Jane Colden teaches Us

Jane Colden, heroine of the botanic world, and now famous for her, "garden." I went to Jane's garden. I saw plants that you used to find everywhere around where Jane and I grew up. Well, Jane, in what became Coldenham, and me in the Town of Wallkill. Well, we grew up in different time frames, but, we shared a passion for the plants in our region, and for the study of plants in general, botany.

So, I thought, what is so special about Jane's garden? Those are the plants found everywhere here. But , Jane had foresight. Because everywhere here is now full of cement and shopping malls and macadam and houses and apartment buildings and, everything but plants. Well, there are some landscaped plants, but, it's hard to find those, "ordinary," plants of Jane's garden.

Preserving native plants saves our environment. Maybe you can plant a copy of Jane's garden...or, of the Garden Jane would have made, had she grown up in your region. Do you know the native species? How could you find them out?

(c)2007 J. S. Shipman