New Documentation for the Tryon Palace Gardens - Southern ...

New Documentation for the Tryon
Palace Gardens
Perry Mathewes, Curator of Gardens, Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens
t most historic sites there is always the
A desire to find one more piece of
information that might help resolve some
unanswered question as to how the landscape
was truly designed or used. This drive for more
information often helps fill in the gaps of the
existing knowledge about a site and the picture
becomes more clear as information is gathered.
But occasionally, one piece of information can
turn the whole thinking about a site upside
down. This has been the case at Tryon Palace
Historic Sites and Gardens.
Map of New Bern, May 1769 by Claude Joseph Sauthier.
In 1955, with the restoration of the Palace
underway, the Tryon Palace Commission hired
landscape architect Morley J . Williams to design
Inside
this
Issue
an appropriate landscape for the reconstructed
Palace. Very little evidence existed about the
original landscape . The correspondence of
Governor Tryon offered few references about the
landscape or plants, and none relating directly to
the Palace grounds . The best information was
two contemporary maps of New Bern drawn in
1769 by Claude J . Sauthier that showed the
layout for the Palace grounds.
Detail of map of New Bern, May 1769 by Claude Joseph
Sauthier, which shows part of the Tryon Palace lot . Pollock Street
is at the top, the Trent River is below the bottom of the image.
Claude Sauthier, a native of Strasbourg,
France, came to North Carolina sometime in the
mid-1760s and proceeded to make twelve maps
of ten North Carolina towns (New Bern and
Continued on page 3 . . .
Page 2 Calendar
Page 6 Members in the News
Page 7 Antebellum Azalea and Camellia Varieties in Southern Gardens
Page 10 In Print
Page 12 Symposium on Shipman Held at Duke University

Now through October 24th, 1998 . `A Woman's
Touch : Rose Ishbel Greely's Landscape Architecturein
Washington, D .C ." An exhibition by the Historical
Society of Washington, D .C. in the Patterson Gallery.
Focused on the legacy of one of Washington's first
female landscape architects, the exhibit features
drawings and photographs of many of the gardens that
Greely designed in the metro area from 1923 through
1956 . For information, call the Historical Society at
(202) 785-2068.
May 29th-31st, 1998 . " Mountain Heritage : Biltmore
Estate & the Blue Ridge, " the Sixteenth Annual Meeting
of the Southern Garden History Society in Asheville,
NC . This meeting will explore the design philosophies
and "genius" of Frederick Law Olmsted in the landscape
of the Biltmore Estate . During the 1880s, the wealthy
George W. Vanderbilt commissioned Olmsted to
transform several thousand acres of cut-over, eroded
farmland into a productive estate . Upon completion in
1895, Biltmore became a model of scientific agriculture,
state-of-the-art landscaping, and America's first
systematically managed forest . Conference coordinator
William E . Alexander, Landscape Curator of Biltmore
Estate, has organized a behind-the-scene look not only of
the estate, but also of the creation "natural" gardens of
the Blue Ridge Parkway. Speakers include Suzanne
Habel, Terry Stalcup, and Bill Alexander of Biltmore,
CALENDAR
and architect Carlton Abbot . For more information,
contact Bill Alexander at : The Biltmore Company, One
Biltmore Plaza, Asheville, NC 28803 ; (704) 274-6200.
June 3rd-6th, 1998 . "The South : The Land and Its
Literature, " the Ninth Annual Natchez Literary
Celebration . Writers, historian, landscape architects,
horticulturists, and food experts will gather for four
days to explore the South and its love affair with the
land . Speakers include SGHS members Susan Haltom
and board member Elizabeth Boggess . For information
call (601) 446-1242 or write P.O . Box 894, Natchez,
MS 39121 . To visit their web site: www2 .bkbank.com/nlc
September 4th-5th, 1998 . "Contemporary Issues in a
Historic Public Garden," the regional meeting of the
American Association of Botanic Gardens and
Arboreta, co-sponsored by Monticello and the
University of Virginia . This meeting will address the
challenge of sustaining the diverse, and sometimes
antithetical, roles of a historic garden, house museum,
college campus, arboretum, and public garden.
Speakers from the University and from Monticello
include Peter Hatch, Warren Byrd, Will Reiley, Mary
Hughes, and Mike Van Yahres . Tours include the
gardens at Monticello, UVa, and the Morven Estate.
You must be a member of AABGA to attend . For
information, write Monticello, P. O . Box 316,
Charlottesville, VA 22902, or call (804) 984-9816.
September 30th-October 1st, 1999 . "Plans and Plants
of the Southern Landscape" has been selected for the
theme of the twelfth biennial Restoring Southern
Gardens and Landscapes conference at Old Salem . It is
hoped that the development of this theme will help
those involved in landscape restoration by providing
historic plans, documents, and plant lists that can be
useful as guidelines . The conference committee is
seeking papers on this topic. SGHS members who have
research material on gardens and landscapes in the
South, especially material that has not been published,
are encouraged to contact the landscape conference
coordinator, Kay Bergey, Old Salem, Inc ., Salem
Station, Winston-Salem, NC 27108 .

New Documentation for the
Tryon Palace Gardens
continued from page
1
Detail of second map of New Bern, 1769 by Claude Joseph Sauthier
which shows part of the Tryon Palace lot. Pollock Street is at the top,
the Trent River is below the bottom of the image.
Edenton were both drawn twice) for the British Crown.
On all maps, he included garden plots for many of the
houses. Minor discrepancies in the double maps of New
Bern and Edenton have led some scholars to argue that
Sauthier 's garden drawings were attempts to make the
towns look more organized and sophisticated than they
truly were. Research has shown, however, that many garden
plots are shown on land owned by people prominent
enough to afford such gardens. Tryon Palace is depicted on
both maps, but with slightly different garden designs. In
both cases the gardens consist of parterres flanking a wide
allee between the Palace and Pollock Street . On the river
side is a large open lawn . These drawings of the Palace and
grounds were drawn in 1769, more than a year before the
completion of the building in 1770.
These two maps provided Morley Williams with the
best information about the Palace gardens. As
reconstruction started, however, the general consensus was
that the gardens of the Sauthier maps were not reliable
depictions . Many scholars felt that little if any work was
done on the grounds before Governor Tryon left to
become governor of New York, since he only occupied the
3
Palace thirteen months and the expense of the Palace itself
was quite controversial . As work started on the design of
the reconstructed garden, the Tryon Palace Commission
wanted a garden to match the high style of the Palace
architecture and asked Williams to develop a landscape
that was " like those which flourished from 1760 to 1770 at
comparable estates in Great Britain ." Morley and his wife,
Nathalia Williams created a kitchen garden complete with
espaliered fruit trees, a wilderness garden inspired by the
English wilderness walks, small allées leading to an
elaborate parterre garden filled with seasonal flowers and
two small walled gardens, which he called "privy " gardens,
best seen from the second floor of the Palace . An attempt
was made to fill these gardens with colorful period flowers,
although modern varieties sometimes were included to
satisfy twentieth-century tastes. This is the garden that
flourished in 1991 when a new document surfaced that
added significantly to the existing information about the
Tryon Palace gardens.
Miranda 's Plan. The Trent River is at the top of the image, and Pollock
Street is at the bottom.
The path of a historic document into modern hands can
sometimes be somewhat circuitous . Venezuelan traveler
continued on page 4. ..

New Documentation for the
Tryon Palace Gardens
continued from page 3
Francisco de Miranda, traveling through the newly-formed
United States, stopped in New Bern for a month in 1783
and befriended John Hawks, the architect who had designed
the Palace in 1767. Hawks presented a copy of the plan of
the gardens and building to Miranda as well as providing a
written description of the Palace interior . Miranda added
these documents to his personal papers and continued on
his journey.
Aerial photograph ofpan of the Tryon Palace garden, taken shortly after
its completion in 1962. The Trent River is at the top of the photo.
From New Bern Miranda traveled to Charleston,
Philadelphia, New York, New England, Great Britain and
Russia. He settled in London but returned to Venezuela in
1810, as the colony started to rebel against Spanish rule.
After signing Venezuela 's Declaration of Independence in
1811, he became one of the leaders of the new government.
The rebellion failed in 1812 and Miranda was captured and
died in a Spanish prison four years later . Before his capture
however, he turned over his personal papers to an English
ship captain . The papers were discovered in a private British
archive in the 1920s, bound in sixty-three folio volumes.
They were purchased by the Venezuelan government and
4
now reside in the collections of the Academia Nacional de la
Historia in Caracas.
As research began in the 1940s for the restoration of
Tryon Palace, historian Alonzo T. Dill was aware of the
possibility of the drawing's existence and stated, °If
Miranda 's plan could be recovered, it would be an
unquestionably authentic diagram of exactly how the
gardens were laid out ..."2 Efforts at that time to acquire a
copy of the plan failed . In 1991, renewed efforts were
rewarded with a copy of both the plan and the text that
accompanied it arriving at the offices of Tryon Palace.
At first, this newly found document seemed to be Tryon
Palace 's Rosetta stone. The accompanying letter from
Hawks was the first room by room description of the
interior architectural details . Hawks provided information as
to how many of the rooms were used, which allowed for the
refinement of the interior interpretation . The discovery was
touted in publications and presentations . As a result, many
people have asked whether we will restore the gardens
according to this plan.
Tryon Palace landscape architect Morley J . Williams in the Latham
garden in 1959.
Contrary to Dill's statement, the new plan raised more
questions than it clearly answered. Miranda's plan shows a
formal entrance allée flanked by lawn from Pollock Street to
the Palace courtyard. In Hawks' letter, he noted that the
actual allée was planted wider, lining up with the facades of
the two dependencies, or "offices," that projected from the
main building . The Palace appears to be flanked by
intensely planted vegetable and/or flower beds . Between the
Palace and the river is drawn four large parterres, each
continued on page 5. ..

New Documentation for the
Tryon Palace Gardens
continued from page 4
containing a central feature and at the center of the garden
was a "dyal . "
The newly-discovered Miranda plan completely
contradicts the two garden images in Sauthier's maps, with
the primary gardens shown on opposite sides of the
building. There are other questions about the new found
plan as well . On this plan, as well as in the two maps, the
Palace is shown to be centered in a rectangular lot . The
Palace lot was never truly a rectangle and the building itself
was not built in the center of the lot . Hawks noted for
Miranda, "It was agreed for the advantage of a prospect
down the river, that the South front should be thrown
more to the Eastward which leaves the Gardens not quite
so regular as appears in the sketch . "' What is not clear, is
how different the gardens were from the illustrated plan.
The view of one of the "privy" gardens from the second floor of the
Palace.
Another question about this document concerns the
author. Who actually drew the plan? The handwriting in the
notations is very similar to that of John Hawks, the Palace
architect, and it was in his possession when it was given to
Miranda. The drawing style, however, is very similar to
Claude Sauthier, Tryon 's cartographer. This is particularly
evident when examining the drawing of the trees and other
landscape features that also appear on his maps . Evidence of
two different hands on this document makes the question of
authorship uncertain. Did the two men collaborate on this
plan or did Hawks simply make notations on the document
later? Currently, tentative attribution for the plan is given to
Claude Sauthier.
How does the new plan, and all the contradictory evidence
of the eighteenth-century gardens, fit into the current plans
and thinking for the gardens? Although the new plan has not
turned out to be the magic blueprint for restoring a garden, as
5
originally was thought by many, it has focused more attention
onto the landscape of Tryon Palace . For the first time, garden
archaeology was given some emphasis and the James River
Archaeological Institute was hired to explore if any remains of
the gardens existed, using Miranda 's plan as a guiding
document. Limited testing proved inconclusive, but showed
some promise of finding more evidence. In 1995, during a
Department of Transportation drainage excavation, a feature
was unearthed that appeared to be a sand path, possibly from
an allée in Miranda 's plan or the Sauthier maps.
Another result from the added attention to the garden was
the creation of the new position of Curator of Gardens . This
position allowed for more serious consideration of the
landscape and treatment of the gardens as a integral part of
the collections at the Palace . This also placed a new emphasis
on interpreting the complexity of the gardens for visitors.
A new interpretation plan for the gardens has been
developed to present the many facets of Tryon Palace's
landscape . The plan allows for part of the Palace grounds to
be interpreted as a Colonial Revival landscape created during
the 1950s restoration under the guidance of Morley
Williams. This includes the most significant aspects of this
design, the popular parterre garden with its intricate design of
yaupon hedges and twisting paths, as well as a "privy" garden
and two allees. The visitor is told of the problems of trying to
balance an accurate restoration with little information and
the desire to create an aesthetically pleasing garden for the
twentieth-century eye. In these areas we retain popular
seasonal displays that would otherwise be inaccurate, such as
chrysanthemums. as well as the large plantings of tulips and
summer annuals.
Chrysanthemum plantings in the Latham garden today.
continued on page 6. ..

New Documentation for the
Tryon Palace Gardens
continued from page 5
Another part of the garden is interpreted as a Colonial
landscape, trying to more fully expand the visitor 's experience
of the eighteenth-century life as presented in the current tours
of the buildings . The scant records did at least indicate that a
kitchen garden was present, so the current kitchen garden is
used to present the gardens of William Tryon 's era. Formerly,
display rows of tobacco, cotton, and corn were grown in this
garden, to show some of the more important economical
crops of the region . These were eliminated and only
historically appropriate vegetables that were typically found in
a kitchen garden are now grown . Where possible, specific
varieties of the period are grown, otherwise, heirloom
vegetables that most approximate the period vegetables are
produced . Another small garden adjacent to the kitchen
garden is also used to discuss eighteenth-century gardens.
Visitors are told that this garden is purely conjectural, but
used to illustrate ornamental plantings of the era. In both of
the garden areas, the structural elements of paths, walls and
fountains designed by Morley Williams remain, but the
plantings, once primarily seasonal, have been changed to
reflect the more current interpretation.
In February, Tryon Palace invited seven outside
professionals to meet and discuss the current information
on the garden history and asked them to evaluate many of
the questions that face the staff. The panel included
Catherine Bishir, architectural survey coordinator for the
North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office; Kent
Brinkley, landscape architect for the Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation ; Allan Brown, landscape historian and
landscape architect ; John Clauser, archaeologist with the
North Carolina State Office of Archaeology ; Charlie
Members in the News
Keyes Williamson has been employed as director of
horticulture for Old Salem, Inc. Keyes is a native of
Tallahassee, Florida and a graduate from Sewanee and Florida
State University. He worked as an historical interpreter at
Shirley Plantation in Virginia and at the Museum of
Confederacy in Richmond. He was employed by Monticello
as assistant to the curator of the exhibition celebrating the
250th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth in 1993.
Following the exhibition, he continued working at Monticello
under Peter Hatch as a general gardener and special
interpreter. Keyes also has gained much practical experience
as a greenhouse and nursery manager in several commercial
nurseries, including experimental work with Asian ornamental
trees and shrubs for the University of Georgia .
6
Ewen, Associate Professor of Anthropology at East Carolina
University ; Catherine Howett, Professor in the School of
Environmental Design at the University of Georgia ; Ken
McFarland, Site Manager of Historic Stagville in Durham,
North Carolina.
The meeting featured some lively debate and left the
staff with many ideas for future research and current
assessment of how all the current information fits together
to tell the story of the gardens at Tryon Palace . Given the
current information about the original garden, the panel
agreed with staff that it would be unwise to eliminate the
current conjectural and popular gardens built forty years
ago in order to build another garden that would again be
built on sketchy information. An emphasis was placed on
the need for continuing documentary research as well as for
further efforts in garden archaeology, to search for
remnants of the eighteenth-century gardens . The panel also
agreed that it is necessary to interpret the Colonial Revival
garden for the visitor, explaining the concepts that were
thought of when this garden was built, as well as using it as
an opportunity to discuss the modern heritage of the
Palace. All of these efforts will help visitors develop a more
accurate picture of the gardens . In the next few years, there
is great promise for that picture to come more into focus . +
' Old World Gardens in the New World. p .9 Tryon Palace garden
booklet, New Bern, 1968.
Alonzo T . Dill, "Tryon's Palace - A Neglected Niche of North
Carolina History," pp . 137-138 . The North Carolina Historical Review,
Volume XIX, Number 2, April 1942.
Memorandum : John Hawks on the Design of the Governor's House
in New Bern, July 12, 1783, Archivo de Francisco de Miranda, Tomo 5,
folios 95-97, Acadamia Nacional de la Historia, Caracas, Venezuela.
The American Society for Horticultural Science has awarded
its first ever Horticultural Landmark Award to Monticello's
gardens and grounds . The society's Landmark program
honors gardens and orchards based on their historic,
scientific, environmental and aesthetic value. Donald
Maynard, chair of the society's board, said : "The gardens and
grounds at Monticello are the most magnificent re-created
acres in the United States . Jefferson's talent and love of
horticulture are evident throughout the site . " The award will
be presented on May 23rd at 11 :30 a.m. on Monticello's
West Lawn.

