Historic Gardens - Spring at Colonial Williamsburg

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All photos from Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
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Plants in Early American Gardens - Bare Root Franklin Tree

Bare Root Franklin Tree (Franklinia alatamaha)

This is the famous tree that was discovered along the banks of the Altamaha River by John Bartram in 1760, collected by his son William Bartram fifteen years later, and which has not been reported in the wild since 1804. All trees now in cultivation stem from the Bartram collection. Bartram named it for "that Patron of the sciences and truly great and distinguished character, Dr. Benjamin Franklin." This plant thrives in moist soils high in organic matter -- peat moss, compost, etc. -- and makes an impressive specimen tree for any garden.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

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

Garden History - Gardeners - Free Blacks

Throughout the 18th & 19th centuries, free African Americans also hired on to assist with garden chores during the growing season. Records of such temporary employments are very difficult to find. Rather than hiring on for a season, free blacks usually assisted with specific chores as they needed to be completed.

Craftsman Willaim Faris kept a diary in the town of Annapolis, Maryland, between 1792 & 1804. During that period a total of 16 free black men helped town craftsman William Faris with garden tasks. Most were permanent free black residents of the town, but some were passing through & hiring themselves out as garden laborers for a season.

In the spring of 1792, Faris hired a black garden helper, Peter Shorter. Two days later the craftsman learned that Shorter was a runaway slave, & he immediately discharged the man. Faris recorded in his journal, that he usually paid 12 pounds per annum to his free black helpers. He did not specify in his diary the amount of work expected from the workers for pounds per month.

By 1790, blacks composed a third of Maryland’s population. In the city of Annapolis at the time of the 1800 census, out of a total population of 2,212 persons, there were 646 slaves & 273 free blacks. Between 1790 & 1800, the population of free blacks in Maryland increased about 144 percent. Slavery grew at a much slower rate.

One dramatic increase in the number of free blacks occurred as a result of the slave uprising in the French colony of Saint Dominique led by Toussaint L’ Ouverture. About 2,000 French-speaking refugees, including well over 500 of black or mixed racial ancestry, arrived in Maryland during the summer of 1793. Faris noted in his diary, “July 10, 1793. Yesterday & too Day there has been between 30 & 40 Vessels went to Baltimore, the most of the full of French people…one Vessel had near 1200 on board.”

After this French settlement, free black & white French gardeners-for-hire began searching for work in the Chesapeake. These gardeners had a significant influence on Mid-Atlantic & Upper South pleasure gardening, as they introduced tropical varieties of plants & new garden designs into the region.

French-speaking gardeners became so numerous, that Maryland seedsmen Sinclair & Moore published their 1825 trade catalogue in French as well as English. The contributions of the French refugee gardeners from Saint Dominique were extolled by orator John Pendleton Kennedy at the first exhibition of the Horticultural Society of Maryland: “They brought with the….the knowledge of plants & garden stuffs. After their arrival…Baltimore became distinguished for the profusion & excellence of fruits & vegetables.”

Throughout most of the 18th century, indentured white servants & free & slave blacks were the backbone of the garden labor force in the Mid-Atlantic & Upper South. White free white professional gardeners & nurserymen began to appear after the Revolution in the urban areas, it is likely that, until the Civil War, most rural Mid-Atlantic & Upper South pleasure gardens in Maryland were maintained by black gardeners, some of them free but most of them slaves.

History Blooms at Monticello - Green Ischia Fig

 Green Ischia Fig (Ficus carica cv.)

Green Ischia Fig (Ficus carica cv.)

Green Ischia has been grown for centuries in Europe and was described by eighteenth-century British gardener and writer Philip Miller in The Gardener’s Dictionary. This standard reference, published in London, was used by many sophisticated early American gardeners and Thomas Jefferson had the 1768 edition in his library at Monticello. This variety, also called ‘Verte’, is a better producer in short growing seasons than most figs. 

Figs can be successfully grown in pots, especially in northern climates. Jefferson had unusual success with figs by growing them below the vegetable garden wall in what he called the “submural beds.” He noted their appearance at the table in 1816 and 1820.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

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

Garden Design- Vista

During the 18th century in colonial British America and the new republic, the views from a gentleman's property were nearly as important as the view of his property from a distance. In the earlier posting Location, Location, Location... the owner & his visitors based part of their opinion of the landholder on the view from his grounds.

