When Susan Groag Bell, the distinguished feminist scholar at Stanford, died in 2015 she left a brief outline for a book with this title which her friend Peter Stansky, professor of history at Stanford, found in her papers. He immediately thought that Judith would be the person to flesh it out and complete the book. Judith has incorporated all Susan’s remaining notes into this book and added several additional chapters to illuminate the topic further. There is a chapter on women as flower breeders, the first of its kind as well one on women as landscape architects and some women writers’ use of gardens almost as characters in their books.

During this journey to modern times women gave up their ancient role as the family doctor, using herbs and plants from their gardens. Judith shows how this type of medicine was taken our of their hands even though one or two important medical discoveries were made by untutored women."

The Cover Picture

The famous early twentieth century artist Childe Hassam painted Celia Thaxter’s garden in the Isles of Shoals off the Maine coast in 1896. Thaxter was a noted poet in her day. She ran an hotel on Appledore Island and planted many flowers to decorate the hotel's rooms. Writers and artists spent their summers at the resort.