# @ahs_gardening on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DN6uTAoE7ZJ
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/55035809-ahs-gardening-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/e5b4ee6cef.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-08-28T23:43:23.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** American Horticultural Society | American Gardener Magazine (@ahs_gardening) — https://gondola.cc/ahs_gardening

## Caption

Boston vs. New York: The Flower Fight You Didn’t Know About 🌸🥊⁠
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Forget Fenway vs. Yankee Stadium—at the turn of the 20th century, Boston and New York duked it out over… a carnation.⁠
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Boston financier Thomas W. Lawson wasn’t about to let a prize bloom slip away to New York or Chicago. In 1900, he shelled out $30,000 - the equivalent of $1.2 million today - to keep a carnation variety firmly rooted in Boston. ⁠
Why? ⁠
Because, in his words, he couldn’t stand the idea of it going to the “hurly-burly modern Babylons” down the coast. (AKA NYC)⁠
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And then, in true Boston fashion, he went off the rails. Lawson declared that the carnation’s pink was “found nowhere but on the rosy cheeks of Boston maidens” and that its “big, generous fullness” reminded him of “the white-aproned, Saturday-doughnut-frying mothers of the Cape.” ⁠
And after this sentimental smack-talk, he threw down a gauntlet: $5,000 to anyone who could breed a finer carnation within a year, plus $30,000 for their whole crop. (No one won.)⁠
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It was part horticulture, part marketing genius, and part American-style tulip mania. For a brief moment, “Lawson pink” was everywhere—on linens, in ads, in shop windows. New York might have had the financial markets, but Boston had the floral ones cornered.⁠
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The craze faded by the 1920s, but the story lives on as a reminder that rivalry isn’t always about baseball stats or skyscrapers—sometimes it’s about a flower that became a symbol of civic pride and marketing bravado. 🌸⚾️⁠
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Not a member? Visit connect.ahsgardening.org/join to become a member and enjoy access to all American Gardener issues, including those issued in the last two years. ⁠
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If you enjoyed Amanda’s writing, check out her new book, “Place Names in Boston and Beyond: Tongue-Twisted Town Tales,” a collection of hilarious, inspiring, and delightful untold stories that Bay Staters will find both surprising and informative. ⁠
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arcadia_publishing⁠
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#Carnation #AHSgardening #AmericanGardener #VictorianGardens #Gardening #GildedAge #TulipMania

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## Tags

victoriangardens, gardening, ahsgardening, tulipmania, gildedage, carnation, americangardener

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