Mary Helen Wingate Lloyd (1868–1934) was an American horticulturist who was a founding member of the American Iris Society and creator of a celebrated "

iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (given name), a feminine given name, and a list of peopl ...

bowl" garden. Wingate was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1868, one of four children of

George Wood Wingate George Wood Wingate (July 1, 1840 – March 22, 1928) was an American lawyer, soldier, civil servant and organizer of rifle practice. During the Civil War he served in the New York National Guard which later encouraged him to promote marksmanshi ...

and Susan Prudence (Man) Wingate. She married financier Horatio Gates Lloyd, Sr. (1867-1937), and redesigned the gardens on their estate, Allgates, in Haverford, Pennsylvania. The main house at Allgates was designed by Philadelphia architect

Wilson Eyre Wilson Eyre Jr. (October 30, 1858 – October 23, 1944) was an American architect, teacher and writer who practiced in the Philadelphia area. He is known for his deliberately informal and welcoming country houses, and for being an innovator in t ...

, and the estate is now on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The centerpiece of Lloyd's landscaping was a bowl-shaped iris garden roughly 100 feet in diameter, consisting of four concentric terraces descending to a sunken grassy area with a tiled pool in the middle. By 1921, some 250 varieties of irises were planted in the bowl, with shorter irises towards the bottom. The bowl was divided into quadrants by stone staircases, and each quadrant was planted using a different color scheme, which Lloyd altered several times over the years.

John Caspar Wister John Caspar Wister (March 19, 1887 – December 27, 1982) was an American horticulturalist known as the Dean of American Horticulture. He founded and served as the first director of the American Iris Society from 1920 to 1934, as director emerit ...

, the first president of the American Iris Society (AIS), held that it was "by far the finest" of the private iris gardens of the time. She was one of the key organizers of the AIS and served as its director from 1921 to 1930. She wrote about gardening for magazines like ''Good Housekeeping'' and for the

Garden Club of America The Garden Club of America is a nonprofit organization made up of around 18,000 club members and 200 local garden clubs around the United States. Founded in 1913, by Elizabeth Price Martin and Ernestine Abercrombie Goodman, it promotes the recordi ...

's ''Bulletin'' and was for many years the editor of the bulletin's plant material department. She served as director of the GCA (1928–33) and then for one further year as first vice-president. Lloyd died on September 23, 1934. The GCA ''Bulletin'' for February 1936 was a special memorial edition devoted to her life's work.

Legacy

Lloyd amassed a small but substantial horticultural library, which was given to the University of South Carolina in 1982 after her son Richard's death. It includes some very rare 16th and 17th century botanical works and florilegia. The

Pennsylvania Horticultural Society The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) is a nonprofit organization that promotes horticulture-related events and community activities. It is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of 2021, PHS has more than 13,000 members. PHS wa ...

's McLean Library in Philadelphia houses the Mary Helen Wingate Lloyd Collection of European and American horticultural publications from the 16th to the 20th centuries. The library also holds a hand-colored lantern slide of the iris bowl garden from the 1920s or early 1930s. A different hand-colored glass lantern slide of the garden is held in the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

Archives of American Gardens The Archives of American Gardens (known colloquially as AAG) is an archive dedicated to preserving documentation and content related to gardens in the United States. Established in 1992, the Archives are located in Washington, D.C., United States ...

. Several dozen photographs of Allgates are held in the collection of the

Winterthur Museum Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States. The museum and estate were the home of Henry Francis du Pont ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd, Mary Helen Wingate 1868 births 1934 deaths American horticulturists People from New York (state)