Wethersfield: A Hudson Valley Treasure

Nestled in 1,000 acres of beautiful rolling hills in New York’s Dutchess County, Wethersfield is considered one of the best examples of a classic Italian Renaissance garden in America. 

 Wethersfield was built as a summer residence by Chauncey Deveraux Stillman (1907-1989), an heir to one of America’s great family banking fortunes. Educated at Harvard and the Columbia School of Architecture, Stillman had a distinguished career as director of the oil and mining enterprise Freeport-McMoRan, and as a naval intelligence officer during WWII. A 20th-century Renaissance man, he was interested in yachting, paintings, sculpture, architecture, religion, farming, wildlife, horticulture, and horses. In fact it was the Millbrook Hunt that brought him to Dutchess County, where he was struck by the amazing views and farming potential of the land. In 1937 Stillman purchased two abandoned farms, and expanded the property over the next 50 years. He named his estate Wethersfield in honor of Wethersfield, Connecticut, where his family first settled in 1705. 

The first buildings on the property were the stable and carriage house, which still house Stillman’s antique carriage collection and dozens of prize ribbons. The Georgian Colonial brick and brownstone residence was situated on the highest point of the property, with its main entrance to the west. It was designed by Bancel LaFarge, a Beaux Arts architect. Compared to the lavish summer homes of his contemporaries in Newport, this was a modest residence decorated with Baroque-style frescoes, antiques, sculpture, and paintings by Italian masters as well as French and American Impressionists.

Stillman with his grandson

Stillman was in intellectual, interested in all forms of natural sciences. With the assistance of a farm manager, Stillman continued to farm the property, and brought progressive soil and water conservation techniques to Dutchess County. He practiced contour farming—planting in rows that are perpendicular to slopes and thereby reduce soil erosion and water runoff by 50%. He also excavated 12 ponds to catch water runoff and use it for watering crops and his garden.

 He was also a deeply religious man who converted to Catholicism in midlife. His interest in the Catholic faith, philosophy, classics and history, can be found woven into the design of his home and garden, from the home’s chapel, to reliefs depicting scenes from the Bible, Latin inscriptions, and statuary referencing Greek and Roman mythology. 

 In 1947, Stillman commissioned Evelyn N. Poehler, a Connecticut landscape architect who had been trained at the Lowethorpe School for horticulture and landscape design in Groton, Massachusetts, to design a swimming pool. The commission grew into the design of a traditional Italianate garden and a wilderness garden whose design evolved over the next 25 years. 

Poehler and Stillman collaborated on a 10-acre portion of the property closest to the house, which was divided into a 7-acre Wilderness Gardens and a 3-acre classic Italian Renaissance Garden. Classic Italian gardens are green gardens with clipped hedges, a strong central axis, framed views, allées, terraces, enclosed garden rooms, arches, sculpture and water features. Pairs of shrubs, trees, statues or urns frame views and entrances. Flowers are usually used in pots as accents.

When you visit Wethersfield, your tour will begin at a visitor’s booth at the outer edge of the garden, and you will gradually approach through the garden to the house. You will first see the gorgeous views of rolling hills and woodlands that surround the formal gardens. The garden entrance is guarded by a pair of crouching lions. As you enter the terraced gardens, you will see garden rooms framed by clipped yews and weeping beeches in serene shades of green. To the right is the Belvedere, on a rise surrounded by white pine. A solid shale wall topped by a stone balustrade features a niche that encloses a cupid fountain with plantings of sedums, campanula and other delicate flowers spilling from the stones. The upper terrace forms the Peacock Walk, with a cage of these colorful birds at one end. To the left of the Lower Terrace is the Cutting Garden, traditionally used to supply flowers for the house. It is now used as a teaching garden for a staff of interns.

Belvedere

peacock walk

lower terrace with weeping beeches

cutting garden

The path through the Lower Terrace brings you to a stunning oval reflecting pool. This was originally the swimming pool that Poehler designed for Stillman. Notice the beautiful view to the south, with an ornamental haha wall borrowed from English gardens. To the north, a 190 foot long allee of tall arborvitae brings you to a fountain with a green and gold naiad, or water nymph, created by sculptor Carl Milles. 

reflecting pool

Naiad fountain

As you continue toward the house, you enter the Inner Garden, enclosed by the house, a beech tunnel, and a walled knot garden. This is the oldest garden at Wethersfield, designed by Bryan J. Lynch in 1941. A grape arbor on one side creates an extension of the dining room and was used for outdoor lunches. The rill evokes Persian gardens and brings the soothing sound of water to this lovely courtyard. Borders of perennials and annuals frame the keyhole lawn. Curved steps lead to the Victorian-style knot gardens outside the Grasshopper House, named for its whimsical weathervane. Inside are grisaille murals of Wethersfield scenes painted by American artist Hight Moore. 

inner garden. photo courtesy of tcfl.org

south terrace

A linden hedge leads to the South Terrace, whose lower level offers beautiful views of Wethersfield’s hay fields. Descending one more level to the Pine Terrace, you enter a lovely shady seating area with a rectangular pool stocked with goldfish, and adorned with pots of fuschias and agapanthus. Here you also view the Palladian Arch which will bring you to the Wilderness Garden.

palladian arch

The Wilderness Garden is a woodland garden with carriage drives and trails that weave through stands of sugar maples, beech, larch and white pine underplanted with rhododendrons, mountain laurels and other blooming shrubs. Drifts of Christmas ferns, maidenhair and hay scented ferns line the trails, which are punctuated with limestone and marble statuary. These statues of animals, nymphs, centaurs and Greek gods were carved in the late 1960s and 1970s by English sculptor Peter Watts and Polish sculptor Jozef Stachura.

Wethersfield is located at 257 Pugsley Rd., Amenia, NY. At this time, the garden is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5 pm and admission is temporarily waived. The trails are open daily from dawn to dusk. 

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Joie de Vivre in Joyce's Garden

A bright red arbor made of a crossing shovel and a spading fork greets visitors at the entrance of Joyce Hannaford’s lush garden. Colorful flowers spill out across the road and create a cheerful welcome into this private cul-de-sac.

When Joyce and her husband, Charlie, moved into their 1923 gambrel Colonial 20 years ago, the house was barely visible behind overgrown shrubs and trees. Numerous towering pines had to be removed before any gardening could begin. Now, graceful Japanese maples, dappled willows, tricolor beeches, and specimens of Japanese umbrella pine, stewartia, and katsura allow hundreds of perennials to grow in their dappled shade. 

Joyce’s garden began with a gift of 70 daylilies from a friend who was moving across the country. Since then, Joyce’s collection has grown to about 400 plants that provide peak color for the garden in mid-July. The daylilies bloom profusely with Shasta daisies, phlox, Rudbeckia, martagon and Oriental lilies, Echinacea, and colorful annuals. Sculptural ‘Tropicanna’ cannas add texture, pattern, vivid color, and tropical flair to the borders. An elegant weeping larch draping over a small pond welcomes you to a hidden oasis behind the house. There a large elliptical flagstone fountain provides the gentle sound of trickling water for an intimate brick patio and dining area surrounded by silver Japanese pines. Clumps of Hakone grass, Solomon’s seal, hostas, epimediums, and ferns create a colorful carpet of foliage. 

Joyce, a former caterer and self-proclaimed “foodie,” designed the garden for entertaining during both the day and evening, with layers of uplights, fairy lights, and pathway lights that guide you through the garden. Sculptural bronze flowers illuminate the pathways, adding a magical glow to the garden after dark. A circular patio with a firepit is a favorite place for Joyce and Charlie to relax in the evening, sipping wine by the fire and chatting with passersby. 

