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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/gardening/features/6295948.html

MADALENE HILL 1913-2009

Revered herbalist wrote must-have gardening book

Pioneering gardener Madalene Hill dies

By KATHY HUBER

Madalene Hill, revered pioneer of herb gardening, died Thursday in Brenham after a short illness. She was 95.

Hill was co-author of Southern Herb Growing (Shearer Publishing, $29.95) with her daughter, fellow herbalist and chef Gwen Barclay and editor-writer Jean Hardy. The book has been a must for Texas gardeners since its publication in 1987.

A past president of the Herb Society of America, Hill was a founding member of the organizations Houston-based South Texas Unit and Pioneer Unit in Round Top. Since 1993, she also was curator of the McAshan Herb Gardens at Festival-Institute in Round Top. Always the enthusiastic educator, she and Barclay led seminars there and across the country emphasizing herbs as living links between past and present.

Herbs, Hill told the Chronicle in 2005, are among the oldest cultivated plants in the world. Herbs are still growing wild in some areas. Some natural hybridizing has occurred, but basically these are the same plants that our ancestors knew and used.

The American Horticultural Society recognized Hill in 2006 for extraordinary and dedicated efforts in the field of horticulture.

Her willingness to share her knowledge influenced many through the years.

Madalene was an entrepreneur, a plantsman, a mentor, an exacting teacher, a gardener, an unending font of garden descriptions from her travels around the world and the history of how herbs came to Texas, said Lois Sutton, HSA board president.

Longtime Houston herbalist Lucia Bettler recalls being captivated 35 years ago by Hilltop Herb Farm, the popular business Hill and her late husband Jim built near Cleveland, Texas. Hill not only grew and sold herbs, she used them in her cooking, which was revolutionary at the time. Madalene was always driving in teaching people to use herbs -- and to take delight in using them, Bettler said.

Festival-Institute horticulturist Henry Flowers credits Hill for his passion for herbs. He was amazed by her continuous search for herbs that withstand Southern heat. Hills efforts disproved naysayers who thought lavender and culinary sage wouldn't grow at McAshan Gardens, where more than 100 rosemaries also grow now in the themed gardens. Among them, Arp, the cold-hardy rosemary Hill discovered decades ago on a snowy January day in Arp, Texas, and 'Hill Hardy, an excellent upright type named for the herbalist. These are among seven herbs discovered or introduced by Hill.

The Knot Garden at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., was dedicated to Hill by Houston benefactors Maurice and Susan McAshan in the 1980s. The Arbor Gate in Tomball dedicated its Madalene Hill Herb Garden in 2005.

A native of Rock Island, Texas, Hill leaves her daughter, a sister and several grandchildren.

kathy.huber@chron.com

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