Leading off this issue is a detailed look at the Society’s 2026 Williamsburg, Virginia, annual meeting by Eric Jackson, board member and director of horticulture at Old Salem Museum and Gardens. It reminds readers of the meeting’s speakers and their topics; of the many garden sites visited in the colonial town; of the places experienced during the Sunday tours; and above all of the warm camaraderie enjoyed by Society members. We also are reminded in this Magnolia of the recent high recognition bestowed on two outstanding members and past presidents. You will read that Staci Catron, the Cherokee Garden Library’s senior director, was named an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, while Dean Norton, director of horticulture and livestock emeritus at Mount Vernon, has become an honorary member of the Garden Club of America. Reviews by Ken McFarland and Jessica Russell Hilton respectively examine Grave Landscapes: The Nineteenth-Century Rural Cemetery Movement, by James Cothran and Erica Danylchak, and Southern Women, Southern Landscapes: Cultural Reflections on the Garden, 1870-1970 by Judith W. Page and Elise L. Smith. Readers also find a short introduction to our Magnolia co-editor Peggy Cornett’s new study Thomas Jefferson’s Flowers: Historic Gardens at Monticello, a book to be reviewed in depth in the next issue. We also learn a bit about Jefferson’s Scottish gardener in a short article about our overseas sister group, Scotland’s Garden and Landscape Heritage. Finally, the Spring issue closes by noting the April 2026 death of Pearl Fryar, whose famed topiary garden was visited in 2009 in conjunction with the Camden, South Carolina, annual meeting.
View the Magnolia, Spring 2026 | Vol. XXXVII, no. 4.
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