Thomas Jefferson, a florist...

“When I return to live at Monticello ... I believe I shall become a florist.” Thomas Jefferson wrote to Madame de Tesse, Jan 30, 1809.  Peggy Cornett tells us that “florist” had a different meaning in Jefferson’s day. The florist in the 18th century was a serious gardener who wanted to cultivate flowers to high degree of perfection. In the foreground is 17th century variety Lac Van Rijn tulip. Closer to the house are two historic tulip varieties: Keizerskroon (1750) & Duc van Thol Max Cramoisi (17th century)

Blooming Today in the Mid Atlantic - Similar Dicentras

Dutchman's Breeches

Article & photos by Capital Naturalist by Alonso Abugattas

We have 2 local spring wildflowers that are very similar: Dutchman's Breeches Dicentra cucullaria & Squirrel Corn Dicentra canadensis. This makes sense as they are after all in the same genus, the name referring to their flowers having 2 spurs. Both are spring ephemerals (blooming & reproducing before the trees completely leaf out, then going dormant underground). Both have toxic leaves (another name for both is "Lambkill") that protect them from many herbivores. Both are myrmecochorous, having their seeds dispersed by ants. Both are primarily pollinated by long-tongued bees like bumblebees, have white flowers, & very similar leaves. Both like to grow in moist, often riparian woodlands as well. They also have some differences however that are apparent, particularly when they are in flower.

Dutchman's Breeches are the more common of the 2 & they also tend to bloom a week or two earlier. Their most common name comes from the flowers resembling pantaloons hanging out to dry. These plants tend to form small colonies. They usually have two compound leaves per flower stem that are longer than their look-alike cousin..

Squirrel Corn is less commonly seen & tends to bloom a week or 2 later. Their most common name is derived from their yellow clusters of bulblets just below the soil surface. They are also called White Bleeding Hearts, & the heart-like flowers are the most obvious difference between them & Dutchman's Breeches. They also normally have only 1, shorter compound leaf per flower stem.
   
Both these flowers are open right now, their bloom times briefly overlapping this year. Go check out their differences in person. But hurry, or you will have to wait another year before they emerge & flower again.

Squirrel Corn

Plant Lists - Fruit Trees planted by Virginian St. George Tucker 1784-1792

St. George Tucker (1752-1827), was born in Port Royal, Bermuda. In 1771, he went to Virginia to attend the College of William & Mary, where he studied law.  St. George had attended William & Mary in Williamsburg during the eventful 1770s, & the Revolution inspired him to join the Virginia militia, where he rose to the rank of Colonel. After the Revolution he became a professor of law at the College of William & Mary. He served as a judge of the General Court of Virginia & on the Court of Appeals.  Following the war, Tucker supported the gradual emancipation of slaves, which he proposed to the state legislature in a pamphlet published in 1796. He wrote an American edition of Blackstone's "Commentaries" that became a valuable reference work for many American lawyers & law students in the early 19C. President James Madison in 1813 appointed Tucker as the United States District Court judge for Virginia.

Fruit Trees planted by St. George Tucker at the Matoax plantation of his wife Francis Bland Randolph Tucker (1752-1788), near Petersburg, Virginia, 1784-1792  Based on notations in St. George Tucker Almanacs, 1784-1789, Tucker-Coleman Papers, Swem  Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.  Compiled by Peter Hatch.  Southern Garden History Plant Lists

Fruit Trees

Almonds [Prunus dulcis var. dulcis]

Apples [Malus pumila]
 Cheese
 Clarks Pearmains
 Doctor
 Early Bough
 Esopus Spitzeburg
 [?Gilsies]
 Hughes’s Crabs
 Large Early
 Longstems
 Newtown Pippin
 Old Town Creek Crab
 Rhode Island Greening
 Royal Wildings
 Westfield Seek-No-Further
 Yellow Bellflower

Apricots [Prunus armeniaca]
 Brussels
 Early (from Sabine Hall)
 Large Early
Cherries [Prunus avium and cerasus]
 Black Heart
 Bleeding Heart
 Carnation
 Honey
 Kentish
 May
 May Duke
 Ox Heart
 White Heart

Nectarines [Prunus persica var. nucipersica]
 Large Green Clingstone
 Red Roman

Peaches [Prunus persica]
 Canada
 Early White Cling
 Green Catherine
 Heath (White Heath)
 Large White Clingstone
 Large Yellow Clingstone
 Newington
 November Soft Peach
 Nutmeg
 Pineapple Clingstone
 Red Clingstone
 Red Pineapple Clingstone
 Small Yellow Soft
 White Clingstone
 White Soft [freestone]

Pear [Prunus communis]
 Beurre de Roi
 [Brocaus Bergamot
 Catherine
 [?Cuifse madam]
 Jargonelle
 July
 Large Bell
 Large summer baking
 Large Winter
 Lent St. Germaine
 Summer Bergamot
 Swan’s Egg
 Virgouleuse

Plums [Prunus domestica, etc.]
 Apricot
 Cherry
 Drop d’Or
 Green Gage
 Jean Hative
 Large blue (clingstone)
 Orleans
 Philan’s
 Red Imperial
 Red Magnum Bonum
 Smaller blue (parts from the stone)
 Yellow Egg
 Saponi
 White Magnum Bonum

History Blooms at Monticello - Woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata)

Keith Nevison at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello tells us that blooming today is the woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata) in a weathered terra-cotta planter. They’ve been producing nectar for weeks now & the tiger swallowtail butterflies are loving it.

A Bug's Perspective

Photograph Bugs Eye View by Tracey Whitefoot