by Emily Rinaman, Technical Services Manager
SAD. It’s a basic emotion but also an acronym for a medical condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder, coined in 1984. But decades earlier, the Victorians had already experienced it and figured out how to combat it.
Their method is still going strong today and can be seen on windowsills, hanging from ceilings, and sitting on any flat surface imaginable. The health benefits of owning house plants are much deeper than what’s on the surface and rooted in a popular pastime in the form of personal greenhouses (see what I did there?).
Victorians loved plants, especially new exotic species, so much that they wanted to enjoy them year-round, thus, giving rise to the greenhouse craze. Botanists traveled all over the world to collect unknown (at the time) species and bring them home to not only study and classify them but also to propagate and re-create them, often in hybrid forms with other plants.
In order for botanists to successfully take care of these delicate plants, they needed a suitable place, conducive to the plants’ native environments and Tiffin eventually had its own share of greenhouses at the turn of the century.
One of the more famous greenhouses of Tiffin was a greenhouse started by druggist Lewis Ulrich in 1881 in the back of his building at 49-53 S. Washington, the “Tomb Block.” It grew quickly and expanded to 183-189 Sycamore Street, where he lived next door at 181 Sycamore Street. Upon his death in 1906, his son, Edmund, who had served as a foreman at Ullrich Greenhouse, took over the family business and added a seed store at 177 S. Washington Street. At one time, it was the largest greenhouse in operation in Ohio, offering cut flowers and funeral designs.
Two women stand in the greenhouse of the Zoar garden in Zoar, Ohio, (Tuscarawas County) in 1888. This photo was taken from the Ohio Memory Project website, to which the Seneca County Digital Library belongs. The picture belongs to the Ohio History Connection’s Property Files collection.
The development of greenhouses eventually spread and divided, like a perennial from its original, to homeowners who were wealthy enough to afford their own, partially due to the high cost of glass. Once glass became more affordable after high taxes were abolished, the middle class joined the greenhouse craze and built greenhouses in their own backyards.
Nettie Lutes, one of the first female lawyers in the state of Ohio and a Tiffin resident, used a greenhouse to connect her residence and law office. She owned many exotic plants and “made it almost a full-time job tending the collection.” This would be classified as a small greenhouse or “winter garden”. Large greenhouses are often known as conservatories or hothouses.
Another type of greenhouse for shade-tolerant plants is known as ferneries. Victorians also built orangeries and even mushroom houses.
Experts agree that everyone, especially those affected by SAD, should get as much sunlight as possible by sitting next to a window, adding a skylight or using a UV light, which boosts serotonin and melatonin, chemicals in the brain responsible for mood. The Victorians intuitively knew this as they used their ornate greenhouses as their winter “family rooms” and entertainment rooms. Greenhouses included furniture, much like our modern decks and indoor porches, and sat painting, embroidering, socializing, and soaking up the sunlight amongst the many plants.
Studies have found that another benefit of house plants, especially in the winter months, is that tending to a live plant can lessen anxiety and depression and it is something suitable for all age levels. At one time, according to a student at Columbian in 1923, Creeger’s Greenhouse had “every imaginable plant on earth.” Wagner’s Florals, another family-owned greenhouse in Tiffin, began in 1847 and survives today. Students from Lincoln Schools in 1961 took a field trip to learn about how plants grow. Each student received a pansy.
An artist’s rendition of a conservatory intended for the Junior Home campus, now known as the Tiffin Developmental Center. While the greenhouse on the grounds still operates, this conservatory was never built.
The Junior Home had its own self-sufficing greenhouse, which operates today as the Norwesco Greenhouse. When it was built around 1900, the greenhouse, which was 20 feet by 50 feet, cost $1,000. It was known as the Pennsylvania Greenhouse and provided fresh fruits and vegetables to the campus’s residents. The children often were given duties of taking care of the plants in the Junior Home’s greenhouse and even grew their own flowers. One student recalls in the Junior Homekid publication, December 1995, that they had been excited to sell $13.50 worth of flowers to a group visiting from the state of Tennessee.
As the study turned from botany to biology in the 20th century, scientists started honing in on the medical benefits of plants. It has been observed that hospital patients who are given plants for their hospital rooms heal quicker with fewer medicinal drugs. (Perhaps this is why Mr. Ullrich of Tiffin switched careers from druggist to florist.
As recently as the 1980s, a greenhouse called Shumway Floral and Greenhouse, an FTD-certified greenhouse, was located across from the Ritz. FTD stands for the Florists Transworld Delivery, the first “flower-by-wire” service in the nation (1910), which now includes over 16,000 floral shops and greenhouses. So these days, flowers can be ordered despite geographical space sending healing thoughts with them.
So if you don’t already have house plants and are feeling a little blue, try going green and growing your own mini greenhouse to improve your mental health.
Works cited:
Barnes, Myron. Bicentennial Sketches. Seneca County Digital Library.
Baughman, A.J. Seneca County History Volume 2. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/17464/rec/1
“A Brief History of the Victorian Glasshouse. May 20, 2019. https://grimsdyke.com/brief-history-victorian-glasshouse/#:~:text=The%20greenhouse%2C%20otherwise%20known%20as,and%20valuable%20plants%20did%20too.
Brookwell, Joan. “Horticulture-Victorian Style.” South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Aug. 21, 1987. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1987-08-21-8703080852-story.html
Calvert High School. Yearbook Calvertana 1980. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/18133/rec/1
DerSarkissian, Carol. Nov 4, 2021. “Health Benefits of House Plants.” WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/ss/slideshow-health-benefits-houseplants
Howe, Barbara. Building of the Week. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/28007/rec/1
Jr. O.U.A.M. Alumni. The Junior Homekid December 1995. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/48784/rec/1
Junior Order of United American Mechanics Home, Tiffin (Ohio). History of the National Orphans Home. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/4339/rec/1
Lincoln Elementary. Lincoln School News May 1961. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/48355/rec/1
Victoriana Magazine. “Victorian Greenhouse.” http://www.victoriana.com/Garden_Design/victoriangreenhouse.html
Wilson, Lisa F. Jan. 9, 2018. “What Does FTD stand for in the Flower Business?” Garden Guides. https://www.gardenguides.com/facts-5305561-ftd-stand-flower-business.html
Yearbook Columbian Blue and Gold 1923. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/1154/rec/1
Young, Rodney O. Junior Home Rodney O. Young speech June 2016. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/48204/rec/1