Plants in Early American Gardens - Lamb's Ears

 Lamb's Ears (Stachys byzantine)

Lamb's Ears (Stachys byzantina)

This mat-forming, perennial herb is native to the Middle East from the Caucasus to Iran and has been cultivated since the late 18th century. Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon listed it as “Stachys lanata, Woolly Stachys” in The American Gardener’s Calendar, 1806. Although Lamb’s Ears is a member of the mint family and related to the Common European Betony (Stachys officinalis), it appears to have been grown as an ornamental plant rather than for medicinal purposes. New Jersey nurseryman Peter Henderson noted in his Handbook of Plants, 1890, that this species was the only one of special merit for the garden, and was “used to a considerable extent in the formation of white lines for ribbon borders or massing” in Victorian flower beds.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello 

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

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.

Asparagus

Asparagus....Grow a young shoot; are to be propagated either from the seed or roots. The seed are contained in those things which look like red berries. These are to be gathered from the most flourishing stalks, and laid in a tub for about three weeks to ferment. This will rot the husks, which will swim upon being rubbed between the hands, and having water poured upon them, but the seed will go to the bottom. Pour the water off gently, and the husks will be carried along with it. This being done two or three times, the seed will become perfectly clean. They are then to be laid on a mat or dish, and exposed to the sun to dry. When that is done, they may be put into a hag and pricked out in February or March, in beds about a foot asunder every way, anil never to be transplanted. But if they are to he transplanted, they may he sown as thick as you do Cabbage. If you propagate from the roots, those of a year old are most eligible, though if two, they will succeed very well. In planting them out, they should he placed about four inches under the surface of the ground, with the bud erect, against the side of the earth perpendicularly cut, so that the extremity of the roots may touch each other. This will put them about a foot asunder; the best time for transplanting them is when they begin to shoot, but before they appear above ground. The principal thing to be regarded with these plants, is the bed in which they are to be placed. A great apparatus was formerly made use of, but now seems *On all hands to be disregarded. Nothing more is necessary than to make your beds perfectly rich and light, that the head may not be obstructed in its growth upwards. Two feet of mould and dung is depth sufficient for any plant. They are to be kept clean from weeds, and nothing sown upon the beds. The fourth year from the seed they may be cut moderately, but it is better to wait till the fifth. About October the haum should be cut down, and the beds covered with rotten dung about six inches, part of which may he taken off in February or March, and the remainder forked up in the«beds, which will not only assist the roots, but raise the beds in some small degree yearly, which is an advantage. A spade is a very prejudicial instrument to them. Cut with a blunt pointed knife (some use a saw) and separate the earth from the plant, and cut it so as not to endanger the head of another that may be shooting up. There are joints in the roots of the Sparrow grass like the Wire grass, from every one of which a head is produced. Butchers' dung is what it delights in. I would recommend your beds to be about four feet wide, that the grass may be cut without treading on the beds, which often hardens the earth so much that the grass cannot come up, and must of course perish. In these beds I would have three rows; for the roots ought to have a sufficient quantity of earth on all sides. Beds thus managed, Miller says, will last ten or twelve years; Bradly says twenty, and I am inclined to join with the latter.

Garden to Table - Apple Tansey Recipe in 1742

Londoner Eliza Smith wrote in the beginning of her 1727 book on being a complete housewife that ladies might use the information in her book for their "private families, or such publick-spirited gentlewomen as would be beneficent to their poor neighbours."  

An early recipe for Apple Tansey appears in The Compleat Housewife: Or, Accomplished Gentelwoman’s Companion, a cookbook written by Eliza Smith.

The Compleat Housewife, or Accomplish'd Gentlewoman's Companion, originally published in London, England, in 1727, is considered the 1st cookbook published in the British American colonies.  The Compleat Housewife contained not only recipes, but also directions for painting rooms, removing mildew, and home remedies for treating ailments, such as smallpox.

The Compleat Housewife was published in early America for the first time in 1742, by William Parks, a Williamsburg, Virginia, printer. He printed and sold the cookbook, believing that there was a strong market for it with Virginia housewives who wished to be current with the London fashion. Parks was the founder of the Maryland Gazette, and published a number of minor books and pamphlets before printing The Compleat Housewife, which became his major book publication. The book that was published in America was the fifth London edition, which was a best seller there at that time.  During the 18C, British books including The Compleat Housewife were reprinted in Boston, New York and Philadelphia.

When he published Compleat Housewife in 1742, Parks made an attempt to have the cookbook altered to American "taste", deleting certain recipes, "the ingredients or materials for which are not to be had in this country."  In England, when Eliza Smith wrote The Compleat Housewife, she showed "her self-assurance to attack English attitudes toward food and women cooks." In the book's preface, Smith chides the male culinary writers of her time. She claimed that they concealed their best recipes from the public. The Compleat Housewife title page describes the book as a “collection of several hundred of the most approved receipts, in cookery, pastry, confectionery, preserving, pickles, cakes, creams, jellies, made wines, cordials. And also bills of fare for every month of the year. To which is added, a collection of nearly two hundred family receipts of medicines; viz. drinks, syrups, salves, ointments, and many other things of sovereign and approved efficacy in most distempers, pains, aches, wounds, sores, etc. never before made publick in these parts; fit either for private families, or such publick-spirited gentlewomen as would be beneficent to their poor neighbours."

