Join Erin Hammes, Plant Records and Production Horticulturist at Native Plant Trust on December 7 from 1 – 2:30 for this native seed sowing workshop. Learn about our native seeds and then get your hands in the soil to sow some seeds that you can take home. The class will be held at Long Hill in Beverly, a Trustees of Reservations property. $26 for NPT members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/native-seed-sowing-workshop-12072024/
Join senior horticulturist Dan Bouchard for a guided educational walk through the Sedgwick Gardens at Long Hill, 576 Essex Street, Beverly on June 26 at 4 pm. While you stroll through the gardens Dan will share his extensive knowledge to point out interesting and unusual groundcovers that are both native and exotic. As you look at the groundcover, Dan will discuss the attributes, growing conditions, habits, and spreading characteristics of each plant.
This is a great walk to learn more about groundcovering plants either for your own home garden or general interest! Please plan to meet in front of the greenhouse when you arrive.
Pre-registration is required. Refunds must be requested 7 days before the program date. $15 for Trustees members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at https://thetrustees.org/event/417310/
This June 11 Garden Conservancy program, led by The Trustees’ Director of Horticulture, Joan Vieira, will provide an overview of this special Beverly, Massachusetts property, detailing its early history as a garden for the Sedgwick family to its status today as a well-loved public garden. We will also explore the garden, looking at interesting specimen trees and other notable plants that have thrived in this space for decades.
For more information, please contact the Garden Conservancy by telephone 845.424.6500, M-F, 9-5 Eastern, or email events@gardenconservancy.org. To register online, click HERE.
Join The Trustees on Friday, May 12th for a very special Preview Party for Long Hill’s Annual Plant Sale. Enjoy a cocktail and hors d’oeuvre, and celebrate the Plant Sale’s 31st year with us. During the Preview Party there will be special plants available for purchase, giving all attendees early access to an exclusive selection of rare and unusual perennials from Long Hill’s gardens. And, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in an exciting silent auction with unique prizes that every gardener will love. Long Hill is located at 572 Essex Street in Beverly. $45. Register at https://thetrustees.org/event/83737/
On Saturday look through a wide selection of plants, from old favorites to rare and unusual species grown here at Long Hill.
Registration is not necessary for the sale event.
Explore the gardens and fields of Long Hill, 572 Essex Street in Beverly, to find plants that can be used for making teas that are both tasty and nutritious. Learn about safety and resources for identifying plants. We make will make a tea with 3 to 5 local plants for teas, and talk about how to prepare teas, whether to use fresh or dried plants, the benefits of the plants harvested, and how to dry them for later use. A handout with plants and a couple of recipes will be included.
Please dress appropriately for the weather. Sturdy shoes are recommended. This program, sponsored by The Trustees of Reservations, is $24 for Trustees members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at https://thetrustees.org/event/78491/
From garden to vase, learn the skills to assemble a stunning garden centerpiece with September blooms that illustrates the abundance of the early fall growing season for your home. This workshop, sponsored by The Trustees at Long Hill, 572 Essex Street in Beverly. will take place September 17 from 10 – noon, and is $56 for Trustees members, $70 for nonmembers. Register at https://thetrustees.org/event/77439/
In this workshop, participants will learn:
The Garden Conservancy’s Open Day program returns to Essex County on September 4 with two beautiful gardens, The Stevens-Coolidge House and Garden in North Andover, and The Sedgwick Gardens at Long Hill in Beverly. Register HERE.
In North Andover, enter a world of a former farm that became an early-20th-century estate, where a newly expanded array of bountiful gardens and plantings complements a gracious and refined home. Stevens-Coolidge House & Gardens was the summer home of Helen Stevens Coolidge and her husband, John Gardner Coolidge – a diplomat descended from Thomas Jefferson and a nephew to Isabella Stewart Gardner – from 1914 to 1962.
