I just returned from a fabulous tour of the Edward Steichen and the Garden exhibition at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester. To say I was blown away is an understatement. Steichen was a painter, photographer, and a veteran of World Wars I and II. He was also a gardener. As a young man he rejected gardening in order to distance himself from his immigrant family’s toil on the family farm. But the pull of flowers and soil led him back to his roots, so to speak. His delphinium farm—and the hybrids he developed—became the link that united his art and his gardening.
Sarah Anne McNear, the author of the book Edward Steichen and the Garden and the exhibition curator, emphasized how this exhibition is important to gardeners everywhere. Anyone who plunges their hands in the dirt to plant a flower knows that gardening can change how you look at the world. This was certainly true of Steichen, and seeing the world of gardening and art through his eyes took my breath away. His art captures not only the complex beauty of the botanical world but also the deep emotional connection a gardener has with the land, the dirt, and the plant. That is a connection is one that we as fellow gardeners feel deep in our hearts.
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2026 issue of Upstate Gardeners’ Journal.
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