Mrs. Adelaide Chapin: Sigman Byrd’s florist of choice
On October 1, 1947, Sigman Byrd told his readers that the only florist he’d purchase hydrangeas from would be that of Mrs. Adelaide Chapin. Hydrangeas weren’t Mrs. Chapin’s only specialty however, as she tenderly cultivated carmelias, azaleas, plumbago, and magnolia trees, the latter of which spurred her interest in a floral career.
Mrs Chapin, anthophile and wife of Fred Chapin, was born in 1877 and started her floral business in 1942. She divided the location of her floral business between her home nursery and a stall at the Downtown Farmer’s Market. She had a keen eye for plants and trees, and the character they exuded, using this as the basis for her selection. According to Sigman, “Mrs. Chapin explained that you judge a tree’s character as you do a man’s, by his bearing, posture, and dress.”
She must have been without a doubt one of the finest judges of floral character in the city of Houston at the time, as Byrd claimed the residents of River Oaks bought her magnolia trees with the same urgency as “U.S. steel.” Additionally, as if her perspective on floral matters and seemingly lovely personality weren’t enough to warrant a mention in Byrd’s The Stroller, she was also a natural poet whose poems, “came to her like falling petals.”
In a lovely vale secluded, where
One of Mrs. Adelaide’s poems
the great magnolias wave,
There was born within my soul
that day the courage of the
brave.
Mrs. Adelaide Chapin passed away in 1963 at the age of 86, 16 years after Byrd’s article was printed. While her home and nursery at 1421 W 26th no longer exists we can take solace in the fact that many of her seedlings are thriving throughout Houston today, particularly in River Oaks.