The Garden Conservancy’s 2018 Open Day in Bristol County will take place Sunday, June 3 from 10 – 4. Admission to each garden is $7. For complete information visit https://www.gardenconservancy.org/open-days/open-days-schedule/bristol-county-ma-open-day
Visit landscape designer Andrew Grossman’s display garden at 393 Fall River Avenue in Seekonk (pictured below). Andrew writes: My gardens, which border the Martin Wildlife Refuge and the Runnins River, showcase a wide variety of perennials, shrubs, and grasses. The property includes a blue-and-white garden, a hot-colored garden with a checkerboard thyme patio, a cottage garden planted with roses and other old-fashioned favorites, and a rustic pond surrounded by bog plantings. There is also a cutting garden currently planted with tea roses and dinner plate dahlias. The property is featured in Design New England’s 2016 March/April issue and was a finalist in HGTV’s Gorgeous Gardens competition.
In nearby Rehoboth, the McIlwain Garden will be open for viewing. This young garden abuts a golf course, providing expansive views in the English landscape tradition. Optimal plantings have been chosen for the range of challenging ecosystems, from rocky, dry soil to windy sites with wet soil. A cluster of trees with filtered sunlight hosts rhododendrons, azaleas, Pieris, Enkiantus, Hellebores, and more. Most of the garden enjoys full sun. This is a garden for all seasons with the blossoms of Okame cherries and saucer and star magnolias ushering in early spring, followed soon thereafter by daffodils, grape hyacinth, Spanish bluebells, ground phlox, and PJM azaleas. Early May sees the arrival of tulips, azaleas, the sweetly fragrant Viburnum carlessi, and lilies of the valley. By mid-May, the bearded irises have opened, along with the chives, allium, bleeding heart, and rhododendrons. By June, this is followed in swift succession by dogwoods, Virginia magnolias with lemon-scented blossoms, peonies, Dutch irises and ‘Gumpo’ azaleas, coral bells, catmint, Campanula, Clematis, and Geranium bikova. By late June, summer has arrived with hydrangeas, roses, foxgloves, garden phlox, daisies, veronica, lavender, Astilbe, blue salvia, anise hyssop, and Russian sage. Fall comes with assorted mums and asters, and flaming fall foliage of a variety of Japanese maples along with red berries on the Viburnum, holly trees, and winterberry. The red-twig dogwood shrubs maintain winter interest along with the topiary boxwood and mottled bark of the Stewartii tree. An herb garden with an armillary sphere underplanted with alpine strawberries is flanked by a blueberry/raspberry patch, pergola, and roses with lavender. The address is 37 Medalist Drive in Rehoboth.
