Today At Monticello
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Gates open from 8:30 am to 6 pm
Common Name: Eastern Redbud
Scientific Name: Cercis canadensis
In 1781, Thomas Jefferson listed redbud in his Notes on the State of Virginia as a native "Esculent" tree.[1] He intended it to be a part of his shrubbery scheme for the western slope of Monticello and in the clumps of trees planted in the angles of the house in 1807.[2] He likewise directed that redbuds be planted among clumps of native trees and shrubs at Poplar Forest in 1812.[3] One of the earliest American references to this tree was made by John Custis in correspondence with Peter Collinson in 1735.[4]
It is often called "Judas-tree," which actually refers to a Mediterranean species, Cercis siliquastrum, a species Judas supposedly used to hang himself.[5]
The Eastern Redbud is a hardy, deciduous, spring flowering tree with graceful heart-shaped leaves and purplish-pink, pea-like flowers.
- Text from Center for Historic Plants Information Sheet
Primary Source References
1771. (Miscellaneous Memoranda). "Trees.--Redbud."[6]
1771 September 30. "Trees...Red-bud."[7]
1791 May 8. (Jefferson to Maria Jefferson Eppes). "May 4th the gelder-rose, dog-wood, redbud, azalea were in blossom."[8]
1807 April 16. (Weather Memorandum Book). "planted as follows...1. Red bud (N. E. clump)...the above were from Maine except 5 horse chestnuts from nursery & the Redbud"[9]
1812 Nov. (Planting Memorandum for Poplar Forest). "...clump of Athenian & Balsam poplars at each corner of house. intermix locusts, common and Kentucky, redbuds, dogwoods, calycanthus, liriodendron."[10]
1818 April 11. (Jefferson to Jacob Bigelow). "The red bud blooms Apr. 2-19."[11]
Further Sources
- Adams, Denise Wiles. Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants, 1640-1940. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, Inc., 2004
- Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants
- United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service. Plants Database. Plants Profile: Cercis canadensis L. / eastern redbud.
Footnotes
- 1. Notes ed. Peden, 40.
- 2. Betts, Garden Book, 334.
- 3. Ibid., 494.
- 4. Ann Leighton, American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century (Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1986), 405.
- 5. Joan Parry Dutton, Plants of Colonial Williamsburg (Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg, 1979), 48.
- 6. Betts, Garden Book, 27.
- 7. Ibid., 23. Manuscript and transcription at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
- 8. PTJ, 20:380.
- 9. Betts, Garden Book, 333-4.
- 10. Ibid., 494.
- 11. Ibid., 579, and L&B, 19:261. Polygraph copy at the Library of Congress.