09/04/2026
The remarkable Isabella Preston was born on September 4, 1881.
Did you take a stroll through Ottawa’s Arboretum to enjoy the spectacular blossoms this year? Or, perhaps, were the trees in your own yard ablaze in colour?
For hundreds of varieties of crabapples, lilacs and other flowering ornamentals found in our neighbourhoods and public spaces, we have Isabella Preston to thank.
Isabella Preston, the first female horticulturalist hired by the Canadian government, began her 26-year career at Ottawa’s Central Experimental Farm in 1920.
Despite having already established a reputation as an expert plant breeder, Preston could only get hired on initially as a “day labourer” due to civil service hiring policies at the time that discriminated against women.
In practice, however, Preston immediately began experimental work, eventually rising to appointment as Dominion Horticulturalist, defying gender expectations of that era.
Isabella Preston went on to develop over 200 hybrids, working primarily with roses, lilacs, irises, columbines, crab apples and lilies — all disease-resistant and bred to stand up to to harsh Canadian conditions.
Preston’s extraordinary achievements, in what had been the male-dominated field of horticulture, have been recognized around the world.
Learn more from the “Friends of the Farm” website:
https://www.friendsofthefarm.ca/lilacs/lilachistcef.htm
(Photo courtesy of Royal Botanical Gardens)
