18C American Garden & Cultural Landscape -

Plants in Early American Gardens - Hyacinth Bean

Hyacinth Bean (Dolichos lablab)

The Hyacinth Bean is featured on the arbor in the Monticello vegetable garden and draws countless questions from visitors every year. In his Garden Book in 1812, Jefferson mentioned, "Arbor beans white, scarlet, crimson, purple . . . on the long walk of the garden." Although not specifically mentioned by Jefferson, Hyacinth Bean was sold by his favorite nurseryman, Bernard McMahon, in 1804. This tender annual vine produces attractive purplish-green leaves, showy rose-purple flowers and pods, and unusual black and white seeds.

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Geo Washington (1732-1799) - Student of Agriculture

George Washington as Farmer by Junius Brutus Stearns. 1851

George Washington: Farmer  

Paul Leland Haworth (1876-1936) 

Student of Agriculture

Washington took great pains to inform himself concerning any subject in which he was interested and hardly was he settled down to serious farming before he was ordering from England "the best System now extant of Agriculture." Shortly afterward he expressed a desire for a book "lately published, done by various hands, but chiefly collected from the papers of Mr. Hale. If this is known to be the best, pray send it, but not if any other is in high esteem." Another time he inquires for a small piece in octavo, "a new system of Agriculture, or a speedy way to grow rich."

Among his papers are preserved long and detailed notes laboriously taken from such works as Tull's Horse-Hoeing Husbandry, Duhamel's A Practical Treatise of Husbandry, The Farmer's Compleat Guide, Home's The Gentleman Farmer, and volumes of Young's Annals of Agriculture.

The abstracts from the Annals were taken after the Revolution and probably before he became President, for the first volume did not appear until 1784. From the handwriting it is evident that the digests of Tull's and Duhamel's books were made before the Revolution and probably about 1760. In the midst of the notes on chapter eight of the Compleat Guide there are evidences of a long hiatus in time...

Tull's Horse-Hoeing Husbandry was an epochmaking book in the history of English agriculture. It was first published in 1731 and the third edition, the one I have seen and probably the one that Washington possessed, appeared in 1751. Possibly it was the small piece in octavo, "a new system of Agriculture, or a speedy way to grow rich" concerning which he wrote to his agent. It deals with a great variety of subjects, such as of roots and leaves, of food of plants, of pasture, of plants, of weeds, of turnips, of wheat, of smut, of blight, of St. Foin, of lucerne, of ridges, of plows, of drill boxes, but its one great thesis was the careful cultivation by plowing of such annuals as potatoes, turnips, and wheat, crops which hitherto had been tended by hand or left to fight their battle unaided after having once been planted.

Duhamel's book was the work of a Frenchman whose last name was Monceau. It was based in part upon Tull's book, but contained many reflections suggested by French experience as well as some additions made by the English translator. The English translation appeared in 1759, the year of Washington's marriage. It dealt with almost every aspect of agriculture and stock raising, advocated horsehoeing, had much to say in favor of turnips, lucerne, clover and such crops, and contained plates and descriptions of various plows, drills and other kinds of implements. It also contained a detailed table of weather observations for a considerable time, which may have given Washington the idea of keeping his meteorological records.

Young's Annals was an elaborate agricultural periodical not unlike in some respects publications of this sort to-day except for its lack of advertising. It contains records of a great variety of experiments in. both agriculture and stock raising, pictures and descriptions of plows, machines for rooting up trees, and other implements and machines, plans for the rotation of crops, and articles and essays by experimental farmers of the day. Among its contributors were men of much eminence, and we come upon articles by Mr. William Pitt on storing turnips, Mr. William Pitt on deep plowing; George III himself contributed under the pen name of "Ralph Robinson." 

As one looks over these publications he realizes that the scientific farmers of that day were discussing many problems and subjects that still interest those of the present. The language is occasionally quaint, but the principles set down are less often wrong than might be supposed. To be sure, Tull denied that different plants require different sorts of food and, notes Washington, "gives many unanswerable Reasons to prove it," but he combats the notion that the soil ever causes wheat to degenerate into rye. This he declares "as ridiculous as it would be to say that an horse by feeding in a certain pasture will degenerate into a Bull." 

