Spring in New England's Garden in the Woods

bloodroot

April is the perfect time to visit Garden in the Woods, New England’s living museum of rare and common native plants. It is also the home of the Native Plant Trust, whose mission is to conserve and promote the region’s native plants, and encourage both home and professional gardeners to choose natives when they plant outdoor spaces. 

great white trillium

trillium cuneatum

Garden in the Woods began in 1931 when Will C. Curtis, a self-trained botanist and landscape architecture graduate of Cornell University, purchased 30 acres in north Framingham. He began clearing, planting, and sharing his garden with others. When he opened the garden to the public in 1934, Curtis wrote: “I am bringing together all the Wild Flowers and Ferns hardy in this latitude and establishing them in natural environments where they can easily be reached and enjoyed by the interested public.”

As he entered his 80s, Curtis became concerned about the future of his garden in the midst of a busy city. In an agreement with the New England Wild Flower Society, he pledged to donate the garden if an endowment of $250,000 could be raised. Wild flower hobbyists from every state and Canada, along with 450 different garden clubs, conservation groups, foundations and businesses, heeded the call. On Curtis’s 82nd birthday in 1965, the deed was transferred to the Society. With the land came Curtis’ collection of nearly 2,000 native plant species. Within a few years, the Society moved from its Boston headquarters to the garden, added a nature center, and purchased 15 acres of adjoining land as a buffer from surrounding housing developments.

rue anemone

Erythronium, scilla and bleeding hearts

Today the Garden is the largest landscaped collection of wildflowers in New England, containing over 1,700 kinds of plants representing about 1,000 species, 200 of which rare and endangered. Ponds fringed by native blue irises, swamps with skunk cabbage, and a bog where carnivorous yellow pitcher plants catch flies illustrate the variety of Massachusetts habitats. Rare and common native flora create a changing tapestry of flowers and foliage throughout the seasons.

Mayapples unfurling their leaves

canadian anemone

The best time to visit Garden in the Woods is in the spring, when the blooms of trout lilies, squirrel corn, Virginia bluebells, pink lady’s slipper orchids, Canada violets, blue woodland phlox, twinleaf, and Jack-in-the-pulpits cover the forest floor. In late spring, rhododendrons and azaleas burst into bloom, followed by clethra and the legendary franklinia in summer. Curtis was a fan of white flowers, and you see them everywhere: white varieties of wild geranium, bluebells, Virginia rose, great lobelia and cardinal flower. Partridgeberry and red baneberry, which normally produce red fruit, here produce white.

marsh marigold

Since the gardens are planted with natives and maintained organically, they attract a multitude of butterflies, honeybees, and other insect pollinators, as well as frogs, turtles, black snakes, dragonflies, and birds.

painted turtles bask on a log

Although the plantings look spontaneous, most of the plants were raised from seeds cultivated at the Society’s Nasami Farm nursery and meticulously placed in the landscape. A wide selection of native plants is available for sale at the gift shop. You can also purchase plants at Nasami Farm from April to early October; Saturday and Sundays, 10-5, and weekdays by appointment. 128 North St., Whately, MA, (413) 397-9922.

Other gardens dedicated to native plants include Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, PA, and Mount Cuba in Wilmington, DE. New York Botanic Garden and Stonecrop in New York, Jenkins Arboretum in PA and Leonard J Buck garden in Far Hills, NJ also have many natives. Other native plant nurseries include Native Landscapes in Pawling, NY, and Earth Tones Native Plants in Woodbury, CT.

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Sundance Orchids & Bromeliads

For the orchid or bromeliad lover, there is no better place to visit than Sundance Orchids & Bromeliads. With nine modern greenhouses situated on five acres of landscaped grounds, Sundance is the largest retail and wholesale nursery in the Fort Myers area. The selection of orchids will satisfy both the collector and the casual gardener: frilly cattleyas, oncidiums, encyclias, and phalaenopsis in shades of white, yellow, pink, and purple; delicate dendrobiums; bulbophyllums; and a large selection of vandas imported directly from Thailand.

Plants can be purchased separately or in beautifully composed arrangements in pots or Mopani driftwood logs. In addition to orchid plants and growing supplies, Sundance offers repotting services, classes, and a “Summer Camp” for orchid owners who travel.

Bromeliads are the nursery’s second focus, with a huge selection of plants available for outdoor landscaping or decoration of the lanai or indoor spaces. Tillandsias, also known as air plants, are a type of bromeliad. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes that can be displayed individually in creative containers or combined with orchids and other ferns and succulents in custom “live log” arrangements.

Like many public gardens and nurseries, Sundance Orchids grew from a hobby. Founder Lee Behrhorst retired to Florida from Pittsburg in the 1990s. When he found that he could not create a large outdoor garden in his gated community, Lee began to collect orchids for his lanai. Hobby turned into obsession, and when his collection outgrew his house, Lee began to search for greenhouse space. In 2001 he found land with a dilapidated greenhouse that became the home for his 3,000 orchids and a small nursery business. Lee’s passion began to include bromeliads, and as his business grew, so did the number of greenhouses. When he retired in early 2017, Lee sold the business to long-time employee and orchid enthusiast Jacki Garland and her partner Elijah Spurlin. Hurricane Irma devastated the nursery that year, destroying half of the greenhouses and causing huge plant losses. Jacki and Elijah have worked hard to restore the business, and no evidence of the hurricane is visible to visitors today. Beautifully planted flower beds welcome you to the greenhouses, which are overflowing with more than 25,000 orchids and 20,000 bromeliads. Travelers can have purchases shipped to their homes.

You can also order plants from the nursery’s website, sundanceorchids.com

Sundance Orchids, 16095 S. Pebble Ln., Fort Myers, FL 33912. 239-489-1234 sundanceorchids.com

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Bonnet House: An Artistic Retreat in Florida

The former home of artists Frederic and Evelyn Bartlett provides a wonderful immersion in art, architecture, international folk art, and gardens. You will find an eclectic house with an art studio, courtyard garden, shell house, and art gallery situated on 35 acres of Old Florida habitat.

Frederic Bartlett was born in 1874 in Chicago, the son of a prosperous businessman. The World’s Columbian Exposition inspired him to pursue a career in art. He studied under James Whistler and Pierre Purvis Charannes in Europe, attended the prestigious Royal Academy in Munich, and became a muralist and collector of Post-Impressionist art. Many of the masterpieces he collected by van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, and Toulouse-Lautrec were later donated to the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Frederic built Bonnet House with his second wife, poet Helen Louise Birch, in 1921, when Fort Lauderdale was a small outpost on the New River. He designed the main residence to resemble a Caribbean plantation house, with a central courtyard and a hallway with brightly painted doors, window frames, and ornate railings.

Helen died in 1925, and it wasn’t until Frederic’s marriage to Evelyn Fortune Lilly in the 1930s that a renaissance of collecting and embellishing the house occurred. Frederic encouraged Evelyn to pursue her interest in art, and Evelyn became a painter in her own right. The creative couple transformed Bonnet House into a jewel box of color, pattern, and ornamentation, with paintings, antiques, and folk art collected abroad, mural-adorned ceilings, faux marbled floors, and walls inlaid with seashells.

