Fruitland Nursery: A "Horticultural Mecca"

Many of the books written on the Masters have dedicated a few pages to the nursery and the men who owned it - David Owen's The Making of the Masters and David Barrett's Making the Masters are two of the best to describe it. There is nothing comprehensive written about the pre-1930 history of the property and its owners. The first serious scholarly treatment of Prosper J. Berckmans, which I have mentioned earlier, written by agricultural historian Willard Range for The Georgia Review in 1952. More recently, in 2012, the Journal of Southern History published Philip Herrington's article (which I have also covered) on the relationship between architecture and agriculture, with a focus on the plantation house on the property that Dennis Redmond constructed in 1856-1857. In addition to these published articles, two 2012 doctoral dissertations addressed some aspects of the property, the owners, and what the nursery produced. Christopher Myers shed more light on the role Fruitlands played in making horticulture a more important part of Georgia's economy and culture. To read his fine article see "Fruitland Nursery: A 'Horticultural Mecca'" by Christopher C. Meyers, The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Spring, Summer 2015.