Boston Flora

Tag: Beatrix Farrand

  • Thursday, July 8, 4:00 pm – Beatrix Farrand, Private Gardens, Public Landscapes

    Judith Tankard continues her book tour with a stop at Berkshire Botanical Garden, 5 West Stockbridge Road in West Stockbridge,  on Thursday, July 8 at 4 pm. Beatrix Farrand (below) was one of the foremost landscape architects of the early 1900s and one of the earliest women to take up the profession. She studied privately under the renowned horticulturist Charles Sprague Sargent and learned about garden design through extensive travel abroad. Many of her clients were members of high society, with estates in Newport, the Berkshires, and Maine. Learn about this remarkable woman and her lasting influence on the field of landscape design.  $20.  To register, log on to www.berkshirebotanical.org, or call 413-298-3926.

    Judith B. Tankard is an art historian specializing in landscape history. She is the author of seven books and has taught for over twenty years at the Landscape Institute of the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University.

    http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/cedarchives/images/farrand2.jpg

  • Sunday, June 6, 2:00 pm – The Maine Work of Beatrix Farrand

    The Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites are pleased to announce the Fifth Annual Bellefield Design Lecture: The Maine Work of Beatrix Farrand by Patrick Chasse, a program of its park partner, The Beatrix Farrand Garden Association, on Sunday, June 6, beginning at 2 pm, at the Henry A. Wallace Visitor Center at the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt Historic Site and The FDR Presidential Library and Museum, 4079 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park, New York.  Patrick will discuss Farrand’s life and work in Maine from childhood through her retirement at Garland Farm, including a number of private commissions that are rarely ever seen by the public. A reception and heirloom plant, book and garden treasure sale will follow in the Garden at Bellefield.  Tickets are $30 ($25 for Beatrix Farrand Garden Association and Garden Conservancy members), and may be purchased in advance (strongly recommended, because seating is limited) by logging on to www.beatrixfarrandgarden.org or by calling 845-229-9115, ext. 26.

    http://www.gardenpreserve.org/preserve-images/books/reef-detail.jpg

  • Friday, August 20, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Northeast Harbor Gardens

    Since you already are up in Maine for the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller garden tour with Bonnie Drexler (see post below), stay a day and visit Northeast Harbor with Bonnie and The New England Wild Flower Society.  This tour, described below, is limited to 20 participants, and costs $30 for NEWFS members and $36 for nonmembers.  Register at www.newfs.org.

    The Asticou Azalea Garden and the Thuya Garden are linked by location as well as history. These complementary gardens were created by Charles Savage, a local innkeeper and self-taught landscape designer, who rescued plants from designer Beatrix Farrands’ abandoned estate in Bar Harbor to create the gardens along the north edge of Northeast Harbor. At the Asticou Azalea Garden, rhododendrons, mountain laurels, heathers and azaleas were planted to transform a swamp into a stroll garden with an Asian flavor. The water gardens of the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto, Japan supplied the inspiration for Savages’s flowing Asian design.

    Farrand’s plants were also used to create Thuya Garden, where an overgrown apple orchard stood before. We climb a trail winding up the slopes of Eliot Mountain under towering spruce and cedar trees. Rustic cedar shelters provide rest stops with views of Northeast Harbor below. At the top, we enter the formal garden through a pair of carved wooden gates (below) featuring fiddlehead ferns, lady’s slipper orchids, frogs, iris, and owls among others. The two main formal borders are planted with drifts of perennials that range from warm to cool hues as you stroll by. A shallow reflecting pool, a hidden summer house, and giant garden urns punctuate the garden’s floral displays.

  • Thursday, August 19, 9:00 am – 2:30 pm – Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden and Wild Gardens of Acadia

    Advance notice: a spectacular day field trip has been planned by The New England Wild Flower Society in Seal Harbor and Bar Harbor, Maine on Thursday, August 19, from 9 – 2:30, led by Bonnie Drexler.  Participation is limited to twenty, so register quickly at www.newfs.org.  The cost  is $60 for NEWFS members and $72 for nonmembers, and this event is sure to sell out.

    Two of Mt. Desert Island’s most evocative gardens open their gates  this day.

