Plants in Early American Gardens - Caseknife Pole Bean

Caseknife Pole Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris cv.)

The Caseknife Pole Bean is one of the oldest documented bean varieties in American gardens, dating to the 1820s. In 1863, Fearing Burr, in Field and Garden Vegetables of America, said Caseknife was “common to almost every garden.” The name refers to its wide, flattened, slightly curving mature pod – similar to a dinner knife or knife sheath. This vigorous climber has unusually large foliage and the white flowers yield 8-9”, fibrous pods full of plump shelling beans. Harvest immature pods for sweet string beans.

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

Landscape Design - The Labyrinth or Maze

During the 18th century in the British American colonies, in a garden or pleasure grounds, a labyrinth was a maze of walkways bordered by high hedges, usually intended to grow 8-12' high, to create an intricate & difficult path to the center, so confusing that a person may lose himself in it. The visitor might find himself again, but he might not.

At that point, the host, usually the garden labyrinth designer, would rescue his humbled guest. The mortal garden owner found an ingenious way to be totally in control & to garner all the power & the glory -- well, temporarily, at least.

Earlier medieval churchs had a different perspective on their labyrinths. They believed a person's journey through a labyrinth represented his or her passage through life towards spiritual redemption through immortal God's grace.

Labyrinths were mentioned in the books of classical antiquities that the colonial gentry were reading at the time. The Greek Herodotus & the Roman Pliny refered to labyrinths in Egyptain buildings. Both Chaucer & Shakespeare used labyrinth images in their tales. A tall hedge labyrinth of maze walkways ending at a summerhouse was a perfect place for secret lovers to rendezvous.

Samuel Pepys wrote in his 1666 diary, "Here were also great variety of other exotique plants, and several labyrinths." A 1740 Welsh history book Drych y Prif Oesoedd makes note of the curious custom shepherds had of cutting the turf in the form of a labyrinth.

In France, garden labyrinths often were known as Houses of Daedalus after the mythical figure Daedalus who first constructed a labyrinth for King Minos of Crete, in which to hide the hungry Minotaur.

In 1707, Louis Liger & Francois Gentil wrote in Le Jardinier Solitaire, "A Labyrinth is commonly a Place cut into several Paths, which are renderd agreeable by the Hornbeam that parts them.

This fort of Knots we meet with in great Gardens; and the Labyrinths that are most esteem'd, are always those which are moft perplexed; such as that at Versailles...
Labyrinth Design at the gardens at Versailles, France.
The Palissades of which this Work is compos'd, are Ten, Twelve, or Fifteen Foot high; some are not above Breast high but these are none of the finest.

The Paths which divide the Labyrinths ought always to be Gravel or raked, and the Hornbeam should be trimm'd with a Hook."

By 1728, English architect & garden designer Batty Langley (1696-1751) presented two designs for labyrinths in his New Principles of Gardening.

James Wheeler explained the garden labyrinth in the 1763 Botanist's and Gardener's New Dictionary..., "a winding, maze walk, between hedges, through a wood or wilderness. The chief aim is to make the walks so perplexed and intricate, that a person may lofe himself in them, and meet with as great a number of disappointments as possible. They are rarely to be met with, except in great and noble gardens, as Versailles, Hampton-court, &c."
Britain's oldest surviving hedge maze is at Hampton Court Palace, designed by George London & Henry Wise in 1690. Originally, in the middle were 2 trees pictured here with people sitting under them. The old hornbeam maze was eventually replaced with yew.

George London (c1640-1714) was a a pupil of John Rose & was briefly gardener to Henry Compton, Bishop of London, at Fulham Palace. London visited Versailles, while he was in the service of the Earl of Portland. During James II's reign, he & Moses Cook (gardener to the Earl of Essex), Roger Lucre (gardener to the Queen Dowager at Somerset House), and John Field (gardener to the Earl of Bedford), joined in founding the celebrated Brompton Park Nurseries in South Kensington.

Henry Wise (1653-1738) was Queen Anne's master gardener & the last of the British 'Formalists', He was superintendant of the royal gardens at the 1701 re-creation of the King's Privy Garden for William III at Hampton Court. In partnership with George London, Wise is associated with the design of formal gardens at Longleat in Wiltshire, Studley Royal, Castle Howard and Newby Hall in Yorkshire and at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire and Chatsworth in Derbyshire.

"There are two ways of making them; the first is with Angle hedges : this method has been practiced in England: and these may, indeed, be best, where there is but a small spot of ground allowed for making them; but where there is ground enough, the double is most eligible.

"Those made with double hedges, with a considerable thickness of wood between them, are approved as much better than single ones: this is the manner of making them in France and other places; of all which that of Versailles is allowed to be the noblest of its kind in the world.Arial View of Hampton Court today.

"It is an error to make them too narrow; for that makes it necessary to keep the hedges close clipt: but if, according to the foreign practice, they are made wider, they will not Have in need of it.

"The walks are made with gravel usually set with hornbeams: the palissades ought to be ten, twelve, or fourteen feet high: the hornbeam should be kept cut, and the walks rolled."

Bernard M'Mahon wrote his American Gardener's Calender in 1806. He wrote that "A Labyrinth, is a maze or sort of intricate wilderness plantation, abounding with hedges and walks, formed into many windings and turnings, leading to one common centre, extremely difficult to find out; designed in large pleasure-grounds by way of amusement.

