Plants in Early American Gardens - Bare Root Hardy Pecan

Bare Root Hardy Pecan (Carya illinoinensis)

Thomas Jefferson recognized the value of this native tree. In Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson’s only published book, he listed “Paccan, or Illinois Nut” among the “esculent” species, and he encouraged his friends in America and abroad to cultivate it. At Monticello, Pecan nuts were planted numerous times in the nursery and the South Orchard; and Jefferson envisioned establishing a Pecan orchard as well. The fruits are also nutritious and beneficial to mammals and birds; and the tree is the larval host of the gray hairstreak butterfly.

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Garden to Table - African-American Gardens at Monticello

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817)

"Although Thomas Jefferson often participated in the gardening process himself -sowing seed in the kitchen garden, & labeling & spacing tulip bulbs in the flower beds - he was not the only gardener at Monticello...Wormley Hughes, the African American often called Monticello's "Head Gardener," collected seed, planted precious plants in the Monticello nurseries, & set out Mr. Jefferson's "pet trees." Gardener John espaliered grapes, aided in the terracing of the kitchen garden, & planted a sugar maple tree that survived for 200 years, while Great George & Goliah led the "veteran aids" in the daily work in the vegetable garden...But just as Jefferson was not the only gardener, so were the mountaintop flower, fruit, & vegetable gardens not the only gardens at Monticello.

"Jefferson's Memorandum Books, which detailed virtually every financial transaction that he engaged in between 1769 & 1826, as well as the account ledger kept by his granddaughter, Anne Cary Randolph, between 1805 & 1808, document hundreds of transactions involving the purchase of produce from Monticello slaves. This documentary record of the purchase of 22 species of fruits & vegetables from as many as 43 different individuals, suggests the vitality & entrepreneurial spirit of the Monticello African American community & the beginnings of an African American horticultural tradition.

"Monticello's 1,000-foot-long kitchen garden is legendary for the variety & scope of its vegetable production, so the question immediately arises, "why did the Jefferson family require outside sources to provide for the table?" One explanation might lie in the experimental focus of the Jefferson garden. Although over 300 vegetable varieties were documented, the emphasis was on using the garden as a laboratory rather than on production for the dinner table. As well, much of the produce purchased from Monticello slaves was out of season: potatoes were sold in December & February, hominy beans & apples purchased in April, & cucumbers bought in January. Archaeological excavations of slave cabins at Monticello indicate the widespread presence of root cellars, which not only served as secret hiding places, but surely as repositories for root crops & other vegetables amenable to cool, dark storage. Conversely, inventories of the Monticello cellars curiously omit garden produce, & are dominated by fancy, imported delicacies like capers, olive oil, & Parmesan cheese. Produce harvested from slave gardens at Monticello seemed to be more purposefully directed toward the out-of-season table, & they included more everyday garden staples, like cabbages & potatoes, rather than the new & unusual gourmet vegetables, like artichokes & sea kale, found in the Jefferson garden.

"Slave gardens were not unique to Monticello. Similar cash transactions between George Washington & enslaved African Americans took place at Mount Vernon, & numerous 18th-century Virginian travelers documented slave gardens. William Hugh Grove in 1732 mentioned "little Platts for potatoes peas & cymlins, which they do on Sundays or at night." John Custis of Williamsburg noted how in 1737 one of his slaves grew "a multitude of melons," & Philip Fithian, Princeton educated tutor for the Carter family at Nomini Hall, observed slaves digging up "their small Lots of ground allw'd by their Masters for Potatoes, peas, etc."

"Eugene Genovese, author of Roll Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made(1972), argued that slaves had a healthier diet than white southerners because of these gardens. He also stated, "the slaves used their money for credits to buy fishhooks or kitchen utensils or to buy marbles for their children or to keep their women in ribbons, bandannas, & assorted finery." Joe Fossett, an enslaved Monticello blacksmith, purchased a gold watch, tutoring, & a copy book for his son, Peter, perhaps from income generated from this underground economy. According to Genovese the gardens were important in providing a sense of independence, & they also enabled African Americans to learn the art of economic bartering. At Monticello, Anne Cary, between the age of 14 & 17, purchased vegetables from over 40 slaves, & one can only speculate about the bartering process. At this meeting of white & black worlds, with Ann hoping to pass the rites of adulthood & elderly slaves like Squire aspiring for some marginal self-sufficiency, one wonders which party had the advantage: which party drove the hard bargain?

