In article ,
(HoudiniMan) wrote:

I've been trying to figure out what plant this is.

http://houdini.till-morning.net/tjcoolplant.jpg

It was a photo taken in Thomas Jefferson's front yard at Montecello.

Can anybody help me identify it?

Montecello gardens aren't supposed to have anything in them that Jefferson
himself did not grow. That limits which lily this could be: American
Turk's-cap (Lillium superba) native to eastern North America & primarily
the Appalachians.

Jefferson received his specimens of the American turk's-cap (Lilium
superbum) in 1812 from Bernard McMahon, a Philadelphia nurseryman.

Jefferson also grew the pink European Turk's Cap (Lilium martagon), yellow
Canada Martagon (Lilium canadense), & the White Lily later known as the
Madonna Lily (Lilium candidum).

Here's the Center for Historic Plants website full of articles about
Jefferson's gardens:
http://www.twinleaf.org/
Twin Leaf Journal Online is maintained by The Center for Historic Plants
which is also a nursery. It is supposed to sell heirloom & historic plants
which Jefferson personally grew. But business being what it is, they
presently sell an Asian lily which is in mass-production for any ol'
nursery & which Jefferson never knew existed, while they do not offer the
American turk's-cap. You will probably have to track it down from a native
species specialist. I got my American turk's-caps as mere seedlings at a
Rhododendron Species Foundation sale, but they weren't this year old
enough to bloom.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com