Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia

Canada Lily

Lilium canadense

Native to eastern North America; a mid-summer flowering bulb bearing broadly trumpet shaped, yellow to yellow-orange flowers with rich, maroon-red spots in the center. Also known as Meadow Lily and Canada Martagon..

C.K. Reed, 1907/PD
In Bloom
June–July
Growth Type
Bulb
Hardiness
2 - 7
Conditions
Prefers sun to part shade; moist, humus-rich loam.
Colors
Yellow, Orange
Size
Flower stem grows 3 to 5 feet
Documented By
Thomas Jefferson

This strikingly beautiful native lily was introduced to Europe in 1620. While living in Paris in 1786, Jefferson wrote to Philadelphia nurseryman John Bartram, requesting plants of "Lilium Canadense,"1 and Bartram's 1783 broadside included "Lillium martagon."

Jefferson bought some seeds of Lilium canadense, among other plants, from James Lee & Co. near London on April 26, 1786, and presented some or perhaps all of the seeds to French statesman Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes.2

Bernard McMahon, also from Philadelphia, listed "Canada Martagon Lily" in his book, The American Gardener's Calendar, 1806,3 and early 19th-century gardener Jean Skipwith, Lady Skipwith's enslaved laborers grew the "spotted Canada Martagon lily" at her southern Virginia plantation, Prestwould. 

- Peggy Cornet, n.d.; additions by Anna Berkes, 8/15/13

Other References

1809 December 29.  (Jefferson to Ann C. Bankhead).  "à propos of plants, make a thousand acknolegements in my name & with my respects to mrs Bankhead for the favor proposed of the Cape Jessamine. it will be cherished with all the possible attentions: and in return proffer her Calycanthuses, Paccans, Silk trees, Canada martagons or any thing else we have."4

Footnotes

  1. Jefferson to Bartram, January 27, 1786, in PTJ, 9:228-30. Transcription available at Founders Online.
  2. MB, 1: (transcription available at Founders Online); Jefferson to Malesherbes, May 5, 1786, in PTJ, 9:452-53 (transcription available at Founders Online). For the itemized invoice of Jefferson's purchases from James Lee & Co., see Betts, Garden Book, 115.
  3. Bernard McMahon, American Gardener's Calendar ... (Philadelphia: B. Graves, 1806), 461, 494, and 534.
  4. PTJ:RS, 2:103-04. Transcription available at Founders Online.