Logan, Martha Daniell | South Carolina Public Radio

“L” is for Logan, Martha Daniell [1704-1779]. Horticulturist. When her father died in 1718, Martha Daniell inherited 48,000 acres on the Wando River and her father’s nursery business. Although she received a traditional girl’s education, she learned to cultivate plants from her father and several friends. Because landscaping with rare plants had become a favorite pastime among wealthy Charlestonians, Logan realized that amateur gardeners needed advice. She published the “Gardener’s Kalendar,” which became a standard text for colonial South Carolina gardeners, and contributed a gardening guide for John Tobler’s South Carolina Almanack. She exchanged seeds with other botanical enthusiasts, including the naturalist John Bartram. He praised her in his letters to friends in London. As a professional horticulturist, Martha Daniell Logan sold roots, cuttings, bulbs, plants, and seeds at her nursery that was located on the Green, near Trott’s Point.