Leaflet
A MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY PUBLICATION
TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 Notes from the President’s Desk 4 Upcoming at MHS 7 “We’re Jammin” By John Lee 9 Enjoy Your Hydrangea Blossoms All Year Long By Jim Connolly 11 Our New Harvest Time By Matt Mattus 16 From the Stacks By Maureen T. O’Brien, Library Manager 17 Immersion: Living and Learning in an Olmsted Garden by Nola Anderson with photography by Clint Clemens Reviewed by Patrice Todisco
Notes from the President’s Desk As the season begins to turn and the heat of summer burns out, we who are gardeners have our last great reward. The labors of the year, rewarding us until now little by little, culminate in a blaze of glory and bounty. We will lift our eyes from the details we savor and the vignettes we create in our gardens and see that from horizon to horizon New England is a sea of color. It lives and breathes and dances through the landscape as it changes daily, as if to say “good job, now see what I can do.” In our own gardens, the steady productivity that we have enjoyed is overrun by exuberant abundance. As fast as we can pick, prepare, pickle and preserve—for a few weeks it seems our gardens always just run a little faster than we can. This issue of Leaflet celebrates the glory and bounty of the harvest season. Matt Mattus beautifully captures the personal intimacy of this season for so many of us while Jim Connolly and John Lee show us how to make the most of the harvest and enjoy it through the winter.
Here in the Garden at Elm Bank we have extended our garden season through October 31 with much still to see. I encourage you to visit for an early viewing of our 2022 augmented reality sculpture exhibit, Seeing the Invisible. We look forward to reopening on November 26 for the Festival of Trees, where many come to celebrate this beloved family tradition during the holiday season.
We are also pleased that the first phase of vegetation management planning for the restoration of the Olmsted Brothers-designed Asian and Canal Gardens is progressing. Given the conservation importance of wetlands, we have been through a planning process with both state and local agencies and our plans are currently before the Dover Conservation Commission. This is a long-term participatory project which we will establish as the heart of our educational, volunteering and therapeutic programs, with many opportunities for community involvement in coming years. Our immediate focus is to control invasive weeds, make the area safe to access and to stabilize the landscape. Once this is accomplished we will bring in many more of our community to engage with this important and delightful historical garden that has suffered 70 years of decline. As we pursue a thoughtful, community-led restoration and repurposing we are focusing on the process as much as the outcome, confident that the act of gardening together is as important as the garden we create. Thank you for growing with us, enjoy the harvest. 3
UPCOMING AT MHS Seeing the Invisible For the rest of the month, join us for a SNEAK PEEK of our 2022 exhibit Seeing the Invisible! This augmented reality exhibit will show you a fascinating world of art, nature, and technology all at the tips of your fingers! Charge your phone, download the app at home, bring your headphones, and get ready for Seeing the Invisible!
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119th Honorary Medals Dinner Join us on Thursday, November 4 to recognize and celebrate excellence in horticulture, with keynote speaker Robert A. Bartlett Jr. Register before October 10.
REGISTER NOW Festival of Trees Join in the fun! Be a part of MHS’s 13th Annual Festival Of Trees, our biggest fundraiser of the year, by donating a tree! We accept tree donations until October 18th. If you or your organization wish to sponsor or donate a tree, please complete this form and email it to festivaloftrees@masshort.org.
DONATE A TREE
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Classes and Workshops Fall Guided Garden Tour October 6, 12-1pm
A Piet Oudolf Story (Virtual) October 7, 6:30-7:30pm
Create Dried Flower Arrangements October 16, 10am-12pm October 21, 7-9pm Macro/Close Up Photography October 16, 2-3pm Planting Workshop: Indoor Bulbs for Winter October 27, 12-1:30pm
Drawing and Painting for the Petrified November 3, 9:30am-12:30pm
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FEATURED CLASS: FLOWER HOUSE DETROIT Wednesday, October 27, 7-8:30pm (Virtual)
In October 2015, 37 floral designers and over 100 volunteers from across North America came together to fill an abandoned Detroit house with American-grown fresh flowers and living plants. An estimated 3,400 curious visitors explored the house over the 3-day exhibition, and the installation hosted 3 weddings and dinner for 180 people. The project received international media attention—with an estimated 287,000,000+ media impressions. SIGN UP NOW!
