Labor - Indentured & Convict Garden Servants in the Colonies

Slaves, indentured servants, & convict servants formed the core of the garden labor force in the Mid-Atlantic & South. When indentured servants & convict servants became scarce in the early republic, slaves became the main maintenance gardeners.

The vast majority of gardeners of whom there are records were indentured & convict servants from Scotland, Wales, Ireland & England. Although slaves often assisted in the gardens during this period, their tasks or trades were usually not recorded, so it is difficult to verify their numbers.

Originally, most indentured servants imported into the Mid-Atlantic & Upper South worked in the labor-intensive task of raising of tobacco. The second half of the 18th century, especially in Maryland, witnessed growing urbanization & artisan production as well as a steady diversification in agriculture away from tobacco & toward less labor-demanding grain crops, such as wheat.

The Revolutionary War disrupted the flow of indentured & convict servants from Britain to the colonies, & between the end of the war & the turn of the century only five additional white indentured gardeners appeared in Maryland records. White indentured & convict servants increasingly became employed in a variety of trades, as their numbers dwindled in the new republic.

Most indentured & convict gardeners were transported to Atlantic coast docks, & then their labor was sold, much like other imported goods of the period. Their arrival was usually announced in a local newspaper, but little specific information appeared in these notices.

Much information about indentured & convict servants is gained through newspaper ads placed by the master who owned the service of a runaway servant. Most gardeners who ran away during the pre-Revolutionary years were indentured servants, not slaves; & most records of them that survive are fugitive notices in contemporary newspapers. The advertisements placed to apprehend runaway gardeners described these servants ---their clothing, mannerisms, & bad habits---in hope of speedy identification & capture.

The average age of servant gardeners was between 20 & 30. When Charles Carroll the Barrister in Baltimore, Maryland, was making his request to his English factor in January 1768, he wrote, “If the above servants are Turned thirty years of age I shall like them better as they are more Likely to be Riotous & Troublesome if young.”

Many garden servants bore the scars of health problems such as smallpox, frostbite, cataracts, & past violence. Some convict gardeners wore double-riveted steel collars as a mark of their status, especially if they had a history of “stealth of self.”

In 1737, indentured gardener Edward Major, born in England and "bred to Gardening," absented himself from the service of Richard Pearne in Brockley Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.

Convict gardeners were running away in Virginia as early as 1738, when gardener Robert Shiels, "a lusty well set fellow about 26 Years of Age" ran from Northumberland, Virginia. English convict garden servant James Spencer ran from Stafford, Virginia, in August of 1747; and John Weller, a convict gardener rode away from John Sutherland in Fredericksburg, Virgina, in 1759, on a large black horse stolen from his master.

In the 1740s, several South Carolina runaway notices mentioned gardeners, both enslaved and serving under an indenture. Run away... a servant man... a Gardener by trade (South Carolina Gazette, January 8, 1750).

In 1741 Philadelphia, the vessel the Snow Prince of Orange arrived from Dublin, with "a Likely Parcel of Servants" including several gardeners. A few months earlier, the Snow Penguin arrived from Cork, also offering a gardener "to be disposed of."

The port at Philadelphia was a popular arrival point for indentured servants. In 1750, the Snow Golden Fleece arrived from Bristol with some gardeners. Several "likely servants" including gardeners arrived in November of 1751; and 1754 saw a "parcel of likely, healthy servant men" including gardeners arrive from London on the brigatine "Lark."

In Philadelphia in 1751, Edward Cross, an English indentured gardener ran away from his service wearing a brown coat with a plush collar, a striped waistcoat, brown stockings, leather breeches, & a dark brown wig.

And another gardener jumped the ship Dolphin, when it landed. Stephen Gom, an English gardener, was also wearing a brown wig, when he escaped the vessel and his indenture contract in 1752.

Convict gardener Jacob Parrott, born in the West of England, ran away from Bohemia, Maryland, in 1752. In 1753, Henry Tedder, "born in Essex, England, about 30 & brought up a Gardiner" ran away from John Hall & Jacob Giles in Baltimore, County, Maryland. Henry had a "pretty wide mouth, talks pretty quick, and snaps his eyes when he talks much, which he is apt to do; much given to drink."

Convict Thomas Warner ran from his garden indenture in Baltimore, County, in 1756; while John Johnson, by trade a gardener, about 25 years old, ran away from the ship Anna, in Lower Marlborough, Maryland. A reward was offered for his return.

John Shupard, "an Englishman, a Gardiner by Trade" ran away from his master John Brown in Cecil County, Maryland, in December of 1757. "An old man, a Gardiner, that belonged to Mr. Thomas Ringold" ran away from Chester Town, Maryland, in the fall of 1760.

English convict servant gardener Thomas Humphreys ran from Stephen Bordley in Kent County, Maryland, in 1760. Bordley noted that Humphreys "is a slippery Chap." The following year, John Nelson, a convict servant gardener, ran from Benjamin Rogers in Baltimore Town.

In a daring over-the-wall escape in 1762, John McDaniel, a convict gardener, made it out of the goal in Philadelphia, wearing his own hair. Also in 1762, John Inglis, a servant "gardiner" from Leith, Scotland, escaped his master John Malcolm on the Bristol Road.
In 1766, William Firth, "a Gardiner, an Englishman, about 45 Years of Age" ran away from Rousby Hall, Patuxent River, Maryland. In Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Irish servant gardener & shoemaker John Logan, under contract to James Alexander near Philadelphia, was waiting in the Carlisle Goal to be picked up by his master or sold for costs & fees by the local jailer. Less than a year later, English servant gardener Thomas Bowman left John Lee Webster in Bushtown reportedly heading for the bright lights of Philadelphia or New York.

At least two gardeners conscripted into His Majesty's army, ran away from their military service. In 1760, Thomas Holmes, an English gardener, deserted in Philadelphia; and Dublin gardener John Fitzpatrick left the service in Annapolis, in 1762.

Some South Carolina indentured servants did not choose to serve their sea service and fled for terra firma, as evidence by this as in the Gazette on September 28, 1767, ABSENTED on the 25th of Sept. 1767, from the ship Two Friends, Samuel Ball, master, indented servant, JAMES FOSTER, aged about 22 years, well set, about 5 feet 6 inches high, his complexion ruddy, but a good deal sun-burnt , with short brown hair, inclined to curl; born in Norwich, and a gardener by trade, had on when he went away a brown coat, but may have changed his dress.

Some indentured servant gardeners were unwittingly impressed into naval service at European ports during the last half of the 18th century. At least 3 men who ended up as gardeners in the Chesapeake had jumped ship; when they arrived in the ports of the bay, in order to get back to terra firma. One of them was 30-year-old white sailor Pierre LaFitte, who fled a French privateer in Baltimore, hoping to return to his original trade as a gardener, further inland, at Frederick, Maryland.

LaFitte quickly came to enjoy some of the benefits of life on land but disliked others. He soon ran away from his gardening chores at Frederick as well; however, he did carry with him several silver spools & a 22-year-old French-speaking black girl wearing a green petticoat.

In 1762, an exceptionally well-dressed servant Englishman John Crocott, who "worked in a Garden at times whilst with me" ran away from Westmoreland County, Virginia. "He took with him a dark Kersey Coat with large Metal Buttons, and Breeches of the same almost new...a blue jump Jacket, double breasted, with small Metal Buttons, white and coloured Stockings."

