Re: [Sansevierias] when greenhouses were GREENHOUSES!!!!

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-----Original Message-----
From: Hermine Stover <[email protected]>
To: Sansevierias <[email protected]>
Sent: Wed, Jan 8, 2014 12:47 pm
Subject: [Sansevierias] when greenhouses were GREENHOUSES!!!!



  
    
                  



Gardening Indoors - The Conservatory in 19th-CenturyEurope 

Posted: 07 Jan 2014 09:30 AM PST

Berthe Morisot (French painter, 1841-1895) Young Girl in aGreenhouse

At the beginning of the 19th-century, using the word conservatory asanother term for a greenhouse had begun to change. The conservatory wasevolving into a social gathering place for the privileged.

Edouard Manet (French Realist, Impressionist painter, 1832-1883) Inthe Conservatory

In 1782, Europe Magazine noted that "The idea of a Conservatoryopening by a folding door into his saloon, is too fine to be leftunfinished."

Edouard Manet (French Realist, Impressionist painter, 1832-1883)Madame Manet in the Conservatory 1879

In England, Humphrey Repton (Scottish botanist & garden designer,1752-1818) gave a plan well adapted for this new, more social purpose. Atone end of this design an aviary (1) is surrounded by a conservatory (2),and joined to a glass passage for flowers (3), which leads successivelythrough an orangery (4), lobby (5), music-room (6), library (7), printand picture-room (8), breakfast-room (9), anti-room (10), dining-room(11), hall (12), and peach and green-house.

Eduard Gaertner (German artist, 1801 1877) Family of Mr. Westfal inthe Conservatory 1836
John Claudius Loudon (Scottish-born botanist & garden designer,1783-1843) wrote in his 1822 Encyclopedia of Gardening, "Theconservatory is a term generally applied by gardeners to plant-houses, inwhich the plants are grown in a bed or border without the use of pots.They are sometimes placed in the pleasure-ground along with the otherhot-houses ; but more frequently attached to the mansion. The principlesof their construction is in all respects the same as for the green-house,with the single difference of a pit or bed of earth being substituted forthe stage."

Frances (Jones) Bannerman (Canadian-born artist, 1855-1944), TheConservatory

In 1824, Sir Walter Scott wrote in his historical novel Redgauntlet,"The present proprietor had rendered it (the parlor) more cheerfulby opening one end into a small conservatory...I have never seen thisbefore." The transition was well underway.


John Atkinson Grimshaw (English artist, 1836-1893) Il Pensoroso

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French artist, 1836 1902) In theGreenhouse 1867-69

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French artist, 1836 1902) The Bunch ofLilacs 1875

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French artist, 1836 1902) In theConservatory

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French artist, 1836–1902) Portrait in theConservatory

Jane Maria Bowkett (British painter, 1837-1891) Young Lady in aConservatory

Lilla Cabot Perry (American artist, 1848-1933) In the Conservatory1915

Louise Abbema (French painter, 1853-1927) Luncheon in the Conservatory1877

Lovis Corinth (German Painter, 1858-1925) Woman with Lilies in aConservatory 1911

Mary Cassatt (American artist, 1844-1926) Mother and Child in theConservatory

Mihaly Munkacsy (Hungarian-born artist, 1844-1900) In theConservatory

Paul Cezanne (French artist, 1839-1906) Madame Cezanne in aConservatory

William Quiller Orchardson (Scottish artist, 1832-1910) In theConservatory 1894


Olga Boznanska (Polish Impressionist painter, 1865-1945)Oranzerii


H. R. Miller (British artist) Family Portrait in a Conservatory1850


Harry E. J. Browne (British artist) Tea in the Conservatory


Benjamin Haughton (British artist, 1865 1924) Woman in Conservatory withRoses



Gardening Indoors - George Washington's Greenhouse

Posted: 07 Jan 2014 08:09 AM PST

1790s Christian Gullager (1759-1826). George Washington(1732-1799).

One of the most intriguing greenhouse stories involves Virginian GeorgeWashington & Margaret Tilghman Carroll  of Maryland.