Antebellum Azalea
and Camellia Varieties
in Southern Gardens
by James E . Kibler, Ballylee (Hardy) Plantation,
Whitmire, South Carolina
t is often said that the popularization of the azalea in
I the South, one of its most recognizable symbols
worldwide, came as the influence of P . J . Berckmans
and his Fruitlands Nursery of Augusta, Georgia . While
Berckmans did indeed sell a great variety and quantity of
the plant after the War Between the States and into the
twentieth century, another nursery had a large (and
probably much larger) influence before the War and
beginning no later than 1853 . Berckmans did not
commence his work at Fruitlands until 1858, when he
succeeded D . Redmond.
William Summer, nurseryman, 1815-1878.
This other lesser-known antebellum nurseryman was
William Summer (1815-1878), creator of the excellent
large operation called the Pomaria Nurseries . Summer
began Pomaria in 1840 at his own Pomaria Plantation,
near the present town of Pomaria, South Carolina . (The
village was itself named after the plantation and nursery .)
A.G. Summer, co-founder of Pomaria Nurseries.
Summer began a separate expanded ornamentals branch in
Columbia in 1860 under the supervision of a European
gardener W . R. Bergholz, and had agents for the nursery in
Columbia, Greenville, and Charleston, South Carolina;
Charlotte, Flat Rock-Hendersonville, and Asheville, North
Carolina; Augusta, Georgia ; Mobile, Alabama ; Fernandina,
Florida; and New Orleans, Louisiana.
The existence of Pomaria Nurseries Catalogues for
1853, 1856-57, 1857-58, 1858-59, 1860-61, and 1861-62
and the nursery sales ledgers themselves from October
1859 to March 1863 provide scholars a small but
significant body of hard proof for a new claim that indeed
Summer preceded and outstripped Berckmans in
disseminating this important plant of Southern gardens in
the antebellum era.
From the Pomaria Nurseries catalogues and ledgers, a
list of named azalea varieties offered, described, and sold by
Summer at Pomaria should prove helpful to garden
historians and garden restorers in establishing what
continued on page 8. . .

Antebellum Azalea and
Camellia Varieties in
Southern Gardens . ..
continued from page 7
particular azaleas might have been available for antebellum
gardens and, most particularly, in the gardens of
Summer's many patrons throughout the South — from
North Carolina to Mississippi and Louisiana . The first
Fruitlands Nursery Catalogue in 1858 lists no named
azalea varieties, just the generic entry : "Azalea indica,
Chinese Honeysuckle," offered at a price of $1, the same
cost of all Summer's azaleas. We are fortunate, however,
that Pomaria 's two catalogues of 1860-1861 and 1861-62
provide us names of sixteen specific varieties :
Petiver 's illustration of C . japonica . From "Gazophylacii Nature &
Artis. "XXXIII No. 4, 1702 . The first camellia illustration to appear in
western literature.
Azalea alba flora . White. (Catalogues 1860, 1861)
Azalea alba flora plena . Double white . Described by
Summer as "Beautiful . " (1860, 1861)
Azalea bicolor . Red and violet. (1860, 1861)
Azalea coccinea [indicum form] . Crimson. Summer
described as "Beautiful ." (1860, 1861)
Azalea coccinea grandiflora [indicum form] . Large
crimson flowers . (1860, 1861)
Azalea cupressum . Copper-colored . (1860, 1861)
Azalea elegans. Pink. Described by Summer as
"Graceful." (1860, 1861)
Azalea glauca. Red flowers, glaucus leaves. (1860,
1861)
8
Azalea grandiflora. White, shaded rose . Described by
Summer as "Superb . " (1860, 1861, Ledgers)
Azalea indica [indicum] . Indian azalea. Ledgers.
Azalea indica alba [mucronatum] . Indian, whiteflowering
azalea . Described by Summer as "Fine . "
(1860, 1861)
Azalea mundiflora. Bright rose . Described by Summer
as "Fine." (1860, 1861)
Azalea pontica . "Pontic azalea . " Yellow, shaded white
and pink . (1853, 1860, 1861, Ledgers)
Azalea purpurescens . Purple . (1860, 1861)
Azalea tricolor. Red, pink, and purplish . (1860, 1861)
Azalea vitatura [vitata] . Purple striped [purple striped
form of Rhododendron simsii] (1860, 1861)
It should be noted by way of aside, that Summer,
unlike Berckmans, also sold what he called the native
"American Azalea . " Of these plants, Summer wrote in
1860: "The flowers are considered among the finest in the
spring; all are perfectly hardy, and grow best in moist and
shaded places . These flowers are of almost every color ."
Their cost, like his exotic azaleas was $I . Summer always
listed his "American Azaleas" prominently ahead of his
foreign ones, thus in keeping with his enlightened
philosophy that gardeners should not forget the natives in
a mad rush to acquire the new, rare, and foreign . His
catalogues demonstrated this philosophy with its offerings
as early as 1853 of the native Florida Torreya taxifolia, the
native Stewartia "marylandica," yellow-wood, California
redwood, devil's walking stick, Carolina silverbell,
Kentucky coffee tree, etc.
One significant particular orderer from the stock of
azaleas at Pomaria Nurseries was the Reverend John G.
Drayton, creator of the famous Magnolia Gardens on the
Ashley River outside Charleston — a garden known
worldwide today for its profusion of azaleas . Drayton and
Summer were good plantsman friends . Three of the azalea
varieties listed above are known to be among Drayton's
earliest plantings of azaleas at Magnolia . These were the
Azalea vitata, A . indica alba (Rhododendron mucronatum),
and A. coccinea . It seems unlikely that Drayton,
considering his passion for azaleas and his patronage of
Pomaria, had not planted all the varieties on our list at
Magnolia by 1861.
Magnolia Gardens is also justly celebrated for its
camellias . While camellias are known to have been planted
at both Middleton Place and Magnolia long before
Summer's time, it is interesting to note that in the
Pomaria Nurseries Catalogue of 1860-61, William
Summer listed an offering of fifty-four varieties of
continued on page 9 . ..

Antebellum Azalea and
Camellia Varieties in
Southern Gardens . ..
continued from page 8
camellias "selected with greatest care from the best
collections in France . " The plants are said to be from two to
three feet tall and in full bud, and " will bloom freely in
February and March." That Summer had chosen all lateseason
bloomers suggests that he had his Upcountry patrons
in mind, and that he, unlike most of the nurserymen of his
day (except on the immediate coast), was suggesting
cultivation outside the greenhouse, and was making such
cultivation possible with late season bloomers. Similarly,
Thomas Learmont's Columbia nursery catalogue of 1860
noted that "the late sorts are the best for open culture, "
although " not often seen out of a greenhouse . " The wise
advice to outside growers today is still to plant camellias
that are the earliest and latest bloomers.
In the 1860-61 Pomaria Catalogue, we find this list of
late-blooming camellias at a price of from two to three
dollars, which translates to approximately forty to sixty
dollars in today's currency. The descriptions are from the
catalogue .
The first camellia print — from volume II of a Natural History of Birds,
published December 1745 by B. Edwards showing a Chinese peacock
pheasant perched on a camellia branch.
9
Adrian Lebrum — Imbricated, fine rose color.
Agnesii — Very fine rose, imbricated.
Alba Imbricata Novo — Imbricated white, very fine.
Althaeflora — Dark red, superb.
Amalthea — Imbricated deep red, large flower.
Archduchesse Augusta — Imbricated, deep red,
striped white.
Arista — Imbricated red with white striped.
Augustina Superba — Imbricated red, very fine.
Baltimore — Imbricated white striped rose.
Benyii [Binneyii] — Imbricated crimson, white striped.
Bikolu — Cherry color, white striped, imbricated.
Blackburniana — Red, very fine flower.
Brooklyniana — Imbricated, red purple, striped white.
Compte de Paris — Imbricated, crimson, mottled.
Comtesse de Negro — Brilliant rose, striped.
De la Reine — Imbricated white, fine.
Donckelari — Red, spotted white.
Drouard Gouillon — Peony flowered, white, large.
Duchesse de Orleans — Rosy white, carmine spotted.
Elphistone — Deep rose, beautiful.
Emilia Congrioni — Imbricated white, handsome.
Eximani [Eximia?] — Imbricated white, very fine.
Fimbriated Alba — Imbricated white fringe petals.
Forbesii — Imbricated cherry, beautiful.
General Washington — Imbricated white, shaded,
and striped.
Grand Frederic — Imbricated rose, spotted white.
Halleyi — Imbricated brilliant crimson.
Imbricata Alba — Imbricated white, shaded rose.
Imperalsii [Imperialis or Imperator?] — Deep red,
shaded.
Le Signora di Monja — Fine rose, beautiful.
Latifolia Rosea — Peony flowered, deep rose.
Lawrenciana Americana — Red, spotted white.
Leana Superba — Rose imbricated, fine.
Manetti — Globular, full flower.
Manzoni — Beautiful, fine rose.
Maria Theresa — Imbricated white, striped rose.
Mazuihelli Cherry Rose — Cherry rose, large flower.
Monteroni — Spirated, red, fine.
Mrs. Gunnell — White, beautiful.
Orfera [Oleifera?] — Imbricated white.
Parnii — Light rose, streaked red.
Picturatata [Punctata?] — Peony flowered, white,
spotted carmine.
Queen Victoria — Imbricated red, streaked white.
Reine des Fleurs — Imbricated, red, beautiful.
Rosea Sinensis — Rose, very large, and fine.
continued on page 11.

In Print
JAMES EVERETT KIBLER
Our Fathers' Fields A Southern Story. James Everett Kibler.
University of South Carolina Press . 352 pages.
ISBN 1- 57003-214-9. $29 .95.
James Kibler—scholar, teacher, and poet—has been a
member of the Southern Garden History Society for many
years, and a regular contributor to Magnolia (including an
article in the current issue) . In this remarkable book, Kibler
describes his personal efforts to restore a dilapidated South
Carolina plantation and, in so doing, his unearthing of an
incredible tale of the land and the people who had lived on it.
As he refurbished the Great House and restored its nineteenthcentury
garden, he faithfully took part in an act of cultural
reclamation, piecing together the story of the Hardy family,
who purchased the tract along the Tyger River in 1786 and
farmed it for two centuries . Part epic, part history, part
memoir, the resulting story is a comprehensive, ambitious, and
eminently readable chronicle that spans six generations of this
Southern family.
Interwoven with the life stories of the Hardys is the
exploration of a plantation that became one of the most
valuable farms in the South . Kibler explores its natural history,
including its sophisticated formal garden and its once
staggering array of animals and native plants — many of which
have all but vanished from Southern soil . Of particular interest
to members of the Southern Garden History Society is Kibler 's
chapter on garden restoration using the Pomaria ledgers and
catalogues. Recounting his own efforts to recapture the
plantation's former glory and the rewards of a life lived close to
the land, Kibler concludes that only by knowing a place can we
guard against its abuse.
Compared by critics to the writings of Wendell Berry and
James Agee, this richly detailed narrative offers a vivid portrayal
10
of the antebellum South, a compelling collection of Civil War
letters, and a poignant account of life after the War . Noted
Civil War historian and commentator Shelby Foote describes
Kibler's book as follows : "This 200-year history of a South
Carolina plantation family — seen from the inside, so to speak.
in letters and ledgers and the comments of descendants
brings us home to who we are by showing us where we came
from. Kibler has researched and presented an overall account
that resonates for all of us in the very core of our being . "
The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello : Thomas Jefferson
and the Origins of American Horticulture, by Peter J.
Hatch. University Press of Virginia . Hardcover, 288 pages.
ISBN 0-8139-1746-8 . $39 .95.
Since 1982 Jefferson 's fruit plantings have been gradually
and painstakingly re-created at Monticello . This lavishly
illustrated book by SGHS vice president Peter Hatch is not
only a detailed history of Jefferson 's gardens and their recreation
but a virtual encyclopedia of early American
pomology . Jefferson 's fruitery was unique in being both an Old
World fruit garden and a colonial farm orchard . His
horticultural vision was far-reaching in scope and characteristically
ahead of its time . The history of fruit growing at
Monticello is a reflection of Jefferson's spirit : expansive,
optimistic, epicurean, innocent, and altogether American . The
story of Jefferson's struggle to produce a useful and ornamental
garden on a grand scale makes for fascinating reading . For
information on availability, call (804) 984-9821.
THE FRUITS AND NUTS TREES OF MONTICELLO
Gardens and Gardening in the Chesapeake, 1700-1805.
Barbara Wells Sarudy . John Hopkins University Press.
Available in June. [more information in upcoming issue of
Magnolia.] +

Antebellum Azalea and
Camellia Varieties in
Southern Gardens . ..
continued from page 9
Sassanguea Rosa — Small flower, rose, beautiful.
Spofortiana — White, streaked crimson.
Troneilli — Crimson, white spotted.
Triphosa — Peony flowered, rose color.
Variegata — Rose, spotted white.
Viscounte Nova Rosea — Double, imbricated, streaked
carmine.
Walitohii — Imbricated carmine.
Wodosia [Woodsii?] — Imbricated rose, very large
flowered
Only eight entries on this list are immediately
recognizable as varieties grown today . Although not listed
in the American Camellia Society ' s Camellia Nomenclature,
the varieties Althaeflora and Latifolia still being sold under
these names in South Carolina and Georgia . 'Fimbriata
Alba ' is undoubtedly the 'Alba Fimbriata ' that came from
China of 'Albato
England in 1816, a fringed white sport
Plena' (from China in 1792) . 'Donckelari ' came from
China to Belgium in 1834. Interestingly, a famous variant
strain of this variety is ' Middleton #15' . ' De la Reine ' is
likely 'La Reine ' . ' Reine des Fleurs ' and 'Brooklyniana ' still
appear under their names . The ' Sassanguea Rosa ' ( "Small
flower " ) is likely the Camellia sasanqua species. It is
important to find that the pink Sasanqua was thus available
to the antebellum Southern gardener . Pomaria ' s ' Duchesse
de Orleans ', described as a rosy white with pink spots,
bears resemblance to both 'Duc d 'Orleans ' and ' Duchess of
Sutherland', the latter a mid-to-late-season bloomer with
white flowers blotched pink, and said to be a product of
Magnolia Gardens in the late 1800s . Similarly, Pomaria ' s
Rosa sinensis (described as " Rose, very large ") may be Rosa
superba (described also "Rose, very large " in Camellia
Nomenclature) and said to have come from Europe to
America in 1890 . May it not actually have been returning?
Annual Membership Dues
Benefactor $250 joint/husband-wife $30
Patron $150 Individual $20
Sustainer $75 Student $5
Institution/Business $30
Life membership $1,000 (one time)
The membership year runs from May 1st to April 30th.
Members joining after January 1st will be credited for the coming
year beginning May 1st. Write to membership secretary at:
Southern Garden History Society, Old Salem, Inc ., Drawer F,
Salem Station, Winston—Salem, North Carolina 27108.
phone (910) 721-7328 .
11
Kempfer's
Amoenitatum
illustration od C. japonica. From Kempfer's `
Exoticarum, p . 851 . 1712.
Whether or not these other " French " varieties have
common modern names, or may in fact be some of the
unnamed varieties found in our old Southern gardens,
might be worth some future exploration and research. +