The Bonnet House grounds are bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Intracoastal Waterway on the other. It encompass one of the last examples of a native barrier island habitat in South Florida. Several different ecosystems can be found on the property including the Atlantic Ocean beachfront, sand dunes, a fresh water slough, mangrove wetlands, and a maritime forest. The land is a haven for fish and wildlife, migratory and indigenous birds, and for manatees that occasionally visit the canal. With acres of buffer on all sides, the house is situated in a very private peaceful oasis in the midst of a busy city.

The gardens and grounds display a blend of native and exotic flora. When you enter the property, a long allée of stately paperbark tea trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia) lines the drive. These trees sport white bottlebrush flowers and are native to Australia. The Bartletts built their boathouse in the center of the property at the end of their private canal off the Intracoastal Waterway. East of the boathouse is the fruit grove consisting of mango, sapodilla, guava, Surinam, cherry, avocado, mulberry, calabash, and citrus trees. The grove was carefully cultivated by the Bartletts and the fruits were favorite household delicacies.

The Bartletts enjoyed collecting seeds during their travels abroad and planting these exotics in their Florida garden. The Desert Garden at the front entrance of the house features yuccas, century plants, silver palms, saw palmetto, and other unusual plants from arid parts of the world. The freshwater slough east of the house is lined with two rows of Australian pines. Gumbo-limbo trees, sabal palms, and paradise trees shade masses of wild coffee, silver palm, and coonties. The bonnet lily, a native water lily with yellow flowers and the property’s namesake, still blooms in the slough.

The courtyard sports a formal garden of coquina walkways and parterres built around a central fountain. Various palms, hibiscus, gingers, and other lush tropical plants thrive in this protected space.

Evelyn loved birds and animals, and the whimsical blue and yellow aviary was built by Frederic to house her macaws, monkeys, and other pets. Today, the Brazilian squirrel monkeys still live in the wild on the estate.

Evelyn was also passionate about orchids, and her collection featured 3,000 plants. Blooming varieties are rotated regularly through the bright yellow Orchid Display House.

evelyn’s shell house

Frederic died in 1953, but Evelyn continued to return each winter. In 1983 she gave Bonnet House to the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation to ensure that the site would be preserved for the enjoyment and education of future generations.

Bonnet House Museum & Gardens 900 N. Birch Rd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304 954-563-5393. bonnethouse.org

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Gilded Age Splendor in the Hudson River Valley

In 1895 Cornelius Vanderbilt’s grandson Frederick and his wife, Louise, bought the Hudson River estate known as Hyde Park to use as their spring and fall country estate. Frederick Vanderbilt was a quiet man, active in the business of directing 22 railroads, while Louise was a wealthy socialite. They built a Neoclassical Beaux Arts mansion furnished with European antiques, and outfitted with all the latest innovations: electricity, indoor plumbing, and central heating. The final cost totaled $2.25 million—about $60.5 million in today’s dollars.

Hyde Park was a self-sustaining estate, providing food and flowers for the family’s needs there and at their other homes. The grounds had been shaped by several previous owners with horticultural interests. In the early 1800s, Dr. Samuel Bard planted exotic plants and trees in the European Picturesque style.

The next owner, Dr. David Hosack, had a passion for botany and established the first formal gardens on the estate, as well as extensive greenhouses to hold his exotic plants. He also hired André Parmentier, the most renowned landscape architect of that time, to design the landscape. Roads, bridges, and lawns were laid out to compliment natural features, while large areas were left wild. Today, much of Parmentier’s original design remains and continues to be admired for its grace and beauty. In the late 1800s, owner Walter Langdon, Jr., laid out the first formal gardens. He built the gardener’s cottage, tool house, and garden walls, which remain and are in use today.

The Vanderbilts added many amenities to the property to make it accessible, practical and beautiful. They installed their own railroad station (he was a railroad tycoon, after all), boat docks, a coach house, two new bridges over Crum Elbow Creek, a power station, and extensive landscaping.

A large, formal garden was common to most Gilded Age estates, and Frederick Vanderbilt, who had a horticulture degree from Yale University, established the Italian-style, terraced garden that we see today. An esplanade of cherry trees leads to a walled perennial garden, which opens up to a long reflecting pool and a brick loggia decorated with the statue of an odalisque in mid-dance. The path continues to a two-tier rose garden with a charming summerhouse.

The upper garden features formal beds, while the lower garden was planted in the Victorian “bedding out style” of annuals that swept through the country in the late 1800s. This garden exhibits a mélange of curvilinear shapes—crescents, hearts, and circular beds, all planted with bright annuals.

The Vanderbilts were part of a new wave of urban elite that moved to the Hudson River Valley to enjoy relaxed country living, the sporting life, farming, and outdoor recreation. Hyde Park saw lavish weekend parties with horseback riding, golf, tennis, and swimming, followed by formal dinners and dancing. When not hosting guests, the Vanderbilts strolled through the gardens and greenhouses twice daily and visited the farm.

These greenhouses were operational during the Vanderbilt era. When the Vanderbilts were in residence, the greenhouse staff began each day by gathering cut flowers from the carnation and rose houses, bringing them to the mansion, and arranging them in the service area of the basement. The parlor and chamber maids placed them in designated locations on the upper floors. The butler ordered flowers from the greenhouses daily, and created all of the arrangements for the Dining Room himself. If the Vanderbilts were in New York, the greenhouse staff boxed the cut flowers and shipped them to the city.

After Frederick Vanderbilt’s death in 1938, the federal government purchased the estate, thanks to the intervention of President Franklin Roosevelt. While the grounds, landscaping, and buildings were preserved, there were no funds to maintain the gardens, which suffered years of neglect. Today the landscape is restored to its 1930s appearance, thanks to the Frederick William Vanderbilt Garden Association—a group of volunteers who have worked tirelessly to bring the gardens to their former glory. The formal gardens were replanted with 3,200 perennials and 2,000 roses. An additional 6,500 annuals are planted every year. The restored gravel paths, shady arbors, ornate statues, and bubbling fountains give the visitor a glimpse of life in the Gilded Age. The mansion is also beautifully decorated and open for tours for the holidays.

Vanderbilt Mansion, 119 Vanderbilt Park Rd., Hyde Park, NY 12538, (845) 229-7770 nps.gov/vama/index.htm

Excerpted from The Garden Tourist: 120 Destination Gardens and Nurseries in the Northeast

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Resplendent Dahlias on Enders Island

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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Roses by the Sea at Fuller Gardens

Roses are the main event at Fuller Gardens. Now a test garden for the American Rose Society, it showcases more than 1,200 rose bushes. The 125 varieties have staggered bloom times, so there is color from June until October.

Fuller Gardens began as Runnymede-by-the-Sea, the summer estate of Bostonians Alvan and Viola Fuller. Alvan was a self-made businessman, art collector, philanthropist, and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts in the 1920s. The original landscape was designed by Arthur A. Shurtleff, but the garden evolved and was enlarged over the years, with the help of the Olmsted Brothers firm of Boston. The front garden was designed as the estate’s showpiece in 1938. It was meant to be appreciated from the street and utilized a “false perspective,” in which the back of the garden is narrower than the front, making the space appear longer than it actually is.

The Fullers rarely frequented the garden themselves, but they enjoyed viewing it from the upstairs bedroom windows and welcomed the public. The front garden was planted with hundreds of roses in formal parterre beds, and surrounded by hedges and flower borders filled with coneflowers, astilbe, salvias, baptisia, and geraniums. Statuary and tuteurs draped with clematis punctuated the hedges.

