It started in February 1941, when Nell Montgomery had a rummage sale at her home to raise money to buy a truck for the garden. She began a tradition that has brought hundreds of thousands of visitors to Fairchild. Back then in the 1940s, Miami's social season opened with the Ramble. Ladies in hats and aprons brought their tropical jams and jellies to be admired and to sell. Gentlemen barbequed chicken on the Garden House Lawn (plate lunches were 65 c). The treasures at the antiques booth ranged fromcrystal chandeliers and antique maps, first edition books and sets of Wedgewood china. Above all there were the plants—the core of Fairchild. At the beginning seeds were given away, and as the Ramble and the garden grew, so did the plants. The selectionhas always included flowering trees, shrubs, vines, orchids and aroids. Many of the magnificent garden landscapes you see in Miami today, originated in those long-ago plant expeditions of David Fairchild, and the success of their introductions at the Ramble.
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