Passing of a gardener

Frank Cabot (Photo by Marina Schinz)

This last weekend we lost the most eminent gardener of our era, and possibly the greatest gardener America has ever produced. Francis Higginson Cabot passed away peacefully at his home in Malbaie, Quebec. Frank possessed the vision and means to practice horticulture on a nearly mythical scale: he created not one but two extraordinary gardens of enormous scope: Stonecrop in Cold Spring, New York, and Les Quatres Vents in Quebec. He pursued other gardens on almost as ambitiously in scale in Wales, New Zealand and New Mexico. He took a leadership role in many organizations, notably chairing the Board of the New York Botanical Garden in the seventies, and serving as Treasurer of the North American Rock Garden society for seven years.

He founded the Garden Conservancy in 1989, which now has offices on both coasts and has helped preserve a wide variety of great gardens, in addition to producing inumerable garden tours from coast to coast every year.

I first met Frank at a conference in Victoria, Canada in 1980, where we both spoke at a Study Weekend of the North American Rock Garden Society. It was quite literally my launch in horticulture (I stumbled in pitch dark off the dais onto a soundly sleeping audience). The next day Frank warned the audience that they’d better stay awake for his talk, lest “I too hurl myself into your arms.” Even I (a naïve and hypersensitive youngster) had to chuckle. Years later, I reminded Frank of the incident. Characteristically, he told me how much he enjoyed my talk and actually recounted details of what I had said decades before rather than dwelling on my lapsus.

He noticed everything. He had a towering passion for plants, people and projects. I doubt that many people have visited more gardens, or studied them with as great an eye. He expressed this vision powerfully in charming, witty and very moving presentations over the last few decades from coast to coast. He captured a facet of  his vision in The Greater Perfection, a gorgeous coffee table sized book describing his creation of Les Quatres Vents. He lived and breathed gardens as few people have, on an heroic scale that few of us can even imagine.

My sympathies to the many people who have worked so closely alongside Frank at Stonecrop, at les Quatres Vents, and the Garden Conservancy, and his many other horticultural ventures. And condolences to his wife Anne, his children and the rest of his family. I shall treasure the times my path crossed with Frank’s over the decades, and his inimitable, elegant and winning style. What greater tribute than to know that American horticulture has thrived mightily under his Olympian watch.

The Garden Conservancy has produced a notice on their webpage with more information about Frank and his accomplishments and honors. Many more will surely follow.