A vista is an intentional view or prospect, especially one seen through an avenue of trees or opening in a woods or at the termination of a garden walk, for surveying specific pleasant aspects of the surrounding landscape.

In 18th century gardens & pleasure grounds, often ornaments, benches, or small buildings were placed a the end of a vista.

Other vistas were planned to open up to grander natural topographical features such as waterfalls or rivers.

In 1749 Charleston, South Carolina, a house-for-sale advertisement in the South Carolina Gazette noted that, From the house Ashley and Cooper rivers are seen, and all around are visto's and pleasant prospects.
Recent photo of Belmont Mansion in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. Belmont is now the home of the Underground Railroad Museum.

In the diary she kept during her rather unhappy marriage, Pennsylvania Quaker Hannah Callender (1737-1801) explained the vistas at William Peters' (1702-1786), Belmont near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1762, From the windows a vista is terminated by an obelisk... We left the garden for a wood cut into vistas...One avenue gives a fine prospect of the city...Another avenue looks to the obelisk.

Peters was devoted to the design of both his dwelling and his grounds. Belmont is one of the finest examples of Palladian architecture in the United States. Peters, an English property lawyer for the Penn family, bought the property in 1742. The attorney designed & built the mansion in 1745, planting extensive formal gardens around it.
View of Philadelphia across the river from Belmont Park grounds today, still "a fine prospect of the city."

As the American Revolution approached, the estate passed to William's son, Richard Peters, Jr. (1744-1828), who served as Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, State Senator, & U.S. District Court Judge. An amateur scientist, he began "improving" the estate farm as a working scientific model, as were many "gentlemen" farmers of the period.

Peters was a strong supporter of the American side during the Revolution. He was a good friend & benefactor of Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Inspector-General & trainer of the Revolutionary army, often paying his expenses & allowing him & his staff to stay at the family estate, Belmont. It was there in early 1779, the Blue Book was written becoming the first military manual of the U.S. Army. Many prominent patriots stayed at the Belmont & walked its beautiful grounds discussing politics & war while enjoying its distant view of downtown Philadelphia, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, & James Madison.

Another Fairmount Park country seat in Philadelphia shared the amazing vista through the trees and across the Skuylkill River with Belmont. Mount Pleasant was built by Captain John Macpherson in 1761-62. Macpherson, a privateer who had had "an arm twice shot off" according to John Adams, lived well as did many pirates, noted for their taste in fine houses & gardens, excellent wines, superb furnishings, & fine clothes.
Mount Pleasant, the pirate's home in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. The mansion now houses the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Fairmount Park.

In 1779, Revolutionary General Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) became the next owner. The smitten, 38 year-old, widowed general presented Mount Pleasant to his Philadelphia socialite 18 year-old bride, Peggy Shippen, as a wedding present. However, Arnold was charged with treason during the discharge of his Revolutionary War duties; and the newlyweds never lived at Mount Pleasant to enjoy the vista, choosing to flee to England instead.

Sharing the same Philadelphia vista closer to the river is Strawberry Mansion. The largest of the houses in Fairmount Park, Strawberry was originally called Somerton, the first house was erected about 1750. Somerton was owned by Charles Thomson (1729-1824), secretary of the Continental Congress, known as the "Sam Adams of Philadelphia." When the British controlled Philadelphia in 1777, William Howe allowed his British soldiers to sack & burn Somerton.
Somerton, then Summerville, and now Strawberry Mansion in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.

In 1798, William Lewis (1752-1819), U.S. District Court Judge, built the center section calling it Summerville. The wings were added in the mid-1820s. The present name evolves from 1842, when a Mrs. Grimes lived there & sold strawberries & cream to visitors who had crossed the river to enjoy the country air & the vista of downtown of Philadelphia.