Symposium on
Shipman Held at
Duke University
"Gardens Past and Present : The Legacy of Ellen Biddle
Shipman " was held March 27th-29th at Duke University in
Durham, North Carolina, and was sponsored by The Sarah
P. Duke Gardens and the Duke Alumni Association . Mrs.
Shipman, a foremost landscape architect of her day, designed
the Terraces of the Duke Gardens in 1938-39, which are one
of the few Shipman-designed gardens still intact.
SGHS member Judith B . Tankard, author of The Gardens
of Ellen Biddle Shipman (1996), gave the keynote address.
Mac Griswold spoke on "The Role of Women Landscape
Architects in the Context of the Country Place Era . " Other
SGHS members on the program were John T . Fitzpatrick,
on " Negotiating the Rapids of Garden Preservation ; " Richard
Hartlage, who discussed the Shipman planting design for the
Terraces and later toured symposium members through
them; Elizabeth F . Buford, on "The Sarah P . Duke
Gardens—A North Carolina Legacy ; " and Taimi T.
Anderson, symposium coordinator .
Dr. William C . Welch, President Editor:
Peter J . Hatch, Vice-President Peggy Cornett
Flora Ann Bynum, Secretary-Treasurer Monticello, P .O .B. 316
Charlottesville, VA 22902
(804) 984-9816
Magnolia grandiflora reproduced by courtesy of Rare Book Division,
Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library . Fax (804) 977-6140
e-mail : pcornett@monticello .org
Southern Garden History Society
Old Salem, Inc.
Drawer F, Salem Station
Winston-Salem, NC 27108
Deadline 30th for the submission of articles for the summer issue of Magnolia isJune
On Sunday morning the group went from Durham to
Reynolda House and Gardens in Winston-Salem where
SGHS member Sherold Hollingworth outlined the
restoration-in-progress of Reynolda Gardens of Wake Forest
University . The group then visited the formal garden of the
President's House of Wake Forest, which was designed by
Mrs. Shipman for
Mr. and Mrs . Ralph
Hanes.
The symposium
was held in
conjunction with
the opening of an
exhibit on "the
Gardens of Ellen
Biddle Shipman" at
the Duke University
Museum of Art. The
exhibit was to run
through May 24th . +
Associate Editor:
Kenneth M . McFarland
Historic Stagville , P .O .B. 71217
Durham, NC 27722-1217
(919) 620-0120
Fax (919) 620-0422
e-mail : stagvill@sprynet.com
FIRST CLASS
US POSTAGE
PAID
Charlottesville, VA
Permit No. 345

Magnolia grandiflora
The Laurel Tree of Carolina
Catesby's Natural History . 1743
Bulletin of the
Southern Garden
History Society
Vol. XIV No. 2 Summer 1998
"Mountain Heritage: Biltmore Estate and
the Blue Ridge"
Southern Garden
History Society
Sixteenth
Annual Meeting
Mountain Heritage:
Biltmore Estate & the Blue Ridge
May29-31,1998
Asheville, North Carolina
T he sixteenth annual meeting of the Southern
Garden History Society took participants to
the heart of the magnificent Blue Ridge mountains
from May 29'' through 31' . The meeting,
headquartered at the Radisson Hotel in downtown
Asheville and adjacent to the home of Thomas Wolfe,
focused on the palatial Biltmore Estate and the design
legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted . Conference
coordinator William E . Alexander, landscape curator
of Biltmore, assembled an impressive program . which
focused on the history, restoration, and care of this
property. The meeting began with Bill Alexander ' s
overview of the history of the estate, " Frederick Law
Olmsted 's Landscape Masterpiece . " His slide
presentation was enhanced by Biltmore 's archive of
historic photographs of the construction of George
W. Vanderbilt's home and the development of his
landscape. [Many of these historic photos were
included in the handsomely produced conference
booklet of speakers and article .] Then, attendees were
treated to an afternoon in the gardens at Biltmore.
Beginning with the Italian Garden, with its formal
parterres and fountains, members descended through
the " Ramble " or Shrub Garden of unusual native and
exotic specimen trees and shrubs . Then participants
walked through the famed Walled Garden, designed
by Olmsted in 1892 as a kitchen garden, but changed
to reflect Vanderbilt's desire for "a garden of
ornament rather than utility . " In addition to the
perennials and annuals, the lower half of the garden
contains more than 3,000 roses consisting of over 200
varieties, including most of the roses recognized by
the All American Rose Society . Descending from the
Conservatory, which stands at the end of the Walled
Garden, the landscape flows into the Spring or Vernal
Garden and then to the Azalea Garden or Glen.
The Glen is an area that has undergone a great
deal of change over the years since it was first
envisioned by Olmsted . After the influence of the
Olmsted firm had dwindled, Chancey Delos Beadle,
Continued on page 3 . . .
Inside
this
Issue
Page 4
Page 6
Page 8
Page 10
The Gardens at Biltmore Estate — Restoration of the Historic Landscape
Spring Meeting of SGHS Board in Asheville
Study Gardens of Noisette Roses to be Planted in Fall 1998 for the
9th International Heritage Rose Conference
Two Exhibitions and a Book
Page 14 Preserving Jefferson 's Gardens and Landscapes

Now through October 24th, 1998 . "A Woman's Touch:
Rose Ishbel Greely's Landscape Architecture in
Washington, DC, " sponsored by The Historical Society
of Washington, DC in the Patterson Gallery. Focused on
the legacy of one of Washington's first female landscape
architects, the exhibit features drawings and photographs
of many of the gardens that Greely designed in the metro
area from 1923 through 1956 . SGHS member Joanne
Lawson is guest curator for the exhibition. For more
information, contact The Historical Society at 1307 New
Hampshire Avenue, NW, Washington, DC ; (202) 785-
2068 . [Ms. Lawson is currently conducting a survey of
historic Texas landscapes . See article this issue.]
September 4th -5th, 1998 . "Contemporary Issues in a
Historic Public Garden, " the regional meeting of the
American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta,
co-sponsored by Monticello and the University of
Virginia. This meeting will address the challenge of
sustaining the diverse, and sometimes antithetical, roles of
a historic garden, house museum, college campus,
arboretum, and public garden. Speakers from the
University and from Monticello include Peter Hatch,
Warren Byrd, Will Reiley, Mary Hughes, and Mike Van
Yahres. Tours include the gardens at Monticello, UVa,
and the Morven Estate. For information, write
Monticello, P. O. Box 316, Charlottesville, VA 22902, or
call (804) 984-9816.
October 1st -4th, 1998 . "A Sense of the South, " 1998
Charleston Garden Festival . The festival will pay special
tribute to Charleston 's First Lady of Gardening, Mrs.
Emil' Whaley. Her daughter, Anne Le Clercq, will give
the lecture Mrs. Whaley intended to give in person on
Sunday, October 4th . Exhibitors include internationallyknown
Ryan Gainey, Brookgreen Gardens, and
Riverbank Zoo & Botanical Gardens . Speakers include
garden designer Phillip Watson, garden writers Scott
Ogden and Felder Rushing, University of Georgia
professor Alan Armitage, and Antique Rose Emporium
founder Mike Shoup . For more information call Florence
Crittenton at (843) 722-0661, fax (843) 577-0770,
e-mail: FloCritSC@aol .com
October 10th, 1998. Landmarks Garden Tour of twelve
landmark gardens in Madison, Georgia . Sponsored by the
Morgan County Landmarks Society . Gardens to be open
include Cedar Lane Farm, home of SGHS member Jane
Campbell Symmes ; Brick Cottage, home of Jeanne
Symmes; and historic Boxwood, home of Mr . and Mrs.
Floyd C. Newton Jr. among others . The event will also
include a book reading and signing by SGHS member
Jim Kibler, author of Our Father 's Fields . For further
information contact the Morgan County- Landmarks
Society, PO . Box 248, Madison, GA 30650 or call
(703) 342-0434.
October 15th -17th, 1998 . " Rediscovering Old
Virginia, " Eleventh Annual Symposium on Architectural
History at the University of Virginia. Speakers include
Carl Lounsbury and Edward Chappell of Colonial
Williamsburg and SGHS member C. Allan Brown. For
information call the Department of Architectural History
at (804) 924-1428 or write to the School of Architecture,
Campbell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville,
VA 22903.
March 25th-28th, 1999. "Expect the Unexpected – The
Greener Side of Houston . " The 17th annual meeting of
SGHS. More details to come in future issues.
May 1999. "Bartram 300 : A Gathering, " marking the
birth of John Bartram in 1699 . [See article this issue .] For
information, contact Nancy E . Hoffmann, Ph .D .,
Symposium Chair, c/o Historic Bartram 's Garden,
54t h St. and Lindbergh Blvd ., Philadelphia, PA 19143;
phone (215) 729-5281, fax (215) 729-1047 ; e-mail:
bartram@libertynet.org
September 30th -October 1st, 1999 . " Plans and Plants
of the Southern Landscape" has been selected for the
theme of the twelfth biennial Restoring Southern Gardens
and Landscapes conference at Old Salem . It is hoped that
the development of this theme will help those involved in
landscape restoration by providing historic plans,
documents, and plant lists that can be useful as
guidelines . The conference committee is seeking papers
on this topic. SGHS members who have research material
on gardens and landscapes in the South, especially
material that has not been published, are encouraged to
contact the landscape conference coordinator, Kay
Bergey, Old Salem, Inc ., Salem Station, Winston-Salem,
NC 27108.
October 14th -18th, 2001 . 9`'' International Heritage
Rose Conference in Charleston, South Carolina . [See
article this issue.] Contact Charleston Area Convention
and Visitors Bureau, P O . Box 975, Charleston, SC
29402, (803) 853-8000 .

'Mountain Heritage: Biltmore
Estate and the Blue Ridge , .
Continued from
page 1
The Rose Garden and Conservatory (circa I 930s)
superintendent of the Landscape Department, fostered and
transformed the Glen into the garden it is today. Beadle
planted many conifers from the Biltmore nursery in the Glen,
adding an evergreen character to the largely deciduous earlier
design . To this framework he added many other varieties of
trees and shrubs over the years—many of which he collected
from his travels . For a decade and a half, from 1930 to 1945,
Beadle. along with two nurserymen friends, William A . Knight
and Frank W. Creighton, and Beadle's trusted chauffeur and
assistant, Sylvester Owens, made numerous excursions
throughout the eastern and southeastern United Stares
searching for and collecting many species of native plants.
Particularly intriguing to Beadle and his friends were the many
species and natural hybrid forms of the native deciduous
azaleas. The "Azalea Hunters, " a name they coined for
themsel ves, searched for and collected virtually every form and
color variation of these azaleas wherever they could find them.
Beadle believed them to he the finest American shrubs and, in
1940, carefully he gave his collection to Biltmore Estate and
planted them in beds throughout the Glen . Today, Beadle's
collection is recognized as one of the most complete collections
of native azaleas in existence.
The afternoon ended with a look at the nursery and sales
area, which continues to propagate from the plant species
found on the estate . That evening meeting participants
returned to Biltmore for a reception and dinner at the estate 's
Deerpark Restaurant . The night concluded with extensive
private tours of the mansion, which lasted until well past 1 1 :00
p .m . Seeing the mansion by candlelight and the grounds by
moonlight was truly a rare and magical experience . The
following morning Bill Alexander spoke again on current
landscape preser vation philosophies and the forestry at
Biltmore, followed by two members of his staff, Terry Stalcup
and Suzanne Habel, who addressed "The Best of the Old and
the Best of the New : Plant Selection for Landscape
Restoration " and "A Garden of Ornament . Not Utility . " Their
lectures served to embellish the gardens and grounds tours of
the previous day. Stephen P . Miller . senior vice president of
The Biltmore Company, rounded out the morning by detailing
the Landmark business of "Preserving a National Historic
Through Private Enterprise . " The meetings locus shifted to
the surrounding countryside by Saturday afternoon, when
participants were bused to the Folk Art Center on the Blue
Ridge Parkway . There Carbon Abbott, one of the key designers
of the Parkway, spoke on "The Sto ry Behind the Scenery . "
followed by Forrest MacGregor of the American Chestnut
Foundation, on "Recovering the American Chestnut . " The day
concluded with bus tours to various points along the Parkway,
culminating with an evening of festivities at the Taylor Ranch.
complete with wagon rides, horse shoes, and raucous square
dancing . Many participants took part in the optional tours on
Sunday, which took in the North Carolina Arboretum and the
Continued on page 16 . . .
The present day Wal led Garden with roses at the Biltmore Estate .

The Gardens of the Biltmore Estate- Restoration of the Historic Landscape
by William E . Alexander, Landscape Curator,
Biltmore Estate
he extensive gardens (approximately forty acres) of
T Biltmore Estate comprise the greater part of " the
Home Grounds " as designed in the 1890s by
Frederick Law Olmsted, father of landscape architecture in
America, for George W . Vanderbilt to surround his
Biltmore House near Asheville, North Carolina . The house,
a 250-room French Renaissance chateau, was the
masterpiece of noted architect, Richard Morris Hunt . Both
the house and the landscape were the last and largest private
works undertaken by these great American designers in
their respective careers. Their collaborative efforts resulted
in a challenging and unique project, the likes of which have
been unequaled in North America, and perhaps the world.
The house and gardens were created in the midst of nearly
eight thousand acres of cut-over, eroded and over-farmed
land, which Olmsted and Vanderbilt transformed into a
Biltmore Estate was the result of collaboration among three talented men:
Richard Morris Hunt (standing, second from left), George Vanderbilt
(standing, right), and Frederick Lau, Olmsted (sitting, center)
state-of-the-art farm and a model, scientifically managed
forest, the first of its kind in America . Upon completion of
the estate, miles of scenic carriage drives led through the
improved and managed woodlands, extensive open
Olmsted's plan ofthe "Home Grounds "
parklands, by tranquil lakes and flowing streams, and by
lush pastures with herds of cattle and sheep.
Recognizing the extreme significance and historical
value of Biltmore's landscape, The Biltmore Company has
undertaken the responsibility of and is dedicated to its
preservation, restoration, and maintenance for future
generations to enjoy. Now a century old, the landscape has
matured, and in some cases, has begun to decline or
deteriorate . In many ways, the preservation and restoration
of this mature landscape presents greater challenges than
Olmsted faced in its establishment. Plants, being living
things, eventually weaken and succumb to environmental
conditions such as drought, insects and diseases, wind and
ice damage, lightning, atmospheric pollutants, or simply
old age, and thus cannot be preserved forever . Although
individual trees and shrubs cannot be preserved, the
integrity and continuity of the landscape design can be.
The secret of successful preservation and perpetuation of a
landscape is succession planting, that is, periodic planting
at staggered intervals over a long period of time . In
actuality, this process will never end and is much the same
as nature renews and perpetuates the wild landscape . We
have established a nursery and are propagating most of the
trees and shrubs that are needed for replacement planting.
Several hundred trees are being planted in the landscape
annually, not counting thousands of forest seedlings.
continued on page 5 . . .

The Gardens at Biltmore Estate —
Restoration of the Historic
Landscape . . .
continued from page
4
Plantings are not the only feature of the landscape that
need preserving or restoring. Ponds and lakes eventually
become silted over if not dredged or cleaned out . Stream
banks erode and need repair . Other features, known as
landscape hardworks, deteriorate and also need restoration
work . Some projects completed already include : repair of
the brick walls on the Rampe Douce, restoration of the
pool and fountain on the Front Lawn, resurfacing of the
Italian Garden pools, and replacement of the irrigation
systems in the garden.
Restoration must also take into consideration layers of
landscape additions or design changes over the decades . It
would he difficult, if not unrealistic, to honor only
Olmsted ' s proposed design and not to consider the wishes
of Vanderbilt that were incorporated or the sixty years of
influence and changes made by Chauncey Delos Beadle.
It also would be ridiculous to replant species that have
not proven hardy, or those particularly vulnerable to major
attacks from insects and disease and thus requiring an
unreasonable amount of maintenance, or those that have
become invasive in the landscape.
The estate is no longer the private country retreat of a
gentleman and is family, but an attraction visited by more
than 800,000 people annually . Modern needs, such as
restrooms, food services, parking lots, handrails, etc . must
be met and incorporated into the landscape in a manner
that is sensitive to the environment . Lastly, restoration is
expensive, and can only proceed as fast as funds allow . At
any rate, all efforts are being made to keep the estate
grounds as historically accurate as is possible and reasonable
. . . always having regard for the spirit of Olmsted 's concepts,
while at the same time meeting the needs of a new and
growing audience. +
Biltmore House "Home Grounds" upon completion (circa 1896)
Survey of Historic
Texas Landscapes
A survey of Historic Texas Landscapes (1836-19861 is
now being planned under the direction of three Texas
natives : Sadie Gwin Blackburn, past president of the
Garden Club of America and co-author of Houston 's
Forgotten Heritage ; Susan Booth Keeton, chair of the
Bayou Bend Gardens Advisory Committee and a board
member of the Rice Design Alliance : and Joanne Seale
Lawson, a practicing landscape designer and architectural
historian who is the author of the Gardener's Guide
calendar series and a board member of the Friends of the
National Arboretum.
Research for the survey is funded through Bayou
Bend, one of Texas' outstanding public gardens . The
published report will identify a wide ran ge of designed
Texas landscapes, ranging from private estates and
heritage ranches or farms to public parks, campuses, and
institutional sites . The survey will provide valuable
material for education programs, as well as assist the
preservation planning efforts of federal, state, and local
groups . The results of the survey will also be incorporated
in The Catalog of Landscape Records in the United States.
Among the members of the advisory board for this
ambitious endeavor are the Alliance for Historic
Landscape Preservation, Bayou Bend Gardens, Houston ' s
Museum of Fine Arts, the Garden Conservancy, the
National Park Service, The National Parks and
Conservation Association, The Nature Conservancy of
Texas, The Texas Historical Commission, The Texas
Historical Society, The Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department, The Townscape Institute, and members of
the faculty of Baylor University, Louisiana State
University, Rice University, Texas A&M, and the
University of Houston.
Anyone with information about significant Texas
landscapes is encouraged to write or call for a survey form
to : The Survey of Historic Texas Landscapes (1836-1986),
2640 Fountainview, Suite 204, Houston, TX 77057-7606;
phone (713) 975-6614, fax (713) 975-1709,
e-mail : TexSurvey@aol .com . +
Corrections : The volume number for the Spring 1998 issue
of Magnolia was printed incorrectly. The correct citation
should be Vol . XIV, No. 1, 1998.
The photo credit for the picture of the board members in
Tallahassee, printed in the Winter issue, Vol . XIII, No . 4,
1998 should be "Joseph Marianno ."

