Kinney Azalea Gardens: Rhode Island’s Hidden Gem

The Kinney Azalea Gardens are a hidden gem—a private garden that grew out of the horticultural passions of Lorenzo Kinney, Jr, who moved there with his wife, Elizabeth, in 1927. The first azalea and rhododendron plants were planted shortly, with help from Lorenzo’s father, the first professor of botany at the nearby University of Rhode Island. Lorenzo inherited a love of horticulture from his father, and a love of plein air oil painting from his mother, who was URI’s first painting professor. Lorenzo was able to pursue both in the creation of his garden.

Azaleas became his passion after visiting Elizabeth’s native Virginia and seeing the extensive azalea plantings in southern estates. At that time, there were few azaleas available for northern gardens, so Lorenzo began collecting azaleas from the southern U.S. and from around the world, and hybridizing his own—a hobby that turned into a second career. His hybrids, known as the K-series, can be seen on the K Path in the garden. A beautiful peach hybrid is named in honor of Elizabeth.

With help from many high school and college students, Lorenzo planted five acres of gardens. One of those high school students, Susan Gordon, went on to earn a doctorate in plant sciences. She worked extensively with Lorenzo from 1976 until his death in 1994 at the age of 100. The gardens have stayed in the Kinney family, and visitors are still welcomed!

Dr. Gordon manages the gardens and continues to develop new hybrids. She has planted a sixth acre as Galle’s Footsteps, a series of five footprints, each devoted to an azalea hybridizer. The area is dedicated to the late Fred Galle, author, horticulturist and friend of Lorenzo’s. She has also created naturalized areas with native shrubs and perennials to preserve the biodiversity of the garden.

The azaleas are at their peak from mid-May to early June, when the garden is ablaze in pink, white, red and coral. There are hundreds of azalea and rhododendron cultivars, and collections of mountain laurel, boxwood, pieris, leucothoe, itea, calycanthus, and oakleaf hydrangeas. You will also find a stand of mature umbrella pines that was a wedding gift to Lorenzo from his parents, and a 10-foot circular moongate that was built by a local landscape architect and stonemason.

You can also purchase azaleas, rhododendrons, leucothoe, mountain laurel, and other shrubs, both in pots and as full-grown specimens from the garden. Cash and check only.

Kinney Azalea Gardens, 2391 Kingstown Rd. (Rte 108), South Kingstown, RI 02879, (401) 782-8847, kinneyazaleagardens.com. Admission by donation, open daily dawn to dusk, street parking.

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Newport's Blue Garden

The most coveted invitation of the 1913 Newport summer season was for the Masque of the Blue Garden, an inaugural soiree for the magnificent garden created for Arthur Curtiss James and his wife, Harriet Parsons James.

Three hundred guests were greeted by Harriet James, who was clad in a blue 16th-century Italian gown embroidered with sapphires and amethysts and crowned with an ornate diamond-studded headdress. After an Italianate pageant staged by professional entertainers, a trumpeter led guests into the James mansion for dinner and dancing.

Arthur Curtiss James made his fortune in copper and the railroads. A private man and one of America’s least-known millionaires, he was happiest sailing his yacht on the sea. Harriet was a vivacious socialite who enjoyed entertaining, fine homes, and beautiful gardens.

When the Jameses built their Newport mansion, Harriet hired Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to design a secret garden in a monochromatic color palette of blue. Flowers in ethereal shades of sapphire, azure, periwinkle, purple, violet, lavender, gray, and white reflected the sky and surrounding ocean. To keep the garden looking fresh from spring through fall, the beds were replanted several times each year by a staff of 40 gardeners. With its graceful design and signature color scheme, the Blue Garden became a Newport showplace and the site of lavish parties and garden tours. 

After both Jameses died in 1941, maintenance of the Blue Garden suffered. In 1967, the mansion was devastated by fire and demolished, and the property was subdivided into house lots and sold. The once-glorious Blue Garden disappeared under a thick covering of invasive trees and vines.

In 2012 philanthropist, preservationist, and horticulturist Dorrance Hamilton funded the restoration of the garden. Hamilton was an important member of Newport society, a benefactor of Blithewold and the Philadelphia and Newport Flower Shows, and a neighbor of the Blue Garden.

Completed in 2015, the renovation of the Blue Garden reflects Olmsted’s design intent but utilizes a 21st-century plant palette that allows for simplified maintenance.

Enclosed by low walls, trellises, and a columned pergola, the Blue Garden is classical in layout with a cruciform shape. A long reflecting pool, lined with Persian-inspired blue tiles and fine spray jets, is connected with a runnel to a square lily pond.

Boxwood, Caryopteris, and ‘Twist-n-Shout’ lacecap hydrangeas provide structure, while beds of mixed perennials, annuals, and bulbs create a long season of bloom. You will find perennial salvias, balloon flowers, phlox, monkshood, asters, false indigo, and delphiniums augmented with annual bachelor buttons, lantanas, morning glories, plumbago, lobelias, and agapanthus. Cobalt blue ceramic pots accent the plantings. The Blue Garden is once again a showplace in Newport thanks to the creativity and dedication of two amazing women.

Excerpted from The Garden Tourist’s New England by Jana Milbocker.

The Blue Garden, Newport, RI 02919, thebluegarden.org

Hours: June 13–Oct.10: 11 am & 2 pm, by appointment only. Admission: $15, online tickets required