In addition to the front garden, you will find a second rose garden that is laid out in a circular pattern surrounding a central antique wellhead. It is enclosed by a privet hedge and a cedar fence upon which are trained espaliered apple trees. Perennial borders flank the beds of roses.

A shady Japanese garden provides a quiet sanctuary, with paths leading through hostas, ferns, azaleas, mountain laurel, and rhododendrons surrounding a pool filled with giant koi.

Near the remaining carriage house, a glass conservatory houses tropical plants, begonias, and vines. A large display bed of dahlias provides stunning color in late summer.

The gardens are meticulously maintained by a knowledgeable staff headed by director Jamie Colen. The roses are protected from harsh winter temperatures with buckets of soil heaped upon their crowns in early December. Instead of using mulch to suppress weeds, the staff weed the beds twice a week and pay careful attention to soil quality, amending it regularly with compost and lime. As a result, the roses are healthy and vigorous, with few pests and almost no diseases, so chemical treatments are unnecessary. As they age and need to be replaced, new roses are purchased from Roseland Nurseries in Acushnet, Massachusetts. The colorful gardens continue to delight the public as they did almost 100 years ago, and the Fullers are probably happily watching from above.

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Beauport: An Eclectic Seaside Getaway

If you are interested in interior design, architecture, historic homes, and antiques as well as gardens, you will thoroughly enjoy Beauport. Beauport was the summer home of Henry Davis Sleeper, one of the country’s first professional interior designers. Perched in a dramatic setting on Gloucester’s Eastern Point, Beauport showcases Sleeper’s unique vision and artistic talent in 40 beautifully preserved rooms and a small lush garden.

Eastern Point was developed as a wealthy summer enclave in the early 1900s. Sleeper came from a prominent Boston family and was introduced to the area in 1906. He was “clearly besotted” by the site’s natural beauty, purchased a waterfront lot, and began constructing his esoteric residence. The home looks like it belongs in a fairy tale, with a blend of Gothic, medieval, early Colonial, and Arts and Crafts architecture. Built of stone and wood, it features steeply pitched roofs, round towers, a belfry, ornate chimneys, and diamond-paned leaded-glass windows.

The interior is a warren of eclectic rooms connected by alcoves and stairways and packed with more than 10,000 furnishings, salvaged architectural details, and decorative objects. Each room has its own theme based on literature, a historical event, or a collection.

You will see a Jacobean-style dining room that feels like an English pub; a colonial-era kitchen; a marine master parlor overlooking Gloucester Harbor; a two-story, balconied book tower; and the “China Trade” room, with its pagoda-inspired balcony and 1780s hand-printed Chinese wallpaper.

Beauport was both a home and a professional showcase and led to a successful interior design career that included clients such as Isabella Stewart Gardner, Henry Francis du Pont, and Hollywood celebrities. After Sleeper passed away, the mansion was purchased in 1935 by Helena Woolworth McCann who preserved it mostly unchanged. Her heirs donated it to Historic New England in 1942.

Like the house, the garden evolved over several decades and is characteristic of an Arts and Crafts design. It is divided into several formal outdoor rooms and intimate spaces accented with sundials and classical statuary. The entry garden’s boxwood hedge and gravel paths enclose a small cottage garden of lush perennials. Brick patios and flower-edged terraces at the back of the house overlook the harbor. Further from the house, the materials change to rough stone, flowing lines adapt to the natural contours of the site, and plantings feature native shrubs and perennials and Pennsylvania sedge lawns. The garden was restored in 2012 to its 1920s appearance.

75 Eastern Point Blvd., Gloucester, MA 01930, (978) 283-0800, historicnewengland.org/property/beauport-sleeper-mccann-house

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Best Spring Bulb Displays in the Northeast 2022

Tower Hill Botanic Garden

Ready to welcome spring after a long Northeast winter? Nothing lifts the spirit like a stroll among masses of daffodils, tulips and other spring bulbs. Here’s my list of wonderful spring bulb displays to enjoy this year.

Tower Hill Botanic Garden

Tower Hill Botanic Garden

Mid-April to late May, Boylston, MA

Enjoy a changing bulb display at Tower Hill Botanic garden, beginning with Reticulated Iris and Hyacinths in mid-April, fields of 25,000 daffodils in late April to early May, and gorgeous tulip displays in mid to late May. Daffodils Day May 4-5. towerhillbg.org

Tower hill Botanic Garden

Tower Hill Botanic Garden

Spring Bloom Fest at The Stevens Coolidge House and Gardens

Spring Bloom Fest at The Stevens Coolidge House and Gardens

April 21—May 15, N. Andover, MA

Immerse yourself in the beauty of more than 175,000 tulips and other bulbs, filling nine display gardens with the exuberant colors of spring.. the trustees

Naumkeag Daffodil and Tulip Festival

April 21—May 15, Stockbridge, MA

Stroll through the 8 acres of our world-renowned gardens decorated with over 75,000 daffodil, tulip and minor bulbs as we celebrate spring in the Berkshires. the trustees

Nantucket Daffodil Festival

Nantucket Daffodil Festival

April 22-24, Nantucket, MA

Nantucket’s annual daffodil celebration includes the Nantucket Daffodil Flower Show, a window decorating contest, antique car parade, tours, and art shows. Come in costume to the Daffy Hat Contest and children’s parade. daffodilfestival.com

Nantucket Daffodil Festival

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Late April–late May, Boothbay, ME

Coastal Maine’s display gardens feature thousands of tulips, daffodils and other spring bulbs from late April to late May in one of New England’s premier public gardens. mainegardens.org

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Blithewold Daffodil Days

Blithewold Daffodil Days

April through Mid-May, Bristol, RI

The Bosquet, a cultivated woodland, features more than 50,000 daffodils at Blithewold Mansion Gardens and Arboretum. You will also see many woodland wildflowers in bloom.  blithewold.org

Heritage Museums & Gardens

Heritage Museums & Gardens

Mid April–mid May, Sandwich, MA

A spectacular Bulb River of 35,000 grape hyacinths highlighted with 1,500 white daffodils flows on the grounds of Heritage Museums & Gardens in spring. The grape hyacinths begin to open in mid April and reach their peak around Mother’s Day. heritagemuseumsandgardens.org

Wicked Tulips (photo by Beth Reis)

Wicked Tulips Flower Farm

Late April–mid May, Exeter, RI and Preston, CT

Wicked Tulips has the largest u-pick tulip field in New England, with 600,000 early, mid, and late blooming tulips. Enjoy the fields of color, and bring home a fresh hand-picked bouquet. The early tulips begin blooming in late April, followed by waves of later blooming tulips until Mother’s Day. The website Bloom Report provides important updates and allows you to see what is in bloom. Advance tickets are required and must be purchased online. wickedtulips.com

Newport Daffodil Days

Newport Daffodil Days Festival

April, Newport, RI

Now in its 6th year, the Newport Daffodil Festival has beautified the city with more than 1 million daffodils. The week-long celebration includes a garden party, classic car parade, concerts, tours, dog parade and much more. Don’t miss the display of 11,000 daffodils of 29 varieties and the Green Animals Topiary Garden. newportdaffydays.com

Elizabeth Park

Elizabeth Park

Mid-April–mid May, Hartford, CT

Daffodils in mid-April give way to a beautiful display of 11,000 tulips that peak on Mother’s Day. elizabethparkct.org

