Franklinia T-Shirt

This drawing spent the better part of forty years in a box. Going through the archival boxes we've kept from the nursery's early 1980s, we found Franklinia alatamaha drawn by Julia Mackintosh, the original owner of Woodlanders. We read it as a letter she left for whoever came next: an invitation to know, grow and love the rare native plants of the Southeast. So we framed it as a postage stamp and are sending it on.

Few plants could carry that message better. John and William Bartram found the Franklin tree along Georgia's Altamaha River in 1765 and named the tree for their friend Benjamin Franklin. They were last seen growing wild in 1803, and every Franklinia alive today, in every garden and arboretum on earth, descends from the seed the Bartrams carried home to Philadelphia. A plant that survives only because someone cared enough to collect them is about as clear a case for southeastern natives as anyone could make.

Julia's Franklinia fills the back in burgundy ink on an ivory Comfort Colors tee, with Aiken, South Carolina written beneath, and a small Woodlanders rare plant emporium badge sits over the heart. It's the same soft, garment-dyed shirt our crew wears through long days in the greenhouses and fields. Wear it and the people who know will know. Everyone else will simply assume you have excellent taste in flowers, which is also true.

Why you'll love it

• An archival Franklinia alatamaha drawing by Julia Mackintosh, original owner of Woodlanders, from the early 1980s
• Printed as a postage stamp across the back, with a small Woodlanders badge on the chest
• Ivory Comfort Colors tee with burgundy ink, the same soft, mid-weight shirt as our original crew tee
• Relaxed unisex fit, S through XL
• A small first printing, just five of each size

Care
Machine wash cold with like colors, tumble dry low.

Some letters take forty years to arrive. This one is finally in the mail.