I am not alone in my admiration for Eleanor Roosevelt and the contributions she made during her life. She is, I believe, one of the most remarkable, compassionate, empathetic individuals to influence our country’s history. Her cottage, Val-Kill (Kill is Dutch for Stream) is part of our National Park System in Hyde Park, NY. Touring her home you see a comfortable, welcoming space which was visited by famous and infamous leaders from around the world. She was not only First Lady of our only four term president, author of 13 books, 7000 “My Day” newspaper columns, first U.S. representative to the U.N and author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to name just a few of her accomplishments she was also considered the First Lady of the World. Looking through “A Personal Album by A. David Gurewitsch’s book about Eleanor, I was stunned to see this photo of her gathering flowers from her garden to bring into her home. She loved having fresh flowers especially marigolds in her home, and enjoyed arranging them for her guest’s room.
Category: Out & About
Brief impressions of garden visits
Trees, Gardens and Students
It is fall and students have returned to college campuses across the nation. I have a listing of the best college arboretums and botanical gardens and I plan my travel to visit as many as I can. I’ve long appreciated the beauty of a college campus. Just this week while traveling in the Northeast I’ve explored Wellesley, Smith and Amherst colleges. Botany has long been an important field of study, though the education of a Naturalist has fallen out of favor. Micro-biology and genetics are programs with great appeal today and both continue to advance the science of horticulture and other areas of study.
Tree Houses in an Arboretum!
Visiting arboretums in my travels I naturally find myself walking in the woods. I enjoy the shade, the champion trees, meadows and blooming spring ephemorals such as jack in the pulpits, trillions, wood poppies, and may apple. Trees are the stars with their gnarly trunks, amazing branching structures and leafy canopies overhead. In spring the green color of new leaves is bright and clean.
Wisteria Wonder
It’s May in Pennsylvania, a month which bridges spring to summer. Gardens are the reflection of everyone’s hope that warmer temperatures and easier times are truly here for the season. Life moves so quickly and a garden clearly reminds us of this. Longwood Gardens has a wisteria garden. I visited there on May 13 and the wisteria was glorious. Purple and white blossoms hung in ringlets from gnarly, woody trunks. The scent and the color was magical. May 23 I returned to Longwood, and the wisteria was without color. The magic was gone, green was the only color. Tendrils of new growth reached out into thin air. Wisteria is a vine which can grow so vigorously with so much power it can move foundations, yet it’s beauty is so fleeting. How is it that something can be so beautiful so briefly? It is a flash of magic, it is a moment to be noticed and enjoyed. If you have made room in your garden for wisteria you understand its incredible power to bewitch and beguile your senses. If you haven’t experienced the brief beauty of a full bloom of wisteria it is impossible to appreciate how mystical it can be. Life’s beautiful moments are brief. Sometimes you simply stand still and enjoy the sparkle. Don’t miss it!
Chanticleer Gardens
Chanticleer Gardens near Philadelphia, PA is a 35 acre pleasure garden. Built in the early 20th century it was a summer home of the Rosengarten family. There are rolling hills, woodlands, a cutting garden, terraces and ponds, it is a truly beautiful garden space. There is an entire book written to describe and illustrate its story. Chanticleer’s spring palate was anchored with shades of purple mixed with whites and pink. The alliums in purple and white and in all stages of bloom were a star of the show. These perennial bulbs are easy to grow, come in a variety of colors and require little space. Interspersed among other plants they are great for adding height to a border as the pop up inserting their ball shape bloom. The buds emerge a small smooth ball with no hint of what will emerge. Then it begins to crack open and the beads of color appear. The individual flowers are a star shape and when fully open the bloom is a baseball size burst of color. I love them in the flower beds, in bouquets and in all stages of opening.
If I were to have a conservatory . . .
Mt Cuba Botanic Center
Former home of Mr. & Mrs Lammot du Pont Copeland, Hockessin, DE
If I were to have a conservatory it would be lovely to have large tall windows facing southeast. From inside I could look out on the rolling hills of the Piedmont range in northern Delaware. The tall windows would allow light to flood into the second story of the house and the room. The sun would fall on the black and white tile floor. The potted plants would thrive in the pleasant environment.The walls would be painted with a soft taupe. A perfect sideboard in green with gold leaf accents would be just the thing to showcase a collection of floral china pieces.
A Walk in the Woods
Mt Cuba Gardens, Hockessin, DE
A rare day in May found me walking in the woods down a path flanked with blooming ephemeral spring flowers. There were jack-in-the-pulpit, and the trillions in yellow, wine, red, white and pink were all about the ground. The native florida flame azalea shrub with its deep orange blossoms added intense color in the green forest. The tulip poplar trees shot 100 feet into the sky providing a full canopy of cooling shade. My destination was the lowland ponds. I wasn’t sure how it could be any prettier and yet when I arrived it was wonderful.
Nemours, French & Fabulous
Nemours Mansion and Gardens is Alfred duPont’s tribute to his family’s French Heritage. In 1909 he built a 102 room mansion in the late-18th-century French style. The mansion is said to be based upon “Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon at the Chateau de Versailles.” I toured the mansion and it was lavish and lovely. The garden surrounding the house is said to be the largest formal French garden in North America. It is grand, symmetrical and designed to impress.
Texas Flowers, Clark Gardens, Weatherford, TX
Beyond the stockyards, the boots and bar-b-Q spring is the time to see Texas flowers bloom. East of Weatherford, TX is Clark Gardens Botanical Park. A private garden of 55 acres open to the public for spring and fall only. My mid April visit gave me a glimpse of the famous Texas blue bonnet magic. Great sweeps of blue mixed in with double ruffled pink poppies filled the ground in all directions.
Yellow Season
It is yellow season in the Desert Southwest. It is that brief time between our short spring and very long hot summer when yellow flowering plants seem to be everywhere. No plant announces this season more beautifully than the Palo Verde tree in full bloom. The small yellow flowers are like spring rain drops suspended in the air letting you see the spray of thousands of petals. In the city the yellow trees are scattered about, in neighborhoods one glorious tree after another is in bloom. In the shopping and resort areas the landscape design marches them around the perimeter in symmetrical groves surrounding the architecture.