Homestead
Gardeners to Educate and Inspire Gardening is local: what works in your garden may, or may not, work in ours. Successful gardeners persevere, continually applying collective garden wisdom to our horticultural endeavors. Fortunately, here in North Carolina we have deep reservoirs of gardening knowledge to draw upon. Two North Carolina women stand out: Elizabeth Lawrence and Nancy Goodwin. Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-1985) was the first woman to graduate from the Landscape Architecture program at State College, now known as North Carolina State University. A graduate of Duke University, Nancy Goodwin is the owner of Montrose, one of the premier gardens in our state.
Elizabeth Lawrence Elizabeth Lawrence was one of the first people to explore and write about Southern gardening. Publishing her first article in House & Garden when she was 32 years old, Lawrence went on to write six manuscripts, many articles for national publications and over 700 columns for the Charlotte Observer. In my favorite book, “Gardening for Love,” she introduces us to the agricultural market newsletters of the day. During the opening years of the last century, agricultural market newsletters connected farmers to each by providing a forum to advertise their livestock, seeds, tools, lands and labor. Their wives often placed notices for the garden seeds and plants they grew for their family. Subscribing to market newsletters across the South, including the “North 10 | July-August 2020
Carolina Agricultural Review,” Lawrence was a frequent customer for the woodland plants grown by a handful of ladies in Watauga County. A dedicated correspondent, Elizabeth Lawrence would exchange detailed letters with the ladies selling their plants. Growing tips and progress reports Elizabeth Lawrence was the first woman to graduate from the Landscape went up and down the Architecture program at State College, now known as North Carolina State mountain, along with University. Photo courtesy The Garden Conservancy updates on the weather and other rhythms of life. Nancy Goodwin “Gardening for Love” was built upon the correspondence between Lawrence and In the world of horticulture, Nancy the growers she worked with. Beyond this Goodwin is a living legend. She has crehorticultural exchange, I enjoy the peek ated a magnificent garden at Montrose into mountain life in the 1950s and 1960s. in historic Hillsborough, a garden that In 1948 Lawrence moved from Raleigh will live in posterity for North Carolinians to Charlotte, where she purchased a through the establishment of the Monhouse in the city on one-third of an acre. trose Foundation. Turning her yard into a “living laboratoIn the late 1970s, Craufurd and Nancy ry,” she was constantly observing those Goodwin moved to Montrose, an estate plants that did well and those that did originally owned by North Carolina not survive. This information became the Governor William A. Graham and his basis for much of her writing. descendants. Hillsborough’s wonderful In 2008, the Wing Haven Foundation soil attracted Nancy, an ardent gardener, purchased her home, which is now recwhile the house was large enough to hold ognized as a local historic landmark. It is their vast collection of Bloomsbury art. also part of the Smithsonian Institution’s For 10 years, 1984-94, she ran a nursery “Archives of American Gardens” along at Montrose, a nursery that old-time garwith being a “Preservation Partner” of the deners still talk about because she carried Garden Conservancy. The Wing Haven rarely seen plants in her catalogue. Along Foundation is looking forward to reopenthe way, she added her plant introducing the garden for events in the future. tions, such as Heuchera ‘Montrose Ruby’ that is still a popular plant in nurseries toaawmag.com
