Saturday, June 15, 2019
Friday, June 14, 2019
Plants in Early American Gardens - Rose Mallow
Rose Mallow is an herbaceous perennial native to low, marshy sites in eastern North America. John Bartram sent seeds to England in the mid-1700s and Thomas Jefferson mentioned a number of hibiscus and mallows, including “Hibiscus moschentos,” in his only published book, Notes on the State of Virginia (1781). The mid-summer flowers are 5-8” in diameter with pink (sometimes white) petals and often a reddish-purple eye.
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Thursday, June 13, 2019
1710 Formal Gardens - Real or Imagined - in Colonial American Portraits
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Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Plants in Early American Gardens - Lamb's Ears
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.
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Tuesday, June 11, 2019
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.
Monday, June 10, 2019
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.
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 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."
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
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.
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Sunday, June 9, 2019
Forgotten Weather Words & Early American Gardens
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.
Saturday, June 8, 2019
Plants in Early American Gardens - New England Aster
New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)
North American asters ranked as the premier native plant introduced into Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. British patron Peter Collinson wrote to Philadelphia plant collector and nurseryman John Bartram, “…your country in inexhaustible in asters,” and Lady Jean Skipwith included “asters of various kinds” in her southern Virginia garden during the late 1700s. New England Aster was included on the 1806 list of Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon and in the 1818 catalog of the William Prince Nursery on Long Island, New York. This species remains a choice perennial in today’s flower border as it is attractive to butterflies and makes a good cut flower.
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Friday, June 7, 2019
History Blooms at Monticello -
Cabbage abounds in the Monticello vegetable garden. Throughout his lifetime Jefferson cultivated eighteen varieties including French, Milan, Savoy, Ox-heart, Roman, Scotch, Sugarloaf, York, and Winter. Cabbage was the second most commonly purchased vegetable bought by the Jefferson family from the gardens of Monticello’s enslaved African Americans.
Garden History - Batty Langley 1696-1751
Batty Langley Written by Mike Rendell
I love this blog posting by Mike Rendell about Battly Langley who wrote of English gardens in the 1st half of the 18C. In fact, his entire blog, Georgian Gentleman, is fascinating! Batty Langley's books often appeared in colonial British American libraries in the 18C.
"Many know of Capability Brown, some know of Humphry Repton, but one name largely overlooked is Batty Langley. Batty was baptised at Twickenham on 14th September 1696, the son of Daniel & Elizabeth Langley. His father was a jobbing gardener who seems to have been working for a David Batty, so the name may have been given to the baby in tribute to this patron. Batty Langley grew up in his father’s footsteps, keen on gardening but determined to spread his wings rather than pottering around with a spade & pruning knife.
"At the age of 23 Batty married, but his wife Anne died after producing 4 children from 7 years of marriage. He remarried & went on to sire another 10 children, to whom he bequeathed such fanciful names as Euclid, Vitruvius & Archimedes…
"Batty Langley received a commission to do some design work for Thomas Vernon at Twickenham Park. There he encountered a large sandpit & managed to convert “this perfect nuisance” into “a very agreeable beautiful” spiral garden, using hornbeam hedges. It was the start of a fascination with shapes & serpentine mazes which led him in 1728 to publish his oeuvre “New Principles of Gardening; or The Laying out & Planting Parterres, Groves Wildernesses, Labyrinths, Avenues Parks etc”
"The sub-title gave claim to the fact that the methods described in the book were more ‘Grand & Rural’ than anything before, listing “Experimental Directions for raising the several kinds of fruit trees, Forest Trees, Ever Greens & Flowering shrubs with which gardens are adorn’d.”
"The book contained very little new, but the illustrations were influential in bringing to people’s attention the use of shapes & winding vistas – he wanted gardens to lead the visitor through the design, rather than have everything in full view. There should be surprises around each corner or, as he put in the introduction: ‘Nor is there any Thing more shocking than a stiff regular Garden; where after we have seen one quarter thereof, the very same is repeated in all the remaining Parts, so that we are tired, instead of being further entertain’d with something new as expected.’
