Isabella Preston

Isabella Preston (September 4, 1881 - January 31, 1965) was a horticulturist and public servant widely recognized for her achievements in plant hybridization and extensive work in ornamental plant breeding. She is Canada’s first female professional plant breeder. During her 26-year career, she produced nearly 200 new hardy hybrids of lily, lilac, crab apple, iris and rose plants for Canada's cold climate. While female plant breeders were rather rare in her day, she quietly challenged gender bias and set the stage for new generations of breeding programs at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and elsewhere. Early life and education Isabella Preston was born on 4 September 1881 in Lancaster, England where her father worked as a silversmith. As a child, she attended boarding school in Liverpool and later studied at the University of London. She gardened from an early age, helping her father on the family farm. Her only formal education in horticulture was obtained through a course at Swanley Horticulture College in Kent which she completed before emigrating to Canada in 1912. She was 31 years old when she and her sister Margaret immigrated to Canada following the death of their mother. Margaret had accepted a position as a music teacher in Guelph, Ontario, and encouraged Preston to join her. Preston found her first job in Guelph picking plums, peaches, and raspberries on a fruit farm. She enrolled at the Ontario Agricultural College the same year to study plant breeding and was one of the few women pursuing the subject at the time. Within her first year, Preston transitioned from class-based study to hands-on work under the supervision of under James W. Crow, then head of the Department of Horticulture. In 1913, Crow hired her full-time to work in the greenhouses. Career Throughout World War I, plant breeders intensified their focus on fruit and vegetable plants. Government campaigns urged increased production in order to feed military personnel. Preston worked on breeding fruit that ripened quickly and was more resistant to insects and disease. From her enrollment at the OAC until 1920, Preston contributed to the successful breeding of various vegetables, fruits and ornamental plants including garden lilies. She gained international recognition by introducing the acclaimed "George C. Creelman" lily and became the first professional woman hybridist in Canada in 1916. This was accomplished in 1919, when she crossed two lilies, L.