In her 1770 description of the gardens Charles Carroll the Barrister'shome called Mount Clare in Baltimore, Maryland, visiting Virginia widowMary Ambler mentioned, "there is a Green House with a goodmany Orange & Lemon Trees just ready to bear." Widow& mother Mary Ambler had traveled to Baltimore from Belvoir inFauquier County, Virginia, with her 2 children to be inoculated againstsmallpox.

At Mount Clare, as in many 18th century households, the wife supervisedthe greenhouse activities, while the husband oversaw the design of thegardens and grounds. Margaret Tilghman Carroll (1743-1817) was renownedfor her orange & lemon trees. After her husband Charles Carroll(1723-1783) died in 1783, she devoted much of her time to growing plantsin her greenhouse.

1765 John Hesselius (1728-1778). Margaret Tilghman Carroll MrsCharles Carroll the Barrister.

In addition to her greenhouse, Margaret Carroll also had a 39' by 24'brick structure at Mount Clare, which she called a Stove House, with anintricate hot air heating system for growing plants, such as pineapples,indoors year round.

Her reputation & skill as a horticulturalist had impressed GeorgeWashington (1732-1799) who wrote a letter to her cousin Col. TenchTilghman in August of 1784,  "I shall essay the finishing ofmy greenhouse this fall, but find that neither myself, nor any personabout me is so well skilled in the internal constructions as to proceedwithout a probability at least of running into errors. Shall I for thisreason, ask the favor of you to give me a short description of theGreen-house at Mrs. Carrolls? I am persuaded, now that I planned mine ontoo contracted a scale. My house is (of Brick) 40 feet by 24, in theouter dimensions."

It is believed that Washington built his greenhouse copyingMargaret Carrolls' building, which no longer exists. And in April thefollowing spring Washington noted in his diary, "Planted andsowed in boxes placed in front of the Green House."

Greenhouse at Mount Vernon

In 1788, Lt. John Enys (1757-1818) stopped at Mount Vernon notingthat, "The front by which we entered had a Gras plot before itwith a road round it for Carriages planted on each side with a number ofdifferent kinds of Trees among the rest some Weeping Willows which seemto flourish very well. One the one side of this stands the Garden, greenhouse &c." Enys had come to America during theRevolution and recorded his notes after he returned to England andretired from the British army.

Greenhouse at Mount Vernon

Early in 1789, Congregational clergyman & geographer Jedidiah Morse(1761-1826) was also impressed with Washington's garden & describedMount Vernon in his American Geography, "the green-house,school-house, offices and servants halls, when seen from the land side,bears a resemblance to a rural village --especially as the lands in thatside are laid out somewhat in the form of English gardens, in meadows andgrass grounds, ornamented with little copices, circular clumps and singletrees."

Greenhouse at Mount Vernon

Wishing to make a present of some of her prized greenhouse specimens toGeorge Washington, including one grafted tree that produced both lemonsand oranges, on 29 October 1789, Margaret Carroll sent by boat 20 pots oflemon & orange trees plus 5 boxes of assorted other greenhouse plantsto Washington at the harbor in Alexandria.

Apparently Margaret Carroll had spoken about the financial possibilitiesof erecting greenhouses & stovehouses to George Washington; becausethe gift of Mount Clare's mistress was in response to a letter thatWashington had sent her from New York, on September 16th 1789.

"Madam,
A Person having been lately sent to me from Europe in the capacity of aGardner, who professes a knowledge in the culture of rare plants and careof a Green-House, I am desirous to profit of the very obliging offer youwere pleased some time ago to make me.

"In availing myself of your goodness I am far from desiring that itshould induce any inconvenience to yourself­but, reconciling yourdisposition to oblige, with your convenience, I shall be happy to receivesuch aids as you can well spare, and as will not impair yourcollection.

"Trusting that this will be the rule of your bounty, I haverequested General Williams to give you notice, when an opportunity offersto transport the trees or plants in the freshest state to Mount Vernon,and to pay any expence which may be incurred in fitting them fortransportation, and to receive them from your Gardner for thatpurpose.

"I have the honor to be, most respectfully, Madam, Your obliged andobedient Servant,
G. Washington"

Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Margaret Tilghman (Mrs CharlesCarroll the Barrister) This painting depicts Margaret Carroll standingnext to the closed or lidded Lidded Campana Urn on a Classical Pedestalwhich stood on the grounds at Mount Clare in Baltimore.