Plants in Early American Gardens - Japanese Anemone

Japanese Anemone (Anemone hupehensis)

Japanese Anemone was introduced to western gardens by plant hunter Robert Fortune in 1844. In Our Garden Flowers (1910), Harriet Keeler declared, “[t]he autumnal equinox comes and goes, but the Anemones bloom on, careless of threatening skies or pinching cold.” A. hupehensis may require staking but is generally a low-maintenance plant that is great for cutting and makes an impact in the fall garden, especially if planted in large groupings.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - China Pink

China Pink (Dianthus chinensis)

This showy, short-lived perennial, often grown as an annual, bears single to semi-double, mixed-color flowers from early June until late fall, and has dark-green, grass-like foliage. Thomas Jefferson planted China Pinks along his winding flower border in 1807, along with Sweet Williams and Carnations. Although its fringed petals resemble the perennial Fringed Pink (D. superbus), this species has no fragrance.

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Gardens Display Economic & Cultural Ambitions - Inspiration & Remembrance

Gardening for Inspiration & Remembrance

Plantings of both trees & flowers triggered emotional responses in both garden owners & vistors. In the British American colonies, some groves of trees were planted for remembrance honoring a passed friend or relative. Groves were often seen as solemn, whether intentionally planted as a memorial or not.

Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793) wrote in a letter in 1742, from Charleston, South Carolina, "You may wonder how I could in this gay season think of planting a Cedar grove, which rather reflects an Autumnal gloom and solemnity than the freshness and gayty of spring. But so it is...I intend then to connect in my grove the solemnity (not the solidity) of summer or autumn with the cheerfulness and pleasures of spring, for it shall be filled with all kind of flowers, as well wild as Garden flowers, with seats of Camomoil and here and there a fruit tree--oranges, nectrons, Plumbs."

American colonists understood that flowers were inspirational symbols for higher thoughts. In 1766, Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1782) wrote to a friend from Annapolis, “If you have a turn for gardening or for exotick Plants & flowers I shall perhaps be able to send you such of these which as uncommon in England may afford you some pleasure as a florist, or matter of thought & speculation as a naturalist, or Philosopher.”

Flowers could signify a personal friend as well as a distant hero. William Gordon wrote George Washington (1732-1799) in 1786, “Shall I endeavor to furnish your garden…with flowers & plants that may keep up the remembrance of an absent friend.”

Becoming a gardener helped a person understand the cycle of life & death, & many American gardeners chose to bury their loved ones in their gardens & went there to remember departed relatives & friends. If the spiritual garden was the place we all began, they reasoned, then it was comforting to return to the garden when we died. Where sufficient land was available, a cemetery was often created adjacent to the garden. As one traveler recorded in 1790, “It is very common to see in large plantations in Virginia, & not far from the dwelling house, cemeteries walled in, where the people of the family are all buried. These cemeteries are generally built adjoining the garden.”

Christoper Wormley (1646-1701), in his 1698 Middlesex County, Virginia will, asked to be buried "in my own Garden and Betwixt my first wife..." Wormley's first wife Frances Armistead died in 1685, and his second wife Elizabeth Travers died in 1693, and he obviously did not want to play favorites. In the same county, Joshua & Thomas Long reserved a part of a tract that they were offering for sale "a certain Spott...twenty foot square Lying in the orchard it being the place where their father and mother were buryed."

Employees as well as relatives were buried in southern plantation gardens. At Nomini Hall on June 23, 1789, Robert Carter (1728-1804) recorded, “On Saturday the 20th June Mr. George Randell departed this Life & his Remains were interred in the Garden near to the Grave of Mr. Jos. Taylor School Master.”

Burying a dear one close to home may have resulted from a concern in addition to remebrance. Some preferred burial in their own gardens was security. In his journal on January 29, 1774, Philip Vickers Fithian (1747-1776), visiting Nomini Hall in Virginia, quoted his host, Robert Carter, on this subject, “he much dislikes the common method of making Burying Yards round Churches…almost open to every Beast…he would choose to be laid under a shady Tree where he might be undisturbed, & sleep in peace & obscurity---He told us, that with his own hands he planted, & is with great diligence raising a Catalpa-Tree at the Head of his Father who lies in his Garden.”

Others felt that burying the dead in a common community or church cemetery was too impersonal and made the sight & thought of death too familiar. One observer commented, “Instead of producing those solemn thoughts & encouraging those moral propensities…it renders death & the grave such familiar objects to the eye as to prevent them from awakening any serious regard…&…to eradicate every emotion naturally excited by the remembrance of the deceased.”