The ship "Hugh and James" arrived in Philadelphia, from Ireland in 1766, offering servant gardeners among the cargo. The brig "Patty" arrived at Philadelphia bringing "about 100 Servants and Redemptioners, Men Women, Boys, and Girls" among which were serveral gardeners in 1772. It was followed by the Brigatine "Dolphin" in 1774, also with several gardeners "to be disposed of."

Welch convict gardener William Springate ran from Daniel Chamier in Baltimore in 1771; and in 1775, Springate, this time noted to be "a great thief and drunkard" ran again from Job Garretson in Baltimore County, Maryland.

James Vaux of New Providence Township in Philadelphia County, lost his English servant gardener Leonard Broom, who was weraring a handkerchief about his neck, when he took off. In 1776, English servant gardener Thomas Saltar also ran away from New Providence and his owner Rowland Evans.

In 1774 ship, "London Packet," offered "100 likely German & English servants" including one gardener. In 1775, the brig "Dolphin" returned to port with a number of "healthy Servants and Redemptioners" including gardeners, who would serve for a term of 4 years.

In the same year, Samuel Hanson of Charles County, Maryland, advertised for the return of his Irish servant gardener Robert Mills. Charles Tippin, a gardener, ran away from William Reynolds in Annapolis in November of 1775.

Irish gardener John McMahon ran away from Tom's Creek in Frederick County, Maryland, in June of 1776. He traveled north to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and was calling himself John Melony there, as he looked for work. The next April, John Brown, "a Gardener by trade" ran away from John Galloway in Chestertown, Maryland.

After 1750, many of the gentry had begun to garden for both sustinance & pleasure at their in-town residences as well as out on their plantations. By the time the young Charles Carroll of Carrollton returned to Annapolis after completing his education in Europe, in 1765, the grounds has already been set in some order. Charles Carroll of Annapolis, his father, had begun working on their gardens in 1730, with the assistance of a servant gardener. Later, when planning the extensive renovations of their property, the Carrolls decided to buy the indenture of a 22-year-old Welsh convict gardener, in addition to renting the two gardeners from Colonel Sharpes.

Over the next few years, they directly employed several indentured servant gardeners as well as slaves to dig drainage ditches. (The gentlemen themselves were busy ordering seeds, grasses, & clover from their English factors.) In 1772, various laborers built garden gates & a washhouse, & by 1774, brick masons had laid the brick wall surrounding the gardens.

Stonemasons & slaves completed a sea wall at the bottom of the garden terraces in 1775, & the next year laborers were erecting the two octagonal pavilions that would sit 400 feet apart at either end of the sea wall. The servants’ & slaves’ final addition to the grounds, a bathhouse, was up & working in 1778. The artisans & gardeners who achieved these complicated additions to the Carroll grounds at Annapolis worked side by side with Carroll slaves regularly assigned to garden work.

By the 1780s, the Carroll garden was established & only needed to be maintained, so after that date the Carrolls employed few new white garden indentured servants, using for the maintenance work the slaves who had been trained during the renovation.

Similarly, young Annapolis attorney William Paca married wealthy Mary Chew in 1763, & immediately began to plan his Annapolis home & gardens, which he began building in 1765. Paca employed at least one indentured garden servant, who doubled as a shoemaker, to help plan & construct his brick-walled pleasure grounds. His garden was dominated by geometric terraces that fell to a small naturalized wilderness garden boasting a pond, a Chinese-style bridge, & a classical pavilion.

Of the 30 gardeners identified in Maryland documents before the Revolution, all but four were white indentured servants. Many were seasoned British gardeners. The first Maryland servant gardener appeared in Anne Arundel County records in 1720.
Mid-Atlantic & Upper South colonists often looked for specific experience in their indentured servant gardeners. Charles Carroll of Annapolis asked each prospective gardener “How long he served, in what Place, in what places & Gardens He has Worked Since He was out of his apprenticesh[ip], in What Branch He has been Chiefly employed, the Kitchen or Flower Garden of Nursery, whether He understands Grafting Inoculating & Trimming.”

During the 1770s, these indentured servants were usually paid between 6 pounds & 32 pounds per year plus their meat, drink, washing, & lodging. Garden servants often supplemented their regular duties in the winter by doubling as dyers, & weavers. Familiarity with the dyes produced by various plants led gardeners naturally into textile trades. The combination of crafts flourished outside the Mid-Atlantic & Upper South as well. Slaves who served as summer gardeners also sometimes doubled as shoemakers during the winter months.

Some of Maryland’s convict gardeners had practiced the gardening trade before arriving in the colonies, & one possessed an unusual knowledge of sophisticated gardening techniques. In January of 1768, Charles Carroll the Barrister, cousin to the Carrolls of Annapolis & Carrolton, wrote to his English agents, “I am in want of a Gardener that understands a Kitchen Garden…Grafting, Budding, Inoculating & the Management of an orchard & Fruit Trees…under Indenture for four or five years…There come in Gardeners in every Branch from Scotland at Six pounds a year.”

The requested servant arrived at Mount Clare later that year & was apparently well respected by the Barrister & his fellow gentry, even though he was a convict. When Charles Carroll of Carrollton bought a gardener for his father at the docks in Baltimore, he asked the Barrister’s convict gardener to interview the new immigrant & then wrote his father, “I have bought a new gardiner from Captain Frost. I gave 23 pounds currency for him; he is not about 21 years of age, appears to be healthy & stout & orderly; he says he understands a kitchen garden pretty well; Mr. Carroll’s gardener examined him: he has 4 years to serve.”

Carroll Barrister’s convict gardener may have been a good judge of men, but he did have a few negative qualities. Five years into the man’s indenture, the exasperated Carroll placed & advertisement in the Maryland Gazette on May 6,1773: “TEN POUNDS REWARD…Ran away…a convict servant man, names John Adam Smith…by trade a gardener; has with him…a treatise of raising the pineapple, which he pretends is of his own writing, talks much of his trade & loves liquor.”

Occasionally masters placed a spiked iron collar around the necks of their white indentured servants for other offenses. In 1770, one of the servant gardeners of Charles Carroll of Annapolis got drunk & insulted several women in the Carroll family. Carroll threatened to have the man whipped, but the women begged for leniency on his behalf.

Carroll wrote to his son, “Squires was not whipt, He wears a collar in terrorem to others, & as a Punishment which He justly deserves, but I think to take it off soon." Carroll felt fully justified in often whipping his favorite servant gardener, John Turnbull, for drinking too much & was surprised when the man chose to work for Carroll no more, when his indenture expired in 1772.  Ah, freedom.

1770 Seeds & Plants - Baltimore Convict Gardener grows Pineapples in a Pinery

Pineapple c1708-1714 

Some of Maryland’s convict gardeners had practiced the gardening trade before arriving in the colonies, & one possessed an unusual knowledge of sophisticated gardening techniques.  One convict gardener brought pineapples & the structure of the pinery to Maryland before the American Revolution.  He served Charles Carroll (1723-1783) the Barrister who was an American lawyer from Annapolis, Maryland.  The Barrister built his country seat called Mount Clare near Baltimore in 1760.  He was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1776 & 1777.

In January of 1768, Charles Carroll the Barrister wrote to his English agents, “I am in want of a Gardener that understands a Kitchen Garden…Grafting, Budding, Inoculating & the Management of an orchard & Fruit Trees…under Indenture for four or five years…There come in Gardeners in every Branch from Scotland at Six pounds a year.”

