Geo Washington's (1732-1799) Gardeners at Mount Vernon

Gardeners at Mount Vernon

The Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington tells us that George Washington cared deeply about the appearance of his gardens, in both style and type of flora, and closely supervised the planting process at Mount Vernon. He demonstrated his love of the United States through the types of native flora that he planted on his estate. After Washington retired, first from war and then from politics, he fulfilled the image of a gentleman planter, using Mount Vernon as his own personal statement of independence and republican simplicity.

Washington loved his gardens and was constantly changing the plants used at Mount Vernon. There is little evidence to suggest, however, that he was the one gardening. There were many gardeners who worked at Mount Vernon, several of whom were indentured servants. For example, letters written from Washington to his estate manager, Lund Washington, and to John Washington, an acquaintance from King George City, Virginia, reveal that Philip Bateman served as the primary gardener at Mount Vernon between 1773 and 1785.1

George Washington purchased Bateman as an indentured servant for £35 in 1773, but continued to employ his services long after the term of indenture had ended.2 Records indicate that an individual with the last name Bateman was still at the Mount Vernon Estate until 1787, although there is no record to confirm that it was the same Bateman. On March 20, 1773, George Washington wrote to thank John Washington for finding him a promising gardener.3 Evidence in Washington's diaries suggests that Bateman stayed at least until December 1785, around the same time Lund Washington was preparing to end his tenure as the estate manager of Mount Vernon.4 There is a possibility that Bateman stayed at Mount Vernon longer, perhaps under the name Philip Bater, who on April 23, 1787, agreed to continue to work at Mount Vernon for at least one more year.5

Very little is known about Bateman aside from the fact that he was the gardener at Mount Vernon from 1773 to at least 1785. Although Lund Washington appreciated Bateman's talents, he did not think highly of the gardener's intellect. In October 1783, Lund Washington wrote to George Washington: "As to Bateman (the Old Gardener) I have no expectation of his ever seeking Another home—indulge him in getg Drunk now and then, and he will be happy—he is the best kitchen Gardener to be met with."6 Bateman was clearly loyal to the Washingtons and to Mount Vernon, but from the very few letters and records that mention his name it is difficult to ascertain his fate after he ended his work at Mount Vernon.

After Bateman's departure from Mount Vernon, George Washington hired a German gardener named Johann (John) Christian Ehlers who worked on the estate from 1789 to 1797. Although Washington employed Ehlers for nearly ten years, he was constantly troubled by Ehler's work ethic and drinking habits. In 1792, Washington warned his estate manager at the time, Anthony Whiting, about Ehlers: "It is my desire also that Mr. Butler will pay some attention to the conduct of the Gardener and the hands who are at work with him; so far as to see that they are not idle; for, though I will not charge them with idleness, I cannot forbear saying . . . that the matters entrusted to him appear to me to progress amazingly slow."7

Ehlers evidently did not reform his behavior. In December 1793, Washington scolded the gardener, writing, "I shall not close this letter without exhorting you to refrain from spiritous liquors—they will prove your ruin if you do not … Don’t let this be your case. Shew yourself more of a man, and a Christian, than to yield to so intolerable a vice; which cannot, I am certain (to the greatest lover of liquor) give more pleasure to sip in the poison (for it is no better) than the consequences of it in bad behaviour at the moment, & the more serious evils produced by it afterwards, must give pain."8 Washington ultimately parted ways with Ehlers in 1797.

While Ehlers was still employed by Washington, another gardener named John Gottleib Richler also worked at Mount Vernon. Richler was a German servant indentured for three years in return for Washington paying for his passage from Germany to the United States.9 Otherwise not much is known about Richler [not Ehlers], who presumably left Mount Vernon after his term of indenture ended.

There were many other gardeners who worked at Mount Vernon, but their personal information is scarce. Two of these gardeners were David Cowan and William Spence. David Cowan worked for Washington for a little over a year between 1773 and 1774. William Spence was hired to work at Mount Vernon as a gardener in 1797, and stayed on after Washington's death in 1799.

There is no evidence that George Washington did any physical gardening himself at Mount Vernon, but his influence on activities was still apparent. His designs determined what plants were included and how the gardens appeared. Washington was directly involved in the development and redesigning of the gardens around the mansion, especially during his two separate retirements between 1784 and 1789 and from 1779 to 1799.10

Washington contributed to the look of several natural spaces at Mount Vernon, including, the vista approaching the house, the Bowling Green, and the upper and lower walled gardens. For each garden area, Washington specified the types of plants and features that he wanted. In the Bowling Green, for example, Washington had the area shaped perfectly flat, using rollers to compress the earth and planted with velvety English grass to create a lush setting.

Surrounding the Bowling Green, Washington chose shrubs and trees planted around the walkways to reflect his design aesthetic. Washington desired to have native North American plant species in his gardens to represent the splendor of flora found in the United States. In his letters, Washington wrote that he wanted "philadelphus coronarius, as sweet flowering shrub (called mock Orange)," "Pinus Strobus," "Prunis Divaricata," "Hydrangia arborescens," and "Laurus nobilis."11  Washington exercised similar influence over each of Mount Vernon’s gardens.