The garden is embellished with birdhouses, tuteurs, gazing globes, arbors, and mementos of friends and travels. The whimsical stacked-stone sculptures were created by friend Jim Chudy. A pair of Sicilian ceramic heads planted with sedums brings back memories of Italy. A pathway of flagstones from Joyce’s hometown of Franconia, New Hampshire, leads into a memorial garden dedicated to her best friend, Susan. For Joyce, the garden is an exuberant labor of love, a memory book of friends and adventures past, a palette for artistic expression, and a setting for delightful celebrations.

Some of Joyce’s favorite gardening tips:

• Use compost to mulch flower beds

• Cut back perennials such as phlox, perovskia, Montauk daisy, asters and sedums in June to keep them from flopping

• Use lots of annuals in the garden for pops of color

• Fertilize pots weekly. Joyce uses Neptune’s Harvest fish emulsion

I met Joyce and Charlie on a tour of gardens in the Scottish Highlands sponsored by the Natick Garden Club. Their friendliness, humor and passions for gardening, wine and good food made the trip really fun. Joyce’s Natick, Massachusetts garden is open on the fourth weekend in July from 10 am to 4 pm, and from June to Labor Day by appointment. Admission is $15. Please contact Joyce at joycesgardennatick@gmail.com.

Joyce’s Garden is one of 140 outstanding destinations in The Garden Tourist’s New England, available here.

Boulderwoods: A Celebration of Rhododendrons

Boulderwoods in its spring glory. All photos by Joe Bruso.

Joe Bruso picked up a brochure from the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society (ARS) at the Boston Flower Show 30 years ago. Rhodies were plants that he knew very little about. Today his rhododendron collection exceeds 1,500 plants. He is president of the Massachusetts Chapter, develops his own hybrids, lectures about rhododendrons, and sells plants from his home nursery.

When Joe first saw the three-acre building lot in Hopkinton, Mass., that would become his current home and garden, he realized that it would be the perfect setting for his gardening hobby. Glaciers had carved hillocks and valleys and deposited huge boulders throughout three acres of woodlands. After building their house, Joe and his wife set about clearing the lot in small chunks—digging out understory shrubs and saplings and culling trees that were diseased, short-lived, or tough competitors for other plants. The remaining red and white oaks, hickories, and white pines provide a perfect canopy for Joe’s collections of rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias, and other ornamental trees that flourish in groves among the boulders. They are underplanted with drifts of trilliums, Jeffersonia, bloodroot, epimediums, jack-in-the-pulpits, and other shade lovers.

Joe’s interest in hybridizing rhododendrons grew out of his lifelong curiosity about the natural world and his education in biology and genetics. It was fueled by the American Rhododendron Society where kindred spirits engage in learning and experimentation. He joined the Species Study Group, which focuses on the 800+ rhododendron species that have been discovered worldwide. Thanks to rapid infrastructure development in Asia and advancements in genetics, new species of rhododendrons continue to be identified and added to the genera. 

Emerging rhododendron foliage in all of its variety

Joe’s particular hybridizing interest lies in big-leaf rhodies with unusual foliage—bright red leaf bracts, pigmented leaves, silvery tomentum (wooly fuzz on top of leaves), and cinnamon-colored indumentum (velvety underside). You will see hundreds of these plants throughout the garden, some as full-grown specimens, others as year-old shrublets in nursery beds. His collection also includes more than 100 straight species, with some blooming as early as March and others as late as August.

Joe Bruso, hybridizing in his garden.

Boulderwoods is open for visiting by appointment (see information below.) Large-leaf rhododendrons are always available for sale as well as a smaller selection of deciduous and evergreen azaleas, magnolias, and other woody ornamentals. I have visited many times and purchased more than a dozen of Joe’s hybrids that are thriving in my garden. This spring I also joined the Mass. Rhododendron Society to learn more about these wonderful shrubs. Why not join us? You can find more information about the Massachusetts Chapter of ARS at MassRhododendron.org.

A cross of Janet Blair x Sappho Kalmia Hill

Boulderwoods is located in Hopkinton, Mass., and open by appointment only. Contact Joe at (508) 435-8217, jpbruso@aol.com

McLaughlin Garden & Homestead: A Maine Gardener's Legacy

PHOTO BY MARTHA EMERSON

Nestled between gas stations and strip malls, the McLaughlin Garden and Homestead has been a peaceful retreat and beloved garden for decades. It began as the private home of Bernard McLaughlin, a 38-year-old army veteran who spent winters in Florida as a hotel cook and summers growing potatoes with his father in Maine. When he bought the 100-year-old farmstead with its huge barn and massive stone walls in 1936, McLaughlin set about creating an ornamental garden.

PHOTO BY MARTHA EMERSON

McLaughlin was a self-taught gardener with no formal horticultural training. He began with a bare, unproductive pasture, and over the decades he transformed it into a lush garden with mature trees, wildflower borders, and shrub collections. He read voraciously, joined plant societies, and befriended other gardeners. Mostly he learned by tending the garden single-handedly for almost 60 years. Lilacs were one of McLaughlin’s favorite plants, and he planted 200 lilac bushes of 125 varieties in his garden. He added specimen trees and underplanted them with hostas, coral bells, lily of the valley, columbines, and ferns. Over the years, many of them naturalized to form breathtaking swaths. In sunny areas he created beds of daylilies, irises, and phlox, and he planted a border of Maine wildflowers and ferns along an old shady lane behind the barn.

LADY’S SLIPPERS, PULMONARIA AND WOODLAND PHLOX—PHOTO BY MARTHA EMERSON

“DEAN OF MAINE GARDENS” MCLAUGHLIN

DODECATHEON (SHOOTING STAR) IN THE WILDFLOWER WALK—PHOTO BY MARTHA EMERSON

McLaughlin’s generosity was legendary. Whenever his garden gate was open (which was almost always), the garden was open to visitors—neighbors, friends, and strangers. He loved to talk and teach others about gardening and earned the nickname “Dean of Maine Gardeners.” He was a plant collector who loved to share his plants with other gardeners and received many back in return. A member of the Maine Iris Society, he befriended hybridizer Currier McEwen, who named a Siberian iris with large ruffled white flowers in his honor. 

iris Siberia ‘Bernard McLaughlin’

TRILLIUMS AND BLEEDING HEARTS—PHOTO BY MARTHA EMERSON

 When McLaughlin died at the age of 98 in 1995, the community was amazed to find that no plans had been made to preserve the garden. A group of local residents formed the nonprofit McLaughlin Foundation and raised funds to purchase the property in 1997. With the help of volunteers, the foundation has been restoring and enhancing the garden and keeping it open to the public free of charge. Two of the best times to visit the garden are in early May when the spring ephemerals bloom–trilliums, bloodroot, mayapples, Uvularia, and primroses—and late May when the lilac collection is at its peak. Please check the garden’s website for an opening date for 2020.

PHOTO BY MARTHA EMERSON

PHOTO BY MARTHA EMERSON

McLaughlin Garden & Homestead, 97 Main St., South Paris, ME 04281, (207) 743-8820, mclaughlingarden.org

Please check website for opening days and hours. Admission is free.

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Tulipmania in Rhode Island

In the 17th century, tulip mania swept through Europe. Now it is sweeping through New England with the establishment of the first u-pick tulip farm in Exeter, Rhode Island. With seemingly endless fields of colorful tulips, Wicked Tulips has brought a slice of Holland to New England. But here you get to take home some of the beautiful flowers, and that has people coming in droves.

Photo courtesy of Wicked Tulips

Keriann and Jeroen Koeman moved to Rhode Island and founded Wicked Tulips in 2015. Their first “green” business was selling organically grown flower bulbs in Virginia. This was a fairly novel and challenging concept for a commercial bulb nursery but important to conservationist Keriann. Jeroen grew up on his family’s 150-acre tulip farm in Holland, where the name Koeman is synonymous with tulips. Virgina turned out to be too hot for tulip growing, so the couple looked north and were attracted to Rhode Island. They planted their first u-pick fields at Snake Den Farm, and found the climate to be perfect for tulips—cold in the winter and hot in the summer, which is similar to the climate of Central Asia where tulips are native.

