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THE MOST FAMOUS 



WOMAN FLORIST 



Probably no one is better known in the trade in Boston and New England 

 than Mrs. Gill, of Medford, Massachusetts' most famous woman florist. For 

 more than fifty years she grew flowers. Now, at 87 years of ag^, she is confined ; 

 to her home, but is none the less interested in the florists' business. 



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inps^pHi 



HAT the greatest measure 

 of success comes to him 

 who is in love with his 

 work is exemplified in the 

 career of Mrs. Ellen M. 

 Gill, of Medford, Mass. 

 For more than forty-five 

 years Mrs. Gill grew 

 flowers for the Medford 

 and Boston markets. Now, 

 although confined to her room by the 

 infirmities of age — she was 87 years old 

 June 28^Mrs. Gill still is intensely 

 interested in the florists' profession and 

 confidently expects that she will recover 

 her strength sufficiently to again visit 

 Horticultural hall, Boston, where she 

 ■w'.is a regular exhibitor for half a cen- 

 tury. 



Probably no one interested in the 

 growing of flowers and 

 plants and in the socie- 

 ties that are promoting 

 the production of good 

 stock, is better known 

 in Boston and New 

 England than Mrs. 

 Gill. Beginning as an 

 amateur in 1860, her 

 success with flowers 

 ■was so great that she 

 gradually enlarged her 

 activities until 1870, 

 wlien she built the first 

 of lier four greenhouses 

 at Medford and began 

 to grow for the market. 



rirst with Freesias. 



Mrs. Gill is said to 

 have been the first 

 frrower to supply the 

 rioston market with 

 I'loesias. She also was 

 ii'aong the first to pro- 

 vluce violets indoors 

 i' n d in coldf rames, 

 \> hich stock she sold to 

 J'Oston retailers. 



'-"ovelties appealed to 

 - "^rs. Gill and many va- 

 -:eties of new stock 

 • 'lat appeared in the 

 ^' oston stores came 



"om her greenhouses. 



Such was her success 



■ * a pioneer grower 



' nd exhibitor that on 



oth her seventieth and 



i g h t i e t h birthd-ays 



lie Massachusetts 



horticultural Society 



ave receptions in her 



onor and on the latter 



ate she was made a 

 "fe member. She also 



has been elected an honorary member of 

 the Gardeners' and Florists' Club of 

 Boston, and of the Ladies' Bociety of 

 American Florists. 



A Native Bostonian. ' 



Mrs. Gill was born in Boston June 28, 

 1830, a member of the Bowditch family, 

 which traced its ancestry from John Al- 

 den and Richard Warren of the May- 

 flower time. In 1849, when she was 19 

 years old, she married George Gill. 

 They began their married life at Mel- 

 rose and moved to Medford in 1854. It 

 was there that her natural ability to 

 grow flowers first had an opportunity to 

 express itself and when, in 1860, she 

 and her husband purchased what is now 

 the family home and greenhouse range 

 at 28 Ashland street, that opportunity 



Mrs. Ellen M. GiIU America's First Woman Florist. 



became ' greatei* ' and she improved it. 

 In a short time the half-acre of 

 ground about '.this home became noted 

 for its flower gardens. Year after year 

 Mrs. Gill gained .greater fame as a 

 grower Snd jn l865, she was admitted to 

 membership in the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultutal Society and sent some of the 

 products of her garden to the society's 

 exhibitions. 



It was to enable her to grow higher 

 class stock th^t, in 1870, Mrs. Gill built 

 the first of the four greenhouses upon 

 vher ptace. That, too, was tlie beginning 

 "of her long career as a commercial 

 grower. 



After experimenting with what was 

 at that time expensive stock, Mrs. Gill 

 /discovered that commercial success lay 

 in specialization in stock that was in 

 demand. She threw 

 out her mixed stock 

 of stephanotis, alla- 

 manda, lapageria and 

 other plants of a like 

 character and began to 

 grow roses, carnations 

 and callas. Violets, 

 too, Mrs. Gill dis- 

 covered, could be 

 grown at a profit, al- 

 though few florists 

 grew them at that 

 time. 



Boston's Best Violets. 



Mrs. Gill delights in 

 telling anecdotes ro- 

 ller early ca- 

 a professional 

 A neighbor, 

 violets in a 

 Boston store, remarked 

 that she could not buy 

 the flowers in her home 

 town of Medford. 



"Madam," replied 

 the florist, "the best 

 violets I sell come 

 from Mrs. Gill, of 

 Medford. ' ' 



Another time a 

 neighbor remarked 

 that she had seen an 

 odd flower in a window 

 in Boston and sug- 

 gested to Mrs. Gill that 

 she ought to see it and 

 add it to her collection. 

 Mrs. Gill had the satis- 

 faction of telling the 

 neighbor that she was 

 the first to grow the 

 flower for the Boston 

 market and had sold 

 the stock described to 



garding 

 reer as 

 grower, 

 seeking 