Several years later, in 1792, French visitor Jacques Pierre Brissot deWarville (1754-1793) wrote, "I hastened to arrive at MountVernon...after having passed over two hills, you discover a country houseof an elegant and majestic simplicity. It is preceded by grass-plats; onthe one side of the avenue are the stables, on the other the green-house,and houses of a number of negro mechanics." Brissot was avocal supporter of the 1789 French Revolution.

This flurry of activity around the greenhouses of Margaret Carroll andGeorge Washington was not new in America. The possibilities of growingtender plants in greenhouses had fascinated Americans since the 1st halfof the century in colonial America.


Gardening Indoors - The Greenhouse comes to Early America

Posted: 07 Jan 2014 07:03 AM PST

The possibility of growing tender plants in greenhouses had fascinatedearly Americans at least since the 1st half of the 18th-century incolonial America. But the price of glass in colonial & early Americaremained high until nearly the middle of the 19th-century, makinggreenhouses available only to those with extra disposableincome.

Back of Mount Vernon's Greenhouse

As British America was being colonized in the 17th-century, Englishgarden writers were focusing on greenhouses which needed glass to allowthe sun to reach the growing plants. Glass was becoming more affordable& glass no longer needed to be hand-blown. In England, in 1664,diarist & gardener John Evelyn (1620-1706) advised, "Setyour...Windows and Doors of the Green-houses and Conservatoriesopen." And in his diary on 30 October 1683, he mentioned,"Greene houses for oranges and mirtles." Born in Surreyinto a family that owned the monopoly on the manufacture of gunpowder inEngland, Evelyn was able to devote his life to intellectual pursuits. Inaddition to translating noted French gardening books, Evelyn was theauthor of Kalendarium Hortense. His Diary is full ofreferences to gardens, & to his own famous garden at Sayes Court. In1691, the London Gazette mentioned another "newConservatory or Green-House" in a house-for-sale ad.

Detail John Evelyn (1620-1706) by Hendrick van der Borcht, 1641.

In early 18th century England, J. James' 1712 translation ofJean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond's (1679-1719) The Theory andPractice of Gardening; ; wherein is fully handled all that relates tofine gardening, commonly called pleasure gardens explained that,"Green-houses are large Piles of Building like Galleries...forpreserving Orange-Trees, and other Plants...during the Winter."Le Blond was a French architect & garden designer who became thechief architect of Saint Petersburg in 1716, just 3 years before hisdeath. He had derived his gardening expertise from André Le Nôtre(1613-1700), and he illustrated & helped write Dezallierd'Argenville's (1680-1765) seminal work on the principles of Frenchformal garden design. In England, Phillip Miller had published a plan fora greenhouse in his 1754 Gardener's Dictionary, which wasowned & read in the British American colonies.

>Much like today, the 18th century colonial greenhouse was aglass-windowed structure of wood or brick or stone in which tender plantswere reared & preserved. Revolutionaly iron & glass greenhouseswould appear in the first half of the 19th-century allowing more lightinto the structures.

Virginian William Byrd II (1674-1768) painted by Hans Hysing1724

Early in 18th-century Pennsylvania, botanist John Bartram (1699-1777)wrote to English botanist Peter Collinson (1674-1768), on July 18, 1740,about Colonel William Byrd's (1674-1744) grounds at Westover in Virginia."Colonel Byrd is very prodigalle...new Gates, gravel Walks,hedges, and cedars finely twined and a little green house with two orthree orange trees...he hath the finest seat in Virginia."

Twenty years later, John Bartram wrote to Peter Collinson in 1760,"I am going to build a green-house. Stone is got...to put somepretty flowering winter shrubs, and plants for winter's diversion, not tobe crowded with orange trees."

Peter Collinson 1694-1768

John Bartram was much more than just a commentator on the homes ofcolonial gentry, but he certainly would have been intrigued by thepossibilities of Byrd's early greenhouse. Born in Darby, Pennsylvania,son a Quaker farmer, Bartram was the most important botanist in thecolonies. His son William Bartram (1739-1823) helped him collect,replant, & ship his specimens. In 1728, John Bartram established abotanic garden at Kingsessing on the west bank of the Schuylkill, nearPhiladelphia, where he collected & grew native plants. Hiscorrespondence with Peter Collinson, led to the introduction of manyAmerican trees & plants into Europe.

