| Margaret Moffat Elder | |
| Birth Date: | 17 July 1893 |
| Birth Place: | Portobello, Scotland |
| Death Date: | 25 December 1985 |
| Death Place: | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Education: | First class certificate in horticultureEdinburgh School of Gardening for Women in Corstorphine1912 |
| Known For: | Pioneering female gardener, writer |
| Mother: | Margaret Virtue |
| Father: | John Elder |
Margaret Moffat (Madge) Elder (17 July 1893 – 25 December 1985) was a Scottish gardener, plant nursery owner, writer and feminist.[1] She published two books on the history and folklore of the Scottish Borders,[2] [3] [4] as well as regular articles for the Weekly Scotsman and The Scots Magazine. She recognised similarities between the suffrage movement and pioneering women gardeners.[5]
Madge Elder was born in Portobello, near Edinburgh, on 17 July 1893 to Margaret Virtue and John Elder, a marine engineer. She was brought up on a farm in Berwickshire and educated at Gordon village school. She was solely reliant on lip-reading for communication due to deafness.
At the age of 19, she was in one of the first classes to graduate from Scotland's first horticultural college for women: the Edinburgh School of Gardening for Women in Corstorphine,[6] graduating with a first-class certificate in horticulture. Elder held gardening positions at the Priory in Melrose and joined the Duke of Buccleuch’s estate at Bowhill in 1918 [7] as head gardener under the red cross.[8]
Madge Elder retired from gardening in 1948 to become a writer.
Madge wrote three works during her lifetime[9]