The requested servant arrived at Mount Clare later that year & was apparently well-respected by the Barrister & his fellow gentry, even though he was a convict. When the Barrister's cousin Charles Carroll of Carrollton bought a gardener for his father at the docks in Baltimore, he asked the Barrister’s convict gardener to interview the new immigrant & then wrote his father, “I have bought a new gardiner from Captain Frost. I gave 23 pounds currency for him; he is not about 21 years of age, appears to be healthy & stout & orderly; he says he understands a kitchen garden pretty well; Mr. Carroll’s gardener examined him: he has 4 years to serve.”

The Barrister’s convict gardener may have been a good judge of men, but he did have a few negative qualities. Five years into the man’s indenture, the exasperated Carroll placed & advertisement in the Maryland Gazette on May 6,1773: “TEN POUNDS REWARD…Ran away…a convict servant man, names John Adam Smith…by trade a gardener; has with him…a treatise of raising the pineapple, which he pretends is of his own writing, talks much of his trade & loves liquor.”

The issue of the treatise is an interesting one. In October 1770, Mary Ambler of Jamestown, Virginia, had visited Mount Clare & noted in her diary, “at the Garden…he is now building a Pinery where the Gardr expects to raise about an 100 Pine Apples a Year He expects to Ripen some next Sumer.”

It is remarkable that convict gardener Smith talked with Mary Ambler about pineapples in 1770, & had a treatise on the fruit with him in Maryland. The pineapple’s popularity had grown in England, creating a demand for publications giving directions for its culture. James Justice’s plan for a pineapple stove was published in The Scots Gardeners’ Director, 1754.   John Giles (1726-97) published a monograph on the plant in England in 1767.  Since the Barrister’s convict gardener arrived in the colonies in 1768, his claim to have written his own treatise is intriguing, because he built a functioning pinery in the British American colonies by the 1770s.

1699 Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)  from Metamorphosis

What is the history of pineapple cultivation in Europe & Britain?

A fine article at BuildingConseration.com written by Johanna Lausen-Higgins here surveys the history of pineapple cultivation in England.  She writes,  "Christopher Columbus first encountered the pineapple in 1493, unleashing a flurry of attempts to convey its exotic flavor to uninitiated Europeans. The superlatives & majestic comparisons continued long after. In a work of 1640, John Parkinson, Royal Botanist to Charles I, described the pineapple as: "Scaly like an Artichoke at the first view, but more like to a cone of the Pine tree, which we call a pineapple for the forme... being so sweete in smell... tasting... as if Wine, Rosewater & Sugar were mixed together." (Theatrum Botanicum)

"Parkinson wrote those words before the pineapple had even reached the shores of Britain. Its introduction to Europe resulted in a veritable mania for growing pineapples & parading them at the dinner table became a fashion requisite of 18th century nobility..

"Pineapples originate from the Orinoco basin in South America, but before their introduction to Europe, the date of which is uncertain, they were distributed throughout the tropics. Later, this led to some confusion about their origin. The Gardener’s Dictionary of 1759 by Philip Miller, for example, gives the origin of the pineapple as Africa...

"European pineapple cultivation was pioneered in the Netherlands. The early success of Dutch growers was a reflection of the trade monopoly the Netherlands enjoyed in the Caribbean in the form of the Dutch West India Company, established in 1621. As a result, plant stock could be imported directly from the West Indies in the form of seeds, suckers & crowns, from which the first plants were propagated... 

"Dutch methods of pineapple growing became the blueprint for cultivation in Britain, undoubtedly endorsed after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 cemented Anglo-Dutch relations. William Bentinck, close adviser of William III, is thought to have shipped the entire stock of Caspar Fagel’s pineapple plants over to Hampton Court in 1692. The fruits were, however, ripened from this stock of mature plants & therefore did not count as British-grown pineapples. Pineapples had been ripened in this way before, as commemorated in Hendrik Danckerts’ painting of 1675 depicting Charles II being presented with a pineapple by John Rose, gardener to the Duchess of Cleveland. Danckerts’ painting led to the common misconception that Rose was the first to grow a pineapple in Britain. 

1670s Hendrick Danckerts (Dutch artist, 1625-1689)  Gardener John Rose presenting a pineapple to King Charles II

What was Marylander Charles Carroll the Barrister's Pinery and how did it work?

A continuation of  Johanna Lausen-Higgins's article:  "The first reliable crop of pineapples in Britain was in fact achieved by a Dutch grower, Henry Telende, gardener to Matthew Decker, at his seat in Richmond between 1714 & 1716. Decker commissioned a painting in 1720 to celebrate this feat & this time the pineapple takes pride of place as the sole object of admiration. From this point on the craze for growing them developed into a full-blown pineapple mania...

"The appearance of innovations seems to follow no clear chronological order. Early attempts at cultivation were made in orangeries, which had been designed to provide frost protection for citrus fruit during the winter months. Orangeries, however, did not provide enough heat & light for the tropical pineapple, which grew all year round. Heating in glasshouses during the mid 17th century was provided by furnaces placed within the structure, but fumes often damaged or killed the plants. Hot-air flues were then devised, which dissipated heat slowly through winding flues built into cavity walls. These "fire walls" were heated by hot air rising from furnaces or stoves & required constant stoking with coal. This was a dangerous method & many early "pineries," as they later became known, burned down when the inevitable accumulation of soot & debris within the flues caught fire... 

1720 Theodorus Netscher (Dutch artist, 1661-1732) Pineapple Grown in Matthew Decker's Garden at Richmond, Surrey

A continuation of  Johanna Lausen-Higgins's article:  "Henry Telende’s method of pineapple cultivation was published in Richard Bradley’s A General Treatise of Husbandry & Gardening in 1721. Telende grew the young plants, called "succession plants," in large cold frames called tan pits. The fruiting plants would subsequently be moved into the stove or hothouse to benefit from the additional heat provided by the hot-air flues. 

"The tan pits were lined with pebbles at the bottom followed by a layer of manure & then topped with a layer of tanners’ bark into which the pots were plunged. The last of these elements was the most important. Tanners’ bark (oak bark soaked in water & used in leather tanning) fermented slowly, steadily producing a constant temperature of 25ºC-30ºC for two to three months & a further two if stirred. Manure alone was inferior, in that it heated violently at first but cooled more quickly. Stable bottom heat is essential for pineapple cultivation & tanners’ bark provided the first reliable source...

"James Justice, a principal clerk at the Court of Sessions at Edinburgh, was also a talented amateur gardener. On his estate at Crichton he developed an incredibly efficient glasshouse in which he combined the bark pits for succession & fruiting plants under one roof. (Justice published a very elegant drawing of it in The Scots Gardiners’ Director in 1754.) In a letter to Philip Miller & other members of the Royal Society in 1728, he proudly announces: "I have eight of the Ananas in fine fruit." The letter makes Justice the first documented gardener to have grown pineapples successfully in Scotland...

Agnes Block and her garden Flora Batava at Vijverhof by Jan Weenix. Youngest daughter has the pineapples. 

A continuation of  Johanna Lausen-Higgins's article:  "An interesting variant growing structure was the pinery-vinery, first proposed by Thomas Hitt in 1757. Here, vines created a canopy for an understorey of pineapples. The vines would have been planted, as was customary in vineries, outside, & fed into the structure through small open arches built into the low brick wall. A fervent admirer of this method was William Speechly, gardener to the third Duke of Portland, & grandson of William Bentinck, who had sent the first batch of pineapples to Britain in 1692.  Portland inherited Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire in 1762, & his passion for growing pineapples nearly ruined him. Nevertheless, he sent Speechly to Holland like many before him to study all the latest techniques. Speechly published his now greatly refined methods in A Treatise on the Culture of the Pineapple & the Management of the Hot-house in 1779"...

