There is something heartening about discovering the remnants of past plantings. Our summer cottage sits on property that was part of a farm until the 1920’s, when a wealthy local manufacturer bought it and built a lakeside cabin. My grandparents acquired the land in 1941 and expanded the cottage to its present dimensions. At various times various owners planted shrubs and flowering plants and some of them linger.
In the spring a few poeticus-type narcissus still bloom on the edge of what was once an apple orchard. They may have been planted by a farmer’s wife, along with two old lilacs–one white and one purple, that hug the sides of our lane. Lilacs tend to persist around country properties, sometimes long after the people who planted them have gone.
Near the white lilac I also discovered a low-growing euphorbia and a clump of purple-flowered campanula. I have transplanted the campanula to my little beach garden and as soon as I pull out the poison ivy that lurks around the euphorbia, it will follow. I am fairly sure my green-thumbed aunt put in those plants as well as the ones in the beds that surround a sloping grassy area just above our terrace. The perimeter plants include lots of lily-of-the-valley, a few sturdy Brunnera macrophylla, some hostas and a rambling rose that I think is ‘Dorothy Perkins’, which was introduced in 1901. My aunt was also reputed to have one of the biggest Victory Gardens in the county during World War II. No traces of it remain.
I am busy putting my own stamp on the property, creating the beach garden and another circular bed that surrounds the stump of a recently departed Lombardy poplar. I hope that at least a few of my plants will have the same stamina as those that came before them.