The peace & quite of a personal garden or a peaceful grove of trees, especially one planned & tended by the survivor, was seen as the most appropriate & intimate place to reflect & remember. A writer explained in the 1811 Philadelphia Port Folio, "My garden is my scene of reflection, and of rational amusement. If I wish to indulge myself in that pleasing melancholy, which is sometimes so grateful to the imagination, I repair to my garden."

Plants in Early American Gardens - Plains Coreopsis

Plains Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria)

The Plains Coreopsis is a fast-growing annual native to North America from Canada to Northwest Mexico and especially common in the Great Plains and southern states. By the mid-19th century the Plains Coreopsis was touted for its showy yellow flower heads with striking, deep red to dark maroon centers. This species is attractive to pollinators and considered highly deer resistant.

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18C American Cultural Landscape - New England Farm

Michele Felice Corne (1752–1845) Ezekiel Hersey Derby Farm

Plants in Early American Gardens - Larkspur

Larkspur (Consolida ajacis)

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 winding flower border on April 8, 1810. Larkspur is a self-seeding annual with blue, pink, and occasionally white flowers that usually appear during the early summer months.

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1704 connection between Massachusetts & the Gardens at Dyrham in Gloucestershire, England

Engraving of Dyrham Park by Johannes Kip, 1712. In 1688, William Blathwayt  (1649-1717) inherited the Dyrham estate in Gloucestershire upon the death of his father-in-law. Blathwayt was a civil servant & politician who played an important part in administering the British American colonies.  He joined the diplomatic service in 1668, to serve at a post at the English embassy in The Hague.  In 1680, he became the 1st auditor-general of royal revenues in America; & after 1685, became the secretary of the Privy Council's committee on trade & foreign plantations, a key figure in American affairs. He was responsible for establishing the charter of the Crown colony of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, which would become the state of Massachusetts.  He promoted trade in America & the Caribbean, which included the slave trade, & reportedly he benefited considerably from "gifts"  received in connection with his office (as was the usual practice in his day). In 1686, he married Mary Wynter, a wealthy heiress. It was her father who died, leaving his estate to Blathwayt only 2 years after their marriage.  Diarist John Evelyn commended him as "very dexterous in business" & as a man who had "raised himself by his industry from very moderate circumstances."

Michael Dahl (1659–1743) Portrait of Colonial Secretary William Blathwayt (1649-1717)

Soon after Blathwayt inherited Dyrham, he commissioned an estate plan to be drawn in the Dutch style he had seen as a young man in The Hague.  Formal Dutch & French style gardens were the height of fashion in England from about 1660 to 1715.  Completed in 1704, William Blathwayt’s Dutch garden to the east & west of the mansion was geometric in design. The west garden had a cascade, 2 pools, a fountain & flower beds planted in a fashionably sparse style. The east garden had a canal, fountains & a cascade.  There there were parterres cut out of grass & filled with colored gravel; shrubs in tubs clipped into formal shapes of cones & spheres; & terraces on the slopes from which visitors could admire Blathwayt's creation.

Plants in Early American Gardens - Spider Flower

 Spider Flower (Cleome hasslerana)

Spider Flower (Cleome hasslerana)

Spider Flower is a self-seeding annual native to southern regions of South America and was introduced to England via the West Indies in 1817. Also called Spider Legs and Grandfather’s Whiskers, it was considered a choice flowering annual by Robert Buist in his 1839 edition of The American Flower Garden Directory. Its showy pink and white flowers, large multi-lobed leaves, and strong growth habit make it a handsome addition to the flower border in summer and fall. Attracts bees and butterflies; deer resistant.

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Gardens Display Economic & Cultural Ambitions - Profit

Gardening for Profit

Philadelphia seed dealer & nurseryman Bernard M’Mahon’s (1775-1816) main motive for writing the 1806 American Gardener's Calendar was to expand his profitable nursery enterprise, which supplied seeds & plants to many gardeners up & down the Atlantic coast, from gentry to artisan.

