Back Issue
January/February 1999

Plantings for an Historic Church
by Gordon W. Kenneson

A few years back I found myself on the Prudential Board of the second oldest orthodox Congregational Church in the world — First Church in Windsor, Connecticut. The congregation's present structure stands on a hill astride the Farmington River. On the southern side of the foundation there is a cornerstone dated 1757. This ancient stone is, however, from the previous structure located on the other side of the river. Today's venerable building is a whole generation newer, having been erected in 1794.

The Prudential Board is charged with, among other duties, the maintenance of the church buildings and grounds. As a horticulturist I was assigned grounds duty — seeing to everything from snow removal to tree pruning for the entire church campus of five buildings and many acres, including the riverbank.

With an interest in history as well as horticulture, I started to prowl the grounds looking for hints of the church's past plantings. Although some of the trees, including a giant eastern sycamore, were well over a hundred years old they were much younger than the building which was celebrating its 200th year. Then I consulted visual records of the sanctuary. First photographs and then engravings and paintings depicting the property down through the centuries gave me an inkling of the historic plantings.

I had been interested in antique and period plantings for some time and decided to do what I could to restore the original church gardens. I could not bring back the old elms around the meetinghouse that were shown in some early photographs, but I could establish an area as a period garden containing plants that would have been around in 1794.

Members of the Prudential Board and other church members really liked the idea. Now, all I had to decide was where to put it, what should go into it and how to pay for it. These are the age-old questions of gardeners everywhere.

The first question, where to put it, seemed to have an obvious answer. There was a berm which measured 180 feet by 30 feet by 3 feet, which was created to block the view of our parking lot expansion. Very little had been done to landscape this elongated bump, so it begged for attention. The next question, the one that really intrigued me, was what to plant.

The sanctuary was constructed in 1794, which placed our historic garden within what has since been referred to as the Golden Age of Botany. Amateur and professional plant explorers roamed the world in search of new and exciting species to grace the gardens of the European aristocracy. During the 25 year period from 1789 to 1814 the English royal family added upwards of 7,000 new plants to its Kew garden collection.

Historical Sources
Over the years I have collected a small library of gardening books — and quite a few about historical horticulture. These volumes were a terrific base for my research. My personal collection includes Garden Shrubs and Their Histories by plant historian Alice Coats; Culpepper's 1653 The Complete Herbal and English Physician and Paradisi in Sole, Paradisus Terrestris by former royal botanist John Parkinson. Ann Leighton's book American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century offers lists as well as an extensive historical background of the people involved in the plant world of the day. Rudy Favretti, professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture at the University of Connecticut, and his wife Joy have written several excellent books on period gardens including Landscapes and Gardens for Historic Buildings. Each book and article led me to another volume until I had a veritable mountain of information.

I also had the good fortune to visit several historical properties to get a first-hand look at their historical plantings and collect information from their libraries and bookstores. These included Mount Vernon, George Washington's home; Thomas Jefferson's Virginia estate, Monticello; the renowned garden library at Dunbarton Oaks in Washington D.C. The Knox Foundation library at Elizabeth Park in West Hartford was an excellent and nearby resource.

Many 18th century plant lists are readily available. For example, there are detailed plant records for Mount Vernon. Though Washington was seldom home during this period he conducted extensive garden planning by correspondence with his staff at Mount Vernon and plantsmen around the country. He was also an avid record keeper. His favorite plants were flowering trees and shrubs. He disdained flowers. Luckily his wife and gardener did not and lists exist here, too. These lists were invaluable to my plans.

The writings, logs and business records of plantsmen John Bartram (1699-1777) were also excellent sources of information. Bartram owned a nursery in Pennsylvania and kept careful records of plants he shipped to customers. He was a Quaker who learned to read and write Latin in three months so he could study botany. He even got himself appointed to the post of King's Botanist, a job that allowed him to explore as far as Georgia for new species of plants.

Bartram's greatest success may well have been the discovery of the beautiful Franklinia altamaha with its gardenia-like flowers. The tree only exists today because Bartram brought specimens back to his nursery in Pennsylvania. It no longer survives in the wild.

After Bartram's death his nursery carried on and in 1792 (notice how close we are to the meeting house construction date) President George Washington ordered 106 plants from this establishment.