Charles Willson Peale's 1808 William Bartram

Greenhouses in Europe filled with Bartram's Boxes of American plants. Hisplant specimens & seeds traveled across the Atlantic to the gardens& greenhouses of Philip Miller, Linnaeus, German botanist Dillenius(1687-1747), & Dutch botanist Gronovius (1686-1762); and he assistedLinnaeus' student Swedish Pehr Kalm (1716-1779) during his collectingtrip to North America in 1748-1750. Although Bartram never visitedBritain, in 1765, he was appointed Botanist to King George III. Linnaeuscalled him "the worlds greatest botanist." Bartramtraveled from Lake Ontario in the north, to Florida in the south and theOhio River in the west. His Diary of a Journey through theCarolinas, Georgia and Florida, a trip taken from July 1, 1765, to April10, 1766, was published. His son William accompanied his fatherdocumenting plants, animals, birds, & native peoples of North &South Carolina, Georgia & Florida. William publishedTravels, writings with his own illustrations in 1791, whichimpacted the 19th century romantic movement as well as naturalhistory.

Not far from Bartram's nursery just outside of Philadelphia, John Smithdescribed the plantation owned by the family of William Penn atSpringettesbury Manor in 1745, "On our way thither we stopped toview the proprietor's greeen-house, which at this season is an agreeablesight; the oranges, lemons and citrons were some green, some ripe, somein blossom." Springettesbury Manor had been named in honor ofWilliam Penn's first ie, Gulielma Maria Springett (1644 1694).
Ten years later, Daniel Fisher also described the Proprietor'sgreenhouse, "What to me surpassed every thing of the kind I hadseen in America was a pretty bricked Green House, out of which wasdisposed very properly in the Pleasure Garden, a good many Orange, Lemon,and Citrous Trees, in great profusion loaded with abundance of Fruit andsome of each sort seemingly ripe then."Bartram traveled South inthe colonies through Charleston several times, where greenhouses wereused to entice real estate buyers. 

In the South Carolina Gazette, November 14, 1748, a housefor sale advertisement noted, "TO BE SOLD...Dwelling-house...alsoa large Garden, with two neat Green Houses for sheltering exotic FruitTrees, and Grape-Vines."

Exotic plants captured the fancy of colonials early in the century;and by the end of the 18th-century, formal botanical gardens dotted theAtlantic coast. These were both outdoor and indoor, public and privategarden areas, where proud collectors displayed a variety of curiousplants for purposes of science, education, status, and art.

By 1760, Rhode Islander Abraham Redwood Jr was writing to his farmmanager, "I desire that you put up in Durt one dozen of Small orangeTrees...four young figg trees and some Guavas roots, to put in mygreenhouse...twenty two feet long, Twelve feet wide, and Twelve feethigh." In 1743, Abraham Redwood purchased 140 acres farmland nearNewport, Rhode Island, where he built a country estate that wasconsidered one of the most beautiful botanical gardens in North America,which grew plants & trees imported from all over the world.

Abraham Redwood 1709-1788

Josiah Quincy (1744-1775), who kept a journal as he traveled South fromBoston for his health in 1773, was also impressed with a greenhouse whenhe visited Philadelphia on May 3, 1773, and noted, "Dined withthe celebrated Pennsylvania Farmer, John Dickenson Esqr, at his countryseat about two and one-half miles from town...his gardens, green-house,bathing-house, grotto, study, fish pond...vista, through which is distantprospect of Delaware River." 

John Dickinson (1732-1808), who was actually an attorney trained atMiddle Temple, had married Mary Norris, daughter of Isaac Norris, Speakerof the Pennsylvania Assembly, and moved to the Norris estate of Fairhill,near Germantown. There he wrote, under the pseudonym "AFarmer,"12 essays against the Stamp Acts.

1773 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mary Norris (Mrs. JohnDickinson) with their daughter Sally.

