A NOT-SOSECRET GARDEN Story and Photos by Callie Broaddus
P
erfect imperfection: a single delicate long-headed poppy emerges from the verdant cracks between the flagstones of a carefully cultivated landscape — a botanist’s paradise that evokes scenes from The Secret Garden, with its ivy-blanketed doorways and cozy vignettes of pleached and pruned fruit trees. But this garden, though private, is far from secret.
It was the home sanctuary of the late Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, who died in 2014 at the age of 103. Though Mrs. Mellon led a very private life, she established the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in the hopes that her library, gardens, residence and estate would be a resource for those who shared her love of horticulture, helping scientists, artists and scholars to study the history and plan for the future of plants and gardening. The man at the helm of the young founda-
tion is modest, affable and undeniably qualified. Sir Peter Crane joined the Oak Spring Garden Foundation as its inaugural president in 2016, departing from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies after seven years serving as dean of the prestigious academic program. In addition to many other accolades, Crane was previously the Director of the famed Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the Director at the Field Museum of Natural HisGarden | Page 27
JUNE 2017
•
middleburglife.com
25