Plants in Early American Gardens - White Balloon Flower

White Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorus 'Albus')

Indigenous to China and Japan, Platycodon grandiflorus, the only species in the genus, was grown in European gardens by 1782. Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon included Campanula grandiflora (syn. Platycodon grandiflorus) in the General Catalogue of his American Gardener’s Calendar (1806). ‘Albus,’ the white variety of balloon flower, was first offered by the Ohio nursery Storrs, Harrison, & Co. in 1896. The botanical name is from the Greek platys, meaning “broad,” and kodon, meaning “bell,” in reference to the showy flowers.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Wild Blue Phlox

Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata)

This North American species was introduced to British and European gardens as Phlox Canadensis in 1746. Bernard McMahon listed it as the “early flowering phlox” in the 1806 edition of his book, The American Gardener’s Calendar. In The American Flower Garden Directory, 1839, nurseryman, florist, and author Robert Buist considered the American genus Phlox to be one of the most handsome in cultivation. Buist included the Wild Sweet William among the species he considered the finest. The flowers are attractive to butterflies.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Bare Root Blue Damson Plum

Bare Root Blue Damson Plum ( Prunus insititia)

The name Damson derives from the Latin Prunus damascenum, “Plum of Damascus,” where the species was believed to have originated before its introduction into England and Ireland. In 1778 Thomas Jefferson planted a number of fruits, including the “Damascene” plum in the south-facing orchard at Monticello. The Damson was brought to America by English settlers long before the American Revolution and was a favorite of the early colonist. The tart fruits are especially desirable in jams and jellies. Bees are essential for good pollination and abundant fruit production.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Chickasaw Plum

Bare Root Chickasaw Plum (Prunus angustifolia)

Called “Cherokee plumb” by Thomas Jefferson, this tough, prolific fruit tree is native to the southern United States. Jefferson received this plum from nurseryman Robert Bailey of Washington and planted it at Monticello on March 17 and 18, 1812. He also included it in a list of edible native plants in his book, Notes on the State of Virginia (1780s). The tart, acidic fruits are best when cooked or preserved, and are also attractive to birds. The mass of white flowers in spring are magnets for bees and butterflies.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Ducher China Rose

'Ducher' China Rose (Rosa x chinensis cv.)

Formerly called Rosa indica ‘Ducher’ and Bengale Ducher, this white China rose was bred by Jean-Claude Ducher (1829-1874), of Lyon, France, and introduced in 1869. Like most China roses, ‘Ducher’ flowers in flushes throughout the season, but most reliably if the spent blossoms are removed; otherwise it will produce persistent, orange-red hips. The China roses bloom on new wood, so prune early to promote growth and flowering.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Mutabilis Rose

'Mutabilis' Rose (Rosa chinensis cv.)

‘Mutabilis’, also known as ‘Tipo Ideale’, is likely an old Chinese garden hybrid of mysterious origins. It was introduced to the West before 1894. The silken flowers are constantly transforming from copper-orange buds to lustrous pale peach when opened. Because the flowers are delicately poised on their stems, the rose is also called “the butterfly rose.” It is often associated with old Southern gardens and thrives in the Deep South.

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Holding on to The Sweet Divine - Flower Still Lifes Instead of Real Flowers in the 17C

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Abraham de Lust (Flemish artist, active mid 17th century) Flower Still Life

Now an abundant everyday item, cut flowers were prized luxuries in 17th-century Europe, England, and her colonies. Only the most affluent could afford to have them in their homes and gardens. That is why early explorers of Atlantic America described the flowers growing wild in the new colonies so carefully. A general growing prosperity in Europe during the course of the 17th century, however, eventually caused flower gardens to become more popular. The garden was considered an extension of the home and vice versa, with garden bouquets often decorating the home.

Abraham Mignon (Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1640-1679) Hanging Bouquet of Flowers

Introduced from Asia around 1600, the anemone, crocus, hyacinth and tulips were immensely popular in Europe. The Dutch trade in flower bulbs, tulips in particular, proved a highly lucrative business. In around 1630, at the height of ‘Tulip Mania,’ an exceptional tulip bulb could cost as much as an entire house on a Dutch canal.

Alexander Adriaenssen (Flemish Baroque Era painter, 1587-1661) Flowers in Glass Vase

The average citizen simply could not afford a bouquet for home. The first flower still lifes appeared in the Netherlands during the early 1600s, as a means of meeting the demand for flowers. A painting of a flower was much less expensive than an actual bouquet and lasted for generations instead of days. Many early flower still life painters were German, Dutch, and Flemish. Some trained there, then moved throughout Europe and sailed to England, as the popularity of the genre spread.