1775 English Print of James Sibbald, Gardener to Thomas Devlaval, Holding a Pineapple

"Although Philip Miller & John Abercrombie extolled the virtues of tanners’ bark while lamenting the flaws of manure, many structures that used dung as a heating method were devised into the mid 19th century.  Adam Taylor wrote a tract titled A Treatise on the Ananas or Pine-apple in 1769 in which the use of horse manure was promoted, probably for the first time, as a method of heating a pineapple pit."

Wash Garden Design - George Washington's (1732-1799) Greenhouse

1790s Christian Gullager (1759-1826). George Washington (1732-1799).

One of the most intriguing greenhouse stories involves Virginian George Washington & Margaret Tilghman Carroll (1742–1817) of Maryland.

In her 1770 description of the gardens Charles Carroll the Barrister's home called Mount Clare in Baltimore, Maryland, visiting Virginia widow Mary Ambler mentioned, "there is a Green House with a good many Orange & Lemon Trees just ready to bear." Widow & mother Mary Ambler had traveled to Baltimore from Belvoir in Fauquier County, Virginia, with her 2 children to be inoculated against smallpox.

At Mount Clare, as in many 18C gentry households, the wife supervised the greenhouse activities, while the husband oversaw the maintenance of the gardens & grounds. Raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Margaret Tilghman Carroll, the daughter of Matthew Tilghman (1718-1794) & Anna Lloyd Tilghman (1723-1794) was the sister-in-law of George Washington's wartime aide Tench Tilghman (1744-1786). She married Charles Carroll “the barrister” (1723–1783) joining him on his on his Mount Clare  two-story brick Georgian house in Baltimore, Maryland. An avid horticulturist, Mrs. Carroll designed the estate’s gardens & grounds, overlooking the Patapsco River just off the harbor in Baltimore. The most famous component of these grounds was the orangery or greenhouse, containing orange, lemon, & peach trees. 

Mount Clare in Baltimore, where the Greenhouse & Stove House no longer exist

Because of her expertise in gardening & greenhouses, George Washington sought Carroll’s advice on his Mount Vernon estate in 1784. As a result, the Mount Vernon greenhouse resembled the orangery at Mount Clare, its core forming a square marked by corner chimneys. Carroll supplied Mount Vernon with saplings from her own greenhouse & advised Washington on how best to grow young these fruit trees.  After her husband Charles Carroll the Barrister died in 1783, she devoted much of her time to growing plants in her greenhouse.
1765 John Hesselius (1728-1778). Margaret Tilghman Carroll Mrs Charles Carroll the Barrister.

In addition to her greenhouse, Margaret Carroll also had a 39' by 24' brick structure at Mount Clare, which she called a Stove House, with an intricate hot air heating system for growing plants, such as pineapples, indoors year-round.

Her reputation & skill as a visionary gardener had impressed George Washington (1732-1799) who wrote a letter to her cousin Col. Tench Tilghman in August of 1784,  "I shall essay the finishing of my greenhouse this fall, but find that neither myself, nor any person about me is so well skilled in the internal constructions as to proceed without a probability at least of running into errors. Shall I for this reason, ask the favor of you to give me a short description of the Green-house at Mrs. Carrolls? I am persuaded, now that I planned mine on too contracted a scale. My house is (of Brick) 40 feet by 24, in the outer dimensions."

It is believed that Washington built his greenhouse copying Margaret Carrolls' building, which no longer exists. And in April the following spring Washington noted in his diary, "Planted and sowed in boxes placed in front of the Green House."

Greenhouse at Mount Vernon

In 1788, Lt. John Enys (1757-1818) stopped at Mount Vernon noting that, "The front by which we entered had a Gras plot before it with a road round it for Carriages planted on each side with a number of different kinds of Trees among the rest some Weeping Willows which seem to flourish very well. One the one side of this stands the Garden, green house &c." Enys had come to America during the Revolution and recorded his notes after he returned to England and retired from the British army.

Early in 1789, Congregational clergyman & geographer Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826) was also impressed with Washington's garden & described Mount Vernon in his American Geography, "the green-house, school-house, offices and servants halls, when seen from the land side, bears a resemblance to a rural village --especially as the lands in that side are laid out somewhat in the form of English gardens, in meadows and grass grounds, ornamented with little copcies, circular clumps and single trees."
Greenhouse at Mount Vernon

Wishing to make a present of some of her prized greenhouse specimens to George Washington, including one grafted tree that produced both lemons and oranges, on 29 October 1789, Margaret Carroll sent by boat 20 pots of lemon & orange trees plus 5 boxes of assorted other greenhouse plants to Washington at the harbor in Alexandria.

The correspondence leading up to the delivery this present is revealing of both the problem of over-water transportation & of trying to deal with a very determined lady.
To Margaret Tilghman Carroll
New York, September 16th 1789.
Madam,
A Person having been lately sent to me from Europe in the capacity of a Gardner, who professes a knowledge in the culture of rare plants and care of a Green-House, I am desirous to profit of the very obliging offer you were pleased some time ago to make me.1
In availing myself of your goodness I am far from desiring that it should induce any inconvenience to yourself—but, reconciling your disposition to oblige, with your convenience, I shall be happy to receive such aids as you can well spare, and as will not impair your collection. Trusting that this will be the rule of your bounty, I have requested General Williams to give you notice, when an opportunity offers to transport the trees or plants in the freshest state to Mount Vernon, and to pay any expence which may be incurred in fitting them for transportation, and to receive them from your Gardner for that purpose. I have the honor to be, most respectfully, Madam, Your obliged and obedient Servant
G. Washington

On 16 Sept. George Washington wrote Otho H. Williams in Baltimore, requesting Williams’s assistance in having the plants from Mrs. Carroll’s greenhouse “conveyed in the freshest state to Mount Vernon—for the purpose I beg that you would, on agreeing with some careful master of a vessel that may be going round to land them at Mount Vernon, give Mrs Carroll such notice of the opportunity as will allow time for putting them up—and that you would be so obliging as to receive and ship them—the cost of package, or any other expense attending this matter, I must beg you to defray, and it shall be repaid with thanks”

On 23 Sept. Williams wrote George Washington that he had delivered the president’s note to Mrs. Carroll who “advised me to provide a boat proper for transporting the trees in about two Weeks from this time. As some of them are large and bear a good deal of fruit and as their boxes are of considerable weight, it will be necessary to procure [a] commodious Vessel and a trusty Navigator” 

Mrs. Carroll responded warmly to George Washington’s request on 25 Sept., assuring George Washington that the “Trees shall be immediately put in order” and shipped as soon as Williams could procure a vessel. “I have been rather unfortunate in the Shaddocks that were long intended for your Excellency’s use, attempting to engraff on them my two other sorts of Fruit, have fail’d either for want of Skill in my Gardiner or that being an improper Stock for either of them, you will therefore please Sir to accept with them a Lemon Tree two yo[u]ng plants and a few Seedlings, those with two plants of the Aloe and a Geranium, which shall also be sent are all the kinds my Green-house affords and do not in the least disfurnish it. It will give me much pleasure to hear they get safe, and should they Succeed Shall think my Self happy having in the Smallest degree contributed to your convenience or amusement” 

