Jefferson had as many as thirty-eight varieties of peach planted in the South Orchard at a time when there were few cultivars available. In 1811 the orchard included 160 peach trees, far more than any other fruit. When Jefferson wrote his granddaughter in 1815 that "we abound in the luxury of the peach," he was reiterating a theme expressed by colonial fruit-growers and even the first natural historians of the New World. Although the peach tree is an oriental native, it was introduced into Florida in the sixteenth century and brought north by Indians. It escaped from gardens so readily that many early botanists were awed by the abundance of "wild" peaches throughout the Southeast. Peach orchards also thrived, partly because introduced insects and diseases had not spread enough to be a problem. Peaches were so prolific they were fed to the hogs.
Peaches were popular because they were easy to grow, trees bore fruit soon after planting, and they could be propagated simply from seed. Jefferson dried the fruit and also made mobby, a peach brandy common in Virginia. He had thousands of peach trees planted alongside his fields as an ornamental fence and also envisioned this fast-growing tree as a forestry product to provide wood for his fireplaces. But Jefferson also tried to assemble a collection of peach varieties for the table: Heath Cling, Oldmixon Cling, Morris' Red Rareripe -- the first American peach varieties, and Italian peaches previously unknown in this country -- the Alberges, Vaga Loggia, and Apple.
Selected peach varieties at Monticello
Indian Blood Cling Peach
Heath Cling Peach
Oldmixon Free peach showing the interior flesh and pit and the exterior skin