"In other words it marked a move away from the rigidly, geometrical knot gardens favoured by the Elizabethan & Stuart gardeners, even if the world was not yet ready for the picturesque gardens of Capability Brown. Batty loved mazes, but often introduced swirls & patterns far removed from the traditional honeycomb designs.
"In some ways his ideas were right at the start of the rococo movement; the problem was that this self-publicist thought that he was now the arbiter of taste in all areas of everyday life. He brought out books on carpentry & furniture design, prompting Horace Walpole to utter “All that his books achieved, has been to teach carpenters to massacre that venerable species, & to give occasion to those who know nothing of the matter, & who mistake his clumsy efforts for real imitations, to censure the productions of our ancestors, whose bold & beautiful fabrics Sir Christopher Wren viewed & reviewed with astonishment, & never mentioned without esteem.”
"He submitted a design for a new Mansion House in London in 1735, only to have it described in the ‘St. James’s Evening Post’ as ‘a curious grotesque temple, in a taste entirely new…’ Undeterred, he pursued his ideas of “arti-natural” gardens, linked with what is now termed “Batty Langley Gothic” architecture. He felt that his writhing shapes & flowing designs were ‘exceeding beautiful in building, as in ceilings, parquetting, painting, paving, &c.’
"He published numerous tomes on building techniques, & on architecture under such inspiring titles as ‘The Builders Compleat Assistant’ (1738); ‘The City & Country Builder’s & Workman’s Treasury of Designs’ (1740); ‘The Builder’s Jewel, or the Youth’s Instructor & Workman’s Remembrancer’ (1741); ‘Ancient Architecture, restored & improved, by a great variety of Grand & Useful Designs’ & in 1748 ‘A Survey of Westminster Bridge, as ’tis now Sinking into Ruin.’
"In general though, he was ridiculed for his designs for buildings. But for his gardening book he deserves to be remembered. ‘Arti-natural’ may not have been revolutionary but at least Langley encouraged trees to have a natural form rather than being pollarded out of existence. Look at a serpentine shape or a paisley design, & remember Batty Langley with affection.
"He died at his Soho home in London in 1751."
Thursday, June 6, 2019
Plants in Early American Gardens - Bridal Wreath Spirea
This especially floriferous Spirea, introduced from its native China by plant hunter Robert Fortune in 1844, has long been admired for its profusion of double white flowers borne on bare branches in early spring. Its Chinese name means “Smile-laugh-flowers.” Imported to America soon after its arrival in the West, Spiraea prunifolia was praised by James Wilson of Albany, NY, in a letter to “The Horticulturist” magazine in 1849: “This charming shrub needs only to be seen, to be admired. No lover of flowers ought to be without it.” By 1870 it was considered “One of the most common and most beautiful” of spireas (Frank Scott, The Art of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds of Small Extent).
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Wednesday, June 5, 2019
1700s Children with Flowers by American artists - Symbols or Real?
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Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Plants in Early American Gardens - Snail Flower
In 1792, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Benjamin Hawkins, “The most beautiful bean in the world is the caracalla bean which, though in England a greenhouse plant, will grow in the open air in Virginia and Carolina.” Imported from tropical South America, it was being grown in American gardens by the 1830s, when Robert Buist wrote in The American Flower Garden Directory, “Snail-Flower is a very curious blooming plant, with flowers … all spirally twisted, in great profusion when the plant is grown well.” This spectacular flower was popular in florists’ corsages by the late 19th-century.
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Monday, June 3, 2019
History Blooms at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
Peggy Cornett at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello tells us that
In 1811 Thomas Jefferson recorded the planting of “Lathyrus odoratus. Sweet scented pea" in an oval flower bed at Monticello. Painted Lady Sweet Pea is a highly scented, pink and white bicolor variety, which was in cultivation by the 1730s and popular in American gardens through the 19C.
Plant Lists - 1786 Offered for Sale in Alexandria, VA
Virginia Journal and Alexandria Advertiser. Alexandria, April 13, 1786
Peter Crouwells and Co. Gardeners and Florists, in Philadelphia, Who in have frequently advertised in the Philadelphia newspapers, acquaint the public, that they have for sale here, and extensive variety of the most rare bulbous flowers, roots and seed, which have ever appeared in the country before.