The u-pick tulip concept was an instant hit, with 17,000 visitors storming the farm over three weeks in the first season.

Pickers of all ages, from small children to seniors in wheelchairs, meandered through the rows with buckets in hand, admiring and selecting their flowers. From the fields they made their way to the wrapping station, where their tulips were carefully wrapped in brown paper for the journey home.

Since 2015 the Koemans have tripled the size of their gardens and now grow more than 800,000 tulip bulbs of 100 different varieties. Their farm includes an early and late field as well as a display garden with 5,000 unusual tulips. Tickets must be purchased in advance, and each ticket includes 10 free tulips. Visitors should check the farm’s website or Facebook page to get the exact dates of the picking season and for a daily “Bloom Report” that indicates which varieties are in bloom. Wicked Tulips also sells tulip bulbs for fall planting.

Note new location: Schartner Farms, 1 Arnold Place Exeter, RI

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Garden of Tropical Delights: Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Located on the shore of Sarasota Bay, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the study and conservation of epiphytes—or air plants—like orchids, bromeliads and gesneriads.

Bill and Marie Selby came to Sarasota from Ohio, and built a modest 2-story Spanish-style house in the early 1920s. Despite their enormous wealth from oil and mining industries, the couple lived a quiet, unpretentious life, and became active philanthropists in the community. They both loved the outdoors–boating, fishing and riding, and Marie was consumed with nature and gardening. She designed the landscape around their home, and was a founding member of Sarasota’s garden club. When she passed away in 1971, she left her property to the community as a botanical garden.

photo courtesy of business observer

A visit to the Selby Gardens usually begins with a tour of the Tropical Conservatory filled with thousands of exotic, colorful plants. It takes seven on-site greenhouses to supply the Conservatory with blooming specimens. These greenhouses hold the most concentrated collection of epiphytes in the world, including 6,000 orchids, and you can enjoy the annual orchid show in February and March. From the Conservatory, you pass through a bonsai collection, the cycad garden and a fern garden.

Marie planted several bamboo groves in the garden, primarily to hide unwanted views.

The Koi Pond and Waterfall is one of the loveliest spots in the garden. Shaded by surrounding trees and accented with statuary, this garden is a serene retreat.

Past the Selby House you will find an impressive stand of Banyan trees that were planted in 1939, and an immense Moreton Bay Fig, with buttress roots that form a maze around its base. This grove of trees is the centerpiece of the Children’s Rainforest Garden, complete with waterfall, canopy walk, rope bridge, grass huts, and a play research station.

Winding trails lead through a cactus and succulent garden, palm grove, hardwood hammock, and native plantings.

Since Selby Gardens is located on a peninsula, there are lovely views of the bay with seating areas where you can relax and enjoy the view. A wooden walkway leads through native red, white and black mangroves, which are critical to Florida’s ecosystem and prevent erosion of the shoreline. 

Next to the Payne Mansion, which houses the Museum of Botany & the Arts, you will find a bromeliad garden, butterfly garden, and an edible garden. 

Wonderful as a public garden, Selby is even more impressive as a research institution. Since its founding, Selby botanists have participated in more than 200 expeditions to study and collect plants. Genetic properties of plants are studied in its molecular lab. Selby’s Herbarium contains more than 113,000 dried specimens, and the Spirit Collection contains more than 28,000 vials of orchids and gesneriads preserved in fluid. The Selby Research Library holds thousands of books, journals, prints and digital images documenting plant systematics, evolutions, horticulture and economic botany. 

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, 811 S. Palm Ave., Sarasota, FL 34236, (941) 366-5731 selby.org

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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

Kykuit: The Rockefeller Esta

October is a lovely time to visit gardens that have strong architectural features and autumn leaf color. Kykuit in Westchester County, New York, offers beautiful architecture, stunning views, and world-class artwork.

photo from hudsonvalley.org

The Kykuit estate was home to four generations of the Rockefeller family and features a grand mansion, beautiful gardens, extraordinary art, and spectacular scenery. It has been meticulously maintained for more than 100 years, and is a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Kykuit is accessible by formal tours only. There are four to choose from, ranging from 1-½  to 3 hours in length, depending on how much you would like to see of the mansion;, the Coach Barn, with its collections of classic automobiles and horse-drawn carriages; and the gardens. Only the Landmark Tour and Grand Tour offer access to all of the gardens.

Kykuit, Dutch for “lookout” and pronounced “kie-kit”, is situated on the highest point in the hamlet of Pocantico Hills, overlooking the Hudson River at Tappan Zee. It has a view of the New York City skyline, 25 miles to the south. The imposing mansion, built of local stone and topped with the Rockefeller emblem, is located centrally in a 250-acre gated inner compound within the larger Rockefeller family estate. 

The 40-room mansion was built in 1908 by John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil, and the richest man in America in his day. The initial plans for the property were developed by the company of Frederick Law Olmsted. Rockefeller was unhappy with their work, however, and assumed control of the design himself. He created several scenic winding roads and lookouts and transplanted mature trees to realize his vision. 

John D. Rockefeller with his family. John D. junior is standing in the back.

In 1906, the oversight of the house and grounds was given to son John, who hired landscape architect William Welles Bosworth. Kykuit is considered Bosworth’s best work in the United States. The design is loosely based on traditional Italian gardens, with strong axes, terraces, fountains, pavilions, and classical ornamentation. The terraced gardens include a Morning Garden, Grand Staircase, Japanese Garden, Italian Garden, Japanese-style brook, Japanese Teahouse, loggia, large Oceanus fountain, Temple of Aphrodite, and a semicircular rose garden. With stairways leading you from one level to the next, the garden invites movement and views.

John Rockefeller planned to use the house only in spring and fall, so trees were selected for their spring bloom, such as cherries and dogwoods, or for their autumn leaf color, such as the Japanese maples. Wisteria is one of the prevailing plants that ties the garden together—you first see it on the front façade of the house, and then it reappears on walls and pergolas throughout the garden. Fountains are another signature element, from the replica of a Boboli Gardens fountain with a 30-foot statue of Oceanus that greets you in the forecourt, to 39 other fountains that punctuate the garden rooms. The inner garden has a Moorish theme, with a canal and a small fountain featuring a sculpted fountainhead and bronze swans. The gardens, which took over seven years to install, were completed in 1915, and exceeded their budget of $30,000 by one million dollars. 

Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the last private owner of Kykuit, transformed its basement passages into a major private art gallery containing paintings by Picasso, Chagall, and Warhol, as well as extraordinary Picasso tapestries. Between 1935 and the late 1970s Governor Rockefeller added more than 120 works of abstract and modern sculpture to the gardens, including works by Picasso, Brancusi, Appel, Arp, Calder, Moore, and Giacometti. He precisely and skillfully sited the art to complement the classical formality of the garden and create stunning views. Their inclusion in the garden elevated it from a beautiful classic garden to an extraordinary experience of architecture, horticulture, and art.

Kykuit, 381 N. Broadway, Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591 , (914) 366-6900, hudsonvalley.org/historic-sites/kykuit

Hours: Oct: daily except Tues. Nov. 1–13: Thurs.–Sun., some holidays. Admission: Tours $25 and up

Mytoi: A Serene Island Garden

There are few Japanese gardens in New England, so it is unusual to find one gracing the tiny island of Chappaquiddick for almost 70 years. In 1954 Mary Wakeman purchased land in Chappaquiddick for a summer home, and hired Edgartown architect Hugh Jones to design her a Japanese-style house. As payment, she sold him a 3-acre parcel across the road from her house for $1.