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1573-1621) Glass with Four Tulips 1615

Flower still lifes were still in vogue during the 18th and 19th centuries, when the rise of large-scale commercial bulb-growing transformed the Netherlands into the flower nation that it remains to this day. Now bulbs are exported around the world.

Balthasar van der Ast (Dutch Baroque painter, 1593-94–1657) Still Life with Flowers 1632

Cornelis de Heem (Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1631-1695) Still Life with Bird

Elias van den Broeck (Dutch Baroque painter, 1649–1708) Vase of Flowers

Jacob Marrel (Dutch Baroque Era Painter, ca.1613-1681) Flower Study

Jan Davidsz. de Heem (Dutch Baroque painter, 1606-1683-84) Still Life

Jan Philip van Thielen (Flemish Baroque painter, 1618–1667) Still Life of Flowers

Jan van Kessel (Antwerp, 1626-idem, 1679) Still Life

Maria van Oosterwyck (Oosterwijck) (Dutch Baroque painter, 1630-1693) Flower Still Life 1669

Peter Binoit (German artist, fl 1611-1620) Flowers in a Glass Beaker 1620

Roelandt Savery (Flemish Northern Renaissance painter, 1576-1639) Flowers in a Niche 1611

Simon Verelst (Dutch Baroque Era Painter, c 1644-1721) Flowers in a Vase 1669

Willem van Aelst (Dutch artist, 1627-1683) Flower Still Life 1656

Plants in Early American Gardens - Short-Toothed Mountain Mint

Short-Toothed Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum muticum)

Known also as Broad-leaved, Clustered, and Blunt Mountain Mint, this species is native to moist woods, meadows, and fields from Massachusetts to Michigan and south to Louisiana and Florida. French botanist and friend of Thomas Jefferson, André Michaux, found this plant in Pennsylvania in 1790 and named it Pycnanthemum or “densely flowered” from the Greek for dense (pyknos) and flowered (anthos). Muticum is Latin for blunt, referring to the flat bracts at the tops of each stem. It is an excellent nectar plant and attracts butterflies and beneficial insects such as lady bugs and lacewings. Plants are also deer resistant and can be rubbed on the skin to repel mosquitoes.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Spiny Bear's Breeches

Spiny Bear's Breeches (Acanthus spinosus)

This handsome perennial, native to Italy through W. Turkey, was first documented in 1629, although it was grown much earlier by the Romans and Greeks. But, like its cousin, Acanthus mollis, it is not known to have been cultivated commonly in American gardens before the mid 19th century. The British garden writer William Robinson revived interest in the Acanthus by extolling its virtues in his classic book, The Wild Garden, 1870. New Jersey nurseryman Peter Henderson admired both Acanthus spinosus and A. mollis as “stately” and remarkably beautiful ornamentals in his Handbook of Plants, 1890. Large, dramatic flowers are attractive to bees.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Baltimore Belle Rose

Baltimore Belle Rose (Rosa cv.)

‘Baltimore Belle’, developed in 1843 by Baltimore, Maryland rose-breeder Samuel Feast, is considered one of the best hybrid forms of the North American Prairie Rose. It produces a sumptuous display of highly perfumed red-tinged buds and pale blush, fully-double blossoms in small clusters of a dozen or more and it grows into a massive shrub with vigorous, arching stems. With the exception of ‘Baltimore Belle’, most of the Prairie Rose hybrids developed by Feast have virtually disappeared, but they were especially popular in the 19th century on pillars and arches or grown as hedges.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Obedient Plant

Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginianum)

This native perennial, also known as False Dragon Head and Virginia Dragon Head, was introduced to gardens in 1683. The corolla of Physostegia will stay indefinitely in whatever position it is turned (hence the common name "obedient plant"), which makes it very popular for floral arrangements. It was recommended by many garden writers of the early 20th century as a companion plant in the back of the perennial border. Heirloom cultivars of this plant include: 'Alba', a white form offered in 1908; and 'Vivid', a bright rosy pink form introduced in 1931. Flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Climbing Old Blush China Rose

'Climbing Old Blush' China Rose (Rosa chinensis cv.)