A loyal patriot who unfortunately died young, Josiah Quincy, was invited to share a meal in 1773, in busy Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dined with the celebrated Pennsylvania Farmer, John Dickenson Esqr, at his country seat...his gardens, green-house, bathing-house, grotto, study, fish pond...vista, through which is distant prospect of Delaware River. Both John Dickenson & Josiah Quincy Jr. (1744-1775), a Boston lawyer, were patriot newspaper propagandists and seemed to enjoy speculating on the long view.

Also on the west side of the Schuylkill River enjoying a vista of Philadelphia is America's oldest surviving botanic garden. John Bartram (1699-1777), early American botanist, explorer, & plant collector, began his garden in 1728, when he purchased a 102-acre farm closer to Germantown. Bartram's Garden grew into an extensive collection of familiar & intriguing native plants; as he devoted his life to the discovery of examples of new North American species. Bartram's lucrative business centered on the transatlantic transfer of plants.

Bartram died in the midst of the American Revolution; & his sons John Bartram, Jr. (1743–1812) & William Bartram (1739–1823), continued the family's international trade in plants from the beautiful garden with the vista across the river. William became a naturalist, artist, & author. Under his influence the garden became an educational center training a new generation of scientific explorers. William’s Travels, published in 1791, chronicled his explorations in America's Southern states.
Charles Willson Peale's 1808 William Bartram. Independence National Historical Park.

Between 1812 & 1850, Ann Bartram Carr (1779-1858), a daughter of John Bartram, Jr., maintained the family garden & business on the Schuylkill River with her husband Philadelphia printer Colonel Robert Carr (1778-1866) & his son John Bartram Carr (1804-1839). Their commercial focus remained on international trade in native North American plants.

Today 45 acres of Bartram's Garden with its vista across the Schuylkill River is a Philadelphia city park. The garden’s plant collection includes only a few examples of plants flourishing there during the Bartram family occupancy; however, written documentation for what was once growing in Bartram's beds is available & rich.
Bartram's Garden, Kingsessing now Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In the interim between the Revolutionary War and his election to the presidency, even George Washington (1732-1799) was busy styling his Virginia property into an artform & wrote in his diary on March 15, 1785 at Mount Vernon, Began to open Vistas throu the Pine grove on the Banks of H. Hole.
Mount Vernon in 1850 by Jennie Bellows Millard. Corcoran Museum, Washington, D. C. A vista of the house & the Potomac River seen through the trees.

In 1793, Rev. John Spooner described David Meade's Maycox in Prince George's County, Virginia, Beautiful vistas, which open as many pleasing views of the river. One of the views from Maycox would have been of the magnificent estate Westover, just across the river.
Detail of the view from the rear of Governor John Eager Howard's Belvedere down to the Baltimore harbor in 1796, by George Beck. Maryland Historical Society.

French visitor Moreau de St. Mery wrote in the 1790s, of Col. John Eager Howard's Belvedere in Baltimore, Maryland, The rear portion is beautified by a park. Its elevated situation; its groves of trees; the view from it...rejoice in the vistas and the sensations they inspire.
Garden Facade of Monticello in c. 1825 by Jane Pitford Braddick Peticolas.

In the midst of his term as President of the United States, which lasted from the spring of 1801 to the spring of 1809, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was dreaming of new designs for the grounds around his personal home in Virginia.

Jefferson was constantly plotting & observing the the views & potential vistas from points on his property at Monticello. While Jefferson was planning on increasing the water supply at Monticello, a practical concern, he was also interested in using that opportunity to increase the beauty of his grounds.
View From Monticello in 1827 by Jane Pitford Braddick Peticolas.

He noted in 1804, at Monticello, Virginia, The spring of Montalto either to be brought to Monticello by pipes or to fall over the steps of stairs in cascade, made visible at Monticello through a vista...The ground between the upper & lower roundabouts to be laid out in lawns & clumps of trees, the lawns opening so as to give advantageous catches of prospect to the upper roundabout. Vistas from the lower roundabout to good portions of prospect walks... winding up the mountain.
Birdseye view of Monticello for a more complete view of Jefferson's gardens & grounds than available from ground level.

Birdseye view of Monticello from the higher property, Montalto (big hill), which Thomas Jefferson owned.

