Wallflower
Cheiranthus cheiri
Wallflower, native to southern Europe, has been globally introduced, naturalized, and hybridized as an easy to grow garden varietal.
Wallflowers were grown in British gardens since 1573 and cultivated in America by the early 1700s). Wallflowers are divided into two genera, Cheiranthus and Erysimum, and there is much debate as to the differences between the two. Some authorities believe the two words are synonyms. The name Cheiranthus derives from the Latin for "hand flower," referring to this fragrant flower's use in nosegays and tussie mussies.
While serving as president, Thomas Jefferson sent his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph a "bundle of Wallflowers,"1and he ordered wallflower seed from Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon in 1807.2 The wallflower also appears in the 1793 diary of Jean, Lady Skipwith of Virginia, and Bernard McMahon includes it in his 1802/1803 seed catalog.3
- Peggy Cornett, n.d.
Further Sources
- Adams, Denise Wiles. Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants, 1640-1940. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, Inc., 2004.
- Coats, Alice M. Flowers and Their Histories. London: Black, 1968. See pp. 47-48.
- Skipwith Family Papers, 1760-1977. Manuscripts and Rare Books Department. Earl Gregg Swem Library. College of William and Mary.
- Stuart, David and James Sutherland. Plants from the Past: Old Flowers for New Gardens. London: Penguin, 1989.
- Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants.
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Heirloom Seeds and Plants from the Monticello collection
Plant history in your gardens with seeds and plants from Monticello and the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants.
Footnotes
- Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, November 21,1806, in Betts, Garden Book, 327. Transcription available at Founders Online.
- Jefferson to McMahon, January 6, 1807, in ibid., 337. Transcription available at Founders Online. See also Edwin M. Betts, Hazlehurst Bolton Perkins, and Peter J. Hatch, Thomas Jefferson's Flower Garden at Monticello, 3rd ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1986), 56.
- Lawrence D. Griffith, Flowers and Herbs of Early America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 218.