Cora in the Native Plant Garden
More than 10,000 guests came to welcome Ribbit the Exhibit to The Gardens at Elm Bank this season. Frog sculptor Andy Cobb picked up his exhibit at the end of September, but we are delighted to announce that Cora and Freddie stayed! Thank you to our generous supporters who made donations to help us with the purchase of these two whimsical frogs, so that everyone can continue to enjoy them for years to come. With special thanks to CBIZ, Inc., Volante Farms, and the Wellesley Gardeners’ Guild! Freddie in Weezie’s Garden for Children
Annual Fund Please make a contribution to our Annual Fund and help the gardens and our community grow. Thank you!
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Little Free Library
GREEN PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Flash your memberhsip card for a 10% discount with any of our Green Partners.
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We are partnering with the Natick Public Library with a Little Free Library right outside the Education Building’s front door. You will find a variety of free books to take home, including horticultural magazines and pamphlets. The Horticultural Library is open on Thursdays, from 9 am to 1 pm. We are also open by appointment (email: mobrien@masshort.org) and by chance.
“We’re Jammin” By John Lee
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s the Bob Marley anthem goes, “every little thing’s gonna be alright.” If you are (hard to believe!) unfamiliar with that national anthem, have a listen as you look at the outrageous bounty coming out of your late summer garden these days: berries, tree fruits, cucurbits, beans, peppers, eggplant and so much more. In case your garden is on hiatus this year, visit several of your local farm stands and farmer’s markets and bask in the incredible variety of produce for purchase. You may find yourself hard-pressed to put a name to all the plenitude displayed for your delectation. Don’t be browned off by your circumspection: a
on my native soil (wittingly). It is not that it is an acquired taste, it is just not in my usual taste vocabulary or on our otherwise expansive list of go-to vegetables even though it is now common in the markets. What was more eyebrow-raising was something so esoteric that I had never seen it before despite my penchant for Asian seed catalogues.
Python Beans are to beans what pythons are to snakes: long and formidable-looking. But the similarity seems to end there. They cook up nicely if not too long (12-18”) but if left to their own devices will grow to several feet on a very sturdy (chain link?) trellis before petering out some frosty
Left: Bitter Melon, courtesy of Food Republic Below: Python Beans, courtesy of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
lot of what may be on display may not be to your parents’ idea of family fare. Gardens have gone global even if what might be on your table has not kept pace with the rate of cultural assimilation in the broader population. Never mind; don’t be shy. Ask the vendor for a recipe or, at least if they have ever prepared that thing that is so long you are not sure you want to touch it.
To that point, my wife and I found artfully arranged on the bench by the front door, two huge and delightful heirloom tomatoes (yum!), a bitter melon and something else that was heretofore unrecognizable. As a long-practicing local truck farmer, I must say that there are crops that I have grown only because other people like them. Bitter melon is one of them. I am sure I ate it in China/ PRC years ago without knowing it. But I am more than certain that I have never let it past my lips
morning (see Baker Heirloom Seed Co. et al for cultural information and seed). We looked it up. They said the bean when sliced and sauteed would taste like a cross between a bean and a cucumber but if they get too long (+2’) they may have more of a zucchini profile. Ours was way too long and the seeds, well sauteed, tasted more like peanuts.
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So much for unexpected gifts. Back to the garden which has been on hiatus this summer due to a spasm of commonsense in the face of conflicting priorities. We have just finished the blueberry and
Jams in glass jars, courtesy of Pixabay
But now, in September and October, it is the season to be making the most of the harvest: jamming the pantry shelves with your love’s labor, anticipating the addition of a sweet or savory note to a new or well-loved dish in the days ahead and feeling smugly virtuous that you’ve steered clear of the condiment and preserves aisles wherever you have to shop. In addition, and of no small consequence, you will have gifts to give, trade or barter and the security that your taste buds will be happy for another off-season.
blackberry harvest. The red raspberries were a bit sad but the black raspberry crop was strong again this year. The peaches were such that the crown split thanks to Henri and the pears were in line with the raspberries – slim pickings! But the veggies: unstoppable.
