Boston Flora

Tag: Garden Conservancy

  • Thursday, June 25, 7:30 a.m. – 6:45 p.m. – Coast of Maine and Seacoast of New Hampshire Day Trip

    The Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture has organized a fabulous day trip on Thursday, June 25.  Meet in the Gray Parking Lot to carpool at 7:30 a.m.  Expected return time is 6:45.  The first garden stop is Braveboat Harbor Farm in York, Maine, the home of Cynthia and Calvin Hosmer.  These gardens were hay fields which rise from the rockbound coast.  Visit the formal front garden, a vegetable garden, an orchard, a woodland garden, and collections of hostas, lilacs and magnolias.  This bit of paradise was featured in last summer’s issue of “La Vie Claire” and has been a participant in the Garden Conservancy’s Open Gardens Day for the past eight years.

    The lovely home of Vance and Anne Mitchell Morgan on Gemish Island in Kittery Point will be the setting for lunch.  The garden, largely designed and created by them, overlooks a tidal inlet and features a rock garden, perennial beds, a fountain garden and a wonderful shady woodland garden.  Colorful containers on the deck show off choice plants.  The Morgans moved to Maine when Anne retired from the Wellesley College Alumnae Association.

    Fuller Gardens in North Hampton, New Hampshire, is a turn-of-the-century estate garden established by then-Governor of Massachusetts Alvan T. Fuller to please his wife, Viola, who loved flowers and especially roses.  Today Fuller Gardens is known primarily for its extensive collection of roses, and Garden Director Jamie Colen will give a short talk about the roses and other features of the Gardens.  A stop at the nearby home of Anne Sinnott Moore for refreshments preceeds heading back to Wellesley.  Members $48, Non-Members $60, includes lunch, snacks, and gardens.  To sign up, log on to http://www.wellesley.edu/WCFH/Courses/OnTheRoadJune09.pdf,  or mail a check to Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481-8203.

  • Saturday, June 20, 10 – 4 – Newport Area Open Day

    The Garden Conservancy will sponsor an Open Day in Newport, Rhode Island on Saturday, June 20, from 10 – 4.  Visit Green Animals Topiary Garden at 380 Cory’s Lane, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum at 101 Ferry Road and Route 114, for more information.

    The Purviance Garden,  47 Kane Avenue, Middletown, Rhode Island

    For more than thirty years the owners have lovingly tended their gardens. The house is sheltered by two venerable lindens of astonishing form and framed by a billowing boxwood hedge, shaped by an artist. The border by the terrace holds flowering shrubs, a whimsical collection of potted plants, a garden pool, roses, perennials, and evergreens. A tiny playhouse is tucked under a copper beech. Other small gardens are constantly changing, rearranged by the owners who cannot resist tinkering.

    Bellevue House Gardens, Newport, Rhode Island

    This walled three-and-one-half-acre property serves as the private park of an estate designed by Ogden Codman Jr. for his cousin Martha. The gardens have recently been restored, embellished, and re-imagined. They pay homage to the garden designers of the American Renaissance period (1885-1930), and include a series of follies, exedras, and tea houses which form axes and vistas inviting diversions beyond the contemplation of the magnificent specimen trees set in sweeping lawns. The most recent additions include the American Renaissance Water Garden on the east side of the house. A carved granite statue of the goddess Pomona as a metaphorical deity passes energy to the current family over time. The waters gush forward from the her fruit-laden cornucopia, then rise up to a Villa Lante-like table, spill out the father’s lips, under a bridge, and down a long rill to a children’s fountain. A pergola nearby pays homage to Rosemary Verey’s laburnums and wisteria and frames the new tea house, replicating the work of Salem architect Samuel McIntyre (1800). At the rear of the property, stands the newest folly—the cupola of McIntyre’s 1809 Branch (now Howard Street) Church in Salem as redesigned by J. P. Couture of Providence. It is adjacent to an English water garden that reflects the cupola in its symmetrical pool. Completed in the fall of 2008, a new Oriental Vale extends the view to the south. Here a Chinese Chippendale bridge frames a cascade running from a lily-lined lagoon into the pond. A hillock blocks street views and sends a waterfall down to stepping stones that edge the lagoon, which is embraced by a shoal of large beach stones, Japanese maples, and granite lanterns. We regret that fishing for the multi-colored koi is not allowed. Nor will we in turn fish for compliments, though your comments and suggestions for this evolving work will be appreciated.

    Parterre, Newport, Rhode Island

    Recalling the romance of eighteenth-century France, a series of formal gardens with whimsical outbuildings surround the house, built just ten years ago amidst a park-like setting. Always a work in progress, inspiration from other gardens continue to provide precious details. The existing woodland had been reclaimed, with a fall “flame border” of Japanese maples as its accent (a la Sheffield Park, England.) From the fourteen-foot copper beech tapestry hedge to the evergreen “winter garden”, the focus at Parterre is on horticultural specimens and diversity.