In 1787, clergyman, merchant, & lawyer Manasseh Cutler (1742-1823),wrote of the greenhouse at Gray's Tavern, in Philadelphia. "(TheGreenhouse) is a very large stone building, three stories in the frontand two in the rear. The one-half of the house is divided lengthwise, andthe front part is appropriated to a green-house, and has no chamberfloors. It is finished in the completest manner for the purpose ofarranging trees and plants in the most beautiful order. The windows areenormous. I believe some of them to be twenty feet in length, andproportionably wide...We then took a view of the contents of thegreen-house, beautifully arranged in the open air on the south of thegarden. Here were most of the trees and fruits that grow in the hottestclimates. Oranges, lemons, etc., in every stage from blossoms to ripefruit; pine-apples in bloom, and those were fully ripe."

Visiting English agricultural writer Richard Parkinson (1748-1815)stopped at John O'Donnell's (1743-1805) estate named Canton nearBaltimore, in 1798. Irishman John O'Donnell had grown wealthy by sendingthe first ship into China in 1785, for trade goods to sell in America.Parkinson wrote that O'Donnell had, "a very handsome garden ingreat order, a most beautiful greenhouse and hot house...a verymagnificent place for that country."

1787 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Sarah Chew Elliott (Mrs.John O'Donnell) in her garden in front of a curving wall with urns usedas finials.

In 1793 Massachusetts, Boston merchant Joseph Barrell (1739-1804) wasordering plants & a gardener from Britain for his new Pleasant Hillgreenhouse, "I want a person that understands green houseplants...you will send the trees by the same opportunity the gardenercomes that he may attend them on the passage."

John Singleton Copley (1738 1815) Josseph Barrell c 1767

Wishing for more land outside of Boston to try new gardening styles &modern farming techniques, Barrell purchased 211 acres of land across theCharles River in Charlestown, where he created a ferme ornée. CharlesBulfinch designed the house & grounds, one of his 1stcommissions.

John Singleton Copley (1738 1815) Hannah Fitch (Mrs Joseph Barrell) c1771

In Deborrah Logan's journal, she mentioned that in 1799Philadelphia,William) Logan had a Green house in town, as well as a goodone (at Stenton). He had many rare and beautiful plants: indeed the largeand fine orange and lemon trees which now ornament Pratt's greenhouses atLemon Hill were originally of his raising."

William Logan (1717 1776) was the son of Willliam Penn's secretary JamesLogan who became a Philadelphia Mayor & Supreme Court Justice.William inherited Stenton in 1751, and used it as his country seat, whileliving in Philadelphia.

In the same year, English born seedsman and nursery owner William Boothof Baltimore advertised in the Federal Gazette and BaltimoreAdvertiser:"To Botanists, Gardeners and Florists, and to allother gentlemen, curious in ornamental, rare exotic or foreign plants andflowers, cultivated in the greenhouse, hot-house, or stove, and in theopen ground. A large and numerous variety of such rarities is now offeredfor sale...After reserving a general and suitable stock, he had to sparea well assorted and great variety of those things comprising a beautifulcollection, sufficient to decorate, furnish, and ornament a spacious orhandsome greenhouse at once... The whole is a truly valuable collectionsuch as is very rarely to be met with for sale on this side of theAtlantic -- indeed a moiety of them would comprise a very desirable andexclusive variety, consisting of many or most of the tropical fruits, andother rare and curious finely ornamental trees, scrubs and plants; with anumerous and abundant assortment of choice bulbous, tubrous, and fibrousrooted flowering and ornamental plants in mixtures... please apply toJohn Cummings, at the alms-house, Messrs. David and Cuthbert Landreth,gardeners and nursery-men... Now is as good time and proper season tobuild a green-house, and to remove plants."

Many of Booth's clients and contemporaries in the Chesapeake werebecoming excited about collecting and displaying non-native varieties ofplants. In his diary, silversmith, clockmaker, & gardener WilliamFaris (1728-1804) noted in Annapolis that his neighbor Dr. Upton Scott(1722-1814) was, "fond of botany and has a number of rare plantsand shrubs in his greenhouse and garden." The practical Farisused his cellar as his greenhouse.