Always, every summer, at this juncture, we have gorged ourselves from the garden yet it keeps on giving! The thought of wasting any of it is almost unbearable. Hence, jammin’. Tomato jam, garlic jam, and onion jam to name a few and all the possible permutations thereof. You get the point: there is no end to the amount and variety of jams/ jellies and preservers to be put by for the lean times when otherwise only seed catalogues are there to sustain and inspire us on the cold, dark February nights when the Red Sox missed the playoffs and the Patriots are on their fourth QB in three years—the dismal days.
Recipes: Tomato Jam from Kitchn Garlic Jam from Emeril Lagasse Onion Jam from allrecipes
John Lee is the recently retired manager of MHS Gold Medal winner Allandale Farm, Cognoscenti contributor and president of MA Society for Promoting Agriculture. He sits on the Governor’s Food Policy Council and UMASS Board of Public Overseers and is a long-time op-ed contributor to Edible Boston and other publications.
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Enjoy Your Hydrangea Blossoms All Year Long By Jim Connolly
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orking in a garden center every day I am surrounded by plants, and what do I do on my day off? Go visit gardens and landscapes. Some people may call it a disease; I call it an opportunity to learn more and enrich myself on how plants grow and which ones work well with each other. This past summer I visited a number of public gardens, took a bunch of photos and really spent time seeing mature plantings in combination with newer installations of gardens. Every garden I explored there was something different to see, whether it was a blossom, seed pod, exfoliating bark, interesting fruit, textures and colors galore. I took down notes of plants I had to add to my own landscape and now I am on the hunt for them.
and some say I am obsessed with them. I think the reason I love hydrangeas so much is they are one of the only plants that give color all summer long. With Staycations being the best new thing and while you are out in your yard enjoying throwing a ball to your dog or playing corn hole with some friends, nothing is better than to be surrounded with all that color—it just brightens the mood. But then suddenly fall comes quick and the flowers start to fade and turn brown and they are gone. Wait, one minute you’re enjoying the summer colors the next they’re fading away. However there is a way you could enjoy the summer blooms all year long.
Did you know hydrangea blooms are one of the easiest flowers to preserve? There are other types of plants that easily can be dried and then you can use them in homemade arrangements or wreaths for decorating any room or give as a gift. If you are stuck at home and you are looking for an activity with the kids, you can take the flowers and press them then put them in frames to Jim with Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’ enjoy forever.
All these gardens had something in common— hydrangeas were in bloom everywhere. Who doesn’t take pleasure in the beloved hydrangea? It’s everywhere and there seem to be new ones coming out each year. Here’s a tease: Google Little Lime Punch to see what’s coming in 2022. Hydrangea flowers come in shades of blues, pinks, whites and red. Some varieties grow small and others grow taller. It is the most versatile plant in the landscape that we can all appreciate.
The summer of 2021 certainly put pressure on the plants in our landscapes this season. Record rainfall in July combined with four heat waves—yet most of the plant material still shined, especially the beloved Hydrangeas. Of course hydrangea loves water and because of that the flowers kept on coming and the size of the blooms have been much larger than in previous years. I have close to 20 different types of hydrangea growing in my yard
Besides Hydrangea, there are quite a bit of perennials and annuals that dry nicely as well. I have tried other shrubs and they don’t show the colors as well as hydrangea after they dry out.
Some more flowers that dry well: Amarantha, Artemisa, Astilbe, Celosia, Coneflower, Lavender, Marigold, Pansy, Globe Thistle, Rose, Salvia, Strawflower and Yarrow.
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Don’t forget the pods. Cutting and drying the seed pods and fruits of daylily, roses (hips), clethra, hypericum (lots of new varieties), plus ornamental peppers and ornamental grasses also add interesting texture and colors to winter arrangements.
