Frances Edge McIlvaine
Spring in the Little Garden
“It is the heavenly season, every growing thing on our plant has its moment of beauty.”
This is how Frances Edge McIlvaine, our latest Lost Lady of Garden Writing, describes spring in one of the chapters of her book, Spring in the Little Garden (1928), a book in the Little Garden series edited by Mrs. Francis King.
In the intro to Spring in the Little Garden, Mrs. Francis King wrote,
“And fortunate are we who now have a book on spring gardening unlike any other here or abroad; quite unlike most American garden books thus far in its mellow quality, born of long holding and use and in its gayety, born of the philosophic humor of Miss McIlvaine herself.”
Who was this Miss McIlvaine with philosophic humor?
I knew, of course, that she’d written Spring in the Little Garden, because I have the book in my library. Otherwise, I’m not sure if our paths would have crossed. But they did cross so out to the internet I went to find out more about her.
Her Biography
The Find a Grave website shows a rather plain grave marker and gave me Frances’s birthdate of July 24, 1878, and the date of her death, November 24, 1964, at the age of 86.
Using Ancestry. com, I discovered that Frances was the oldest child, and only daughter, of a well-to-do family Philadelphia family that included three younger brothers. Her father was at various times listed as a manufacturer, drug manufacturer, or wholesale merchant of drugs.
They spent the winters at their home on Baring Street in Philadelphia, PA. The census stats for the years they were there show they always had a couple of servants living with them, sometimes as many as four or five. A listing for the property shows that in 1950, it became the “Geiser Convalescent Home”and appears to still be a multi-resident dwelling of some kind.
The McIlvaine family spent their summers at their farm called Glen Isle in Downington, PA, where Frances did most of her gardening. Today there is a restaurant there called The Orangery at Glen Isle. I hope they are working on restoring the gardens which she kept along with her father, with input from her brother, an architect.
Some other interesting information I found indicates that “Glen Isle Farm” was once a stop on the Underground Railroad. I assume this is the same place where Frances lived and gardened in the summers, but don’t know that for certain.
Her Writings
In addition to writing Spring in the Little Garden, which I think is the only book she wrote, Frances wrote many articles for various publications in the 1910s and 1920s. Many of them are only available in the “snippet” view on the Google Book site, so I couldn’t read them completely.
I did pull out a couple of quotes that give us some insight into Frances.
There is this little tidbit from a Bulletin of Foreign Plant Introductions:
“Miss Frances Edge McIlvaine, Glen Isle Farm, Downington, Pa., writes August 12 1921: Iris ensata S.P.I. No. 40766 sent me in February, 1918, from Chico, Calif., has now grown into a good sized clump. Its leaves have attained a length of some 2 to 2 1/2 feet. Its flowers are very small, a pale blue, but so fugacious one has to be out very early to see them. The introducer’s note said : “The long grasslike leaves are very strong and fibrous and may be used in the garden for tying purposes instead of raffia.” This could not be tested until this season. I am happy to say, however, that it is quite true. And in another year’s time it may become one of the most important plants in my working garden. I tied the strong stalks of dahlias this June using the ribbonlike leaves of the Iris, wrapping them twice around the dahlia stalk and around a 3 inch stake. It has dried and held perfectly. This will be a great labor-saver, as one could plant it about a garden at convenient intervals and have at hand a perennial source of tying material which is always urgently needed .”
If you are growing Japanese irises in your garden, now you know you have a ready source of material for tying up other plants. (When I first wrote about Frances, it was late spring, and I had some Japanese irises growing. I tried using the grass-like leaves to tie up some other plants, and yes, it worked.
The article also tells us that Frances was a gardener who liked to try new plants. What gardener doesn’t?
In another piece written for The Flower Grower – March 21, Frances wrote about using farmerettes to help around the farm garden during World War I. Naturally, you’ll want to head down yet another rabbit hole to read about farmerettes, but stay here and visit with Frances just a while longer.
Like many of the other authors of books in The Little Garden Series, Frances was a member of The Garden Club of America. Her local garden club was The Weeders Garden Club of Downington, PA. She was also once the chairman of the “Exhibition of Herbals and Early Botanical Works 1472-1850,” an exhibit collected and arranged in honor of the annual meeting of The Garden Club of America, May 1929.
I’ve also learned that Frances’s favorite flower was most likely primroses. She devoted one of the ten chapters in her book to “The Primula Family – Some Spring Species.” At one point in my research I think I saw where they sold hardy primulas at Glen Isle.
Missing Pieces
I feel like I barely scratched the surface when it comes to Frances Edge McIlvaine. I don’t know where she went to school or church. I don’t know why she never married and where she lived as an adult in her final years. But that’s sometimes how it is.
Another piece of information I was looking for but never found was a picture of Frances. I came up empty-handed in my deep dives down through the internet looking for one. So unless a reader finds one, we’ll just have to imagine what she looked like when she wrote her book at the age of 50.
And I’ll leave you with that tidbit—that Frances was 50 when she wrote her book— in case you are reaching that age— to inspire you and remind you that you really aren’t that old.
And one more quote.
“Gardeners can never mourn for long. Too much is in the future, one lives in expectation, and if the reality attained disappoints, or if Nature fails you, do it all over again for next year, when the weather may be kinder.”
I had to look up fugacious. David Culp, author of two garden books himself, also lives in Downington, PA. I have visited his garden twice, and the area is no longer very rural.