Eloise Butler wrote an article for the Minnesota Horticulturalist on the cultivation of native ornamental plants. In past writings she had expressed her opinions on the use of native plants in the home landscape and wrote about the tendency of home owners to copy what other home owners had done. This article was sort of a summary of past opinions. A sample:
“Avoid, above all, imported plants of unusual color, like the copper beech and the weeping trees, or plants trimmed into formal or fantastic shapes. In general, native species should be used, for plants torn from their natural setting may strike a false note in the landscape. There are many plants just as effective as the cultivated canna, castor bean, crimson rambler, fall hydrangea, golden glow, admirable in themselves, that now pall upon the taste by reason of monotonous reiteration.” (Note 1)

One can see how this particular opinion came directly from an article published the year before in the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune in which she wrote:

“Why, for instance, because a neighbor has a beautiful plant on his premises should every one in the vicinity straightway fill his grounds with the same in monotonous reiteration? Among the hosts of ornamental plants may not something else be selected besides hydrangea, scarlet rambler, canna and golden glow to prevent satiety? If a plant is ‘all the rage’, it is the very best reason why one should fall out of line and imitate nature in her endless variety.” (Note 2).

In the climate department one looks back on the prior year, 1911, the wettest year in local weather history down to the present day, which was preceded by the driest year in local weather history, and wonders what the new year will bring. There were enough snowfalls to keep a snow cover on the ground from late December 1911 through mid February 1912. After that there were few snowfalls on any significance and there was no snow cover after mid-March. The cold however was another aspect - a number of days in January with lows below -30 degrees F.

The Garden came into the new year with adequate snow cover for the plants and this was followed by regular snowfalls in the first three months of the year. Significant snowfalls included one of over five inches at the end of March and one over 3 inches at the beginning of April. Snow depth increased as the winter days waned with up to 13” of snow depth in mid February. Unlike the previous year, the temperatures were not extremely cold in January and February and there was a spike up into the ‘50s in early March.

When Curator Martha Crone went to the Garden on the normal opening day of April 1st, she found “Deep snow and ice in sheltered places. Birds lacking.”

Martha was active in the Minnesota Mycological Society. She maintained her membership until at least 1977. She was Secretary of the Society from 1926 until 1943. Her husband, Dr. Wm. Crone was vice president of the Society this year.

On Dec. 31, 1936 the Crones had completed the purchase of property at Cedar Creek Bog and would spend time in 1937 planning the building of a cabin on the property.

Ken Avery begins his forth year as Garden Curator.

Temperatures in the first three months of 1962 were abnormally cold with the majority of the days below average - in early March by as much as 40 degrees below average. Even then, there were consistent small snowfalls but after mid-February the snow machine in the sky really turned on. There were numerous snowfalls of five inches or more and in late March the snow depth was over 26 inches. This weather continued into mid-April and Ken Avery reported that it was the first spring he had to close the Garden because of the weather. (Note 3)

Martha Crone is editor of the Friends newsletter, The Fringed Gentian™. In the January 1962 issue, reflecting on the January moon - the Snow Moon - she writes “January is a period of quiet and repose. Nature is only sleeping, since its work is done for the present, while we enjoy a cherry fire of logs during the long nights. February’s cold often sinks to a low level in this area staying there for long spells adding a fresh sparkle to the earth’s blanket of snow. Yet before long its winter into spring, especially if we think of the quotation by Coleridge" -

And Winter, slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!

She also included articles on the Poinsettia, Herring Gulls, Amaryllis, turnips and reviewed two books - Edwin Way Teale’s “North with the Spring” (still available) and “Wild Flowers” by Homer D. House. As Martha was quite fond of mushrooms, her mushroom article debunked the notion that you can test for a poisonous mushroom by seeing if it will tarnish a silver spoon. Actually, she writes, it is the sulfur in mushrooms that tarnishes and some of the most deadly contain less sulfur than the edible ones. The entire issue is accessed via this pdf file (Winter 1962, Vol. 10 #1).

The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden held their annual meeting on March 13th at the Walker Art Center, 1710 Lyndale Ave. So., Minneapolis. Officers elected were: Walter E. Lehnert, President; Mrs. Clarence Tolg, Vice-President; Mrs. Martha Crone, Secretary-Treasurer.