By 2 Oct. George Washington had received Williams’s letter of 23 Sept. announcing his intention of chartering a vessel to transport the plants. Dismayed, George Washington replied that he feared “my request of you, to forward the Plants which Mrs Carroll had been so obliging as to offer me, was so incautiously expressed as to lead you into a mistake, and myself, consequently, into an expence which I had no intention to incur. More than to embrace the opportunity of the Packet from Baltimore to Alexandr[i]a, or any other casual conveyance from the one place to the other, by which the above plants could easily have been sent, I had not extended my ideas; and if a large Vessel should have been employed for this purpose the cost will far exceed the value of the things, if not too late, I could wish to avoid it. I had no expectation of large Trees—or of any plants beyond their infant growth; the first would be a robbery of the good Lady without answering my purposes so well as those which were younger” 

On 7 Oct. Williams replied: “I regret that my error should give you the trouble of explaining your intentions respecting the fruit Trees.” On 2 visits to Mount Clare to consult with Mrs. Carroll about the plants, Williams had “found her so indecisive, and anxious about their safety, that I indulge myself in the prospect of another visit soon to Mount Clare, which I always find agreeable, and I hope that it will be in my power to gratify all Mrs Carroll’s wishes respecting the small trees; But there is, at present, very little prospect of sending the larger ones without going to an expence disproportioned to their value. Two careful boat Men have engaged to take, each, a part of the smaller plants this week, But I must wait for an opportunity by some Ship, that may go from here to lade with Tobacco in Patowmac, to send the large ones. Allow me, sir, to explain a word—Mrs Carroll is indecisive, only, because she is not quite certain which are the most suitable, and which will be the most fortunate, and acceptable. Her garden contains but one tree which bears both Lemons and Oranges—She thought there were two Was quite disappointed! This, she said, must be sent. I presumed to tell her that you would not permit her to make the sacrifice; That its great burden of fine fruit would render a safe conveyance impracticable; That your object, in which we mutually wished that you might be long indulged, was to cultivate young trees, and bring them like this, to perfection; The perfection of this fine tree (for she spoke then of no other) was her great reason for wishing it in your collection; Could it not, possibly, be conveyed with safety? I expressed my doubts—and her solicitude increased—So I was obliged to sooth it by promising that I would again consult the Boat Men, and provide for the transportation of the small trees, which I have already done. Conceiving, my Dear Sir, that the satisfaction which you are to derive from the acceptance of Mrs Carroll’s present will be in proportion to the pleasure which you give, by receiving, I have endeavoured to conduct myself as your agent in the business, with all possible attention and delicacy—But I cannot imagine that Her Compliment will be at all enhanced by unnecessary trouble, or useless expence.”

On 10 Oct. Williams informed George Washington that “Mrs Carroll prevented my intended visit to Mount Clare, by doing me the honor to call at my House in town. We recapitulated all circumstances respecting the fruit trees: and agreed that it is most eligible, at present, to send only the small ones. I expect to Ship half a dozen, for Mount Vernon, tomorrow.” 
.
On 14 Oct. George Washington addressed another note to Mrs. Carroll: “I know not how sufficiently to thank you for your polite and obliging compliance with my request— nor, in what manner to express my fears lest those motives should have led you into inconveniences. My Green House is by no means in perfect order, and if it was, it would not have been my wish to have robbed yours of any grown or bearing plants. If it is not too late I would again repeat and entreat that this may not happen”

On the same day George Washington wrote Williams that although on the point of leaving New York City for his New England tour “I cannot, notwithstanding, depart without again expressing in strong terms—if it is not too late—a pointed wish and desire that Mrs Carroll would not rob her own Green-house of any large & bearing trees especially the one of which she has not a second. It is highly probable that this tree, and perhaps all large ones would be lost to us both by the act of transportation unless very fine weather—a short passage—and more than common care are met with” 

Mrs. Carroll, however, wrote again on 26 Oct. assuring George Washington that “no inconvenience in the least, can arise, from the removal of the Trees. your Excellency rates them too highly, they will not be miss’d in my Green-house, nor will they be such an acquisition to yours, as I could wish; but it has been my intention, ever since I fail’d in buding the Shaddocks, to present you with them, if I could have a conveyance (for such) unfortunately General Williams has not yet procured me one; possibly your cautious Politenes may have prevented. yet mindfull of your Commands, and incapable of deviateing in the Smallest degree from them; he fears to remove, even a plant, without your permission, equally impres’d with a fear of incuring your disapprobation I am at a loss. how Sir shall I convince you, how much ’tis my inclination to furnish your Orangery with a little Fruit, and with what convenience I can do it, you shall judge, when I tell you, mine is rather over Stock’d. allow me then to send them, and I hope it will be pleaseing both to your Self and Mrs Washington to gather of your own fruit on your return. . . . Sensible of the inconvenience such a Correspondence must be to you, I can no longer trespass on your politeness, only be pleased to Say to General Williams that he may inform me when your Green-house is in order” 

Williams informed George Washington on 29 Oct. that “Mrs Carroll sent me five boxes, and twenty small pots of trees, and young plants; among which were two Shaddocks—One Lemon, and One Orange, of from three to five feet in length; Nine small orange trees; Nine Lemon; One fine balm scented Shrub; Two Potts of Alloes, and some tufts of knotted Marjoram; All which, on the 13th Instant, I saw safely Stowed on board the schooner Surprize, Lawrence Lazore Master, which sailed from hence the same day for Alexandria.”

By the time George Washington returned from his New England tour, he was prepared to surrender to Mrs. Carroll’s generosity. “I am overcome by your goodness,” he wrote her on 22 Nov., “and shall submit to your decision with respect to the Plants from your Green-house; but I must again declare that, I should feel infinitely more pain than pleasure from the receipt of them, if I thought that for the purpose of increasing my stock, you had, in the smallest degree, done injury to your own. After this declaration which I make, my good Madam, with the utmost truth & candour, such plants as your kindness may have intended for me, Generl Williams will forward when the Season will permit; which will be as soon, as from the alterations which my New Gardener is making at Mount Vernon, as my Green-House will be in complete order for their reception.” 
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Margaret Tilghman (Mrs Charles Carroll the Barrister) This painting depicts Margaret Carroll standing next to the closed or lidded Lidded Campana Urn on a Classical Pedestal which stood on the grounds at Mount Clare in Baltimore.

Several years later, in 1792, French visitor Jacques Pierre Brissot de Warville (1754-1793) wrote, "I hastened to arrive at Mount Vernon...after having passed over two hills, you discover a country house of an elegant and majestic simplicity. It is preceded by grass-plats; on the one side of the avenue are the stables, on the other the green-house, and houses of a number of negro mechanics." Brissot was a vocal supporter of the 1789 French Revolution.

This flurry of activity around the greenhouses of Margaret Carroll & George Washington was not new in America. The possibilities of growing tender plants in greenhouses had fascinated Americans throughout the 18C in colonial America & the Early Republic.

Garden Design - Jefferson's Landscape Vision & The Results - Margaret Bayard Smith's (1778-1844) Visit to 1809 Monticello

Margaret Bayard Smith (1778-1844), hereafter MBS, was a friend of Thomas Jefferson & chronicler of early life in Washington, D.C. She met Jefferson through her husband, Samuel Harrison Smith, a Republican newspaperman & founder of the National Intelligencer. Mrs. Smith's recollections of Washington society life in the early 19C constitute one of the major sources of information on Jefferson's social life as President. After Jefferson's retirement from political life, Smith visited him at Monticello. 

