Margaret R. Moseley

1916 - 2015

Margaret R. Moseley
May 28, 1916 - April 28, 2015
Decatur, GA- Well known gardener, Margaret R. Moseley, 98.
One of gardening's most colorful characters, Margaret Rainwater Moseley, 98, died April 28, 2015 at her home in Decatur. Born May 28, 1916, in Greene County, Georgia, Margaret grew up in DeKalb County and graduated from Commercial High School in downtown Atlanta. She was the daughter of George F. and Mary Carolyn Channell Rainwater of Greensboro. She was preceded in death in 2004 by her husband, James Lamar Moseley.
In 1965, the Moseleys moved to Wesley Chapel Road, where, at age 52, Margaret started what would become one of the best-known private gardens in the Southeast. Her story appeared for the first time in the Home & Garden section of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1994, when Margaret was 78. Soon afterwards, tour busses began to arrive, along with the media and numerous garden groups. Her garden appeared on the cover of the May 2000 issue of Southern Living magazine and on both the hard cover and paperback editions of the Southern Living 2001 Garden Annual book. Articles on her garden were also published in Better Homes and Gardens, Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles and Atlanta Magazine.
In 1996, the first of two episodes of HGTV's A Gardener's Diary featuring Margaret's garden aired on national television. She received fan mail from all over the world and developed friendships with gardeners from as far away as Australia.
Margaret was a charter member of the American Hydrangea Society, founded by her close friend Penny McHenry, The Hydrangea Lady. The two often appeared together at various retail garden centers, dispensing advice and recommending garden plants that would grow successfully in Atlanta. Stories about Margaret regularly appeared in the pages of the Atlanta newspapers for over a decade. She was the cover story for the Home and Garden section on January 20, 2000, showing her with a basket full of her famous camellias. She was noted for her extensive collections of viburnums, hydrangeas and fall-blooming sasanquas, as well as for beds brimming year-round with perennials, bulbs, flowering trees and shrubs.
A book published in 2014, Margaret Moseley's A Garden to Remember by longtime AJC columnist Martha Tate, tells the story of the remarkable garden Margaret created from scratch. Among the many colorful photographs in the book are three special plants of unknown origin: the Greene County rose she rooted from her grandmother's homeplace, the Cemetary Gardenia from a cutting taken at a rural Henry County graveyard and Hydrangea macrophylla 'Margaret Moseley', a white-flowering shrub that has been in her garden for 53 years.
Margaret was known for her sense of humor and for her generosity in sharing her plants and welcoming visitors to her garden. Her passion for gardening has been a source of inspiration for young and old and especially for people who had careers and were raising children with no time to garden until middle age. Many journalists described her as "a garden writer's dream." Her enthusiasm for gardening would inspire such quotes as, "I'd get so excited about a plant, I'd just have to have it. Then I'd have to go to bed to think about where to plant it."
She is survived by four daughters, Betty Luce (Mrs. Albert) of Macon and granddaughter, Karen Parrott, husband Stephen and great-grandchildren Jessica, Sam and Bonnie Parrott of Spartanburg, SC; granddaughter, Bonnie Best of Atlanta; and great-grandchildren, Tucker Best and Sara Best; and grandson, William D. Ramsbottom, JR. of Macon, wife Nicole and great-grandchildren, Sloane, London and Tres Ann. Also daughters, Carol Harris of Decatur, Jane Byrd of Alpharetta and Joan Carter of Atlanta,
Visitation will be held at 11 o'clock on Saturday, May 2, at A. S. Turner Funeral Home in Decatur. Funeral services will follow at 1:00 in the chapel with the Reverend Donna Mote officiating. Interment will be afterwards at Fairview Memorial Gardens, Ellenwood.