In 1993, Monticello's legendary gardener & historian Peter J. Hatch wrote a Twinleaf  article on "Bernard McMahon, Pioneer American Gardener." Hatch draws a picture of the Philadelphia nurseryman McMahon  as a shrewd businessman who forwarded the newest vegetable & flower varieties to Thomas Jefferson, who then would often follow the directions in the McMahan's American Gardener's Calendar step-by-step when planting in his flower beds or vegetable gardens. McMahon also served as curator for the plants collected by the Lewis & Clark expedition & published the 1st seed catalog in the 1803 United States. His American Gardener's Calendar, the most comprehensive gardening book published in the United States in the first half of the 19C; popularity & influence can be gauged by the 11 editions that were printed up to 1857.

The 648-page Calendar was modeled on a traditional English formula, providing month-by-month instructions on planting, pruning, & soil preparation for the various horticultural divisions -- the Kitchen Garden, Fruit Garden, Orchard, Nursery, etc. McMahon borrowed extensively from popular earlier English works but made a concerted effort to break away from English traditions in the way he celebrated the use of native American ornamentals; championed large-scale cider & seedling peach orchards that could be grazed with livestock;&admitted the harsh realities of eastern North America's continental climate. McMahon reinforced Jefferson's pride in the culture of American plants. American gardeners were urged to comb the local woodlands & fields for "the various beautiful ornaments with which nature has so profusely decorated them." Wildflowers, according to McMahon, were particularly suited for the hot, humid summer, when American gardens "are almost destitute of bloom." McMahon continued, "Is it because they are indigenous that we should reject them?"

In 1808 McMahon purchased 20 acres for his nursery & botanic garden that would enable him to expand his business. John Jay Smith, editor of The Horticulturist, noted in 1857 "Many must still be alive who recollect its [the store's] bulk window, ornamented with tulip-glasses, a large pumpkin, & a basket or two of bulbous roots; behind the counter officiated Mrs. M'Mahon, with some considerable Irish accent, but a most amiable & excellent disposition. Mr. M'Mahon was also much in the store, putting up seeds for transmission to all parts of this country & Europe, writing his book, or attending to his correspondence, & in one corner was a shelf containing a few botanical or gardening books; another contained the few garden implements, such as knives & trimming scissors; a barrel of peas,&a bag of seedling potatoes, an onion receptacle, a few chairs, & the room partly lined with drawers containing seeds, constituted the apparent stock in trade of what was one of the greatest seed houses then known in the Union. Such a store would naturally attract the botanist as well as the gardener, & it was the frequent lounge of both classes, who ever found in the proprietors ready listeners as well as conversers. They were rather remarkable, & here you would see Nuttall, Baldwin, Darlington, & other scientific men, who sought information or were ready to impart it."

Almost all of America’s earliest indigenous gardening books served as the liaison between the nurseryman & an emerging middle-income group of home gardeners. As increasing leisure time & interest in gardening grew, there were not enough trained professional gardeners to go around nor excess funds to employ them. A new how-to-do-it manual was just what the young country needed.

English gardening books, American gardening books, plants & other supplies, & the practice of gardening itself fit into the new nation’s burgeoning capitalistic fervor at the end of the 18th century. In addition to professional gardeners & seed dealers & nurserymen like McMahon, whose numbers grew quickly after the Revolution, non-professional gardeners of every stripe often sold nature’s products to gain extra income.

George Washington encouraged his gardener to sell extra nursery stock for a profit, one-fifth of which he allowed the gardener to keep. Nobleman Henri Stier, who had fled Belgium during the French Revolution, had a bulb sale, when he moved back to Europe from Annapolis in 1803. Once he had returned to Belgium, he bought bulbs in Europe & shipped them to his old Chesapeake neighbors.

Annapolis craftsman William Faris, in his fiscal account book for October 23, 1799, noted receiving the substantial sum of $40 for tulip bulbs from John Quynn. Fellow Annapolitans Alexander Contee Hanson & Thomas Harwood, & Captain John O’Donnell from Baltimore visited the silversmith's garden to mark tulips & hyacinths that interested them; after the blooms faded Faris dug up the marked roots & sold, or traded, them to the gentlemen.

Plants in Early American Gardens - Deerhorn Clarikia

Deerhorn Clarkia (Clarkia pulchella)

On June 1, 1806, Meriwether Lewis “met with a singular plant today in blume” and collected it "on the steep sides of the fertile hills" northeast of Kamiah, Idaho. Clarkia was named for William Clark, co-captain of the expedition. Also called Ragged Robin, this showy annual with bright satiny pink to lavender flowers was popular in American seed catalogs of the mid-19th century.

