Donald Wyman was an American horticulturist, the head of horticulture at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

's Arnold Arboretum (1935/36—1970), and the author of many books, including Wyman's Garden Encyclopedia (1976). Wyman served as president and director of the American Horticultural Society

American Horticultural Society

The American Horticultural Society is a nonprofit, membership-based organization that promotes excellence in American horticulture. It is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia....

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He took a bachelor's degree in horticulture from Pennsylvania State College (1926) and a master's in forestry (1933), then a PhD in horticulture at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 (1935)

At the Arnold Arboretum he departed from the original method of planting by botanical association, to mark vistas and turns with specimen trees, and was energetic in acquiring seeds of many species that he introduced to American horticulture. He retired in 1970.

He received the George Robert White Medal from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society

Massachusetts Horticultural Society

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, sometimes abbreviated to MassHort, is an American horticultural society based in Massachusetts. It describes itself as the oldest, formally-organized horticultural institution in the United States...

 (1970), the Veitch Memorial Medal

The Veitch Memorial Medal

The Veitch Memorial Medal, is a prestigious international prize issued annually by the Royal Horticultural Society .-Goal:The prize is awarded to "persons of any nationality who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement of the science and practice of horticulture"...

 from the Royal Horticultural Society

Royal Horticultural Society

The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...

 (1969) and the Medal of Honor from the Garden Clubs of America (1965).

Selected works

Aside from hundreds of professional articles in the Arboretum's journal Arnoldia he published

• Shrubs and Vines for American Gardens (1949, 3rd rev. ed 1969)
• Trees for American Gardens (1951, 1972, 1977)
• The Arnold Arboretum Garden Book (1954)
• Ground Cover Plants (1956)
• The Saturday Morning Gardener: A Guide to Once-A-Week Maintenance (1974)
• Dwarf Shrubs: Maintenance-free woody plants for today's gardens (1975)