Inspired by the old-worldly flavor of places like Monticello and Mount Vernon, gardeners across the country are pulling out boring blooms in favor of more time-honored varieties.
by Lis King

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson weren’t just passionate about creating a new nation. They were also crazy about gardening, and they were obviously good at it. The gardens they planted at Mount Vernon and Monticello are models for today’s gardeners, and the good news is that the plants and trees they loved, as well as other heirloom varieties, are now cropping up in backyards all over the country.
Horticulturists and landscape designers say that making a new garden look old is one of today’s hottest trends. People with older homes — or new ones in such historic styles as farmhouse, cottage, Colonial or country French — are pulling out boring blooms in favor of old-fashioned varieties. Homeowners are also replacing concrete walks with stone or gravel paths, and lawns with herbal, flower and boxwood beds in ornamental patterns.
Peggy Cornett, director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants, isn’t surprised.
“The old plants are romantic,” she says. “Gardeners love the idea of forgoing Boston lettuce for Tennis Ball lettuce, which Jefferson noted didn’t require ‘so much care and attention.’ Such Monticello flowers as pinks, carnations, irises, honeysuckle and roses, as well as Jefferson’s beloved apple trees, are also favorites.”

Living Heirlooms
Horticulturists have long bemoaned ecologically incorrect lawns and the sameness of too many gardens, so they welcome the new interest in historic garden design and plant materials. They say that it brings sound ecology and variety to today’s gardens, and, for those who grow vegetables, there is an added bonus. These veggies aren’t hybrids like the ones you buy in supermarkets, so they taste great.
Jefferson cultivated more than 250 vegetable varieties and 170 fruit varieties, designed ornamental groves, and took guests on visits to his “pet” trees. At Mt. Vernon, Washington created a park-like landscape with groves of trees, walled gardens and broad lawns leading either to open pastures or a border of natural woods.
Bulbs, seeds and/or seedlings are available from Monticello, Mount Vernon and Colonial Williamsburg as well as from non-profit organizations formed to save heritage varieties. One of the most famous is the Seed Savers Exchange of Decorah, Iowa, but lately, traditional seed suppliers have joined in, too. Burpee, for example, now has an heirloom catalog featuring many traditional varieties rarely seen today. American Forests, a conservation organization, can also provide a historic touch for your garden. It offers saplings propagated from famous trees, such as the tulip poplars planted by Washington at Mount Vernon.

Gardens To Learn From
Heirloom plants absolutely add charm to the flowerbed and good taste to the vegetable patch, but horticulturists are much more interested in the biodiversity that they bring to the garden world.
We have been losing too many plant varieties, and that is not healthy, say the experts. The Irish potato famine, for example, happened because all the potato varieties growing in Europe at the time were derived from just two parent varieties. They had never encountered blight, so they had no resistance.
If you are a perfectionist who wants your flowerbeds to provide precisely planned drifts of specific colors, you should be forewarned. Heirloom plants are fertilized by wind or insects, so cross-fertilization could produce unexpected colors when several species are planted together. This is not to say that the new variety may not be lovely, but it won’t be what you expected.
Colonial Williamsburg, with its 100-plus gardens, is a great place to learn about both old-fashioned plants and historic garden design. Here, you will find neatly planted symmetrical gardens featuring combinations of edible plants, herbs, flowers, clipped boxwood hedges and fruit trees.
“Most of the gardens are comparable in size to today’s home lots,” says Wesley Greene, Williamsburg’s garden historian. “This helps modern gardeners relate to them in a more intimate way.”
He adds that Williamsburg’s plant lists merit the attention of gardeners as well.
“They are a great jumping-off point for a period bed or garden area,” he says. “In addition, the Colonists favored tough plants, and that should be of special interest to busy amateur gardeners. Remember, the Colonists had to carry water from wells, a backbreaking job, so they chose plants that could stand up to heat and drought. One example of such toughness is the roses grown in some Colonial gardens. They may not have the largest blossoms, but they are tremendously hardy.”
Historic gardens featuring themes ranging from 18th-century kitchen plots to Victorian mazes are plentiful and well worth visiting. Lectures and garden tours, newsletters and mail-order catalogs are also available.