Resplendent Dahlias on Enders Island
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Looking for a wonderful daytrip? Enders Island is a beautiful 11-acre sanctuary off the coast of Mystic, Connecticut, and the site of St. Edmund’s Retreat, a Catholic Retreat Center. Accessible by a short causeway, the island provides an atmosphere of serenity and spirituality with its lovely gardens, seascapes and seaside Chapel.
The island was once the home of Dr. Thomas and Alys Enders, who gifted it to the Society of St. Edmund, a Catholic community of priests and brothers in 1954. It has since grown to serve a ministry of hope and healing, providing spiritual retreats, an institute of sacred art, and a ministry to people in recovery.
The gardens began in the early 1900s when the Enders transformed the barren island into their home. They built an Arts and Crafts stone house and began extensive landscape renovations. When the 1938 New England Hurricane devastated the island, the Enders commissioned the construction of the seawall that still protects the island today.
Restoration work on the gardens began in 1993. Fr. Thomas F. X. Hoar, SSE, recruited friends from throughout New England to help clean up and restore the landscape, which had become choked with weeds. In 2007, dahlia enthusiast Gayle Wentworth began attending mass on Enders Island. At the time, there were few gardens on the property, but Gayle saw the land’s potential. With a gift of tubers that were planted in two garden plots, the dahlia gardens were established.
Since then, the garden has grown to almost four acres in size, with 24 plots of dahlias. Gayle, now known as the “Dahlia Lady” continues to share her many gifts and talents, contributes dahlias from her own gardens, and obtains tubers from other growers and hybridizers. In 2021 an heirloom dahlia garden was established with contributions from heirloom growers. There are currently more than 2,000 dahilias of 400 varieties in the gardens. Peak blooming season spans mid-August to mid-September, when 90 percent of the flowers are in bloom. Many dahlias continue to dazzle until frost in mid-October.
In addition to the dahlia gardens, a rose garden with 80 rose bushes provides a lovely floral display outside the Our Lady of Assumption Chapel. Grapes, apples, peaches, pears, and peppers also flourish in the Island’s soil, later appearing in a variety of pies and jams crafted annually by staff and volunteers. Nestled into a natural rock amphitheater, the Garden of Two Hearts is a memorial to lost loved ones. Stone walls and walkways frame the gardens, and statuary enhances the reverent atmosphere.
Enders Island is located off of Mystic CT. (860) 536-0565 endersisland.org
Excerpted from The Garden Tourist’s New England, second edition, available here.
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