Colorblends

ColorBlends House and Spring Garden

April 1–May 8, Bridgeport, CT

 Stroll through an evolving display of color as snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils, tulips and other spring-flowering bulbs come into bloom at the ColorBlends House and Spring Garden. Located in Bridgeport’s  Stratfield Historic Distric, the 1903 Colonial Revival  mansion is surrounded by an intimate garden designed by distinguished Dutch  garden designer Jacqueline van der Kloet for Colorblends Wholesale Flowerbulbs..colorblendsspringgarden.com

Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens

Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens

Late April–mid May

Enjoy planting of early bulbs, daffodils and tulips blooming in 93-acres of formal gardens and natural habitats. bartlettarboretum.org

Meriden Daffodil Days

Meriden Daffodil Festival

April 30—May 1, Meriden, CT

One of Connecticut’s favorite celebrations, the Meriden Daffodil Festival features a juried craft fair, rides and food vendors, and an amazing fireworks show, all set against a spectacular display of 600,000 daffodils. daffodilfest.com

New York Botanic Garden

New York Botanic Garden

April–May, Bronx, NY

Explore the Rock Garden for tiny species daffodils, and Daffodil Valley, where the Murray Liasson Narcissus Collection is located. See the latest hybrids on the Daylily/Daffodil Walk, and antique cultivars planted in a seal of yellow and white on Daffodil Hill. nybg.org/garden

Reeves-Reed Arboretum

Reeves-Reed Arboretum

Mid April, Summit, NJ

Celebrate spring with a "host of golden daffodils," as poet William Wordsworth wrote, at Reeves-Reed Arboretum and enjoy one of the largest daffodil collections in New Jersey. The collection, planted in the Arboretum's glacially carved 'kettle' or bowl, was started in the early 1900s by the original owners of the property. Today the collection boasts more than 50,000 bulbs and the annual Daffodil Day brings visitors from all over the tri-state area. Daffodil Day is April 14, 2019. reeves-reedarboretum.org

Reeves-Reed Arboretum

Deep Cut Gardens

Deep Cut Gardens

Mid-April–mid May, Middletown, NJ

Beautiful tulip and daffodil blooms are on display in this 54 acre formal garden. monmouthcountyparks.com

Deep Cut Gardens

Frelinghuysen Arboretum

Frelinhuysen Arboretum

Mid April-mid May, Morris Township, NJ

The formal gardens at Frelinghuysen Arboretum feature gorgeous bedding displays of tulips. arboretumfriends.org

Frelinghuysen Arboretum

Chanticleer

Chanticleer

Early April to mid-May

Chanticleer is ablaze with spring bulbs from species tulips, miniature daffodils and grape hyacinths on the hillside, to formal bedding of tulips and daffodils around the mansion. A sloping lawn, punctuated by flowering shade trees, features 80,000 white or pale yellow narcissus running in two rivers to the bottom. Virginia bluebells, trilliums, grape hyacinths and camassias create gorgeous displays in the woodlands. chanticleergarden.org

Chanticleer

Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens

Early April to early May, Kennett Square, PA

Early spring bulbs like glory-of-the-snow, winter-aconite, and crocus first herald the season’s arrival, with gorgeous tulips, wisteria, and flowering trees creating a lush spring tapestry of color, fragrance, and warmth. longwoodgardens.org

Longwood Gardens

Inventors' Gardens: Edison and Ford Winter Estates

The Edison and Ford Winter Estates is a wonderful place to visit for gardeners and those interested in history, science, engineering, and automobiles. These lovely homes and gardens were the former homes of master inventor Thomas Edison and automobile magnate Henry Ford. The property includes 20 acres of gardens, historic buildings, a museum, and the 1928 Edison Botanical Research Laboratory. Open to the public since 1947, Edison Ford is one of the most visited historic home sites in America.

World-renowned inventor Thomas Edison first came to Fort Myers in 1885 in search of a warm escape from cold northern winters. He purchased more than 13 acres along the Caloosahatchee River, and shortly after he designed his plan for a winter retreat, including houses, a laboratory, and extensive gardens. The estate became known as Seminole Lodge and was enjoyed by Edison, his new wife, Mina, and their family for six decades. The Edisons hosted many friends, including Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and president-elect Herbert Hoover, and they purchased the adjacent house for a guesthouse. They also converted an original cracker-style house that was onsite into their caretaker’s cottage. It was one of the oldest buildings in Fort Myers and had been used by cattlemen as they drove their herds south.  

Henry Ford was a close friend of Edison since the 1890s. When he and his family visited the Edisons in Fort Myers in 1914, they also fell in love with the area. In 1916 Ford purchased the Craftsman bungalow next door and named it The Mangoes. The property included lush grounds with citrus trees and a rose garden that Ford’s wife, Clara, planted. 

The museum at the Edison and Ford Winter Estate

In 1927 Edison, Ford, and Firestone became concerned about America’s dependence on foreign rubber sources for its industrial enterprises. They formed the Edison Botanic Research Corporation whose mission was to find a plant source of rubber that could be grown and produced quickly in the US. A research laboratory was built on the Edison estate and acres of plants were grown. After testing more than 17,000 plant samples, Edison eventually selected goldenrod as the most suitable.

This 100-year old banyan tree was a gift from Harvey Firestone, and began as a 4’ tall sapling. It is now the 3rd largest banyan tree in the world, at 3/4 of an acre in size. It has to be pruned regularly to keep it from encroaching on neighboring buildings.

In 1947 Mina deeded the estate to the City of Fort Myers. All of the historic structures, including the homes, gardens, and other buildings, have been restored to the 1929 time period. You will find more than 1,700 plants on the property representing 400 species from six continents. Some of the most notable include a banyan tree planted in the 1920s and reputedly the largest in the US, allées of elegant royal palms planted by Edison, a palmetum of 60 species of palms, and more than a dozen varieties of bamboo. Some of the bamboo is original to the grounds and was used by Edison in his light bulb experiments.

A collection of beautiful orchids greets you at the entrance to the grounds. Orchids can be seen growing on the trunks of palms throughout the gardens. Adjacent to Edison’s study is the Moonlight Garden, designed in 1929 by landscape designer Ellen Biddle Shipman. Filled with night-blooming fragrant shrubs and flowers, the garden features an ornamental pool that reflects the moonlight. A tropical fruit orchard features citrus, sapote, tamarind, papaya, lychee, longan, guava, jackfruit, loquat, calamondin, and starfruit. The Edisons and Fords shared a passion for growing their own food, and the tradition continues today in the Heritage and Community Gardens.

When you visit the Edison and Ford Winter Estates, sign up for a guided tour — the guides are all historians who provide wonderful background information and anecdotes about the Edisons, Fords, and the property. Be sure to tour the museum and laboratory, and visit the onsite plant nursery and gift shop.

Edison and Ford Winter Estates, 2350 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers, FL 33901 239-334-7419 edisonfordwinterestates.org

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Jewelbox Gardens of The Society of the Four Arts

If you’re vacationing in West Palm Beach, be sure to visit the gardens at The Society of Four Arts. These two adjoining small gardens are little jewels in the heart of the city, and are open to the public with free admission.

Founded in 1936, The Society of the Four Arts is one of Palm Beach’s top cultural destinations, offering art exhibits, lectures, concerts, films, and educational programs. It is also home to two libraries and two beautiful gardens—the Four Arts Botanical Gardens and the Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden.