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1839 American Graveyard & Cultural Landscape - Boston

This view was taken from the burying-ground on Copp's Hill, in Boston. Bunker Hill Monument, in its unfinished state, on Breed's Hill, and Bunker Hill, a little to the northward, are seen in the distance in the central view. A part of the buildings connected with the U. S. Navy Yard are seen on the extreme right." This print is from "Historical collections… relating to the history of every town in Massachusetts" by John Warner Barber (1798-1885) .

Plants in Early American Gardens - Bachelor's Button

Bachelor's Button (Centaurea cyanus)

Also known as Cornflower, Bluebottle, and Bleuette, Bachelor's Button is an easy-to-grow, self-seeding, cool-season annual with bright blue flowers that has been popular in America since colonial times. Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon offered it in five colors in 1804 -- purple, red, blue, white, and striped -- and Jefferson included “French pink bleuette” in an 1806 list of flowers.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Lamarque Rose

'Lamarque' Rose (Rosa x noisettiana cv.)

A Noisette rose bred in France in 1830 by Maréchal, ‘Lamarque’ is a cross between ‘Blush Noisette’ and ‘Parks’ Yellow China.’ First offered in America in 1841 by Prince Nursery on Long Island, this rose’s virtues as a climber were recognized by Robert Buist in The Rose Manual (1854): “It makes a splendid pillar rose, frequently growing ten feet in one season.” ‘Lamarque’ displays the two main features of all Noisettes: it is highly fragrant and blooms repeatedly.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Cocksomb

 Cockscomb (Celosia argentea var. cristata)

Cockscomb (Celosia argentea var. cristata)

Thomas Jefferson noted the planting of seeds of “Cockscomb, a flower like the Prince’s feather,” in 1767.  Still today, the shockingly curious flowers of the Cockscomb delight visitors to Monticello. The seeds here are Cramer’s Burgundy, a prolific, well-branched variety that produces wine-colored blooms 2-6” wide.

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Placement of Mansion House & Lawn

John Beale Bordley (1726/27-1804).  Essays & Notes on Rural Affairs & Husbandry Pennsylvania 1799 Printed by Budd and Bartram, for Thomas Dobson, at the stone house, no 41, South Second Street, Philadelphia, 

Placement of House and Lawn

The Mansion, is airy on every fide. The offices, being on the northeast and northwest angles, leave the mansion open to the south, east, and west, in a clean lawn: and from the north rooms there is a view of the farm yard and its business.
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Plants in Early American Gardens - Pot Marigold

Pot Marigold - Calendula Seeds (Calendula officinalis)

Seeds of this hardy, cool-season annual were planted by Jefferson at his boyhood home, Shadwell, in 1767. Often called "Marygold" by gardeners before 1800, this self-seeding species with single yellow and orange flowers has been used for culinary and medicinal purposes since the Middle Ages.

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The Ice House

John Beale Bordley (1726/27-1804) . Essays & Notes on Husbandry & Rural Affairs. Printed by Budd and Bartram, for Thomas Dobson, at the stone house, no 41, South Second Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1799

Ice House

The Ice-house is to be detached from the milk-house, that it may be clear of all moisture, and receive air on all fides. The ice-house at Gloster point, near Philadelphia, strongly recommends that it be mostly above ground. Four feet under ground, six above ground and twelve square, would hold 1440 solid feet; which is enough for family and milk house purposes though very freely expended..

Plants in Early American Gardens - Chinese Aster

China Aster Seeds (Callistephus chinensis)

China Aster seeds were first sent to Paris from China in 1728 by a Jesuit priest. This showy annual flower was cultivated in America as early as 1737 by Williamsburg's John Custis and it grew in popularity in European gardens through the 18th century. By 1804 Bernard McMahon of Philadelphia was selling eleven cultivars of Aster chinensis in a variety of “sorts” including double and quilled forms. These seeds represent a simple, single-flowered form of China Aster in shades of blue and pink with yellow centers that are good for cutting.