The process is pretty simple. To retain the best coloration I would prune the branches when the blossom is mid-way through the bloom time. The color will be fading but they will still hold most of their shape, and they will start to take on a papery feel. The best time to cut the flowers is in the morning just before the blooms completely open; make sure not to do this on a rainy day. When you prune off the flowers from the plant, take 5 to 6 inches of stem then remove all foliage from stems.
Create a bundle of 8 to 10 stems and tie them off with a rubber band, jute twine or zip tie. Airdrying is the best way to preserve the stems. Take the bundle and hang it upside down from a hook or coat hanger in a dark, dry, well-ventilated area out of sunlight. I find that the shed or garage works great just make sure that there is no humidity and you have good air circulation. Dry heat is the best. In 2 to 3 weeks the flowers should be dry. Another trick to preserve them is to spray the flowers with hair spray once they have dried.
Drying Hydrangea paniculata ‘Phantom’
Most dried flowers last 2 to 3 years. This is a great way to take some of the colors of summer and fall and carry them into the winter. With the holidays approaching you can utilize all these dried pods and flowers to excite any room in your house or create a teacher’s gift that is handmade. And don’t forget when you start to plan out and design your gardens next year to include some of the above mentioned plants. You will be glad you did if you are looking to try drying plants for the first time.
Jim Connolly is a Massachusetts Certified Horticulturalist and Massachusetts Certified Landscape Professional who is currently the Garden Center Manager at Weston Nurseries in Chelmsford.
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Our New Harvest Time By Matt Mattus
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umans have been celebrating ‘harvest’ time and its many interpretations across nearly every culture and for centuries. So while it is hardly a new concept, it’s safe to say that at its core, its meaning has become somewhat diluted. As gardeners though, we have the advantage of still working with the soil, and while we experience some years when it seems as if the harvest may never end, I think it’s safe to say that it’s beginning to feel that way at retail stores as well. Especially when late August comes around.
When asked, most people today associate ‘harvest time’ as more of a holiday, even an entire season, than anything specific. In our modern, globally integrated world, it’s nearly impossible to create truly ‘authentic’ experiences especially when their roots reach deep into often regional if not local traditions. At least for those of us living in New England, we have the upper hand when it comes to how most people celebrate ‘harvest time.’ Look at October on any calendar and the imagery and icons tend to revolve around pumpkins, corn stalks and autumn leaves.
So while we may snicker at how big business might exploit those icons of autumn in New England along with the free-to-use visual licensing kit of witches, jack-o-lanterns and even heirloom gourds and squashes, at least we know that in our yards and gardens, these are indeed sort-of authentic, and if the rest of the world wants to embrace the magic of autumn, we support it (as we rake the fallen leaves for our compost piles). At its deepest roots though, ‘harvest time’ was more about survival and hard labor. Maybe even a celebration thanking whomever for at least cooperating in providing enough rain, sunshine and health so that the winter storage of food was adequate. We can’t get too precious though nor should we romance too much about the bounty of autumn as we still live in a world where food insecurity remains a very real thing and through the global lens, may even be gloomier considering one’s position regarding climate change. Yet for most of us here, our lives have changed dramatically from the time of our great
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grandparents. Local supermarkets rarely run out of Butternut Squash, and heck—we can even buy fresh strawberries any week of the year. When one can have nearly everything on every day we run the risk of becoming complacent and maybe even bored with produce selections. As gardeners we may sometimes be the only shopper who notice that the onion selection has changed from Vidalia to hard yellow storage onions, but in a way, that is our super power.
We know the difference. We can smile when we see an influencer on TikTok positing her recipe about how she made ‘pumpkin pie’ from her recycled orange #jackolantern which happens to be the wrong species, Cucurbita pepo, as most orange pumpkins are of the same thin-skinned species as
much too much religion (unless you’re a Pagan) to mess around with. Just one good family meal at Thanksgiving, and that’s it.