Elected Board members were: Kenneth Avery, Mrs. Carroll Binder, Mrs. Bernard Bowron, Mrs. Donald Bridgman, Russell H. Bennett, Earle Brown, Miss Marion Cross, Elizabeth Carpenter, Martha Crone, Whitney Eastman, Lloyd Hale, Walter Lehnert, Alice Martin, Leonard Odell, Leonard Ramberg, Carl Rawson, Mrs. Robert Strange and Mrs. Clarence Tolg.

Membership was reported to be 165, with 19 having been added during the past year. A $500 donation was voted on to go to the Park Board for Garden maintenance.

This is the first year with Gardener Cary George in charge of the Garden. Significantly, 1987 was also the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Wildflower Garden.

At the end of 1986, Gardener Ken Avery retired after 27 years as the person in charge of caring for the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden. He had succeeded Martha Crone upon her retirement at the end of 1959 and she had succeeded Eloise Butler upon the death of Eloise. Thus Cary George became only the 4th person in the succession of caretakers of the Garden. Cary had already spent 10 years working in horticulture with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, principally growing flowers and plants in the Park System greenhouses - plants that would be used for spring planting in the Minneapolis Parks.

During the closed season of the Garden, the Burgess Fountain was installed inside the Garden’s front gate. The fountain was funded in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Gerald H. Burgess by their sons. Outside the Garden area, Highway 12 was being re-constructed into what became I-394. There would be detrimental effects from construction on the ground water flow to the springs around the Garden. The tamarack bog west of the Garden was being renovated. During the winter a dense growth of buckthorn was removed in preparation for providing better walking access to that area.

1987 would become the second warmest year in local weather history. The first three months of the year began that way. Almost every day, temperatures were above average and snowfall was scant. There was rarely any snow cover on the ground and the spring plant bloom would be quite early.

The months of November to February were the mildest in local weather history - by more than 2 degrees. From January through late February there were only three days where the temperature was not above the average. There were a number of snowfalls, but they were very light and only in March when the temperatures became more normal did any significant snowfall occur.

Park Board Operations Director and Friends board member Jeff Lee reported that during the period that the Garden was seasonally closed, the rebuilding of the path from the Martha Crone Visitors Shelter to the bog path was completed. The Friends had funded the materials. The work was done by Tree Trust. (See Autumn 2001 History) Also, all the deer that had been in the Garden the prior year were removed and at the Park Board’s Environmental workday the previous October, a lot of buckthorn was removed.

This year would be the 50th anniversary of the founding of The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden. A 50th anniversary committee had been formed in late 2001 and they had met several times prior to a board meeting of the Friends held on January 14th. There would be several main events that would mark the Anniversary: A public celebration would be held at the Garden on Mother’s Day, May 12 and a memory book would be compiled for a history of the first 50 years.

At the Board meeting there was discussion on the purpose of The Friends and it was confirmed that their mission was one of providing education and information about the Garden, and also one of support for the Garden in both a financial and promotional way.

In that light it was decided that as a major 50th anniversary project, The Friends would fund replacing 210 feet of chain-link fence at the back gate of the Garden with wrought iron fencing similar to that at the front gate in order to make the back gate area more esthetically pleasing. This work would cost about $16,000 and a major fund raising effort was needed to accomplish this major project.

Discussion was also taking place on a suitable project in remembrance of the Garden’s third curator, Ken Avery. It would be 2005 before the project was completed.

In The Friends newsletter, The Fringed Gentian™, Friends president Steve Pundt revisited the history of Friends founder Clinton Odell and his relationship with the Garden, in an article titled Story of the ‘First Friend’. Reprinted, was an essay by Clinton Odell about his vision for the Garden. (Text). Gardener Cary George contributed an article on Evergreens for Future Generations. Nine of the 15 conifers native to Minnesota were represented in the Garden at that time and Cary reviewed their status. MPRB Naturalist Debbie Keyes wrote about Winter Botanizing and the Volunteer Spotlight was on Shirley Schultz, volunteer coordinator and Friends Board Member (photo at right). The entire issue is accessed via this pdf file (Winter 2002, Vol. 50 #1).