John Caspar Wister

John Caspar Wister (March 19, 1887 – December 27, 1982) was one of the United States' most highly honored horticulturists.

A member of Philadelphia's prominent Wister family, John was the youngest of five children born to William Rotch Wister and Mary Rebecca Eustis in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. His sister Mary Channing Wister would marry her cousin Owen Wister, the author of "The Virginian".

As a small boy, John followed his family's gardener around their Belfield and Wister Estates, trying to learn anything and everything he could about plants.

In 1909, Wister graduated from Harvard University. He continued his studies at Harvard’s School of Landscape Architecture, supplemented with courses at the New Jersey Agricultural College. He worked in landscape architecture offices in New York and Philadelphia until he enlisted on July 10, 1917, as a private in the Army.

Wister trained at the University of Pennsylvania and at Augusta Arsenal before serving in Jonchery, France, with Advance Ordnance Depot 4 during in World War I. According to letters he wrote to his family during the war, Wister served most of his time in various ordnance departments, being promoted to Sergeant of Ordnance in November 1917. Wister never strayed far from plants and flowers, using his leave time to visit the gardens of Europe. He would often send plants back to his friends, the Arthur Hoyt Scotts, noted garden enthusiasts whom he met in 1915. He was honorably discharged from the Army on May 10, 1919.

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