Louisa Yeomans King

Louisa Boyd King ( Yeomans; October 17, 1863 – January 16, 1948) was an American gardener and author who became a leading advocate of gardening and horticulture, especially in connection with the garden club movement. She wrote on horticultural topics as Mrs. Francis King.

Early life and family Louisa Boyd Yeomans was born on October 17, 1863 in Washington, New Jersey, the third of five children of Alfred and Elizabeth Blythe (Ramsay) Yeomans. Her father was a Presbyterian minister. She received secondary education from private schools in New Jersey and so far as is known did not go on to college.

On June 28, 1890, she married a wealthy Chicago man, Francis King (1862–1927), and moved to Elmhurst, Illinois, near the home of Francis's parents. The couple had three children, Elizabeth, Henry W., and Frances.

Louisa King quickly rose to prominence as a lecturer, author, and organizer of garden clubs. Two years later, she was one of the cofounders and original vice-presidents of the Garden Club of America in Philadelphia (GCA), which had a substantial influence on how landscape architecture developed as a profession in subsequent decades. In the 19020s, King and other leaders of the GCA established its headquarters in New York.

In 1914, she helped to found the Women's National Agricultural and Horticultural Association, which two years later changed its name to the Woman's National Farm & Garden Association (WNF&GA). King, who served as the first president of the WNF&GA from 1914 to 1921, saw horticulture and gardening as a means for women to establish themselves in the world; under her guidance, the WNF&GA established scholarships for women to pursue academic study of agriculture, botany, and landscape architecture.

A supporter of the United Nations, Louisa King proposed an International Horticultural Society, writing, "Gardeners never fight with each other." She was elected a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. In 1921, she became the first woman to receive the George Robert White Medal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

Selected publications With a preface by Gertrude Jekyll. King's best seller.

The Little Garden Series King was the general editor for the book series The Little Garden Series published in 9 volumes during the 1920s. She wrote 2 of the 9 books herself. The first 5 books in the series were published by the Atlantic Monthly Press. The last 4 books in the series were published by Little, Brown and Company in cooperation with the Atlantic Monthly Press. The titles and authors of the 9 volumes are: The Little Garden by Mrs. Francis King (1921) Peonies in the Little Garden by Mrs. Edward Harding (1923) Variety in the Little Garden by Mrs. Francis King (1923) Design in the Little Garden by Fletcher Steele (1924) The Little Garden for Little Money by Kate L. Brewster (1924) Roses in the Little Garden by Glendon A. Stevens (1926) The Little Kitchen Garden by Dorothy Giles (1926) Iris in the Little Garden by Ella Porter McKinney (1927) Spring in the Little Garden by Frances Edge McIlvaine (1928)