Jones had developed a love of Japanese gardens during his military service. He began his own Japanese-style garden by scooping out a pond in the midst of the pitch pine forest, and building a little red bridge. He planted rhododendrons, azaleas and junipers. He did all of the landscaping and planting himself, and spent so much time on his garden that he referred to it as his "toy." He named the garden "my toy," which he spelled “M-Y-T-O-I” as we see it today.

When Jones died in 1965, his heirs sold the property back to Wakeman, who managed the garden and provided free access to the public. She donated the garden along with an endowment and an additional 11 acres of land to the Trustees in 1976.

When Hurricane Bob descended on Chappaquiddick in 1991, it decimated more than 70% of the plantings. Only a few of the original pitch pines, azaleas and rhododendrons survived the onslaught. The Trustees hired the team of Don Sibley and Julie Moir Messervy to develop and implement a reconstruction plan. Sibley is an artist with a strong interest in Japanese culture and gardening practices. Messervy is a renowned landscape designer who studied in Japan and was the first Western woman to be apprenticed to a Japanese master gardener.

Stewartia blossom in July

The new Mytoi garden is divided into Japanese-inspired garden rooms, with Asian plants and traditional Japanese garden elements. The entry gate is modeled after one you would find at a Japanese temple, but crafted from local black locust trees. As you stroll through the garden, you find azaleas and rhododendrons from the original garden, complemented by new birch alles, Stewartias, threadleaf maples, mountain laurels, camellias, and paths lined with Japanese primroses.

The pond is still there, but with a new zigzag-shaped bridge bordered by winterberry and beach plum. On a hill opposite the pond, a path leads to the azumaya, or traditional shelter where one would wait before entering a teahouse. A second hill topped with a bench provides a serene view of the water. The pond is stocked with koi, but due to local otters and osprey, the fish supply has to be supplemented with fresh donations every year. Mytoi invites you to slow down, to appreciate the nuances of Japanese design, and to contemplate the beauty of nature.

Hours: Daily dawn to dusk, admission $3

Mytoi, 41 Dike Rd., Edgartown, MA 02539, (508) 627-7689

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Osborne Homestead Museum: The Home and Garden of an Extraordinary Woma

By today’s standards, Frances Osborne Kellogg was an extraordinary woman. By the standards of the late 1800s, she was a force of nature—a successful industrialist, cattle breeder, philanthropist, and conservationist. When her father died in 1907 and the probate judge suggested that his companies be sold so that the family could live off the profits and Frances could go to college, the 31-year old young heiress replied, “Sell them? No. I intend to run them.”

A gifted violinist from an early age, Frances was expected to study music in college. She loved attending opera, theater and musical concerts in New York City. But an accident with a sewing needle damaged her eyesight, and Frances’ life took a different direction. Her father had taught her how to run the family business, and Frances took on the unusual challenge as a woman CEO of four different companies. All of them prospered under her leadership.

When she married New York architect Waldo Stewart Kellogg in 1919, the couple’s focus became the family dairy. The Kelloggs developed a reputation for their selective cattle-breeding program. As the family fortune grew, Frances invested in her community, supporting local organizations and building the Derby Neck Library.

Derby Neck Library

Waldo enlarged and remodeled the house in the Colonial Revival style in the 1920s, and Frances added the ornamental gardens. She had a deep love of flowers from childhood, and enjoyed attending annual flower shows in New York City. In 1910 she hired Yale architect Henry Killam Murphy to design her formal flower garden, and employed Robert Barton from Kew Gardens as her head gardener. 

French doors lead from the house and conservatory to this lovely garden, which is also visible from the street. The garden is bisected by a white trellis fence accented with red roses, purple clematis, and yellow honeysuckle. A central arbor provides benches where you can sit and enjoy the beauty and scents of the flowers. One half of the garden is dedicated to Frances’s favorite flower, the rose. Four rectangular rose beds are enclosed by long borders of old-fashioned favorites such as foxgloves, irises, goats beard, and salvias. The other half of the garden is a formal perennial garden of bearded iris, peonies, daylilies and sedums. Four beds of standard roses, weigela and boxwood surround a circular bed accentuated with a sundial.

The garden is bordered on one side by a long stone wall, with steps that lead to beds of lilacs and other ornamental shrubs and trees. On the slope above the formal gardens, a rock garden has been created with conifers, ferns and perennials. Peak time to see the garden is mid May to mid June.

Frances’ love of gardening and nature continued throughout her lifetime. She was an active member of local garden societies, and became a sponsor of the Connecticut College Arboretum. As her interest in conservation grew, she became the first female vice chair of the Conn. Forest and Park Association. Frances lived in the family home until her death in 1956. Before she died, she deeded her entire estate to the State of Connecticut, including 350 acres for Osborndale State Park.

In addition to the garden, you can tour the restored historic home with its collection of original furnishings, antiques, ceramics, artwork and personal mementos. Frances’ doll still rests on her childhood bed and the opera cape that she wore to performances at the Met is draped over a settee.

Osborne Homestead Museum, 500 Hawthorne Ave., Derby, CT 06418, (203) 734-2513
Hours: May 5–Oct. 28: Thurs.–Fri. 10–3, Sat. 10–4, Sun. 12–4

Presby Memorial Iris Garden: A Rainbow on the Hill

Van Gogh’s Irises

Cultivated in New England since early colonial times, irises have a long and revered history. The Greek goddess Iris was the messenger of the gods and the personification of the rainbow. The fleur-de-lis is derived from the shape of the iris and is the symbol of the royal family of France. In Japan, the rhizome was ground to create the white face makeup for the geisha. Iris flowers were a favorite subject of Impressionist painters. And in New Jersey, irises are the stars of this memorial garden.

Claude Monet, Iris Garden

Frank H. Presby (1857–1924) was a leading citizen of Montclair and an iris hybridizer, collector, and founder of the American Iris Society. It was his expressed wish to give a collection of his favorite flower to Montclair’s newly acquired Mountainside Park, however he passed away in 1924 before he could carry out his plan. The Presby Gardens were established thanks to local resident Barbara Walther, who led the effort and watched over the garden for 50 years. 

Located at the base of the 7.5-acre Mountainside Park, the gardens were designed in 1927 by John C. Wister, a Harvard University landscape architect. He designed the garden in a bow shape, and Presby Gardens is now referred to as the “rainbow on the hill.” The iris garden contains more than 10,000 irises of approximately 1,500 varieties, which produce more than 100,000 blooms over the course of the season.

Peak bloom time is mid-May through the first week of June. Many of these irises were donated from Presby’s and Wister’s gardens, as well as from private Montclair gardens, the American Iris Society, and hybridizers all over the world.

Every iris in the garden has a marker indicating the name of the iris, the hybridizer, and the year the iris was registered with the American Iris Society. Twenty-six beds contain bearded irises, each dedicated to a particular decade. Be sure to look for the Heirloom Iris bed (bed 5a & b) with plants dating from the 16th to 20thcentury. Also look for the dwarf irises, growing only to 8 inches in height. They are the earliest of the bearded iris to bloom, and are ideal for rock gardens and fronts of borders.

Beds running along the creek bed contain a collection of non-bearded Spuria, Siberian, Japanese, and Louisiana irises, which prefer a wetter setting. Purple weeping beeches, fringe trees, katsuras, stewartias, redbuds, and ginkgos provide an interesting border for the iris gardens. A bee sanctuary with seven hives was added in 2000.

Growing Bearded Irises

Irises can be planted in the spring, in early fall, or in July and August when they are dormant. Plant your irises at least four to six weeks before your first hard freeze so that their roots are well established before the end of the growing season. Plant rhizomes 12 to 24” apart to avoid overcrowding.

