- Author: Betty Victor
I usually do not talk about books I have read or recommended them, because everyone's tastes are different. I am making an exception now, I just finished “Paradise under Glass” by Ruth Kassinger.
It's the story of a woman who at first, was not very interested gardening until she saves the nearly dead Spathepyllum plant, “a peace lily”, that had been in her house for a while. She visits a nursery and gets help in saving this plant. This led her to plan and add a conservatory to her 1927 Colonial House.
Her interests take her to search many books, and magazines on conservatories. She plans hers and buys her first citrus tree for her yet built conservatory. Hoping that the Calamondin Orange will grow She starts to learn all she can about citrus and how Spain being conquered in the 8th century, Sicily in the 9th, by the warriors that conquered those counties and how they brought along their citrus. The book also tells about what the plants were used for and how.
Then she starts in the 1600's. How the trees survived, the harsh Northern Italy winters, how the European citizens protected them from freezing. From there, she discusses how “glass houses” were built. In the 1840 only the wealthy has “glass houses”, in 1848 Kew Gardens opened, but only botanist could go there not the general public. Also mentioned, 1860- James Lick a California Real Estate Mogel had a English made Glasshouse sent to San Francisco, where you can see it today in Golden Gate Park.
She learns how and why fern's were the plant to grow in Victorian times and how plant collectors hunted for them.
Then harsh pesticides come into the story. In the late 1920's newspapers started reporting the increase in illness and death by arsenic, which was used as a pesticide. In 1935 the AMA said “spray residues” were an important menace to public health. At the end of WW1 DDT was dais to be good at killing agricultural pest. 1970- The EPA was established and the first Earth Day even took place. In 1972, “Huffaker Project” was funded by the National Science Foundation and the EPA. This project involved 18 universities and 300 researchers, this became the prototype of the IPM program today. The web site for more information on the IPM (Integrated Pest Management) program is http://ipm.ucdavis.edu.
I have skipped over a lot of information and given only some of the highlights she writes about. Read it for yourself-it's a good read.