As you enter through the magnificent wrought iron gates, you find yourself in the botanical gardens, which were designed in 1938 to showcase the horticulture and popular gardening themes of southern Florida. A beautiful Asian-style gate with a blue tiled roof welcomes you into the Chinese Garden and its formal square water lily pool. The surrounding garden features trees and shrubs pruned in cloud formations, bonsai specimens, and Asian statuary and lanterns accented with liriope, white orchids, and camellias.

As you step into the next garden spaces, you travel through a Tropical Garden, Jungle Garden, Palm Garden, and Bromeliad Garden. The central Formal Garden is adorned with a pool and fountain flanked by sheared hedges, liriope, and roses. The Madonna Garden in the corner provides a seating area for quiet contemplation, with a marble relief of the Madonna overlooking a circular pool surrounded by white begonias. The Spanish Facade Garden features a well overflowing with succulents and vines and a bench decorated with Spanish tile. The botanical gardens are maintained by the Garden Club of Palm Beach.

The adjoining two-acre sculpture garden was designed by Palm Beach resident and prominent American couturier Philip Hulitar and opened to the public in 1980. It is home to 20 sculptures by world-renowned artists such as Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Jim Dine, and Lawrence Holofcener, whose Allies depicts Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

Both the botanical and the sculpture garden were redesigned in the mid-2000s by the firm Morgan Wheelock, Inc. New walkways, seating areas, and plantings were installed along with the elegant plaza paved in yellow and green Brazilian quartzite, the classical garden pavilion, vine-covered pergolas, reflecting pools, and fountains. The sculptures continue in the parking area, where Isamu Noguchi’s dramatic Intetra, a huge tetrahedron, overlooks the Intracoastal Waterway.

The Society of the Four Arts, 100 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach, FL 33480, 561-655-7227, fourarts.org

For more information, see The Garden Tourist’s Florida: A Guide to 80 Tropical Gardens in the Sunshine State

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Vizcaya: Miami's Gilded Age Estate

Vizcaya is one of the gardens included in The Garden Tourist’s Florida Tour in March 2022. See Garden Travel.
This article is an excerpt from The Garden Tourist’s Florida book, available for preorder here.

Vizcaya is a stunning Gilded-Age mansion surrounded by formal gardens overlooking Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove. The gardens are notable for introducing classical Italian and French design aesthetics into a subtropical habitat and climate, and creating formal gardens using tropical and exotic plants.

Born in 1859 in South Paris, Maine, James Deering was a retired millionaire and a bachelor in his early fifties when he began to build his magnificent estate in South Florida. He was afflicted with pernicious anemia, a condition for which doctors recommended sunshine and a warm climate. Vizcaya became the place where he hoped to restore his health. He loved sailing and boating, and was greatly interested in landscaping and plant conservation. The creation of Vizcaya incorporated both hobbies, and became the engrossing pastime of the last years of Deering’s life.

James Deering by John Singer Sargent

Deering collaborated on the design of the villa with architect F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr. and interior designer Paul Chalfin. Deering and Chalfin spent many years traveling through Europe, collecting ideas for the Florida estate and purchasing art, antiquities and furnishings. The duo imported gilded panels, carved mantels and fresco ceilings from Tuscany and France to line the villa walls. Construction began in 1914, but it took years to perfect the mansion’s 70-plus rooms, half of which overflow with treasures dating back to the 15th century. Inlaid marble floors, stained glass doors, silk-crowned beds, hand-painted murals and Chinese ceramics all combine to create sumptuous interiors that rival palaces in Europe. Although historic in architectural style, the home incorporated all of the modern technology available at the time, such as a telephone switching system and a central vacuum system.

The gardens were designed by Colombian-born landscape architect Diego Suarez. Suarez adapted classical European Renaissance and Baroque landscape design to Miami’s subtropical climate, terrain and plant material. The gardens were divided into garden rooms and enclosed by ornate walls and hedges. Chalfin adorned them with an abundance of architectural structures, columns and urns, elaborate fountains, and antique and comissioned sculptures. Many of the architectural elements were made of local coral stone which is very porous, and weathers quickly. To further the appearance of age, mature trees were planted in the garden, along with vines and plants that would drape themselves over the garden structures.

the garden mound

The gardens are connected to the house by the large South terrace. The terrace overlooks a large geometric parterre garden bordered by two semicircular pools. A third large pool with a central island is surrounded by low hedges whose exaggerated perspective lines that dramatize the formal geometry of the gardens. The Garden Mound is the focal point of the gardens, crowned with an ornate summerhouse known as the Casino, and adorned with a grand cascade and grottos. Other garden areas include the evocative Secret Garden, the intimate Theater Garden, the playful Maze Garden, the Fountain Garden, and a charming Tea House overlooking the Bay. The formal gardens are surrounded by 25 acres of Rockland Hammock, which is the native forest in this part of Florida.

The Teahouse

The East Terrace faces Biscayne Bay and the Barge, a breakwater built to protect the house and terrace from waves. The Barge was designed to look like a boat with fancy balustrades and statuary sculpted by American artist Alexander Stirling Calder. It was constructed of local limestone, which is very porous. The salt water and storm waves have eroded the structure and its decorative reliefs, and rising water has submerged the lower landing steps.

the barge

Deering’s occupancy of Vizcaya began on Christmas Day, 1916, with an elaborate ceremony complete with gondolas, cannons and friends dressed in Italian peasant costumes. From then until his death in 1925, Deering spent the winter months at Vizcaya, usually with family and celebrity guests. A staff of 16 was required for the house, while an additional 26 gardeners and workers maintained the gardens and outbuildings. Vizcaya was designed to be a self-sufficient estate to compensate for the limited commodities and services of early 1920s Miami. Some of the staff lived in the main house, while others resided in the Village–a complex of cottages, greenhouse, garages, workshops and farm buildings that supplied fresh flowers, fruit, vegetables, milk and eggs for the household. The Village is currently being restored to tell Vizcaya’s full story and provide additional spaces for programs and community outreach.

The village, photo by 305hive.com

After Deering died in 1925, Vizcaya was eventually passed down to his two nieces. The property suffered major damage from two hurricanes, which destroyed many garden statues and furnishings. In 1945, the family transferred the Lagoon Gardens and the southern grounds to the Diocese of St. Augustine and Mercy Hospital. It opened as a public museum in 1953. Restoration efforts continue on the mansion, gardens, and historic Village. In 2021, Vizcaya restored its historic Rose Garden, which had been destroyed in the Great Hurricane of 1926. Eighty-five antique roses were selected from the Antique Rose Emporium in Texas, ensuring that the new plants will be suitable for Miami’s tropical climate. 

Vizcaya: 3251 S. Miami Ave., Miami, FL 33129. 305-250-9133. vizcaya.org
Vizcaya is open Wednesday–Monday, 9:30–5:30

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Innisfree: A Garden for Contemplation

Innisfree garden is the result of a deep friendship and collaboration among three people: owners Walter and Marion Beck and landscape designer Lester Collins. In the late 1920s, artist Walter and his avid gardener wife, Marion, bought their country residence, which they named Innisfree, and began to study garden design and philosophy. Walter Beck discovered the work of eighth-century Chinese poet, painter, and gardener Wang Wei. Studying scroll paintings of Wang’s famed garden, Walter was drawn to the carefully defined, inwardly focused gardens sited within a larger, naturalistic landscape that Wang created. Wang’s technique influenced centuries of Chinese and Japanese garden design, and the gardens of Innisfree. Drawing on Wang’s approach, the Becks created vignettes in the garden, which Walter called “cup gardens,” incorporating rocks from the site with trees and plantings. Unlike Wang Wei, the Becks focused more on individual compositions. Relating these to one another and to the landscape as a whole was the role of Lester Collins. 

