Like its fatuous restored 18th-century gardens, the cutting garden at Colonial Williamsburg is based on extensive research.
Though planted with more than 200 kinds of shrubs, perennials, bulbs, and annuals, the plants represented are those that home gardeners can also grow in their small cutting gardens to have an almost year-round supply of cut material for bouquet use indoors.
When the exhibition buildings of Colonial Williamsburg were first opened to the public, Mrs. Louise B. Fisher, a hostess and enthusiastic gardener, suggested giving the rooms a homelike appearance by adding flower arrangements.
At first, Mrs. Fisher used flowers from her garden, donations from her friends’ gardens, and native wildflowers.
Mrs. Fisher’s Project
The arrangements drew many comments from visitors, including some surprising observations about the authenticity of the plant material. How could she use dahlias, for instance, when they were unknown in the 18th century?
Realizing that the arrangements should include only those wild and cultivated flowers known to the colonists, Airs. Fisher embarked on a two-year research project.
The Virginia colonists were enthusiastic gardeners. Carrying on the English tradition of “pleasure gardens,” Virginians with large estates planted elaborate gardens of imported and domestic plants.
Even the most modest homes were surrounded by colorful reminders of their homes in England. Many of the wealthy planters were scholars of the natural sciences who carried on a lively exchange of plant materials with the English botanists.
Fortunately, these serious hobbyists left garden notebooks, diaries, and letters describing their plants, botanical experiments, and mail-order exchanges across the Atlantic.
These records furnished Mrs. Fisher with a long list of suitable materials. In addition, she studied hundreds of 18th-century flower prints from England, Holland, and France, which showed typical flowers and arrangements.
Although the restored colonial, Gardens in Williamsburg were planted with authentic flowers, it became obvious that a special cutting garden was needed to provide sufficient plant material for the flower decorations.
Flowering Plants
Today it contains a riot of flowering plants cherished by colonial gardeners like John Bartratn, the famous Pennsylvania botanist, and his Virginia contemporaries, William Byrd, John Clayton, John Custis, and Thomas Jefferson.
These men imported quantities of bulbs against great odds. The smoothest voyage took three months or more, during which harassed sea captains had little time or inclination to tend such perishable cargo.
Although bulbs often dried out or were left at the mercy of rot from salt water and destruction by rats, a good percentage survived.
Bulbs From London
In 1740, John Bartram received a letter from Peter Collinson in London describing a shipment as follows:
“Inclosed is the mate’s receipt for a box of bulbs, directed to thee . . . they are such a collection as is rarely met with. . . There is above twenty Sorts of Crocus—as many of Narcissus—all our sorts of Martagons and Lilies—with Gladiolus, Ornithogalums, Molevs, and Irises, with many others I don’t know to remember, which time will show thee.”
According to old garden books, gladiolus was known in deep purple, dark red, dusky yellow, pale yellow, flesh color, bluish approaching white and white.
Early in the 18th century, Bradley listed as many as 72 narcissus, many described as having very large trumpets, and in 1728, he listed 79 varieties of iris growing in English gardens.
Native Virginia Bulbs
Among the native Virginia bulbs sent to Collinson by his correspondent Bartram was the Atamasco lily, known today in the Williamsburg area as the Jamestown lily, because it grows in profusion at the end of Jamestown Island.
All these bulbs bloom in the cutting garden today, along with the meadow lily (Lilium canadense), which was found particularly suitable for flower arrangements:
- Madonna lily
- Croceum or orange lily
- Scarlet or wood lily (L. philadelphicum)
- Superbum or American Turk’s-cap
- Hyacinths
- Colchicum
- Guernsey lilies
- Scillas
- Sternbergias
- Tuberoses
- Tulips
Snapdragons in All Colors
Snapdragons were known in the 18th century in white, yellow, red, and some variegated forms. These were placed in the cutting garden with the annuals since they are renewed yearly.