Spring Meeting of
SGHS Board in
Asheville
reported Secretary- by Flora Treasurer Ann Bynum,
Peter J . Hatch . Monticello 's director of gardens and
P grounds, in Charlottesville, Virginia, was elected
president of the Southern Garden History Society for a twoyear
term at the annual business meeting in Asheville, North
Carolina . Kenneth NI . McFarland, sire manager of Historic
Stagville. in Durham, North Carolina, was elected vicepresident,
and Flora Ann L . Bynum of Winston-Salem,
North Carolina, was re-elected secretary-treasurer.
New members elected to the board are James R . Cothran
of Atlanta, Georgia ; Gail Griffin of Dumbarton Oaks in
Washington, DC ; Davyd Foard Hood of Vale, North
Carolina ; and Larry Paarlberg of Goodwood Museum
Gardens in Tallahassee, Florida . Elected for a second term are
lames I. Barganier of Montgomery, Alabama ; Nancy F.
Haywood of Houston, Texas; Ken McFarland; and J . Dean
Norton of Mount Vernon . Virginia.
From left to right : Ken McFarland (front), Peggy Cornett, Alan;
Carleton Wood and Perry Mathewes at the Biltmore Estate.
Nancy Haywood announced plans for the 1999 meeting
in Houston, " Expect the Unexpected— The Greener Side of
Houston," to he held March 25 - 28' . The hoard voted to
accept an invitation for the 2001 meeting from Carleton
Wood of Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens in New
Bern, North Carolina . The year 2000 meeting has been set
for Mount Vernon, with Dean Norton as host .
6
Dr. William C . Welch reported to the hoard that the
publication of Nouveau Jardinier by Louisiana State
University Press was moving ahead under the sponsorship of
the society . The small booklet is an early publication on
gardening in New Orleans, and is considered an important
early source of information on French gardens in America.
Sally Reeves of New Orleans is editor of the publication for
the society.
Dr. Welch appointed a steering committee to present a
"major proposal " for a plant list for the South to the fall
board meeting . On the committee are Ben G . Page, Jr ., of
Nashville, Tennessee serving as chair ; Peggy L. Cornett of
Monticello ; Gordon W . Chappell of Williamsburg, Virginia;
NIr. Hatch : and Mrs . Bynum.
A committee composed of Ms. Cornett, Dr. Elizabeth
M . Boggess of Natchez, Mississippi, Harrier Jansma of
Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Mr . McFarland was appointed to
annotate the index of Magnolia for future publication.
At the annual business meeting before the members Mrs.
Bynum, on behalf of the society, thanked Dr . Welch of
College Station, Texas, for "his splendid leadership and the
mans' contributions he had made to the society " during his
two-year term as president . The society also extended special
thanks to William Alexander of the Biltmore Estate and
Gardens for organizing such an outstanding annual meeting
in Asheville . Also during the business meeting, Fletch Coke
of Nashville showed slides of the recent tornado damage to
hundreds of trees at the Hermitage in Nashville . Patti McGee
of Charleston, South Carolina outlined plans for the
International Heritage Rose Conference in Charleston in
October 2001 . +
Flora Ann Bynum and Gail Griffin on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Symposium and
Franklinia Census to
Commemorate Bartram
300 Celebration
T
he 300th anniversary of the birth of America 's first
botanist, John Bartram, takes place in 1999, and to
commemorate this momentous event, the Bartram 300
celebration will honor America's first botanist with a
symposium in May 1999, organized by the Academy of Natural
Sciences, American Philosophical Society, Historic Bartram ' s
Garden, Library Company of Philadelphia, Philadelphia
Botanical Club, and Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
The symposium,
"Bartram 300 : A
Gathering, " will focus
on John Bartram's
eighteenth-century
world of science, his
trips of exploration
throughout the
colonies, and his
contemporary legacy.
The symposium will be
organized into three
panels . The first will
explore Bartram as a
scientist and the
context of his ideas
within the eighteenthcentury
scientific world,
and his friendship and
correspondence with
other Quakers,
scientists, and botanists.
The second panel will
"The botanist." from Howard Pyle,
"Ba rtram and his garden "
examine colonial
expeditions and
Bartram 's forays into a
broader, natural world . The third panel will focus on John
Bartram 's continuing legacies in horticulture, botany,
environmentalism, and preservation . A goal of the symposium
is to publish the proceedings.
John Bartram 's scientific interests led him to explore his
native Pennsylvania and to take several extensive trips of
exploration to the North and South into almost unknown
territories . While principally looking for plants in his role as
Royal Botanist, John Bartram made observations on animals,
soils, birds, and climate, developing his own ideas about
relationships in the natural world . Some of his ideas challenged
established science, and man e of his ideas were exchanged with
other colonials on visits or in correspondence . As a founder of
the American Philosophical Society with Benjamin Franklin.
John Bartram was at the center of early scientific activity in this
country, and was also recognized in England and by Linnaeus
as its most eminent botanist . His interests were passed on in his
family to his children who continued the culture of special
species of plants in their father ' s botanical garden, and made
their living in horticulture, and especially to his son William,
who wrote of his own travels along the routes he learned from
his father.
Paper proposals for this symposium arc still being
accepted. They should be 200 words in length, and submitted
by September 15th, 1998 to : Nancy E . Hoffmann, Ph.D..,
Symposium Chair, c/o Historic Bartram 's Garden, 54th St.
and Lindbergh Blvd., Philadelphia, PA 19143 ; telephone (2151
729-5281, fax (215) 729-1047, e-mail:
bartram@libertynet.org.
Historic Bartram 's Garden in Philadelphia is also
commemorating the Bartram 300 celebration by conducting a
first-ever census of Bartram 's most famous discovery, the
exquisite Franklinia alatamaha tree.
Bartram and his son, William, found a small grove of this
unknown tree along the Altamaha River in Georgia in 1765.
On a later trip, William brought seeds back to propagate in
their botanical garden . It was named Franklinia in honor of
John Bartram 's great friend, Benjamin Franklin.
The tree was never seen in the wild after 1803, but
fortunately, because of the Bartram ' s, Franklinia's still do exist.
All trees growing today are descended from those propagated
by the Bartram 's, who are credited with saving it from
extinction .
There are several Franklinas growing at Historic Bartram ' s
Garden, but no one has ever attempted to track down the
locations of others . The Franklinia Census will help determine
how far north and west the tree grows, where in other parts of
the world it is found, how big can it get, how long can it live,
and more. The census is aimed at determining Franklinia
locations in both public and private gardens . While not a
scientific survey, it will lay the groundwork for future study.
Respondents will receive a Franklinia magnet and be
entered in a "Franklinia Olympics . " Ongoing census results
will be published on the Historic Bartram 's Garden web page
(www.libertynet.org/-bartram) . The final results will be posted
on the web site at the Academy of Natural Sciences in
Philadelphia, a living history festival at Historic Bartram 's
Garden, a lecture series, a community greening project, an
educational contest and a Bartram family reunion . For
information or to receive a census form write : Historic
Bartram 's Garden, 54''' Street & Lindbergh Boulevard,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19143 ; (215) 729-5281 . +

Study Gardens of
Noisette Roses to be
Planted in Fall 1998
for the 9th International
Heritage Rose Conference
by John T. Fitzpatrick, Ithaca, New York
S
several hundred plants of the heirloom rose class
known as Noisette roses will be planted out in a
study plot near Charleston beginning this November.
Noisette roses, little known today, originated at
Charleston about 1810 . They have never before been
assembled for scientific study . The study has two
objectives. Evaluations of the garden performance of the
roses will identify the most desirable varieties for different
purposes . Careful comparison of the plants will clear up
uncertainty over some variety names.
The Noisette Rose Study Project is one of the
programs connected with the International Heritage
Rosa moschata 'Nastarana .' Illustration by Leonia Bell from The
Fragrant Year, 196 7.
S
Rose Conference, to be held at Charleston from October
14" through 18 2001 . An estimated three hundred
fanciers of old roses, both professional and amateur, are
expected to travel to the city from around the world to
attend the program . Recent venues for the conference
have included New Zealand, Australia, California,
England, and, coming up in 1999, Lyon, France.
The first Noisette Rose originated about 1810 in the
Charleston garden of John Champneys. a plantation
Champneys
owner. His rose, which came to be called '
Pink Cluster', resulted from cross-pollination of the
ancient Chinese garden rose, 'Parson's Pink China', by the
Musk Rose, Rost moschata . The variety was a popular
novelty because of its large clusters of flowers (sometimes
as many as one hundred in a pyramidal raceme) and
because of its tendency to bloom repeatedly through the
summer and fall, a rare habit among roses of that time.
Subsequent breeding and selection expanded
'Champneys Pink Cluster ' into an entire class of roses that
were popular in gardens around the world by the 1840s . A
Champneys neighbor, Philippe Noisette, sent plants and
seedlings of 'Champneys Pink Cluster ' to his brother
Louis, a French nurseryman . The Noisette nursery had
great success in breeding and introducing improved
varieties of the class, so that they came to be known as
Noisette roses . This early hybrid group was important to
the breeding of later types of roses, including Hybrid
Perpetuals, Teas, and Hybrid Teas.
Last fall, an enthusiastic volunteer team began
planting a Noisette Rose Trail throughout the city of
Charleston. As the roses grow and mature into longblooming
shrubs and climbers, they will become a
permanent addition to the city's greenery . A brochure is
planned to lead people on a walking tour along the trail.
Three plants each of approximately eighty varieties of
Noisette roses will be planted in the study plot, which is
scheduled to be maintained through 2002 . Volunteers will
plant and care for the roses and, starting in September
2000, will evaluate them . The project is being overseen by
local rosarian Ruth Knopf and John Fitzpatrick, a Cornell
University graduate student and former director of
Monticello 's Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants.
The roses will be evaluated for amount and size of
bloom, fragrance, color, susceptibility to disease, vigor,
plant size, and other characteristics . A taxonomic study of
the plants is expected to provide variety names for some of
the "found " Noisette roses and to uncover any duplicate
names of varieties in commerce . In a further effort at
understanding the Noisettes, the study plants will be
continued on page 9. ..

Study Gardens o f Noisette Roses
to be Planted in Fall 1998 for
the 9` International Heritage
Rose Conference . . .
continued from page 8
compared with historic descriptions and illustrations.
Fitzpatrick will present preliminary Study Project
findings to the 9" . International Heritage Rose Conference
and a final report is planned for publication two years later.
Photographs and pressed specimens of the roses will be
prepared to document the study and to provide a reference
collection for any future studies.
Donations of plants for the study are now being
solicited from individuals and nurseries . Of particular
interest are Noisette-type roses that have been found at old
gardens and cemeteries . To donate plants or to volunteer for
the Study Project, write to John Fitzpatrick at 322 Titus
Avenue, Ithaca, NY 14850, or telephone (607) 256-7454.
For more information on the conference, write the
Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau,
P. O. Box 975, Charleston, SC 29402, or telephone
(843) 805-3088 . +
Hermitage Recovers from
Brutal Tornado
he Hermitage, home of President Andrew Jackson,
T was devastated by a tornado this past spring.
Hundreds of trees were lost and the mansion 's roof
and several other historic structures were severely damaged.
The following is a report excerpted from the Ladies '
Hermitage Association newsletter:
A priceless part of Tennessee history was lost April 16`''
as tornadoes swept across the property at The Hermitage,
home of President Andrew Jackson . Hundreds of huge trees
were ripped from their roots and slammed across the
grounds and right up to the front door of the National
Historic Landmark.
The picturesque front lawn was particularly hard hit.
Left toppled in the storm 's wake were dozens of cedar trees
that lined the driveway to the mansion, many of them
planted by Jackson in the 1830s. Also irreplaceable were
three 200-year-old trees : a tulip poplar, a walnut, and the
largest beech tree in Davidson County . A magnolia tree in
the garden crashed into the gate surrounding the tomb of
Andrew and Rachel Jackson, narrowly missing the Greekstyle
monument constructed in 1831 .
9
"We had several hundred visitors on the property, so
we are extremely grateful that we were able to get everyone
to safety, " said Jim Vaughan, executive director of The
Hermitage . " We are also grateful that the Hermitage
mansion is still standing, especially since we just completed
a S2 .5 million restoration project . 1 he mansion was
damaged when a tree fell on the roof and knocked down
one of the chimneys . Also, a tree fell on the smokehouse,
and the roof will have to be replaced . "
After the storm, chain saws had to he used to remove
tree that had fallen in front of the cellar door to the
mansion, releasing about fifty visitors who had weathered
the storm there. Cleanup began immediately with
Hermitage staff working to clear Rachel ' s Lane, the entrance
road to the historic site . Crews had to work sixteen-hour
shifts to clear the historic area and save living trees trapped
under fallen trees.
"We estimate at least 1,000 trees were lost, " said
Vaughan . " Restoring the grounds is vital because the
cultural landscape is as important in telling the story of
Andrew Jackson and early nineteenth-century plantation life
as the mansion.
"We 'll need assistance from across Tennessee and the
country to help with this expensive process . Our insurance
covers removal of the trees we lost, but we will have to raise
lots of money to replace them with new trees . "
If you would like to make a financial contribution to
help "Replant the Past, " please write to : The Hermitage:
Home of President Andrew Jackson, 4580 Rachel's Lane,
Hermitage, TN 37076 . For more information contact
Bunny Blackburn, Development Director at The Hermitage
at (615) 889-2941 . +
Cedar trees planted by Andrew Jackson lie toppled on the front lawn.

