Garden themed items
Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden Plant Indentification Booklet
PDF format History Books - free download
Garden Plant Photo Identification Booklet- $28.95
A request from long ago fulfilled.
Garden Curator Martha Crone wrote in January 1954: For a long time there has been a demand for a non-technical wild flower book containing practically all the most prominent wild flowers of this area, illustrated in color. A book is needed that will prove a pleasant and helpful companion and have a sufficiently simple method of determining the native wild flowers. There is a strong conviction that since wild flowers are a very important part of our wild life heritage such a book should be planned in the near future. Does anyone have an idea to offer?
Enlarged Third Edition
More pages, more photos, more plants. Spiral bound booklet, 8-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches, 264 pages, 1,949 thumbnail photos of 678 species of wildflowers and small shrubs, 35 species of ferns, and 74 species of trees of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden - plants contemporary and historical to the Garden. All plants are native or introduced to Minnesota and most can be found outside the Garden in Minnesota and in the northern states in the eastern half of the U.S. Additional images of many plants are provided with ID notes to aid in identification. Photos are approximately 1-1/2 inches wide by 2 inches high.
Plants are separated into flower color sections, then arranged by scientific name within certain flower styles. Trees are arranged by leaf type. Key information includes common name, alternate common name, Eloise Butler Garden habitat where found, introduction date to the Garden, native or nor-native status, season of bloom, rarity in Minnesota, plus short descriptive notes with photos to aid in identification.
PDF file of book index listing all plants with photos in the book.
In addition grasses and sedges of the Garden are line listed without photos; glossary of terms used in the booklet, and full index by common and scientific names provided. There are information pages about the Garden, it's history, the curators, what is seen each month of the season, and about The Friends of the Wildflower Garden.
Shipping to U.S. addresses only. Elsewhere, please inquire about the mailing cost as it is expensive.
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Notice: The Friends of the Wildflower Garden are solely responsible for the contents of this book.
Click on an image for a larger copy.
Below: An example from the booklet, showing the type of descriptive photos. The information line under the common name gives the codes for Garden location, introduction date, native status and bloom time.
Some comments about the book:
MN: I love the book and will cherish it for many years to come.
NH: What a terrific collection of photos. I’m sure this guide will be a great compliment to other guides I have.
OH: Really appreciate the attention given to leaves, phyllaries and fruiting bodies.
The Wild Gardener Book
Our original printing of this book is now SOLD OUT
The Wild Gardener is the biography and selected writings of a very special woman, Eloise Butler (1851-1933). During a time when science and career did not mix well with marriage, Eloise chose science and taught in Minneapolis when it was little more than a mill town. As a botanist, she suffered seeing wild places disappear beneath city streets and watched delicate wild plants become increasingly scarce. She helped establish in 1907 a protected place for wild plants, a Wild Botanic Garden, and lovingly gathered delicate wild beauties, nurturing them to grow in the garden’s few acres. Elusive and rare, the showy lady’s slipper still flourishes there. The efforts of this determined, persevering botanist have, years later, provided Minnesotans with a treasure wild place in the midst of vast urban expansion.
This soft cover book has numerous black/white photos as well as illustrations of native plants, which contribute toward making this book an excellent addition to a personal library. The book was a Minnesota Book Award winner in 1993. The author, Martha Hellander, is a graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Law. From 1985-1990 she and her family lived near the Wild Botanic Garden, now named the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary, the oldest public wildflower garden in the United States.
Published by North Star Press, 1992. ISBN: 0-87839-064-2; original printing.
In lieu of the now sold-out book
Two downloadable pdf files about Eloise Butler provide life and career details about her tenure as Curator of the Wildflower Garden. Details of all three are on this page.