ALTON - For years, horticulturalists around Alton worked hard to encourage a love of flowers in the local citizenry. On July 30, 1924, Alton Horticultural Society member Edwin H. Riehl announced that despite having cut approximately 500 gladiolas daily to sell for some time, he had not shipped any away from the area. The demand for the flowers was good enough in Alton to require all of his stock, and he could have sold more if the weather conditions had been more favorable for flowers.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
“He and other florists who have been trying for many years to develop a general taste and love for flowers in Alton can feel satisfied with the progress along that line they have made. Altonians are becoming genuine flower-lovers.”
Edwin H. Riehl, like many members of the Riehl family, was extremely successful in horticultural pursuits and experiments. Edwin H. Riehl’s father, E. A. Riehl, won the American Pomology Society's prestigious Wilder Award in 1922 for his work in chestnut tree evaluation, production, and propagation. The American Pomological Society is the oldest fruit organization in North America, founded by Marshall P. Wilder in 1848 to foster the science and practice of fruit production and variety development. Edwin H. Riehl's sister, Amelia Riehl, continued their father's work at Evergreen Heights, managing the Riehl nursery and propagating nut trees. She was a charter member of the Northern Nut Growers Association.
Edwin H. Riehl was superintendent of Experiment Station No. 8 of the Illinois State Horticultural Society at Alton, and in 1910, he became interested in cultivating an ever-bearing strawberry. Edwin H. Riehl sold more than 100,000 of these strawberry plants all over the world. "His success...has been his love of them; they are his pets; he talks to them in kindly terms and like dogs or birds or even humans, they respond to this kindness to unfold their wonder of nature." Edwin H. Riehl is mentioned in books such as "The Strawberry in North America: History, Origin, Botany, And Breeding" by S. W. Fletcher, professor of horticulture at The Pennsylvania State College (1917) and "The Strawberry: History, Breeding and Physiology" by George M. Darrow, The New England Institute for Medical Research (1966).
Sources
Darrow, George M. 1966. The Strawberry; History, Breeding, and Physiology. [1st ed.]. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
“Edwin H. Riehl, Noted Figure of Alton, Dies.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), June 13, 1951.
Fletcher, S. W. 1917. The Strawberry in North America; History, Origin, Botany, and Breeding. New York: The Macmillan Company.
Hatch & Co. “Strawberries / after W.M. Brown.” New York: H. Wood, Jr., [1867]. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-10902 https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017660435/
“Home.” The American Pomological Society, 2024. https://www.americanpomological.org/
“History of Wilder Award Winners.” The American Pomological Society https://www.americanpomological.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/History-of-Wilder-Award-Winners.pdf
?“Local Market Good for Flowers.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), July 30, 1924.
“Miss Amelia Riehl.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), March 05, 1954.
“Riehl Continues Experiments.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), July 05, 1939.
Thompson, Erwin A. A Woman before Her Time. [Alton, Ill.?]: [Erwin Thompson?].
Tunison, H. C. “American fruits & flowers.” Jacksonville, Illinois: [publisher not transcribed], 1899. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-45505 https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018696132/
More like this:
