1890. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



101 



PETER HENDERSON. 

 The Great Horticulturist Dead. 



When the telegraph on .lanuary 17 con- 

 veyed the news of the death of Peter Hen- 

 derson, of Jersey City, the most favorably 

 and widely known tlorist. gardener and hor- 

 ticultural author America has yet produced, 

 it carried deep sorrow to tens of thousands 

 of hearts, all over the country. He died at 

 half past ten o'clock on the 17th at his home 

 on Jersey t^ity Heights from pneumonia, 

 which began with an attack of the intluenza, 

 so widely prevailing. Two weeks earlier, 

 less one day, the symptoms llrst appeared, 

 btit little attention was 

 paid to them, although 

 Mr. Henderson was un- 

 able to attend to business. 

 For about a week there 

 seemed to be steps toward 

 recovery, and on Friday, 

 the 10th, he felt well 

 enough to be out and 

 around for a short time, 

 but was compelled to go 

 to his room and lie down. 

 ^\Tiile lying on the sofa he 

 did some writing, his last 

 work being an answer to 

 a request from a southern 

 journal concerning the 

 origin of the American 

 Beauty Rose, which he 

 stated was not an Ameri- 

 can Rose at all. .Soon 

 after he took to his bed 

 and never again rose from 

 it. He died literally " in 

 the harness," as he had 

 more than once expressed 

 a desire to do. His friends 

 had only considered his 

 condition serious for a 

 few days before the end. 



Peter Henderson was 

 born in 1833, at the village 

 of Pathhead, ten miles 

 south of Edinburgh, Scot- 

 land. His father was 

 land .steward of a gentle- 

 man in the neighborhood. 

 His schooling advantages 

 were only such in the 

 main as the parish school 

 afforded. But even here 

 that aptness to seek in- 

 formation, which was a 

 leading trait throughout 

 his life, led him to win 

 school prizes beyond all 

 others of his age. 



In his l-5th year the lad 

 was apprenticed to a 

 tradesman in Edinburgh, 

 but finding the employ- 

 ment uncongenial, he 

 was allowed fortunately 

 to follow his own bent; at 

 IB became an apprentice at Melville Castle, 

 Midlothian, Scotland. Here with gardening 

 operations in all depratments carried out on 

 a large scale, and the collections, especially 

 of hardy plants, very extensive, the young 

 apprentice had the widest possible oppor- 

 tunities for acquiring a thorough horticul- 

 tural training. Feeling at this stage ham- 

 pered by his lack of schooling, he and 

 another youth walked ten miles twice a 

 week for two years to attend a mathematical 

 school in Edinburgh. So well did he im- 

 prove his opportunities as a student of botany 

 during these years, that before the age of 18 

 he had twice successfully competed for the 

 medals awarded by the Botanical .Society of 

 Edinburgh for the best herbarium of native 

 and exotic plants, the competition being open 

 to the whole of Great Britain. It was about 

 the same date that he first took up his pen, 

 which he has ever since yielded with such 



exceptional force, to write on horticultural 

 subjects. His first article, naturally enough 

 as we now should judge, was aimed at the 

 practive which then prevailed of holding as 

 secrets many of the horticultural operations 

 of the day. It was printed in the London 

 Gardener's Gazette, and is said to have drawn 

 out a lengthy editorial reply. Such an 

 achievement at his age clearly showed the 

 young apprentice to be a person of uncom- 

 mon ability among his comrades. 



