Monticello Symposium to Focus on Historic Edibles

        Prominent early American gardeners and the edible plants they grew will be celebrated at this fall’s Historic Plants Symposium at Monticello’s Center for Historic Plants. Speakers include the irreverent Felder Rushing, author of Passalong Plants; Arthur Smith, food historian and author of The Tomato in America; cider-maker and heirloom fruit lover, Ben Watson; herb authority and heirloom-plant collector, Art Tucker; Colonial Williamsburg’s garden historian, Wesley Greene; and Monticello’s own Peter Hatch. The symposium is conveniently scheduled for Friday, Sept. 5, the day before the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello’s Tufton Farm. For more information on both, contact our good friend Peggy Cornett at pcornett@monticello.org or (434) 984-9816. (June 2008)

Hyacinth History Now Online

        Once the world’s most popular bulb, hyacinths have been cherished in gardens since the days of Greece and Rome. Very few people know anything of their history, though, so we recently posted a terrific short history of hyacinths at our website. We bet you’ll find it fascinating! (April 2008)

Historic Plant Labels: What Did George Do?

        Before the days of aluminum, plastic, and Dymo, how did gardeners label their plants? Here are two 18th-century methods reported to us by our good friend Wesley Greene of Colonial Williamsburg:
        “I have come across an interesting reference to plant labels in instructions from George Washington to William Pierce, his manager at Mount Vernon, written on Feb. 26, 1794. These instructions were meant to be relayed to the gardener.
        “‘Let him number the papers which contain these seeds, and drive stakes with corrisponding [sic] numbers by each kind, when sown, that he may be at no loss to know them: Putting the papers as is usual, in a split stick by them, is apt to be lost; or so defaced by the weather as to become, after a while, unintelligible; and then the name will be forgotten. By the method I have proposed this cannot happen. On the papers too may be noted the places where they are sown.’”
        “In a second letter, written on May 18, 1794, he gives this advice concerning seeds recently received from Europe: ‘He should set boards by them, with inscriptions thereon, similar to those which are written on the papers, containing the respective seeds.’” (March 2008)

“Little Pots on the Front Porch” – Rain Lilies in the Early 1900s

        The revered Elizabeth Lawrence in her classic A Southern Garden of 1942 writes with enthusiasm about pink rain lily, Zephyranthes grandiflora:
        “It is one of the hardiest species and is said to winter safely in Philadelphia. As a child I thought of the little rose-colored lilies as the sign and seal of summer. My grandmother in Georgia grew them in her garden, and my grandmother in West Virginia grew them in little pots on the front porch.
        “Those in my garden [in Raleigh] came from Georgia. They have been with me so long and have increased so much that their bloom makes a sea of pink. The season is in June, but there is scattered bloom in the late summer and even to the end of September. The flowers are large, to over three inches long, on ten-inch stems. They open out flat at midday and close in the afternoon; this is a characteristic of the genus. The shimmering leaves are grass green.” (March 2008)

Link of the Month: America’s Liveliest Old Cemetery

        Cemeteries don’t often show up on lists of favorite vacation spots, but if more cemeteries were like the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia, that could change. I spent last weekend there – speaking at a sold-out garden symposium – and loved it!
        Laid out in 1806, the cemetery has been revived as a multi-faceted community resource by an eager and ever-growing group of volunteers. There are guided tours year-round on everything from historic daffodils to “Lynchburg’s Early Bawdy Ladies.” There’s a chapel that’s popular for weddings as well as funerals, and four small, reconstructed buildings that house archives and museum displays. Larger-scale artifacts rescued from local sites ornament the grounds, including antique fencing, marble columns, and a huge iron pitcher that once poured water into the Lynchburg reservoir. Perhaps more surprising, there are bee-hives (with honey sold as “Died and Gone to Heaven”), goats (helping to clear invasive plants from a steep ravine), a composting education center, and an award-winning cookbook. To learn more and get inspired, visit gravegarden.org . (March 2008)

Fragrance Fit for a President: Thomas Jefferson and Tuberoses

        If you still haven’t tried our fabulous, spring-planted tuberose bulbs, maybe Thomas Jefferson can sway you. Allen Lacy, in his 1998 book The Inviting Garden, writes:
        “Jefferson evidently loved Mexican tuberoses, recording in his garden notebook on April 18, 1806, that he had planted twenty-four double ones from M’Mahon [a famous Philadelphia nurseryman]. They started flowering on August 12, and the following January Jefferson placed a larger order with M’Mahon, who wrote back on February 25 that the shipment would be delayed: ‘When the weather becomes more mild I will send you some double Tuberose roots, but as they are extremely impatient of frost, it would be hazardous to send them at present.’” (Nov. 2007)

“The Time-Capsule Garden”

        “My husband and I are the curators of a little bulb museum, on our very typical 60-by-120-foot lot in an older neighborhood in Kansas City.” So begins a charming essay by Marty Ross in the September Horticulture that’s a must-read for every old-bulb lover. “We live on McGee Street, and we call our museum the Hortus Bulborum McGeeinsis,” she continues. Enjoy it all online (where it’s been re-titled “Building a Bulb Collection”) at http://www.hortmag.com/gardening_articles/bulbs.asp. (Aug. 2007)

Link of the Month: Preserving Historic Landscapes

        Wow! The website of the Cultural Landscape Foundation — the country’s leading non-profit dedicated to preserving all sorts of historic landscapes — has recently been upgraded and it’s a gem. Rich with information, resources, and beautiful images, it features major sections on Landscapes at Risk, Pioneers of Landscape Design, Outreach & Education, Stewardship Stories, and In the News. You’ll also find a definition of cultural landscapes, a term that’s still unfamiliar to many people but which embraces “public parks, historic sites, gardens, scenic highways, college campuses, farmland, cemeteries,” and other historic landscapes that both express our shared culture and enrich our daily lives. (Aug. 2007)

Link of the Month: Vintage Garden Books

        Reading old garden books is one of our favorite ways to learn about plants and gardens of the past. While shopping recently at AbeBooks.com, a terrific internet source for used and rare books, we stumbled upon “In the Garden: Let Your Collection Bloom.” This brief essay on collecting old garden books includes links to an assortment of classics ranging from a paperback edition of A Southern Garden for $3 to a hand-colored 1794 copy of Repton’s Landscape Gardening for $25,000. (June 2007)

Cannas in Colonial Williamsburg

        Though cannas may seem flamboyantly modern, these New World natives were pictured in John Gerard’s Herbal of 1597, and in 1735 Peter Collinson of London wrote to his friend and fellow plant-collector John Custis of colonial Williamsburg:
        “The seed you Call Indian frill Wee call Cana Indica or Wild Plaintain or Bonana from some Resemblance in the Leafe. With us it is perannuall by secureing the Roots from the Frost & Comes up Ev’ry Spring.” (March 2007)

That’s Not a Weed, It’s a Historic Daffodil!

        Last weekend our friend Russell Studebaker led his annual tour of historic daffodils that survive at old cemeteries and other relic sites in rural Oklahoma. He writes:
        “I thought you might be interested in a comment from Saturday’s tour. We had stopped at the site where there are so many ‘Butter and Eggs’, and a lady who had taken last year’s tour with her father told me that after he saw those last year and learned their name and heritage, he stopped digging them up and throwing them away from his garden!” (March 2007)

Bulbs in Art and History at the NYBG

        If you like bulbs, art, and history, here’s a December treat you won’t want to miss. Thanks to our friends Deirdre Larkin and Bevan Davies for the tip. Bevan writes:
        “I have to tell you about this exhibit I saw yesterday: ‘Buried Treasures: The Art and Nature of Bulbs.’ Like so many good things in New York, it’s hidden in an out-of-the-way place, the Mertz Library at the New York Botanical Garden. It consists of dozens of stunning images of tulips, lilies, gladiolus, and other bulbs selected from three centuries of the library’s rare books and artwork. My favorite print depicted ‘broken’ tulips of an unimaginable beauty, and I came home inspired to grow some of your true broken tulips in my own garden.” (Dec. 2006)

Colonial Inventories Offer Glimpses of Gardening

       Here’s an interesting tidbit from our good friend Wesley Greene of Colonial Williamsburg:
        “We have been looking at probate inventories in an effort to determine how common the urban garden was in 18th-century Virginia. These are very accurate inventories that list the possessions of the household right down to the last spoon.
        “We have made the assumption that to keep a garden you must have garden tools, and it has been interesting to discover that less than half of urban households list garden tools. It appears that 18th-century urban households, like 21st-century urban households, relied on the local market for their produce. (The prevalence of vegetables in the diet is a whole other area of investigation, but it appears to hover around 15% of the diet.)
        “One striking discovery thus far is that taverns are far more likely to list garden tools than are private households. Another surprise has been the number of households that list garden shears as their only garden tool. Maybe the colonial revivalists [Ed.: who have been criticized for over-emphasizing the use of boxwood in colonial gardens] were right after all!” (Dec. 2006)

WW II Catalog Urges “Plant Flowers and Banish Barbarism!”