The china aster, sent to Bartram by Collinson in 1735, is in the garden, too. Bartram sent white and purple plants with this explanation: “The China sister is the noblest and finest plant thee ever saw of that tribe.
It was sent by the Jesuits from China to France, then to us. . . . It makes a glorious autumn flower.”
Celosia and Larkspurs
In the cockscomb form, Celosia, both red and yellow, and Prince Feather is particularly valuable for 18th-century arrangements, both fresh and dried winter bouquets.
Larkspurs, single and double, were used in colonial times, and as early as 1760, Collinson highly commended Bartram for his hybridization of the flower.
Nicotiana
Nicotiana, or flowering tobacco, was popular along with marigolds, jonquils, and nasturtium.
The double nasturtium was described by the nurseryman Robert Furber in 1732 as “lately received from Holland, but it was first raised in Italy, and many contrivances were used before it could be brought to Holland; it first bore a great price and was esteemed as a great Rarity.”
18th Century Annuals
Other 18th-century annuals in the cutting garden include:
- Calendulas
- Cornflowers
- Sweet sultan
- Sunflowers
- Strawflowers
- Candytuft
- Sweet peas
- Poppies
- Scarlet sage
- Scabiosa
- Pansies
Perennials include:
- Cowslips
- Columbines
- Wallflowers
- Honeysuckle
- Peonies
- Sweet rocket
- Oriental poppies
- Red and white valerian
- Meadow-rue
- Daisies
- Pinks
- Sweet william
- Canterbury bells
- Marguerites
- Veronica
- Lupine
Emphasis on Design
It is impossible to grow the identical variety of each flower as it was known in the 18th century. During the latter part of the century, there was a fad in gardening that emphasized design rather than plant material.
Many flowers were not cultivated, and others were neglected in an inconspicuous corner of the garden; therefore, many plants were forever lost to cultivation.
Others were long forgotten and brought back many years later in other forms. In the Colonial Williamsburg cutting garden, varieties are believed to resemble most closely the flower cultivated in the 18th century.
Over the years, some flowers have been discarded as unsuitable in arrangements because of their odor or lack of stamina.
Handsome Crown Imperial
The handsome crown imperial, shown as the crowning flower in many 18th-century flower prints, was a favorite of the era.
Charles Evelyn described it as “A most stately and graceful plant . . . and the double Sort, particularly the Orange-coloured, and yellow, skew finely mixed in the Middle of a Flower-pot.”
However effective, modern visitors to Williamsburg found its beauty overpowered by its unpleasant odor, so it was taken out of the cutting garden.
Roses in the Garden
Many old-fashioned roses which gave the arrangements an authentic charm and age wilted in Virginia’s hot climate before the day was over, so these, too, were not replanted.
However, the many roses in the garden include the cabbage or hundred-leaf rose, moss, York and Lancaster, French, red damask, Cherokee, rose of the world, and sweetbriar.
Flowering shrubs and trees
Flowering shrubs and trees have been planted to augment those in a large tract of woods owned by Colonial Williamsburg.
The marvelous displays of dogwood seen in the Palace during the spring come from these woods and cutting gardens.
Redbud, elderberry, horse chestnut, viburnums, mock orange, and quince are also planted. The shrubs are started from mature plants, and cutting keeps them within bounds.
The landscape division tends to the acre of bulbs, annuals, and perennials. The Colonial Williamsburg gardeners divide some of the perennials, and others are ordered and planted in the fall, as are the bulbs.
Annuals are started in late March or early April, sometimes in cold frames and sometimes directly in the field.
Extensive Plant Exchange
According to Bartram, John Custis of Williamsburg had one of the most outstanding gardens in the country, second only to John Clayton’s.
Like Bartram, he carried on an avid correspondence and exchange of plants with Collinson and succeeded despite frustrations and disappointments of poor shipments to raise an impressive botanical garden.
Today’s cutting garden in Williamsburg owes much to Custis and his friends, who extensively exchanged plant materials.
44659 by A. R. Eaton