Conclusion

This concluding chapter addresses how the plant trade, forever transformed by San Jose scale-related legislation, never again reached its continental range of the nineteenth century. After the Armistice, sales never rebounded to the peak levels reached through city beautification initiatives before the First World War. US nurserymen found themselves anxious about the future of their businesses. Ultimately, a history of nineteenth-century plant nurserymen reminds us of the unmistakable power of nature to shape, alter, and undo humanity's grandest plans. Even those horticulturists who believed their firms could prompt Americans to plant a garden or orchard, who epitomized leading environmental thought for their day, ultimately became undone by the ecological ramifications of their professional ideology. Desiring profits as well as environmental transformation of the North American landscape, nurserymen and their businesses created new ecological calamities that hurt countless growers, in the process undercutting the owners' reputations in the eyes of their consumers. Their unquestioned drive for profit became the impetus for their financial downfall. Nevertheless, the history of the US landscape cannot be told without acknowledging the visions, efforts, and the failures of plant nurserymen of Flower City who so drastically shaped its current form.