        Here’s some inspirational reading we found in the Conard and Jones catalog of 1919 under the title “What About Your Home?”
        “Ugliness is Barbarism and should be banished. But that’s easy – simply induce beauty. It may take a little of your time (really a delightful pastime), it may require work (which really is a wholesome recreation) and skill you either have or can acquire.
        “When you beautify the outside of your home with plants, you buy but the beginning of things; that’s why it costs so comparatively little. Your investment in Beauty grows; it will usually double many times over, and you will have planted not only plants but love for home that will strengthen as the roots of your plants go deeper and that will be a blessing as the flowers bloom.
        “The satisfaction from beauty about your home is threefold: First, to those in the home; second, to neighbors; third, to those who merely pass by. It marks the character of those within. Every good reason calls upon you to join the crusade and, about your home at least, ‘HELP TO MAKE AMERICA MORE BEAUTIFUL!’” (Oct. 2006)

Heirloom Plants at Historic Sites: Two Model Approaches

        Landscapes at historic sites often get short shrift, but here are two pioneering efforts to include truly historic plants in authentic ways that also attract and educate visitors.
        Herbs are deeply historic, but by the 1800s they were much less common in home gardens than most of us today believe. So how can a historic site serve modern, herb-loving visitors without misrepresenting the past? At Massachusetts’ Old Sturbridge Village, right outside the visitors’ center and before you enter the historic part of the Village there’s a huge, carefully labeled herb garden. There people can enjoy and learn about a vast array of herbs, which means there’s no need to over-plant herbs in the historic areas. A garden like this outside the historic core of any site (by the parking lot, for example) could be devoted to all sorts of heirloom flowers displayed as if in museum cases, allowing the landscape in the historic core to be kept as authentic as possible.
        Williamsburg does something similar with its Colonial Garden which is essentially an intensively planted teaching garden in the colonial style right on the main street of the village. Under the expert leadership of our good friend Wesley Greene, costumed interpreters who know a heck of a lot about colonial gardening explain things to visitors all day long and engage children in historic garden tasks. Here Williamsburg grows some of our rare tulips that are too expensive for them to plant in large quantities in their other gardens. Wesley digs and stores these tulip bulbs when they go dormant which both gives him more to replant in the future and helps to preserve these highly endangered living relics. We wish every historic site would do that! (July 2006)

Take a Peek at the 171st Annual Wakefield Tulip Show

        What do beer bottles and exquisitely beautiful tulips have in common? Every spring since 1836, tulip lovers in Yorkshire have exhibited their best Feathers, Flames, and Breeders at the Annual Show of the Wakefield and North of England Tulip Society. For snapshots and a brief report on this year’s particularly good show, visit http://www.oldhousegardens.com/tulipshow.asp. (June 2006)

Sissinghurst’s Vita Sackville-West Loved Clusiana

        In her 1937 book Some Flowers, Vita Sackville-West — the famous author and creator of Sissinghurst gardens — described 25 of her favorite flowers, including Tulipa clusiana:
        “The lady tulip [T. clusiana] . . . reminds one most of a regiment of little red and white soldiers. Seen growing wild on Mediterranean . . . slopes, you can imagine a Lilliputian army deployed at its spring maneuvers. I suppose her alleged femininity is due to her elegance and neatness, with her little white shirt so simply tucked into her striped jacket, but she is really more like a slender boy, a slim little officer dressed in a parti-colored uniform of the Renaissance.” (2006-07 catalog)

Classic Tulip Combos from 1918

        In her 1918 classic Color in the Garden, Louise Beebe Wilder suggests:
       late yellow tulips (try ‘Golden Harvest’) “interspersed with patches of soft lavender and deep purple aubretia,” candytuft (Iberis), sandwort (Arenaria montana), and early purple iris;
       late red and white tulips (‘Alabaster’ and ‘Lincolnshire’) backed by wisteria;
       late, light to dark purple tulips (see our Tulips Comparison Chart) with “silvery” creeping phlox, woodland phlox, pink thrift (Armeria), white and lavender horned violets (Viola cornuta), lambs-ear, snow-in-summer, white flax, and Nepeta mussini under redbuds or dogwoods. (2006-07 catalog)

Posh British Magazine Spotlights Heirloom Daffodils and Our Friend Josephine

        The headline on the cover of the current Gardens Illustrated, the upscale British monthly, definitely caught our eye: “Heirloom Daffodils — Rescuing Forgotten Bulbs.” Inside, six pages are devoted to our good friend Josephine Dekker and her centuries-old farm in North Holland where she is collecting and propagating exactly the sort of daffodils we love.
        In fact, we’re proud to be the only US source for Josephine’s treasures. (And we got a kick out of Gardens Illustrated calling us THE Old House Gardens. It sounds much more distinguished, don’t you think?) You can pick up the April issue at many US bookstores and newsstands right now. (March 2006)

Link of the Month: Historic Garden Photos

        Now you can view hundreds of great old photos of American yards and gardens at memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/mhsdhtml/aladhome.html. They’re part of a collection of nearly 3000 historic lantern slides from 1850-1920 recently digitized for the Library of Congress’s “American Memories” project. There are views of cities, buildings, parks, estates, and gardens, and you can easily search the collection by terms such as arbors, carpet beds, and even “plants-bulbs.”
        I especially liked an image that I happened upon of an urban working family’s backyard from 1902 with nothing but a fence, clothes lines, a wooden walk, and a little kid standing on the flat bare dirt. But there are plenty of lavish gardens pictured, too, and simply browsing through the collection is both educational and inspiring. (March 2006)

Farewell to Flora Ann Bynum

        Many of us who love historic gardens were broken-hearted when we learned of the death on March 17 of Flora Ann Bynum. One of the warmest, most genuine people you could ever hope to meet, Flora Ann was devoted to her family and a wide circle of friends in historic Old Salem, NC, as well as in the Southern Garden History Society and all across the country. She founded and worked tirelessly for decades leading the SGHS and landscape-preservation efforts in Old Salem. She had a special affection for Roman hyacinths, making herself the country’s leading expert on these all-but-lost Southern heirlooms, and her big, old-fashioned garden on Main Street became a local landmark. The garden history community has lost one of its brightest lights, the world has lost an amazing human being, and we have lost a good friend who we will miss forever. (March 2006)

Monet and Parrot Glads

        While thumbing through a book about Monet recently, I was excited to see what I’m convinced are parrot glads blooming in one of his best known paintings, “Garden at Sainte-Adresse.” Painted in 1867, it shows a sunny, waterside garden with tall, narrow, red and yellow glads that must be parrots. See if you agree: http://www.nga.gov.au/MonetJapan/Detail.cfm?WorkID=W95 (click on the painting to enlarge it).
        Monet also painted a large bed of glads in his own garden with Mme. Monet standing in back admiring them, a painting I have enjoyed at the Detroit Institute of Arts for years. (see http://www.dia.org/the_collection/overview/full.asp?objectID=54805&image=1). So there’s no need to plant a pond full of waterlilies to garden à la Monet. Just plant a few of our old glads and you’ll be all set! (Feb. 2006)

Link of the Month: Antique Hyacinth Vases

        American gardeners of the 1800s loved forcing hyacinths in special vases for winter bloom. The practice dates back to the mid-1700s when Madame Pompadour, influential mistress of Louis XV, had hundreds of hyacinths forced in vases at Versailles.
        Today, antique hyacinth glasses are collected worldwide. For a glimpse of the immense collection of Dutch enthusiast Wim Granneman, visit http://www.kennemerend.nl/bollenglazen. Among other treats, Wim’s homespun site offers a link to Querbeet, a German garden shop offering many forcing vases, including a reproduction from 1888, and the world’s only book about them, Hyazinthen Glaser.

