How to Plant an Emily Dickinson Garden

Poet Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was an American poet (1830-1886) born in Amherst, Massachusetts. She was a prolific private poet and wrote over 1700 poems though most were not published until after her death. Emily Dickinson was better known in her lifetime for her gardening than poetry. She studied botany and compiled a herbarium, a scrapbook of over 400 pressed plant specimens that she collected, classified and labeled. Dickinson was an avid gardener, tending family gardens and growing exotic flowers in a conservatory built by her father. When she died, Emily Dickinson was buried with heliotrope and violets. At her request, her coffin was carried through fields of buttercups to the family plot. You can bring a touch of Emily Dickinson into your garden with these easy tips.

Things You'll Need

• Annual flowers
• Perennial flowers
• Flower bulbs
• Flower seeds
• Roses
• Optional arbor

Instructions

1. 

   Plant flowering bulbs. Tulips, daffodils and crocus are easy to grow. Emily Dickinson delighted in growing day lilies and narcissus. The bulbs begin blooming early in spring. They thrive in tidy borders or around perennials. In the cold Massachusetts winters, the poet grew daffodils in the conservatory to brighten cold February days.

2. 

   Seek out perennials such as gardenias, jasmine and camellias. They require little care after they are established and in most regions thrive year after year. Their foliage is a perfect backdrop for wildflowers and annuals.

3. 

   Plant shrubs or climbing roses. Roses thrive in the garden and later lend their fragrance to rose jars or potpourris. Rose petals can be dried for crafts and pressed for gift cards. These fragrant flowers make beautiful bouquets. Emily Dickinson frequently sent flower bunches and poetry to her friends.

4. 

   Plant for the joy of color and fragrance. A niece recalled the Dickinson garden as full of sweet peas, pansies, peony hedges, daffodils and marigolds. She called the garden a butterfly utopia.

5. 

   Cover a garden arbor with roses or honeysuckle vines. The support lets the flowers grow tall and provide a shady nook for outdoor reading. Take a poetry book and enjoy an hour in your Emily Dickinson-inspired garden.