Emily Dickinson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers

Join Michael Saint of The Native Plant Institute at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Chelsea, on Saturday, August 16 at 6:30 p.m., as we take a step back into time and explore the diverse flowers, trees, and shrubs of Emily Dickinson’s world.

During her lifetime, Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was famous for her love of the garden—not her poems. Consequently, plants and flowers significantly influenced her poetry. Many of Dickinson’s poems and letters mentioned wildflowers, native plants, and traditional herbaceous garden plants.

Her gardens included fruit trees, vegetables, and masses of colorful annuals and perennials. Dickinson was fond of fragrant flowers (roses, hyacinth, jasmine, gardenias).
We will examine the components of her garden, i.e.: fragrance, color, texture, etc. citing examples to show how to incorporate some of her sense of being and beloved plants in your own Emily Dickinson garden.

Michael Saint is a certified Advanced Master Gardener, a seasoned lecturer and landscape designer. He is an advocate of the importance of native plants. His native plant class has been published internationally through the DailyOm network. Saint is the owner of Good Earth Landscape Institute in Clarkston, Mi, and as a member of the Michigan Wildflower Association, The National Wildlife Federation and the Re-mineralize the Earth Foundation, he has encouraged green practices for many years. He has been a repeated guest of National Public Radio’s “Detroit Today,” Meadowbrook Hall, Henry Ford Estates, The Community House of Birmingham, MI and Fox Morning news. He teaches various garden classes for Waterford’s Adult Community Education and lectures throughout the Midwest on various horticultural topics. Michael’s gardens have been featured in varied newspapers throughout Michigan.