A small group of Puritan families, under the guidance of John Winthrop,came to this strange new land called America. The reverend Henry Whitfield was the oldest of the twenty five men who, along with their famlies left England and landed in New Haven in 1639.

They immediatly began negotiations to buy Menuncatuck, and in September they followed the Indian trail to their new home. The seeds and root cuttings of their favorite herbs and flowers that they had brought with them were precious things to cherish.

In the early days, nothing was available to the colonist except the things that had been brought with them. That is unless it was made by their own hands, grown from their own stock, or brought by the next boat many months later.

George Fenwick gave the seal of Connecticut to the colony when they purchased Saybrook Fort in 1644. The seal represents a vineyard of fifteen grape vines and a hand issuing from clouds holds a label with the motto: Quitranstulit sustinet.

The vines symbolized the colony, which was brought over and planted here in the wilderness. The motto expresses our belief that He who brought over the vine continues to take care of it.

Some of the early flowers growing in Connecticut were hyssop, rue, lilies of the valley, hollyhocks, double red peonies, foxglove, larkspur, feverfew, beebalm, rosemary, lemon verbena, lavender, heliotrope, and scented geraniums.

In Connecticut around the 1750's,a half ounce of mulberry seed was given to each parish within the state to help encourage silk culture. For almost one hundred years it was a flourishing industry. Each farmer raised his own trees. Usually it was the wife and daughter who fed the worms and spun the silk by hand.

The silk business was given up in 1850's after a serious blight ruined most of the Mulberry trees, which were the food source of the silkworms.