““Western gardens are usually designed to embrace a view of the whole. Little is hidden. The garden, like a stage set, is there in its entirety, its overall design revealed in a glance.… The traditional Chinese garden is usually designed so that a view of the whole is impossible. The Chinese Garden requires a stroll over serpentine, seemingly aimless arteries. The observer walks into a series of episodes, like Alice through the looking glass….” ”

— — Lester Collins, in his book, Innisfree: An American Garden

The Becks met Collins early in 1938 and began their creative collaboration. He spent several years in Asia, and was dean of Harvard’s landscape architecture department before starting his own private practice. His study of Chinese and Japanese garden design jived perfectly with the Becks’ aesthetic. In his 20-year association with the Becks, Collins was able to create a magical garden that brought the Becks’ “cup gardens” into a unified whole.

Having no children, the Becks decided to endow a foundation for the “study of garden art at Innisfree” that would make it into a public garden. Collins became the estate’s manager, orchestrated its transition to a public garden, and continued to design and expand the landscape according to his and the Becks’ vision. As funds allowed, he cleared portions of the densely wooded site, carefully editing existing vegetation to leave magnificent trees and swaths of natives, including blueberries, iris, and ferns. He created the first route around the lake; added new cup gardens; designed such memorable water features as the Mist, the Water Sculpture, the Air Spring, and the Fountain Jet; sculpted fanciful berms like those along the Entrance Drive, and added new plantings of native and Asian varieties to create a garden that is natural, unpretentious, and sustainable. His involvement with the garden continued for 55 years until his death in 1993. Today, the garden is run by the Innisfree Foundation. 

Innisfree is unlike other gardens, in that it is a naturalistic stroll garden in which the hand of the designer is almost invisible. The design comes from the study of the natural site. The gardens at Innisfree are based around the 40-acre lake framed by wooded hills and rocky cliffs. Rocks are an important element—from stone walls and staircases to single monolithic stones creating a strong vertical in the landscape. Most of the stones were collected on the property and carefully placed in their current location. Dramatic water features provide movement and energy within the garden. Innisfree is a unique combination of Asian and American aesthetics. It is a garden of quiet beauty, serenity, and contemplation.

Innisfree, 362 Tyrrel Rd., Millbrook, NY 12545, (845) 677-8000, innisfreegarden.org 

Hours: May–Oct: Wed.–Fri. 10–4, Sat.–Sun. 11–5

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Greenwood Gardens: an Arts and Crafts Gem

The Teahouse

Although just forty-five minutes from Manhattan, Greenwood Gardens is totally removed from the sights and sounds of city life. The 28-acre garden, surrounded by 2,110 acres of forest and meadows of the South Mountain Reservation, was a private estate until 2003, when the Blanchard family decided to transform it into a public garden.

The front entrance

Entrance Garden

Two very different American families left their marks on Greenwood Gardens. In the early 1900s, Joseph P. Day, a real estate auctioneer and self-made multi-millionaire, built the mansion and gardens as a retreat from hectic city life. Architect William Whetten Renwick designed both home and garden in an exuberant, heavily ornamented style. The garden was influenced by both Italian and Arts and Crafts styles, and laid out with strict axes and vistas. A series of lavishly planted terraces descended from the house, and an extensive system of paths made from exposed aggregate pavers led through lush, colorful plantings and recreational areas. The family could enjoy a croquet lawn, a tennis pavilion, a nine-hole golf course, a wading pool, shady pergolas and grottoes, a summerhouse, and a teahouse. The gardens were decorated with statuary and rough local stone embellished with colorful Rookwood tiles of the Arts and Crafts period. 

The Summerhouse

In 1949 Peter P. Blanchard, Jr., purchased the property, and he and his wife, Adelaide Childs Frick, brought a more restrained classical formality to the estate. They replaced the flamboyant house with a Georgian brick mansion, and supplanted the extravagant flower beds with simple hedges of boxwood and yew and allées of London plane and spruce trees.

The Garden of the Gods

In 2000, following his father’s wishes, Peter P. Blanchard III and his wife, Sofia, began restoring the garden to its early 1900s appearance and converted it to a nonprofit conservation organization with assistance from the Garden Conservancy. The garden needed extensive work. The walls, terraces, stairs, pools, statuary, and colonnades all had to be repaired. Trees and hedges were pruned or removed, and 28  acres of plantings were recreated from old photographs and notes under the direction of Louis Bauer, formerly of Wave Hill. After more than a decade of planning, fundraising, and restoration, the garden opened to the public in 2013.

The main terrace

In 2020, the garden went through another extensive renovation, focusing on the main axis and fountains, and on the Garden of the Gods. Fountains were restored, walls were repaired, paving stones were reset, views were cleared, and new plantings were installed. When you visit the garden today, you are greeted by an allee of London plane trees. A towering, hand-wrought iron-grill gate, decorated with vines, ferns, parakeets, and birds of paradise is displayed at the entrance to the garden. The Main Terrace, complete with loggias, connects the house to the formal gardens, which descend downward on several more terraces. An elegant reflecting pool serves as a focal point of the first terrace. The Croquet lawn forms the next terrace, and and a bronze sculpture of a boy holding two geese holds center stage in the Garden of the Gods. As you stroll through the garden, you will find ceremonial granite hand-washing basins and whimsical oversized chess pieces that frame the stone Tea House, granite lanterns that adorn the walls of the Cascade terrace, and Chinese Fu dogs that flank the stairs.

The horticulturists at Greenwood Gardens are keen on educating the public about new and noteworthy plants, so you will see unusual trilliums, calycanthus, hellebores, viburnums, phlomis, and the newest varieties of beloved perennials such as rudbeckia, pulmonaria and baptisia, all labeled for visitors. The combination of interesting horticulture, strong classical design, and whimsical Arts and Crafts details make Greenwood Gardens a truly unique destination garden in the Northeast.

The D Shaped Pool

The main Terrace

Greenwood Gardens, 274 Old Short Hills Rd., Short Hills, NJ 07078, (973) 258-4026, greenwoodgardens.org 

Open May–Oct.: Thurs–Sun 10–5, select holidays

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Spring Spectacular at the Stevens-Coolidge House and Gardens

Photo courtesy of Stevens-Coolidge Place

A Spring Spectacular, running from April 21 to May 16, launches the rejuvenation of The Stevens-Coolidge House and Gardens. More than 165,000 bulbs will adorn nine display gardens with the exuberant colors of spring, and visitors will enjoy a series of events and programs staged amidst the garden’s beauty.

The Stevens-Coolidge House and Gardens is a prime example of a Country Place estate—a style that was popular with wealthy Americans in the early part of the 20th century. The Stevenses were one of the founding families of North Andover, farming at what was originally called Ashdale Farm since 1729. In 1914 Helen Stevens inherited the estate, and with her husband, John Gardner Coolidge, transformed the farm into an elegant summer residence.

John Coolidge was member of the Boston elite—the nephew of Isabella Stewart Gardner and a descendant of Thomas Jefferson. The Coolidges hired preservation architect Joseph Everett Chandler to remodel the house and garden in the Colonial Revival style that swept the country after the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.