‘Beauty of Bath’ Revealed – A Tulip Mystery Story

        With primrose petals flamed purple, the ‘Beauty of Bath’ tulip is stunning. But how did it get its name? One of our favorite garden writers, Betsy Ginsburg, put on her detective cap and journeyed back to Edwardian England to investigate. Her quest, which involves antique apples and a hit musical, makes for an evocative story that I bet you’ll love. But don’t stop there. Betsy’s site, GardenersApprentice.com, is full of other great garden articles, tips, book reviews, and more. I especially liked her piece titled “Rose of Sharon: Still Fashionable After All These Years,” but like a good book, Betsy’s whole site is hard to quit reading. Enjoy! (Nov. 2005)

Victorian Advice for Growing Hyacinths

        Garden advice tends to change slowly, but here are some surprising tips from the recently republished Ladies’ Southern Florist of 1860 by Mary Rion of Columbia, SC:
        “Hyacinths. In October prepare the ground by digging two feet deep, thoroughly mixing with the soil, as it is returned, equal parts of earth mould and well rotted manure and clean sand. A small quantity of poudrette [literally: fine powder], put in deep, is beneficial. Pulverize and mix in the earth thoroughly with the manure. Then cover four inches thick with sand, that the manure may not touch the bulbs.
        “[A month later,] plant the bulbs three inches deep in sand. The colors are believed to mix by planting the different colors together; therefore one should sacrifice beauty of display for the permanent beauty of the colors, by planting the different colors in separate groups . . . .
        “After blooming, the foliage dies or turns yellow, when (the spot having been previously marked by sticks with labels) the bulbs should be lifted and separated. The small offsets should be replanted at once, which is better for them than drying . . . .
        “Keep all the colors distinct, and carefully wrap each in a bit of newspaper, and bundle all in paper and mark them. Then put away in a room where a fire is never built. We have pursued the newspaper plan of preserving hyacinths for years, and never lost one.” (Oct. 2005)

Link of the Month: An 18th-Century Flower Album

        One of the greatest florilegiums of the 1700s, the Hortus Nitidissimus, is also one of the rarest. Featuring hand-colored prints of hundreds of garden flowers, it was published in parts over the course of 36 years and few complete copies survive. But now through the wonders of modern technology a virtually perfect copy is on reserve for you at rbgkew.org.uk/data/trew/home.do. In it you’ll find dozens of hyacinths (including some astonishing doubles) and tulips (with several parrots much like our Hortus Bulborum rarities) along with lilies, daffodils, ranunculus, and many other bulbs. Enjoy a glimpse of what spring looked like 250 years ago! (Sept. 2005)

An Ark for Herbs, and Daffodils, and Peonies, and . . .

        Efforts to preserve endangered wildflowers are well developed, but what about endangered garden plants? We’re hoping that a budding effort by the Herb Society of America may inspire a broader effort to preserve our flower heritage. As Tovah Martin explains in the May/June issue of Horticulture magazine, “Since 1996, the Herb Society has led a bold Plant Collections initiative, in which individual members and units curate different herb genera such as Lavandula. . . . Originally the brainchild of Dr. Arthur Tucker, a professor at Delaware State University,” it’s based on the British National Plant Collections Scheme (see www.nccpg.com) and now encompasses 50 collections. As Tovah says, we hope “other gardening groups will perk up, take notice, and follow suit.” (July 2005)

BBG Features Our Bulbs in Heirloom Garden Plan

        The Brooklyn Botanic Garden newsletter published a great plan for “An Heirloom Border” recently. It includes classic heirloom bulbs and other plants in a graceful early-spring to summer display – and we’re their featured source! Thanks to the BBG and author Joan McDonald who writes, “In this age of cloned pets and genetically altered food, there’s an ‘unmessed with’ quality about heirlooms that I find comforting and reassuring.” View Joan’s plan and read more at: http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/design/2005heirloom_border.html. (July 2005)

Heirloom Gardening in Pompeii

        Last week, USA Today reported:
        “For the next month, visitors to the ancient city of Pompeii, Italy, will be able to get a real taste of ancient life. In areas that housed the gardens of the prosperous city (before it was buried under volcanic ash from the eruption of Mt.Vesuvius in AD 79), archaeologists have replanted the fruits and vegetables that were a part of the Roman diet: figs and olives, plums and grapes, as well as poppy, broom, bramble, and mallow. Kits with the ingredients will be sold to visitors with instructions on how to cook Roman specialties.”
        Now THAT’S heirloom gardening! (June 2005)

Seeing Ghosts: Ann Arbor’s Favorite Bulbs in 1839

        In 1839, Ann Arbor – now Old House Gardens’ hometown – was a rough-edged Midwestern village surrounded by wilderness. But its gardeners were buying plenty of flower bulbs! In an letter that year to a wholesale nursery in Buffalo, nurseryman S.B. Noble ordered (along with 700 fruit trees, 100 roses, and 60 scented geraniums) a surprisingly large number of bulbs for his customers: 100 hyacinths, 100 tulips, 50 dahlias, 25 crown imperials, 25 anemones, 25 ranunculus, 25 tiger lilies, “and other choice bulbs.”
        Noble’s selection of bulbs reflects his era. Hyacinths back then were as popular as tulips, while daffodils, today’s most popular bulb, didn’t even make his list. Dahlias and tiger lilies, introduced just 40 or 50 years earlier, were already enormously popular, and crown imperials, anemones, and ranunculus, favorites since the 1600s, were much more widely planted than they are today.
        Thanks to our friend and local historian Susan Cee Wineberg for sending us Noble’s letter and its fascinating glimpse of 166-year-old garden ghosts! (June 2005)

More on the Copeland Sisters and Their Daffodils

        More of you responded to the Copeland family history in our last newsletter (http://www.oldhousegardens.com/copeland.asp) than to anything else we’ve ever published here. We’re glad you liked it!
        Irene’s daughter wrote again this spring to say our bulbs were blooming beautifully for her family. She also told us that the RHS staged an exhibit of the Copeland doubles and their many descendants at the London Daffodil Show. As famed daffodil breeder Brian Duncan explained to us, it’s almost impossible to find a good modern double which does not have ‘Mary Copeland’ in its ancestry. Double daffodils rarely set seed, but one of two seeds found by chance in a single pod of ‘Mary Copeland’ in the 1940s grew into ‘Falaise’ which was fully fertile and opened the floodgates of double daffodil breeding. For a photo of the RHS exhibit and a couple of Brian’s great modern doubles descended from ‘Mary Copeland’, click here. (June 2005)

Who Were Irene and Mary Copeland? A Daughter Tells Their Story

        Two of the loveliest old double daffodils are ‘Irene Copeland’ and ‘Mary Copeland’. We knew they were named for the daughters of the man who bred them, but that’s about all we knew – till last spring when we got an email from Irene’s daughter. She was looking for bulbs of both daffodils to plant on Irene and Mary’s graves, but she couldn’t find true stock in England. Even though we don’t normally ship outside the US, for her we made an exception! In appreciation she sent us a short history of her mother and Auntie Mary along with a photo of them as teenagers. To enjoy both, click here. (May 2005)

Tour Spotlights Cherokee Daffodils in Oklahoma

        Our good friend Russell Studebaker, garden writer for the Tulsa World, led a pilgrimage two weeks ago to explore heirloom daffodils in rural Oklahoma that may date back to the earliest days of Cherokee settlement and the notorious Trail of Tears. For Russell’s inspiring report and a few photos, visit www.oldhousegardens.com/russellstudebaker.asp. And then consider leading a similar tour of rediscovery in your own neighborhood! (March 2005)

Get Inspired by a Real Victorian Pattern-Bed

        A hundred years ago and more, Victorian gardeners were enjoying many of the same, vibrant, spring-planted bulbs and annuals that are thrilling gardeners again today. So how about jazzing up your lawn this year with a Victorian-style island bed? For inspiration, take a look at a real 1880s pattern-bed at http://www.oldhousegardens.com/victorian.asp. You could reproduce it in the middle of your own lawn with castor-beans in the center ringed by cannas (our heirlooms, of course!), then elephant ears, coleus, and finally dusty miller.
        Or experiment with other plants, old or new, of similar stature and flair, planting the tallest in the center and working outward in concentric circles until you finish with a low-growing annual for a colorful, clean edge. We’ve made some alternative plant suggestions online, but we’d love to hear yours, too. Or email us a photo of your results this summer! (March 2005)

Traveling Exhibit Showcases Historic American Flower Pots

        After drawing admiring crowds from Ontario to North Carolina, the first museum exhibit devoted to historic American flower pots is moving April 2 to the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati and then on to the US Botanic Garden, the Stonington (CT) Historical Society, and the Botanic Garden of Smith College. For a brief overview, for links to modern potteries, or to book the exhibit for your local museum or botanical gardens, visit aplacetotakeroot.com/dates.html. (March 2005)

The First Daffodils of Spring are Often . . . Easter Lilies?

