History Blooms at Monticello - Corn Poppy

Corn Poppy (Papaver rhoeas)

Thomas Jefferson planted "Papaver Rhoeas flor. plen. double poppy" in a Monticello oval flower bed in 1807. 

This is a horticultural variety of the common European field poppy, which was immortalized in Flanders during World War I. Corn Poppy is a hardy, self-seeding annual that bears single, red flowers in early summer.

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

Blooming Today in the Mid-Atlantic - Trailing Arbutus

Article & photos by Capital Naturalist by Alonso Abugattas

Trailing Arbutus is also referred to as Plymouth Mayflower, or just Mayflower. Since it is one of the first plants to bloom, well before May, the name is actually derived from a legend. It is said that the first bloom the pilgrims trying to settle in Plymouth in 1621 saw was this plant, whom they named after their ship. This member of the Heath family (Ericaceae) is also sometimes called Winter Pink, Mountain Pink, Gravel Plant, or Shadflower (supposedly blooming in time with the influx of migrating shad fish).

Although this plant has leathery evergreen leaves, it is best known from its small clusters of 5-petaled white or pink flowers. These often bloom in March through April & are very fragrant. They hold good supplies of nectar, enough to lure bumblebee queens (their primary pollinators) into looking for them even if they are sometimes covered in leaves. If a bumblebee is able to find 2 flowers of different sexes & pollinate them, then a berry-like capsule is formed. The seeds they contain are very attractive to ants who act as the main seed dispersers.

The flowers are said to be edible & quite tasty, but the plant is getting so rare, that to eat them is a shame, & an actual crime in some areas. I've never tried to taste one. But Trailing Arbutus has been used by people for more than just food in the past. The Algonquian Quebec tribes used a leaf infusion to treat kidney ailments. It turns out that the leaves do contain a substance called arbutin that has been used medicinally to treat kidney stones & urinary tract disorders.  The Cherokee also made use of the plant, to treat abdominal pain, induce vomiting, treat diarrhea, indigestion, in addition to kidneys. The Haudenosaunee (sometimes called the Iroquois) thought it could be used for labor pains, rheumatism, kidney issues, & indigestion. For the Potawatomi, it was a sacred tribal flower.

So there's a lot to this little woodland creeper, though it gets harder to find every year. Though sometimes sold commercially, please make sure that it is not collected from the wild. If its is disturbed, the symbiotic fungal relationship is usually broken & the plant soon dies. So please never remove it from the wild. If you are lucky enough to find it, enjoy its beauty & fragrance, it is well deserving of being the floral emblem of Nova Scotia & state flower of Massachusetts.

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