Some gardeners & plant collectors were obsessed with showing offtheir unusual plant collections to visitors. In November of 1803,Manasseh Cutler (1722-1823) wrote to Mrs. Torrey about his visit toWilliam Hamilton's (1745-1813) Woodlands, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,"We then took a turn to the garden and greenhouses...ornamentedwith almost all the flowers and vegetables the earth affords...Thegreenhouses which occupy a large space of ground, I cannot pretend todescribe. Every part was crowded with trees and plants, from the hotclimates, and such as I had never seen...He assured us, there was not arare plant in Europe, Asia, Africa, from China and the islands in theSouth Sea, of which he had any account, which he had not procured...Whenwe turned to rare and superb plants, one of the gardeners would becalled, and sent with a lantern to the green house to fetch me a specimento compare with it. This was done perhaps twenty times." 

Benjamin West (American-born painter, 1738 1820) WilliamHamiltonn (1745-1813) of Woodlands with His Niece

Authors Joseph Dennie & John Elihu Hall reported on the greenhouse atthe Woodlands in their 1809 Portfolio II, "The front, includingthe hot-house on each side, measures one hundred and forty feet, and itcontains nearly ten thousand plants, out of which number may be reckonedbetween five and six thousand of different species, procured at muchtrouble and expense, from many remote parts of the globe, from SouthAmerica, the Cape of Good Hope, the Brazils, Botany Bay, Japan, the Eastand West Indies, &c. &c. This collection, for the beauty and richvariety of its exotics, surpasses any thing of the kind on thiscontinent; and, among many other rare productions to be seen, are thebread-fruit tree, cinnamon, allspice, pepper; mangoes, different sorts,sago, coffee from Bengal, Arabia, and the West-Indies, tea, green andbohea, mahogany, magnolias, Japan rose, rose apples, eherimolia, one ofthe most esteemed fruits of Mexico, bamboo, Indian god tree, iron tree ofChina, ginger, olea fragrans, and several varieties of the sugar cane,five species of which are from Otaheite. To this green-house, so richlystored, too much praise can hardly be given. The curious person views itwith delight, and the naturalist quits it with regret."

On Christmas day in 1803, in Prince George's County, Maryland,Rosalie Stier Calvert (1795-1821) wrote to her father who had returned toEurope, "I am also going to have a small greenhouse built whereyou planned it--at the wash-house. The cellar makes a very goodorangerie." In another letter to her father in 3 years later,she mentioned that the cellar would no longer serve as the greenhouse,"We also have to build a small house, a smoke house, a dairy, andan orangerie."

Gilbert Stuart (Early Americn artist, 1755-1828). Rosalie StierCalvert (1778 -1821) in 1804

I can find only one other reference to an orangery or orangerie in earlyAmerica beside those of Rosalie Stier Calvert, leaving me to suspect thatthe term orangery became popular in America in the 19th century whenreferring to greenhouses, old and new. 

There are earlier references in England, where John Evelyn wrote in hisdiary on 4 July 1664, "The orangerie and aviarie handsome, and avery large plantation about it." Another reference appears inthe 1705 London Gazette #4098/4, "The Mansion-House, calledBelsize,...with...a fine Orangarie, is to Lett."

In America in 1790, Thomas Lee Shippen, describing Stratford Hall inVirginia, to his father reported, "It was with great difficultythat my Uncles, who accompanied me, could persuade me to leave the hallto look at the gardens, vineyards, orangeries and lawns which surroundthe house."

By the time Englishman John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843) wrote his1822 Encyclopedia of Gardening, the orangery had fallen outof favor. He wrote, "The orangery is the green-house of the lastcentury, the object of which was to preserve large plants of exoticevergreens during winter, such as the orange tribe, myrtles, sweet bays,pomegranates, and a few others. Geraniums, heaths, fuchsias, and otherdelicate plants requiring much light, were then unknown. The orangery wasgenerally placed near to or adjoining the house, and its elevationcorresponded in architectural design with that of the mansion. From thislast circumstance has arisen a prejudice highly unfavorable to theculture of ornamental exotics, namely, that every plant-habitationattached to a mansion should be an architectural object, and consist ofwindows between stone piers or columns, with a regular cornice andentablature. By this mode of design, these buildings are rendered sogloomy as never to present a vigorous vegetation, and vivid glowingcolors within ; and as they are thus unfit for the purpose for which theyare intended, it does not appear to us...that they can possibly be ingood taste."