Two Exhibitions
and a Book
by Davyd Foard Hood, Isinglass, Vale, North Carolina
frequent visits to Charleston have been a mainstay in
F the travel schedules of many society members ; the
Southern Garden History Society celebrated its tenth
anniversary there in 1992, and Lim Cothran ' s Gardens of
Historic Charleston was reviewed in these pages and stands
on many of our shelves . Charleston ' s rich architectural,
cultural, social, and garden history engages both the
imagination and the intellect, attracting visitors back,
again and again, on trips from which we come away
renewed in our appreciation of a city to which we have
ties, whether or not we were born in the city or state.
Two exhibitions at the Gibbes Museum of Art in
Charleston, one just closing and another to open
September 5''', are further reason to visit . " The Poetry of
Place : Landscapes of Thomas Coram & Charles Fraser "
began its run at the museum in October 1997 but escaped
attention until notice of its extension through August 16''
came our way . Small elegant watercolors of Charleston
and the Low Country by Charles Fraser (1792-1860) are
important records of their time and place, just as his
miniatures record the proud and usually handsome
likenesses of their owners and other citizens of early
nineteenth-century Charleston. This small show,
sympathetically mounted in one of the smaller galleries in
the museum, places Fraser 's works, and those of his
teacher Thomas Coram (1756-1811), a native of Bristol,
England, who came to Charleston in 1769, in the context
of their appreciation for English essayist and painter
William Gilpin and his role in promoting the picturesque
movement ; four of Gilpin 's influential books are displayed
here as are Coram and Fraser 's copies of particular plates
therein . This intimate and jewel-like show was organized
to address those relationships, the influence of the English
picturesque on their artistic development, and to highlight
significant holdings in the Gibbes Museum and other
South Carolina collections . It also reminds the viewer of
the picturesque movement ' s important impact on English
garden design in the eighteenth century and the role of
these small oil and watercolor views in documenting the
gardens and grounds of Charleston and the surrounding
countryside.
The show is almost evenly divided between Coram
and Fraser. Coram 's oil on paper sketches, many of which
are taken from his " Sketchbook from Nature " of 1792 are
warm and golden in tone . The plantation of Charles
Glover in St. James Parish, Goose Creek, is well
represented, and the show includes Coram ' s posthumous
(1794) portrait of Mrs . Glover who died in 1791 . While
most of the works exhibited were removed from the artists'
10
sketch hooks and are simply displayed, the show includes a
series of seven views, six illustrating the seat of Thomas
Radcliffe, which remain mounted in their original black
glass and gilt frames as, apparently, they were first
displayed in Mr. Radcliffe 's town residence . A difference
in medium accounts in part for the appearance of Charles
Fraser 's cool, elegant watercolor and ink sketches : they
capture a diverse group of churches, houses, fields, and
landscapes linked by location, time, and family; most were
taken from his "Sketchbook" of 1 796-1806 . One of the
most important of these is the view of Wigton, the seat of
the artist 's brother James Fraser, where a walk is lined with
symmetrical plantings and beds, and shrubs—possibly the
recently-introduced camellia—in bloom . The show also
partners Fraser 's 1832 watercolor on ivory miniature of his
brother-in-law Joseph Winthrop with a view of his seat in
Goose Creek and includes a like pairing of the Fraser
family 's ancestral place in Prince William Parish with his
portrait miniature of his eldest brother Frederick Fraser
who inherited it.
Temple of Aesculepus in the Villa Borghese, 1822
"The Poetry of Place " is being succeeded at the
Gibbes Museum on September 5''' by "The Roman
Remains: John Izard Middleton's Visual Souvenirs, 1820-
1823 . " The Charleston showing, through January 31",
1999, is the second venue for this important premiere
showing of forty-nine recently rediscovered pencil, pen,
and wash works, which originally opened at the McKissick
Museum at the University of South Carolina . In advance
of the Columbia exhibition the University of South
Carolina Press published a book of the same name with an
annotated catalogue of the drawings and essays by Charles
R . Mack and Lynn Robertson .
continued on page 11 . ..

Two Exhibitions
and a Book . ..
continued from page 10
John Izard Middleton (1785-1849), the second son of
Arthur Middleton (1742-178?) and the grandson of
Henry Middleton, was born at Middleton Place where his
grandfather had begun the creation of the family 's gardens
in the mid-eighteenth century . Like his father, who died
when John Izard was only a lad of two, he was educated in
England and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge
in 1803 (or 1804) . The details of Middleton 's life, lived
largely as an expatriate in England and on the Continent
where he died in Paris in 1849, remain tantalizingly vague
and unconfirmed as Mack and Robertson note . He left
important works of art, however, which document a
learning, sensitivity, and talent enhanced by education
abroad and the cultivated circles in which the wealth of his
family allowed him to move.
United Apparently Middleton did not return to the
States after leaving Cambridge : instead he took up travel
and study of the antique that would occupy him for the
remainder of his days . By 1807 he was sufficiently well-
Villa Borghese (Temple of Diana), 1822
known to Madame de Stael that he became a guest at her
estate outside Copped in Switzerland . He was in Italy
during the period from 1807 to 1809 where he would
have enjoyed the company of another South Carolina
expatriate lso an acquaintance artist, Washington Allston, a
of Charles Fraser . During these years he undertook the
travel and study of classical antiquities displayed in
Grecian Remains . which holds a publication date of
1812, bur was issued over a long period extendin g as
late as 1825.
In 1810 Middleton was married in Paris to Eliza
Augusta Falconnet, a woman of Swiss and American
ancestry . The couple returned to Charleston and
established themselves at Cedar Grove, an Izard Family
plantation, across the Ashley River from Middleton Place.
which his elder brother Henry had inherited . It is
tempting to speculate on what improvements both John
Izard Middleton and his brother might have made to the
gardens Middleton and grounds at Cedar Grove and
Place, respectively, as a result of his decade-long residency
in England, France, and Ital . Also intriguing are
questions as to what society John Izard Middleton might
have enjoyed from 1810 to 1816 with Charles Eraser, his
near contemporary in age, who was then practicin g law in
Charleston.
At Mrs. Mary Izard Middleton ' s death in 1814, John
Izard Middleton was her principal heir and he came into a
fortune, which allowed him to spend the rest of his life as
he wished. In 1815 the couple 's only child, a daughter,
died . In 1816 he and his wife returned to Europe where he
would live until his death . The drawings forming the
collection now published as The Roman Remains, and soon
to he exhibited in Charleston, were made during travels in
Italy during the years from 1 820 to 1823 with an
exactness to architectural detail that distinguishes his
drawings and observations in Grecian Remains.
Middleton 's views of "Roman remains," together with
other Italian sketches, two views of Les Charmettes, and a
view of Voltaire 's chateau at Ferney, altogether comprising
forty-nine drawings, are reproduced with annotations by
Professor Mack . They are enhanced by contemporary
quotations by literary figures, travel writers, and others
who walked the paths and savored the views recorded by
Middleton. John Izard Middleton made at least eight
drawings de Stael at the Villa Borghese where, Madame
wrote, of all the Roman gardens and palaces, the
splendors of nature and the arts are gathered with the
most taste and brilliance . " Many of Middleton 's views are
accompanied by recent black and white photographs taken
continued on page 12. . .

Two Exhibitions
and a Book . . .
continued from page 11
from the artists vantage point by Professor Mack, which
demonstrate the lengths to which the environments of
these antiquities have changed in the intervening 175
years.
Although John Izard Middleton 's evocative sketches of
Roman scenes-her buildings, gardens, and countryside-lay
in obscurity until very recently, he must be acknowledged
as one of the first of a series of American artists in the
nineteenth century who so carefully studied and recorded
the classical Italian landscape . While the extent to which
his appreciations found expression at Cedar Grove,
Middleton Place, or elsewhere is unknown, and his
possible role in the history of Southern gardening has vet
to be defined, the influence of others who followed in his
footsteps at the close of the century is well known . During
those years Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908), a classicist
and the first professor of art history at Harvard University
(1874-1898), became a founder and first president of the
Archaeological Institute of America . Citing Middleton ' s
scholarly and artistic accomplishment in the Grecian
Remains, Norton hailed him as "The First American
Classical Archaeologist " in an appreciation published in
the first issue of the institute 's organ, the American Journal
of Archaeology, in 1885, on the centennial of Middleton 's
birth . Whether Charles Platt, the classical architect and
garden designer, was familiar with the Grecian Remains
when he first traveled to Italy in the spring of 1886 is not
known; however, in 1892 when Platt was to return to Italy
for a longer visit with his brother William, then training
in the office of Frederick Law Olmsted, Olmsted wrote to
Professor Norton asking him to advise William Platt on
the trip . " Norton had been a critical advocate of Italian
culture for nearly four decades, " writes Keith N . Morgan,
the author of Charles Platt, The Artist as Architect, "and
[he] was the obvious counselor for the Platt tour (Platt,
Italian Gardens, reprinted with an overview by Keith N.
Morgan in 1993, p . 99)." Nevertheless, Morgan concludes
that the extent to which Norton might have influenced the
brothers ' travels remains unknown. William Platt drowned
in the summer of 1892 shortly after the brothers returned
to this country . Two years later, in 1894, Charles Platt ' s
Italian Gardens was published and became, as Morgan
notes, " the first illustrated publication in English on this
topic and the launching pad for Charles A . Platt (1861-
1933) as the premier American practitioner of the formal
garden revival (Italian Gardens reprint, p. 97) . "
Italian Gardens became an important influence on
American architectural and garden design as did Edith
Wharton ' s Italian Villas and their Gardens of 1904 . Both
works, particularly Platt ' s, were critical in the career of
12
Modern ruin in the Villa Borghese (The Temple of Faustina), 1822
Neel Reid who would design a small brilliant group of
classical houses and gardens for Georgia clients before his
early death . John Izard Middleton ' s The Roman Remains—
the book and the exhibition—remind us that a learned
appreciation of Italy and the antique existed in the South a
century before Reid and others planted "Italian gardens "
in Southern soil. A real debt of gratitude is owed to
Professor Mack and Lynn Robertson for bringing both
to view.
"The Roman Remains: John Izard Middleton 's Visual
Souvenirs, 1820-1823" will be on view at the Gibbes
Museum of Art, Charleston, from September 5''' 1998
through January 31" , 1999 . The Roman Remains John
Izard Middleton's Visual Souvenirs of 1820-1823, edited
with essays and catalogue commentary by Charles R . Mack
and Lynn Robertson . University of South Carolina Press,
1997 . ISBN 1-57003-169-X, $39 .95. Contact Kim
Patterson at (803) 777-2021 . +

n IPrint
Gardens and Gardening in the Chesapeake: 1700-1805.
Barbara Wells Sarudy . The johns Hopkins University Press,
1998 . 206 pages . ISBN 0-8018-5823-2.
No one with an interest in the southern landscape of the
Revolutionary War era should miss this new offering by
Southern Garden History Society hoard member Barbara Wells
Sarudy. Even those drawn to a later period will find this book
valuable since the Chesapeake region was a testing ground for
landscape concepts that spread with Chesapeake settlers, their
descendants, and the plantation system throughout much of the
South.
Some of Sarudy 's points about the Chesapeake landscape are
well established . It is often observed, for example, that most
American gardens of this period had formal plans . Interest in
naturalistic design concepts was an impulse prominent in
England, but on this side of the Atlantic geometry ruled in a
highly visible fashion . There was plenty of wild terrain in
America, and thus one 's garden should overtly demonstrate an
ability to shape and control nature .
This well-illustrated
book provides many
examples of such shaped
and controlled gardens in
the Chesapeake region.
Normally laid out with
parterres, they often took
advantage of ground that
sloped to a shoreline to
create terraced " falls . "
Site plans drawn from
various sources are joined
by text descriptions to
offer insight about the
owners, their
occupations, and the uses
they made of their
gardens. In a manner
that was uniquely American, those gardens often joined "showy"
overall designs, which made powerful statements about their
owners with uses that were quite utilitarian in nature . (Chapters
on "The Republican Garden " and on "Inspiration and
Expression " help readers understand the intellectual, social, and
economic "whys " and "hows" of such landscape manipulation .)
Thus useful for its review of design and influences on
design, this hook also offers a helpful look at the physical
materials that went into Chesapeake gardens, their sources, and
the laborers who installed them . For example, readers get a good
look at the plants (purely decorative as well as edible and
medicinal) that were being used by Chesapeake gentry and town
gardeners alike, and at the mechanisms of regional plant
distribution . One sees, for example, how traditional methods of
13
plant sharing among gardeners were supplanted first by
importation of materials, and later by American commercial seed
and William nurser(' operations such as that of Baltimore's
Booth . (The same social class that produced these new garden
entrepreneurs also offered a growing marker for their products .)
Not surprisingly, much of the labor used to install such plants
came from enslaved Africans and their descendants . However.
free blacks and indentured servants also played crucial roles—
many of the latter group being professionally-trained gardeners
from both the British Isles and continental Europe.
The gardens they tended had complex purposes, not the
least important of these being social in nature . This was true of
private gardens, which obviously offered spaces conducive to
small family activities and to large group gatherings alike.
However, one of the most interesting Chesapeake garden types
discussed is the public garden, a forerunner of such modern-day
complexes as the theme park. Numbers of for-profit gardens
existed in Baltimore and its environs during the period in
question. Sarudy examines them as to clientele served, layout of
the grounds, services provided, and types of special occasion
activities such as July 4th celebrations . Their role in serving
citizens unable to afford the elaborate grounds of the area's upper
classes is especially
interesting and
complements a main
theme of the hook:
the impact in the
Chesapeake region of
a growing middle
class and the related
transformation from
an economy
dominated by
agriculture to one
whose leading
elements were
commerce and
manufacturing.
Map of William Faris' garden, Annapolis. Gardens and the
Paris used straight paths and walkways to landscape in general
form the skeleton of his gardens and had perforce to
grounds, which nearly filled a triangle change as well.
bordered by Cathedral and West streets.
While large public
gardens and the landscapes of the Chesapeake gentry are
examined at some length in this hook, there is less discussion in
general on the gardens of ordinary citizens . Readers will then
appreciate all the more the authors extensive examination of the
gardening activities of Annapolis craftsman-innkeeper William
Faris, whose diary and account books survive in the archives of
continued on page 16 . ..

Preserving
Jefferson's
Gardens and Landscapes
I he Second Annual Historic Landscape
Institute, Sponsored by the University
of Monticello Virginia and
by Kenneth M . McFarland, Magnolia Associate Editor
here are still places that inspire awe—even in an age of
T constant sensory bombardment. For some individuals
such a place is Charlottesville, Virginia, or at least
those parts of Charlottesville where the architectural and
landscape worlds (can they truly be separated?) of Thomas
Jefferson survive largely intact . Thus, a two-week Thomas
Jefferson historic landscape institute can he enticing beyond
imagination even if one can only sit in for several days, as
was the case for this observer.
It was immediately apparent that attending the Institute
meant being fully embraced by Jeffersonian landscapes.
Program organizers facilitated that sensation tremendously by
allowing participants to lodge in a room on the Lawn—the
earliest form of student accommodation at Thomas
Jefferson ' s "academical village . " From their small, minimally
outfitted, rooms Institute students stepped out daily into
what remains one of this country's most remarkable spots of
ground. a campus still strongly reflective of the
educational-architectural-landscape vision of its founder . They could
ponder this setting hut briefly, however, since their two weeks
were filled with a series of activities that would have made
Monticello's sage proud.
Appropriately, Monticello 's director of gardens and
grounds Peter Hatch began the event with an introduction to
Peter Hatch (center) with Institute participants at Bremo Plantation.
one of the very core issues of the Institute : Thomas Jefferson
the gardener and Monticello, his principal gardening canvas .
14
Thoroughly to their credit, however, program organizers
consistently ensured that participants were provided a broad
context in which to set the specific information they were
provided on Jefferson-related topics . Thus Peter Hatch ' s
morning talks were followed by an afternoon look by
architectural historian Marie Frank at the "Cultural History
of the Enlightenment . "
Similarly, on the following day a detailed on-site
examination of the university campus by university landscape
architect Man' Hughes and her colleagues . was joined by a
Students walking through the gardens
presentation by Colonial Williamsburg 's landscape architect
Kent Brinkley who provided a "Williamsburg Perspective " on
the colonial Virginia landscape of Jefferson 's earlier years.
The setting was one of the original university pavilions, and a
more inspiring spot to learn about the institution and its
design could not be imagined . Nor could there he a better
place from which to sally out for a tour of the campus
landscape and building interiors . The first day at the
university closed with a visit to the fine arts library where
arrangements had been made for registrants to have
borrowing privileges, a feature of the Institute which typified
the thoroughness of its organizers in maximizing the learning
opportunities available to participants.
Subsequent activities followed an established pattern:
certain days were spent at Monticello and surrounding areas,
and other days saw students at the University . Formal
presentations continued as well, some being highly specific to
Thomas Jefferson and others looking at contextual matters.
The methodology of landscape study, along with preservation
theory, also received substantial attention, talks being offered
on landscape archaeology, cartography and map reading, and
continued on page 14 . ..

