The Founding Fathers' Favorite Flowers – These 8 Varieties Were Must-Haves in Their Gardens and Should Be in Yours, Too
Celebrate America's 250th with the ultimate garden throwback. Here are 8 historic flowers worth growing today.
America’s 250th birthday is just around the corner, and you can celebrate right in your own garden. Did you know that many of our founding fathers, including George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, had gardens on their estates, and were deeply invested in the different plants and flowers they grew? This makes sense when you consider how a thriving, self-reliant landscape reflects the thriving, free society they hoped to create.
While we can only speculate as to the contents and layout of the flower gardens of our founding fathers, history has recorded the species of beautiful summer flowers available in the young nation. Unlike some of our hot-house exotics today, yesteryear’s flowers were tough, resilient plants that could surmount issues in their growing environment in a way that reflects American grit.
What better way to celebrate our nation’s historical courage and persistence in the face of challenges than to add some of these amazing plants to your own landscape? We’ve put together a shortlist of 8 flowering beauties that our founding fathers might well have included in their own gardens.
1. Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
Talk about a plant with roots deep in the American experiment! The cardinal flower is a North American native, a tough, hardy perennial with brilliant red blooms that was chosen by Thomas Jefferson for his personal garden in Monticello in 1807. Well before that, Native Americans used the plant medicinally.
Today there are dozens of cultivars of this plant with different colored blooms. Plant it in USDA zones 3-9 in a full sun location and moist, well-draining soil. The plants require little maintenance. They grow rapidly and reseed themselves
2. Sweet Pea (Lathyrus odoratus)
The sweet pea is another plant that has been around for centuries. It is an elegant plant with a lovely fragrance that is said to have arrived in England as early as 1699. One can only assume that his graceful beauty, called the queen of the annuals, made its way to the colonies and into the gardens of our founding fathers.
Elegant, graceful and fragrant, sweet peas are vining plants that can get as long as 8 feet in areas with sun and well-draining soil. Vintage sweet pea plants offer vibrant colors and an intense fragrance, making your landscape feel like a cottage garden. Modern cultivars offer a wider variety of shades but some lack the traditional fragrance.
3. Cockscomb (Celosia cristata)
Cockscomb is another of the plants we know for certain that Thomas Jefferson planted in his garden. That’s because he noted the planting of Cockscomb seeds in 1767, describing it as “a flower like the Prince's feather."
Today, cockscomb is a popular garden flower, still noted for its unique “feather” form. The flowers are bright and last long on the plant and also as fresh or dried blooms. Plant cockscomb in full sun and moist, well-drained soils. You will find cockscomb with flowers in purple, blue, white, pink, or lavender. Coclscomb in the Celosia genus is an annual, while a sister variety in the Delphinium genus is a perennial.
4. Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)
This showy plant with spires of pink-purple tubular flowers grows wild on my mountain in France. But foxglove seeds also made it to the colonies as early as 1735. The plant made the list as being ordered for Jefferson’s Monticello home.
Foxglove is not a diminutive plant, sometimes growing to 5 feet (2m) tall. It is magnificent and tough, growing in USDA zones 4-10 in anyplace there is drainage and some sun. It is toxic and can cause serious injury if touched with bare hands or ingested.
5. Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla)
Twinleaf is a rare woodland wildflower native to North America. Reputed by family members to be in Jefferson’s gardens, it was named in honor of the founding father in 1792.
Twinleaf is a North American perennial with small white flowers that appear on stems in early spring, before the leaves have expanded. The unusual lidded seedpods mature in early June and often go completely dormant in summer.
Twinleaf prefers shade and makes a wonderful groundcover in a suitable location. It offers lush green leaves and flowers, small white blossoms that open in early spring before the leaves. Easy to grow, twinleaf plants are not for the hasty as they can take up to 8 years to bloom from seed.
6. Marigold (Tagetes species)
Most of us know marigolds, flower garden staples with their vibrant, colorful flowers. But did you know that they were planted in Thomas Jefferson’s Montecello in the early 1800s? Native to South America, they made their slow way to America via northern Africa and Europe.
These members of the sunflower family have evolved over time into double garden forms, but Jefferson planted the species form, with single, yellow flowers. Hardy in USDA zone 9 and above, they are generally grown as tough, resilient annuals.
7. Hollyhock (Alcea rosea)
Much of our knowledge about the flowers planted in the early days of our nation comes from the efforts of Thomas Jefferson. In a 1782 Garden Book entry he created a chart of flower bloom months that showed Hollyhocks flowering at Monticello from mid-June through July.
Today there are numerous species of hollyhocks available in commerce. They are known as cold-hardy, adaptable flowering plants, available in almost most colors of the rainbow. These can grow to 8 feet (3m) tall if planted in a full sun location. Use at the back of borders or against fencing for best effect.
8. Larkspur (Consolida ajacis)
Is larkspur one of the toughest annuals out there? Even so, it is one of the plants traditionally used in cottage gardens and attracts pollinators to your yard with its delicate blooms. The foliage can only be called lacy, held high on showy, spiked stems.
This annual was brought to America from the Old World and quickly made itself at home in USDA hardiness zones 2-9. It is extremely hardy and replants itself every year by self-seeding. Just after the birth of our nation, Jefferson had it planted at Monticello. Larkspur prefers a full sun exposure and can grow to 7 feet (2m) tall.