But it was not alone as a progressive stud- 

 ent and thinker, and the foe of narrow 

 methods in horticulture, that young Hen- 



THE LATE PETER HENDERSON. 



derson was singular, he aimed as well at the 

 correction of certain moral abuses of his 

 class. It was the practice of the young 

 men of the establishments to squander 

 some of their evenings at a public house in 

 the vicinity, and against this practice he set 

 his face so firmly, and showed by his own 

 example the better way of improving the 

 mind, that he nearly abolished it. Tho.se 

 who have known Mr. Henderson since are 

 well aware that the high standard of moral- 

 ity he then outlined has been adhered to un- 

 swervingly throughout his life. He not 

 only was an uncompromising and outspoken 

 champion of temperance, but he equally 

 deprecated the use of tobaccoiand other stim- 

 ulants. In 1881 it was the writer's privilege 

 to visit the scenes of Mr. Henderson's early 

 manhood in Scotland and meet some of his 

 former companions. As his friend from 

 America they took much pleasure in testify- 



ing to the writer of his many excellent 

 qualities in youth, an<l rejoicinggreatly over 

 the well nu'rited prosperity and great repu- 

 tation he had achieved as an American. 



In 1843 young Henderson, then in his 

 twentieth year, having completed his ap- 

 prenticeship, and moved by the accounts of 

 a promising field for young men in America, 

 sailed for New York to make tliis his future 

 home. He had no capital but a thorough 

 education in gardening, good health and 

 habits, and in a remarkable degree the spirit 

 of energy and pluck. He worked fora period 

 In the nursery of Thorburn & Co., Astoria, 

 N. Y., and a year or more 

 with the late Robert 

 Buist, of Philadelphia. 

 Mr. Buist, an accom- 

 plished gardener of the 

 old school, was frequent- 

 ly startled by the advan- 

 ced ideas and " notions " 

 of his bright young em- 

 ployee. He remained his 

 life long friend, and often 

 with pride told how the 

 man who had by his in- 

 dustry became so famous 

 as a horticulttarist, was as 

 a boy one of the best work- 

 men he ever 'had. For 

 several years preceding 

 1847 Mr. Henderson was 

 in the employ of Mr. 

 Charles Spang, of Pitts- 

 burgh, Pa., as superinten- 

 dent of that gentleman's 

 private grounds. 



B.v the year 1847 Mr. Hen- 

 derson had succeeded in 

 saving up $.500, and in that 

 year, in company with his 

 brother .lames, he started 

 (tu a small scale the business 

 of market p:ardening in Jer- 

 sey City. He worked on an 

 average 10 hours a day, and 

 the venture was successful. 

 The business grew rapidly, 

 ;iud gradually the brothers 

 added the florists branch to 

 t lie establishment This 

 l>artnership continued until 

 1852. When it was dissolved, 

 I'oter, though discerning the 

 lartxiT profits in the vegeta- 

 hlc brant^h, devoted his main 

 energies to this. Later, as 

 the taste for flowers and 

 ornamental gai'denlng be- 

 came more general, the 

 florist business was seen to 

 possess increasing promise, 

 and more attention was 

 given to it. By 18B4 Mr. 

 Henderson built a range ol: 

 glass on the site of the 

 present extensive establish- 

 ment, and was prepared to 

 give his entire attention to 

 the florist business, although 

 a number of acres of land 

 were aud have since been devoted to general 

 garden crops. In 180.5 Mr. Hendersim, in com- 

 pany with James Fleming, began business as a 

 seedsman in New York flty. This firm continued 

 for five years, when it was dissolved. The fol- 

 lowing year, 1871, the present seed firm of Peter 

 Hendei-son & Co.. :'■'> and 37 Cortlandt street, New 

 York, was established, and which from that be- 

 j ginning has grown to be one of the largest seed 

 j establishments in the world. In the great business 

 which in two branches, seeds and plants, had de- 

 veloped under Mr. Henderson's lead in the past 

 j 25 years, he had latterly had with him as partners 

 I his two sons Alfred and Charles Henderson. Of 

 the plant department it may be said that the 

 ranges of glass cover upwards of four acres. The 

 annual output of plants runs up into millions. It 

 is thought to be the largest and best appointed 

 greenhouse range in the world. In the two de- 

 partments the firm gi%e employment to about 

 150 hands regularly. 



That which more than anything else, has made 

 the name of Mr. Henderson famous and aided in 

 securing the remarkable success of his various 