        Yes, “Easter lilies” is the traditional name many old gardeners give to Narcissus pseudonarcissus, the very old, very early-blooming trumpet daffodil that thrives from Cape Cod to Georgia and points west. Even in areas such as Piedmont, North Carolina where our friend Douglas Ruhren of the Daniel Stow Botanical Gardens says they usually bloom by Valentine’s Day, the Easter lilies name seems to have been more common than the traditional English name which we use, Lent lilies.
        According to our good customer Beate Jensen of Belmont, the Gari Melchers estate in Fredericksburg, VA, the name is even more common in Norway. There all trumpet daffodils are called paskeliljer, which means Easter lilies, and all late-blooming pheasant’s eye daffodils are called pinseliljer or Ascension lilies. (Feb. 2005)

Garden History Exhibit Opens at Ohio Historical Center

        It takes a lot to get us Wolverine fans to want to visit Columbus, Ohio, home of our archrival, Ohio State. But hey, this will do it: opening April 1 at the Ohio Historical Center is an exciting new exhibit, “Ohio’s Garden Path: The Flowering of Our Landscape.” Curated by our friends Janet Oberliesen of OSU and Denise Adams, author of Restoring American Gardens, the exhibit will show how Ohio home landscapes have changed in the last two centuries reflecting changing lifestyles. With both serious scholarship and interactive fun for children, this promises to be a diverse, inspiring exhibit. For museum information, visit http://www.ohiohistory.org/places/ohc/#exhibits. (Feb. 2005)

Bulb Lunacy and Emily Dickinson

        In a May 1883 letter to her sister, Emily Dickinson confessed:
        “I have long been a Lunatic on Bulbs, though screened by my friends, as Lunacy on any theme is better undivulged.”
        You can read more about Dickinson and her love of flowers in the excellent Emily Dickinson’s Gardens by our good customer Marta McDowell of Chatham, NJ. (2004-05 catalog)

1890 Book Calls Gladiolus “Best of All”

       Glads were one of the most popular flowers of the late 1800s, as attested to by Eben Rexford of Wisconsin in his Home Floriculture of 1890:
       “The gladiolus is the best of all the summer-flowering bulbs, all things considered. . . . It is a flower anybody can grow, and it is lovely enough to satisfy the most exacting. . . .
       “Of late . . . the size of the flower has been increased, its colors intensified, and new markings and combinations of colors of wonderful beauty have rewarded the skillful hybridizer. It deserves a place in every collection. . . .
       “There is nothing coarse about the Gladiolus. It has all the delicacy of the Lily combined with the magnificence of color peculiar to the most brilliant and showy tropical plants. Nothing is finer for cutting for vases. . . .
        “The bulb increases rapidly. If you invest a dollar or two in bulbs this season you will have quite a stock of them in fall, when you come to dig them, and from these, planted next spring, you will obtain all you care to use, and very likely more. If so, it will afford you a great deal of pleasure, doubtless, to share them with your flower loving friends who may not be so fortunate as you are.” (2004-05 catalog)

Diversity Diminishes As Big Growers Rely on Unskilled Labor

        Steve Vinisky of Cherry Creek Daffodils posted this message to Daffnet, the American Daffodil Society’s email discussion group:
        “One hundred years ago, over 400 named hyacinths existed. Today roughly 80 exist in the trade and of those, only 30 or so are available in tonnage. Crocus stocks, especially species, are being reduced severely as knowledgeable help to rogue the fields (weed out erroneous bulbs) is becoming a serious problem.
        “During a visit to Holland a couple of years ago, I asked my grower host friend why there were so many Russian Lada automobiles parked along many bulb fields. His embarrassed reply was that field help appears seasonally from all of the former Eastern Bloc countries as illegal farm labor which skirts the Dutch social welfare laws (and cost burden). Knowledgeable Dutch housewives were the traditional labor pool for hundreds of years. As in the USA, a farm wife in Holland today is probably employed outside of the home. Fewer cultivars makes it far easier for unskilled, casual laborers, to maintain plantings without being knowledgeable about what it is that is actually being grown.” (Nov. 2004)

New UK Source to Specialize in Heirloom Bulbs

        “How many techies does it take to save a bulb?” So starts a recent article in The Times of London. “Perhaps just one if an initiative by Alex Chisholm succeeds. Chisholm recently left his job as a software manager in Dublin to spearhead the Heritage Bulb Club, an organization aimed at rescuing endangered bulbs. . . . Chisholm was both amazed and appalled when he learned that of the 5,900 tulip varieties in the International Register, most of the production is now devoted to just 20. ‘I wanted to stand up for some of the other 5,880,’ he says. . . .”
        Though this “club” is actually a mail-order source, it’s another sign of the growing interest in heirloom bulbs. To find out more, visit www.heritagebulbs.com. (April 2004)

Book of the Month: Restoring American Gardens

        If you love antique flowers, you won’t want to miss this magnificent new book by our good friend Denise Adams. Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants, 1640-1940, is the first comprehensive history of the PLANTS of American gardens: annuals, perennials, bulbs, vines, shrubs, and trees. Seven years in the making, it draws on a database of over 25,000 plants, and its 419 pages are sumptuously illustrated with modern and historic photos as well as antique engravings. Maybe best of all, it names hundreds of heirloom cultivars you can grow in your own garden TODAY! (Feb. 2004)
        [For many other books about garden history and heirlooms, see the Books section of our Newsletter Archives.]

Tender, Family Heirloom Rain Lilies Thrive for a Century in Zone-4 Wisconsin

        Although pink rain lilies, Zephyranthes grandiflora, aren’t hardy beyond zone 8, Julie Monroe and her family have been enjoying them in zone-4 Wisconsin for a century or so. Her bulbs came originally from her Great-Aunt Irene and before that from Irene’s mother. “They thrive on neglect,” Julie says. “The only thing I am careful about is to take the pots inside before the first freeze.” She stores them dry in pots in the basement all winter, brings them back outside in the spring, and they just get better every year. For the whole story and Julie’s tips, or to try a few rain lilies yourself, click here. (Jan. 2004)

“Heirloom Plants . . . Are More Than Just Old”

        In her superb article about our old bulbs in the September issue of Garden Showcase, The Northwest’s Garden Magazine, Elizabeth Petersen starts with a paragraph that says so much so well that we wanted to share it with you:
        “An antique jewelry box that belonged to my great-grandmother is one of my favorite possessions. Its long rich history connects me to times long ago. Call me sentimental, but I am not alone. Relics from the past, be they furniture, photos, or fruit, charm us as they suggest simpler, safer, and more honest times. Combine this nostalgia with the shocking rate at which plants are disappearing worldwide and you will understand current efforts to preserve horticultural heirlooms. Gardeners are saving seed and growing foods that were stalwarts in earlier times as a way to connect to their roots and as a way to rescue worthy selections from extinction. While no individual can reverse global problems or turn back the clock, each of us can offer a safe haven for unique antique plants in our home gardens. And why not? Heirloom plants are rich with history, but they are more than just old. Many are excellent garden plants: tough, carefree, exuberant in their production and elegant in their simplicity.”
        Thank you, Elizabeth! (Sept. 2003)

Good News – Louisiana’s Old Dickory is Saved!

