1907
History of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Preliminary notes about the plants. Native Status: Some of the plants obtained by Eloise Butler in the early years of the Garden were not native to Minnesota or if native, may have been difficult to establish in the Garden. Most of these are no longer present. Martha Crone was somewhat more selective of native plant material, but also brought in many species not native to the state, and many of her imports have not survived either. The plants illustrated here, so one can see what they looked like, are mostly of the class no longer extant in the Garden. Species still extant at the time of Martha Crone's 1951 census are marked "(M.C.)". As for plants mentioned here that are still present in the Garden today, there may have been numerous re-plantings, and most have a web link to a detailed information/photo page, or, if not, are noted as being present in the Garden today - these are not illustrated in this article. Botanical classification: Over the years Botanists have reclassified many plants from the classifications in use at the time Eloise Butler wrote her Garden Log or when Martha Crone prepared her census. I have retained the nomenclature that Eloise Butler or Martha Crone used and then provided the more current classification as used by the major listings in use today, particularly Flora of North America, and the Checklist of the Vascular Flora of Minnesota from the University of Minnesota Herbarium.

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A large portion of Eloise Butler’s Garden Log for 1907 is devoted to notations of plants observed within the area of the newly established Wild Botanic Garden. This record established beyond anything else what plants were indigenous to that area. She would later record various notes about finding plants she had not noted previously.

Eloise noted that the spring season was “backward.” She was referring to the abnormal cold temperatures that occurred in April and May when daily temperatures were consistently under average by as much as 15 to 20 degrees. Most snow had melted in March and little fell thereafter until there was a two day snowfall on April 27-28 of 13 inches.

In this, the first season of the officially formed Garden, Eloise would immediately begin to bring in plants that were not represented there. As these were all obtained in the metro area, they are all native to the state. Her first recorded entry of actually placing plants into the Garden is dated April 29th when she planted two Pitcher Plants in the bog that she obtained from Mahtomedi, Minn.

In late May she brought in from the “government reservation” (which is presumably the area of and around Fort Snelling). All are extant in the Garden except as noted:

• Wahoo (Euonymus atropurpureus).
• Bird’s-foot Violet (Viola pedata) [Photo]
• Wild ginger (Asarum canadense),
• Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata),
• Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)
• Sharplobe Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis) (Photo at top).

From the area of Glenwood Park itself (Now Theodore Wirth Park), she introduced:

• Yellow-lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium pubescens now classified as Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens ), this is the larger flowered variety.
• Downy Yellow Violet (Viola pubescens)
• Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis).

From White Bear Lake came:

• More Pitcher Plants, Not extant.
• More Yellow-lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens)
• Moccasin Flower or Stemless Lady’s-slipper, (Cypripedium acaule), [Photo] [This is a rare native plant that is very difficult to transplant and have survive. The repeated appearance of this plant on the Garden acquisition list over many years up through Martha Crone’s curatorship is ample evidence of that difficulty] Not extant.
• Bluebead or Yellow Clintonia (Clintonia borealis), (M.C.). [Photo] It is native to the NE Quadrant of Minnesota. Not extant.
• Wild Calla (Water Arum) (Calla palustris)
• Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis) Native to Minnesota but not widespread.

From Washburn Park she obtained:

• Bristly Greenbrier (Similax hispida - now classified as Smilax tamnoides. M.C.)
• Common Moonseed (Menispermum canadense)

From Minnehaha:

• Canada Violet (Creeping Root Violet) (Tall Stemmed Violet) (Viola rugulosa - now classified as Viola canadensis var. rugulosa), (M.C.). Extant.
• Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus). (M.C.)

In early June she sourced from the vicinity of the Lake Street Bridge (Minneapolis):

• Virginia Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica), (M.C.) which is native to the eastern section of Minnesota. [Photo]
• Eastern (Virginia) Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginicum)
• Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus)
• American Hornbeam or Musclewood (Carpinus americana now classified as - Carpinus caroliniana), (M.C.), which is considered native to the state by some sources.
• An unidentified Cherry.