I think the great botanist Luther Burbank had it right when he wrote: “Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful: they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.” This is the time of year when the gardeners amongst us delight in planning, purchasing for, and planting their gardens. In eastern Nebraska the onions, spuds and peas were planted weeks ago and the daffodils are over until next spring. Vegetable and flower seedlings are on sale everywhere–markets, grocery stores, building supply stores, and nurseries. Nebraskans of earlier times loved gardening too, as photos of gardens and nurseries in
Nebraska Memories tell us. The color postcard above feaures 25 acres of gorgeous peonies abloom in the J.F. Rosenfield Peony Gardens in Omaha. Rosenfield had a farm near West Point, Nebraska, and bred many peonies, which he sold from his nursery.
Plumfield Nurseries in Fremont was in business for many years. In the photo on the left cannas are planted in front of the nursery wall.
A mass planting of cannas is the centerpiece of the photo on the right at Westfield Acres, home of Frank and Jessie Fowler of Fremont.
Gardening is also good for the mind, and several Lincoln schools had gardens that students worked in. The McKinley School was located at 230 S. 15th Street and the children are shown posing with hoes and trowels in this 1913 photo.
Visit Nebraska Memories to search for or browse through many more historical images digitized from photographs, negatives, postcards, maps, lantern slides, books and other materials.
Nebraska Memories is a cooperative project to digitize Nebraska-related historical and cultural heritage materials and make them available to researchers of all ages via the Internet. Nebraska Memories is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for information, or contact
Beth Goble, Historical Services Librarian, or
Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.