Plant lists also came from other botanists, including Thomas Jefferson, colonial immigrants and present day scholars. Finally the research was completed and it was time to begin the selection process.

Choosing the Plants
The criteria for plant selection included size, ease of planting and maintenance, historical significance, attractiveness, availability, relative lack of plant poisons (public place), compatibility with conditions, and overall landscape quality.

I chose trees that were smaller growing specimens such as flowering dogwood and sourwood tree. Both trees have great flowers and reach a mature height of only about 20 feet. The berm is long yet its size does not allow for a great number of plants, especially since I also hoped people would walk about freely and look, sniff or clip a cutting here or there.

At this point I must add that I was just developing a list to be distributed to members of the church who expressed an interest in the garden. Of the 123 plants on my list, 32 were shrubs. The rest were annuals for color, perennials for consistency and herbs for people to harvest.

Now I began to raise money for the project. Some people came forward with offers of donations. Others wanted a shrub or tree planted as a memorial for a loved one.

I purchased numerous shrubs. The first one I put in was bayberry, an 8 foot shrub with dull green foliage that is very fragrant when crushed. Its gray waxy berries are used to produce lovely scented candles. Then came inkberry holly which forms a luscious green mound 8 feet across. Both these plants tolerate poor soil very well. The berm was made by scraping up an old road and portions of an old tavern that lay beneath when the current parking lot was built, not exactly a planting medium from the gods.

Additional shrubs included one of my personal favorites, summersweet. Super-fragrant white flowers in the summer and clear green foliage make this a very worthwhile shrub. It does like a bit of shade and the berm has just that under an old red maple. Yellow flowered Japanese rose was placed in several spots. This double flowered form of kerria was a favorite of George Washington. For more scent and for its unusual reddish-brown flower color I added Carolina allspice, which was introduced in 1726 by renowned plant explorer Mark Catesby.

Some of the money was used trying to control the interminable weeds that appeared as soon as the ground was disturbed. Many of these weeds had a legitimate claim on the ground, as they had been around as long as the building or much longer. One weed stands out in its longevity. Horsetail (Equisetum hyemale), known as pewterwort, has been around since prehistoric times. Its tissue consists mostly of sand and was used to polish dinnerware. It is also very difficult to control.

As with many garden projects time changes the initial plan. As the maintenance became more and more demanding and money more scarce (about this time the church building needed to be completely overhauled) the overall project was scaled back. Still, good things kept happening. A team of dedicated volunteers established a lawn that now keeps the weeds at bay.

The berm is now a mix of historic and modern plants. Recently added was a tartarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tartarica) that is a scion of one that grew at Walden Pond in Massachusetts when Henry David Thoreau lived on the edge of the pond and wrote his renowned book. It was purchased from American Forests Famous and Historic Trees, 1-800-320-8733. Another donation to be added is a Franklinia alatamaha that grew at the Bartram Nursery. So the project goes on.

Gordon Kenneson has earned degrees in political science, history and horticulture. He teaches, lectures and writes and is the owner of On the Grow, a horticultural consulting business in Windsor.

Gordon Kenneson's Plant List for the 1794 Garden, First Church in Windsor

Annuals and Biennials
Alyssum, Sweet Lobularia maritima
Basil, Sweet Ocimum basilicum
Borage Borage officinalis
China Aster Callistephus chinensis
Cornflower Centaurea cyanus
Foxglove Digitalis purpurea
Garden Balsam Impatiens balsamina
Globe Amaranth Gomphrena globosa
Honesty/Money Plant Lunaria annua
Johnny Jump Up Viola tricolor
Joseph's Coat Amaranthus tricolor
Larkspur Delphinium ajacis (Consolida)
Love-In-A-Mist Nigella damascena
Love-Lies-Bleeding Amaranthus caudatus
Marigold, African Tagetes erecta
Marigold, French Tagetes patula
Marigold, Pot Calendula officinalis
Nasturtium Tropaeolum majus
Parsley Petroselinum crispum
Spider Flower, Giant Cleome gigantea
Stock Matthiola incana

