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.
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.
Few families shaped early American botany like the Bartrams. Their Philadelphia garden became a hub of plant exchange, scientific study, and transatlantic discovery.
America’s Curious Botanist: A Tercentennial Reappraisal of John Bartram, 1699–1777 — eds. Nancy E. Hoffmann & John C. Van Horne
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
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.
Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way — Wesley Greene
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.
Groundbreaking Food Gardens — Niki Jabbour (includes a Founding Fathers garden plan)
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.
Gardens often serve as bridges to homeland through foods, techniques, and plant stories passed down in families.
Groundbreaking Food Gardens — Niki Jabbour (Asian vegetable garden plans)
Heirloom plants are living archives kept alive by families and communities who save seed as a way of preserving history.
100 Old Roses for the American Garden — Clair G. Martin
Across history, gardens have been tools of survival, protest, healing, and empowerment, from wartime plots to civil rights–era community gardens.
Groundbreaking Food Gardens — Niki Jabbour (WWII Victory Garden plan)
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
The roots of American horticulture also include sophisticated agricultural systems and foodways brought by Indigenous communities and global diasporas.
The interplanting of corn, beans, and squash is a sophisticated Indigenous system passed down for centuries.
Native American Gardening — Michael J. Caduto & Joseph Bruchac
Enslaved Africans carried seeds (okra, black-eyed peas, rice) in small cloth bundles across the Atlantic, reshaping Southern agriculture and American cuisine.
Black Food — ed. Bryant Terry
Bonsai, niwaki, and garden minimalism reflect a cultural philosophy of restraint, balance, and generational mastery.
Niwaki — Jake Hobson
These gardens combine symbolic plants, poetic gestures, and carefully framed views to create spaces for reflection.
Landscape Design in Chinese Gardens — Frances Ya-sing Tsu
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)
To delve deeper into heirloom plants, seed-saving, and historical gardening traditions, visit the McLean Library’s online subject guide: Heirloom Plants and Seeds.
