A July Garden Tour at Skylands
As many of you know, every now and then I enjoy opening my gardens for private walking tours at both my Bedford, New York farm and at my beloved home in Seal Harbor, Maine.
Last week, I hosted a summer walk at Skylands for the Decorative Arts Trust - a non-profit organization that focuses on promoting and fostering the appreciation and study of the decorative arts. Unfortunately I was not able to join the tour, but my gardeners, Mike Harding and Wendy Norling, guided the group of 30 through the wooded paths, sunny terraces, and gardens.
Cheryl DuLong and Wendy keep me updated by taking photographs, enjoy.
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- Before the tour began, Wendy took this photo looking down from Terrace 1 to the large “cracked ice” terrace below. This time of year, everything is so lush and green.
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- This group included members from across the country. They were all on a multiple day tour of several homes and gardens in the area known for its amazing Gilded Age architecture. Here they are gathering in front of Skylands.
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- This guest was in awe at the beautiful tall evergreens seen from my driveway.
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- This center garden in the driveway is planted with hay-scented ferns, which turn yellow in fall, purple smoke bushes, and spruce trees, Picea orientalis ‘Skylands’. When I found these trees, I got many to plant here in Maine.
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- The tour brings guests up the steps from the guest house to my main house. The rocks on the outside of the stone steps toward the top are called “Rockefeller’s Teeth” – large blocks that serve as guardrails. These stone steps are cut roughly and spaced irregularly to create a rustic appearance.
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- Ferns are members of a group of vascular plants that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The exterior of Skylands abounds with naturalized ferns of many types.
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- This rhododendron near one of my natural pools begins to bloom in July with gorgeous pale pink and white flowers.
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- Look at its blooms. Rhododendrons are prized for these big, showy flower clusters and the glossy green foliage.
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- This part of the woodland is filled with beautiful moss. Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants that typically form dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations.
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- And here’s a view that never gets tiring. Taken through the woods, this view looks out to Seal Harbor and the Cranberry Isles beyond.
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- Here’s my gardener Mike Harding speaking with one of the members about the plants that thrive at Skylands.
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- The wild blueberries here in Maine are some of the sweetest – and they’re ready for picking.
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- Here’s a view of the wall ledge with “Rockefeller’s Teeth” at the top.
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- This look shows Seal Harbor with Sutton Island in the distance.
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- On my large terrace, all the gorgeous potted plants are doing so wonderfully since we planted them in May.
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- Here is the sphinx “guarding” the terrace for the season. She is one of two glazed terra-cotta sphinxes designed by Emile Muller. Émile first used plain ceramic products on buildings and industries. Then, in 1884 he developed the glazed terra-cotta, which he continued to use for many architectural decorations and art reproductions. These ladies are stored indoors and taken out as soon as the warmer weather arrives.
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- Behind her, just some of the many lilies blooming in the terrace garden. Lilium is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants that grow from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. The beautiful blooms can be enjoyed as cut flowers in an arrangement or growing in the garden – some at two feet, and others as tall as eight feet. I have been growing them for years – Asiatic, Martagon, Candidum, American, Longiflorum, Trumpet and Aurelian, Oriental, and various interdivisional hybrids.
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- These succulents are planted in a long stone trough I bought several years ago from Trade Secrets. Notice the pink gravel used to top the soil surrounding these plants – it is the same pink gravel that covers the carriage roads at Skylands.
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- This view is from my guest house looking through the trees onto the harbor. If one looks closely, my boat, Skylands II is out there secured to its summer moorings.
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- And here’s a group photo taken on my terrace. This day was warm, but so perfect for a tour at Skylands. I am glad everyone enjoyed their visit.
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