Irises require at least a half-day (6-8 hours) of direct sunlight. Provide your irises with good drainage: a raised bed or a slope are ideal. Keep beds free of weeds and leaves.

It is a common mistake to plant Irises too deeply. Plant your rhizomes at or just barely below the surface of the ground. The tops of the rhizomes should be visible and the roots should be spread out facing downwards in the soil. Tamp the soil firmly to anchor the rhizomes until new roots begin to grow, and water well. 

Divide and replant iris that have become overcrowded (usually after three to five years) in July or August when the plants are dormant.

For more information or to join a local Iris Society branch, visit the American Iris Society.

Presby Memorial Iris Gardens, 474 Upper Mountain Ave., Montclair, NJ, (973) 783-5974, presbyirisgardens.org. Hours: Daily dawn–dusk.

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Bamboo Brook—a Beaux Arts Beauty

Women landscape designers were a rarity in the early 1900s when Martha Brookes Hutcheson began her practice. I was fortunate to visit the Bamboo Brook Outdoor Education Center in Far Hills, New Jersey, which had once been known as Merchiston Farm—the home of Hutcheson and her husband from 1911 to 1959. Built in the late 18th century, the house was enlarged and remodeled by the Huchesons in 1927.

Hutcheson was one of America’s first female landscape architects and attended the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with Marion Coffin and Beatrix Farrand. She created landscape plans for dozens of estates in Massachusetts and Long Island. Hutcheson’s design for Merchiston Farm was completed shortly after the publication of her book The Spirit of the Garden, in 1923. 

Native white dogwood underplanted with green hostas and white daffodils in early May

Hutcheson’s European travels inspired her to design her own garden in the Beaux-Arts style popular in the early 20thcentury. Drawing on European Renaissance and Baroque gardens as well as those of Islamic-era Spain, Beaux-Art gardens used formal geometry, allées and hedges, long vistas, reflecting pools and fountains, and native plants and materials. You see these design principles immediately at Bamboo Brook when you come upon the circular drive at the front of the house, punctuated with white dogwoods underplanted with green hostas. Hutcheson used a restrained color palette of greens, blues and whites, and repeated the circle motif throughout her landscape. 

Sunken circular patio in front of the house

Circular motif repeated in the architecture, with deutzia and centaurea montana

The path from the driveway leads to the Upper Water—a pond designed to appear as a naturalized body of water. The pond has a practical use as well as an aesthetic one. It collects rain water runoff from the upper part of the property. It was placed to take advantage of both the topography and the architecture of the house, and, importantly, it reflects the plants, the house, and the sky. A winding stream leads from the Upper Water to the rest of the garden. Hutcheson was fascinated with water features and constructed an intricate system of cisterns, pipes, swales, and catch basins to supply her house, pools, and gardens with collected rainwater. 

Upper Water: a pond created to collect rainwater runoff and reflect the sky and plantings

Brook connecting the Upper Water to the circular pond

When Hutcheson bought the house, she remodeled it and changed the front entrance to what was originally the back of the house. In the new back yard, the East Lawn and Coffee Terrace were designed with formal axial geometry. Informal plantings circle the oval East Lawn, which connects to the Circular Pool—a slightly sunken reflecting pool with six paths radiating from it and plantings of iris, phlox, ferns, dogwoods, and vinca. The Circular Pool was originally a farm pond in a natural hollow, which provided water for livestock. 

Coffee Terrace with lilacs and centaurea Montana

Garden in back of the house with amsonia, lilacs, boxwood

Amsonia and boxwood create quiet beauty

the Circular reflecting pool was used by the family as a swimming pool. it is 5’ deep and lined with native stone.

Beyond the lawn lies an axial garden with a white cedar allée and parterres adjacent to a tennis court and the children’s playhouse. Hutcheson placed rustic wood benches and chairs at spots where views could be enjoyed. She was a big proponent of native plants, and adapted species such as dogwood, lilac, sweet pepperbush, and elderberry to an Italian Renaissance-inspired design, and used native stone to create walls, patios, and steps throughout the garden. 

this garden connects the circular pool to the east lawn and coffee terrace.

A semi-circular stone bench is built into the stone wall and repeats the circle motif.

The Little House was Hutcheson’s quiet getaway. It was built over a small stream, which Hutcheson embellished with spillways and a lily pool, providing a home for water lovers such as sweetfern and iris. 

Little House built over a small stream

Geranium, phlox and ferns

A straight road lined with elms and oaks extends from the house to a farm complex including a barn, garage, farmhouse, and various work yards set in an informal landscape of fields and woods. 

Buckeye in back garden

In 1972 Hutcheson’s heirs gave the property to the Morris County Parks Commission, and it has been restored to its 1945 appearance. In addition to the formal areas, there are numerous trails that wind through the fields and along Bamboo Brook, and connect to the Elizabeth D. Kay Environmental Center and Willowwood Arboretum. A self-guided cell phone tour provides valuable information. Bamboo Brook is located at 11 Longview Rd., Far Hills, NJ. It is open daily from 8 am to sunset.

For more gardens in New Jersey, see The Garden Tourist: 120 Destination Gardens & Nurseries in the Northeast.

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The Lost Gardens of Heligan

Tim Smit, a successful composer and musical entrepeneur, and two acquaintances were looking for a suitable piece of land in Cornwall to start a rare breeds farm when they stumbled upon this derelict garden in 1990. The ancient shelter belts had come crashing down in the storms of 1987 and 1990, crushing everything in their path. Overgrown with vines, bamboos, and self-sown trees, the property was basically inaccessible.

 As Smit wrote: “It was the silence, the unearthly silence, that struck you first…you could hear no birdsong, no rustlings, not even the far-off murmur of life elsewhere. This dank, dark place had its own strange beauty. We had cut our way through what had once been a formal laurel hedge, which had grown massive, and was now thirty yards wide. Having crawled on hands and knees, climbed, cut, pulled and pushed our way through the hedge, we found brambles snaking everywhere…”

Smit and his companions stumbled upon the decaying remains of walls, buildings and greenhouses, with their roofs caved in, glass smashed, and walls obscured by brambles and vines

On the wall of what was once the Thunderbox, or privy, they found the barely legible signatures of the men that had worked in this garden, and the date August 1914. This historic estate, belonging for hundreds of years to the Tremayne family, lost the great bulk of its staff to the First World War, and it never recovered.

As the gardens were excavated, it looked as though the gardeners had left in the midst of their work one day, and never returned. Those same names found on the Thunderbox wall were later discovered on World War I memorials in neighboring burial grounds.

Smit and his partners, along with crews of volunteers, spent several years cutting, clearing, burning and replanting. Much of the property was steep valley, inaccessible to large machinery, so the work had to be done by hand. When you visit Heligan today, you find a stunning garden and an archealogical resurrection of an old way of life in an affluent country house.

The core of the estate was this magnificent kitchen garden, which was painfully restored to its original design.

Brick and stone walls were carefully rebuilt, wooden panes and frames were milled to the original profiles, and glass mullions were replaced. The gardeners replanted cold frames, mellon houses and the antique pineapple pit with heirloom plants. After many attempts, they successfully grew pineapples using the traditional method of heating the pit with freshly rotting horse manure. 

Heligan’s gardeners employ the gardening methods that were used in the 1800s, when the garden was in its prime. Our tour guide even demonstrated the correct way to use a Cornish shovel.

The southfacing walls of the kitchen garden were planted with espaliered stone fruit trees. The walls absorbed the warmth of the sun and created a mild microclimate for the delicate trees. One of the walls was filled with alcoves for bee skeps that ensured pollination of the gardens.

Heligan’s goal is to champion and conserve heritage varieties, so the vegetable gardens are planted with crops that would have been there in 1910. The vegetables are used for meal preparation in the café and sold to the public.

