The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants , by Jennifer Jewell (published March 2020)
At the front of her book, author Jennifer Jewell states her reason for writing it. Ms. Jewell states that she wants to answer the question, “What it means to be a woman in plants?” She does this superbly in these seventy-five short portraits of women involved with plants over the last twenty-five years. She hosted a northwestern United States public radio and podcast program “The Cultivating Place” for ten years. In preparing her program, Ms. Jewell traveled around the world meeting plant people from various countries including Japan, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, the United States and Great Britain. Her portraits in this book cover not only a wide variety of plant-related careers, but also a wide variety of women from around the globe.
Despite this variety, in this book you will find many commonalities among the women profiled. A high percentage of the women grew up having a relationship with the wonders of the plant world from farming, hiking, and the sciences of flowers, pollinators and the soil. Most of the women completed advanced degrees, internships, related educational courses, and hands-on practicums in horticulture. Another common thread is the publication of books by these women about their special fields or careers.
Amid those commonalities, there is also a very diverse set of jobs performed by these women growers, farmers, retail sources of plants, photographers, ecological advocates, historians, writers, artists, landscape designers, public garden and museum horticulturists and administrators, advocates for indigenous cultures and scientists.
Each profile includes the woman’s focus area, a work statement, statements of philosophy and a short biography. In addition, most of the profiles contain a favorite plant or landscape and a short list of persons who inspired each of the seventy-five women.
I found this book fascinating even though reading seventy-five profiles (even short) is a bit of a task. Although I will not describe the career path or achievements of Mary Pat Matheson, CEO and President of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, it is interesting that Georgia did have a representative among the seventy-five women in the book.
To give you an idea of what type of persons are profiled, here is a short list of some of the persons profiled.
Erin Benzakein is the owner of family-run Floret Flower Farm in Washington State. The farm originated as a cut-flower farm serving florists and event planners. The farm also has a retail side. The farm grows unique, uncommon and heirloom flowers. The farm was expanded for seed production, trials, and research in 2017. A website and workshops for beginning farmers and florists are also conducted there.
Ariella Chezar is a floral designer who in the mid-1990s moved to open, layered naturalistic designs using foraged branches, vines, fruits, and seeds along with flowers. She hosts workshops and events at her flower farm. Ms. Chezar worked with a well-known New York event and floral designer and then moved to the San Francisco Flower Mart. In 2017, she joined the Flower School of New York as artistic director and master designer.
Andrea DeLong-Amaya is the Director of Horticulture at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. The center’s mission is to conserve and research native plants of the southwest region of the United States. The Center has one of the largest native plant databases in the United States. The Center holds native plant sales and introduces new native plants for cultivation each year.
Ira Wallace is the owner of the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and cofounder of the Harvest Heritage Festival, Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia. She is an advocate and educator in rural Virginia for heirloom seeds. Ms. Wallace introduces gardeners and cooks to over 700 varieties of heirloom seeds and shows them how to save their own seeds. In 1999, she moved the Exchange to the Acorn Community Farm, an organic farm. Fifty small family farmers produce seed for the Exchange while Acorn grows and trials vegetables, herbs and flowers. The Harvest Festival at Monticello focuses on seeds of people of African descent.
Kristen Wickert is a plant pathologist. Her master’s degree was earned at Pennsylvania State University on the hemlock woolly adelgid. She started her career with the forestry program at Penn State, and after graduation worked with the Texas A & M forest services out of Houston. Her recent focus has been on native fungal biocontrol of the invasive Tree of Heaven.
Hemlata Pradhan is an artist in West Bengal, India. At England’s Royal College of Art, she received her master’s degree in natural history illustrative and ecological studies. As well as being an artist focusing on orchids and other plants in their natural habitats, Ms. Pradham founded the Himalayan Trust for Hatura History Art in 2003 which holds workshops and classes on botanical illustration.
Midori Shintani is the Head Gardener at Tokachi Millenium Forest, Hokkaido, Japan. She has landscaped the gardens to seamlessly merge with the natural areas surrounding the site in central Japan. This garden and forest originally started as a 1990 carbon offset for a Japanese newspaper company. The garden reflects the naturalistic garden movement rooted in the deep connection to nature the Japanese have and their reengagement with the ancient belief in animism.
I highly recommend this book. It provides strong affirmation of the capabilities of women in all the myriad plant-related careers possible, and it gives a sense of the world-wide bond all who tend the earth share.
Holly Sparrow, Headwaters Master Gardener