and trees that might have been in a garden of that period or later cultivars.” It is worth visiting this free garden and be sure to check out the museum.
All in all, one can certainly say that the 19th Century was a time of considerable change in home gardening.
The Gardeners’ Dirt is written by members of the Victoria County Master Gardener Association, an educational outreach of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension – Victoria County. This article appeared in The Victoria Advocate on August 17, 2024
MORE INFORMATION
Partial list of plants in “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” in La Grange. For a full list go to texasquiltmuseum.org/garden
Perennials:
- Eastern Red Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
- Fall Aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium)
- Cape Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata)
- Dianthus (Dianthus)
- Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
- Lamb’s Ear (Stachys byzantine)
Seasonal Warm and Cool Annuals:
- Angelonia (Angelonia angustifolia)
- Blue Daze (Evolvulus glomeratus)
- Bachelor Button (Centaurea cyanus)
- Penta (Pentas lanceolata)
- Mealy cup Sage (Salvia farinacea)
- Verbena (Verbena)
- Lobelia (Lobelia)
- Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima)
- Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis)
- Stock (Matthiola)
- Viola (Viola)
- Johnny Jump-up (Viola tricolor)
REFERENCES
AN AMERICAN TIMELINE: Home Gardening in the U. S. from Garden Tech
Hammond, Terry, Historic Victoria. Historical Publishing Network. 1999. Page 31
Meridith, Cindy, Early Texas Homestead Gardens. Cindy Meredith Publisher. 2016. Preface
The Victoria Sesquicentennial, Inc., The Victoria Sesquicentennial “Scrapbook” 1824 – 1974, Advocate Printing, Inc., Victoria, Texas. 1974. Pages 31 and 73