Sumptuous flowers are grown in the kitchen garden as they would have been historically for decorating the manor.

The Tremaynes were keen botanists and plant collectors. Many of the rhododendrons encircling Floras Green were grown from seed collected by plant explorer John Hooker in India and the Himalayas in the 1850s.

The Jungle garden was created in the late 1800s in a steep valley. Jack Tremayne wanted a wild place that contained as many exotic plants as he could find. He dug three ponds, and planted swaths of different bamboos, huge gunneras, exotic palms, and conifers from all over the world.

Heligan has the largest collection of tree ferns in Britain. These arrived stowed as ballast on boats from Australia. When they arrived in Cornwall, the large dry rooty stumps were thrown into the river to be rehydrated before distribution among the Cornish gardens.

Smit wrote: “When we first entered the Jungle, we felt like explorers coming on a lost world. Hundreds of self-seeded sycamores and ash trees obscured the landscape. Ferns, mosses and lichens covered everything in this dank place. The trees were so dense, it was easy to get lost.”

Some of us faced our fears and crossed the Jungle valley on this rope bridge.

These are some of the beautiful gingers growing in the Jungle garden.

This is just a quick preview of The Lost Gardens of Heligan. The vast estate has other formal garden as well as pastures, woodlands, a farmyard of heritage livestock breeds, poultry, and horses, and a cafe. It takes a full day to tour the entire property. For more information, see heligan.com. Tim Smit’s book, The Lost Gardens of Heligan, provides a fascinating account of the resurrection of this garden.

The Lost Gardens of Heligan

By Tim Smit

Buy on Amazon

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English Exotica: Tresco Abbey Garden

On a recent garden tour of Cornwall, England, I was delighted to visit the glorious Tresco Abbey Garden on Tresco Island, one of the Isles of Scilly. The Isles of Scilly are an archipelago of five inhabited islands and many rock outcroppings located off the southwestern tip of Cornwall. Reaching Abbey Garden was no small task—a meticulously orchestrated journey by rented van, small airplane, airport transport bus, ferry boat and tractor-pulled trolley. The journey was well worth the visit to this amazing tropical garden filled with exotic horticulture.

The gardens at Tresco were founded by Augustus Smith, who built a house on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Abbey ruins in 1838. He was a man of independent means and spirit, and the isolation of the island suited his temperment. The remains of the Benedictine priory, built a thousand years earlier, captured his imagination, and he became determined to create a magnificent garden.

photo courtesy of cornwalls.co.uk

Thanks to the Gulf Stream, Tresco has a very mild climate, virtually free of frost. It is however extremely windy and subject to Atlantic gales, so a shelter-belt of quick-growing and salt-tolerant trees was imperative. Smith found the best trees for this were from California - Monterey Pines and Cypresses. He also built a granite wall around his garden to protect it from the elements.  He began by planting collections of pelargoniums and mesembryanthemums – fifty of each – and later acquired plants from all over the world through his connections with other plant collectors. At his death in 1872, the garden was essentially in the form that you see it in today.

The garden has remained in the same family for five generations, and each generation has made its contribution. Augustus’ nephew Thomas Algernon (Dorrien) Smith continued with the garden, as did his son Arthur who collected plants from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Americas. Those contributions include the grevillas, leucanthemums and the many varieties of proteas that we saw in bloom during our visit, as well as huge American agaves, African aloes, and aeoniums native to the Canary Islands.

The garden is protected on the north and west sides by Abbey Hill. It is laid out on 17 acres and bisected by the formal Long Walk surrounded by tree ferns and palms which grow lush in the deep soil of that area. Above the Long Walk are two terraces that span the width of the garden. The Top Terrace has the hot dry conditions and free-draining poor soil of South Africa and Australia. It is perfect for many varieties of Protea, Aloe, Cistus, and succulents, and offers beautiful views of the garden and the sea beyond.

The Middle Terrace is the heart of the Garden, with fishponds, a summerhouse and the stone Gaia sculpture, all nestled in a botanical paradise. Thousands of colorful plants from all over the world provide a lush backdrop, and even at the winter solstice, there are more than 300 species of plants in bloom. 

The lowest level is the Mediterranean Garden, with its Agave Fountain and the Shell House decorated with seashell mosaics created by the current owner. Here you will also find the Valhalla Museum started by Augustus Smith which contains a collection of 30 ship figureheads, name-boards and other decorative carvings. Most of the figureheads date from the late 19th century, and come from merchant sailing vessels or early steamships that were wrecked on the Isles of Scilly.

I may never see the gardens of Australia, New Zealand and South America, but thanks to a wonderful visit to Tresco Abbey Garden, I feel like I have traveled to many corners of the world and seen the richness of the plant species that they hold.

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Chesterwood: A Sculptor's Garden

A visit to the Berkshires is not complete without a tour of Chesterwood,  the home, garden and studio of Daniel Chester French. 

“I hope you will come to ‘Chesterwood’ and rest. It is as beautiful as fairy-land here now, the hemlocks are decorating themselves with their light-green tassels and the laurel is beginning to blossom and the peonies are a glory in the garden. I go about in an ecstasy of delight over the loveliness of things.”

—Daniel Chester French, 1911

One of the most successful sculptors of the twentieth century, French was best known for his statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. French purchased the 150-acre property in the Berkshires in 1896 for a summer estate and studio. He had already achieved national prominence for his bronze Minute Man statue, which resides at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. At Chesterwood he collaborated with his friend Henry Bacon on the construction of a residence and what would become his primary studio space for the rest of his career. The Colonial Revival house with its long veranda was sited to take advantage of the views of Monument Mountain and Mount Everett.

For thirty-five years, the French family spent their winters in New York and their summers at Chesterwood. Family and friends visited the Berkshire retreat all season long, participating in dinner parties, dances, and tennis games. Mary French kept a detailed recipe book to organize her entertaining. 

The main garden area is adjacent to the studio. French would often end a day of sculpting with a couple of hours tending the perennial and vegetable gardens, and taking long walks in the woods. A semicircular graveled courtyard is furnished with decorative planters and a pair of curved marble benches called exedras. Bacon designed the central marble-cement fountain for which French created putti relief.

From the courtyard, marble steps lead to an elevated lawn with a central walk of peonies and Hydrangea paniculata standards. The main axis of the garden features a long perennial border planted with pastel-colored flowers. At its end, a pair of white-glazed terracotta columns mark the beginning of a woodland walk. The garden is enclosed by a lilac hedge and hemlocks, and accessorized with a pergola, marble benches, statuary, and a small square pool of water hyacinths and water lilies.

Chesterwood opened to the public in 1955, and in 1962 French’s nephew, landscape architect Prentiss French, designed a new circulation pattern to better accommodate visitors. Today, Chesterwood is owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and French's house, garden and studio are open for touring.

The grounds are also used as exhibition space for contemporary sculpture as well as works by French. The studio, barn, and other gallery spaces include sculptural studies for a number of his works, including The Minute Man, The Continents, and Abraham Lincoln. 

Chesterwood is open from Memorial Day to Columbus Day, daily 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $18. The grounds are 15 acres in size. There are picnic tables, trails for woodland walks, an annual outdoor contemporary sculpture exhibition, and a permanent exhibition of Daniel Chester French's work.

4 Williamsville Rd., Stockbridge, MA 02162, (413) 298-3579, chesterwood.org

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Spring Inspiration at the Leonard J. Buck Garden

If you are looking for a gorgeous garden to visit this spring, plan a trip to The Leonard J. Buck Garden in Far Hills, New Jersey.

The Leonard J. Buck Garden is one of the finest and largest rock gardens in the eastern United States. It consists of a series of alpine and woodland gardens situated in a 33-acre wooded stream valley. While most rock gardens are man-made and small in scale like the alpine plants they showcase, this rock garden is a series of huge natural rock outcroppings in a 500-foot-wide, 90-foot-deep gorge. The gorge was formed at the end of the Ice Age, about 12,000 years ago, when the water from melting glaciers carved out the valley of Moggy Hollow.

