Heath, Fannie Mahood, 1864-1931

Fannie Mahood Heath was born in Wykoff, Minnesota. After she married Frank Heath, she moved in 1880 to Grand Forks, ND at the age of 17 where they homesteaded west of the city. Upon arriving, she decided that the farm needed protection from the wind. She first planted lilac bushes and fir saplings. The firs quickly died, but the lilac trees survived. She later learned that their farmstead was on a heavy alkaline area. The Heaths decided to discover what plants grew well on their farm. They also tried different things to try to neutralize the soil. The most radical method that they used was to pour vinegar on the ground. The vinegar would react with the alkaline in the soil and bubble. Fannie knew the soil was neutral when it stopped bubbling. She discovered later that she was the first person to use this process. She raised a son, Frank, and a daughter, Pearl. Her son, Frank, died in 1902. Fannie began to correspond with different people. In 1923 C. B. Warden published "Perennial Flowers in North Dakota" with Fannie as co-author. Besides simply corresponding with people, she exchanged seeds with them. She collected seeds from all across America to Norway, to England, and even China. In her seed exchanges, she formed a special relationship with T. Hay, the superintendent of the Kew Gardens in London, England. Fannie decided to do something about this lack of appreciation for American wildflowers. She wrote articles for Park's Floral, Nature, National Geographic and Botanist magazines on the value and beauty of growing native plants. She died on September 29, 1931 at the age of 67. In 1933, the 'Century of Progress' Exposition in Chicago included an exhibit of photographs of Fannie and her garden, proclaiming her the "Flower Woman of North Dakota"

Horticulturalist.