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The Milk House

John Beale Bordley (1726/27-1804) Essays & Notes on Husbandry & Rural Affairs. Printed by Budd and Bartram, for Thomas Dobson, at the stone house, no 41, South Second Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1799

The Milk House

The Milk-house adjoins the Laboratory, which is a scalding house to it. It may be two feet under ground. The offal milk is conveyed to the pigs in wheel-barrows, and might be conveyed in a tube, under ground, to the pig-stie. Ice is at hand for hardening butter as it is taken from the churn and worked on a cold marble table. Water cold from the pump is constantly ushered, through pipes, to an upper shelf, and passing round the room, falls on the under shelves and runs off..

Plants in Early American Gardens - Tickseed Sunflower

Tickseed Sunflower (Bidens aristosa)

This showy, self-seeding, North American annual wildflower bears abundant bright yellow, daisy-like flowers on slender stalks from late summer into early autumn. Tickseed Sunflower is so named for the appearance of its dark brown, flattened seeds. The robust, bushy plants boast delicate, deeply-dissected foliage on green or reddish, multi-branched stems. The flowers are attractive to butterflies, bees, and other pollinators.

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The Pigeon House or Dovecote

John Beale Bordley (1726/27-1804) . Essays & Notes on Husbandry & Rural Affairs. Printed by Budd and Bartram, for Thomas Dobson, at the stone house, no 41, South Second Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1799

The Pigeon House or Dovecote

Pigeon-house. Pigeons feed expensively, when it is alone on the corns: but they also feed on many wild feeds. They make an agreeable variety on the table; but ought not to be suffered to become too numerous; and therefore their house is to be of a moderate size.

Plants in Early American Gardens - Amethyst Flowers

 Amethyst Flower (Browallia americana)

Amethyst Flower (Browallia americana)

Amethyst Flower, or Bush Violet, will produce an airy mass of tiny, amethyst-blue flowers throughout the summer in garden beds or containers. Named after Johan Browallius (1707-1755), a Swedish botanist, physician, and bishop, this self-seeding, South American species was introduced into cultivation in 1735, and was recommended by Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon in The American Gardener’s Calendar (1806).

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Prickly Poppy

Prickly Poppy Seeds (Argemone mexicana)

On June 18, 1767, Thomas Jefferson recorded in his Garden Book that "Argemone put out one flower" in his garden at Shadwell. On July 18 he noted another Prickly Poppy flower and observed that it was "the 4th this year," a testament to Jefferson’s appreciation of the natural world around him. Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon sold Prickly Poppy, "Mexican Argemone," in 1804, which produces pale yellow flowers and attractive green and white-variegated leaves tipped with prickly spines, and reseeds readily.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Joseph's Coat

Joseph's Coat (Amaranthus tricolor)

Thomas Jefferson included Joseph's Coat, or “three-coloured Amaranth,” in a shipment of seeds to his brother-in-law, Francis Eppes, from Paris in 1786. This brightly-plumed, tender annual is grown for its vibrant yellow and red foliage that provides an eye-catching display of color in the summer border.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus)

Love-lies-bleeding Seeds (Amaranthus caudatus)

When Thomas Jefferson noted "amarenths" on an 1806 list of flowers, he was probably referring to Love-Lies-Bleeding, a curious summer annual cultivated by the earliest American flower gardeners. Its common name suggests the unusual, cascading red flowers that droop almost to the ground and can be cut for fresh or dried arrangements.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Carolina Lima Bean

Carolina or Sieva Lima Bean (Phaseolus lunatus)

Lima beans were a hot-weather favorite of Thomas Jefferson, who sowed them yearly from 1809-1824. Monticello’s gardener, Robert Bailey, saved seed of White Carolina beans in 1794. Also known as Sieva, this variety is small and delicately-flavored. Originally from South America and grown by Virginia native tribes, lima beans were also called “bushel,” “sugar,” or “butter” beans in the 1700s.

Contact The Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at
Email chp@monticello.org
Phone 434-984-9819

Plants in Early American Gardens - Pride of Washington Rose

Pride of Washington Rose (Rosa setigera cv.)

The Prairie Rose (R. setigera) is a North American species first cataloged in 1810, with single, deep pink flowers and flexible canes. During the 1840s Joshua Pierce, a rose breeder from Washington, DC, introduced a series of setigera seedling roses that bore double flowers. Before 1846 Pierce selected and introduced 'Pride of Washington', along with eleven other hybrid forms. The Prairie Roses were initially extolled as the great American Rose, but they have become increasing rare in commerce and in the wild.

Contact The Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at
Email chp@monticello.org
Phone 434-984-9819