The rocky garden backbone was perfect for Leonard Buck, a geologist who made his fortune in mining. As he traveled the world on business, he collected rare plants. In the 1930s Buck was a trustee of the New York Botanical Garden, where he met and hired Swiss-born landscape architect Zenon Schreiber. Their goal was to develop a naturalistic woodland garden composed of many smaller gardens, each with its own character and microhabitat.

Buck and Schreiber worked by eye and proportion, without a formal plan on paper. Buck worked the rock—chiseling, picking, and shoveling to expose the rugged face. Schreiber worked the plants, tucking in rare and exotic specimens and planting azaleas and rhododendrons at the base of the valley walls to create a dazzling display in spring. He also established a backbone of dogwoods, crabapples, shadbush, fothergilla, viburnums, and other native trees and shrubs throughout the property.

The garden’s trails wind past two ponds and a rock-edged stream, through the woods, and up into the gorge. At its spring peak, the garden is a showcase for lady slippers, trilliums, woodland phlox, bergenia, iris cristata, tiarella, epimediums, and columbines, as well as Siberian squill, Spanish bluebells, winter aconite, grape hyacinths, and other miniature bulbs. Japanese primroses line the streambed and masses of azaleas dazzle in the valley. To help plan your visit, the website provides a weekly list of plants in bloom. There is something to see in every season. (For more information about these spring bloomers see the blog articles in the links above.) 

When Interstate 287 was being laid out, the original plans called for Interstate 287 to run directly through Buck’s property. However he invited the officials in charge to visit his garden and succeeded in having the highway rerouted. After his death in 1976, the family donated the garden to the Somerset County Park Commission and set up a trust to fund maintenance and renovations. 

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Come in From the Cold at the Roger Williams Botanical Center

If you are looking to come in from the cold in January, New England features several lovely indoor gardens (see related article). One of the newest is in Providence, in a park that has provided leisure, entertainment and education for residents and visitors for almost 150 years.

Roger Williams Park was created in 1870 after Betsey Williams bequeathed 102 acres of farmland and woodland to the city of Providence to be used for public purpose. A portion of the gift included land that was originally purchased from the Narragansetts by her great, great, great, grandfather, Rhode Island’s founder Roger Williams.

Horace Cleveland, a leader in the Urban Parks Movement, created the design for the park. It was intended to serve as an escape for residents of highly industrialized Providence in the late 19th century. Today, the Roger Williams Park contains a zoo, a museum of natural history, a planetarium, the Botanical Center,  Japanese Gardens, Victorian Rose Gardens, the Providence Police Department’s Mounted Command center, the boathouse and boat rentals, historical tours, a carousel, playground, the Temple to Music, the Roger Williams Park Casino, and many miles of walking paths.

The Botanical Center opened in 2007, and at 12,000 square feet is the largest public indoor display garden in New England. It includes two main greenhouses: The Conservatory and the Mediterranean Room. The Conservatory has the feeling of a large courtyard surrounded by elegant tall palms. Unlike most greenhouses, this one is airy and open, with a central area for ceremonies or social events. A fountain bubbles and colorful tropical plants bloom beneath stately trees. Immense birds of paradise hide among the palms, like storks in the jungle.

The Mediterranean Room is built around a long stucco wall with a circular gate. A densely planted pond with giant koi dominates the room. The Orchid Society displays delicate orchids growing in a moss-draped tree in one corner, and the Carnivorous Plant Society exhibits pitcher plants and delicate wild flowers in a raised bog garden. A small waterfall and a Mediterranean fountain provide soothing background music. All in all, there are over 150 different species and cultivars of plants including 17 types of palms. Upcoming projects include a Flavor Lab designed for chefs and farmers to compare the taste of vegetable varieties, and a Journey Through America exhibit featuring plants native to South, Central, and North America.

The Botanical Center’s outdoor display gardens are equally attractive and well worth a visit in the warmer months. The Winter Garden has gorgeous specimens of umbrella pines, a Lacebark Pine, Metasequoia, and other unusual conifers; Sargent cherries and trees with distinctive bark such river birches; hellebores, evergreen ferns, and bamboo. Other displays include a beautiful Perennial Garden, with large plantings of bee balm, balloon flower, phlox, daylilies, coneflowers, and blackeye susans. A Pine and Hosta Dell, Wooded Hillside Garden, Overlook Terrace, and Rain Garden offer interesting plantings to view. Downhill from the greenhouses, gorgeous roses and clematis cover the arches of the Rose Maze.

1000 Elmwood Ave., Providence, RI 02905, (401) 785-9450
providenceri.com/botanical-center

HOURS: Tues. –Sun. 11–4
ADMISSION: $5

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New Hampshire's Garden of Whimsical Sculptures

Photo courtesy of Bedrock Gardens

Bedrock Gardens is a 20-acre garden that Carol Stocker of the Boston Globe aptly described as a “cross between Sissinghurst and the Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden.” In 1980 Bob Munger and Jill Nooney purchased this former dairy farm and began a 30-year transformation of the landscape into a collection of themed garden rooms enlivened by whimsical sculptures.

Nooney is a practicing clinical social worker, as well as an artist and graduate of the Radcliffe Institute Landscape Design program. She uses old farm equipment and repurposed metal to create a variety of abstract sculptures, arches, arbors, water features and “creatures” inspired by nature and her imagination. Munger is a retired doctor and a lifelong tinkerer. Nooney is the garden’s visionary artist and “problem maker.” He is the “problem solver,” the implementer of those visions, including beautifully patterned walkways and patios, and hydraulics for water features.

Nooney and Munger created their garden as a journey with “places to go, places to pause and rest and interesting things to see along the way.” Nearly two-dozen “points of interest,” many with humorous names, are connected by paths that wind through garden rooms, around ponds, and through woodlands.

Closest to the house, a yew hedge encloses a formal parterre planted with white flowers, with a diamond patterned bluestone path and a circular pool and fountain. The Straight and Narrow garden features a cobbled-edged path that runs between beds of native trees, shrubs, and perennials. The Swaleway’s woodland wildflowers welcome spring amidst towers of balanced stones. The Garish Garden’s playful sculptures fit in with flowers in flaming reds and oranges and trees and shrubs with bright gold foliage.

Bedrock Gardens is full of new ideas for gardeners as well as new takes on classic garden forms. The Wiggle Waggle is a wavy 200-foot long water channel, planted with lotus and water lilies. The Spiral Garden is a “twist” on a traditional maze garden, with twirling roof ventilators on spiral stands that emphasize the Fibonacci-inspired paving laid in a moss floor. Grass Acre is a “painting” of Switchgrass, Hakone Grass, and Little Blue Stem, anchored by a metal sculpture that evokes a mountain range. The Dark Woods is a grove of dead trees accented with sculptural ghosts, spiders, and other scary creatures. The Wave is a series of 26 small metal characters on pedestals backed by a tall arborvitae hedge. Several ponds and many more gardens await the visitor.

Walking through the gardens is a delightful journey. There are many places to sit and enjoy a vista or a sculpture along the way. The Japanese garden and Tea House offer quiet repose in the woods, and the two thrones at the Termi at the far end of the large pond offer a stunning view along the 900-foot axis through the garden. Nooney has designed the garden with an artist’s eye and her strategic placement of focal points and vistas takes classical garden design concepts into a contemporary setting.

Nooney and Munger want to preserve the garden for future generations and are working with Friends of Bedrock Gardens and new executive director John Forti to transition the property into a public garden.

