From Royal Gardens to American Forests: The Legacy of Francois-Andre Michaux

August 16, 2023

Today is the birthday of François-Andre Michaux, my darling green-thumbed companions. A man whose legacy blooms eternal in our botanical hearts.

He was the son of the botanist, Andrea Michaux.

His father named an oak in his honor - what a delicious tribute, wouldn't you agree, my garden-gate confidantes?

Michaux's mother died a few weeks after he was born. His father was so depressed, and he turned to botany to deal with his grief. His mentors just happened to be some of the top gardeners in the Royal Gardens.

When François-Andre was 15 years old, he accompanied his dad to North America - imagine that journey, dear she-shed besties! A teenager crossing the vast Atlantic, his young eyes soon to behold botanical wonders yet uncatalogued by European science.

His father established a botanical garden in 1786 on the property that's now occupied by the Charleston Area National Airport.

As you leave the airport, you'll notice a stunning mural that pays tribute to the Michaux duo - from the rice fields along the Ashley River to the Charleston Harbor, where he introduced one of the first camellia plants. Andre-François and his father are depicted in the potager or kitchen garden. The mural was installed in 2016.

François-Andre stayed in America, where he established a nursery in Hackensack, New Jersey, and also in Charleston, South Carolina. One can only imagine the sensual delight of those early American nurseries - the scent of fresh soil being turned, the tender green shoots promising future forests!

France was still eager to obtain trees from North America to replenish their forests, and François-Andre grew them in his nursery with the devotion only a true plant enthusiast could muster.

He returned to France briefly in 1790 and participated in the French revolution.

My fellow flower-lovers, can you picture it?

A botanist amidst the tumultuous political upheaval, perhaps carrying seed packets in his revolutionary coat pockets!

By 1801, he returned to the United States because the French government wanted him to get rid of the nurseries in Hackensack and Charleston.

François-Andre did as instructed and also explored the United States as far north as Maine, as far south as Georgia, and as far west as the Great Lakes. After his explorations, he returned to France. He had enough material and experience to prepare his masterpiece, North American Silva or North American Forests - a work that we garden historians still treasure like the rarest of heirloom seeds.

What devotion to botanical discovery!

What passion for the natural world!

As we tend our own modest plots today, let us remember François-Andre Michaux and the legacy he planted for all of us who worship at the altar of chlorophyll and loam.