Chandler’s design for the exterior was based on a formal layout of garden rooms with informal plantings. The main gardens were sited behind the house to offer privacy. The house opened onto a shaded brick terrace that offered views of the perennial garden, which was enclosed by hedges and laid out in a pattern of rectilinear beds with colorful perennials. The Italian-style fragrant Rose Garden replaced the old barn, cow yard, and pig sty. Adjacent to the perennial garden, the Rose Garden could also be entered through an upper terrace, which provided a wonderful view of the flowers. The neighboring greenhouse complex allowed for a grapery, potted tropicals for the house, and plant propagation. 

Construction of the rose garden

The rose garden today

The Coolidges became enamored with chateau gardens while they lived in France during WWI, and Chandler designed for them a French flower garden, screened on one side by a brick Serpentine Wall. Modeled after those designed by Thomas Jefferson for the University of Virginia, the wall supports espaliered fruit trees. The garden was eventually converted to lawn, but in 2000 the original layout was restored and replanted with an incredible display of annuals, herbs, and vegetables.

The serpentine wall

The French Flower Garden

photo courtesy of Stevens-Coolidge place

Ashdale Farm maintained its agricultural heritage throughout Helen Stevens Coolidge’s lifetime. The family kept farm animals, grew vegetables in the kitchen garden, and harvested apples from their orchard. When Helen Stevens Coolidge died in 1962, she left the property and an endowment to The Trustees of Reservations. Many of her gardens, including the rose garden, greenhouse, potager, perennial garden, and cutting garden have been restored to their former appearance.

In November 2020, The Trustees announced a multi-year rejuvenation at the Stevens-Coolidge House and Gardens. The plan preserves the overall architectural structure and American Country Place style, while adding new and expanded display garden spaces, featuring plantings of the latest ornamental species, varieties, and cultivars in contemporary designs. More than 5,000 plants and 165,000 bulbs were added to the gardens, as well as native shrub and wildflower displays, and nature trails through the woodlands, fields, and meadows of the historic Ashdale Farm property. You will enjoy a spring visit to the glorious Stevens-Coolidge House and Gardens this spring!

Photo courtesy Stevens-Coolidge Place

Stevens-Coolidge House and Gardens, 137 Andover St., North Andover, MA 01845, (978) 682-3580, thetrustees.org/place/stevens-coolidge-house-and-gardens/

Gardens are open during the season daily (closed Wednesdays), 10 am–5 pm. Tuesday 10 am–7 pm.

Where Snowbirds Flock: Washington Oaks Gardens State Park

Nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the Matanzas River, Washington Oaks Gardens State Park preserves 425 acres of beautiful coastal scenery. At the heart of the estate are 20 acres of formal gardens thriving in a shady hammock of towering live oaks, hickories and magnolias.

The gardens and buildings are the legacy of Louise and Owen Young from New York, who purchased the property in 1936 as a winter retirement home. Owen was a lawyer, diplomat, counsel to five presidents, chairman of the board of General Electric, and founder of RCA. Louise was a designer and businesswoman with lingerie and fine linen shops, and interests in weaving and pottery. She used her artistic talent to design the house and gardens. Despite their wealth, the Youngs built a modest home that overlooked the river, and a separate building for Owen to conduct his business.  They gradually purchased beachfront property across the road.

The gardens at Washington Oaks consist of formal plantings within a jungle setting, with elements of English and Asian garden design. The magnificent live oaks offer shade as you stroll down mondo grass-edged pathways through themed gardens and around lovely ponds. Gazebos and well-placed benches provide lovely views. Louise was a talented gardener, and filled the garden with her favorites — camellias, azaleas, orchids and citrus, all of which can be seen in the garden today. A formal rectangular rose garden is an oasis of color and perfume. Rose bushes tower to heights of 8’ and include the deep crimson Don Juan, coral Tropicana, carmine Kentucky Derby, pink Sweet Surrender, yellow Sun Flare, and apricot Medallion. 

The sandy soil and subtropical climate at Washington Oaks is ideal for growing citrus. The first orange groves here were established by John Moultrie, Lt. Governor of British Florida in the 1700s. In the 1800s, subsequent owners Joseph Hernandez and George L. Washington grew oranges and shipped them upriver by sailboat to St. Augustine. The Youngs expanded the diversity of citrus at Washington Oaks with plantings of sweet oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes and tangerines. At one time, Louise attempted to establish a citrus business. Owen loved the orange groves, and occasionally the wealthy industrialist set up crates by the road and sold fruit to tourists.

Across the street from the gardens you will find Washington Oaks Gardens State Park beach, which is renowned for its Coquina formations. The Coquina rock is part of the Anastasia formation, which was created during the Pleistocene era (12,000 to 2.5 million years ago) and stretches from St. Augustine to Palm Beach County. Coquina rock is a type of sedimentary rock formed from shells and sand sorted by the waves. When the sea level was lower, these shells and sand were exposed to rain. The rainwater dissolved some of the calcium carbonate (limestone) from the shells, which glued the sand and shells together into rock. Close inspection of the rock reveals the individual shells and sand grains that are cemented together. The word “coquina” is Spanish for “cockle,” the small, burrowing clam that lives in the sand at the ocean’s edge.

In addition to the gardens, the park offers trails for hiking and biking,  and opportunities for birding, fishing, beachcombing, sunbathing and photography.

Washington Oaks Gardens State Park is located at 6400 N. Ocean Dr., Palm Coast, FL 32137, (386) 446-6783, washingtonoaks.org.

Hours: Daily 8 am–sunset. Admission: $5 per vehicle

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Christmas at Blithewold

Overlooking Narragansett Bay in Bristol, RI, Blithewold is an elegant 45-room mansion built in the early 1900s and set on 33 acres of beautiful gardens.

Each year, the mansion is decked out for the holidays by a team of professional and amateur designers and Blithewold volunteers. The theme varies from year to year, but the decorations are always amazing.

Two-story tree in Entrance Foyer

Dining Room

Dining Room

Dining Room

Billiard Room

Billiard Room

Billiard Room

Billiard Room

Telephone Room

Breakfast Porch

Stairwell

Stairwell

Second Floor Gallery

Second Floor Gallery

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Marjorie’s Bedroom

Sewing Room

Estelle’s Bedroom

Augustine’s Bedroom

Augustine’s Bedroom

Stickley Room

A Longwood Christmas

A visit to A Longwood Christmas at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA is a magical journey through a botanical garden decorated with more than 500,000 twinkling lights and spectacular fountain shows. The conservatories feature gorgeous displays, decorated trees and amazing tropical plants.

A Longwood Christmas was named number one in  Best Botanical Garden Holiday Lights by USA TODAY’s 2019 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards.

Sweet Auburn: America’s First Garden Cemete

Photo: Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Located four miles outside of Boston, Mount Auburn was America’s first designed rural cemetery. It also gave rise to the American park movement and became an eminent horticultural institution. Today, it is beloved by nature, landscape and history buffs, and is an excellent destination to explore in autumn.

In the early 19th century, Dr. Jacob Bigelow (left), a Boston physician and Harvard professor, became concerned that crowded cemeteries in congested urban areas might promote the spread of contagious diseases. At that time, most city residents were buried in churchyards or vaults below churches, and as the population of Boston grew, these options became untenable. Dr. Bigelow developed the vision of a burial place located on the outskirts of the city, with family burial lots sited in a landscaped setting filled with trees, shrubs, and flowers. In 1831, the newly formed Massachusetts Horticultural Society agreed to take a lead role in developing the first rural cemetery. They found a 72-acre farm in Watertown and Cambridge that was ideal and featured a 125-foot central mount that provided spectacular views of Boston and Cambridge.