Perennials, Bulbs and Herbs
Basket of Gold Alyssum saxatile
Bearberry Arctostaphylos uva-ursi
Beebalm Monarda didyma
Bellflower, Great Flowered Campanula persicifolia grandiflora
Bellflower, Peach Leaved Campanula persicifolia
Betony Stachys officinalis
Bugleweed Ajuga reptans
Candytuft Iberis sempervirens
Canterbury Bells Campanula medium
Catmint, Long Tubed Nepeta mussinii
Chives Allium schoenoprasum
Columbine Aquilegia vulgaris
Columbine, Canadian Aquilegia canadensis
Costmary Chrysanthemum balsamita
Cupid's Dart Catananche caerulea
Daisy, English Bellis perennis
Daisy, Oxeye Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum
Dandelion Taraxacum officinale
Daylily, Tawny Hemerocallis fulva
Elecampne Inula helenium
Feverfew Chrysanthemum Parthenium
Flax Linum perenne, L. usitatissimum
Garlic Allium sativum
Germander Teucrium chamaedrys
Globe Thistle Echinops ritro
Grape Hyacinth Muscari botryoides
Hollyhock Alcea rosea
Jacob's Ladder Polemonium caeruleum
Lamb's-ears Stachys byzantina
Lavender Lavendula vera
Lemon Balm Melissa officinalis
Lily-of-the-Valley Convallaria majalis
Loosestrife Lysimachia punctata
Madonna Lily Lilium candidum
Maltese Cross Lychnis chalcedonica
May Apple Podophylum peltatum
Meadow Rue Thalictrum aquilegiifolium
Moneywort Lysimachia nummularia
Mother of Thyme Thymus serpyllum
Narcissus, Polyanthus Narcissus tazetta
Narcissus, Pheasant's-Eye Narcissus poeticus
Oregano Origanum vulgare
Oriental Poppy Papaver orientale
Pennyroyal Mentha pulegium
Peony Paeonia officinalis
Pink Dianthus plumarius
Poppy anemone Anemone coronaria
Primrose Primula x polyantha
Rhubarb Rheum Rhaponticum
Sage Salvia officinalis
Siberian Iris Iris sibirica
Siberian Squill Scilla siberica
Sneezewort Achillea ptarmica
Snow-in-Summer Cerastium tomentosum
Soapwort Saponaria officinalis
Spearmint Mentha spicata
Speedwell Veronica officinalis
Star of Bethlehem Ornithogalum umbellatum
Sweet Marjoram Origanum majorana
Sweet Rocket Hesperis matronalis
Sweet Violet Viola odorata
Tansy Tanacetum vulgare
Throatwort Trachelium caeruleum
Thyme, Common Thymus vulgaris
Winter Aconite Eranthis hyemalis
Yarrow Achillea millefolium

Shrubs and Trees
Bayberry Myrica pensylvanica
Bottle Brush Buckeye Aesculus parviflora
Burning Bush Euonymus atropurpureus
Carolina Allspice Calycanthus floridus
Coast Leucothoe Leucothoe axillaris
Currant Ribes spp.
Dogwood, Common Cornus florida
Dogwood, Tartarian Cornus alba
English Yew Taxus baccata
Firethorn Pyrancantha coccinea
Guelder Rose Viburnum opulus
Inkberry Holly Ilex glabra
Hydrangea, Oak Leaved Hydrangea quercifolia
Hydrangea, Wild Hydrangea arborescens
Japanese Rose Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora'
Juniper, Common Juniperus communis
Lavender Cotton Santolina chamaecyparissus
Lilac, Common Syringa vulgaris
Mock Orange Philadephus coronarius
Mountain Laurel Kalmia latifolia
Rosa Mundi Rosa gallica versicolor
Rose-of-Sharon Hibiscus syriacus
Rose, Burgundy Rosa x centifolia var. parvifolia
Rose, Cabbage Rosa x centifolia
Rose, Damask Rosa damescena
Rose, Moss Rosa x centifolia var. muscosa
Rose, Musk Rosa moschata
Rose, Scotch Rosa spinosissima
Rose, White Rosa x alba
Rose, Austrian Yellow Rosa foetida 'Persiana'
Shadbush Amelanchier canadensis
Sheepberry Viburnum lentago
Smoke Bush Cotinus coggygria
Sourwood Tree Oxydendrum arboreum
Summer-Sweet Clethra alnifolia
Sweet Brier Rosa rubiginosa

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