So while it’s hard to escape all of the commercial hype from magazines featuring rich ‘Harvest Comfort Foods,’ the new ‘Harvest Love’ films on the Hallmark Channel (not judging!), we are probably just hard-wired to enjoy today only the more comfortable parts about autumn and the related ‘harvest period’ no matter how we personally define it.
Harvest time today just may be the most personal of holiday seasons. If you’re a foodie, it might mean that you just foraged a basket of wild mushrooms or roadside grapes—maybe a big Hen of the Woods. To many of us, it’s just the last tomatoes from the garden—even the green ones slowly ripening on the Left to right: Fresh Squash, Dried Beans, and drying Green Corn
Zucchini. We know that it’s Waltham Butternut that makes an ideal pie, and even better if we could grow ‘Dickinson’s,’ and heirloom, dull, beige variety originally developed and owned by Libby’s in the 1930s and that continues to be the number one choice for all commercial canners of pumpkin pie filling. It’s also why we never see a photo of an orange pumpkin on a can label. It must be an illustration thanks to USDA packaging regulations.
As gardeners we can jump into the fall festivities with even more joy as we kind of invented it. Sure there’s the nostalgia, ritual, and memories—not to mention Oktoberfests, comfort foods and craft beer to round it (and us) all out. To make it even better, there are few commitments to tend to aside from bringing in the houseplants and giving the leaves a second chop with the mower. There are no greeting cards to get nor gifts to buy, and there isn’t
windowsill. Regardless of your level of involvement, ‘harvest time’ for us gardeners is still a very real and often enjoyable aspect of keeping a garden. In a way, it sometimes seems that it never ends as some of us start planning it as soon as New Year’s Day, making lists of the heirloom tomato seeds we want to order or picking out the nicest cosmos, dahlias or sweet peas to order early before they sell out. We gardeners not only know of the many tangible gifts that the earth can bring us at harvest time, but we embrace it annually, creating new rituals and customs with our families and ourselves. We may bring food to our neighbors, preserve or pickle it for the winter, or we might bring excess to the local food bank. As gardeners it is natural for us
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to remain more grounded. We don’t have those fantasies featured on cable channels of ‘living off the grid’ in Alaska but we know that everything here does have a season, and we enjoy every day given that perspective.
Even if we no longer keep a garden, we know and appreciate so much more than non-gardeners. We delight at unusual tomato varieties when they show up at a farmers market and rarely squabble about the price. We appreciate new selections like reintroduced Honey Nut squash as something valuable both culturally and to our kitchens. And when we really think about it, we harvest so much more from our gardens than just produce. There are the health benefits of just working outdoors, the physical activity of turning over the soil, raking leaves, even from hauling that giant
Blue Hubbard home from Whole Foods. In the end, I don’t mind all of the modern visual cues that now come with the mass market definition of ‘harvest.’ I can get past all of the Halloween inflatables, the fake cobwebs, even those gigantic bushel basket mums on front lawns. They may not be my definition of ‘harvest,’ but hey, they might be yours. The big idea is still the same. Autumn has always been a time of regeneration— it might be after a record breaking hot summer, or closing in on the end of a global pandemic, regardless, ‘harvest time’ is exactly all of that. Appreciating what we get from our planet, even if it came from the Market Basket—someone had to grow it. We may not have to depend on our local wheat crop to survive the winter, but that still doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t appreciate it any less. Top to Bottom, Left to right: Japanese Fall Turnips, Fancy Mum, Daikon Radishes, Blue Hubbard, Cyclamen in Greenhouse
Matt Mattus is a visual designer, artist, and horticulturist living in Worcester, MA. Trustee of Tower Hill Botanic Garden and Secretary of Worcester County Horticultural Society, Matt is recognized for his garden writing and photography in his popular gardening blog Growing with Plants, which has garnered recognition in leading lifestyle magazines.
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What Are You Harv
We asked our Facebook followers to share
Kate’s bountiful harvest this season
Austin’s homemade pickles using homegrown cukes and garlic
Kate’s bountiful harvest this season
Albert’s sunflowers that he grows year after year
Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia) from Catherine
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esting This Season? what they’re harvesting this season!