Thomas Jefferson had described landscaping his wooded mountain top in an 1806 letter to William Hamilton (1745-1813)  “The grounds which I destine to improve in the style of the English gardens are in a form very difficult to be managed. They compose the northern quadrant of a mountain for about 2/3 of its height & then spread for the upper third over its whole crown. They contain about three hundred acres, washed at the foot for about a mile, by a river of the size of the Schuylkill. The hill is generally too steep for direct ascent, but we make level walks successively along it’s side, which in it’s upper part encircle the hill & intersect these again by others of easy ascent in various parts. They are chiefly still in their native woods, which are majestic, & very generally a close undergrowth, which I have not suffered to be touched, knowing how much easier it is to cut away than to fill up. The upper third is chiefly open, but to the South is covered with a dense thicket of Scotch (Spartium scoparium Lin.) which being favorably spread before the sun will admit of advantageous arrangement for winter enjoyment. You are sensible that this disposition of the ground takes from me the first beauty in gardening, the variety of hill & dale, & leaves me as an awkward substitute a few hanging hollows & ridges, this subject is so unique & at the same time refractory, that to make a disposition analogous to its character would require much more of the genius of the landscape painter & gardener than I pretend to. I had once hoped to get Parkins to go & give me some outlines, but I was disappointed...

 

Jefferson continued in 1806, “Of prospect I have a rich profusion & offering itself at every point of the compass. Mountains distant & near, smooth & shaggy, single & in ridges, a little river hiding itself among the hills so as to shew in lagoons only, cultivated grounds under the eye & two small villages. To prevent a satiety of this is the principal difficulty. It may be successively offered, & in different portions through vistas, or which will be better, between thickets so disposed as to serve as vistas, with the advantage of shifting the scenes as you advance on your way."

Jefferson concluded in 1806. “Thither without doubt we are to go for models in this art. Their sunless climate has permitted them to adopt what is certainly a beauty of the very 1st order in landscape. Their canvas is of open ground, variegated with clumps of trees distributed with taste. They need no more of wood than will serve to embrace a lawn or a glade. But under the beaming, constant & almost vertical sun of Virginia, shade is our Elysium. In the absence of this no beauty of the eye can be enjoyed. This organ must yield it’s gratification to that of the other senses; without the hope of any equivalent to the beauty relinquished. The only substitute I have been able to imagine is this. Let your ground be covered with trees of the loftiest stature. Trim up their bodies as high as the constitution & form of the tree will bear, but so as that their tops shall still unite & yield dense shade. A wood, so open below, will have nearly the appearance of open grounds. Then, when in the open ground you would plant a clump of trees, place a thicket of shrubs presenting a hemisphere the crown of which shall distinctly show itself under the branches of the trees. This may be effected by a due selection & arrangement of the shrubs, & will I think offer a group not much inferior to that of trees. The thickets may be varied too by making some of them of evergreens altogether, our red cedar made to grow in a bush, evergreen privet, pyrocanthus, Kalmia, Scotch broom. Holly would be elegant but it does not grow in my part of the country...I have written you a treatise on gardening generally, in which art lessons would come with more justice from you to me.”

“... how sublime to look down into the workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder, all fabricated at our feet!” Jefferson to Maria Cosway in 1786

Margaret Bayard Smith (1778-1844) described what she saw on her trip to Monticello in 1809,"Monticello is a small mountain, rising six hundred feet above the surrounding country, on the summit of which is a large edifice, built in the modern style. The base of this small and isolated mountain, which is washed by the Revanna, exceeds a mile in diameter. It is encompassed by four parallel roads, that at equal distances sweep round it, and are so connected with each other by easy descents, as to afford, when completed, a level carriage-way of almost seven miles.

   MBS 1809 “At present, the whole, with the exception of the summit, is in wood; but it is the intention of the proprietor to blend cultivation and forest, in such a manner, as to present that variety most grateful to the eye of taste.

The Entrance to Monticello East Front Photo by Ian Atkins

MBS 1809 “On the top is a nearly level plain, of about ten acres, formed by art, in the shape of an ellipsis, with its longest diameter running east and west, corresponding to the two main fronts of the house. The mansion is a structure presenting a front in every direction of a hundred feet in length, and above sixty in depth.

East Front photo by William W. Bergen

MBS 1809 “The principal front looks to the east, on an open country, and is adorned with a noble portico, with a corresponding one on the west. A lofty dome of twenty-eight feet in diameter, rises from the centre of the building. The north and south fronts present arcades, under which are cool recesses, that open in both cases on a floored terrace, projecting a hundred feet in a straight line, and then another hundred feet at right angles, until terminated by pavilions.

Fishpond on West Front photo by William W. Bergen

MBS 1809 “The level on which the house stands, is laid out in an extensive lawn, only broken by lofty weeping willows, poplars, acacias, catalpas, and other trees of foreign growth, distributed at such a distance from the house, as neither to obstruct its prospect, nor that of the surrounding country of which it commands the view. From this lawn you contemplate, without the obstruction of any intervening enclosure, the mountains above, and the country below, with frequent glimpses of the Revanna. This elevated spot commands a view of more than sixty miles, limited only by the horizon on one side, and the distant mountains on the other.

Garden Terrace off the West Front photo by William W. Bergen. The garden pavilion at the midpoint of Monticello’s vegetable garden was  Jefferson’s favorite place to sit & read. 

MBS 1809 “This dwelling, and the whole surrounding scene, is eminently fitted to raise an interest beyond that which such objects ordinarily excite in the mind. Every thing, moral and physical, conspires to excite and sustain this sentiment. You stand on the summit of a mountain, on the east affording a view of an open country, presenting a most extensive and variegated prospect; on the west, north, and south, by the Allegany itself, which, rising from beyond the south mountain, rears its majestic head in awful grandeur. Here, in this wild and sequestered retirement, the eye dwells with delight on the triumph of art over nature, rendered the more impressive by the unreclaimed condition of all around.

On the Garden Terrace off of the West Front by William W. Bergen

MBS 1809 “Here it contemplates a spacious and splendid structure, commensurate, in some degree, with the mountain on which it stands; but, above all, it beholds its architect and its owner! 

“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.” Thomas Jefferson 1792

MBS 1809 "On this spot, one, the most illustrious citizen of the only free country on earth—one of the founders of its independence, the advocate of its rights—full of years and of glory, respected for his talents, venerated for his services, beloved for his virtues, withdrawing from accumulating honours, seeks repose in the bosom of his family. 

Sunset from Monticello photo by Ian Atkins

MBS 1809 "On this elevated spot, you behold him reaping the harvest of his virtues, contented, happy; as immoveable as the mountain on which he dwells, and serene as the atmosphere around its brow, while the storm rages at its foot."

Margaret Bayard Smith (1778-1844) by Charles Bird King (1785-1862) 

Excerpt from Margaret Bayard Smith’s Account of a Visit to Monticello in 1809, as published within A Winter In Washington: or, Memoirs of the Seymour Family, in 1824

Seeds & Plants - Shrubs & Bulbs in Tho Jefferson's Greenhouses

Charles Peale Polk (1767-1822), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). Thomas Jefferson, who was always experimenting and adding onto his property, was interested in a greenhouse as well. On August 2, 1807, from Albemarle County, Virginia, even Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) received a letter listing sizes of glass he would need for a "green house."

