On May 1, 1891, Geraldine Mayo, of County Kildare in Ireland, armed herself with a stout pair of loppers and climbed a ladder—long skirts and all. “I got on the top of the Yew hedge in the garden at the risk of my life..,” she wrote later, adding that the risky yet satisfying hedge pruning … Read more
In 1797, Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge may have had an especially vivid opium dream that resulted in the production of a now-famous poem called “Kubla Khan.” One memorable stanza described Kubla Khan’s estate: So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous … Read more
When Francis H. Cabot died in 2011 at the age of 86, New York Times obituary writer Margalit Fox credited him with creating “two of the most celebrated gardens in North America.” Last weekend, when the temperature and weather were close to perfect, I visited one of them, Stonecrop Gardens, near Cold Spring, NY. Born … Read more
The front cover of Hugh Cavendish’s new book, A Time to Plant, looks like an abstract painting in shades of olive green, tan and rust. It is, in fact, a close-up of the exfoliating bark of a stewartia tree. The tree in question is part of a collection of stewartias at Holker Hall, the Cavendish … Read more
Nearly a decade ago, I first visited Greenwood Gardens in Short Hills, New Jersey. The owners of Greenwood, 28 acres of gardens, structures, outbuildings and naturalized areas, were beginning the process of making the transition from private property to public garden. Deterioration was encroaching on the property, which had its moments of greatest glory in … Read more
