Saturday, June 8, 2019

Plants in Early American Gardens - New England Aster

New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)

North American asters ranked as the premier native plant introduced into Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. British patron Peter Collinson wrote to Philadelphia plant collector and nurseryman John Bartram, “…your country in inexhaustible in asters,” and Lady Jean Skipwith included “asters of various kinds” in her southern Virginia garden during the late 1700s. New England Aster was included on the 1806 list of Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon and in the 1818 catalog of the William Prince Nursery on Long Island, New York. This species remains a choice perennial in today’s flower border as it is attractive to butterflies and makes a good cut flower.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

Friday, June 7, 2019

History Blooms at Monticello -

Peggy Cornett at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello tells us that 

Cabbage abounds in the Monticello vegetable garden. Throughout his lifetime Jefferson cultivated eighteen varieties including French, Milan, Savoy, Ox-heart, Roman, Scotch, Sugarloaf, York, and Winter. Cabbage was the second most commonly purchased vegetable bought by the Jefferson family from the gardens of Monticello’s enslaved African Americans.

Garden History - Batty Langley 1696-1751

Batty Langley Written by Mike Rendell

I love this blog posting by Mike Rendell about Battly Langley who wrote of English gardens in the 1st half of the 18C.  In fact, his entire blog, Georgian Gentleman, is fascinating!  Batty Langley's books often appeared in colonial British American libraries in the 18C.
Batty Langley, print made by J. Carwitham, 1741

"Many know of Capability Brown, some know of Humphry Repton, but one name largely overlooked is Batty Langley. Batty was baptised at Twickenham on 14th September 1696, the son of Daniel & Elizabeth Langley. His father was a jobbing gardener who seems to have been working for a David Batty, so the name may have been given to the baby in tribute to this patron. Batty Langley grew up in his father’s footsteps, keen on gardening but determined to spread his wings rather than pottering around with a spade & pruning knife.

"At the age of 23 Batty married, but his wife Anne died after producing 4 children from 7 years of marriage. He remarried & went on to sire another 10 children, to whom he bequeathed such fanciful names as Euclid, Vitruvius & Archimedes…
New Principles of Gardening, or, the laying out and planting parterres, groves, wildernesses, labyrinths, avenues, parks, c. London A. Bettesworth and J. Batley, 1728.

"Batty Langley received a commission to do some design work for Thomas Vernon at Twickenham Park. There he encountered a large sandpit & managed to convert “this perfect nuisance” into “a very agreeable beautiful” spiral garden, using hornbeam hedges. It was the start of a fascination with shapes & serpentine mazes which led him in 1728 to publish his oeuvre “New Principles of Gardening; or The Laying out & Planting Parterres, Groves Wildernesses, Labyrinths, Avenues Parks etc”

"The sub-title gave claim to the fact that the methods described in the book were more ‘Grand & Rural’ than anything before, listing “Experimental Directions for raising the several kinds of fruit trees, Forest Trees, Ever Greens & Flowering shrubs with which gardens are adorn’d.”
New Principles of Gardening is profusely illustrated with 28 copperplate engravings.

"The book contained very little new, but the illustrations were influential in bringing to people’s attention the use of shapes & winding vistas – he wanted gardens to lead the visitor through the design, rather than have everything in full view. There should be surprises around each corner or, as he put in the introduction: ‘Nor is there any Thing more shocking than a stiff regular Garden; where after we have seen one quarter thereof, the very same is repeated in all the remaining Parts, so that we are tired, instead of being further entertain’d with something new as expected.’