By  Charlotte Doney of George Washington University

Notes:

1. A few letters have been found that identify Bateman as the gardener at Mount Vernon, including one written to a John Washington (no relation to George Washington), who appears to have purchased Bateman for George Washington in March of 1773. Lund Washington also wrote a letter citing Bateman as the gardener dated October 1, 1783. See: "George Washington to John Washington 20 March 1773," The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, ed. Theodore J. Crackel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008; "George Washington to Lund Washington, 3 April 1779," The Papers of George  Washington Digital Edition.

2. "George Washington to John Washington 20 March 1773," The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition

3. Ibid.

4. "Diary Entry, 22 December 1785," The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition.

5. "George Washington to Lund Washington, 3 April 1779," The Papers of George  Washington Digital Edition.

6. "Lund Washington to George Washington, 1 October 1783," The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, Vol. 9, 202n.

7. "George Washington to Anthony Whiting, 23 December 1792," The Writings of George Washington, Vol. 32, 275.

8. "George Washington to John Christian Ehlers, 23 December 1793," The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition.

9. "George Washington to Frances B. Washington, 28-29 July 1793," The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, n. 8 and "George Washington to Howell Lewis, 4 August 1793," The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition.

10. Joseph Manca, George Washington’s Eye: Landscape, Architecture, and Design at Mount Vernon (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012)

11. "George Washington to John Ehlers, 7 November 1792," The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition.

All this research plus images & much more is directly from the Mount Vernon website - to begin exploring, just click the highlighted acknowledgment above. 

The Poinsettia's Philadelphia Roots

Hardy Christmas flower got its U.S. start in 1829 at the first Flower Show.

By Virginia A. Smith, The Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer
December 18, 2011

"The red poinsettia has been a Christmas tradition forever, it seems. Did you know it has a historic connection to Philadelphia?

"Bartram's Garden, established on the banks of the Schuylkill around 1728 by botanist John Bartram, was the first to successfully grow the poinsettia outside its native Mexico. Bartram's officially introduced it to the American public and commercial trade at the inaugural Philadelphia Flower Show on June 6, 1829.

"At this one-day affair, the public reacted to the poinsettia and hundreds of other plants with such excitement that the show's host, the fledgling Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, decided to make it an annual event.

"The exotic Mexican beauty was described as "a new Euphorbia with bright scarlet bracteas, or floral leaves, presented to the Bartram collection by Mr. Poinsett, United States Minister to Mexico." "Mr. Poinsett" was Joel Roberts Poinsett, a prominent South Carolina politician and diplomat with an interest in horticulture.

"Nevertheless, according to historian Joel T. Fry, it was not Bartram's that became known as the poinsettia's patron. English garden historians bestowed that honor on Philadelphia nurseryman Robert Buist, who introduced it to his Scottish homeland in 1834, fully five years after the flower show.

"Even though something new might be discovered, Bartram's didn't sit around recording each one," Fry said.  As opposed to the Brits, who did.

"Late in life, Buist corrected the record. He wrote an article describing his presence at Bartram's when "two plants with stubby little roots were unpacked. They turned out to be poinsettias," Fry said.

"From the get-go, the now oh-so-familiar poinsettia was the province of botanists, "plant nerds," and wealthy hobbyists, according to Paul Ecke 3d, whose great-grandfather Albert Ecke started the family's poinsettia business in Los Angeles a century ago.

"Nobody else had the money to heat their house to keep the flowers alive, and certainly not a greenhouse," Ecke said.

"For decades, the poinsettia was field-grown and sold as a cut flower, like roses. In the 1960s, the Eckes moved their growing operations indoors, commercial breeding began in earnest, and potted plants quickly superseded cut stems as the norm.

"With aggressive marketing, poinsettias soon became "the Christmas plant," which is an honest claim; their natural bloom time is winter.

"Today, besides the ubiquitous red, poinsettias come in lots of colors, even yellow, and designs, including marbled, painted, and glittered. Ecke has a new early-bloomer he promotes for outdoor landscapes in places such as Texas and California.

"Remarkably, red is still the public's favorite color. "It's the tradition," he says.

But the poinsettia industry struggles to attract a younger audience - with novelty and supersized plants, as well as specimens sold in "cool pots that promote lifestyle."

"We don't want poinsettias to just be Grandma's plant or Mom's plant. We have to make poinsettias cool for Gen XYZ," Ecke said... The family business, which moved to Encinitas, Calif., in 1923 and expanded to Guatemala in 1995, still controls 70 percent of the worldwide market in poinsettia cuttings, 50 percent of the domestic.

"As for "Mr. Poinsett," turns out he was vain and opinionated and caused such a scandal in Mexico, he was eventually kicked out. Today, Fry said, "he is always portrayed as an evil American gringo."