Plants in Early American Gardens - Winterberry Holly

Winterberry Holly (Male) (Ilex verticillata 'Jim Dandy')

This native shrub, also known as “black alder,” ranges from Newfoundland to Minnesota, south to Georgia and Tennessee and is typically found in swamps and by ponds. It was introduced to European gardens in 1736. 

Writing to Philadelphia plant collector William Hamilton in March, 1808, Thomas Jefferson referred to a recent shipment of plants that included 12 “Winter berry (Prinus verticillatus [sic]),” and noted that “the swamps in this neighborhood are now red with this berry” (the shrub was initially given the name Prinos verticillatus by Linnaeus). 

Garden historian Ann Leighton believes this is the “Red Berry” George Washington looked for when riding out to find movable shrubs and trees for Mount Vernon. One ‘Jim Dandy’ can pollinate up to 10 female Winterberry Hollies, and is recommended for the female ‘Maryland Beauty.’

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

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

Plants in Early American Gardens - Musk Geranium

Musk Geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum)

A European native, Geranium macrorrhizum can be used to scent perfumes and potpourris. In Bulgaria, musk geranium oil is called zdravetz oil, and is sometimes used in perfumery. The scientific name comes from the Greek for crane, geranos, referring to the crane-shaped seed heads, while macrorrhizum translates to big root. Musk Geranium has been cultivated in gardens since at least 1658, when it was grown in the Oxford Botanic Garden in England.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

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

Bartram &- Botany - William Bartram & The Bartram Garden

William Bartram, 1739-1823 by Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) 1808

William Bartram, an important American botanist, was a gentle and reclusive Quaker. Refusing appointments to teach botany or to accompany the Lewis and Clark expedition and never attending meetings of the American Philosophical Society, he was happiest with a quiet life of observation and drawing in the woods and in his father's garden. As his father, John Bartram, noted, "Botany and drawing [were] his darling delight." William's lasting fame is based on his richly descriptive account of a solitary journey that he made through the southern colonies in the 1770s, the Travels Through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West Florida, which was published in 1791.

Bartram had known Charles Willson Peale for years before Peale painted him for his museum collection in June 1808. One of Peale's most sympathetic likenesses, it reveals the subject's kindly disposition. The portrait represents a noteworthy American man of science, and may also express Peale's great interest in longevity and the achievements of old age, both Bartram's and his own. The flower emerging from Bartram's waistcoat is the fragrant Jasminum officinale, an exotic plant that had been naturalized in Europe for several centuries. It bears a resemblance to the equally fragrant Linnea borealis, a plant discovered by Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) and reproduced in his 1774 portrait by Alexander Roslin and engravings after it, similarly attached to his lapel. Peale may have intended a visual reference to the great botanist and founder of binomial nomenclature.

This portrait is a complex image that reveals far more than the likeness of a kindly old man. It works on many levels to present Bartram as a man of science, linked to the larger Enlightenment republic of letters, and yet it was also intended to serve as an exemplar of national accomplishment for Peale's museum audience.  The desire to assert a connection with the republic of learning, to participate in the project of the Enlightenment, and to create images that emphasized the scientific life were strong among men of science during the years surrounding the American Revolution.

A little background: Bartram's is America's oldest surviving botanic garden. John Bartram (1699-1777), early American botanist, explorer, & plant collector, began his garden in 1728, when he purchased a 102-acre farm close to Germantown, near Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. Bartram's garden grew into an extensive collection of familiar & intriguing native plants; as he devoted his life to the discovery of examples of new North American species. Bartram's lucrative business centered on the transatlantic transfer of plants.

Bartram died in the midst of the American Revolution; & his sons John Bartram, Jr. (1743–1812) & William Bartram (1739–1823), continued the family's international trade in plants from the beautiful garden. William became a naturalist, artist, & author. Under his influence the garden became an educational center training a new generation of scientific explorers. William’s Travels, published in 1791, chronicled his explorations in America's Southern states.

Between 1812 & 1850, Ann Bartram Carr (1779-1858), a daughter of John Bartram, Jr., maintained the family garden & business on the Schuylkill River with her husband Philadelphia printer Colonel Robert Carr (1778-1866) & his son John Bartram Carr (1804-1839). Their commercial focus remained on international trade in native North American plants..

