Thomas Jefferson's front yard mystery

[HoudiniMan]

I've been trying to figure out what plant this is.

was a photo taken in Thomas Jefferson's front yard at Montecello.

Can anybody help me identify it?

[Frogleg]

If you don't get answers here, you might try:

[Cheryl Isaak]

A true lily (Lilium) - of some sort. The height makes me think of what I grew up calling a Tigerlily, but I don't know what the proper Latin is.

(I've lost all mine to the dreaded red lily beetles, sigh)

Cheryl

[GrampysGurl]

I'd like to know too, I have them in my yard.... not quite that tall yet but they are here.

[S. M. Henning]

5' tall. People claim to have seen some 9' tall.

Paghat has a photo at:

[Sue]

It is a Turk's cap lily--Lilium superbum. Sue Western Maine

"S. M. Henning" wrote in message news: [e-mail]... | [e-mail] (HoudiniMan) wrote: | | >

|| It looks like an orange tiger lily (Lilium lancifolium). Some do grow | 5' tall. People claim to have seen some 9' tall. | | Paghat has a photo at: || -- | Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to [e-mail] | Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA

[paghat]

Montecello gardens aren't supposed to have anything in them that Jefferson himself did not grow. That limits which lily this could be: American Turk's-cap (Lillium superba) native to eastern North America & primarily the Appalachians.

Jefferson received his specimens of the American turk's-cap (Lilium superbum) in 1812 from Bernard McMahon, a Philadelphia nurseryman.

Jefferson also grew the pink European Turk's Cap (Lilium martagon), yellow Canada Martagon (Lilium canadense), & the White Lily later known as the Madonna Lily (Lilium candidum).

Here's the Center for Historic Plants website full of articles about Jefferson's gardens:

Leaf Journal Online is maintained by The Center for Historic Plants which is also a nursery. It is supposed to sell heirloom & historic plants which Jefferson personally grew. But business being what it is, they presently sell an Asian lily which is in mass-production for any ol' nursery & which Jefferson never knew existed, while they do not offer the American turk's-cap. You will probably have to track it down from a native species specialist. I got my American turk's-caps as mere seedlings at a Rhododendron Species Foundation sale, but they weren't this year old enough to bloom.

-paghat the ratgirl

[paghat]

Jefferson's day so are not grown at Monticello. The American Turk's-cap is much taller than the tiger lily but otherwise so similar & so beautiful that one wonders how or why our wonderful native lily was displaced from American gardening when the tiger lily arrived. I don't have a webpage for the American turk's-cap yet because mine are too young to have bloomed yet, but someday when I have good photos of this lily in my own garden, I'll put up the article I've already researched for it.

-paggers