Thalassa Cruso

Thalassa Cruso was born in London in 1909 as the daughter of Henry and Mildred Cruso. Her parents were passionate hobby gardeners and Cruso developed already in her childhood a keen interest in gardening and working outdoors. After high school, she studied archaeology and later attended London School of Economics, receiving her diploma in 1931 and soon landed a position as Assistant to the Director of the Museum of London, primarily working with the collection of historical garments. Later she led an excavation of an Iron Age dig in Bredon Hill, Worcestershire. There she also met the American archaeologist Hugh O'Neill Hencken . In 1935, the two married and Cruso followed her husband to the United States, where she moved to Boston . The marriage produced three daughters. Cruso then devoted herself to the education of their children. As part of a visit to her brother in the UK, Cruso came up with the idea to host her own garden show. On brief local insertions between television programs, followed by regular appearances tonight show. From 1966 to 1969 she hosted her own weekly garden show Making Things Grow. In the early 1970s she hosted a household show Making Things Work . In addition to her television career, she wrote a gardening column for 22 years in the Boston Globe and published several books.