22 Facts About Isabella Preston

Isabella Preston was a horticulturist and public servant widely recognized for her achievements in plant hybridization and extensive work in ornamental plant breeding.

Isabella Preston was born on 4 September 1881 in Lancaster, England where her father worked as a silversmith.

Isabella Preston gardened from an early age, helping her father on the family farm.

Isabella Preston was 31 years old when she and her sister Margaret immigrated to Canada following the death of their mother.

Margaret had accepted a position as a music teacher in Guelph, Ontario, and encouraged Preston to join her.

Isabella Preston found her first job in Guelph picking plums, peaches, and raspberries on a fruit farm.

Isabella Preston enrolled at the Ontario Agricultural College the same year to study plant breeding and was one of the few women pursuing the subject at the time.

Isabella Preston worked on breeding fruit that ripened quickly and was more resistant to insects and disease.

From her enrollment at the OAC until 1920, Isabella Preston contributed to the successful breeding of various vegetables, fruits and ornamental plants including garden lilies.

Isabella Preston gained international recognition by introducing the acclaimed "George C Creelman" lily and became the first professional woman hybridist in Canada in 1916.

Isabella Preston wrote numerous articles on various horticultural subjects, and in 1929 published Garden Lilies, the first book about lily cultivation in Canada.

Isabella Preston died on 31 December 1965 in Georgetown, Ontario.

Isabella Preston was the first person to focus solely on breeding ornamental plants.

Isabella Preston enthusiastically shared her knowledge with amateur and professional gardeners and regularly gave tours of the Central Experimental Farm's ornamental gardens.

Isabella Preston developed many of the 125 different strains in the Central Experimental Farm lilac collection.

Isabella Preston's hybrids were disease-resistant and well suited to geographic regions within Canada since one of the mandates of the CEF was to produce plants hardy enough to survive northern prairie winters.

Isabella Preston retired from the Central Experimental Farm in 1946 but continued to act as an advisor.

Isabella Preston was hailed as the "Queen of Ornamental Horticulture" and a new hybrid species of lilacs, "Syringa prestoniae", was named in her honour.

Isabella Preston was co-organizer of the North American Lily Society.

The Isabella Preston Trophy was established by the North American Lily Society in recognition of her work.

Isabella Preston received awards from many Canadian and international horticultural societies including lifetime memberships from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and the Canadian Iris Society.

Isabella Preston's research is depicted in the poster gallery created by Ingenium Canada's The Women in STEM initiative.