This is a climbing sport of the ancient ‘Old Blush’ China, which was first introduced to America in 1752 and reintroduced in 1793. ‘Old Blush’, also known as ‘Parson’s Pink China’ and Monthly Rose, was one of the first repeat-blooming roses brought to the West, and consequently was very popular in the early 19th century. Considered one of the most garden worthy of the old Chinas, this important cultivar provided part of the parentage of rose hybrids to come.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - 'Cramoisi Supérieur' Rose

'Cramoisi Supérieur' Rose (Rosa chinensis cv.)

Also known as ‘Agrippina’ and ‘Lady Brisbane’, this stunning China rose was first bred by unknown Belgian breeders before 1823, then in France by M. Coquereau of Angers (1832), and finally introduced by Jean Baptist-Paillet as ‘Cramoisi Supérieur’ in 1834. It was celebrated by early 20th-century British garden writer Gertrude Jekyll and an old garden favorite in America’s Deep South and in Bermuda where it has naturalized. This rose is drought and heat tolerant.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Lady's Mantle

Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla mollis)

This is the popular cottage garden Lady’s Mantle introduced from the Caucasus in 1874. Like its European relative, Alchemilla vulgaris, its felt-like leaves curiously hold water like beads of mercury. This property made it a favorite of the early apothecaries or alchemists, hence its scientific name. The delicate, airy blossoms are popular as cut flowers and for drying, and the fuzzy leaves are deer and rabbit resistant.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Stowell's Evergreen White Corn

Stowell's Evergreen White Corn (Zea mays variety)

Regarded as the “king of all white sweet corn varieties,” this home-garden favorite was developed in 1848 by Nathaniel Newman Stowell of Burlington, New Jersey, who crossed the Menomony Soft Corn with Northern Sugar Corn. It was later marketed by Grant Thorburn & Co. in 1856. As its name implies, Stowell’s Evergreen White Corn matures slowly, remaining in the milk stage over a long period, and is considered one of the best heirloom, open-pollinated varieties for table, canning, and freezing.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Bare Root Bottlebrush Buckeye

Bare Root Bottlebrush Buckeye (Aesculus parviflora)

Philadelphia botanist and plant explorer William Bartram first discovered this handsome shrub of the southeastern United States during his travels in Carolina, Georgia, and Florida in 1773-78; a specimen, believed planted by William, still grew in the Bartram’s nursery in 1930. John Fraser introduced the shrub to England in 1785; by 1820, the bottlebrush buckeye was “to be met with in most of our nurseries” in Great Britain. It has outstanding spring and autumn foliage color and is very attractive to butterflies.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Bear's Breeches

Bear's Breeches (Acanthus mollis)

This elegant Mediterranean perennial was first documented in Italian gardens by 1548 but was grown much earlier by the Romans and Greeks. The bold leaves of this species inspired the architectural crown of Corinthian columns. It was not likely common in America, however, before the mid 19th century. The British garden writer William Robinson revived interest in the Acanthus by extolling its virtues in his classic book, The Wild Garden, 1870. New Jersey nurseryman Peter Henderson admired both Acanthus mollis and A. spinosus as “stately” and remarkably beautiful ornamentals in his Handbook of Plants, 1890. Large, dramatic flowers are attractive to bees.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Bare Root Northern Maidenhair Fern

Bare Root Northern Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum pedatum)

This North American species is native from Nova Scotia to British Columbia and south to Georgia and Arkansas. Although delicate in appearance, this beautiful fern transplants easily and spreads quickly to create a voluminous, soft green ground cover. The Swedish naturalist Peter Kalm observed in Travels in North America (1753) that "the English in their plantations call it 'maiden hair'; it grows in all their North American colonies." The fronds were considered superior to European species for use in surgery and large quantities were shipped to France during the late 18th century.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Blue Star

Blue Star (Amsonia tabernaemontana)

This choice North American native was discovered in 1759 and named for Charles Amson, an 18th-century Virginia doctor and scientific traveler. Blue Star was likely not cultivated as a garden plant until the mid-1800s, but was recommended by Peter Henderson by the end of the century. It has since become a popular flower for the perennial border and the cut-flower garden.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Black Cohosh

Black Cohosh; Snakeroot (Actaea racemosa)

Black cohosh, or snakeroot, has been grown in American gardens since the late 18th century. Thomas Lamboll sent three kinds of snakeroot to Philadelphia nurseryman and plant explorer William Bartram during the late 1700s, and one is believed to be this species. Thomas Jefferson included “Black snake-root” in a list of native medicinal plants in his only published book, Notes on the State of Virginia (1781). Black cohosh is a long-lived perennial that will slowly increase in size for many years and not require dividing. The lacy foliage forms an attractive mound in the flower border or woodland garden.

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