The Southern Garden History Society is a group of enthusiasts and professionals that fosters and shares scholarly research about our historic gardens, cultural landscapes, and horticultural history through educational programs and publications. We celebrate the beauty and diversity of the South’s historic gardens and encourage their preservation and restoration so they may enrich the lives of others.
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From Texas to Maryland: Our Southern Garden Odyssey
Over the decades since our founding in 1982, SGHS members have visited scores of landscapes and gardens covering a wide expanse of the southern United States, ranging from Texas to Maryland, Florida to Kentucky and all in between. Some spots have been small and intimate, while others are recognized as internationally important. We are creating and populating a Gardens page as a means of recalling those gardens and their significance with those who joined in, as well as with Society members who were absent. As well, some gardens may be those not yet toured but which we hope very much to add to a future itinerary. An additional goal is that any visitor to our website, member or not, will find these verbal sketches, images, links, and book recommendations a welcome boost to their understanding of the richly vibrant garden history of the American South.
Eudora Welty House & Garden | Jackson, Mississippi
Eudora Welty’s National Historic Landmark home, though never an annual meeting feature, nonetheless has important SGHS connections. Many Society members got their initial introduction to the … Read More
SGHS Goodwood Museum & Gardens | Tallahassee, Florida
SGHS annual meetings often draw special attention to a particular person and/or place, as previously noted with the William Paca Garden in Annapolis. This certainly applied … Read More
Magnolia Winter 2024 | Vol. XXXVI, no. 4
The 1990s, in retrospect, can be considered the golden age of the “Restoring Southern Gardens and Landscapes” (RSGL) series of biennial conferences that were held at … Read More
William Paca House & Garden | Annapolis, Maryland
Certain gardens enjoy a particularly important place in the collective memory of the Southern Garden History Society, typically relating to repeated visits as well as to … Read More
Magnolia Summer 2024 (VOL XXXVI, No. 3)
From the earliest colonial times apples have been crucial to the diet of southerners, whether as cider, cooked up in solid versions, or just eaten as … Read More
Renewal Letter from Board President, Derek Wade
Dear Member, Summertime, summertime, summertime. One of the best times of year! Our springtime gardening work is done, new beds were designed and laid out, selections … Read More
More articles can be found in our ARCHIVES