Gardens of the Hudson Valley at the 6th Annual Bellefield Design Lecture
Nancy Berner, Allelu Kurten, BFGA Pres.,
and Susan Lowry |
This past June
, Susan Lowry and Nancy Berner gave an illustrated talk based on the new book
Gardens of the Hudson Valley by photographers Sue Daly and Steve Gross. The descriptions of the gardens featured in the book were carefully researched and beautifully written by our speakers and their talk shed new light on some of the iconic landscapes of the Hudson Valley. Also featured in the talk were modern private gardens where bold new design ideas still embody and express the long tradition of landscape gardening here along the Hudson.
The lecture was followed by a garden party and heirloom plant sale at Bellefield where lecture-goers sipped iced tea, nibbled watercress sandwiches and had a chance to continue the discussion. The authors were on hand to sign copies of their handsome book, which was for sale at the garden boutique sponsored by the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt Historical Association. All proceeds from the sale have gone to support our work in the garden at Bellefield and the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites. We hope you will join us for the 7th Annual Bellefield Design Lecture in the fall of 2012. Watch for details.
PLANT PROFILE
Actaea racemosa black snakeroot, fairy candles
This tall, handsome plant is native to the northeast and found growing from northern Ontario all the way down to Georgia. Its roots have long been used by Native Americans for its anti-inflammatory and sedative effects. It was most certainly a plant that Beatrix Farrand admired in the dappled shade of woodlands and, like many other natives, then used in her formal planting plans.
At Bellefield, it serves as a bright accent in the shady corner of the white border, making it perfectly clear why it is sometimes called “fairy candles.” It acts as a spiky backdrop for a white
iris ensata that seems to float along in the foreground. The foliage can be quite handsome before and after the blooms fade in July, but ours often dies back in its moist corner by late summer and then we wait again till late June for it to captivate us once again.
Centennial Year in the Garden
In honor of the 100th anniversary of the garden in 2012, we are launching an exciting series of projects. We are developing new educational programs to teach about Beatrix Farrand’s important legacy including an audio tour of the garden and children’s programming. We are also beginning a project to restore the “wild garden” that once surrounded the formal walled enclosure at Bellefield. The existing original drawings of the garden offer no details of the plantings that were used, but recently, we have embarked on a research project to discover what the plan might have encompassed. This research is being undertaken in partnership with the National Park Service and the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation
and we are
working with them to create a full Cultural Landscape Report of the property that will provide invaluable help as we begin to restore the larger landscape at Bellefield.
Dumbarton Oaks, Research Library & Collections, Washington, DC
A view of the wildgarden at Dumbarton Oaks
click to view larger
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The intention of so many of Farrand’s designs, both large and small, was to lead the way from built structures through the formal garden and ultimately out into nature.
This is beautifully expressed in her masterwork at Dumbarton Oaks, where formal garden rooms lead from one to another and ultimately into acres of “wilderness” with streams, bridges, meadows and woodland walks. By re-creating the informal plantings and walks beyond the walled garden at Bellefield, we can provide a fuller picture of Farrand’s rich design legacy—a legacy that includes creating and advocating what today we would call “sustainable landscapes.” Her artful use of trees, hardy shrubs and bulbs that require very little maintenance has much to teach us still.
Many of you will be happy to know that an important goal of this project will be to integrate a thoughtful approach to the garden from the Henry A. Wallace Visitor Center, the starting point for so many visitors to the National Park sites, especially ones who may not know about Farrand and her garden right next door at Bellefield.
Your support keeps the garden alive.
English Garden Group Visits Bellefield
In September, David Wheeler, founder and editor of the renowned English gardening journal, Hortus, hosted a group from England on a tour of fine gardens in New York. The tour, led by our own Kate Kerin, included the New York Botanical Garden, Wave Hill, and a number of Long Island properties. In the Hudson Valley the group visited noted gardens such as Stonecrop Gardens and Innisfree and stopped to have lunch and take a tour of the Garden at Bellefield. The group of 13 took in the view of the garden while they enjoyed a bountiful spread in the Morgan Room and, despite the English weather we have been having all month, the sun shone that day to show off the anemones, asters and salvia still hanging on after the recent hurricane.
