{{short description|American gardener}} {{more citations needed|date=July 2015}} {{use American English|date=July 2015}} {{use mdy dates|date=July 2015}} {{Infobox person | name = Rae Selling Berry | image = | alt = alt | caption = | other_names = | birth_name = | birth_date = January 21, 1881 | birth_place = Portland, Oregon | death_date = October 9, 1976 | death_place = | occupation = Gardener and Horticulturist | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }}
'''Rae Selling Berry''' (January 21, 1881 – October 9, 1976) was an American gardener and horticulturist.
==Early life== Berry, the daughter of Ben Selling and Mathilda Hess, grew up in Portland, Oregon.<ref name="History" /> Her father was a philanthropist, politician, and well-known civic leader in Portland's Jewish community.<ref name="History" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Friedman |first=Elaine S. |date=7 September 2022 |title=Ben Selling (1852-1931) |url=https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/selling_ben_1852_1931_/ |access-date=30 September 2024 |website=Oregon Encyclopedia}}</ref> She began to lose her hearing at a young age, and learned to lip read in order to understand the people around her.<ref name="History" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Mershon |first=Helen L. |date=23 April 1984 |title=Dunthorpe Garden Tour includes Rae Selling Berry's plant kingdom |work=The Oregonian |pages=55}}</ref> In 1899, she went on a world tour.<ref name=":0">{{cite news|author1= Godfrey, Louise |title=A Woman, A Garden, An Organization: The Berry Botanic Garden at 25|url=http://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/the-berry-botanic-garden-at-twenty-five/|work=Pacific Horticulture|access-date= March 6, 2015|date= April 2002}}</ref> She married Alfred C. Urmston Berry on December 17, 1901.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 December 1901 |title=Married At Trinity |url=https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83025138/1901-12-19/ed-1/seq-12/ |access-date=30 September 2024 |work=The Oregonian}}</ref> He was a contractor who became the superintendent of the Portland International Airport.<ref name="History" />
==Career== For more than thirty years, the couple and their three children lived in northeast Portland's Irvington neighborhood, where Berry developed an interest in plants. Reading about plant expeditions to Europe and Asia, she began to provide financial support for the expeditions and through them to obtain seeds.<ref name="History" /> The Oregonian profiled her garden in 1922 and noted her extensive collection of at least nine primrose species. Many of Berry's primroses were grown from seeds imported from England.<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 July 1922 |title=Flowers for Home and Garden |work=The Oregonian}}</ref>
By the mid-1930s, Berry had run out of room for her plants in Irvington, and the couple moved to "a bowl-shaped site nestled near the top of a hill".<ref name="History" /> The property, Berry Botanic Garden, just north of Lake Oswego, included a variety of habitats and terrain, and was partly covered with second-growth Douglas fir.<ref name="History" />
In developing the garden, Berry focused on "exceptional plants",<ref name = "History"/> particularly ''rhododendrons'', ''primulas'', and alpines. In 1964, the Garden Club of America awarded her the Florens DeBevoise Medal for her knowledge of plants. In 1965, she won the American Rhododendron Society's first Award of Excellence given to a woman, and she was honored for her work by the American Rock Garden Society.<ref>{{cite news|title=Rae Selling Berry, 1880–1976|url=http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v31n1/v31n1-grothaus.htm|access-date= March 6, 2015|work= Journal American Rhododendron Society}}</ref>
Berry continued to expand her collection past the age of 80, taking field trips in search of Oregon's only primrose, ''Primula cusickiana'' (Cusick's primrose). At age 90, she was still planting seeds in the gardens, and died at home at age 96.<ref name="History">{{dead link|date=July 2015}} {{cite web | title = History of the Berry Botanic Garden | publisher = Berry Botanic Garden | url = http://www.berrybot.org/administration/history.html | access-date = January 23, 2010 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20100507174905/http://www.berrybot.org/administration/history.html | archivedate = May 7, 2010 | df = mdy-all }}</ref>
==See also== {{portal|Biography|Gardening|Oregon}} * List of people from Portland, Oregon {{clear}}
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Rae Selling}} Category:1881 births Category:1976 deaths Category:American gardeners Category:American horticulturists Category:Irvington, Portland, Oregon Category:American women founders Category:American founders Category:Women horticulturists and gardeners Category:20th-century American women scientists Category:Scientists from Portland, Oregon