Colour in My Garden

This charming and lovely limited first edition (number 748 of 1500 numbered copies) is considered a classic in the field. Louise Beebe Wilder, an important figure in American gardening history, was greatly influenced by renowned British gardener Gertrude Jekyll. Wilder’s description of plants and her designs and artistry are still relevant to today's gardeners. Wilder writes about the seasons during one year in her garden at Balderbrae in Pomona, New York, which she and her husband purchased in 1910. The book is illustrated throughout with color plates painted by Anna Winegar, the author‘s friend and neighbor. Created within the same year, the illustrations are numbered, and the corresponding plate numbers can be found on an etching of the entire garden and house at the beginning of the book. Wilder was one of the first horticultural writers to discuss viewing plants in the moonlight and to consider gray as a garden colour. Plate no. 21 shows the "transfiguring light of the Lady Moon…pink Phlox Peach-blow, the long grasslike leaves of Lyme Grass, and across the path the strong foliage of Iris." In 1980, the property was bought by designer and architect David Easton, who was an admirer of Wilder. He restored both the house and garden, and later sold it in 2012.