Henry A.S. Dearborn (above right), President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, was largely responsible for the cemetery’s design. He incorporated ideas from the English picturesque landscape style and the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris into his plan for Mount Auburn. The picturesque style celebrated nature and embraced the topography and unique physical characteristics of a site. It also incorporated architectural elements such as castles, rustic cottages, and Gothic ruins into its design, which was particularly suited to a cemetery with its statuary and mausoleums.  Dearborn partnered with civil engineer Alexander Wardworth in laying out winding roads that followed the natural contours of the land, and retaining naturalistic elements such as wooded areas and ponds. He also established a separate experimental garden at Mount Auburn, planted with many domestic and exotic varieties of fruits, flowers, and vegetables. As news of the garden cemetery spread, horticulturalists from around the world sent gifts of seeds. 

The popularity of the new cemetery grew, and lots sold quickly. It was open to all races and religions, and became a popular choice for Boston’s African Americans in the 19thcentury. It also became the final resting place for such prominent Bostonians as Mary Baker Eddy, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Winslow Homer, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In 1835 the cemetery became a private nonprofit corporation, ended its partnership with the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and the experimental garden was discontinued. 

By the mid-1800s, the site was internationally renowned as a horticultural attraction and pleasure ground, with picturesque landscapes, winding paths, a variety of horticulture, and sculptural art. Its success inspired the designs of other cemeteries, and launched the American parks movement. Today, the cemetery still upholds Bigelow’s natural, oasis-like vision, and has grown to 175 acres. The cemetery is planted with more than 5,000 trees spanning 600 varieties. They include Japanese umbrella pines, yellowwoods, amur cork trees, plane trees, weeping cherries, sweetgum, and weeping pagoda trees. Mount Auburn has become a world-renowned ornamental horticultural landscape, a National Historic Landmark, and a leader in historic landscape preservation and ecologically sustainable landscaping. Sweet Auburn, as it came to be called, continues to function as an active cemetery and a pastoral landscape that is visited each year by more than 200,000 people from around the world.

Mount Auburn Cemetery is open daily 8 am–7 pm at 580 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge, MA 02138, (617) 547-7105, mountauburn.org.

An excerpt from The Garden Tourist’s New England.

Two books explore the history and wildlife of the cemetery. The Lively Place by Stephen Kendrick, tells the history of the cemetery:

“When Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded, in 1831, it revolutionized the way Americans mourned the dead by offering a peaceful space for contemplation. This cemetery, located not far from Harvard University, was also a place that reflected and instilled an imperative to preserve and protect nature in a rapidly industrializing culture—lessons that would influence the creation of Central Park, the cemetery at Gettysburg, and the National Parks system. Even today this urban wildlife habitat and nationally recognized hotspot for migratory songbirds continues to connect visitors with nature and serves as a model for sustainable landscape practices. Beyond Mount Auburn’s prescient focus on conservation, it also reflects the impact of Transcendentalism and the progressive spirit in American life seen in advances in science, art, and religion and in social reform movements. In The Lively Place, Stephen Kendrick celebrates this vital piece of our nation’s history, as he tells the story of Mount Auburn’s founding, its legacy, and the many influential Americans interred there, from religious leaders to abolitionists, poets, and reformers.”

Dead in Good Company is a collection of of essays, poems and wildlife photographs of Mount Auburn Cemetery edited by John Harrison and Kim Nagy.

“An amazing group of authors have come together to celebrate this unique resource - including Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz; historical novelist William Martin; former Mayor of Boston and Ambassador to the Vatican, Ray Flynn; Boston author and television icon, Hank Phillippi Ryan; Pulitzer Prize winner, Megan Marshall; mystery/true-crime author Kate Flora; mystery author Katherine Hall Page; medical thriller author Gary Goshgarian (Braver); broadcasting legend Upton Bell; world renowned bird guide author and artist David Sibley; drama critic, author and host of the Theatre World Awards, Peter Filichia; screen writer, author Chris Keane; Mass Audubon's Wayne Petersen; Talkin' Birds radio host, Ray Brown; author, naturalist Peter Alden; founder of Project Coyote, Camilla Fox; Director of the World Bird Sanctuary, Jeff Meshach; senior scientist for wildlife at the Humane Society of the United States, John Hadidian; historian Dee Morris; and sports writer and commentator, Dan Shaughnessy.”

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Three Sisters Sanctuary: A Healing Garden

A two-story tin man with a bright red heart greets you at the entrance of the Three Sisters Sanctuary. The sanctuary is a sculpture garden and art installation, but most importantly, it is a healing garden. When Richard M. Richardson visited Goshen more than 40 years ago, he felt drawn to the area. He began building the healing garden 25 years ago after the tragic death of his older brother, followed 10 years later by the death of his eldest daughter. He says that he did not find the garden, but the garden found him and shaped him into the environmental artist that he is today. It filled a void in his life with purpose and meaning. 

As you enter the sanctuary, you will see Richard’s house–another art installation– on the right. Inspired by a lifelong love of gypsy wagons that he saw on visits to Ireland, the house is clad in zigzag and diamond-shaped shingles painted in two shades of orange. A path leads to a firepit and a pond with a waterfall that is guarded by a life-size mermaid. Adjacent to this is the outdoor dining area, covered in climbing vines. As you make your way through the garden, you will see both whimsical and thought-provoking sculptures from a handful of local artists beautifully incorporated into the setting. The Tina Marie Sanctuary with its iron orbs is a tribute to Richard’s oldest daughter. An eagle sculpture by John Bander crafted from cutlery hangs suspended from a birch tree near a peaceful clearing. A huge stone amphitheater provides a setting for restorative yoga and concerts. A pathway lined with art glass takes you past the wetland and offers lovely nature scenes.

Photo courtesy of wgby

The central part of the garden is the Life Labyrinth, a series of connected spaces outlined by huge Goshen stones and fastigiate (narrow, upright) arborvitae. The labyrinth takes you on life’s journey, beginning with an area called “Dancing with the Ladies” on to “Courtship,” “Seduction,” “Commitment,” and through several other life stages until you arrive at the “Exit of Life.” It ends in the Butterfly Garden, where a group of “children” sculpted from wire by artist Michael Melle twirls around a maypole. Continuing past the Grounded Treehouse and the Faerie House, you finally reach the Mosaic Dragon Den, a space elaborately decorated with colored glass, metal objects, toys, and collectibles. Encircled by the stone body and tail of the dragon, the interior of the den offers a space for contemplation and remembrance of loved ones. If Richard is in the garden, he may ignite the dragon so that you can see the richly decorated head breathing fire. 

Richard’s latest project has been the construction of a massive three-section labyrinth adjacent to the scenic wetland. Many years in the planning, the labyrinth has evolved into a second dragon, this one more than 200 feet long and consisting of three adjoining spirals. Still under construction, the labyrinth promises to be an outstanding addition to the sanctuary.

Three Sisters Sanctuary is a perfect garden destination in September. It is located at 188 Cape St., Goshen, MA, and open daily 8 am to dusk. Admission is $10. threesisterssanctuary.com

Excerpted from The Garden Tourist’s New England, published in 2020.

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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