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The Garden Club of Virginia Announces Landscape Restoration at Poplar Forest as New Official Project -

At its October Board of Director’s meeting, the Garden Club of Virginia voted to officially adopt the first landscape restoration projects at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest as its next garden restoration.  Archaeologists at Poplar Forest have embarked on phase I of the multi-phase project to investigate and restore Jefferson’s ornamental gardens and landscape features at his retreat.

The Garden Club of Virginia is an active association of forty-seven garden clubs, whose members collectively form a group of more than 3,300 civic leaders from around the Commonwealth. The mission of the Garden Club of Virginia is to restore historic gardens and landscapes, to conserve Virginia’s natural resources, to inspire a love of gardening and to provide education for members and the general public

Kim Nash, the president of The Garden Club of Virginia speaks for the Club when she says, “We are thrilled to be able to work with the Corporation for Jefferson’s Poplar Forest to re-plant an ornamental landscape that was conceived by Thomas Jefferson, himself. This opportunity is unique in so far as the details of the design, which were catalogued by Mr. Jefferson’s own hand, now are being confirmed by the extensive archaeological research carried out at Poplar Forest. The Garden Club of Virginia is honored to be able to revive such a significant garden plan two centuries after its creation.”

Most notably, the Garden Club of Virginia is recognized for Historic Garden Week, an annual statewide tour of gardens and homes. Proceeds from the week are used to fund garden restoration projects throughout Virginia. Since its inception in 1929, the Garden Club of Virginia has restored more than 40 significant public gardens throughout the Commonwealth including gardens at Monticello, Mount Vernon, the University of Virginia, and Stratford Hall, among many others.

“We are so pleased to partner with the Garden Club of Virginia to restore the very first features of Jefferson’s unique ornamental gardens at his personal retreat,” said Lynn A. Beebe, Poplar Forest’s president. “This project will open another dimension of Jefferson’s retreat for visitors.”

The landscape is an essential element of the design for Jefferson’s retreat. The unique landscape design at Poplar Forest was a marriage of many things, particularly a combination of Roman villa design mixed with British and French formal and picturesque garden design. The gardens, like the house, reveal much about Jefferson’s personal interests and experiences.

Most of Jefferson’s retreat landscape and farm landscape has vanished visually. A few maps survive of part of the farm, but no Jefferson-era drawings of the designed retreat grounds are known to exist. While Jefferson’s records, planting memoranda and letters, provide many clues about the gardens at Poplar Forest –– it is through extensive excavating and lab analysis that archaeologists are developing a more complete picture of the gardens and grounds. As the details about the gardens come into sharper focus through archaeology, they will be restored. 

The Garden Club of Virginia has established basic principles that apply to all restoration projects it adopts: Each garden must be open to the public on a regular basis; the property's governing body must approve the restoration project; and the property's governing body must agree to maintain the restoration.

The Garden Club of Virginia will work with the nonprofit Corporation for Jefferson’s Poplar Forest on the first two projects in Poplar Forest’s Phase I of landscape restoration.  The first project is to excavate and restore the allee or double row of paper mulberry trees on the west side of the house. This project will be the first opportunity to see the ingenious way that Jefferson intertwined architecture with landscape to create his ideal personal getaway. The second project that the Garden Club of Virginia will aid is the investigation and restoration of ornamental plantings in front of Jefferson’s octagonal house: two oval flower beds and two tree groupings that he called “tree clumps”, like the ones he had seen in Europe. 

Poplar Forest archaeologists this summer began the search for the evidence to guide the re-planting of the allee of trees. The double row of paper mulberry trees will link the octagonal house to the earthen mound on the west side of the house, thereby balancing the newly restored “wing of offices” on the octagon’s east side. Doing this will restore the symmetry of Jefferson’s design for Poplar Forest.

“The landscapes of Poplar Forest, and really all of Central Virginia, have changed significantly in the last 200 years,” said Jack Gary, Director of Archaeology and Landscapes. “Through our archaeological research at Poplar Forest we are able to understand, envision, and recreate these landscapes. From examining pollen grains and chemicals trapped in the soil, to studying historic plantation maps and documents, to excavating the remains of shrubs Jefferson planted, our interdisciplinary approach can tell us what Jefferson’s gardens actually looked like 200 years ago.”

About Poplar Forest
Poplar Forest is Thomas Jefferson's secluded plantation and retreat home, now a National Historic Landmark. Undergoing award-winning restoration and archaeology, Poplar Forest offers educational outreach programs, tours and special events. Poplar Forest is open Wednesday through Monday, April through November from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Tuesdays and Thanksgiving Day. Call (434) 525-1806 or visit www.poplarforest.org for additional information.  

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Poplar Forest is open to the public seven days a week, March 15 through December 15 (closed Thanksgiving Day). Group tours are available year-round by appointment.