Southern Garden History Plant Lists
Hyacinths, 600 sorts [Hyacinthus orientalis cvs.]
Jonquilles, 26 sorts [Narcissus cvs.]
double narcissus, 40 sorts [Narcissus cvs.]
tulips, 400 sorts [Tulipa cvs.]
monthly rose trees of all colors, 30 sorts [Rosa sp.]
double jessamines, 12 sorts [?Gelsemium sempervirens cvs., Jasminum officinale cvs.]
double carnations, 72 sorts [Dianthus caryophyllus cvs.]
pinks of all sorts [Dianthus cvs.]
double ranunculus, 400 sorts [Ranunculus asiatics cvs.]
double anemones or wind flowers, 600 sorts [Anemone cvs.]
flower seeds, 300 sorts
colliflowers of different sorts [Brassica oleracea]
lettuce, 17 different sorts [Lactuca sativa].
imperial loaf lettuce [L. sativa ‘Imperial Loaf’]
Roman lettuce [L. sativa ‘Roman],
Silesia lettuce [L. sativa ‘Silesia’]
spotted Aleppo [L. sativa ‘Spotted Aleppo’]
capuchin lettuce [L. sativa]
Lombardine loaf lettuce [L. sativa ‘Lombardine’]
white curled endive [Cichorium endiva ‘White Curled]
green curled endive [C. endiva ‘Green Curled’]
broad leaved endive [C. endiva ‘Broad-leaved’]
loaf spinach [Spinacia oleracea]
large new sort of cabbage spinach [S. oleracea],
double parsley [Petroselinum crispum var. crispum]
Hamburg parsley [P. crispum ‘Hamburg’]
Double pepper grass and cresses [Lepidum sativum]
Chervil [Anthriscus cerefolium]
Serfeuil [?]
salsify sorrel [?]
Best orange carrot [Daucus carota]
Red and yellow beets [Beta vulgaris]
Artichokes [Cynara scolymus]
Melons [Cucumis melo]
Cucumbers [Cucumis sativus]
Asparagus of 4 sorts [Asparagus officinale]
He has also very elegant artificial flowers and feathers of all colours lately imported from France, suitable for the ladies. Those ladies and gentlemen who want to any of the above articles, will please to apply immediately at his lodgings at Mr. JOHN GRETTER’s, King-street, as he intends to set off for Baltimore in a few days. He has a catalogue of the names and colours of all his flowers. Alexandria, April 6, 1786
Peter Crouwells and Co. Gardeners and Florists, in Philadelphia, Who in have frequently advertised in the Philadelphia newspapers, acquaint the public, that they have for sale here, and extensive variety of the most rare bulbous flowers, roots and seed, which have ever appeared in the country before.
Southern Garden History Plant Lists
Flowers & Vegetables
Hyacinths, 600 sorts [Hyacinthus orientalis cvs.]
Jonquilles, 26 sorts [Narcissus cvs.]
double narcissus, 40 sorts [Narcissus cvs.]
tulips, 400 sorts [Tulipa cvs.]
monthly rose trees of all colors, 30 sorts [Rosa sp.]
double jessamines, 12 sorts [?Gelsemium sempervirens cvs., Jasminum officinale cvs.]
double carnations, 72 sorts [Dianthus caryophyllus cvs.]
pinks of all sorts [Dianthus cvs.]
double ranunculus, 400 sorts [Ranunculus asiatics cvs.]
double anemones or wind flowers, 600 sorts [Anemone cvs.]
flower seeds, 300 sorts
colliflowers of different sorts [Brassica oleracea]
lettuce, 17 different sorts [Lactuca sativa].
imperial loaf lettuce [L. sativa ‘Imperial Loaf’]
Roman lettuce [L. sativa ‘Roman],
Silesia lettuce [L. sativa ‘Silesia’]
spotted Aleppo [L. sativa ‘Spotted Aleppo’]
capuchin lettuce [L. sativa]
Lombardine loaf lettuce [L. sativa ‘Lombardine’]
white curled endive [Cichorium endiva ‘White Curled]
green curled endive [C. endiva ‘Green Curled’]
broad leaved endive [C. endiva ‘Broad-leaved’]
loaf spinach [Spinacia oleracea]
large new sort of cabbage spinach [S. oleracea],
double parsley [Petroselinum crispum var. crispum]
Hamburg parsley [P. crispum ‘Hamburg’]
Double pepper grass and cresses [Lepidum sativum]
Chervil [Anthriscus cerefolium]
Serfeuil [?]
salsify sorrel [?]