Long Hill was owned and cared for by the Sedgwick family from 1916 to 1979, their beloved summer home that, in the 1950s, became their year-round haven. Mabel Cabot Sedgwick, an accomplished gardener and author of The Garden Month by Month, and her husband, Ellery Sedgwick, noted author and editor of The Atlantic Monthly, summered here until Mabel passed in 1937. After Mabel’s death, Ellery married Marjorie Russell Sedgwick, a rare plants specialist. The combined creative vision of these two women led to the design of Long Hill’s enchanting gardens, surrounded by more than 100 acres of woodland.
Today, visitors delight in the beauty of Long Hill’s structured and naturalistic gardens as well as a network of woodland trails. A diverse collection of trees, shrubs, and distinctive perennial plants provide color during the growing season, peaking in May and June and providing structure and beauty throughout the year. With an ever-growing calendar of public events and festivities, you’ll find ample reason for frequent returns.
In this illustrated talk, Troy Scott Smith recounts his long tenure at Sissinghurst and his efforts to recapture the distinctive vision of its creators, the writers Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, in the 1930s, as a refuge dedicated to natural beauty. He studied not only Sackville-West’s and Nicolson’s gardening style, but also their characters, philosophy, and interests, while balancing the reality of hundreds of thousands of annual visitors and the effects of climate change. In the end, Troy shows how he settled on an approach that allowed past, present, and future to co-exist. The event, sponsored by The Garden Conservancy, will be held at Long Hill, 572 Essex Street, in Beverly, MA. This is an indoor event and masks and proof of vaccination will be required.
$45 Garden Conservancy and the Trustees of Reservations members
$55 General admission
Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/
One of Britain’s best-known head gardeners, Troy Scott Smith has devoted his career to the beauty and romance of gardening. Since joining the National Trust of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, in 1990, Troy has led some of the world’s most beautiful gardens, among them the Courts (Wiltshire), Bodnant (Wales), and two stints at Sissinghurst (Kent), where he has led a remarkable transformation and restoration of the Vita Sackville-West gardens.
After spearheading a multi-year plan as head gardener at Sissinghurst, which included the recreation of a Mediterranean-style garden from the Greek Island of Delos, Troy left to assume leadership of the award- winning Iford Manor Garden in Wiltshire, near Bath, where he set in motion a ten-year master plan. After two years, Troy returned to his spiritual home of Sissinghurst.
The Trustees are excited to present Andrew Keys Pepper, live and in person, on July 17 at 4 pm at Long Hill, 572 Essex Street in Beverly. Why plant the same old thing as the neighbors? Long Hill features dozens of exceptionally beautiful but inexplicably underused plants, many of which you can grow. Join Andrew Keys Pepper, author of Growing the Northeast Garden, for a presentation on old favorites at the garden and elsewhere that have fallen out of fashion, as well as newer introductions that deserve your attention.
Andrew Keys Pepper is an artist, writer, plantsman, and lifelong gardener. He is the author of two books published by Timber Press: Growing the Northeast Garden (2015) and Why Grow That When You Can Grow This?: 255 Extraordinary Alternatives to Everyday Problem Plants (2012). He received a Master of Fine Arts from San Francisco Art Institute in 2019, focusing on sculpture and photography. Prior to that, he also served as web manager at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
Andrew produces and hosts the podcast Artists Looking At Animals, and created podcasts for both Fine Gardening and Horticulture magazines. His written work has appeared in This Old House magazine, Fine Gardening, and others. Though he lives outside Boston, Andrew grew up in the American South, in a family of cotton farmers, gardeners, and outdoorsmen. Andrew is trained as an organic land care professional through the Northeast Organic Farming Association.
Space is limited; pre-registration required by clicking HERE.
Trustee Member: $24 Nonmember: $30
On Saturday, August 4, capture Long Hill’s blooming flower fields at this former family retreat renowned for its gardens for almost a century. You’ll be equipped with all the latest camera gear from Canon, provided by Hunt’s Photo & Video, and personally coached by Hunt’s technical experts and visiting professional photographers! Reservations required for the AM session from 8am-12pm, or PM session from 1-5pm! Cost: $45 per person ($35 for members of Essex Heritage and The Trustees of Reservations.) Long Hill is located at 572 Essex Street in Beverly, and you may register by calling 978-740-0444, or visiting www.essexheritage.org/photosafari.
