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Out of the notable interests in Mrs. Mellon’s life, the one that exceeded all others was her love and appreciation for plants. This is of course most embodied in her personal gardens which are a culmination of her ever-evolving design influence and style. This love was also reflected in other aspects such as the touches in her home at Oak Spring and in the collections of her library. In honor of our founder, Rachel “Bunny” Lambert Mellon, this blog we touch on an equally enduring legacy of botanical illustrator Margaret Stones.
The Oak Spring Garden Library holds books from vast parts of the globe. You can take a tour of the flora of Australia, China, Brazil and more. There are other volumes that take the focus to a more local scale, like Wildflowers of Georgetown. This work highlights the spring plants found in Georgetown, DC; some of which are in flower right now across the region. Read below to learn more about this latest digital introduction and to hear from our Head of Biodiversity Conservation on why it’s a gem of a resource.
One woman who was instrumental in the shift towards ecologically accurate illustrations was Maria Sibylla Merian. Born on this day in 1647, Merian created striking works and is regarded as the first ecologist of Europe. Learn more about her work and to watch a video by Merian scholar Dr. Kay Etheridge.
If the Brontë sisters are celebrity siblings of the writing world, then sisters Elizabeth and Margaret Wharton are the unsung stars from the “golden age” of botanical illustration. In honor of Women’s History month we are highlighting two sisters, whose works underscore the importance of women’s place in the formation of botany and scientific illustration. Read on to learn about their contributions and to view these women’s works in full as part of our ongoing digitization project.
The western hemisphere is currently in the final stages of fall– trees in the landscape have reached dormancy and much of the garden has been tucked away for winter. On the other side of the globe, countries in the southern hemisphere are awaiting the arrival of summer and with it a beautiful array of flowers. Read on to take a botanical tour through the plants of the Southern Hemisphere without ever having to set foot in an airport.
Born today in 1803, Marianne North spent her life dedicating herself to the pursuit of seeing and painting plants in faraway places. These paintings were done in non-traditional methods by Victorian standards but left a colorful lasting legacy at Kew Gardens. In our latest blog post read about Marianne’s travels and see some of her vibrant paintings.
Mary Vaux Walcott was a botanist, glaciologist, and outdoorswoman who created close to 1,000 botanical sketches and illustrations in her lifetime. The Smithsonian published nearly 400 of her illustrations, all of which were done in the rugged landscape of the Canadian Alps.
To celebrate the opening of “Orchids: Attraction and Deception” at the Barry Art Museum, we wrote about several fascinating orchids species that are featured in the illustrations we loaned to the exhibition.
June is the month of roses, a plant that has been entangled in human history and culture for millennia. Read several facts about the fascinating flower, and about the roses we grow in the Oak Spring Formal Garden.
The Oak Spring Garden Foundation is thrilled to introduce Fantastic Flora, a new digital educational exhibit that blends art, culture, history, and science to explore the fantastic ways that plants flourish in their environments. Read on to learn more!
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we are listing ten of the sexiest plants we could think of. Some are easily recognizable symbols of modern love, some a little more obscure, and some are sexy only to their pollinators, but we think they all have a certain allure. Read the blog to learn more!
To celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we’re highlighting several historical women represented in OSGF’s library and online exhibitions whose work centered around plants - some who received more recognition than others during their lifetimes, but all inspiring