Best orange carrot [Daucus carota]
Red and yellow beets [Beta vulgaris]
Artichokes [Cynara scolymus]
Melons [Cucumis melo]
Cucumbers [Cucumis sativus]
Asparagus of 4 sorts [Asparagus officinale]
He has also very elegant artificial flowers and feathers of all colours lately imported from France, suitable for the ladies. Those ladies and gentlemen who want to any of the above articles, will please to apply immediately at his lodgings at Mr. JOHN GRETTER’s, King-street, as he intends to set off for Baltimore in a few days. He has a catalogue of the names and colours of all his flowers. Alexandria, April 6, 1786
Sunday, June 2, 2019
Plants in Early American Gardens - Spice Viburnum
William Richard Carles, the British Vice-Consul in Korea from 1883-85, discovered this remarkably fragrant Viburnum during one of his excursions into unknown territories and sent dried specimens to Kew in 1885. Nine years later the species was named in his honor and the first living plant was sent to England in 1901. The French nursery firm, Lemoine, was first to propagate and distribute this desirable shrub on a wide scale. British hybridizers crossed the Spice Viburnum with V. fragrans to develop the popular V. x burkwoodii.
For more information & the possible availability for purchase
Saturday, June 1, 2019
History Blooms at Monticello
The hardy annual Larkspur, Consolida ajacis, re-seeds abundantly in the Monticello Flower Gardens. Jefferson noted Larkspur blooming at Shadwell in July 1767, thought it suitable for naturalizing at Monticello "in the open ground on the west" in 1771, and sowed seed around his Roundabout flower border on April 8, 1810.
Friday, May 31, 2019
Memories & Mountain Laurel & Peter Kalm 1716-1779
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Plants in Early American Gardens - Japanese Stewartia
The Stewartias are a small but valuable genus of ornamentals in the Tea Family, and are closely related to Camellias. Japanese Stewartia is more tree-like than the native species (S. malacodendron and S. ovate) and its bark is more distinctly flaking. This species was introduced before 1878. A Korean variety of this species was introduced by E. H. Wilson in 1917.
For more information & the possible availability
Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello
Thursday, May 30, 2019
1782 John Jay's wife on Gardens in France
In 1774, John Jay (1745-1829) married New Jersey Governor William Livingston's 17 year-old daughter Sarah (1756-1802). Five years later, with the American Revolution in full fury, John Jay, president of Congress, was sent to Spain in an unsuccessful search of support for the democratic effort. In 1782, he traveled to France to join Benjamin Franklin. His young wife accompanied him on this trip. She later wrote of France, "I could not but remark their natural inclination for chearful objects displayed in their little flower gardens, for there is scarce a peasant’s cottage without the appurtenance of a garden & many of them have little bowers that discovers a very pretty taste..."
History Blooms at Monticello
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Gardens in 1680 Carolina
In 1680 Thomas Ashe, clerk on the ship Richmond, set sail for Carolina from London. He returned to England in 1682, and published an account of what he saw. Ashe commented on the gardening efforts of the early colonists of Carolina: "Gardens as yet they have not much improved or minded, their Designs having otherwise more profitably engaged them in settling and cultivating their Plantations with good Provisions and numerous Stocks of Cattle; which two things by Planters are esteemed the Basis and Props of all New Plantations and Settlements; before which be well accomplished and performed, nothing to any purpose can be effected; and upon which all Intentions, Manufactories, etc., have their necessary Dependance. But now their Gardens begin to be supplied with such European Plants and Herbs as are necessary for the Kitchen, viz. Potatoes, Lettice, Coleworts, Parsnip, Turnip, Carrot and Reddish: Their Gardens also begin to be beautified and adorned with such Herbs and Flowers which to the Smell or Eye are pleasing and agreable, viz. The Rose, Tulip, Carnation and Lilly, etc."
