Innisfree Gardens, Millbrook, NY

“I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree.”

W.B. Yeats, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” (1888)

A garden with a Scottish poet’s reference for its name, a woodland plant palate, a lake and a Asian influence creating a garden of individual style.  This isn’t a flower garden, yet there are blooms.  This isn’t a Chinese garden, there are no statues of Buddha.  This is a woodland of trees, moss and ferns.  Set among all of these ideas are stones creating pockets of space for a visitor to linger and inhale the scent of trees, and contemplate the intimate space within the 200 acres of grounds.  A landscape designed by one inspired landscape architect , “Lester Collins, FASLA (1914 – 1993), with important contributions by his clients, artist and teacher Walter Beck...   Continue Reading

Vall Kill Cottage, Eleanor Roosevelt’s favorite place

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.  ...   Continue Reading

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....   Continue Reading

Blooms Upon the Water

Monet wrote of his pond at Giverny,

“It took me a long time to understand my water lilies. I had planted them for the pure pleasure of it and I grew them without thinking of painting them…And then, all of a sudden, I had the revelation of the enchantment of my pond. I took up my palette. Since then I’ve had no other model.”Monet’s Water Lilies, Vivian Russell...   Continue Reading

A Castle, Flowers & Vegetables

Hatley Castle, on the grounds of Hatley Park Royal Roads University in Colwood, Vancouver Island, BC

Once upon a time on a beautiful summers’ day my fantasy of walking in a perfect garden came true. I entered an Italian style garden through a wisteria covered stone loggia (covered corridor).   Pink roses climbed the loggia columns adding a bright color accent. A lawn formed a promenade to walk through the garden, with flower beds symmetrical in both color and shape surrounding the lawn. In each corner of the lawn stood a large floral urn. Boxwood hedges shaped the lines of the garden. A stone wall provided pattern and texture behind the flowers....   Continue Reading

An American Garden

Bartram’s — An American Garden

Philadelphia is known as the City of Brotherly Love, and for the men who gathered there to lay out the foundations of our democracy.  This is where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution written. What many people don’t realize is that Philadelphia also claims to be America’s garden capital, boasting 30 public gardens within 30 miles of Philly. ...   Continue Reading

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....   Continue Reading

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!...   Continue Reading