Every garden has a story to tell. The 2026 PHS Philadelphia Flower Show theme, Rooted: Origins of American Gardening, invites visitors to explore how our horticultural heritage took shape and how those legacies continue to grow today. 

The PHS McLean Library has curated a selection of books that illuminate the histories, cultures, and personal narratives behind American gardens. Whether you’re preparing for your visit or want to dig deeper afterward, this reading guide will help you follow the roots of our gardening traditions across centuries and continents. 

All of the books featured in this guide are available to PHS Members through the PHS McLean Library, offering an opportunity to continue your exploration beyond the Flower Show.

Philadelphia: The Cradle of American Gardening 

Long before Philadelphia was a metropolis, it was imagined as a “Greene Countrie Towne,” a city where gardens and public green spaces were essential civic infrastructure. Many of America’s most influential horticultural ideas sprouted here. 

Bartram’s Legacy 

Few families shaped early American botany like the Bartrams. Their Philadelphia garden became a hub of plant exchange, scientific study, and transatlantic discovery. 

• The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire, and the Birth of an Obsession — Andrea Wulf 

• America’s Curious Botanist: A Tercentennial Reappraisal of John Bartram, 1699–1777 — eds. Nancy E. Hoffmann & John C. Van Horne 

America’s First Green City 

Exploring William Penn’s “Greene Countrie Towne” vision and how Philadelphia’s early layout prioritized gardens, trees, and public green spaces. 

• The Grid and the River: Philadelphia’s Green Places, 1682–1876 — Elizabeth Milroy 

Inside the Colonial Garden: Utility, Beauty, Survival 

Early American gardens blended necessity and creativity. Many plants we still grow today, including herbs, vegetables, and ornamentals, were once life-sustaining staples or precious medicinal plants. 

• American Household Botany: A History of Useful Plants, 1620–1900 — Judith Sumner 
• Flowers and Herbs of Early America — Lawrence D. Griffith & Barbara Temple Lombardi 

• Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way — Wesley Greene 

The Founding Gardeners: Politics in the Flowerbeds 

Philadelphia was not just the birthplace of American democracy; it was also where the nation’s early political leaders nurtured profound gardening passions. Jefferson, Washington, and other founders shared seeds, swapped horticultural experiments, and viewed gardening as an extension of their philosophies about the new nation. 

• Founding Gardeners — Andrea Wulf 
• “A Rich Spot of Earth”: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello — Peter J. Hatch 

• Groundbreaking Food Gardens — Niki Jabbour (includes a Founding Fathers garden plan) 

Gardens of Memory, Identity & Culture 

Though American gardening often begins with colonial narratives, its roots stretch much further across oceans, diasporas, and generations. The books below highlight the rich cultural traditions that shaped what grows in American soil today. 

Immigrant Garden Traditions 

Gardens often serve as bridges to homeland through foods, techniques, and plant stories passed down in families. 

• The Chinese Kitchen Garden — Wendy Kiang-Spray 

• Groundbreaking Food Gardens — Niki Jabbour (Asian vegetable garden plans) 

Heirloom Seeds, Shared Roots 

Heirloom plants are living archives kept alive by families and communities who save seed as a way of preserving history.  

• Heirloom Vegetable Gardening — William Woys Weaver et al. 

• 100 Old Roses for the American Garden — Clair G. Martin 

Gardening as Resistance 

Across history, gardens have been tools of survival, protest, healing, and empowerment, from wartime plots to civil rights–era community gardens. 

• Defiant Gardens — Kenneth I. Helphand 
• War Gardens — Lalage Snow 
• Gardening When It Counts — Steve Solomon 
• Kitchen Gardening in America — David M. Tucker 

• Groundbreaking Food Gardens — Niki Jabbour (WWII Victory Garden plan) 

The Grandparent Plot 

Many gardeners begin with a memory, such as a grandmother’s tomatoes or a grandfather’s roses. This theme honors the emotional landscapes of personal heritage. 

• Grandma’s Garden — Laura Martin 

Indigenous, Diasporic & Global Gardening Traditions 

The roots of American horticulture also include sophisticated agricultural systems and foodways brought by Indigenous communities and global diasporas. 

Three Sisters Planting (Indigenous Agriculture) 

The interplanting of corn, beans, and squash is a sophisticated Indigenous system passed down for centuries. 

• Remarkable Plants That Shape Our World — Helen & W.F. Bynum 

• Native American Gardening — Michael J. Caduto & Joseph Bruchac 

African Diaspora & Seed Stewardship 

Enslaved Africans carried seeds (okra, black-eyed peas, rice) in small cloth bundles across the Atlantic, reshaping Southern agriculture and American cuisine. 

• In the Shadow of Slavery — Judith Carney & Richard Rosomoff 

• Black Food — ed. Bryant Terry 

Japanese Pruning Arts 

Bonsai, niwaki, and garden minimalism reflect a cultural philosophy of restraint, balance, and generational mastery. 

• Cutting Back — Leslie Buck 

• Niwaki — Jake Hobson 

Chinese Scholar Gardens 

These gardens combine symbolic plants, poetic gestures, and carefully framed views to create spaces for reflection. 

• The History of Landscape Design in 100 Gardens — Linda A. Chisholm & Michael D. Garber 

• Landscape Design in Chinese Gardens — Frances Ya-sing Tsu 

Italian Kitchen Gardens 

Blending function and beauty, Italian heritage gardens celebrate food, family, and culture through seasonality and abundance. 

• Groundbreaking Food Gardens — Niki Jabbour (Italian heritage garden plans) 

Keep Exploring 

To delve deeper into heirloom plants, seed-saving, and historical gardening traditions, visit the McLean Library’s online subject guide: Heirloom Plants and Seeds.