guidelines for making landscape preservation decisions . The
stellar cast of presenters included landscape architect and
garden historian Rudy Favretti ; landscape architect and
University of Virginia lecturer, Will Rieley; archaeologists
Barbara Heath and Fraser Neiman : landscape historian
Barbara Sarudy; Monticello 's Director of Restoration Bill
Beiswanger; and former Director of Research at Monticello
Ann Lucas.
Gardening is largely a dirt-under-the-nails affair, even in
this sometimes rarefied atmosphere . Institute students
experienced this aspect of Jefferson 's world at both the
university and Monticello, as well as at Tufton Farm 's Center
for Historic Plants where they labored under the tutelage of
center director Peggy Cornett . Of course, the landscape
world of our third president extended far beyond
Charlottesville. Accordingly, participants were given a look
at one of the most important of such Jefferson sites on a trip
to Poplar Forest, near Lynchburg . The fortunate group also
visited Bremo Plantation, the home of Jefferson 's colleague
John Hartwell Cocke. Still in private hands, Bremo is located
on the James River a short drive south of Charlottesville.
Cocke 's principal dwelling is one of this nation 's premier
Palladian structures.
By the close of the Institute on Friday, June 26''
registrants had been given as thorough a "grounding " in the
landscapes of Thomas Jefferson, and in the techniques used
to study those landscapes, as could be imagined for a twoweek
period of study. Theirs was more than an exposure to
the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century domain of Jefferson,
however, for they also gained an inside perspective on one of
America 's most impressive late twentieth-century experiments
in historic landscape study and restoration . This was
reinforced repeatedly by working with Man' Hughes at the
University of Virginia ; Peter Hatch and his staff at
Monticello; and Peggy Cornett at the Thomas Jefferson
Benefactor $250 joint/husband-wife $ 30
Patron $150 Individual S20
Sustainer 5'S Student 55
Institution/Business S30
life membership $1,000 (one time)
The membership year runs from May 1st to April 30th.
Members joining after January 1st will be credited for the coming
year beginning May 1st . Write to membership secretary at:
Southern Garden History Society, Old Salem, Inc ., Drawer F,
Salem Station, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27108.
phone (910) 721-7328 .
IS
Center for Historic Plants . Magnolia readers are advised to
he watchful for news of the 1999 Institute—it is hard to
imagine how a student of landscape history could spend 'two
weeks more productively.
For more information about the Institute, or to be put on
next year ' s mailing list, please contact The International
Center for Jefferson Studies, Monticello, P .O. Box 316.
Charlottesville, VA 22902 ; (804) 984-9864,
fax (804) 296-1992 . +
Landscape Institute students at Bremo
The Virginia Chapter of the American Society of Landscape
Architects (VA-ASLA) announced the recent election of one of its
members, M. Kent Brinkley, of Williamsburg, as a Fellow in the
national society . An ASLA member since 1979, Brinkley has served
the Virginia Chapter as an officer and as chapter president . He is
currently serving again as president-elect, and will serve a second
term as the chapter 's president beginning in October. For the past
thirteen years, he has served as landscape architect for the Colonial
Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg.
Windee Willoughby recently joined the Goodwood
Museum & Gardens staff in Tallahassee Florida as the director of
horticulture . She is responsible for Goodwood 's extensive volunteer
program as well as restoration of the landscape to its
turn-of-the-century appearance.
Atlanta landscape architect William T. Smith was featured in
the April issue of Southern Living on his design of Margaret
Deimling ' s "Secret Garden . "

In Print
continued from page 13
the Maryland Historical Society. Indeed, anyone with a
particular interest in Maryland garden history will And this an
especially valuable publication : while its title encompasses the
broad region defined by the reaches of the Chesapeake Bay, it is
chiefly focused on the colony and state of Maryland, the author's
home and her main base of research . For most readers this will
not detract from the value of her work . Similarly, such errors as
placing Virginia's Westover across the James River from
Williamsburg (it is actually upriver from Williamsburg and on
the same side of the James), and the use of the term
" horticulturalist" instead of the correct "horticulturist " will be
found minimally distracting considering the overall worth of the
hook. The author's findings are well documented in endnotes;
numerous black and white images, and color plates, illustrate the
text; and there is a helpful appendix of plants William Faris was
growing between 1792 and 1804, and produce he was buying
between 1790 and 1804, material which, like this book as a
whole, will surely be appreciated by most Magnolia readers. +
— Reviewed by Kenneth M. McFarland,
Magnolia Associate Editor
Dr. William C . Welch, President Editor:
Peter J . Hatch, Vice-President
Peggy Cornett
Flora Ann Bynum, Secretary-Treasurer Monticello, P .O .B. 316
Charlottesville, 22902 VA
Magnolia grandiflora reproduced by courtesy of Rare Book Division,
Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library .
(804) 984-9816
Fax (804) 977-6140
pcornett@monticello .org
Southern Garden History Society
Old Salem, Inc.
Drawer F, Salem Station
Winston-Salem, NC 27108
Mountain Biltmore Heritage:
Estate and the Blue Ridge . . .
continued 1 from page
UNC-A Botanical Garden, the Pisgah National Forest, and the
historic communities of Asheville. Some members opted to
return on their own to Biltmore . Surely, one day was not
enough to take in this grand American estate . +
— Peggy Cornett, Magnolia Editor
Ornamental lake at the end of the Glen at the Biltmore Estate.
the submission of articles for the fall issue of Magnolia is September 30th '.
Associate Editor:
Kenneth M . McFarland
Historic Stagville , P .O .B. 71217
Durham, NC 27722-1217
(919) 620-0120
Fax (919) 620-0422
stagvill@sprynet .com
FIRST CLASS
US POSTAGE
PAID
Charlottesville, VA
Permit No. 343

Magnolia grandiflora
The Laurel Tree of Carolina
Catesby' s Natural History. 1743
Bulletin of the
Southern Garden
History Society
The Road to Historic Landscape Preservation
at Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
by Jane A. Curtis, Associate Curator, Gardens, Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
The entry drive to Bayou Bend 1945, from A Garden Book for Houston,
1950 edition.
he field of historic landscape preservation has
T grown substantially over the past decade,
while guidelines for the treatment of cultural
landscapes (preservation, rehabilitation, restoration,
or reconstruction, as appropriate) have been both
defined and refined . While the road map developed
by the National Park Service, particularly at the
Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, has
given shape and order to the process, the initial steps
can be the most challenging . In the case of a
modern, twentieth-century construction, the first
step is determining that a landscape is indeed
historic and worthy of such efforts.
That first step was taken carefully on behalf of
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens in Houston,
Inside
this
Issue
Page 2
Page 7
Page 9
Page 11
Texas, now the American decorative arts wing of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and host to the
1999 annual meeting of the Southern Garden
History Society. Constructed in 1929, at the tail
end of the American Country House Movement,
with gardens that were developed over a period of
forty-plus years, the cultural value of Bayou Bend's
integrated house/garden composition is not
immediately obvious . It may seem, at first glance,
too recent to be "historic"—only one generation
old, the private home of Miss Ima Hogg, sited in a
city with a poor reputation for historic preservation.
This context, however, is exactly why Bayou Bend is
significant, as it speaks beautifully to Houston's
recent past, which is ever more threatened by the
current economic boom . It is the story of Miss
Hogg, her family, and their contributions to the city
of Houston and to Texas, which give life, substance,
and meaning to the gardens.
The 14 1/2 -acre estate was set aside by Michael
D. and William C . Hogg in 1928 as they acquired
and subdivided land for River Oaks, a planned
garden suburb modeled after similar developments
in Kansas City, Chicago, and Denver . It was a large
lot with a distinctive land form in the otherwise flat
coastal plain — a sloping point of land defined by
an acute bend in Buffalo Bayou . The Hogg's intent
was to build a private family home in close
proximity to downtown Houston . Their sister,
known to most as "Miss Ima " and then a mature
woman of 44, worked closely with architect John
Staub on both the design of the house and its
Continued on page 3 . . .
Calendar
Favretti Concludes Twenty-Year Association with Garden Club of Virginia
Wilmington's Belamy Mansion
Reprints of Three Anonymous 18th-Century Gardening Books attributed to
Sir John Hill (1714-1775)

December 7', 1998 . "Flowerings and Furnishings: A
Celebration of New Views of the American Garden, "
held at Christie's in New York City. Speakers include
Tom Armstrong, president of The Garden Conservancy;
John Danzer, president of Munder-Skiles garden
furniture and ornament ; art historian William Gerdts;
May Brawley Hill, art historian and author of Grandmother's
Garden; and Starr Ockenga, photographer,
writer, and gardener. This program benefited The
Garden Conservancy. For more information, contact
Betsy Garrett or Bekah Sirrine at (212) 702-1390; fax
(212) 888-7031 ; or write Christie's, Classes in Connoisseurship,
502 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022.
March 26th- 28th, 1999. 17th annual meeting of the
Southern Garden History Society, "Expect the
Unexpected : The Greener Side of Texas," in Houston,
Texas. [For details, see article on page 8 .1 For
information, contact Linda Hughes, Registration Chair
at (218) 360-3193.
April 17th, 1999 . Landscape Preservation Symposium at
Wave Hill: "If Only We Knew: Landscape Preservation
in Context, 1890-1950 ." Speakers include Charles
Birnbaum, National Park Service ; Catherine Howett,
University of Georgia, Athens; Phyllis Andersen, Arnold
Arboretum and others . [See article on page 10 .1 For
reservations or information, call Chris Panos, Assistant
Director of the CATALOG of Landscape Records,
(718) 549-3200, ext . 204.
May 14th-15th. 1999 . Dumbarton Oaks Symposium in
Studies in Landscape Architecture : "Bourgeois and
Aristocratic Cultural Encounters in Garden Art."
Examines three centuries of European garden history in
light of processes of social change, 1550 to 1850.
Registration information will be available in March
1999 and can be obtained from: Studies in Landscape
Architecture, Dumbarton Oaks, 1703 32' St., NW,
Washington, DC 20007, or from the internet at:
www.doaks.org/LandscapeArchitecture .html
May 19' - 21", 1999. "Bartram 300 : A Gathering, "
marking the birth of John Bartram in 1699 . A
symposium exploring the life, works and legacy of John
Bartram, America's first botanist . Keynote speaker is
historian, award-winning author and PBS host David
McCullough. For information, contact Nancy E.
CALENDAR
2
Hoffmann, Ph .D., Symposium Chair, c/o Historic
Bartram's Garden, 54' St. and Lindbergh Blvd .,
Philadelphia, PA 19143 ; (215) 729-5281, fax (215)
729-1047; e-mail: bartram@libertynet .org
May 22' ,1999 . Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic
Plants hosts its 7' Annual Open House at Tufton Farm.
Featuring new collection of Noisette roses. Contact
Peggy Cornett at (804) 984-9816;
pcornett@monticello.org
June 13th- 25th, 1999. "Preserving Jefferson's Landscapes
and Gardens," Historic Landscapes Institute sponsored
jointly by the University of Virginia and Monticello.
Summer program designed as an introduction to
landscape history, garden restoration, and historical
horticulture by using the landscapes of Monticello and
the University as case studies and outdoor classrooms.
Instruction provided by Monticello staff and UVa
faculty. Check Monticello's calendar of events page,
www.monticello.org or contact Peter Hatch, (804) 984-
9836, phatch@monticello.org
September 30e -October 1", 1999. "Plans and Plants
of the Southern Landscape" has been selected for the
theme of the twelfth biennial Restoring Southern Gardens
and Landscapes conference at Old Salem . It is hoped
that the development of this theme will help those
involved in landscape restoration by providing historic
plans, documents, and plant lists that can be useful as
guidelines . For more information contact conference
coordinator, Kay Bergey; Old Salem, Inc., Salem
Station, Winston-Salem, NC 27108 . Phone (336) 721-
7378.
May 13' -15', 2000 . 18' annual meeting of the
Southern Garden History Society, Mount Vernon,
Virginia . Meeting chair is J . Dean Norton, director of
horticulture at Mount Vernon. Date is tentative, details
to be announced.
May 4th -6th , 2001 . 19th annual meeting of the
Southern Garden History Society at Tryon Palace, New
Bern, North Carolina . Details to be announced.
October 14th -18th, 2001 . 9th International Heritage
Rose Conference in Charleston, South Carolina.
Contact Charleston Area Convention and Visitors
Bureau, P. O. Box 975, Charleston, SC 29402.
Phone (803) 853-8000.

The Road to Historic Landscape
Preservation at Bayou Bend
Collection and Gardens
continued from page 1
position on the lot. The house, set deep within the property,
is reached by a winding entry drive, which drops gently
through the native woodland and turns to face the front
facade. This approach, like the entry to an old Southern
plantation, adds to the sense of privacy and reserve. Images
Detailed plan of the Diana Fountain (circa 1937) from the landscape
architectural firm of Fleming & Sheppard.
and icons of the South were important to Miss Ima; she
chose the name "Bayou Bend" to evoke the South and the
regional setting.
The gardens at Bayou Bend developed and evolved
throughout Miss Ima 's lifetime. The earliest gardens (1929-
1937) were discrete in scale and hidden from one 's view on
the main procession : the entry through the woodland, into
the house, and on to the north terrace with a view down the
wooded slopes towards the bayou. Miss Hogg was an active,
hands-on gardener who did not hesitate to re-make and replant
her first two gardens as her taste and experience
evolved. The second phase of garden development (1937-
1939) cemented the relationship of the house, site, and
gardens as an integrated composition—Staub's entry drive
had established the strong central axis about which the most
formal garden room, the Diana Garden, took shape . Three
white Cararra marble statues, ordered by Miss Ima from
Italy, served to anchor and strengthen the organization of
three garden rooms with clear focal points for the main and
cross-axis.
Just as the garden suburb of River Oaks was advertised as
"a distinguished experiment in fine living," the house and
formal gardens at Bayou Bend were shaped as a model that
combined and exhibited plants indigenous to the region with
carefully selected images of broader historic traditions and of
3
the South. Miss Ima chose full-scale statues of Diana and the
muses of history and music to represent her own interests and
civic contributions, and to lend an air of refinement with
references to a mythic past . The ancient deities were framed
by a backdrop of native bayou woodland and her growing
collection of azaleas and camellias, plants evocative of other
southern gardens of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Louisiana.
The crisp lines of the Diana Garden, designed by C .C.
"Pat " Fleming and Albert Sheppard, and the restrained
palette of plants selected by Miss Ima, were offset by the
procession of several mature, magnificently irregular trees
down the terraced lawn. This created a garden both unique to
the site and entirely novel to Houston, both then and now.
When the Diana Garden made its debut in the spring of
1939 at the annual meeting of the Garden Club of America,
garden club members from all over the nation were seeing
Houston and its finest domestic architecture for the first
time. Miss Ima, and the other thirty-odd Houstonians whose
homes and gardens were on display, must have been
conscious of their tremendous opportunity, even
responsibility, to present an image of the city which would be
both gracious and memorable. Advance knowledge of this
meeting may have been the impetus to commission this and
other designed residential landscapes in Houston's upscale
neighborhoods.
Plan of the Diana Garden (circa 1937)
From today's perspective, as much time has elapsed since
Miss Ima's departure from her residence (1965) as she had
spent developing the gardens, and it may seem premature to
declare the gardens "historic . " Of the gardens toured on the
1939 Houston exhibition, however, those at Bayou Bend are
the only designed landscape remaining in a recognizable state
a mere sixty years later . The story of Bayou Bend, and the
effort to assert its significance, provides an interesting case
study for other historic house museums . In the process, it has
been critical throughout to be true to what the gardens are,
Continued on page 4 . . .

