Louisa Yeomans King

Louisa Boyd Yeomans was born on October 17, 1863 in Washington, New Jersey, the third of five children of Alfred and Elizabeth Blythe (Ramsay) Yeomans. Her father was a Presbyterian minister. She received secondary education from private schools in New Jersey and so far as is known did not go on to college. On June 28, 1890, she married a wealthy Chicago man, Francis King (1862–1927), and moved to Elmhurst, Illinois, near the home of Francis's parents. The couple had three children, Elizabeth, Henry W., and Frances. Francis's parents were Henry W. and Aurelia King. The senior Kings lived at an estate called Wilder Park, which they had inherited from wealthy businessman Seth Wadhams, who had originally named it White Birch. Louisa's mother-in-law was a skilled gardener, having cultivated 200 varieties of herbs, flowers, plants, and fruit trees, and her library was well-stocked with books on horticulture. Under the instruction and encouragement of the elder Mrs. King, Louisa King developed both an academic interest in the study of plants as well as a practical enjoyment of the hands-on work of gardening: amending soils, pruning, and controlling pests. ==Career==

In 1902, as a result of poor health, Francis King moved to a sanitarium in Alma, Michigan. The couple built a home called Orchard House, and Louisa King began to create gardens there, with the assistance of gardener Frank Ackney. Louisa King quickly rose to prominence as a lecturer, author, and organizer of garden clubs. Two years later, she was one of the cofounders and original vice-presidents of the Garden Club of America in Philadelphia (GCA), which had a substantial influence on how landscape architecture developed as a profession in subsequent decades. In 1914, she helped to found the Women's National Agricultural and Horticultural Association, which two years later changed its name to the Woman's National Farm & Garden Association (WNF&GA). King, who served as the first president of the WNF&GA from 1914 to 1921, saw horticulture and gardening as a means for women to establish themselves in the world; under her guidance, the WNF&GA established scholarships for women to pursue academic study of agriculture, botany, and landscape architecture. During World War I, the WNF&GA and GCA helped organize the Woman's Land Army of America: 15,000 so-called "farmerettes" worked in agriculture, replacing men called into military service. For her role in these efforts, King was awarded the National War Garden Commission’s bronze medal. In the postwar years, gardening in small suburban plots grew in popularity, spurred by the nine-volume series of books that King edited (and some of which she wrote), known as "The Little Garden" series. These books were directed at a wider audience than that of King's earlier books, which spoke to the affluent. King's descriptive prose was supplemented by plant lists, garden diagrams, photographs, and illustrations. ==Later life and death==

Her husband's unexpected death in 1927 forced the sale of Orchard House. A supporter of the United Nations, Louisa King proposed an International Horticultural Society, writing, "Gardeners never fight with each other." Louisa Yeomans King died on January 16, 1948, aged 84, at her daughter's home in Milton, Massachusetts; her ashes are scattered at Kingstree in South Hartford. ==Recognition and legacy ==

King was once toasted by the Prince of the Netherlands, tongue-in-cheek, as the "King of America", and she has also been called the "fairy godmother of gardening in America", the "dean of American gardeners", and "the best-beloved and best-known American woman gardener" of her era. She was elected a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. In 1921, she became the first woman to receive the George Robert White Medal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. ==Selected publications==

• With a preface by Gertrude Jekyll. • King's best seller. • • • • ==The Little Garden Series==

King was the general editor for the book series The Little Garden Series published in 9 volumes during the 1920s. She wrote 2 of the 9 books herself. The first 5 books in the series were published by the Atlantic Monthly Press. The last 4 books in the series were published by Little, Brown and Company in cooperation with the Atlantic Monthly Press. The titles and authors of the 9 volumes are: • The Little Garden by Mrs. Francis King (1921) • Peonies in the Little Garden by Mrs. Edward Harding (1923) • Variety in the Little Garden by Mrs. Francis King (1923) • Design in the Little Garden by Fletcher Steele (1924) • The Little Garden for Little Money by Kate L. Brewster (1924) • Roses in the Little Garden by Glendon A. Stevens (1926) • The Little Kitchen Garden by Dorothy Giles (1926) • Iris in the Little Garden by Ella Porter McKinney (1927) • Spring in the Little Garden by Frances Edge McIlvaine (1928) ==Notes==