Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon offered seed for Canterbury Bells in his 1804 broadside catalogue and Jefferson recorded sowing “Bellflower” along with White Poppy and African Marigold seeds on April 8, 1812. The plant is native to the Pyrenees and southern Europe, where it has been in cultivation since at least the sixteenth century. Canterbury Bells were among the first imported flowers grown in colonial American gardens and the earliest American citation was in 1760 from the J. Townley Seed Company in Boston.
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