"In other words it marked a move away from the rigidly, geometrical knot gardens favoured by the Elizabethan & Stuart gardeners, even if the world was not yet ready for the picturesque gardens of Capability Brown. Batty loved mazes, but often introduced swirls & patterns far removed from the traditional honeycomb designs.
Inspired by the gardens at Versailles Langley occasionally suggested improvements to their design

"In some ways his ideas were right at the start of the rococo movement; the problem was that this self-publicist thought that he was now the arbiter of taste in all areas of everyday life. He brought out books on carpentry & furniture design, prompting Horace Walpole to utter “All that his books achieved, has been to teach carpenters to massacre that venerable species, & to give occasion to those who know nothing of the matter, & who mistake his clumsy efforts for real imitations, to censure the productions of our ancestors, whose bold & beautiful fabrics Sir Christopher Wren viewed & reviewed with astonishment, & never mentioned without esteem.”

"He submitted a design for a new Mansion House in London in 1735, only to have it described in the ‘St. James’s Evening Post’ as ‘a curious grotesque temple, in a taste entirely new…’ Undeterred, he pursued his ideas of “arti-natural” gardens, linked with what is now termed “Batty Langley Gothic” architecture. He felt that his writhing shapes & flowing designs were ‘exceeding beautiful in building, as in ceilings, parquetting, painting, paving, &c.’

"He published numerous tomes on building techniques, & on architecture under such inspiring titles as ‘The Builders Compleat Assistant’ (1738); ‘The City & Country Builder’s & Workman’s Treasury of Designs’ (1740); ‘The Builder’s Jewel, or the Youth’s Instructor & Workman’s Remembrancer’ (1741); ‘Ancient Architecture, restored & improved, by a great variety of Grand & Useful Designs’ & in 1748 ‘A Survey of Westminster Bridge, as ’tis now Sinking into Ruin.’

"In general though, he was ridiculed for his designs for buildings. But for his gardening book he deserves to be remembered. ‘Arti-natural’ may not have been revolutionary but at least Langley encouraged trees to have a natural form rather than being pollarded out of existence. Look at a serpentine shape or a paisley design, & remember Batty Langley with affection.

"He died at his Soho home in London in 1751."

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Plants in Early American Gardens - Bridal Wreath Spirea

Bare Root Bridal Wreath Spirea (Spiraea prunifolia)

This especially floriferous Spirea, introduced from its native China by plant hunter Robert Fortune in 1844, has long been admired for its profusion of double white flowers borne on bare branches in early spring. Its Chinese name means “Smile-laugh-flowers.” Imported to America soon after its arrival in the West, Spiraea prunifolia was praised by James Wilson of Albany, NY, in a letter to “The Horticulturist” magazine in 1849: “This charming shrub needs only to be seen, to be admired. No lover of flowers ought to be without it.” By 1870 it was considered “One of the most common and most beautiful” of spireas (Frank Scott, The Art of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds of Small Extent).

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

1700s Children with Flowers by American artists - Symbols or Real?

1730 Gerardus Duyckinck (Colonial American artist, 1695-1746) Girl in Blue Dress

 1730s Charles Bridges (Colonial American artist, 1670-1747) Girls of the Grymes Family

 1750 John Singleton Copley (American, artist, 1738–1815) Elizabeth Greenleaf

1755 John Singleton Copley (American artist, 1738-1815). The Gore Children

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Plants in Early American Gardens - Snail Flower

Snail Flower (Vigna caracalla)

In 1792, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Benjamin Hawkins, “The most beautiful bean in the world is the caracalla bean which, though in England a greenhouse plant, will grow in the open air in Virginia and Carolina.” Imported from tropical South America, it was being grown in American gardens by the 1830s, when Robert Buist wrote in The American Flower Garden Directory, “Snail-Flower is a very curious blooming plant, with flowers … all spirally twisted, in great profusion when the plant is grown well.” This spectacular flower was popular in florists’ corsages by the late 19th-century.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

Monday, June 3, 2019

History Blooms at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

Peggy Cornett at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello tells us that

In 1811 Thomas Jefferson recorded the planting of “Lathyrus odoratus. Sweet scented pea" in an oval flower bed at Monticello. Painted Lady Sweet Pea is a highly scented, pink and white bicolor variety, which was in cultivation by the 1730s and popular in American gardens through the 19C.