The Road to Historic Landscape
Preservation at Bayou Bend
Collection and Gardens
continued from page 3
and were intended to be, as well as to what they are not—
specifically not a botanical garden—while addressing
modern-day interpretive methods and visitor needs.
In 1957, Miss Hogg began to orchestrate the transfer of
her home and collection to the Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston (MFA,H) . It remains one of the finest collections of
American decorative arts in the country, second only to
Winterthur . In contrast to the way in which she planned the
transformation of her home into a museum, however, she left
remarkably little documentation regarding her vision for the
Diana statue in the garden, 1950. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
long-term management and upkeep of the gardens. Despite
her lack of documentation and direction, it has become clear
that the gardens offer a wonderful opportunity for visitor
interpretation, opportunities quite different than those
available when touring the collection. In the gardens, it is
possible to engage and appreciate the region—the climate,
topography, geology—and to learn how those physical
circumstances affected both the development of Houston as a
whole as well as the domestic architecture of the period.
Bayou Bend presents an exquisite example of a regional
integrated house and garden composition, set within and
always referring back to the bayou woodland setting.
In 1994, the MFA,H and the River Oaks Garden Club
(ROGC), a volunteer organization to which Miss Hogg had
given managerial control over the gardens, engineered a longrange
planning committee for the gardens, to begin to resolve
some year-to-year inconsistencies in the garden 's
management and to articulate a clear goal for the future . The
result was "A Plan for the Preservation, Management, and
Interpretation of Bayou Bend Gardens, " written by Emerson
and Associates of Baton Rouge, Louisiana : a firm with
academic as well as practical experience, well-versed in
4
preservation efforts for other significant historic, designed
landscapes of the Gulf Coast region, specifically Louisiana.
Jon Emerson, the landscape architect at the head of the
planning team, has commented that it never occurred to him
until he began the project that the management plan (he is
clear to refer to it as such, never as a " master " plan) had to
embody the life span of a person whose taste evolved just as
the gardens had evolved. There was no single point for
restoration, yet a cohesive physical design had to be clarified
and articulated.
A mission statement emerged at the outset : to develop
Bayou Bend "to reflect the lifetime of Miss Ima and her
vision . ..," setting her story and that of the gardens in the
context of "the history of Houston, and the political, social,
economic, and environmental developments of the period ."'
The gardens were also to be presented within the context of
American garden design with an emphasis on the integration
of house and gardens along a formal axis, a characteristic of
the American adapted regional and national movements in
architecture and garden design to an appropriate expression
and scale. As a part of creating gardens appropriate to such an
expression, Miss Hogg was also keenly interested in
importing and using plants that made it feel "Southern" and
that would thrive . Specifically, her interest shows in the
culture and care of azaleas and camellias. To conserve and
Diana statue, 1955 . Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
protect her growing collection of these archetypal southern
plants, Miss Ima had quickly learned that their survival

The Road to Historic Landscape
Preservation at Bayou Bend
Collection and Gardens
continued from page 4
depended on creating soil and drainage conditions that were
the opposite of typical soils in Houston and the coastal plain.
Beneath the veneer of an azalea garden in bloom as extensive
as Bayou Bend lies back-breaking labor-such as replacing and
amending soil and monitoring the pH for correct acidity—to
create conditions in which azaleas will not only survive but
flourish.
This may be the best analogy both for Miss Ima and the
gardens at Bayou Bend— the feminine, ladylike veneer, with
steel backbone able to undertake the Herculean efforts
necessary to maintain that bright and cheery appearance . Her
efforts and her legacy, which are not readily apparent on a
superficial tour of the gardens, were the greatest challenge
and purpose addressed within the management plan . The
recommendations are intended both to recapture the look
and feel of the gardens as conceived and cared for by Miss
Ima in her lifetime, and to address the needs imposed by the
year-round audience, with a strong potential to reach an even
broader group of garden, nature, and design enthusiasts
Diana Garden, 1955. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
through the addition of new interpretation and
programming .'
Since the management plan was formally adopted in
1995, several projects have been undertaken, addressing a
variety of needs . The first was to access the state of the
gardens, and to this end a full-scale survey has been
completed . This survey forms the basis for several planning
initiatives—providing a database useful for generating reports
about individual gardens and the surrounding woodland,
with an ability to locate and count all woody plants . A second
project, taken piecemeal over several years, has been to slowly
remove the layers of plantings that had evolved since Miss
5
Hogg's departure— reducing the size of beds that had bulged
to accommodate more annual bulbs, or opening up views
into the adjacent ravines that had been closed off from overplanting
or simple maturity . A third has been to access the
state of the hardwood canopy and address the need for
reforestation, planting now six or more trees per acre per year.
The main and most rewarding project enabled the
completion of the comprehensive management plan has been
the restoration of the Diana Garden, the crown jewel of the
formal gardens at Bayou Bend . Through the use of existing
historic documentation, particularly archival photographs,
the Diana Garden has been edited to look much as it did
when it was first viewed in 1939. The drainage, masonry,
statues, and benches have been repaired and conserved, lost
trees have been replanted, overgrown plantings were removed
or replaced to return to the original design intent, and a clear
set of management guidelines written to establish parameters
for regular maintenance . As the young trees, planted to
replace those that pre-dated the construction of the house,
grow to maturity, the look of the garden will finally come
back into balance.
There has been an upsurge in interest in gardens,
gardening, and particularly native plants over the past decade.
This renewed interest in horticulture and the environment is
a powerful tool to enable people, all people, to look closer at
their region and place in the world . Miss Ima spent her life
tinkering in her gardens, and really lived in them—
entertaining on the terrace, having tea on the east porch,
walking through every morning to pick flowers, branches,
and leaves. The introduction of air conditioning, an
undeniably important contribution to the quality of life in
Houston, has nevertheless struck a fatal blow to the necessity
for gardens as outdoor living space . The advent of the
evergreen garden, for which the Diana Garden served as a
model to be copied, has become a popular and ubiquitous
style for two reasons : ease of maintenance, and the tendency
to treat gardens as static compositions for viewing, not for
living. To recapture the sense of what was essentially a private
and domestic landscape, albeit on a luxurious scale, the
management of the gardens needs to adjust to allow more
seasonal variety and, frankly, messiness.
To recapture the look and feel of Bayou Bend as the
private creation of a very civic-minded person, and to tell her
story therein, requires a move away from manicuring and
maintenance . It will take tremendous faith and strength to
not only execute but explain this to visitors, maintenance
staff, and volunteers alike . The gardens at Bayou Bend had
operated in a vacuum for many years, a little oasis in central
Houston, a prestigious relic of a quickly-fading past era . To
continued on page 6. ..

The Road to Historic Landscape
Preservation at Bayou Bend
Collection and Gardens
continued from page 5
meet the mission statement that emerged in the long-range
planning process for the gardens requires a communal act of
faith and an element of respect, to agree that a landscape and
all its elements have value, and that Miss Ima 's character and
achievements can be best appreciated within the context of
gardens that were her life's creation.
Bibliography
Unpublished Sources
Sadie Gwin Blackburn, "The Gardens of Bayou Bend : A
Bicentennial Tour, " 1976.
Jon Emerson and Associates, "A Plan for the Preservation,
Management, and Interpretation of the Bayou Bend
Gardens, Houston, Texas, " 1993
Steven Fox, "Bayou Bend, " 1996.
River Oaks Scrapbooks, Houston Metropolitan Research
Center, Houston Public Library.
Secondary Sources
Howard Barnstone, The Architecture of John F. Staub,
Houston, and the South, Austin: University of Texas Press,
1979.
Margaret Coffin, "Guide to Developing a Preservation
Maintenance Plan for a Historic Landscape, " Cultural
Landscape Publication No. 7, Brookline: Olmsted Center
for Landscape Preservation, 1995.
Forum of Civics, A Garden Book for Houston, Houston: The
Rein Company, 1929 . (Subsequent revised editions edited
by the River Oaks Garden Club, 1939, 1945, 1950 .)
The Garden Club of America Annual Meeting, 1939, Houston:
unknown, 1939 (with annotations by Ima Hogg, her
copy).
Mac Griswold and Eleanor Weller, The Golden Age of
American Gardens, Proud Owners, Private Estates, 1890-
1940, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Publishers, 1991.
Mark A. Hewitt, The Architect and the American Country
House, 1890-1940, New Haven : Yale University Press,
1990.
H . Harold Hume, Azaleas and Camellias, New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1931 (with annotations by Ima
Hogg, her copy) .
6
Louise Kosches Iscoe, Ima Hogg, First Lady of Texas:
Reminiscences and Recollections of Family and Friends,
Houston: Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, 1976.
Acknowledgments
Sadie Gwin Blackburn Susan Keeton
Michael Brown Kathleen B . O 'Conner
Jon Emerson Bob Ross
Stephen Fox David B. Warren
References
' Jon Emerson and Associates, "A Plan for the Preservation,
Management, and Interpretation of Bayou Bend Gardens,
Houston, Texas, " p. 16.
'Emerson and Associates, p . 7 . +
OfInterest
A three volume publication, Vegetables and Fruits .. A
Guide to Heirloom Varieties and Community-Based
Stewardship, special Reference Briefs Series no . SRB 98-06,
is now available from the United States Department of
Agriculture . The resource guide focuses on the published
literature, organizations, and other informational resources
pertaining to heirloom vegetable and fruit varieties . It was
compiled to illuminate and document current interest in
traditional varieties, especially to provide information on
how our crop plants originated and developed, how varietal
diversity is presently utilized and valued, why it is
threatened, and the range of conservation approaches being
used by citizen groups and individuals, as well as
governments and international organizations . The guide
features the varietal and historical aspects of six "New
World " crops—tomatoes, corn, peppers, beans, squashes and
pumpkins, and potatoes—and also Native American crop
varieties and traditional agriculture . Printed single copies
are free from the Alternative Farming Systems Information
Center (AFSIC) at the National Agricultural Library . The
publication is available on diskette, and will soon be
accessible from AFSIC 's web page
(www.nal .usda.gov/afsic) . Write to : Alternative Farming
Systems Information Center, National Agricultural Library,
Room 304, 10301 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, MD
20705-2351, phone (301) 504-6559 ; fax (301) 504-6409;
email : (afsic@nal .usda.gov) . +

Favretti Concludes
Twenty-Year Association
with Garden Club of
Virginia
by Peggy L. Cornett, Editor
Rudy J. Favretti 's two decade tenure with the Garden Club
R of Virginia ended in July 1998 . This organization, with
forty-six chapters, is unlike other garden clubs of its kind,
because of its dedication to restoring landscapes and historic
gardens throughout Virginia. The Garden Club's seventy-year
initiative includes the securing of promises from property
owners to maintain these
restored gardens . Favretti, who
resides in Storrs, Connecticut,
has worked on more than half of
the gardens and grounds chosen
by the garden club for its
ministrations . To date, the
Garden Club of Virginia has
completed thirty-five restoration
projects, which are found in
every corner of Virginia, and
include such famous sites as
Woodlawn Plantation in Mount Vernon, Portsmouth
Courthouse, Maymont and Saint John's Mews in Richmond,
the University of Virginia grounds and Monticello 's flower
gardens. In addition to Virginia sites, Favretti has lent his
expertise to similar projects throughout New England,
Pennsylvania, New York, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, and
numerous other states.
In a resolution made before the restoration committee of the
Garden Club of Virginia during a black-tie reception honoring
Favretti, club president Bessie Carter cited "his discriminating
aesthetic sensibility, his probing intellect, and his rare good
humor," and the innovations he brought to the science of
landscape restoration . Lois Mengel, immediate past president of
the restoration committee, noted the importance of the
fellowship program established by the committee at Favretti's
urging so that historic gardens remaining in private hands could
be fully documented . Mengel announced that the fellowship
would henceforth bear his name.
Favretti's work on the restoration of the grove at Monticello,
which he considers one of his biggest challenges, led to his
association with the Garden Club of Virginia in 1978 . A second
major restoration project in Virginia was Bacon 's Castle in
Surry County, which relied heavily on archaeological discoveries
before the original 1680 garden was uncovered . According to
Favretti, it was a project in which the research started out with
just "a little bit of hearsay, two references to plants, corn and
tobacco." Between what archaeologists uncovered and aerial
photographs revealed, restoration experts found not one but
7
three levels of a garden that was four times larger than anyone
previously suspected—an area equal to one-and-one-half football
fields. His final work for the garden club will be to assist in the
restoration of the pear-shaped Bowling Green at Mount
Vernon. Favretti likes to point out that he began his career with
the Garden Club of Virginia at Monticello and is ending it at
Mount Vernon, noting it's "not a bad beginning or end . A tidy
package . "
Favretti is probably best known for his 1978 landmark book,
Landscapes and Gardens for Historic Buildings, which he coauthored
with his wife Joy and which is still considered the
basic guide and reference for landscape historians . He has had a
long association with the Southern Garden History Society and
has participated as a lecturer for many "Restoring Southern
Landscapes and Gardens" symposiums at Old Salem, in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina . Now that he's fully retired,
Favretti plans to spend more time in his Connecticut garden,
which was most recently featured in the January/February 1998
issue of North American Gardener magazine. Aside from
gardening, he hopes also to write a book on the immigration of
his family from a valley in the Austrian Alps.
William D . Rieley, founding principal of Rieley &
Associates in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been chosen to
succeed Favretti as the Garden Club's landscape architect and
consultant. Rieley, a
graduate from the
University of Virginia' s
School of Architecture,
has maintained his
firm in Charlottesville
since 1980 . The firm
specializes in research
and site design for
historic properties,
park roads, and public
parks . Its projects
include historic
resource studies for
Acadia National Park
The Samuel Vaughan plan of Mount
Vernon from Landscapes and Gardens
for Historic Buildings.
in Maine and the
Vanderbilt Mansion
National Historic Site
in New York . In
Virginia, the firm's work includes projects at Monticello
(including the design of the new Thomas Jefferson Parkway),
the State Arboretum, Thomas Jefferson 's Poplar Forest,
Montpelier, Upper Brandon plantation, and Hopkins Green.
[For a brochure on "The Restored Historic Gardens of
Virginia" contact The Garden Club of Virginia, 12 East
Franklin Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219 ; (804) 643-7141 .] +

Members in the News
Jim Kibler's Our Fathers' Fields, the 200-year history of a
South Carolina plantation family, is receiving rave reviews
and is now in its second printing . [see review, Magnolia, Vol.
XIV, No. 2] Kibler was featured on HGTV's series "If Walls
Could Talk," which aired November 16th and 20th, 1998. The
book is available through the University of South Carolina
Press. For ordering information, call (800) 768-2500 or fax
(800) 868-0740.
Sharon Gregor received an Award of Achievement from
Cleveland's regional magazine, Northern Ohio Live, for a
decade of advocacy on behalf of Forest Hill Park, the former
Rockefeller estate deeded as public parkland to East
Cleveland and Cleveland Heights in 1938 by John D.
Rockefeller, Jr. The Forest Hill Historic Preservation Society,
of which Gregor was a founding president, has focused local
and national attention on the park as both a site of regional
historic importance and a unique geological and botanical
ecosystem . The group's advocacy has included annual tours
spotlighting the Rockefeller legacy, opposition to
indiscriminate development that threatens the character and
heritage of the park and, last year, the securing of a coveted
position on the National Register of Historic Places for the
significant portion of Forest Hill Park that still retains its
historic integrity.
Lucy Dos Passos Coggins, former director of public
programs and collections for the William Paca Gardens in
Anapolis, Maryland, has relocated to Richmond, Virginia.
Coggins has done extensive research for the Paca gardens and
has done significant work on historic plant lists.
The November 1998 issue of Garden Design magazine
features "How Mr. Jefferson Discovered America," by
Madeline Hutcheson, which describes the landscapes of
Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest, Monticello, the University
of Virginia, and Tuckahoe Plantation, the property near
Richmond where Jefferson spent much of his childhood.
Today Tuckahoe is privately owned and cared for by SGHS
member Sue Thompson.
The British magazine, Gardens Illustrated, features
landscape architect and past SGHS president Ben Page in its
August/September 1998 issue . Page collaborated with Sean
Kernan, a Connecticut-based photographer and bibliophile,
to create a book to thank Page's clients for years of patronage
and encouragement . The resulting publication combines
exquisite photo essays of Page's landscapes with images of
opened antique gardening books displayed with organic
symbols such as branches, stones, and soil.
SGHS President Peter Hatch was interviewed on National
Public Radio's "What Do Ya Know?" with Michael Feldman,
Saturday, November 21", 1998 . The program was broadcast
live from Charlottesville's Performing Arts Center . +
8
Expect the Unexpected:
The Greener Side of Texas
by Susan Keeton, Houston, Texas
00 vast to have a single identity, Texas is a state of distinct
T cultural and geographic regions . We invite you to attend
the seventeenth annual meeting of the Southern Garden History
Society in Houston, on the Texas Gulf Coast. a city of
contradictions and juxtapositions that make it a stimulating
urban center ready for the twenty-first century . In the shadows of
its famed skyline you will see descendants of the "Pine, Ash,
Cedar and Oak in inexhaustible quantities" and "the tall and
beautiful Magnolia" that the Allen brothers described in their
newspaper announcements of the city 's founding in 1836.
The meeting will be held at Bayou Bend Collection and
Gardens, the former home of Ima Hogg, which now houses the
American decorative arts collection of the Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston. Bayou Bend is one of the most noteworthy suburban
house and garden combinations built in the Gulf Coast Region
during the first half of the twentieth century. Miss Hogg's
brother, Will, was a leader of the "City Beautiful" urban planning
initiative in Houston . An enlightened developer, he planned the
suburban community of River Oaks, a model of civic design,
with Bayou Bend as its centerpiece. Ima Hogg and her architect,
John Staub, created an architectural style that responded to the
specific climate and location of Buffalo Bayou, while referring at
the same time to regional Southern traditions . The gracious
fourteen-acre gardens feature a lush Southern plant palette in the
formal area, surrounded by the native bayou woodland.
Join us March 26th -28th, 1999, for interesting programs and
a healthy dose of Texas hospitality. Garden tours will feature a
variety of splendid landscapes designed by Ellen Shipman, C . C.
"Pat" Fleming, and other prominent designers of the 1920s and
30s. An optional Sunday program features a newly designated
project of the Garden Conservancy, Peckerwood Garden, which
contains a notable collection of plants native to Mexico . This will
be followed by a picnic lunch at a garden antiques shop in
Brenham and a visit to the Antique Rose Emporium, known
nationally for its selection of roses, perennials, and herbs.
For information about the meeting contact Linda Hughes,
Registration Chair at (281) 360-3193 . +
Annual Membership Dues
Benefactor $250 Joint/husband-wife $30
Patron $150 Individual $20
Sustainer $75 Student $5
Institution/Business $30
Life membership $1,000 (one time)
The membership year runs from May 1st to April 30th.
Members joining after January 1st will be credited for the coming
year beginning May 1st . Write to membership secretary at:
Southern Garden History Society, Old Salem, Inc ., Drawer F,
Salem Station, Winston—Salem, North Carolina 27108.
phone (336) 721-7328.

