Polly Hill

Mary Louise Butcher "Polly" Hill (January 30, 1907 – April 25, 2007) was an American horticulturist best known for testing how well plants could survive in cold climates. She founded the Polly Hill Arboretum on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Early life and education Hill was born as Mary Louisa Butcher on January 30, 1907 in Ardmore, Pennsylvania to parents Margaret Keen and Howard Butcher, Jr. When she was 19, her parents bought a farm, then called Barnard's Inn Farm, that Hill would later transform into a arboretum specializing in exotic flora. At the age of fifty while undertaking this new endeavor, she was often quoted as saying, "fifty is a great age to try something new.”