Plants in Early American Gardens - Green-and-Gold

Green-and-Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum)

Chrysogonum virginianum is a North American native perennial that ranges from Pennsylvania to Florida and Louisiana. This spreading, repeat-flowering plant works well as a groundcover and in woodland gardens and rain gardens. Green-and-gold is evergreen in warmer zones.

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

18C Connectcut Garden & Cultural Landscape

18C Connecticut House by Rebecca Couch (Mrs James C.) Denison 1788-1863

Plants in Early American Gardens - Possum Haw

Possum Haw (Viburnum nudum)

This handsome shrub is native from New York to Louisiana and was first introduced to European gardens in 1752. While living in Paris, Thomas Jefferson desired to introduce many North American species to his European friends. In 1786, he wrote to the Philadelphia nurseryman John Bartram, Jr. requesting seed of various native trees and shrubs, including this species.

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

South Carolina - Rice Plantation Rose Hill

Rose Hill c 1820. Unidentified artist. Charleston Museum, South Carolina. Home owned by Nathaniel Heyward (1766-1851) & his wife Henrietta Manigault (1769-1827), the rice plantation Rose Hill on the Combhee River was home to 152 slaves. Rose Hill is also illustrated in the marginialia of the diary of their son Charles (1802-1866) which is at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston

Plants in Early American Gardens - Lewis' Prairie Flax

Lewis' Prairie Flax (Linum perenne lewisii)

In 1806, Lewis and Clark observed this western North American perennial in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. It was named Linum Lewisii after Capt. Meriwether Lewis. This subspecies, which is more robust than the common European species, bears funnel-shaped, clear blue flowers on slender, somewhat nodding, 2-3 foot stems in early to mid-summer.

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