Wilmington's Belamy
Mansion
(from Preservation North Carolina, Summer 1998)
n 1993, when the Bellamy Mansion Museum of
I History and Design Arts in Wilmington, North
Carolina, opened to the public after a long and careful
restoration of the elaborate antebellum mansion, very little of
its garden survived . The landscape in front of the house stood
barren. That has changed. A faithful recreation of the formal
Victorian gardens that once graced the Bellamy Mansion is
now complete. A multi-layered process of research,
interviews, archaeology, and friendly advice has culminated
in the restoration of the Bellamy Mansion's gardens.
The gardens were designed and planted in the first two
years following the Civil War, and at the same time a cast
iron fence and brick wall were installed . The plan was a
symmetrical series of elliptical and circular parterre beds.
Archaeological research revealed that the paths consisted of
oyster, clam, and scallop shells . Dozens of photographs aided
in identifying plants and their location in the garden.
Personal recollections suggested yet more plants . Period plant
lists of neighboring gardens supplemented documentary
evidence about the contents of the garden.
It appears that the general layout of the garden was
consistent from its inception until its decline early in this
century. Evidence suggests, however, that in the early decades
of the garden some plantings did not thrive or survive and
had to be replaced . By the 1880s a successful mix of shrubs
and perennials flourished, and it is approximately this period
that has been interpreted.
In 1997 Bellamy Mansion received the Minnette C . Duffy
Award, North Carolina's highest award for the preservation,
restoration or
maintenance of
landscapes, gardens,
streetscapes, or
grounds related to
historic structures.
The award, which
includes a $500
stipend, is made
possible by the
family of the late
Minnette Chapman
Duffy of New Bern,
whose leadership
contributed to the
reconstruction of
Tryon Palace.
Although the
The recently restored gardens at the Bellamy
Mansion in Wilmington .
property is now
owned by
9
Preservation North Carolina, the Awards Committee elected
to present the 1997 Duffy Award to the Bellamy Mansion
Museum because of the involvement of numerous local
volunteers, donors, landscape professionals (such as the
Coastal Carolina Chapter of the American Society of
Landscape Architects), and organizations (such as the Cape
Fear Garden Club) in the restoration of the gardens . +
Cherokee Garden Library
Receives Accolades
Atlanta 's Cherokee Garden Library, which is the
repository for the Southern Garden History Society ' s
archives, received high praise from rare book dealers Brad
Lyon and Joanne Fuccello of Elisabeth Woodburn Books.
According to Lyon, "We can see that the library contains
some very important items, which any good horticultural
library would covet . But it goes further-and this we believe
is critical to the library's stature-it is so strong in the
regional horticultural literature of the South . To our
knowledge, there is no other library in the Southeast with
as great a concentration of this material as Cherokee
contains." The library, located on the grounds of the
Atlanta History Center, was greatly enhanced by donations
from the late Elisabeth Woodburn herself, who took an
early interest in their garden history collection . +
Christie's "Flowerings and
Furnishings"
On Monday, December 7th, Christie's of New York
sponsored a one-day conference devoted to the pleasures and
challenges of gardening in America . The impetus for this
program was the publication of two new gardening books:
Furnishing the Old-Fashioned Garden by May Brawley Hill
(Harry N. Abrams, Inc .) and Earth on Her Hands; The
American Woman in Her Garden by Starr Ockenga (Clarkson
Potter publishers) . Chaired by Tom Armstrong, president of
The Garden Conservancy and gardener, the meeting looked
comprehensively at gardeners, gardens, garden design,
plantings, and furnishings . The program was offered by
Christie's as a benefit for The Garden Conservancy. +

Landscape Preservation
Symposium at Wave Hill
W ave Hill ' s CATALOG of Landscape Records in the
United States, in partnership with the National
Park Service Landscape Initiative, The Garden Club of
America, and the Cultural Landscape Foundation, will
present a symposium on Saturday, April 17 th, 1999
entitled, "If Only We Knew: Landscape Preservation in
Context, 1890-1950 . " The symposium will demonstrate
that respect for historic fabric is not a new concept . It was
an essential part of the design and planning implemented
by American landscape practitioners early in this century.
In keeping with past symposia organized by Charles A.
Birnbaum, FASLA and Catha Grace Rambusch, Director
of the CATALOG, this program will present hitherto
unexplored aspects of American landscape history as they
relate to making informed design and management
decisions today. Of particular interest to members of the
Southern Garden History Society are lectures by Catherine
Howett on "Grounding Memory and Identity: Pioneering
Garden Club Projects Documenting Historic Landscape
Traditions of the American South," and Phyllis Andersen's
—If Washington were here himself, he would be on my
side ' : Charles Sprague Sargent and the preservation of the
landscape of Mount Vernon . "
The CATALOG of Landscape Records in the United
States is a national research initiative to collect information
about the location and context of records that document
American landscapes . Since no other national resource of
this kind exists, the CATALOG is a valuable tool for
scholars. Its very existence helps stimulate public interest in
landscape design as an expression of cultural and aesthetic
values in American life . The goal of the program is to
promote scholarship in the history and practice of
American landscape design and to expand the public's
understanding of landscape architecture through
exhibitions, symposia, lectures, research, and publications.
Wave Hill is a spectacular 28-acre public garden and
cultural institution overlooking the Hudson River and the
Palisades in the Bronx . Award-winning gardens,
greenhouses, and woodlands offer people of all ages the
opportunity to explore their connections to the natural
world. Programs are offered in horticulture, environmental
education, land management, landscape history, and the
performing and visual arts.
Early registration is recommended for the day-long
symposium . See the Calendar for details. +
10
Fall 1998 Board
Meeting
submitted by Flora Ann Bynum, Secretary
he Fall board meeting was held at Monticello, in
T Charlottesville, Virginia, October 16th - 18th with SGHS
president Peter J. Hatch and Magnolia editor Peggy Cornett as
hosts. Mr. Hatch welcomed four new board members to their
first meeting : James R. Cothran of Atlanta, Georgia ; Gail
Griffin, of Bethesda, Maryland ; Davyd Foard Hood of Vale,
North Carolina ; and Larry Paarlberg of Tallahassee, Florida.
The society's board of directors approved dates for three
future annual meetings [see Calendar] . SGHS director J . Dean
Norton of Mount Vernon, Virginia proposed May 13th -15th ,
2000, for the eighteenth annual meeting, which will be held at
Mount Vernon, and this date was accepted.
A proposal was also accepted from Carlton B . Wood,
horticulturist for Tryon Palace, New Bern, North Carolina, to
host the nineteenth annual meeting in New Bern May 2nd - 4th ,
2001 . The theme for this meeting will be "Historic Landscapes
of the Carolina Coastal Plain . " Dr. Elizabeth M . Boggess, SGHS
director from Natchez, Mississippi, invited the society to
Natchez for the twentieth annual meeting to be held around the
middle of April 2002.
SGHS Board Members on tour of Bremo Plantation led by
C Allan Brown
Nancy F . Haywood of Houston, Texas outlined the
proposed program and budget for the upcoming annual meeting
in Houston, March 26th-28th , 1999, of which she is chair . The
program and budget were approved by the board.
Dr. William C. Welch reported for the publications
committee that NouveauJardinier ("The New Louisiana
Gardener") was in the hands of the Louisiana State University
Press, publishers of the book under the sponsorship of the
Southern Garden History Society . Sally K. Reeves, archivist for
the Notarial Archives, New Orleans, Louisiana, has translated
the small book and prepared an introduction after lengthy
research . The date of publication has not been determined.

Reprints of Three
Anonymous 18th-
Century Gardening
Books attributed to
Sir John Hill (1714-1775)
by Dr. Arthur O. Tucker, Dover, Delaware
I
recently had the fortune to find a photocopied reprint of
The Gardener's Pocket-Book by "R. S. Gent." and, later,
The Gentleman's, Traveller's, Husbandman's and Gardener's
Pocket-Companion (containing The Gardener's Pocket Book),
with no attribution, both originally published by W . Owen in
London. Both were republished by The King's Arms Press &
Bindery (P . O. Box 419, Oldwick, NJ 08858, 908-439-2271,
www.kingspress.com) . While these two pamphlets were
undated, the fonts and style are from the eighteenth century,
and advertisements for other books by the same publisher in
the rear of the former suggest a date of c.1745-1775 . In one of
those serendipitous encounters that seem so often to arise, I
happened to have lunch with Dr . James Reveal of the
University of Maryland and mentioned these slim tomes, the
former of 55 pages and the latter of 84 pages . Jim immediately
concluded, on the basis of the publisher, dates, and
advertisements in the rear of the former for books by "a Society
of Gentlemen," that the author was actually Sir John Hill . This
reinforces Blanche Henrey (British Botanical and Horticultural
Literature before 1800, Oxford Univ . Press, London, 1975),
who reached the same conclusion . Further correspondence with
William J. Michaelski of The King's Arms Press & Bindery
revealed that these copies were originally bound together and
came from the library of Governor Whitman of New Jersey.
They were originally purchased by Governor Whitman's
mother when her father was Ambassador to the Court of St.
James. The front flyleaf had a handwritten date of 1754.
Then, I happened to run across a reprint of The Gardener's
Kalendar published by Lee Valley Tools Ltd . (P. O . Box 1780,
Ogdensburg, NY 13669-6780, 800-871-8158,
www.leevalley .com) from a copy at Old Fort William (Vickers
Heights, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada POT 2Z0) . This
edition of 1997, with 369 pages, not only has had its type reset,
but it also has had its English modernized, along with many
unattributed illustrations . Correspondence with Melinda Bell
at the OFW Library revealed that the original title page was
dated 1777; this was the third edition, corrected and improved,
by "A Society of Gentlemen" and was printed by J . F. and C.
Rivington and others in London . The Gardener's Kalender was
actually bound with The Complete Farmer . Not only is the
attribution of "A Society of Gentlemen" an indication of Sir
John Hill's authorship, but the similar wording of The
Gentleman 's, Traveller 's, Husbandman 's and Gardener 's Pocket-
11
Companion and The Gardener's Kalendar is also a clue . The
former says for January: "This Month being generally very cold,
and the Earth frozen, there is little to be done in Gardening . . .";
the latter states for January: "January being generally severely
cold, there is less work to be done in the garden . . . ."
Sir John Hill is characterized in Taxonomic Literature,
second edition (vol . II, ed. Frans A. Stafleu and Richard S.
Cowan, Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema, The Hague, 1979) as a
"British apothecary and naturalist ; author of many
compilations dealing with horticulture, botany or medicine ."
Miles Hadfield (Gardening in Britain, Hutchinson, London,
1960) has characterized Sir John Hill as "An odd and
unreliable, yet in some ways clever, character ." The animosity
towards John Hill existed for a number of reasons and
culminated with his assumption of "Sir" as granted from the
Order of Vasa in 1774 by the Swedish king rather than the
reigning British monarch . Over two hundred years later, British
authors still referred to him as "Sir" John Hill . Along the lines
of the anonymity of the above three publications, in 1756-8
Hill published Eden, which was "compiled and digested from
the papers of the late celebrated Mr . Hale, by the authors of the
Compleat body of husbandy," but John Hill signed the
dedication, and "Thomas Hale" was apparently a convenient
invention . During this era, Hill was also competing with other
popular British gardening publications, notably The Gardeners
Kalendar of Philip Miller, superintendent of the Society of
Apothecaries at Chelsea (my copy is the 16th edition of 1775
reprinted in 1971 by The National Capital Area Federation of
Garden Clubs).
All three books were obviously compiled from other authors
with some personal experience of Hill tying the text together.
Many observations might be viewed today as quaint and the
sort of thing that interpreters at historic gardens love to use in
their educational tours. The following is from The Gardener's
Pocket-Book . While it may not sound possible, consider that we
still know very little about the agents for the induction of
mutations, genetic or somatic ; the mechanism, however, seems
to be an uptake of dye, similar to the methods used by the
ancient Arabs to create blue roses.
"I. To make Gilliflowers double, and of several Colours.
The great Mr . Ray, so celebrated for his Knowledge in
Plants, mentions the following Method of doing it, and seems
to highly value it . He had some white Gillifowers, which in the
Spring bore all of them single Flowers . He transplanted them
in Autumn, and in the Spring following, kept them from
blowing [blooming] . In the Summer they produced double
Flowers; which proving all to be white, he took the following
Method to have some of different Colours . He sow'd some of
the Seed in a very succulent Earth, which he had caused to be
continued on page 12. ..

Reprints of Three Anonymous
18th-Century Gardening Books
attributed to Sir John Hill
(1714-1775) . ..
continued from page 11
dry'd in the Sun, and then sifted through a Sieve . Every
Morning and Evening he water'd it with Water of several
Colours. On some of the Seeds he poured yellow Water, on
others blue ; here red, there green, &c. He continued to water
them for three Weeks ; and every Evening took the Pots into the
House, that the Dew of the Night might not dilute and weaken
the Colours, with which he had tinctured the Water . It
succeeded according to his Desire . The Sprouts of the Seed
impregnated themselves with the Colours he had made use of;
and the Plants bore Gilliflowers of beautiful Colours . Some
were of a Saffron Colour, some White, some Purple, some
variegated with divers Colours, &c . [Ray's History ofPlants,
Book I . Chap . 20 .]
The Colours you use to tincture the Water, must be taken
from Vegetables ; for those that come from Minerals are too
corrosive, and will kill the Plants.
The Secret may be practised on all Sorts of white Flowers . It
is likely it will produce a wonderful effect on white Lillies ." +
Peter J . Hatch, President Editor:
Kenneth M . McFarland, Vice-President Peggy L. Cornett
Flora Ann Bynum, Secretary-Treasurer Monticello, P.O .B. 316
Charlottesville, VA 22902
Magnolia grandiflora reproduced by courtesy of Rare Book Division, (804) 984-9816
Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library . Fax (804) 977-6140
pcornett@monticello .org
Southern Garden History Society
Old Salem, Inc.
Drawer F, Salem Station
Winston-Salem, NC 27108
Fall 1998 Board Meeting . ..
continued from page 10
Jacques Felix Lelièvre composed and published "The New
Louisiana Gardener " in New Orleans in 1838 as a pocket-sized
gardening guide.
SGHS director Gordon W. Chappell of Colonial Williamsburg,
Virginia told the board that he had staff available who could
begin work
immediately on the
proposed plant list for
the South, which the
board has under
consideration . He will
get out letters
immediately asking for
early plant lists . The
board accepted his offer
with enthusiasm, and
Peter Hatch appointed
Mr. Chappell chair of
the society's historic
plant list for the South .
Garden temple in the landscape of Bremo.
Deadline for the submission of articles for the winter issue of Magnolia is January 31th.
12
Associate Editor:
Kenneth M . McFarland
Historic Stagville , P.O .B. 71217
Durham, NC 27722-1217
(919) 620-0120
Fax (919) 620-0422
stagvill@sprynet.com
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