Pioneer Information
Born in New York City, Shelton lived much of her life in Morristown, New Jersey, having moved there in 1888. She designed a garden at her Morristown home, using this gardening experience to write her first three books. Her first, The Seasons in a Flower Garden: A Handbook for the Amateur, was published in 1906 and was revised and reprinted for two decades. A simple how-to book, it was well-suited to the increasing number of new gardeners. Subsequent books include a practical guide to annuals and perennials entitled Continuous Bloom in America (1915), and her most important work, Beautiful Gardens in America (1915 and 1924). Shelton did little writing for magazines, her major influence being through the careful choosing of gardens that appeared in her third book. Within it she included photographs of notable American gardens, making her a significant tastemaker. Like many advanced amateur gardeners at the time, Shelton preferred mixed groupings of plants arranged in beds having a formal outline, whose designs derived from geometry or architecture.
Very active in social work in Morristown, Shelton served as president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC), and was a member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), the Central Bureau of Social Service (which she helped organize in 1913), and the Garden Club of Morristown. She died of pneumonia and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown, New Jersey.