Henderson County Historical Society

On display at the Henderson County Museum is an 18 x 30 seed wreath made by Elizabeth Moody Dennis in 1875.

Seed wreaths were a style of 19th-century Victorian parlour art and North American folk art where intricate, three-dimensional flowers were meticulously handcrafted using natural materials like seeds, nuts, grains, and wire.

A document, accompanying the wreath, includes excerpts of a letter from “Aunt Lib” to John Green, dated February 5, 1939, some 54 years after she made it.  Apparently, John had inquired in previous correspondence about the wreath.  

“Now, about the wreath.  I can't tell so much about it. But if I could see it, I could tell what each seed was.”

“I had a neighbor in Iowa who made a wreath, something like it, but it didn't suit me.”

“I gathered little boxes of seed, all summer. I had boxes all over the house. I waited until winter to make the wreath when I had more time.”

“The lilies are made of rice.  One seed at a time to do the trick.” 

“I would look at the flowers and try to imitate them as near as I could.”

Fun Fact:  Seeds extracted from this 150 year old wreath would likely still germinate. The oldest known seed on Earth to be successfully germinated into a living, flowering plant is a 32,000-year-old seed found in 2007 buried deep within Siberian permafrost along the banks of the Kolyma River in Russia.