Plant Lists - 1786 Offered for Sale in Alexandria, VA

Virginia Journal and Alexandria Advertiser.  Alexandria, April 13, 1786
Peter Crouwells and Co. Gardeners and Florists, in Philadelphia, Who in have frequently advertised in the Philadelphia newspapers, acquaint the public, that they have for sale here, and extensive variety of the most rare bulbous flowers, roots and seed, which have ever appeared in the country before.

Southern Garden History Plant Lists

Flowers & Vegetables

Hyacinths, 600 sorts [Hyacinthus orientalis cvs.]
Jonquilles, 26 sorts [Narcissus cvs.]
double narcissus, 40 sorts [Narcissus cvs.]
tulips, 400 sorts [Tulipa cvs.]
monthly rose trees of all colors, 30 sorts [Rosa sp.]
double jessamines, 12 sorts [?Gelsemium sempervirens cvs., Jasminum officinale cvs.]
double carnations, 72 sorts [Dianthus caryophyllus cvs.]
pinks of all sorts [Dianthus cvs.]
double ranunculus, 400 sorts [Ranunculus asiatics cvs.]
double anemones or wind flowers, 600 sorts [Anemone cvs.]
flower seeds, 300 sorts
colliflowers of different sorts [Brassica oleracea]
lettuce, 17 different sorts [Lactuca sativa].
imperial loaf lettuce [L. sativa ‘Imperial Loaf’]
Roman lettuce [L. sativa ‘Roman],
Silesia lettuce [L. sativa ‘Silesia’]
spotted Aleppo [L. sativa ‘Spotted Aleppo’]
capuchin lettuce [L. sativa]
Lombardine loaf lettuce [L. sativa ‘Lombardine’]
white curled endive [Cichorium endiva ‘White Curled]
green curled endive [C. endiva ‘Green Curled’]
broad leaved endive [C. endiva ‘Broad-leaved’]
loaf spinach [Spinacia oleracea]
large new sort of cabbage spinach [S. oleracea],
double parsley [Petroselinum crispum var. crispum]
Hamburg parsley [P. crispum ‘Hamburg’]
Double pepper grass and cresses [Lepidum sativum]
Chervil [Anthriscus cerefolium]
Serfeuil [?]
salsify sorrel [?]
Best orange carrot [Daucus carota]
Red and yellow beets [Beta vulgaris]
Artichokes [Cynara scolymus]
Melons [Cucumis melo]
Cucumbers [Cucumis sativus]
Asparagus of 4 sorts [Asparagus officinale]

He has also very elegant artificial flowers and feathers of all colours lately imported from France, suitable for the ladies. Those ladies and gentlemen who want to any of the above articles, will please to apply immediately at his lodgings at Mr. JOHN GRETTER’s, King-street, as he intends to set off for Baltimore in a few days. He has a catalogue of the names and colours of all his flowers. Alexandria, April 6, 1786

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Plants in Early American Gardens - Spice Viburnum

Spice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii)

William Richard Carles, the British Vice-Consul in Korea from 1883-85, discovered this remarkably fragrant Viburnum during one of his excursions into unknown territories and sent dried specimens to Kew in 1885. Nine years later the species was named in his honor and the first living plant was sent to England in 1901. The French nursery firm, Lemoine, was first to propagate and distribute this desirable shrub on a wide scale. British hybridizers crossed the Spice Viburnum with V. fragrans to develop the popular V. x burkwoodii.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

Saturday, June 1, 2019

History Blooms at Monticello

Peggy Cornett at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello tells us that

The hardy annual Larkspur, Consolida ajacis, re-seeds abundantly in the Monticello Flower Gardens. Jefferson noted Larkspur blooming at Shadwell in July 1767, thought it suitable for naturalizing at Monticello "in the open ground on the west" in 1771, and sowed seed around his Roundabout flower border on April 8, 1810.

Larkspur, Consolida ajacis