Plants in Early American Gardens - Bare Root Witch Hazel

 Bare Root Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)

Bare Root Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)

This large, fragrant flowering native shrub is the traditional source of the scent for Witch Hazel liniment. 

Potted plants were sent to England by John Clayton of Virginia, in 1743, and arrived “at Christmas and were then in full bloom.” The recipient, naturalist Mark Catesby, must have been impressed at a time when the majority of plants sent on long sea voyages perished. Catesby illustrated Witch Hazel in his major work, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahaman Islands, published in sections beginning in 1729. This shrub is not attractive to deer.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

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

Bartram &- Botany - Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (Interview on CBS from April 18, 2011)

Bartram’s Garden is like a hardy perennial, persisting, even thriving, in the toughest conditions.

It’s a lush 18th century oasis in the midst of an industrial desert. And I’m not exaggerating — there are oil tanks looming right across the river. It’s the oldest botanic garden in the United States, and includes a massive house. Located on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia’s Kingsessing neighborhood, Bartram’s Garden is named for Early American botanist, naturalist, and explorer John Bartram, the original do-it-yourselfer.

“He started out as a farmer, but he had a lifelong interest in plants and medicine. And according to correspondence, he often felt the lack of education,” said Stephanie Phillips, the development director. “And he wrote that if he’d had a better education, he probably would’ve gone into medicine. But not having that, he discovered botany, and decided that he was going to collect all the plants in North America, or perish in the attempt. He was a very determined individual.”

He did neither, but his achievement is still staggering.

“He went as far south as Florida, as far west as the Ohio River, and almost up to Canada. He travelled by foot, by horseback, and also by boat. And he did this in between his farming duties, so it was just a couple of months out of every year.”

Native and exotic plants he and his son William collected, including trees, still grace the property. One is the Franklinia, a flowering tree discovered in Georgia, named for Bartram’s friend Ben Franklin, another self-educated polymath. All of the Franklinias growing today are descended from those collected by the Bartrams; it hasn’t been seen in the wild since 1803.

Then there’s the decidedly un-Quakerish house, which alone is worth the trip.

“It was a rural outpost of Philadelphia, and actually people would approach the garden by river, which is why the river side of the house has this very fancy facade. One of the things he was accomplished at was stone carving and masonry. He created this house over several decades to look a little bit like an Italian villa. He carved the stone out of the Wissahickon Creek; some of the slabs are as long as 17 feet.”

Perhaps the most surprising part of a visit to Bartram’s Garden is this:

“Our grounds are free and open to the public, because we’re part of the City of Philadelphia’s park system. Guided tours are available on the weekends — you can just walk in. They’re available from 10 to 4; it includes a house or a garden tour.”

Best of all is just how alive this historic property feels.

“A lot of people feel this place is magical, and that the views year-round are great, because in the winter is the best time to see the river without all the greenery there.”

To plan a visit to Bartram’s Garden, check out the website: Bartram’s Garden.org..

History Blooms at Monticello - Roman Chamomile

Roman Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile)

This ancient European herb remains a popular and useful plant in gardens today. The single-flowered Roman Chamomile has been considered the most potent medicinal form since the 13th century. 

It was grown in American gardens by the 1600s and Jefferson listed Chamomile as a kitchen garden herb in 1794. Low-growing plants produce single, white, daisy-like flowers and fragrant, lacy foliage.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

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

Garden Design - Topiary

Much Wenlock Priory, Shropshire, England

Springtime, sunshine, ruins, topiary...who could ask for more.

18th Century depiction of a gardener clipping

We live near the Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, Maryland. They were built on a 250 acre estate by Harvey S. Ladew (1887-1976) after 1920. Ladew, who loved to "ride to the hounds," designed topiaries depicting a fox hunt with horses; riders, dogs, & fox clearing a hedge; elegant swans; an exotic giraffe; & even a landlocked Chinese junk with sails.

Ladew Topiary Gardens

A short ride north is a more traditional topiary garden at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. In 1700, a Quaker farm family purchased the property from William Penn. Joshua & Samuel Peirce began planting an arboretum on the farm in 1798. By 1850, the site contained one of the finest collections of trees in the nation & one of the first public parks. The farm was purchased in 1906 by Pierre du Pont, so he could preserve the trees; and from 1907 until the 1930s, du Pont created today's gardens, where beauty is as important as scientific botany.