"A debate waged among southern plantation owners about the desirability of these gardens. Some argued they encouraged domestic tranquility & tied slaves more securely to the land. Others felt the gardens, & the independence they encouraged, led to discontent & distracted slaves from labor in the fields. Questions inevitably arose about what crops were whose, master's or slave's? Anthony Giannini wrote Jefferson in Paris & complained of slaves stealing Monticello grapes before they ripened, & at Poplar Forest, Jefferson's retreat home near Lynchburg, John Hemings, a loyal & skilled African American carpenter, reported to Jefferson that a disgruntled slave, Nace, had stolen all the produce from the kitchen garden. The enormous, 10-foot-high paling fence that surrounded the Monticello fruit & vegetable garden may have been constructed to prevent thievery. Jefferson wrote his son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph, in 1792, & thanked him for banning the cultivation of tobacco around slave dwellings. He wrote, "I have ever found it necessary to confine them [slaves] to such articles as are not raised on the farm, there is no other way of drawing a line between what is theirs & mine."

"Both Jefferson & Ann Cary specified the person from whom they purchased vegetables & fruit; however, the person involved in the sale might not have been the one gardening. Thirty-one males, averaging about 37 years of age, & twelve females, averaging 41 years old, were involved in the transactions. Since many of the sellers were older, seven of the males were over fifty, they may have been representing the family garden. Squire, for example, a former Peter Jefferson slave leased by Thomas Jefferson from his mother, represented the most sophisticated garden. He sold thirteen different commodities, including cymlins (a patty-pan-shaped squash), potatoes, lettuce, beets, watermelons, apples, & muskmelons. He sold a cucumber to Jefferson on January 12, 1773, suggesting either that the fruit was pickled & preserved, or that artificial heat in a cold frame or hot bed was used to bring this tender vegetable to fruition in the middle of winter, a rather remarkable feat in 18C Virginia. Bagwell, Squire's son-in-law, was also a major supplier, & sold Jefferson sixty pounds of hops for twenty dollars. A woody perennial, hops require an arbor or structure upon which to vine, & most importantly, suggest the permanence that perennial crops lend to a garden.

"Israel Gillette Jefferson, a waiter & carder in the Monticello cloth factory, represented another productive African American family garden. His father, Ned or Edward Gilette, sold watermelons, beans, & potatoes, while Israel sold large quantities of cabbage, fifty to one hundred at a time. Caesar, a farm laborer at Shadwell, Jefferson's birthplace & a satellite farm to Monticello, was another major supplier of cucumbers, cabbages, & greens, & Burwell Colbert, probably Jefferson's most valued & trusted slave, sold "sprouts" to Jefferson. Boys & girls were also involved in the bartering process; Billy, at the age of eight, sold strawberries, perhaps collected from the wild, while Madison & Eston Hemings, most likely Jefferson's sons by Sally Hemings, were 15 & 18 when selling 100 cabbages to Jefferson in 1822.

"Except for watermelons, & perhaps sweet potatoes, few of the sold fruits & vegetables were either African in origin, or closely associated with African American food culture. Cucumbers were the most common commodity, with 23 transactions, followed by cabbages, watermelons, hops, Irish potatoes, cymlins, & greens. One wonders if Monticello's slave gardens included other crops specifically identified with African Americans. Jefferson discussed the potato pumpkin, evidently an early bearing squash used as a sweet potato substitute, that was "well esteemed at our tables, & particularly valued by our Negroes." He also attributed the introduction of sesame to the slave trade, & acknowledged an independent African horticultural tradition associated with the culture & use of this plant. Other vegetables grown by Jefferson & associated with African American culture include okra, used liberally around Charleston & New Orleans; eggplant, an African native; sweet potatoes, "which the Negroes tend so generally;" peanuts, often associated with the African groundnut; & the West Indian gherkin, a spiny, round cucumber commonly pickled & grown in the Jefferson kitchen garden. Some historians have also attributed the earliest distribution of tomatoes in the deep South to African introductions.

"Monticello was a 5,000-acre plantation organized into a series of four or five satellite farms, & the African American gardens were likely associated with quarter farm communities or isolated cabins out on the farm. Neither documentary nor archaeological evidence has illuminated the character of these gardens. One exception was an intriguing reference, three years after Jefferson's death, to the distribution of peach pits to slaves at Edgehill, a Jefferson family estate adjacent to Monticello, "and thus in a few years there will be 2 or 3 trees about every cabin." Traveler's landscape commentaries in the 18C & early 19C often used the term "plats" to identify the slave gardens, an interesting contrast to the word used to describe how white Virginian gardens were organized: into "squares." Frederick Law Olmsted, often referred to as America's first landscape architect, described African American gardens in 1860 as about 1/2 acre in size. Work in these gardens took place on Sundays, or in the night after slaves were excused from their field labor. An oral tradition suggests that the evening garden work was illuminated by lighting the animal fat in cast iron pots or pans. One can only speculate about the features of these gardens: the nature of pathways, edging materials, the use of rows; or about cultural practices: fertilization, water, & pest control. Tools, such as a variety of hoes, were often distributed to enslaved field hands & so were surely useful for the care of the home garden. However improvisational, the mere existence of these gardens suggest the struggle by enslaved African Americans to forge a more independent way of life."

Written by Peter J. Hatch, Director of Gardens & Grounds Twinleaf Journal Online January 2001

Research & images & much more are directly available from the Monticello website - to begin exploring, just click the highlighted acknowledgment above. 

