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Newspaper Article Archive - November 2015 issue
SEEDS OF DISCOVERY
Bernard McMahon Early American Horticulturist...
enduring contribution to plants, seeds and gardening.
Few pioneers of our nation’s horticultural knowledge have been less recognized by the gardening public, yet have contributed more, than Bernard
McMahon. Born in Ireland in 1775, he emigrated to the United States in
1796 and issued his first Catalogue of Garden Grass, Herb, Flower, Tree &
Shrub-Seeds, Flower Roots, etc. which included 720 varieties and species of
seed. His most enduring contribution was The American Gardener’s Calendar
which was every gardener’s handbook of the first half of the 19th century. He
settled in Philadelphia and created a thriving business selling seeds, plants and
horticultural books. Although McMahon died in 1816, his Calendar finished
with the eleventh edition in 1857.
In 1802 McMahon opened his first seed store, which gradually evolved to
include hundreds of species of seeds, plants, tools, and botanical, agricultural
and horticultural books. Six years later McMahon purchased twenty acres
outside Philadelphia that would enable him to develop and expand his business. He continued to operate a seed store, but now offered nursery stock for
commercial purposes as well as landscaping and for the gardening public.
Maybe this was our nation’s first “garden center.”
In addition to his extensive contributions to horticultural knowledge, McMahon has other noteworthy accomplishments. First, he was Thomas Jeffer© Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello,
son’s gardening mentor contributing much knowledge to the gardens develpresumed portrait of Bernard McMahon.
oped at Jefferson’s home, Monticello. He advised Jefferson on other matters related to agriculture and gardening through lengthy
correspondence. Most important he greatly influenced the importance of the botanical collections of the Lewis and Clark expedition
and served as curator of the specimens upon their return.
In 1806 McMahon was given seeds and plants collected by the Lewis and Clark Expedition which President Jefferson insisted were
the property of the Federal Government. His responsibility was to successfully germinate the seeds and expand the collections.
Great personal rivalries developed in the United States and Europe, among the noted botanists of the day, over the description,
illustration, and release of the plants. Included were Golden Current (Ribes aureum), Snowberry (Symphoricarpus albus), and
Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) all of which are presently produced by Lawyer Nursery, Inc. with steady demand. McMahon
had also been given about twenty five other species which he propagated out of the public eye and were eventually introduced, not
in America, but in England.
The Calendar is distinguished from other publications of the time by its breadth of information. He presented, for every month,
the chronology of the tasks for the serious gardener, and gave particular emphasis to native plants with merit. McMahon described
ways and means of collecting wild plants and seeds and bringing them into the American garden. Not to exclude all European species and varieties, but to recognize the true merits of each plant without prejudice of where it came from.
The most important concern of McMahon in his work, was how agriculture and horticulture was of great national importance, bring-
ing the growing of plants into a national endeavor. He saw our native flora as becoming part of agriculture and contributing to the
foundation of nation building for what we call today, the American Dream. This was the age when the developed European nations
were scouring the world looking for new plants with commercial value. It started with Columbus bringing corn (Zea maize) from
the western hemisphere, to the vulcanization of latex from the rubber tree (Hevea brasilensis) found in Brazil. In McMahon’s time
botanists were looking for the next rubber tree.
There was much intrigue associated with the possession and handling of the specimens from Lewis and Clark’s expedition. A more
detailed account has been written by Robert S. Cox who is “Head, Special Collections” in the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He wrote the paper ““I never yet parted”: Bernard McMahon and the Seeds of the Corps of
Discovery. Cox tells a much more complete story of McMahon’s life, accomplishments and the other notable botanists of the time.
In 1816, McMahon died at his nursery which by then he called his “Botanical Garden”. His wife Ann immediately stepped in and
continued operating the seed store for another 25 years, and publishing the Catalog. She was assisted for some time by Bernard’s
son Thomas, who eventually left the business to practice law.
In memory of Bernard McMahon, another noted botanist of the time, Thomas Nuttall, complimented McMahon’s contributions to
botany by proposing the genus name Mahonia be given a group of western U.S. coastal and inland broadleaf evergreen shrubs. Today
the recognized botanical name for these plants is Mahonia, we value their ornamental merit and they are widely planted in landscapes.
They include such important plants as Mahonia aquifolium (see page 7), Mahonia repens and Mahonia nervosa among others.
Glossy dark green foliage with fruit on Mahonia aquifolium.
Bright yellow spring blooms on Mahonia nervosa.
Crimson red fall foliage of Mahonia repens.
Newspaper Article Archive - November 2015 edition
Copyright ©November 2015 by Lawyer Nursery, Inc. 6625 Montana Highway 200, Plains, Montana, 59859, USA. All rights reserved. No part of
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