"As if that weren't grinch-y enough: In papers left behind, Poinsett never once mentions the curious plant that set Philadelphians on their head in 1829.

"Said Fry: "It was not a big thing in his life."

1764 Plants in 18C Colonial American Gardens - Virginian John Randolph (727-1784) - Elecampane

A Treatise on Gardening Written by a native of this State (Virginia)
Author was John Randolph (1727-1784)
Written in Williamsburg, Virginia about 1765
Published by T. Nicolson, Richmond, Virginia. 1793
The only known copy of this booklet is found in the Special Collections of the Wyndham Robertson Library at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia.

Elecampane

Elecampane, Helenium, is a medicinal plant, the root of which is much used by the Apothecaries. It may be propagated from the seed, which are to be planted just when ripe, about ten inches asunder, and will remain in the ground until the succeeding spring, when they will make their appearance, and conquer all weeds. They may likewise he propagated from the offsets, with a bud at the top; they are to be put in a hole unbent, and the earth thrown over the crown of the plant with the foot; the tops are killed in winter, but they revive in the spring..

Women's Work 1863 - US Women as Root, Bark, & Seed Gatherers.

Women Gathering Roots? Engraved by R D Havell after George Walker Published by Robinson and Son Leeds

When the grass is bowed by the sparkling dew, & the hills shrouded in mist, plants exhale most freely their sweet odors. They are then gathered & sold to manufacturers, who prepare from them oils, essences, & perfumeries. 

An old Quaker lady on Tenth street, Philadelphia, keeping an herb store, told me that she purchases her herbs mostly of men, but some women do bring them to sell. 

It requires a knowledge of botany to gather them, & the stage of the moon must be observed. Digging roots, & gathering plants, at all seasons, is a hard business. 

At another herb store, Í learned that the prices paid gatherers depend much on the kind of herb, the difficulty of obtaining it, & the season when it is gathered. A woman may earn $1 a week, or she may earn as much as $10. 

The roots & herbs are bought by weight. Many are purchased fresh in market, but some of the gatherers dry them. They are sent from different parts of the Union to the cities & towns. One told me that she would rather purchase herbs & seed put up by women, for they are neater & more careful with their work. She sells most in spring & fall. An Indian doctress told me barks must be gathered in the spring & fall, when they are full of sap; & roots, when the leaves are faded or dead. She sometimes makes $20 worth of syrup in a day. She says the business requires some knowledge of plants, experience in the times of gathering, amount of drying, &c. 

The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work by Virginia Panny Published Boston, MA. by Walker, Wise & Company. 1863

To read about women's changing roles in the 2nd half of the 19th century. see:
Boorstin, Daniel. The Americans: The Democratic Experience. New York:Random House, 1973.
Clinton, Catherine. The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Hill and Wang, 1984.
Cott, Nancy. A Heritage of Her Own: Toward a New Social History of Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.
Cott Nancy. History of Women in the United States, Part 6, Working the Land. New York: K. G. Saur, 1992.
Degler, Carl. At Odds: Women and the Family from Revolution to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Green, Harvey. The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.
Juster, Norton. So Sweet to Labor: Rural Women in America 1865-1895. New York: The Viking Press, 1979.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage Earning Women in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982
Mintz, Stephen and Susan Kellogg. Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life. New York: Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1988.
Ryan, Mary P. Womanhood in America front he Colonial Times to the Present. New York: F. Watts, 1983.
Smith-Rosenberg, Caroll. Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Strasser, Susan. Never Done: A History of American Housework. New York Pantheon Books, 1982.
Welter, Barbara. Dimity Convictions : the American Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Athens : Ohio University Press, 1976.

Metal, willow, & clay cloches

Terracotta rhubarb forcer with lid
A bell-shaped terracotta rhubarb forcer with lid, about 13" high

Although it is clear that I favor the glass cloche, in the interest of fairness, we will look at a few alternative types of cloches from the 17th, 18th, & 19th centuries, some still in use today. They deserve equal time, and this is my attempt at trying to be "fair & balanced."

Handmade terra-cotta cloches have existed nearly as long as the blown-glass examples. They often have ventilation holes to prevent spoilage from excessive heat & humidity.

Gardeners usually used terra-cotta cloches slow the growth of lettuce.

Terre cotta rhubarb pots at Knightshayes Garden, Tiverton, Devon, England

Other terra-cotta cloches, often about 30" high & similar in shape to chimney pots, were used for forcing rhubarb. Some of these had lids.
Barnsdale Gardens, Exton, Oakham, Rutland, England.

Gardeners also used metal-framed glass cloches during the period.

In metal-framed cloches, one of the glass panes could be removed by the gardener for fresh air ventilation. Sometimes gardeners temporarily would paint the glass white to shade tender plants from direct sunlight.
Audley End Kitchen Garden, English Heritage, Essex, England

Today, these architectural tents or pavilions are more often employed for decorative purposes.

I found only one depiction of a completely metal cloche made in France about 1900.

 Willow garden cloches. Protect plants from animals, or provide support to plants that need a little protection from the wind, or a place to climb.