The October 1987 issue of American Horticulturalist introduced the Spencer garden to a national audience and
prompted this letter from a Florida inmate.
National Recognition.
In 1976, one year after Anne Spencer's death, her home was listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. In 1987, a feature story, “The Restoration of a Poet's Garden,” published in The American Horticulturist (the magazine of the American Horticultural Society) proved a turning point in raising national awareness of both Spencer's home and garden. To this day, the garden represents the only known historic restoration of an African American's garden. Since the The American Horticulturist article, feature stories about the garden have appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines, and publications of national and international circulation. One of the more touching responses to this coverage arrived from a black prisoner incarcerated in Florida. He wrote that the 1987 article had answered his “silent question” about the existence of black gardeners who might have "had treasures of wisdom."
In 1976, one year after Anne Spencer's death, her home was listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. In 1987, a feature story, “The Restoration of a Poet's Garden,” published in The American Horticulturist (the magazine of the American Horticultural Society) proved a turning point in raising national awareness of both Spencer's home and garden. To this day, the garden represents the only known historic restoration of an African American's garden. Since the The American Horticulturist article, feature stories about the garden have appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines, and publications of national and international circulation. One of the more touching responses to this coverage arrived from a black prisoner incarcerated in Florida. He wrote that the 1987 article had answered his “silent question” about the existence of black gardeners who might have "had treasures of wisdom."