  • Saturday, June 6, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. – Garden Conservancy Open Day in Worcester County

    Glenluce Garden 18 Marlboro Road,Stow, Massachusetts

    Glenluce Garden is a small, personal, and romantic garden. Entering by the western gate, you will find yourself on a mound with green paths beckoning in seven directions. Explore these paths to discover a grove of paperbark maples, an island of tree peonies, or a border of fragrant native azaleas. A pergola covered by climbing roses leads to a frog pond shaded by heptacodium and a courtyard with raised vegetable beds. Glenluce Garden is the home of at least twenty-two magnolias, eighty-eight rhododendrons, about 100 peonies, and more than 150 old-fashioned roses.

    Rock Bottom Garden, Stow, Massachusetts

    This one-acre garden has been shaped by sixteen years of collaboration between a woody plant zealot and a perennial gardener. From the 1840s house situated on a dry knoll, one can enjoy sweeping vistas of the gardens below—these include mixed borders, a woodland garden, an herb garden, a bog garden, two rock gardens, and a sizable propagation area. The gardens feature numerous unusual woody plants including many rare magnolias. With any luck, the bigleaf magnolias will be in bloom. Their dinner plate-sized flowers are a striking garden feature in early June.

    Maple Grove, 16 School Street, Boylston, Massachusetts

    Designed around a late-eighteenth-century Cape Cod-style house, Maple Grove is framed by mature sugar maples. Located within the historic district of Boylston, the garden is adjacent to an eighteenth-century cemetery, giving it charming borrowed scenery. A true collector’s garden, Maple Grove has a wide assortment of choice woody and herbaceous plants in a connected series of borders, beds, and islands, with sculpture and water features.

    The Garden of John D. Mapel and Stephen J. Libuda, 95 Brigham Hill Road, Grafton, Massachusetts

    After two decades of gardening at this location, original plantings have begun to mature. Visit Brigham Hill Farm’s horticulturist’s garden whose philosophy is to gently guide nature to take its own course. Perennial borders have given way to lower maintenance shrub borders and container plantings that keep in tune with the naturalistic surroundings. A water garden, meadow, terraced spaces, and walking paths encompass the two-acre property. A passion for plants has developed into a retail nursery and greenhouse space with a unique selection of annuals, perennials, herbs, and vegetables. There is something for everyone at this one-of-a-kind plant collector’s garden.

    Brigham Hill Farm, 128 Brigham Hill Road, North Grafton, Massachusetts

    This 200-year-old colonial house and barn were purchased in 1975 by the present owners. The first thirteen years were spent in dealing with the ailments of an old house and in the rebuilding of old stone walls on the property. After all this work was finished, the gardens were planned and planted one by one. The herb garden was planted in 1996 off the south side of the kitchen wing. In 1997 a woodland water garden was started on the hillside to the west of the barn…this has become an ongoing project! In the fall of 1998 the perennial bed by the swimming pool was redesigned using most of the original granite and perennials. In 2007 and 2008 off the north side of the house, a large bluestone terrace was installed for entertaining with many large container pots for plantings. Down the broad steps from this area is a high-walled vegetable garden with a rill and granite-raised beds. Warren Leach of Massachusetts designed and planted all the above gardens. There is another large vegetable bed to the north of the barn which holds raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, cutting gardens, and various slow growing annual vegetables. Eight chickens occupy a hen house there with a roof planted with “hens and chicks”. Allow forty-five minutes to one hour for your visit.

    To register, link to www.gardenconservancy.org/opendays.

  • Monday, May 11, 10:00 a.m., The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue – Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Past and Present

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay is pleased to present John W. Trexler, Executive Director of the Worcester County Horticultural Society, who has taken time from his very busy schedule to speak to our Club about Tower Hill Botanic Garden.

    John, a plant and garden expert, has contributed to the world of horticulture in many ways. His primary accomplishment is the creation and development of Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts, the home of the Worcester County Horticulture Society. In addition, he has founded and led several Plant and Garden Societies and is an active member of many other plant related groups. He inspires donors, volunteers, and staff to help complete his vision. His drive for perfection has created a world class garden in just 25 years. The garden is not only a show piece but a rich educational environment. John is a founding member of the Garden Conservancy and is on their Steering Committee. He worked with Frank Cabot in 1989 to create this National nonprofit organization which preserves exceptional American gardens for public education and enjoyment.  He began his career in New Jersey at Skyland Manor State Park as assistant horticulturist. When he left New Jersey for Worcester less than ten years later, he had convinced the Governor of NJ to designate Skylands as the State Botanic Garden and he had served as president of the Skylands Association.

    Tower Hill Botanic Garden has been created under John Trexlers guidance from the beginning. He was instrumental in every phase of its conception and development. Environmentally sensitive planning of Tower Hill is exemplified by the Wildlife Pond which collects the run off from the buildings and naturally purifies it and at the same time feeds and shelters wildlife with native plants.

    At the Annual Meeting in Houston this May the National Garden Clubs, Inc. will bestow the Award of Excellence to John Trexler for his outstanding contributions in horticulture: the establishment of Tower Hill Botanic Garden, a world class garden, for his service to the plant societies and gardening organizations, and for his work to preserve and enhance the environment. Mr. Trexler embodies Excellence through his skill in horticulture and creation of exceptional gardens, and perhaps more important, in his leadership and enthusiasm in developing environments where everyone can share and learn these skills.

    An optional lunch will follow the meeting ($19 per person).  To reserve, contact The Garden Club of the Back Bay at info@bostonflora.com.