Plants in Early American Gardens - Heartleaf Foamflower
This is a choice native perennial groundcover for shaded sites. It occurs naturally in rich woods from Canada to parts of North Carolina and Tennessee. Foamflower was introduced into Britain in 1731; however, references to it being grown in American gardens did not appear before the nineteenth century. Boston seedsman and garden writer, Joseph Breck recommended its use as an ornamental flower by the mid-1800s. This plant is not attractive to deer.
For more information & the possible availability
Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello
Monday, May 27, 2019
Plants in Early American Gardens - Celandine Wood Poppy
Unlike the rank and weedy European or greater celandine (Chelidonium majus), this eastern North American native is very desirable in the shade garden. It was first introduced into cultivation in 1854 and was recommended in The English Flower Garden (1883) by the British landscape designer and garden writer William Robinson. New Jersey garden writer and nurseryman Peter Henderson cited Robinson in his Handbook of Plants (1890) and noted that the native species was as showy as the other found in India and Japan (Stylophorum japonicum). The yellow sap in the stems was used as a dye by Native American Indians.
For more information & the possible availability
Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello
Sunday, May 26, 2019
18C American Landscape Hunting Scene with a Harbor
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Plants in Early American Gardens - Lady Tulip
Charles de l’Ecluse, also known as Clusius, a botany professor at Leiden, was largely responsible for the introduction of tulips from Turkey to Europe beginning around 1570. The Lady Tulip was later named for him, to honor his contributions to botany and horticulture. This bulb, a native of Asia Minor, grew in English gardens by 1636, and made its way to the New World shortly thereafter. A story persists that when the Monticello flower gardens were restored by the Garden Club of Virginia in 1941, Lady Tulips were brought from Edgehill, a nearby estate and former home of Jefferson’s daughter Martha. These bulbs were planted at Monticello, where they have thrived and still flower in mid-April.
For more information & the possible availability
Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello
Friday, May 24, 2019
History Blooms at Monticello
This spring we have enjoyed one of the finest displays of purple and white foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, in recent memory. This highly deer-resistant biennial flower has been cultivated in American gardens since 1735, and it became more popular after its medicinal qualities were discovered in the late 18th century.
Bees & beehives from medieval Illuminated Manuscripts
Bees
Many colonial & early American gardens depended on beehives. At a time when many believed that bees were small birds, Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 11, 4-23) wrote of bees: They belong to neither the wild or domesticated class of animals. Of all insects, bees alone were created for the sake of man. They collect honey, make wax, build structures, work hard, and have a government and leaders. They retire for the winter, since they cannot endure cold. They build their hives of many materials gathered from various plants. They gather honey from flowers close to the hive, and send out scouts to farther pastures when the nearby flowers are exhausted; if the scouts cannot return before nightfall, they make camp and lie on their backs to protect their wings from dew. They post a guard at the gates of the hive, and after sleeping until dawn they are woken by one of their number and all fly out together, if the weather is fine. They can forecast wind and rain so they know when not to go out. The young bees go out to collect materials while the old work indoors. Honey comes out of the air; in falling from a great height it accumulates dirt and is stained with the vapor of the earth; it becomes purified after the bees collect it and allow it to ferment in the hive. Smoke is used to drive away the bees so their honey can be collected, though too much smoke kills them. Out of several possible candidates, bees select the best to be king, and kill the others to avoid division; the king is twice as large as other bees, is brilliantly colored, and has a white spot on his brow. The common bees obey and protect the king, as they are unable to be without him. Bees like the sound of clanging bronze, which summons them together. Dead bees can be revived if they are covered with mud and the body of an ox or bull.
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Fearless bee-keeper and his hives. Lyon BM MS 27
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Medieval Bee Hives Hortus Noster
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