Flowers & Plants in Early American Gardens - Red Russian Kale

Red Russian Kale (Brassica napus var. pabularia) cv.

Thomas Jefferson's vegetable garden commonly included various Kales such as German, Scotch, Delaware, Malta, and Russian types. Red Russian Kale, also called Ragged Jack, is an extremely cold-hardy variety that originated in Russia and was introduced to Canada around 1885. The highly attractive blue-green leaves have purple veins and stems, turn reddish-purple in cold weather, and have lightly-frilled edges.

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

Plants in Early American Gardens - Long Island Cheese Winter Squash

Long Island Cheese Winter Squash (Cucurbita moschata)

This Long Island heirloom was known as the original “Cheese Wheel.” It has smooth, heavily ribbed, buff-colored skin with a deep orange, sweet flesh. This winter squash weighs 6-10 pounds, and is considered one of the best baking varieties and is excellent in pies. It also stores well.

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

18C American Landscape - Hunting Scene with a Pond

18C American Landscape Hunting Scene with a Pond

Plants in Early American Gardens - Perennial Pea

Perennial Pea (Lathyrus latifolius)

Perennial Pea is a summer-flowering vine that Thomas Jefferson sowed in one of the oval beds at Monticello in 1807. It was an established garden plant in America before 1720. Perennial Pea is a long-lived vigorous climber with attractive blue-green leaves and showy flowers in red, pink, or rarely, white. Although European in origin, it has naturalized in many parts of the United States, especially on roadsides.

Contact The Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at
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Plants in Early American Gardens - Gaura

Gaura (Gaura lindheimeri)

Although native to Louisiana, Texas, and parts of Mexico, Gaura is hardy as far north as Washington state and eastern Massachusetts. It was introduced into England in 1850 and named for the great German botanist Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer. Peter Henderson noted in his Handbook of Plants (1890) that this was the only species "in general cultivation." He continued to observe that the "profusion of its spikes of graceful flowers, makes it a valuable plant for garden decoration; and the flowers are very useful for bouquets or vases."

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Seasons Change - Williamsburg's Spring Gardens give way to Summer...

All photos from Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Plants in Early American Gardens - Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage

Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata cv.)

Numerous types of cabbages were planted in Thomas Jefferson's gardens throughout his lifetime, including French, Milan, Savoy, Ox-heart, Roman, Scotch, Sugarloaf, York, and Winter. Early Jersey Wakefield forms a compact, somewhat conical head up to 15” long and 7” wide with glaucous-green leaves. First grown in New Jersey in 1840, it is a fine early-heading variety with a sweet flavor and was popular in 19th-century markets.

Contact The Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at
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South Carolina - Plantation Houses for the Slaves, who worked the Land

1800 View of Mulberry, House & Street, Thomas Coram (1756 – 1811), The Carolina Art Association Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina. This is the earliest known depiction of a plantation house with rows of single-room slave cabins leading to the powerful owner's house.

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
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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
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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
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Plants in Early American Gardens - Giant Musselburgh Leeks

Giant Musselburgh Leeks (Allium ampeloprasum cv.)

The garden leek is a Mediterranean species that was cultivated by the Egyptians as early as 3,200 BCE. Jefferson planted a variety of Flag Leek in his vegetable garden at Monticello in 1812. The Giant Musselburgh Leek originated in England in the early 1800s, and was praised by Fearing Burr in Field and Garden Vegetables of America (1863) as “[h]ardy and of excellent quality.”

For more information & the possible availability
Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello 

Garden to Table - Cow's Horn Okra

Cow's Horn Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus cv.)

Thomas Jefferson frequently grew okra at Monticello after his retirement in 1809, often as a companion plant to his “tomatas.” Jefferson family recipes include various types of okra stews in which okra was blended with tomatoes and other tangy vegetables. A member of the Mallow family, okra is a highly ornamental vegetable with large, tropical leaves and handsome yellow flowers. 'Cow's Horn' is a southern heirloom variety with distinctive curved fruits.

For more information & the possible availability
Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello 

18C New England Garden & Cultural Landscape

1700s New England. Sometimes said to be Thomas Banister House, in Rhode Island

Plants in Early American Gardens - Red Wethersfield Onion

Red Wethersfield Onion (Allium cepa cv.)

Thomas Jefferson grew several types of onion at Monticello, including Madeira, Spanish, Tree, and White. The Red Wethersfield Onion is a 19th-century variety that derives its name from Wethersfield, Connecticut, where it reputably originated. It forms a large, flattened bulb 5” in diameter with purplish white, mildly pungent flesh.

For more information & the possible availability
Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello 

18C Children & American Gardens out windows

 1710 Justus Engelhardt Kuhn (Colonial American artist, fl 1707-1717)  Henry Darnall III

 1710 Justus Engelhardt Kuhn (Colonial American artist, fl 1707-1717)  Henry Darnall III