Kate’s bountiful harvest this season
A fresh-cut zinnia arrangement from Ellen’s garden
Kate’s bountiful harvest this season Kate’s bountiful harvest this season
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Barbara’s blooming pollinator garden
Share more harvest photos with us on Facebook and Instagram!
From the Stacks
By Maureen T. O’Brien, Library Manager
Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) Featured Collection ― Vertical and theses of students of Thank you, Alex, for contributing Files: Manuscripts and Reports Radcliffe Seminars Program to our efforts to make the The Library maintains folders in and other institutions, reports, Library’s holdings known to oak filing cabinets brought to Elm prepublication manuscripts and interested scholars, students Bank from Hort Hall in 2001. In research on subjects pertaining and public around the world. addition to frequently referenced to horticulture and related We wish you well on your archival materials, the cabinets matters. While our collection is future endeavors and look contain files of ephemera on not large or extensive, it contains forward to hearing of your various subjects that may be some interesting materials that accomplishments. useful to researchers. We have are useful to researchers. For a group of dedicated volunteers example, it contains a memoir In the Windows – Books on who are diligently working to written by Elizabeth Cheney Spring Blooming Bulbs and organize, label and inventory for her family on herself and Books for Sale these files so they can be found Spring bulbs give us pleasure on the Library’s webpage. twice. First in the fall, as we Some of the subjects in the files peruse our garden catalogs and include biographies, public place our bulb orders; and then gardens and parks, nurseries and the following spring as they manuscripts. emerge and display their glorious flowers for a brief moment. That This summer, Alex Martin, moment often sets the stage for a senior at Smith College, anticipating repeat performances volunteered at the Library. in years that follow and making a Alex is interested in pursuing Alex Martin displays a glass plate from the new list for orders in the fall. an advanced degree in Library Edwin Hale Lincoln Collection that she rehoused in an archival folder and box. Science after graduation and Our Collections are Growing… This plate will be digitized and available we wanted to give her a wellThank you to the Wellesley on our webpage for viewing. It will then rounded experience in both the be stored in a climate controlled and safe Garden Clubs, Liz Callahan, mundane and more advanced Evelyn Holmstroem and Anne environment. jobs at a small specialized library Simunovic for their donations and archives. She covered and husband, Benjamin Cheney, the in kind. Thank you to the Fain reshelved books, rehoused and former owners of Elm Bank. Foundation for its generous inventoried the Lincoln Glass Jennifer Wilton provides a contribution to the Library’s Plate Collection, worked on our historical, political and social preservation efforts. online catalog and completed a analysis on why a planned finding aid for the manuscripts Olmsted Park in Brighton as a Thank you to all who donated and reports in our files. This aid gem on the Emerald Necklace books for the ongoing book sale will provide leads and shortcuts was never built. Local historian in the Library. We encourage you to sources, etc., on the pertinent Annette Lamond writes on to visit the Library to browse our subject matter. specialized subjects relating to treasures and add to your own the Cambridge Garden Club. The horticulture library. A previously The documents in the manuscript scope of topics is wide ranging. used and loved horticultural files are generally not published. You can find the complete list book is an environmentally They include annotated here. friendly and pennywise gift for bibliographies, student papers your gift giving needs. 16
Immersion: Living and Learning in an Olmsted Garden by Nola Anderson with photography by Clint Clemens Reviewed by Patrice Todisco Life’ is the title of the book’s “Passion, Serendipity introduction. Yet despite her and Luck” are the words author Nola Anderson uses to describe her twenty-fiveyear adventure restoring the historic Olmsted Brothers designed estate garden at The Chimneys in Manchester bythe-Sea, Massachusetts. Add to these a generous and inspiring mentor (landscape designer Patrick Chassé), a willingness to make and correct mistakes, unlimited resources and Anderson’s desire to pursue a gardening education and the story told in Immersion: Living and Learning in an Olmsted Garden unfolds.
complete lack of experience, Anderson embraces the restoration of the estate’s gardens with enthusiasm, tempered by realism. She knows what she doesn’t know and is willing to learn. When things
teacher, inspiring mentor, and all around fun and lovely man.” Their relationship changes everything and opens a new chapter in the life of both Anderson and the gardens. Together they begin to reimagine the original Olmsted plan in a modern and personal manner, while respecting its framework. One of their first projects, the restoration of the Water Terrace sets the tone for future endeavors by maintaining the essence of the Olmsted plan while redesigning the plantings to be more manageable, structural, seasonal and cohesive through the use of color sequencing.