Bedrock Gardens will close out the 2017 season with a special fundraising Fairy House and Hobbit House Festival Weekend, October 7-9, 11 am to 3 pm. Tracy Kane, award-winning Fairy Houses author, www.fairyhouses.com, will read from her books. Visitors can stroll along a Fairy and Hobbit House Trail past houses created by gardeners, artists, and children, and take time to make their own house out of natural materials provided. Chili, books, whimsical handmade creations and fairy fare will be for sale. The entire garden will be available for touring.

Bedrock Gardens, 45 High Rd., Lee, NH 03861, (603) 659-2993, bedrockgardens.org

Excerpted from The Garden Tourist, 120 Destination Gardens and Nurseries in the Northeast by Jana Milbocker

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The Magical Garden of Green Animals

Green Animals is the oldest and most northern topiary garden in the United States. The 7-acre estate overlooks the Narragansett Bay, and contains a whimsical garden with more than 80 topiaries sculpted from California privet, yew, and English boxwood.

This small country estate in Portsmouth was purchased in 1872 by Thomas E. Brayton, Treasurer of the Union Cotton Manufacturing Company in Fall River, Massachusetts. It included a white clapboard summer residence, farm outbuildings, a pasture and a vegetable garden. Brayton's daughter Alice gave the estate its name because of the profusion of "green animals" created by property superintendent Joseph Carreiro.

Carreiro was hired to design and maintain the ornamental and edible gardens from 1905 to 1945. He experimented with California privet propagated in the estate greenhouse, and developed a system for training these, without the support of frames, into over-sized animal shapes. Many of the animals took almost 20 years to grow into their final size. Since the Brayton home was a summer residence, it was not a concern that privet was deciduous and sheds its leaves in the fall. His son-in-law, George Mendonca, superintendent until 1985, expanded the gardens to include more than 80 topiaries, and sculpted some from yew and boxwood.

Alice Brayton inherited the estate and made it her permanent residence. She became an avid historian and gardener herself, and bequeathed Green Animals to The Preservation Society of Newport County upon her death. Today, Green Animals remains as a rare example of an estate with formal topiaries, beautiful flower, vegetable and herb gardens, orchards and a Victorian house.

The landscape is a series of garden rooms bordered by mature conifers and magnolias. The fanciful topiaries are the stars of the garden. Favorites include teddy bears, a camel, a giraffe, an ostrich, an elephant, a unicorn, a reindeer, a dog, and a horse with his rider. They are set within lovely flower beds planted with colorful perennials and annuals. Near the house and main entrance, the topiary retains a more formal style of figurative and geometric shapes. A walkway of arched topiary leads around the house to the front porch, where you can relax on a rocking chair and enjoy a view of the bay. The topiaries are all trimmed by hand using garden shears and require weekly hand trimming. Some conservation metal supports have been discreetly positioned inside the forms to provide stability in wind and snow.

The rest of the garden is equally magical. Grape arbors, fruit beds, orchards, cutting gardens and an extensive vegetable gardens sport decorations and whimsical scarecrows that delight children.

The Brayton house museum contains a display of vintage toys including a large collection of toy soldiers and vintage dollhouses. Adults will appreciate the original Victorian family furnishings and decoration.

Ribbons for prize-winning dahlias and vegetables, dating from about 1915, line the walls of the well-curated gift shop. Green Animals Topiary Garden is a delight for gardeners of all ages!

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Edinburgh's Beloved Botanic Garden

Armed with an umbrella, sweater and raincoat, I toured Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden on Sunday. While July temperatures in the mid-50s and scattered downpours do not deter traveling gardeners from visiting botanic gardens, I was amazed to find the garden packed with city residents and tourists enjoying their Sunday outdoors. Mothers pushed babies in prams, dads chased after runaway toddlers, elderly couples strolled arm in arm admiring the delicate alpines, Spanish tourists snacked on sandwiches in the Chinese pavilion, a group of American teenagers chatted about their European adventures, and a Japanese bride and groom kissed for the photographer while the caterer distributed flutes of champagne to their guests. I walked around marveling at the 4' tall hardy geraniums, the swaths of Japanese primroses, the towering monkey puzzle trees, and the many plants from all corners of the world that I had never seen before.

The 500-foot long Herbaceous Border, created in 1902, is backed by a commanding hedge of 158 beech trees. The hedge is pruned annually to retain its 24' height.

Himalayan poppy (Meconopsis grandis) is popular in Scotland and grows to 4' with beautiful sky-blue flowers in June.

Showcasing 128,000 plants from 156 countries, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a living encyclopedia of horticulture that brings out the "plant geek" in all of us. The garden was founded in 1670 as a "physic garden" by two adventurous Scottish doctors who returned from a 'grand tour' of Europe determined to grow, study and identify plants for treatment of disease. Medical students were schooled in botany by the Head Gardener until the mid 1800s. With the expansion of the British Empire, the plant collections grew rapidly, and the garden was relocated several times to accommodate new acquisitions. It has been at its current site on the outskirts of the city center since 1821.

The Chinese Hillside is the result of plant hunter George Forrest's seven trips to Yunnan between 1904 and 1932. Winding paths, a waterfall, bridge and pavilion are placed among 16,000 plants collected from Yunnan, many rare and endangered.

Young monkey puzzle trees in the Biodiversity Garden which illustrates the evolution of plants.

One of the first things that you notice when visiting the garden are the magnificent and unusual trees set in a stately, park-like setting of 70acres. Some of these trees were moved from the garden's previous location and are more than 200 years old. Others were acquired as seeds from habitats that no longer exist, such as the extremely rare Catacol whitebean. Only one other specimen of this tree exists in the wild - in a ravine on the isle of Aran.

A stand of coastal redwoods planted in the 1920s creates a cathedral-like atmosphere and is a popular site for weddings.

RBGE's glasshouses offer ten distinct climatic zones with thousands of flowering plants, cycads and ferns. The Temperate Palm House, currently under renovation, was built in 1858 and is one of the tallest in the world. The Plants and People House showcases plants that are integral to our daily lives - sugar, cocoa, rice and coffee, as well as giant water platters. Other glasshouses feature plants of the desert, the rainforest and mountain regions. My favorite was the Lowland Tropics House and its collection of gingers that sported the most unusual flowers (see red pinecone below).

Themed gardens illustrate various habitats from around the world. The Alpine Garden exhibits plants from high mountain tops which are a real challenge to grow in Edinburgh's maritime lowlands climate. Alpines are important to RGBE's conservation work, as they can be indicators of global warming. The Alpine House and Tufa House protect these tender plants from the wet Scottish climate. Troughs are used to create individual landscapes representing miniature mountain tops.

The Rock Garden features 5,000 plants from the great mountain ranges of Chile, China, Europe, Japan, South Africa and North America. Dwarf conifers, bulbs and rhododendrons complement true alpines. The neighboring Scottish Heath Garden shows off Scotland's iconic shrub.

The Queen Mother's Memorial Garden was formally opened in 2006, and reflects the Queen Mother's love of gardening. A Celtic-style labyrinth planted with bog myrtle is surrounded by perennial beds and a charming pavilion.

The Memorial Pavilion within the Queen Mother's Garden is decorated with shells collected by schoolchildren from around Scotland. The ceiling is lined with pine cones from RBGE's gardens.

The Demonstration Garden is used by local schools and students in RGBE's Horticulture and Herbology courses to experiment with growing crops and medicinal plants.

Swaths of primroses, trilliums and other shade lovers thrive in the woodland garden, along with rhododendrons and magnolias. Many of these plants look like they are on steroids: Edinburgh's mild, wet climate provides ideal growing conditions.

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is open daily except Christmas and New Year's Day, and features a restaurant, cafe, shop stocked with gifts and plants, and seasonal exhibitions and events. Admission is free, with a small fee for the glasshouses. See rgbe.org.uk/edinburgh for more info.

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