        The centuries-old live oak that we told you a couple of months ago was threatened by a highway project has been saved, thanks to an outpouring of support sparked by our good customer Coleen Perriloux Landry. The great old tree and its surrounding land have been donated to the local government, and three projects that would have fatally damaged it have been redesigned to protect it. Click here and scroll down the page for a photo and more info, and be sure to read the editorial from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, too. Who says one person can’t make a difference?! Thanks, Coleen, for the inspiration, and for saving this VERY historic plant. (July 2003)

Canna History 101

        For our brief and entertaining history of cannas, click here. Read what gardeners from 1629 through the 1893 World’s Fair and beyond have had to say about these bold summer beauties. Get growing tips and links to other canna resources, too. Then you can say, “I’ve been to Canna College!” (June 2003)

Kind Words from Colonial Williamsburg

        Our good customer Wesley Greene of Colonial Williamsburg, VA, writes:
        “We are thrilled to be able to include your heirloom bulbs in the demonstration beds at the Colonial Garden. They were a great fascination to our visitors last year, and we frequently recommend your website to interested visitors. Your company is a wonderful resource.” (2003-04 catalog)

Emily Dickinson’s “Permanent Rainbow”

        In early 1884, poet and flower lover Emily Dickinson wrote to her sister:
        “I have made a permanent rainbow by filling a window with hyacinths, which Science will be glad to know. . . .” (2003-04 catalog)

OHG Customer Fights to Protect 800-Year-Old Oak

        When an 800-year-old live oak is threatened by a $6-million highway extension, what do you do? Well, if you’re Coleen Perilloux Landry of Metairie, LA, you call local officials and even the governor, alert the media, organize volunteer crews to clean up the woods surrounding it, and speak eloquently about the value of a living giant that was already old when La Salle claimed the Mississippi Valley for Louis XIV in 1682. Thanks to Coleen’s efforts, the DOT is now studying alternative plans for re-routing the project and saving “Old Dickory.” Yea, Coleen! For a 14-state registry of ancient live oaks, visit the Live Oak Society website at http://louisianagardenclubs.org/pages/oak.htm. (March 2003)

Who Is Bishop of Llandaff and Why Is He Living in My Garden?

        Dark-leaved, flame-bright ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ is our best-selling dahlia – but who was the bishop? In the ancient cathedral city of Llandaff (now part of Cardiff) in Wales, third-generation nurseryman Fred Treseder spent 50 years growing and breeding dahlias. One fine day in 1924 Fred presented blooms from several of his best seedlings to his good friend, the Right Reverend Joshua Pritchard Hughes, Bishop of Llandaff, and asked him to pick his favorite. An avid supporter of the temperance movement and strict in observing the Sabbath, the Bishop apparently had little interest in gardening – but he knew a fantastic flower when he saw one. Four years later his namesake won an RHS Award of Merit and by 1936 it was one of the most popular dahlias in all of England. (March 2003)

Join Scott’s Internet Discussion Group

        HeirloomFlowers@yahoogroups.com is a free, world-wide discussion group for people with a passionate interest in historic ornamental plants. If that sounds like you, we’d love to have you join us! HeirloomFlowers is not a chat room or a forum. Members post email messages whenever it’s convenient to a common address and these are automatically sent to all members. HF was founded three years ago by our own Scott Kunst, and current members number almost 50 including Peggy Cornett of Monticello, Bill Finch of the Mobile Press-Register, Greg Grant of Flora Catalpa Arboretum, and Marlea Graham of the Heritage Roses Group. To learn more, click here. (March 2003)

Who Is Mrs. Backhouse and Why Is She in My Garden – Twice?

        Ever wonder about the people whose names grace our flowers? We’re going to be introducing you to some of them here in our Gazette. First in line is Sarah Elizabeth Backhouse (1857-1921), a gifted hybridizer of daffodils and other bulbs. She lived at Sutton Court, near Hereford, England, and with her husband worked for years trying to develop a daffodil with a red trumpet. Their efforts resulted in many award-winning varieties, but their greatest achievement was the luscious, pink-cupped ‘Mrs. R.O. Backhouse’ daffodil of 1921. It’s still so well loved that it’s one of our perennial best-sellers.
        But that’s not all! Mrs. B. also bred crocus, snowdrops, colchicums, hyacinths, and lilies, including a lovely, pink-and-amber martagon – named ‘Mrs. R.O. Backhouse’. (Feb. 2003)

“Ancient Tulips”: Reflections on Our T. schrenkii from The New York Times

        In the spring of 2001, hundreds of our oldest tulips bloomed in a small display set amid block after block of massed tulips on New York’s Park Avenue. Sponsored by the Daughters of Holland Dames and the Fund for Park Avenue, this tiny living history lesson inspired Verlyn Klinkenborg, editorial-page writer for The New York Times, to devote his “In the Country” column for April 11, 2001, to these musings:
        “I know a horse trainer who says that if you could just carry square one with you, you’d never have to go back to square one. I heard that at a county fairground in eastern Wyoming, but it came back to me on Park Avenue yesterday. I was standing in the median crosswalk north of 63rd Street and there, in a small raised plot, were the first two tulips I’ve seen blooming this spring. They are a species of tulips called Tulipa schrenkii [currently unavailable], discovered by Europeans in 1585 but native, as tulip historian Anna Pavord writes, to the steppes and low mountains of Crimea and Transcaucasia. Their presence this spring on Park Avenue indicates the growing importance of gardening with heirloom and antique plants — the botanical equivalent of carrying square one with you.
        “T. schrenkii is not a dominating tulip. It has none of the height, none of the stiffness or prominence of the hybrid tulips that surround it, and which are still only in leaf. But T. schrenkii may be one of the important progenitors of the familiar monochromatic tulips, that in another week or two will display a certain unanimity all over the city. By comparison, T. schrenkii seems almost to crouch, to withdraw. It lacks the foghorn colors of modern tulips. Its sharp-tipped petals, wine-dark but edged with yellow, resemble deep, subtle flames, and it looks as though it were meant to cover entire hillsides, not to compete with the overpowering effects of Park Avenue.
        “But back to square one. The variations that humans have wrought upon domesticated plants and animals are almost infinite. Inevitably, as time passes and fashions change, the origins that lie behind those variations grow dim and often forgotten, as do earlier variations themselves. Just as there is a necrology of long-gone buildings, so there is a necrology — a substantial one — of plant varieties and animal breeds that have been sacrificed as values and tastes have changed. With luck, the current fashion for heirloom and antique plants, embodied by T. schrenkii, will turn out not to be a fashion at all, but a continuing expression of the need for genetic conservation, for keeping the past alive in the most literal sense possible.”
        For more of Verlyn’s poetic and thought-provoking writing, click here. (2001-02 catalog)

Changing Fashions, “Conservative Instincts,” and Rediscovering Great Bulbs

        In the early 1900s, the past was all the rage. People built Colonial Revival houses and planted “grandmother’s gardens” filled with old-fashioned plants – including Darwin and Cottage tulips – rediscovered in old and often humble gardens. In his 1915 My Garden in Fall and Winter, E.A. Bowles writes:
        “We owe a vast debt of gratitude to the conservative instincts of our peasantry. Just think, for instance, how often it has happened that the weathercock of fashion has turned out the Chippendale chairs from the dining room of the Hall first to some stable loft, and then to the cottages [workers houses] on the estate to be discovered and bought back half a century later.
        “The same change of taste, or lapse and abeyance of good taste we might say, turned out the old roses and herbaceous plants to make way for showier bedding sorts. Again, Cottage Tulips, rescued from cottage gardens, are clearly the throw-outs of various tulip fanciers who discarded . . . those that would not behave just as they wished and their self-imposed rules decreed. Many a laborer in the gardens of such autocrats has [appreciated these rejected tulips and brought them home], . . . and perhaps fifty years later a Barr or a Hartland has spotted a clump of some glowing and graceful tulip, and gladly purchased the stock from the surprised tenant of the old cottage for what seemed to him untold wealth. . . .
        “Anyone with a keen eye for a good plant might do good work by keeping that eye open on cottage plots [or yards today in poorer areas both rural and urban!]. A really hardy, reliable plant of good habit is what the cottage gardener wants, and it is after all not a bad standard to set up for the larger garden, and a plant that has thriven and been found worth growing for fifty years in a cottage garden is certain to have many good qualities in it.” (2001-02 catalog)

Why Save Old Bulbs?

