Blog Memories: Visiting Landcraft Environments Ltd.

August 6, 2022

Blog Memories: Visiting Landcraft Environments Ltd.

Enjoy this encore blog posting which originally ran on July 1st, 2020. It features my visit to a wonderful plant nursery in Long Island, New York.

I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting plants and trees. I love visiting different nurseries to see what specimens they have for my ever-evolving Bedford, New York farm.

Last weekend during a brief trip to Long Island, I stopped by one of my favorite sources, Landcraft Environments, Ltd., a pre-eminent wholesaler of tropical, tender perennials, shrubs, bulbs, and unusual annuals located in Mattituck on the North Fork. Landcraft Environments is owned by garden designers Dennis Schrader and Bill Smith who have been in business together since 1982, initially specializing in landscape design. Realizing a tremendous need for unusual plant material, Dennis and Bill purchased the property in 1992 when it was just an overgrown potato and corn farm. Now, it features their beautifully restored 1840s farmhouse, a lovely four-acre public garden, and thousands of local and exotic plants from around the world - all encircled by 10 acres of rehabilitated meadows with mowed paths for viewing native plants and wildlife.

Enjoy the photos Kevin Sharkey and I took. Dennis and Bill also formed the Landcraft Garden Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to inspiring, educating, and promoting gardening, horticulture, and the preservation of its natural environment. Follow Dennis and Bill on their Instagram pages @Landcraft_environments_ltd and @Landcraft_garden_foundation. For information on where to get their plants, click on this link for a listing of garden centers.

: It was great to see Dennis. Here we are in one of the gardens – keeping a safe distance apart. We are surrounded by Jasmine ‘Fiona Sunrise,’ Rosa ‘Veilchenblau’ “Blue Rambler Rose,” and Japanese Iris.

: Dennis and Bill also live on the property. Here is a view of the house from the back lawn.

: Each year, Dennis and Bill change out many of the pots and displays. This year they planted Bromeliads, succulents, black petunias, and Anigozanthos “Kangaroo paws” which are tufted evergreen rhizomatous perennials with vibrant flower colors atop fans of narrowly strap-shaped leaves.

: This is the step down to the lawn area made from an old millstone. I love these antique millstones and also have a few at my farm.

: Dennis and Bill created this garden on the east side of the pool. It features a dental pattern bluestone planted with sedum and thyme. There are also clipped little leaf linden trees with boxwood, yew, and Hakonechloa, the Japanese forest grass.

: In this area, one can see the native Long Island Opuntia blooming yellow.

: In these containers – slow-growing Kalanchoe orgyalis ‘Copper Spoons’ with Pilea.

: On this long table for 12 on the west dining terrace, Dennis and Bill arranged a variety of topiaries – rosemary, myrtle, and variegated myrtle.

: This is the meadow garden. It is filled with Verbascum chaixii Alba, Salvia sclarea var. Turkestanica, Eryngium, Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow, Mexican feather grass, and some lavender.

: This is Eryngium ‘Mrs. Wilmott’s Ghost’ with its luminous spiny collar of silvery-white bracts surrounding an egg-shaped flower head and tightly packed with flowers, initially pale green, then changing to steel-blue.

: This is the green roof of the “ruin” planted with sedum. The stump on top looks like it goes through the roof to form the chandelier below.

: And here is a very hardy kiwi in the “ruin” grown from a cutting I gave to Dennis and Bill from Skylands, my home in Maine.

: Kevin and I admired the stone details in the “ruin” floor.

: This is Berkheya purpurea ‘Zulu Warrior’ is a deep-rooted and drought-tolerant South African native perennial. When in bloom, these have magnificent three-inch single, dahlia-like, smoky-lavender flowers with dark purple centers.

: Here is a group of hardy and beautiful calla lily blooms, Zantedeschia aethiopica ‘White Giant.’ This three-foot-tall plant has large white flowers up to 10-inches long that surround a creamy yellow fingerlike center. These bloom from late spring to mid-summer.

: In this area, Acanthus hungaricus, Nesella, Yucca rostrata, and Alchemilla mollis.

: I love this view down the large leaf linden allee with a golden leaf elm at the end, a medium-sized deciduous tree that has a vase shape when young, but develops a more rounded canopy as it matures.

: Dennis also gave us a quick tour through the greenhouse. Here I am with the Spanish moss used to keep the humidity up for the vanda roots.

: This table displays just part of the succulent collection. I love succulents and also have an expansive collection in my greenhouse – one can never have too many interesting succulents.

: Dennis and Bill have hundreds of beautiful topiaries. In this section are rows and rows of myrtle topiaries.

: These are Santolina standards and one double myrtle in front. Santolina topiaries are aromatic, evergreen, and have silver-gray foliage.

: And here is a section of golden Italian cypress trained as standards.

: Agave ‘Ivory Curls’ are hard to find succulents. They show off long, wavy leaves that are a deep green with half-inch wide ivory margins.

: Carex ‘Toffee Twist’ is an evergreen to semi-evergreen sedge with interesting arching bronzy leaves and fine foliage.

: There are also columns of beautiful Helichrysum petiolare. I often use Helichrysum in my large container plants. Commonly called licorice plant, Helichrysum is grown for its silvery, densely-felted foliage and trailing habit. It is a shrubby, woody-based tender perennial that typically grows one-to-two-feet tall but spreads to as much as three to four feet wide on upright to trailing stems densely clad with soft, woolly, oval-rounded, gray-green leaves.