Flowering Shrubs & Bulbs 

in the Monticello Greenhouse,

by Peggy Cornett

"On May 24, 1778, Thomas Jefferson noted in his memorandum book, "Pd. a gardener at Greenspring for two Acacias." Green Spring, built as the family residence of Governor Sir William Berkeley, was a frequent side-trip for Jefferson while en-route to Williamsburg. There he could admire the estate's three extensive orchards, its vegetable garden, field of indigo, and orangery or greenhouse. The Acacias (Acacia farnesiana) Jefferson acquired had surely spent the previous winter in the Green Spring orangery, as he recorded later in his garden book, "they are from seeds planted March 1777." Although this tender species has a somewhat straggly habit, formidable thorns, and malodorous roots, its small, yellow pom-pom like blossoms are extremely fragrant, and Jefferson would later describe the Acacia as "the most delicious flowering shrub in the world." Unfortunately, it is doubtful Jefferson's young plants thrived far beyond September when he measured their heights at 18 and 23 inches, since he, at the time, lacked an appropriate structure to sustain them.

"Jefferson would often return to the idea of growing tender plants in a glass enclosure and he was well acquainted with the possibilities such structures could afford. Since the early eighteenth century, freestanding greenhouses (later known as orangeries) were important and highly visible architectural features in gardens of the elite in Europe, Britain, and, to a lesser extent, North America. Throughout his lifetime, Jefferson encountered a number of them, both in America and abroad.

"By the 1790s Jefferson's trips to Philadelphia included periodic visits to the Woodlands, William Hamilton's country estate on the banks of the Schuykill River. Within the Woodland's expansive gardens, which Jefferson would describe as "the only rival I have known in America to what may be seen in England," stood an enormous greenhouse measuring one hundred-forty feet in length and divided into a series of compartments. Hamilton was an insatiable collector and, at its peak, his carefully arranged collection was estimated to contain ten thousand plants from every explored corner of the globe, including the East Indies, Botany Bay, Japan, and the Cape of Good Hope. He went to great lengths to procure some of the most unusual and rare plants of his time, and, apparently he had the reputation of being quite protective of them. Although Jefferson, on several occasions, requested seeds of various greenhouse plants, including the Sweet Acacia and Venus's Flytrap, he would eventually admit, "I have from time to time given Mr. Hamilton a great variety of plants, and altho’ he is in every other respect a particular friend of mine, he never offered me one in return."

"There were also other large estates with greenhouses in the tidewater regions of Virginia and Maryland besides Green Spring most notably George Washington's home, Mount Vernon. Washington's substantial orangery was, in turn, inspired by Margaret Carroll's greenhouse at Mount Clare, outside Baltimore. In 1789, upon the completion of Mount Vernon's structure, Mrs. Carroll sent President Washington pots and boxes of oranges, lemons, "one fine balm s(c)ented shrub," aloes, and tufts of knotted marjoram. Other references indicate that Washington also grew what he called the "opopantax," or Sweet Acacia. Jefferson's visits to Mount Vernon during the 1790s coincided with this active period in Washington's orangery.

"Jefferson had twice envisioned a greenhouse for himself at Monticello. A free-standing, two-story structure on Mulberry Row was first designed during the late 1770s and again c.1805. His second, more elaborate design included a terrace on the kitchen garden side and an entrance on two levels. Ultimately, however, Jefferson decided to incorporate his greenhouse within the body of Monticello as a small, glass enclosed arched loggia, which he called the South Piazza, and it was not until shortly before his final retirement to Monticello that his dream was realized. Construction began in October 1804 when he contracted James Oldham of Richmond to build five semicircular sashes and five pairs of square sashes "for the South Piazza as a Green house" which were sent by boat to Monticello in April 1806. The double-sashed windows functioned as doorways, opening onto the South Terrace and to the East and West Fronts. Jefferson's simple yet elegant enclosure was balanced by an open gallery on the north end of Monticello. 

"While the completion date for the greenhouse is not known precisely, the event was anticipated by 1807 when Jefferson's granddaughter Anne Cary Randolph wrote from Edgehill to him in Washington: "Ellen and myself have a fine parcel of little orange trees for the green house against your return." A year later, however, after which time the oranges had been ravaged by grazing sheep, Anne Randolph reported that "the green house is not done." It was not until 1809 that Jefferson's South Piazza seemed complete, according to Margaret Bayard Smith. Mrs. Smith was a noted Washington socialite and close friend of Jefferson's during his presidential years. She was particularly fond of the plants Jefferson kept while in Washington, especially his pot of geraniums, which she entreated him to leave with her in 1808 upon his retirement to Monticello, writing: "I cannot tell you how inexpressively precious it will be to my heart." Jefferson obliged her with the geranium in March 1809, apologizing for its neglected condition, but assured of her nourishing hand, observing, "If plants have sensibility, as the analogy of their organisation with ours seems to indicate, it cannot but be proudly sensible of her fostering attentions."

"Mrs. Smith gave a lengthy account of her visit to Monticello that summer in which she described Jefferson's "suite of apartments" consisting of the library, his cabinet, and "a green house divided from the other by glass compartments and doors; so that the view of the plants it contains, is unobstructed. He has not yet made his collection, having but just finished the room, which opens to one of the terraces." Mrs. Smith also described a walnut and mahogany seed press, crafted in the Monticello joinery, which stood in Jefferson's cabinet adjacent to the greenhouse, noting: "He opened a little closet which contains all his garden seeds. They are all in little phials, labeled and hung on little hooks. Seeds such as peas, beans, etc. were in tin cannisters, but everything labeled and in the neatest order."

"Jefferson's "collection" of greenhouse specimens was never as extensive or elaborate as that of his colleagues. Indeed, in a letter to Thomas Lomax written before leaving Washington, Jefferson reasoned that the Acacia "is tile only plant besides the Orange that I would take the trouble of nursing in a green house. I rely on the garden &farm for a great portion of the enjoyment I promise myself in retirement." Nevertheless, Jefferson apparently did try to start a variety of seeds in wooden boxes and to attend plants in his South Piazza. The "several sprigs of geranium (stuck) in a pot" that he sent to his daughter Martha in 1807, likely taken from the very plant given to Mrs. Smith, were surely intended for the greenhouse. In November 1809 he tried again the delicious but temperamental Acacias, along with an orange and a lime. That same year another noteworthy Garden Book reference regarded his planting of fourteen Goldenrain Tree seeds (Koelreuteria paniculata) in boxes and pots. The seeds of this small Asian tree, which bears lovely spikes of yellow blossoms in mid-summer, were sent to him from France by his good friend, Madame de Tesse. The tree was introduced to Europe in 1753, but was not likely grown in America until Jefferson's successful planting. By year's end, he happily announced to his granddaughter, Anne Banlrhead, "the plants in the green-house prosper."

"Jefferson's long association with Philadelphia seedsman and gardening writer Bernard McMahon yielded more opportunities for greenhouse plants. With the publication of his book, The American Gardener's Calendar. in 1806, McMahon became Jefferson's gardening mentor and major source of seeds, bulbs, and plants for his gardens. Jefferson studied McMahon's monthly instructions carefully and directed his family to follow them as well in their gardening endeavors at Monticello.

"McMahon's Calendar was quite precise in distinguishing the essential differences between greenhouses, hot-houses or stoves, and conservatories. He specified that the "Greenhouse is a garden-building fronted with glass, serving as a winter residence, for tender plants (that) require no more artificial heat, than what is barely sufficient to keep off frost, and dispel such damps as may arise in the house." The hot-house, according to McMahon, required continual heat for the survival of its tropical Rora. Furthermore, whereas the hothouse was designed to maintain humidity, the greenhouse was meant to dispel it.

"The conservatory, on the other hand, was something entirely different, as McMahon explained: "In the Green-house, the trees and plants are either in tubs or pots, and are placed on stands or stages during the winter. . . . In the Conservatory, the ground plan is laid out in beds and borders, made of the best compositions of soils that can be procured, three or four feet deep."