Longwood Gardens

Traveling a few hours further up the Atlantic coast reveals the 100 year old Wellesley, Massachusetts, Hunnewell Arboretum topiary of native American white pine & arborvite.

Green Animals Topiary Gardens

Nearby is the 19th century Green Animals Topiary Gardens in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Columbus, Ohio

For years we drove on Interstate 70 from Maryland to Indiana & back again almost monthly. About midway between, an ambitious 1990s topiary garden at Old Deaf School Park right in downtown Columbus, Ohio, replicates Georges Seurat's painting Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, consisting of 54 topiary people, 8 boats, 3 dogs, a monkey, a cat, & a pond.

Even a visit to Epcot in Florida with the grandchildren yeilds a topiary dinasour created, one might imagine, by Edward Scissorhands.

Levens Hall in 1833, Cumbria, England

My favoite topiary garden is Levens Hall (see above 1833, see below recent) in Cumbria, England. It was begun in the 17th century & restored in the 20th century. You can just sit on the benches there surrounded by the towering topiary feeling transported to another time & another world. You might even imagine yourself as a lady-in-waiting at Queen Elizabeth's court. In the photo at the beginning of this posting, the grounds at Much Wenlock Priory, a 12th century church, located in Shropshire, England also boast some mature, but less fanciful, topiary.

Levens Hall, Cumbria, England

Hidcote Manor in Gloucestershire, England, offers intimate topiary in herbaceous borders in the 20th century Arts and Crafts "rooms" of its garden.

Hidcote Manor, Hidcote Bartrim, near Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England

Penshurst Palace Kent, England

The more traditional topiary at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, England, and at Drummond Castle Gardens in Perthshire, Scotland, are a review of Versailles with its balls, globes, cubes, obelisks, pyramids, cones, and spirals. Victorian Knightshayes Court in Devon, England, presents some amusing topiary in its gardens.

Cliveden, Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England

Drummond Castle, Ochtermuthill, Perthshire, Scotland

Knightshayes Garden, Tiverton, Devon, England

Great Dixter Gardens in East Sussex, England

Harry Potter runs through the great yew topiary gardens at Beckley Park in Oxfordshire, England, in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Even the rugged clifftop Pormeirion in Gwynedd, Wales, overlooking Cardigan Bay, has topiary tucked into its woodland gardens. Go there only if you are in good shape, which I am not.

Beckley Park, Oxfordshire, England

Topiary is the art of creating sculptures using clipped trees and shrubs. For centuries, gardeners commonly have used evergreen, small leaf or needle, compact plants with dense foliage for topiary, including boxwood, arborvitae, bay laurel, holly, myrtle, common yew, and privet.

The term topiary had appeared in England as early as 1592, when it was referred to as "Topiarie woorke." In 1644, John Evelyn recorded in his diary, "There was much topiary worke, and columns in architecture about the hedges." And in 1680 another English work stated, "No topiary Hedge of Quickset Was e're so neatly cut."

In England, Alexander Pope shot and nearly killed figural topiary in his essay on "Verdant Sculpture" in The Guardian of September 1713, which mockingly described in his imaginary topiary-for-sale catalogue:

Adam and Eve in yew;

Adam a little shattered by the fall of the tree of knowledge in the great storm;

Eve and the serpent very flourishing;

The tower of Babel, not yet finished;

St George in box; his arm scarce long enough, but will be in condition to stick the dragon by next April; and

a quickset hog, shot up into a porcupine, by its being forgot a week in rainy weather.

Some of Pope's contemporaries turned from figural topiary, now held in some distain, to clipped hedges. The clipped hedge is a simple form of topiary used to create boundaries, walls or screens in a garden.

In 1729, Sir Thomas Lee married heiress, Elizabeth Sandys and set about to transform the gardens at Hartwell in Buckinghamshire County, England. Nothing in England's American colonies would match these enormous paths of clipped yew hedges, which served as paths for riding and walking; boundries for playing at bowls, and directing the visitor's line of sight from the formal grounds to the surrounding farmland.