In Maryland, Rosalie Calvert grew plants in pots that could bebrought outside in warm weather or ornament the interior of Riversdalehouse in winter. In 1803, she wrote, “I have arranged all theorange trees and geraniums in pots along the north wall of the house,where they make a very pretty effect, and the geraniums, being shaded,bear many more blossoms and are growing well.”

By 1809, she had added several more types of potted plants, and wrotethat they were “a marvelous source of entertainment for me geraniums,heliotropes, jasmines, China rose bushes, etc. I don’t have any aloes orany of those other plants whose only recommendation is their rarity andwhich lack beauty.” Heliotropes, she wrote, would be transplanted“outdoors in the summertime with the geraniums, jasmine, rose bushes,etc.”We we do not have a painting of Rosalie Calvert's indoor parlorplant arrangement, we do have this painting from Connecticut in1816,

George Freeman (Connecticut artist, 1787-1837) Widow ElizabethFenimor Cooper 1816

Rosalie Calvert's orangerie never materialized. Instead, she used acentral room of the house, her “grand salon,” with three largesouth-facing triple-hung windows, as her conservatory. She bragged to herfather in 1813 about “my lemon trees. I have four superb specimenswhich in winter we place in the four corners of the salon, where theymake a lovely effect. Last November one of them produced 87 largelemons.”

American diplomat David Bailie Warden visited Riversdale anddescribed Rosalie's salon, "The hall is ornamented withlemon-trees, geraniums, polianthusses, heliptropes, and other plants,which in the summer evenings, invite the humming-birds to taste of theirsweetness; and afterwards struggling to escape, they fly incessantlybackwards and forwards near the ceiling, until from fatigue they perch ona stick or rod, when they are easily taken by the hand."

Another nurseryman living in Philadelphia was also promoting plantsand pleasure gardens. In 1806, Irish American horticulturalist, seedsman,& writer Bernard M'Mahon (1775-1816), whose book would be read bygardeners in America for the next 50 years, explained the differencebetween the greenhouse and a conservatory,

"A Green house is a garden building fronted with glass,serving as a winter residence, for tender plants from the warmer parts ofthe world, which require no more artificial heat than what is barelysufficient to keep off the front...A greenhouse should generally stand ina pleasure ground and if possible, upon a somewhat elevated and dry spotfronting the south...the building ought to be of brick or stone, havingthe front almost wholly of glasswork, ranging lengthwise east to west,and constructed upon an ornamental plan...

"The Greenhouse and Conservatory have been generally considered assynonimous; their essential difference is this: in the greenhouse, thetrees and plants are either in tubs or pots, and are planted on stands orstages during the winter, till they are removed into some suitablesituation abroad in summer.

"In the conservatory, the ground plan is laid out in beds andborders, made up of the best compositions of soils that can be procured,three or four inches deep. In these the trees or plants, taken out oftheir tubs or pots are regularly planted, in the same manner as theplants in the open air.

"This house is roofed, as well as fronted with glass-work, andinstead of taking out the plants in summer, as in the Greenhouse, thewhole of the glass roof is taken off, and the plants are exposed to openair."

Charles Peale Polk (1767-1822), Thomas Jefferson(1743-1826).

Thomas Jefferson, who was always experimenting and adding onto hisproperty, was interested in a greenhouse as well. On August 2, 1807, fromAlbermarle County, Virginia, even Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) received aletter listing sizes of glass he would need for a "greenhouse."

1799 Artist Lambert ? Bouche. Ann Ogle (Mrs. John Tayloe III) anddaughters Rebecca and Henrietta.

The Minute Book of John Tayloe III (1770-1828) noted on August 2, 1812 athis country seat Mount Airy in Richmond County, Virginia,"Gardeners attending to the Greenhouse at Mt. Airy."Tayloe's city residence was Octogon House in Washington D. C.

Wye House (18th-century greenhouse with hot air duct system, still ownedby descendants of Edward Lloyd) Copperville, Talbot County, Maryland.Photo by Janet Blyberg.

By the early 19th century in the new republic, gentlemen were buildinggreenhouses, conservatories, orangeries, hot houses, pineries, and stovehouses to grow tender plants for their food value and to impress theirneighbors. Some even had their portraits painted holding their favoriteplants.