Scot’s Heather wins prize in 1861

Both Tewksbury weeklies – The Advocate and the Town Crier – are reporting plans for a summer search for any signs that the “Scot’s Heather” – that won a “New Native Plant” medal from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society back in 1861 – still grows in the Tewksbury town environs.

Tewksbury was once known as the “Carnation Capital of the World” where for example in 1976 the Patten Family Greenhouses  grew over 2,000,000  blossoms annually. The firm was founded back in 1870 and shipped these flowers world-wide. These days the greenhouses are mostly broken relics of the past.

Today the flower-focus is on finding any sign of the heather that caused such stir back in 1861 that it brought a horticultural “Flower Committee” to town to investigate the flower-find that witnessess said had been growing locally since before the Revolutionary War. The Tewksbury Historical Society is sponsoring the heather-search of a Livington Street meadow on Saturday July 24th and invites the public to join environmentalist Steve Ivas leading the search. Later this year the Historical Society will present a play to tell this story.

Read the full story here on-line at wickedlocal.com. If you plan to join the search, make sure that you dress appropriately – long pants with sunscreen are advised!