        In The Heirloom Gardener, her excellent 1984 book on heirloom edibles, Carolyn Jabs writes:
       “Each time we permit an old variety to become extinct, we sacrifice part of our heritage. Those who ask why we need more than a few varieties of beans or corn [or bulbs] might as well wonder why a library needs more than one book on a subject.” (2000-01 catalog)

Memories of Lost Flowers, 1907

        We bet this lament from the 1907 best-seller Aunt Jane of Kentucky by Eliza Calvert Hall will strike a chord with many heirloom plant lovers — including maybe you.
        “Did you ever hear o’ people disappearin’ from their homes and never bein’ found any more? Well, flowers can disappear the same way. The yar before I was married there was a big bed o’ pink chrysanthemums . . . at old Dr. Pendleton’s. It wasn’t a common magenta pink, it was as clear, pretty a pink as that La France rose. Well, I saw ’em that fall for the first time and the last. The next year there wasn’t any, and when I asked where they’d gone to, nobody could tell anything about ’em. And ever since then I’ve been searchin’ in every old gyarden in the county, but I’ve never found ’em, and I don’t reckon I ever will.
        “And there’s my roses! . . . Every color a rose could be, and pretty near every kind. Wouldn’t you think I’d be satisfied? But there’s a rose I lost sixty years ago, and the ricollection o’ that rose keeps me from bein’ satisfied with all I’ve got. It grew in Old Lady Elrod’s gyarden and nowhere else, and there ain’t a rose here except grandmother’s that I wouldn’t give up forever if I could jest find that rose again. . . . “I’ve got all the shades of yeller in my garden, but nothin’ like the color o’ that rose. It got deeper and deeper towards the middle, and lookin’ at one of them roses half opened was like lookin’ down into a gold mine. . . .
        “I always intended to ask for a slip of it, but I waited too long. It got lost one winter, and when I asked Old Lady Elrod about it she said, ‘Mistress Parrish, I cannot tell you whence it came nor whither it went.’ . . . .
        “Well, honey, them two lost flowers jest haunt me. . . . No matter how many roses and chrysanthemums I have, I keep seein’ Old Lady Elrod’s yeller roses . . . and that bed o’ pink chrysanthemums under Dr. Pendleton’s dinin’-room windows.” (2000-01 catalog)

Timeless Advice on Ordering Bulbs

        We’d like to second this advice from the September 1892 edition of The Mayflower magazine:
        “Try ordering your bulbs early this year. No home can afford to be without the refining influence of flowers.” (2000-01 catalog)

Fragrance and Memory, Circa 1932

        In her 1932 classic, The Fragrant Path, Louise Beebe Wilder writes:
        “Fragrance, perhaps, speaks more clearly to age than to youth. With the young it may not pass much beyond the olfactory nerve, but with those who have started down the far side of the hill it reaches into the heart . . . .
        “The gardens of my youth were fragrant gardens and it is their sweetness rather than their pattern or their furnishings that I now most clearly recall.” (2000-01 catalog)

Parrot Tulip Poetry from Sissinghurst’s Vita Sackville-West

        In her book-length 1946 poem The Garden, Vita Sackville-West writes:
        . . . the Parrot, better called the Dragon,
        Ah, that’s a pranking feat of fantasy,
        Swirling as crazy plumes of the macaw,
        Green flounced with pink, and fringed, and topple-heavy,
        A tipsy flower, lurching with the fun
        Of its vagary. Has it strayed and fallen
        Out of the prodigal urn, the Dutchman’s canvas
        Crammed to absurdity? Or truly grown
        From a brown bulb in brown and sober soil?
        Did you catch the “fantasy” pun? Vita grew the pink and green parrot tulip ‘Fantasy’ – a sport of ‘Clara Butt’ – in her world famous gardens at Sissinghurst. (2000-01 catalog)

Another Reason Why Modern Bulbs Often Disappoint Gardeners

        Don Egger writing in the 1998 Lily Yearbook of the North American Lily Society explains:
        “Before tissue culture . . . of lilies was common, new varieties had to be carefully propagated by scaling or . . . seed, [so] it took years to multiply commercial quantities . . . . During this time viruses and disease would take their toll . . . . Only the [toughest] of new varieties lasted long enough to be offered to the trade.
        “Tissue culture technology has changed that. New clones can be micro-propagated with such speed that clones are on the market before they can succumb to virus . . . . While providing us with a vast assortment of new varieties to grow, it has made it all too easy to produce vast numbers of lilies that are not well suited for the home garden due to their virus sensitivity . . . .
        “It’s obvious why the best varieties have been around for such a long time: they are inexpensive to propagate, and easy to grow, and virus tolerant. These old-timers have proven that they will survive for many years in the garden without pampering.” (2000-01 catalog)

Reducing Bulb Diversity – and Garden Worthiness

        “Forcing tulips for the cut-flower trade is now a more lucrative business than providing bulbs,” writes Anna Pavord in her masterful The Tulip, “and half the bulb fields in the Netherlands are planted with the same twenty cultivars, all of which are used to provide forced cut flowers. In fact half the cut-flower market in tulips is dominated by just ten cultivars, a hideous reductio ad absurdum for a flower that nature equipped with more than a thousand tricks.”
       And we’ll add this: As greenhouse-forced tulips have become more lucrative, the bulbs of many of these same varieties are being sold to home gardeners. The problem is that though these bulbs are great for commercial production, many are mediocre for home gardens where our conditions, needs, and desires are quite different.
       It’s the supermarket tomatoes story all over again: when plants are bred for one priority – such as long-distance shipping or greenhouse forcing – other virtues such as taste or garden-worthiness are often lost. (1999-2000 catalog)

History’s Greatest Tulip Party?

        Tulips grow wild in Turkey, and during the early 1700s they became so prized that one modern Turkish historian has called this period “the Tulip Era.” Anna Pavord in her magnificent 1999 book The Tulip describes a party from that time I would have loved to have been invited to:
        “Under Sultan Ahmed III [who reigned 1703-1730], Turkey became a hotbed of floriculture. . . .
        “At tulip time, . . . one of the courtyards of the Grand Seraglio was turned into an open-air theatre; thousands of tulip flowers were mounted on pyramids and towers, with lanterns and cages of singing birds hung between them. Tulips filled the flower beds, each variety marked with a label of filigree silver. At the signal from a cannon, the doors of the harem were opened and the Sultan’s mistresses were led out into the garden by eunuchs carrying torches. Guests had to dress in clothes that matched the tulips (and avoid setting themselves on fire by brushing against candles carried on the backs of hundreds of tortoises that ambled around the grounds).
        “One of these tulip extravaganzas was described by . . . the French Ambassador . . . in the early 18th century. ‘The Grand Vizier. . . and others of the court have a great taste for flowers, and above all the Tulips,’ he wrote. . . ‘There are 500,000 bulbs in the Grand Vizier’s garden. When the Tulips are in flower and the Grand Vizier wants to show them off . . ., they take care to fill in any spaces with Tulips picked from other gardens and put in bottles. At every fourth flower, candles are set into the ground at the same height as the tulips, and the pathways are decorated with cages of all sorts of birds.
        “‘All the trellis-work is bordered with flowers in vases, and lit up by a vast number of crystal lamps of various colours. Greenery is brought in from the woods roundabout and used as a background behind the trellises. The colours and reflections of the lights in mirrors makes a marvelous effect. The illuminations are accompanied by noisy music and Turkish music lasts through all the nights that the tulips are in flower.’” (1999-2000 catalog)

Bone Shavings & Hartshorn: Victorian Tips on Forcing

        In his 1863 Flowers for the Parlor and Garden, popular Victorian garden writer E. S. Rand gave some unusual tips for forcing hyacinths:
       “If small bits of powdered charcoal be mixed with the earth, it imparts great depth and brilliancy of color to the flowers, and a dark, rich green to the foliage. Bone shavings or horn scrapings assist a full development of foliage and flower. If the plants are watered once a fort-night with a very weak solution of glue, or a few drops of hartshorn added to the water, the same effect with be produced.” (1999-2000 catalog)

Why Save Old Bulbs?