"This distinction is important for understanding that Jefferson never intended his South Piazza to be anything more than a greenhouse in the purest sense-an area for growing in pots "some oranges, Mimosa Farnesiana (Acacia) & a very few things of that kind." In fact, McMahon must have realized that Jefferson's greenhouse could potentially provide an environment perfectly suited to the needs of many semi-arid South African species, which, in America were still considered novelties from abroad.

"Unusual species from the Cape of Good Hope filtered into Europe by the 1500s, after the Portuguese sailor, Barthlolomeu Dias first rounded the Cape in 1488. Some of the earliest were grown by British herbalist John Gerard in his London garden during the late sixteenth century. By the mid-seventeenth century the Dutch had established a trading post on the Cape and plants began to reach Amsterdam. The eighteenth-century Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, who developed the binomial system of nomenclature used internationally in the biological sciences, described this rich floristic region as, ". . . that paradise on earth, the Cape of Good Hope, which the Beneficient Creator has enriched with His choicest wonders."

"Exploration of this region accelerated during the 1770s when a great wave of botanical discovery was issued by London's Royal Botanical Garden at Kew, shortly before Jefferson's tour of English gardens in 1786. Under the direction of Sir Joseph Banks, plant collectors sent from Kew imported beautiful and extraordinary specimens from South America, Mexico, and western North America. But, it was the species from South Africa that garnered particular interest. The most familiar plants from this region are our common garden and scented geraniums (Pelargonitim spp.) , but other species such as heaths and a great multitude of bulbs also intrigued garden enthusiasts. Scottish botanist Francis Masson, the first collector engaged by Banks in 1772, made his maiden voyage to the Cape of Good Hope aboard Captain James Cook's ship, the Resolution. Two Swedish plant collectors- Anders Sparrman and Carl Peter Thunberg - arrived at Cape Town at the same time and, among the three, they discovered most of the Cape bulbs known today. Their introductions fostered a new fashion in British gardening, and inspired plant devotees such as William Curtis of London, who featured them in his highly influential Botanical Magazine.

"In February 1812, McMahon sent to Jefferson a particularly significant shipment of bulbs and plants. Among the various European perennials and the currant and Snowberry bushes from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, McMahon included in the box "2 Roots Amaryllis Belladonna" from the Cape of Good Hope.

"The Amaryllis belladonna, or Cape Belladonna, was first introduced into Britain by. way of Portugal in 1712, but was not likely available through American nurseries until after 1800. By the nineteenth century it was cultivated abundantly in Italy and exported to northern Europe. Linnaeus gave this lovely bulb the species name, belladonna, or beautiful lady, for the "exquisite blending of pink and white in that flower, as in the female complexion. Because the foliage, following the rhythms of the southern hemisphere, grows throughout the winter months and dies to the ground by late summer when the leafless, bronzy green flower stalks emerge, the bulb is most commonly known as Naked-lady Lily. Throughout the arid, mountainous regions of the southwestern Cape Province, these heavily scented blossoms burst suddenly from the heat-baked soil in just a few days during early spring, corresponding with early fall in North America. Thus, when McMahon sent a second parcel of three more "roots" of the "Belladonna Lily" in October his directions noted: "if their strong succulent fibers or roots retain their freshness on receipt of them, do not have them cut off, but let them be planted with the bulbs in pots of good rich mellow earth; the Rowers are beautiful and fragrant; their season of flowering is Septr. and Octr." indicating that the fleshy roots were still actively growing and that they had likely just finished flowering.

"McMahon's packages to Jefferson sent on October 24, contained other South African bulbs as well. "With this letter he wrote, "I expect you will receive a small box containing, 6 Roots Watsonia Meriana . . . 6 do. Trittonia fenestrata (Tritonia hyalina) . . . 6 Morea flexuosa (Hexaglottis longiflora) All Cape of Good Hope bulbs and consequently, with you, belonging to the Green-house department." The three somewhat obscure species are all members of the Iris family. Of the three, the Windowed- or Open-flowered Tritonia was the most recent introduction, having just arrived from - the Cape in 1801. The flowers of this species are widely cup-shaped and bright, fiery orangered. What is most intriguing is the base of each petal, which is nearly translucent, like a clouded glass.

"In an earlier shipment that fall, McMahon also sent "3 Roots of Antholyza aethiopica (Chasmanthe aethiopica) a Green House bulb," again, another South African Iris species. This particluarly stately plant forms a lush stand of sword-like leaves two to three feet tall. Its curved and hooded, scarlet and green flowers Open like the mouth of an enraged animal, hence the derivation of its genus name, from the Greek chasme, meaning "gaping." If Jefferson had any success with his South African bulbs, it would surely have been with this species, for it grows so easily and abundantly that it is widely considered a weed in southern California.

"Whether or not these strange species from a distant land thrived or were even planted remains a mystery. As with a multitude of plants Jefferson received from his friends thronghout his life, he did not record their fate. What Jefferson did record made the prospect of maintaining any sort of tender plant doubtful. His weather observations from January 1810 noted his bedroom temperature at 37 degrees Fahrenheit and the greenhouse at 21 degrees. In April 1811, a year before the Cape bulbs arrived, he wrote to McMahon:

"You enquire whether I have a hot house, greenhouse, or to what extent I pay attention to these things. I have only a green house and have used that only for a very few articles. My frequent and long absences at a distant possession render my efforts even for the few greenhouse plants I aim at abortive. During my last absence in the winter, every plant I had in it perished."

"Jefferson's admission to McMahon himself of this inhospitable environment suggests that perhaps McMahon was encouraging Jefferson to make an effort to provide some heat. In any case, by 1816 most references to plants for the "green house department" were in the distant past. Jefferson's South Piazza was serving more as a storage space and utilitarian room where he kept his large rectangular work bench and chest of tools that he had acquired in London. On November 16 Jefferson wrote to his daughter Martha from Poplar Forest, directing her to "tell Wormley also to send . . . about a bushel of Orchard grass-seed out of the large box in the Greenhouse."

"Correspondence between Jefferson's granddaughters in later years indicated that plants were actually removed from the frigid greenhouse during winter months. Cornelia Randolph wrote to her sister Virginia on December 1, 1820, "I had all our plants moved into the dining room before I left home and yours along with them. I hope they may be able to bear this bitter cold weather." Again, on October 31, 1825, Cornelia would write, this time to her sister Ellen, "Mary and myself are established in mama's room with all her furniture and the sunny window in which I shall range my green house plants when the weather is cold enough to take them in . . ."

"By the end of his life, Jefferson's greenhouse appears to have functioned more as an enclosed porch, Seven months after his death, Mary Jefferson Randolph wrote to Nicholas Trist that "the green house had been used so long as a common sitting room for the whole family that there were many of our things in it and in packing up some may have escaped our observation." The following year she described again the transformation of the greenhouse space in a letter to Ellen Randolph Coolidge: "How often I wish I could see your two sweet babies, added to the four that now run about the house or roll and tumble on the floor in the green house, which serves as a very pleasant little sitting room for us, during part of the day (when the sun does not shine upon the windows) and is at all times a favourite play place for the children."

Peggy Cornett, 1997. Originally published as 'Delicious Flowering Shrubs' and Cape Bulbs in the Monticello Greenhouse," in Spring Dinner at Monticello, April 12, 1997, in Memory of Thomas Jefferson (Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1997).

Research & images & much more are directly available from the Monticello.org website.