A Floral Nation: Warren H. Manning, Civic Horticulture, and the Didactic Cityscape

Abstract

Warren H. Manning developed a distinctive approach to civic horticulture that recurred throughout his career as a city planner, calling for educational plantings beyond limited educational gardens to encompass streets, neighborhoods, school and college campuses, and entire park systems. These plantings, supported by printed media, were resources for citizens to educate themselves, improve their own home grounds, and in turn participate in the improvement of the community’s civic landscape as a whole. Manning’s approach brought together village improvement, amateur naturalist societies, schoolyard gardening, and his own experience designing arboreta with the Olmsted firm.