Donald Wyman (1904 — 6 December 1993) was an American horticulturist, the head of horticulture at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

's Arnold Arboretum from 1935 to 1970. He took a bachelor's degree in horticulture from

Pennsylvania State College The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

(1926) and a master's in forestry (1933), then a PhD in horticulture at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

(1935). He joined the Arboretum in 1935 and served for six months without salary in the depths of the Great Depression before being named horticulturist in 1936. He was the author of many books, including ''Wyman's Gardening Encyclopedia'' (1971) and was a frequent contributor to the journal '' Arnoldia''. Wyman served as president, director, and trustee of the American Horticultural Society. At the Arnold Arboretum he departed from the original method of planting by botanical association, to mark vistas and turns with specimen trees, and was energetic in acquiring seeds of many species that he introduced to American horticulture. He retired in 1970. He received the George Robert White Medal from the

Massachusetts Horticultural Society The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, sometimes abbreviated to MassHort, is an American horticultural society based in Massachusetts. It describes itself as the oldest formally organized horticultural institution in the United States. In its m ...

(1970), the Liberty Hyde Bailey Medal from the American Horticultural Society, the Veitch Memorial Medal from the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

(1969) and the Medal of Honor from the Garden Club of America (1965). The widely planted

crabapple ''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples, wild apples, and rainberries. The genus is native to the temperate zone o ...

''Malus "Donald Wyman"'' was named for him upon his retirement in 1970.

Selected works

Aside from hundreds of professional articles in the Arboretum's journal ''Arnoldia'' he published *''Shrubs and Vines for American Gardens'' (1949, 3rd rev. ed 1969, 1971) *''Trees for American Gardens'' (1951, 1972, 1977, 1990)
''Wyman's Gardening Encyclopedia''
(1971, 1977, 1987) which, according to Amazon, has sold more than 100,000 copies. *''The Arnold Arboretum Garden Book'' (1954) *''Ground Cover Plants'' (1956) *''The Saturday Morning Gardener: A Guide to Once-A-Week Maintenance'' (1974) *''Dwarf Shrubs: Maintenance-free woody plants for today's gardens'' (1975)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyman, Robert American horticulturists 1904 births 1993 deaths Cornell University alumni Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences alumni 20th-century American botanists Veitch Memorial Medal recipients