Why are We Called “The Garden State?” Spring Gardens- History and Happenings

Most people think they know New Jersey. They picture highways, traffic, and a place you pass through on the way to somewhere else. But if you could step back into the mid 1800s, you’d see a very different state unfolding in front of you… You’d see a garden.

Not a small one, but a vast, working landscape of peach orchards, cornfields, and rows of vegetables stretching across rich soil. Farms filled the space between New York and Philadelphia, and every day, wagons and railcars carried fresh food from New Jersey fields straight into those growing cities. This wasn’t just farmland; it was a lifeline, quietly feeding a region on the rise.

In 1876, during the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, that reality was captured in a single unforgettable moment. A New Jersey lawyer and politician, Abraham Browning, stood before a national audience and described his state as “an immense barrel filled with good things to eat, and open at both ends.” It was a simple image, but it said everything. New Jersey, he was saying, was perfectly placed to supply two great cities, and it was doing exactly that.

Browning lived and worked primarily in Camden, where he was part of the city’s legal and civic leadership during its growth in the 1800s. Camden was his home base throughout his professional life, and he remained closely tied to it until his death in 1889. What’s ironic is that Browning had no direct personal ties to gardening, farming, or agriculture as a profession. He was a lawyer and public speaker. So the “Garden State” idea did not come from his lifestyle. It came from what he observed and how he described it. At the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, every state essentially showcased its strengths to the nation and the world. Interesting how things happen and how they stick.

The line stayed with people because it rang true. Over the following years, as New Jersey’s reputation for fertile land and abundant crops continued to grow, so did the nickname that naturally followed, “The Garden State.” It wasn’t invented by a committee or dreamed up for tourism. It came from the land itself and from the people who worked it season after season.

By the time the state officially adopted the nickname in 1954, even over the objections of Governor Robert B. Meyner, the decision felt almost beside the point. The name had already been in use for decades, rooted in identity rather than policy.

And that’s the part most people miss. But not you!

“The Garden State” isn’t just a nickname. It’s a reminder of what New Jersey once was at its core (and still is), a place that grew, supplied, and sustained far more than itself. And once you see it that way, it becomes a lot harder to think of it as just somewhere you drive through.

Check out our post and videos on some of the best historic Garden State gardens worth visiting:

• Bernardsville – Cross Estate Gardens (Our sentimental local favorite)
• Bernardsville – Peony’s Envy Display Garden
• Cream Ridge – Holland Ridge Farms (Largest tulip garden in New Jersey)
• Far Hills – Leonard J Buck Garden
• Far Hills – Willowwood Arboretum
• Hillsborough – Meditation Garden at Duke Farms
• Millstone – Rudolf W. van der Goot Rose Garden
• Montclair – Howard Van Vleck Estate
• Morristown – Macculloch Hall Garden & Museum
• Morristown –  Frelinghuysen Arboretum
• Short Hills – Greenwood Gardens
• Short Hills – Greenwood Gardens (100 years of historic structures)
• Summit – Reeves-Reed Arboretum
• Princeton – Drumthwacket
• Union – Liberty Hall Garden
• Westfield – Mindowaskin Wall of Daffodils

Springtime History and Happenings

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