        In Vegetables and Fruits: A Guide to Heirloom Varieties (1998), Suzanne DeMuth offers some thoughtful reflections:
       “In the end, the question of whether old or new varieties are ‘better’ remains elusive, since the answer implies values and priorities. Better for whom, and for what purposes? . . . Growing old varieties allows people to express their individual preferences, and their . . . beliefs about what is worth sustaining. As Carolyn Jabs has put it: ‘In a world . . . changing so rapidly, one of the most meaningful things we can preserve . . . is a full range of possibilities.’
       “More than seventy-five years ago, Liberty Hyde Bailey asked . . . , ‘Why do we need so many kinds of apples?’ His answer: ‘Because there are so many folks.’ . . . Bailey anticipated the view of modern heirloom stewards when he stated that ‘. . . there is merit in variety itself. It provides more contact with life, and leads away from uniformity and monotony.’” (1999-2000 catalog)

Forcing Bulbs in Freezing Bedrooms: Canada, circa 1869

        If you’ve ever had any trouble forcing bulbs, this letter from 1869 New Brunswick will help put your problems in perspective and introduce you – across the centuries – to Juliana Ewing, a young woman with the enthusiasm and undaunted spirit of a true gardener.
       “I have been much more successful this year than last. 1st – Our little house will keep out the extreme frost & the other one we lived in last year would not. We used to carry the hyacinth pots up to bed with us – put them round the stove – and bury them in dressing gowns, &c., but the poor things were frozen and thawed – over & over again!!
       “2dly – Last year I bought my bulbs here, & they were not first-rate I think. This year . . . I got them from Carter & Sons at Home. They were not kept dry enough & when I got them mould had begun. I lost all the aconites – & anemones – & almost all the snowdrops & crocuses – but my hyacinths & narcissi & tulips were none the worse. . . .
       “I planted them in leaf mould & sand just as I used to do at home, kept them in my dress closet in my room for their dark month, & brought them out by degrees into my ‘forcing house’!!!! This is the tiny ‘landing’ at the top of the stairs. It has a window – & what is called a ‘dumb stove’ – i.e. a ‘drum’ or box of iron through which the pipe of the hall stove runs – & which thus warms the upper part of the house. The window is very near it, & on the window sill I force my bulbs! But every night I have to move them from the glass (though we have double windows) – as if a ‘snap’ of increased frost came, I might lose them one & all. Our house is very warm, & they would probably be safe 6 nights in 7 – but if one doesn’t do it always one is apt to forget on the cold nights – & I have lost one hyacinth – my only rose – & some other things already, besides by poor Calla Ethiopica which was just looking grand!!
       “. . . I only treated myself to 3 polyanthus [tazetta] narcissi – all Soleil d’Or – & put the 3 bulbs in one pot. They sent up 4 stems & I have counted 29 blossoms. I had one exquisite blush single hyacinth (name lost) which sent up a stem with 18 very large bells. The same bulb has now sent up a second stem with 9 bells quite as large as the others . . . . In the same pot was a single white faintly tinged with yellow (Rosseau) also very fine. The first stalk bore 18 bells & the 2d seems to have 30 – but I can hardly be certain yet – they are so closely packed. That makes 75 bells from the 2 bulbs in one pot. I only had 9 hyacinths – they have certainly fully repaid me. I never had such blooms as some of them, I think. I lost one – gave one away – & the other 7 have been a great enjoyment to me . . . .
       “I am proud of my bulbs.”
       Letter 76, Feb. 23, 1869, in Canada Home: Juliana Horatia Ewing’s Fredericton Letters, 1867-1869 (1999-2000 catalog)

Dear Mr. Jefferson: Letters from a Nantucket Gardener

        I love this book, and not just because we’re in it! It’s a collection of musing garden essays cast as letters to Jefferson, that soul-mate of all American gardeners. Though they focus on author Laura Simon’s ample kitchen garden, these lively, wide-ranging letters are really about the deep pleasures – and meaning – of all gardening. They’re full of American garden history, too, including our bulbs. Laura has been a “friend and partner” of OHG since our earliest days. (1998-99 catalog)

Garden Wisdom from E. A. Bowles

        One of the greatest bulb connoisseurs of the twentieth century, E. A. Bowles was also an insightful gardener. In his 1914 My Garden in Spring, he writes:
       “Right letting alone and right meddling are the beginning and the ending of good gardening, and . . . the simplest effects are just precisely those which defy money and ambition and effort and everything but tireless patience, attention, and knowledge bought at first hand with pain.” (1998-99 catalog)

Garden Wisdom from Gertrude Jekyll

        Gertrude Jekyll may have been the most influential gardener of the twentieth century. Here’s one of her simple planting techniques that I’ve found very helpful in my own gardening, as explained in Judith Tankard and Martin Wood’s fine Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead Wood:
        “One of the secrets of the border’s success [at Jekyll’s home] lay in the style of planting. All her borders were habitually planted in ‘long rather than block-shaped patches’ because, as she observed, ‘a thin long planting does not leave an unsightly empty space when the flowers are done’ [or the bulbs’ foliage is yellowing], especially if the borders were built up in layers, using long narrow-shaped drifts that interlocked and overlapped one another.” (1998-99 catalog)

Grandma Says: Those Aren’t Daffodils, They’re Jonquils!

        Our good customer Nancy Foster of Clemson, South Carolina, writes:
       “My grandmother (born 1884) called daffodils such as ‘Avalanche’ and ‘Laurens Koster’ ‘narcissus’ (as opposed to ‘paperwhites’) and all the yellow ones ‘jonquils.’ ‘Daffodils,’ on the other hand, were just something in a Wordsworth poem. Thanks for providing me with the ‘real’ narcissus and jonquils so precious to my childhood!” (1998-99 catalog)

Recollections of Bulbs in an Early-1800s Garden

        Recalling the gardens of her childhood home in Connecticut, Lydia Sigourney (born in 1791) published this description in her 1867 Letters of Life. Notice how many bulbs are included!
        “The southern [garden] stretched out in view of the windows of the parlor, where we usually sat. There were the flowers, transposed in an old-fashioned parterre, or knot – a diamond shaped bed in the center – with its chief glory, a rich crimson peony, surrounded by others in angles and parallelograms, whose dark mould [soil] was sprinkled with every tint and perfume, in their season.
        “There flourished the amaryllis family, white and orange-colored; the queenly damask-rose, the deep-red, the pale-cheeked, and the sweet briar; tulips in gorgeous and varied robes, the protean sweet-william, the aspiring lark-spur, the proud crown imperial, the snowdrop, the narcissus, and the hyacinth, so prompt to waken the Spring’s first call, side by side with the cheerful [pot] marigold, braving the frost-kiss; pinks in profusion, and a host of personified flowers, peeped out of their tufted homes like nested birds: the beauty by night, the ragged lady, the mourning window, and the mottled guinea hen [Fritillaria meleagris].
        “The dahlias had not then appeared with their countless varieties, but the asters instituted a secondary order of nobility; coxcombs and soldiers in green rejoiced in their gay uniform; the borders were enriched with shrubbery, tastefully disposed, at whose feet ran the happy blue-bell and the bright-eyed hearts-ease, intent with a few other lowly friends on turning every crevice to account, and making the waste places beautiful. . . .”
       Thanks to our colleague and customer Christie White of Old Sturbridge Village for sharing this fascinating document with us. (1998-99 catalog)

A Measure of What We’ve Lost

        In his 1930 Bulbs for American Gardens, John Wister laments a trend which, for the most part, has only gotten worse since then. He writes:
       “In 1874 the [Krelage] firm was growing the following number of varieties, a list which will appear astounding to modern gardeners: Tulips 2200, Gladiolus 2000, Hyacinths 1700, Iris 900, Peonies 900, Amaryllis 500, Crocus, Narcissus, Anemones, Ranunculus, Lilies, Dahlias, and Ixias, each 300; Cannas 200, Begonias 150, Hardy Orchids 100, Fritillarias 100, Scillas 80, Oxalis 60. What modern nursery can be found which is growing such great quantities of so many varieties of plants?” (1997 catalog)

A.H. Ladd’s Garden Book, 1888-1895

        Alexander Ladd of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, loved tulips and planted them by the thousands. In this fascinating garden diary Ladd recorded with affection the mundane details of seven years in his Victorian garden which survives today under the care of the Moffat-Ladd House Museum. Many of his entries deal with tulips – including our ‘Duc van Tols’ and ‘Prince of Austria’ – which he dug and stored for the summer in baskets in his basement. Supplementary essays and a complete plant list add to the value of this rare document published by the Moffatt-Ladd House Museum. (1997 catalog)

What was Joseph Annin Growing in Upstate NY in 1845?