By the middle of the 18th century, Charles Bridgeman and William Kent pretty much pruned the English garden clean of clipped hedges, mazes, and topiary. Fashion banned topiary from England's aristocratic gardens, however, it continued to flourish in cottagers' gardens, where balls, cones, and trees with several cleanly separated tiers were meticulously clipped year after year throughout the 19th century.

The term topiary was seldom, if ever, used in 18th century British America. In the designs of formal gardens around personal dwellings and public buildings especially in the first half of the 18th century, the method of clipping yew or other hedging into realistic or fanciful shapes--columns, balls, or obelisks was simply refered to as clipping.

1766 William Williams (Colonial American artist, 1727–1791) Deborah Richmond

The Sir Christopher Wren Building at the College of William and Mary in Virginia is the oldest college building in the United States. In 1732, Willliam Dawson reported that the garden in front of the Wren Building was, "...planted with evergreens kept in very good order."

Williamsburg, Virginia, Bodleian Plate England 1740

Ten years later, gardener John Custis noted in Williamsburg, "...the balls or standards having heads as big as a peck and the pyramids in full shape...I had very fine yews balls and pyramids which were established for more than 20 years." And in 1777, Ebenezer Hazard reported seeing the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg, "At this Front of the College is a large Court Yard, ornamented with Walks, Trees cut into different Forms, & Grass."

By 1736 in Boston, Thomas Hancock on Beacon Hill was writing, "Let me know also what you'l Take for 100 Small Yew Trees in the Rough, which I'd Frame up here to my own Fancy."

In July of 1734, the first notice of hedges appeared in Philadelphia, although we cannot be sure the gardener was clipping his hedges into unusual shapes, was a sad one, when the newspaper reported that, "Jacob Lee, a Gardiner, being overcome with the Heat as he was at work clipping of a Hedge, fell down and expired."

Garden planners in Pennsylvania added hedges clipped into a variety of forms to their garden alley ways. In 1754, at Springettsbury near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ezra Stiles reported, "...passing a long spacious walk, set on each side with trees, on the summit of a gradual

In Alexander Graydon's memoirs, he noted the during the 18th century, Israel Pemberton's country seat near Philadelphia, was, "...laid out in the old fashioned style of uniformity, with walks and allies nodding to their brothers, and decorated with a number of evergreens, carefully clipped into pyramidal and conical forms."
d soon after."

John Bartram, son of Pennsylvania botanist William Bartram, wrote to Peter Collinson in 1740, of the garden at William Byrd's estate in Virginia, "Colonel Byrd is very prodigalle...new Gates, gravel Walks, hedges, and cedars finely twined."
ascent...besides the beautiful walk, ornamented with evergreens...Spruce hedges cut into beautiful figures."

Even artisan gardener & silversmith William Faris in 18th century Annapolis, regularly collected holly trees from nearby woods to plant on his city lot and kept them clipped into the form of sugar cones.

In America, topiary re-emerged with a fervor in Colonial Revival gardens 1880–1920. This continued as interest in restoring gardens around historic sites increased. A topiary maze was planted at the Governor's Palace, Colonial Williamsburg, in the 1930s.

The art of Pearl Fryar

The art of topiary, with its living medium, is alive and well in 21st century America. If you have been reading this blog, you already know that I am drawn to self-taught art. One of the most amazing contemporary garden artists is South Carolina's self-taught, outsider topiary artist Pearl Fryar.

Plants in Early American Gardens - Guinea Hen Flower

Guinea Hen Flower; Checkered Lily (Fritillaria meleagris)

This delightful bulb is native to English meadows and was grown in American gardens before 1700. If well-situated in moist ground, it can persist for many years naturalized in lawns or beds rich in leaf mold. Guinea Hen Flower is known by several names, including Snakes-head Lily, Madam Ugly, and Drooping Tulip. 

The 1597 edition of John Gerard’s Herbal lists it as Checkered Daffodil and Ginnie Hen Flower and describes the flowers as “…checkered most strangely... surpassing…the curiousest painting that Art can set downe.”

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

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