"It is generally formed with hedges, commonly in double rows, leading in various intricate turnings, backward and forward, with intervening plantations, and gravel-walks alternately between hedge and hedge ; the great aim is to have the walk contrived in so many mazy, intricate windings, to and fro, that a person may have much difficulty in finding out the centre, by meeting with as many stops and disappointments as possible; for he must not cross, or break through the hedges; so that in a well contrived labyrinth, a stranger will often entirely loose himself, so as not to find his way to the centre, nor out again.

"As to plans of them, it is impossible to describe such, by words, any further than the above hints, and their contrivance must principally depend, on the ingenuity of the designer.

"But as to the hedges, walks, and trees; the hedges are usually made of hornbeam, beech, elm, or any other kind that can be kept neat by clipping. The walks should be five feet wide at least, laid with gravel, neatly rolled, and kept clean; and the trees and shrubs to form a thicket of wood between the hedges, may be of any hardy kinds of the deciduous tribe, interspersed with some ever-greens; and in the middle of the labyrinth should be a spacious open, ornamented with some rural seats and shady bowers, &c.

"Sometimes small labyrinths are formed with box-edgings, and borders for plants, with handsome narrow walks between, in imitation of the larger ones; which have a very pleasing and amusing effect in small gardens. "
Labyrinth Design at restored Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia.

In the British American colonies and early republic, labyrinths were mentioned by the middle of the 18th-century. A hedge labyrinth was restored at the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia.

In 1762, Hannah Callender mentioned in her diary William Peters' Belmont near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, "On the right you enter a labyrinth of hedge of low cedar and spruce. In the middle stands a statue of Apollo."

Manasseh Cutler noted in his 1787 journal visiting Gray's Gardens in Philadelphia, "Here is a curious labyrinth with numerous winding begun, and extends along the declivity of the hill toward the gardens, but has yet hardly received its form."

At Monticello in Virginia in 1804, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "The best way of forming the thicket will be to plant it in labyrinth spirally, putting the tallest plants in the centre and lowering gradation to the external termination, a temple or seat may be in the center then leaving space enough between the rows to walk."
Design of Labyrinth at Harmony Society in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
Johann Georg Rapp (1757-1847) built his first Harmony Society in 1804 in Butler County, Pennsylvania. When John Melish visited a few years later, he reported, "From the warehouses we went to the Labyrinth, which is a most elegant flower-garden, with various hedge-rows, disposed in such a manner as to puzzle people to get into the little temple, emblematical of Harmony, in the middle. Mr. Rapp abruptly left us as we entered, and we soon observed him over the hedge-rows, taking his seat before the house.
Design of Restored Labyrinth at Harmony Society in southern Indiana.

"I found my way with difficulty; but the doctor, whom I left on purpose, could not find it, and Mr. Rapp had to point it out to him. The garden and temple are emblematical. The Labyrinth represents the difficulty of arriving at Harmony. The temple is rough in the exterior, showing that, at a distance, it has no allurements; but it is smooth and beautiful within, to show the beauty of harmony when once attained."

By this time, the term labyrinth began to become an emblem encouraging reflection & contemplation. The term maze was often used to denote confusion and gave power to the owner, the person who created the garden maze & could rescue those lost in the intricacies of the plantings.

At some point in time, certainly not during the 18th & early 19th centuries in America, garden labyrinths became puzzles with one pathway leading from the entrance to the goal, but often by complex & winding of routes. And garden mazes became puzzles usually designed with choices in the pathway, some of which may lead to dead-ends.

Today, there are two types of labyrinth mazes, unicursal & multicursal or branching. Unicursal labyrinth mazes have no blind alleys & do not pose much of a puzzle to those negotiating them. A multicursal design has blind alleys & branches, so finding the "goal" of the this maze presents a challenge.

Americans still enjoy labyrinths. Out in the country where we live, mazes are cut out of corn fields, and folks flock to them. One of my friends wrote of his corn maze adventure, "I loved it, because it was an intellectual challenge that physically swallowed you up. When you work a puzzle on paper, you are contesting the game from outside the playing field—as if you were an aloof scientist observing the rats in an experiment or a giant Gulliver towering over the Lilliputians. But when you walk into a maze, you are playing the game from the inside—you are the rat in the labyrinth."
In New York City, a year after the World Trade Center tragedy, the memorial Battery Labyrinth was created to offer the public a way to reflect, honor, & heal. This low labyrinth encourages contemplation on a journey with a clear destination. Its goal is to create an internal balance generated by the rhythm of the walking and the mental state of no decision-making..

You may be interested in further reading on the subject:
Carpeggiani, Paolo. "Labyrinths in the Gardens of the Renaissance" in the History of Garden Design, ed. Monique Mosser & Georges Teyssot. London: Thames & Hudson, 1991.

Fisher Adrian & Georg Gerster. The Art of the Maze. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1990.

Kern, Hermann. Through the Labyrinth, ed. Robert Ferré & Jeff Saward. Munich: Prestel, 2000.

Lockridge, Ross F. (1877-1952). The Labyrinth of New Harmony. New Harmony, Indiana. New Harmony Memorial Commission, 1941. Reprint, Westport, Conn: Hyperion Press, 1975.

Matthews, W.H. Mazes and Labyrinths - A General Account of their History and Developments. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1922.

Pizzoni, Filippo. The Garden - A History in Landscape and Art. London: Aurum Press, 1999.

Reed Doob, Penelope. The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990.

Saward, Jeff. Labyrinths & Mazes. London: Gaia Books, 2003 & New York: Lark Books, 2003.

Strong, Roy. The Renaissance Garden in England. London: Thames & Hudson, 1979.

Strong, Roy. The Artist & the Garden. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. 2000.

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.

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

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