Here is the 18C recipe as it appears in the manuscript:
 To make an Apple Tansey,
Take three pippins, slice them round in thin slices, and fry them with butter; then beat four eggs, with six spoonfuls of cream, a little rosewater, nutmeg, and sugar; stir them together, and pour it over the apples; let it fry a little, and turn it with a pye-plate. Garnish with lemon and sugar strew’d over it.

Plants in Early American Gardens - American Mountainash

American Mountainash (Sorbus americana)

The natural range of this North American species is from Newfoundland to Manitoba, south to Michigan and the southern Appalachians to Georgia. First introduced to Europe in 1782, John Bartram’s 1783 Broadside included Sorbus americana as a tree found in “moist rich Soil in rocky Mountains.” Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon listed it as “American Service Tree” in his 1804 Catalogue of American Seeds. In 1867, New York writer Robert Copeland commented that the American mountain ash was best planted in masses. Also known as Dogberry, the bitter fruits (or Rowan berries) are edible to birds and other wildlife.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello 

Forgotten Weather Words & Early American Gardens

Olaus Magnus(1490-1557) - History of the Nordic Peoples Published in 1555 On different Effects of Thunderstorms and Lightnings

Forgotten Weather Words By Paul Anthoy Jones 6, 2015 on mentalfloss.com

Seems like we are becoming more aware of the recent extremes in weather lately.  Weather surely determines the growth & success of the majority of outdoor gardens, historic & modern-day.  I remembered an article from mentalfloss.com, that I read a few years ago, & tried to imagine which of these "forgotten weather words" might have made their way to the New World colonies along with our European ancestors.

BLENKY
To blenky means “to snow very lightly.” It’s probably derived from blenks, an earlier 18C word for ashes or cinders. (BWS See: Boston Gazette Monday, Mar 18, 1782 Boston, MA Issue: 1438 Page: 4)

BOWS OF PROMISE
Rainbows were nicknamed "bows of promise" in Victorian English, in allusion to the story in the Book of Genesis. (BWS See: Salem Observer Saturday, Sep 13, 1828 Salem, MA Vol: VI Issue: 37 Page: 2)

DROUTH
This is an old Irish-English word for the perfect weather conditions in which to dry clothes. Probably related to an identical Scots word for an insatiable thirst drouth was borrowed into American English in the 19C, where it eventually became another name for a drought. (BWS See: Charleston Courier Monday, Aug 20, 1810 Charleston, SC Vol: VIII Issue: 2356 Page: 2)

FLENCHES
If the weather flenches, then it looks like it might improve later on, but never actually does. (BWS See: Columbian Centinel Saturday, May 03, 1794 Boston, MA Vol: XXI Issue: 16 Page: 4)

FOXY
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, if the weather is foxy then it’s “misleadingly bright”—or, in other words, sunny & clear, but freezing cold.

GLEAMY
If, on the other hand, the weather is gleamy then it’s intermittently sunny, or as one 19C glossary put it, “fitful & uncertain.” (BWS See: Hampshire Gazette Wednesday, Aug 20, 1806 Northampton, MA Page: 1)

HEN-SCARTINS
This is an old northern English word for long, thin streaks of cloud traditionally supposed to forecast a rain. It literally means “chicken scratches.”

MARE’S TAILS
Mare's tails are cirrus clouds—long, thin wisps of cloud very high up in the sky—that are traditionally said to “point” toward fine weather.

MOKEY
Moke is an old northern English word for the mesh part of a fishing net, from which is derived the word mokey, describing dull, dark, or hazy weather conditions.

MOONBROCH
This is an old word from the far north of Scotland for a hazy halo of cloud around the moon at night that was supposedly a sign of bad weather to come.

PIKELS
Pikels are heavy drops or sheets of rain. The word pikel itself is an old Lancashire dialect name for a pitchfork, while the local saying “to rain pikels with the tines downwards” means to rain very heavily indeed.

SMUIR & BLIND SMUIR
This is an old Scots word meaning “choke” or “smother,” which by extension also came to be used to refer to thick, stiflingly hot weather. A blind smuir, oppositely, is a snow drift.

SUGAR-WEATHER
Sugar-weather is a 19C Canadian word for a period of warm days & cold nights—the perfect weather conditions to start the sap flowing in maple trees.

SWULLOCKING
This is an old southeast English word meaning “sultry” or “humid.” If the sky looks swullocking, then it looks like there’s a thunderstorm on its way.

THUNDER-HEAD
Herman Melville used the old English word thunder-head in Moby-Dick (1851). It refers to a thick, rounded mass of cloud on the horizon, usually indicating that a storm is on its way.

TWIRLBLAST & TWIRLWIND
Both twirlblast & twirlwind are old 18C names for tornados.

YOWE-TREMMLE—literally an “ewe-tremble”—is an old Scottish dialect word for a week of unusually cold or rainy weather beginning in the final few days in June that is literally cold enough to make the season’s freshly-sheared sheep “tremmle,” or shiver.