        “Mr. Gage reached home yesterday and handed over your very liberal package of Jewelry, Pocket-Books, Knife, and more precious than all an assortment of Bulbs.”
        So begins an extraordinary letter from 1845 that survives today in the Big Springs Museum of Caledonia, New York. It was written by Joseph Annin of Le Roy, NY, to his brothers in Boston.
        “It was a rich treat for me to see the Bulbs,” it continues, “and Catherine, Charles and Sarah were almost carried away with delight upon opening their presents . . . .
        “. . . I send you a hasty Sketch. Notice that your Bulbs are in the front rank and in the most conspicuous place in the Garden . . . . If they do as well as my old bulbs I shall soon [have] a fine lot of them from the nine that you sent.”
        Annin’s “hasty Sketch” is a map of his garden which includes – all in small-town New York in 1845! – tulips (43 “bunches”), hyacinths, daffodils, jonquils, polyanthus (tazetta) narcissus, snowdrops, crocus, crown imperials, lily-of-the-valley, purple gladiolus, red gladiolus, (chances are one or both of these are Byzantine glads), and “Orange, Yellow, White, White Japan, Double Red, Tiger,” and L. superbum lilies.
        Thanks to Cynthia Howk for sharing this rare glimpse of the past with us! (1996 catalog)

No Need to Wait for a Tuberose Revival

        Regarding tuberoses and fashion, I couldn’t have said it better than F.F. Rockwell did in his 1927 Book of Bulbs:
        “It is hard to understand why this really excellent summer-flowering bulb, with its permeating fragrance . . . should have fallen off, as it has, in its popularity. Possibly some day it will meet with a ‘revival,’ as have so many of the other flowers of ‘Grandmother’s garden;’ but those who grow things for their intrinsic value, rather than because they may happen to be ‘in style,’ need not wait for that day.” (1996 catalog)

Sourcebook of Cultivar Names by Art Tucker and Scott Kunst

        It’s hard to discover when a plant was introduced or first grown in gardens. Books, nurseries, and the plants themselves rarely tell you. So Art Tucker of Delaware State University and I set out to track down “check lists” and other references that included this information. We found some 900 for over 300 genera, and all are cited in this special issue of Arnoldia, the journal of Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum, which can now be dlownloaded for free. Essentially a 64-page bibliography, it’s dry reading but a gold mine for anyone researching the history of plants. (1995 catalog)

Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris by John Parkinson

        Often called one of the great herbals, this landmark work from 1629 is actually the first illustrated book in English devoted mainly to ornamental plants. Nearly 1000 are described – including the “Great Nonesuch Daffodil” and the “Lesser Purple Flame Coloured Crocus” – and there are over 800 quaint but accurate woodblock illustrations. Republished by Dover Press under the title A Garden of Pleasant Flowers, it’s a feast for old-flower lovers! (1995 catalog)

In Praise and Defense of Early Tulips

        Louise Beebe Wilder was one of America’s most popular garden writers in the early twentieth century. In What Happens in My Garden, published in 1935, she writes in defense of Single Early tulips. (See our Tulip Comparison Chart to find some for your garden today!)
        “The Tulips known as ‘Early’ do not by any means receive the recognition that their special comeliness and usefulness merit. So many, so marvelous . . . are the Darwins, Breeders, and the Cottage varieties of the later season [which today are all lumped together as Single Lates] that too often the early-flowering kinds are quite overlooked. . . .
        “They suffer too . . . by association in our minds with pots and geometrical bedding, for which they are indeed ideally adapted. But these are not the only roles they are capable of filling with grace and distinction . . . There is a pleasant surprise awaiting those who cast precedent aside and allow this type of Tulip to play a more gracious and less formal part in the spring scene. . . .
        “I have found too, that several years of good service may be had of these early Tulips without lifting and with only a slight diminution of size, if the soil in which they are planted has not been too heavily and freshly manured. This slight falling off in size indeed seems to me no drawback, for just as I like Hyacinths best when a few years of border life have reduced their obese opulence, so I like Tulips (this is rank heresy, I know) when they have lost something of their self-conscious hugeness and take their places a bit more simply in the garden scene. . . .” (1995 catalog)

Bulb Rustling – with Sensitivity

        “Another tried-and-true way to obtain daffodils is to take a weekend trip through older communities.” writes Scott Ogden, author of Garden Bulbs for the South, in an article in the March 1998 edition of Gardens and More. “Many varieties can be located in bloom and gardeners often will sell or trade their plants. Occasionally, vacant lots will be found with numerous bulbs that can be moved to your garden, and residents in expanding cities and suburbs should always be on the watch to see what can be saved from the bulldozer.”
        I’d only add (as I know Scott would) that “bulb rustling” should always be done with permission and sensitivity. I believe historic plants are akin to endangered species and should be approached with comparable ethics and care. Let your enthusiasm be tempered by the recognition that a plant that seems terribly “at risk” has probably already survived right where it is for decades if not generations – which is more than most of us can guarantee in our own gardens. Always collect the smallest possible sample, and never jeopardize the continued existence of the original plant. (1995 catalog)

What Do You Have Against Hyacinths?

        Hyacinths are the most endangered of historic garden bulbs, in part because too many gardeners still stereotype them as “formal” and “stiff.” May I suggest looking at them as “quaint” instead? As John Wister, the great Philadelphia plantsman, wrote in his popular Bulbs for Home Gardens of 1930:
        “Few flowers have suffered more unjustly at the hands of the American gardening public – unjustly because they have been banned from countless gardens for no fault of their own, but on account of the revulsion of taste against the circles, half-moons, crescents, stars, and other atrocities that were cut in lawns in bygone days and filled with Hyacinths.
        “Big or little, white, pink, blue, or yellow, the Hyacinth is a lovely flower when used with discretion or restraint. To condemn it for the bad company it kept generations ago is . . . narrow-minded. . . .
        “Don’t be afraid of Hyacinths. Try them and see how many different garden positions suit them . . . . But don’t be without this early and delightfully fragrant flower.” (1995 catalog)

On Daffodils and Ecstasy, 1916

        Though some may say Louise Beebe Wilder gets a little carried away here in this excerpt from her 1916 classic, My Garden, many of you will know just how she feels. She writes:
        “When one comes to Daffodils, it is difficult to write with moderation or even to think connectedly – one wants to go into ecstasies and to run, in spirit, from one sunshiny group to another inhaling the ineffable wet-earth-and-sun perfume which is their birthright. . . .
        “It was Mahamet who said more than a thousand years ago, ‘He that hath two cakes of bread, let him sell one of them and buy Narcissus, for bread is food for the body but Narcissus is food for the soul.’ And verily it is true – food for the soul and delight for the eyes, these gleaming things lying like patches of light among the fallen Cherry Blossoms, glorifying the brown earth, and lifting the most sodden into a rarer atmosphere. Daffodil time is the very height of spring, the epitome of springing youth and hope.” (1995 catalog)

Day One: Scott’s Letter to the World on the Cover of Our Very First Catalog

        In 1993, with high hopes, Scott mailed 500 copies of his first catalog – three pages of brightly colored paper photocopied at Kinko’s. It offered a grand total of ten daffodils, eight hyacinths, and twelve tulips. Though Old House Gardens has changed a lot since then, his vision and our mission remain unwavering:
        “Welcome to Old House Gardens’ first-ever catalog of antique bulbs!
        “For ten years I have been working as a landscape historian, researching and helping preserve historic landscapes and plants.
        “During this time, hundreds of people have asked me, “What plants are right for our old house – or museum?” and “Where can we get them?” At the same time, unfortunately, many antiques varieties have been disappearing from commerce.
        “This catalog is an effort to help preserve historic bulbs by making them – and information about them – more widely available. (Of course, I also hope to have some fun and make a little profit.)
        “What if you don’t have an old garden? No problem. Besides being historic, these bulbs are wonderful. They have thrived and delighted gardeners for generations, sometimes centuries. To any garden, they can bring a more-than-modern diversity of colors, forms, and scents – and a touch of the past.
        “I welcome your support. (Please send money!)”

For articles on other topics, see our main Newsletter Archives page.