The Four Season's Garden Club toured four gardens today. Chuck and Geof's garden led off, and we were one of the other three. Their garden is a remarkable place. Chuck bought the 5 acre property more than 25 years ago with an old farmhouse, a tobacco barn and various outbuilding. At this point it's a mature garden with Woodland areas, a bulb lawn, a Nuttery (we all felt at home), perennial beds, a largish lily pond, extensive conifer plantings and to top it off a collection of exotic fowl some free range, some caged. Wow!
In the picture Chuck is explaining to an, always sceptical, Phil Normandy the history of the mature Tilia x Periolaris we (~75 of us) are standing under. Apparently he obtained scionwood from the Barnes Foundation where it was a favorite plant. After successfully grafting the wood , Chuck recalls planting the tree, stepping back, and watching a crow land on the slender 3' sapling. Snap, it broke, leaving only one living bud above the graft. Obviously it only took one bud to produce this tree.
Phil countered with a story about Styrax 'Emerald Pagoda'; apparently it came withing 3 buds on a sickly stock of dieing before it recovered for JC Raulson.
We started the tour with this garden and it was a tough one for the rest of us to follow. I love it. Actually it was an impossible garden. Still we did have our own visitors later in the afternoon who seemed to enjoy the garden and the plants! Anything that humbles me can't be all bad.
The Four Season's Garden Club toured four gardens today. Chuck and Geof's garden led off, and we were one of the other three. Their garden is a remarkable place. Chuck bought the 5 acre property more than 25 years ago with an old farmhouse, a tobacco barn and various outbuilding. At this point it's a mature garden with Woodland areas, a bulb lawn, a Nuttery (we all felt at home), perennial beds, a largish lily pond, extensive conifer plantings and to top it off a collection of exotic fowl some free range, some caged. Wow!