Anderson and her husband first view The Chimneys While their partnership while cruising the coastline breathes new life into between Beverly and the gardens, Anderson Gloucester. Enchanted, continues her personal they purchase the twentyjourney to learn all that eight-acre property in 1991 she can about gardening. from sculptor Katharine She visits some of the Lane Weems, daughter of Immersion: Living and Learning in an Olmsted Garden world’s most famous by Nola Anderson with photography by Clint Clemens Gardiner and Emma Lane. Damiani, pp. 296, $75.00 gardens in the United States The Lanes, who Anderson and England, devours celebrates in a chapter at go awry following the initial books (a favorite is the classic the conclusion of Immersion, Education of a Gardener by purchased the land on which The rebuilding and replanting of the historic garden’s core features, Russell Page), studies botanical Chimneys is built in 1902 and she reassesses and changes nomenclature, attends lectures engaged the Olmsted Brothers course, parting ways with the and befriends nursery owners, (sons of Frederick Law Olmsted) landscape architects responsible landscape architects and to site the house and design for their restoration. gardeners. Neither a journal nor the grounds of estate, including a history, Immersion, chronicles extensive gardens designed Thus, begins a ten-year Anderson’s experiences, details by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., collaboration with landscape her research and provides advice. between 1903 and 1914. designer Patrick Chassé whom She is a generous guide. Anderson deems “a generous By 2004 Anderson and Chassé ‘I Had Never Gardened in My 17
had designed and either rebuilt or designed and built many of The Chimneys’ key landscape
refuge for what became an extension of their home—a place to relax, renew and reconnect for family, friends and entertaining. In the spirit of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.’s, original design intent to create a walking garden, Anderson devotes much of Immersion to a walk around the garden. A mix of history and narrative, the description of each garden space is augmented by photographic
features including the Water Terrace, West Terrace, Tea Terrace and Overlook Terrace. Shrub borders and additional plantings had been designed and installed. A rose garden had been designed, rebuilt and replanted and an herb garden added. Driveways, a new parking area and service courtyard had been designed and built as had a treehouse and a greenhouse inspired by the original Olmsted garden shed. It was time for Anderson to make the garden her own. “High risk, high reward” became her mantra as Anderson launched a new era of experimentation grounded by her gardening education and daily work in the garden. A key objective, to bring visitors into the garden, complemented the desire to create a year-round
Full color photographs adorn Immersion’s pages, including several fold outs and aerial shots. They are spectacular.
While we do not all have the resources to restore and maintain a garden on the scale of The Chimneys, there are lessons to be learned from Immersion that translate to the home garden, albeit on a smaller scale. Chapter Seven is devoted to ‘Behind the Scenes’ and describes how Anderson and her team of gardeners “get it done.” Yes, there is always too much to do. However, like Anderson we can learn to maintain our standards and accept that our gardens are always perfect, despite their flaws. They will never be finished and when it is time to let Photos by Clint Clemens
essays of individual plants. For Anderson, the profusion of flowers in the garden is one of its biggest allure and here they are highlighted for their distinct attributes.
Immersion grew from a collaboration with its photographer, Clint Clemens, a family friend with a background in commercial photography. Like Anderson, he too became besotted with the garden and his original photos, taken on a social visit in 2018 captured the garden’s essence so completely, they inspired Anderson to write her story.
go, as Anderson does at the conclusion of the book, they are entrusted to the care of others.
Patrice Todisco writes about parks and gardens at the award-winning blog, Landscape Notes.
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