Thomas Jefferson’s Double Tuberoses From His Botanical Friend and Mentor:Bernard McMahan
"McMahan has also created a gardener calendar with a list of seeds, including month-by-month instructions.
The schedule was foundational to Thomas‘s gardening practice, and McMahan became his garden mentor."
August 12, 1806
On this day, Thomas Jefferson’s 24 double tuberoses, Polianthes tuberosa, were blooming.
Thomas had obtained them from Bernard McMahan’s nursery, and he wrote McMahan the following January to request more tuberoses.
McMahan has also created a gardener calendar with a list of seeds, including month-by-month instructions.
The schedule was foundational to Thomas‘s gardening practice, and McMahan became his garden mentor.
The two exchanged regular letters about gardening.
As a result of this botanical friendship, Thomas Jefferson picked Bernard McMahan and his nursery to cultivate the specimens collected by Lewis and Clark.
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Polianthes Tuberosa