Overview: Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants
The Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants, established at Monticello in 1987, collects, 
preserves, and distributes historic plant varieties and strives to promote greater appreciation for the origins and evolution of garden plants. The program centers on Thomas Jefferson's horticultural interests and the plants he grew at Monticello, but covers the broad history of plants cultivated in America by including varieties documented through the nineteenth century, and choice North American plants, a group of special interest to Jefferson himself.
Jefferson owned over 5,000 acres in Bedford County, Virginia (at Poplar Forest), and he also owned 5,000 acres in Albemarle County, Virginia. Monticello was his pride and joy, but he also maintained five satellite farms surrounding Monticello: Milton, Tufton, Lego, Shadwell, and Pantops. Tufton Farm is now home of the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants. There are four plant collections located at Tufton Farm: a Historic Iris Collection, a Rose Border, a Dianthus Collection, and the Léonie Bell Rose Garden.
Through the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the center sponsors many educational programs, including lectures, workshops, and special tours of the facility. These include an annual Open House — held each year in May — and a biennial Historic Plant Symposium, to be held in 2008 on September 5 and followed by the 2008 Heritage Harvest Festival the next day.
Twinleaf, CHP's annual journal and catalogue, includes in-depth articles on historic plants and on the restoration of Monticello's gardens. Articles from past issues can be accessed through this web site. The Garden Shop at Monticello, open daily from late March through October, and its companion in the Monticello Online Shop, offer a broad range of historic plants and seeds as well as books, reproduction flower pots, and related items.
For more details, directions, or to receive the current Saturdays in the Garden brochure, call or write the Monticello, P.O. Box 217, Charlottesville, Virginia. Telephone (434) 984-9822; Fax (434) 977-6140; or e-mail us.