    Noted garden designer Beatrix Farrand designed a stunning garden for David and Abby Alrich Rockefeller in the late 1920’s. Today, this garden (pictured below) continues to weave an enchanting spell over its visitors, combining Asian art and architecture with vibrant displays of annuals and perennials. Enter another world as you pass through the circular Moon Gate to come upon a sunken lawn, surrounded by lavish English border gardens at their peak of summer color. Stroll the woodland “Spirit Path,” flanked by Korean tombstone figures, all the while enclosed by a rose-colored serpentine wall, capped with yellow tiles from China’s Forbidden City. Native shrubs, groundcovers, mosses and ferns shine alongside the ancient stone sculptures, some from the 14th century. Meet with the horticulture staff for a behind the scenes understanding of the Garden.

    Following lunch (on your own at the nearby Jordan Pond House),  you will tour the Wild Gardens of Acadia, where we explore a microcosm of Mount Desert Island’s natural habitats. Only plants indigenous to Mt. Desert Island find a home here on this small, but intensely planted site. Over 300 native plant species are arranged by habitat setting. The plant communities include mixed woods, roadside, meadow, mountain, heath, seaside, brookside, bird thicket, coniferous woods, bog, marsh, and pond with corresponding native plants and birdlife. Maintained by the Bar Harbor Garden Club, this jewel of a native plant garden won the Homer Lucas Landscape Award from New England Wild Flower Society in 1998.

  • Sunday, June 7, 2:00 pm – Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement

    We enjoyed author and noted garden historian Judith Tankard at our March meeting at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden, and we have the opportunity to hear her again on Sunday, June 7 at 2 pm, when she will give an illustrated lecture on The Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement, followed by a tea party and birthday cake celebrating Beatrix Farrand’s birthday.  Judith will also be available to sign her books, and attendees will enjoy a plant sale and garden boutique.  The lecture will be given at The Henry A. Wallace Visitor Center at the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt Historic Site and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, 4097 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park, New York. There will be limited seating, so advance purchase of tickets is strongly recommended.  For more information contact Anne Symmes: info@beatrixfarrandgarden.org, or call 845-229-9115, ext. 26.  To learn more about Beatrix Farrand Garden Association visit www.beatrixfarrandgarden.org. Tickets are $25 ($20 for BFGA members).

  • Sunday, April 26, 2 pm – Tulipomania: Banking with Bulbs During the Golden Age of Dutch Culture

    As part of the Bellefield Design Lectures at the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites, Eric Haskell will present an illustrated talk.  Eric Haskell is an author and professor at Scripps College .  The event is in celebration of the Quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s journey up the Hudson.  $50 ($45 for BFGA members) includes wine and hors d’oeuvres.  Event will be held at The Henry A. Wallace Center, home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hyde Park, New York.  Limited seating.  Advance purchase of tickets strongly recommended.  For more information contact Anne Symmes at infor@beatrixfarrandgarden.org, or call 845-229-9115, ext. 26.  To learn more about the Beatrix Farrand Garden Association visit www.beatrixfarrandgarden.org.

  • Public Gardens To Visit

    Judith Tankard provided members attending The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s March 23 meeting with a list of U.S. public gardens designed by either Beatrix Farrand or Ellen Shipman which are open to the public.  For those of you unable to be with us at Wellesley, here is that list:

    Beatrix Farrand Garden at Bellefield, Hyde Park, NY (www.beatrixfarrandgarden.org)

    Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL (www.cummer.org)

    Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC (www.doaks.org)

    Garland Farm, Mt. Desert, ME (www.beatrixfarrandsociety.org)

    Harkness Memorial State Park, Waterford, CT (www.harkness.org)

    Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT (www.hillstead.org)

    Longfellow House Garden, Cambridge, MA (www.nps.gov/long)

    Longue Vue House and Gardens, New Orleans, LA (www.longuevue.com)

    Moonlight Garden, Edison and Ford Winter Estates, Fort Myers, FL (www.efwefla.org)

    Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY (www.nybg.org)

    Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, NH (www.nps.gov/saga)

    Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara, CA (www.sbbg.org)

    Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Duke University, Durham, NC (www.sarahpdukegardens.com)

    Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, Akron, OH (www.stanhywet.org)