A Day Trip to Landcraft Environments, Ltd.
As a serious and passionate gardener, whenever I have the time I always enjoy visiting nurseries in search of new and rare plants to add to my collection.
Last week, my friends Kevin Sharkey and Terre Blair accompanied me on a brief trip to Long Island to visit one of my favorite garden sources, Landcraft Environments, Ltd., a pre-eminent wholesaler of tropical, tender perennials, shrubs, bulbs, and uncommon 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 and I took - it was a beautiful summer day. 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. And for information on where to get their plants, click on this highlighted link for a listing of garden centers.
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- I always enjoy visiting Dennis and Bill at Landcraft Environments. There is always something amazing to see. Here I am standing in front of a Colocasia Thailand Giant or Colocasia gigantea. It grows up to 10-feet tall with leaves up to five-feet long and four-feet wide.
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- In this patch of beautiful plantings is Coleus ‘Bryce Canyon’, Coleus ‘Brooklyn Horror’, Colocasia ‘Diamond Head’, some Australian tree ferns, and Medinilla magnifica.
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- This double border is planted with Canna Pretoria, Ricinus “Castor Bean”, Rudbeckia, Lantana, and Cuphea, a low-maintenance annual that blooms from late spring until frost.
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- Aside from their stunning gardens, 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.
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- This year, they arranged a lovely summer display of succulents on the back deck.
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- On this long table for 12 on the west dining terrace, Dennis and Bill also arranged a variety of assorted rare succulents and cacti.
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- Among them, this handsome Rhipsalis pilocarpa, the hairy-fruited wickerware cactus – a species of flowering plant in the cactus family that is endemic to Brazil. I have several Rhipsalis specimens at my Bedford, New York farm.
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- More potted succulents are displayed on this coffee table. I love succulents and continue to grow my greenhouse collection.
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- Dennis designed the Moongate Bench under this pergola. It’s part of his signature furniture line that he sells at Landcraft Environments. (Photo courtesy of Landcraft Environments Ltd.)
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- Dennis also designs stone furniture – this one is made of native Long Island boulders embedded with ammonite.
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- This is the entrance to the “Ruin” – one can see Lilium formosa and Clematis planted here.
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- This is a view looking from the sedum covered green roof to one of the fire alters in the “Ruin.” On the left is a very hardy kiwi vine grown from a cutting I gave to Dennis and Bill from Skylands, my home in Maine.
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- This art sculpture is by artist Sam Moyer called Bluestone Dependent 4, 2021. It is made from Belgian bluestone and concrete with stone aggregate.
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- On the property, Dennis and Bill also created a Labyrinth planted with little bluestem. Schizachyrium scoparium, commonly known as little bluestem or beard grass, is a species of North American prairie grass native to most of the contiguous United States as well as a small area north of the Canada–US border and northern Mexico. It grows from one to three feet tall and has a beautiful color that contrasts well with the surrounding field foliage.
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- Here is a view of one of the paths in the Labyrinth. Unlike a maze, which has many turns and dead ends meant to confuse, a labyrinth has only one path leading to the center. I am building a maze at my farm.
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- And here we are in the center of the labyrinth – me, Terre Blair, Bill, and Dennis.
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- In the cutting garden – beautiful, brightly colored sunflowers, Helianthus annuus – a large annual of the genus Helianthus, popularly grown as a crop for its edible oil and seeds.
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- Many of you may recognize this plant – a staghorn fern. This specimen is more than 25 years old!
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- This big leaf is part of a Begonia ‘Lotus Land’ – a large thick stem rhizomatous begonia that grows up to three to four feet tall and has thick horizontal stems with large shield shaped, lobed dark green leaves.
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- In the greenhouse, trays of Eucomis “Pineapple Lily” cuttings.
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- This is Euphorbia Aeruginosa – a succulent member of the spurge family native to South Africa. It grows as a small shrub with multiple spiny blue-green photosynthetic stems. Its name, which means ‘verdigris’, refers to the coppery-green branches which have contrasting reddish-brown spines.
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- Growing beautifully at Landcraft Environments are the Vanda orchids. Vanda orchids produce some of the more stunning blooms in the genera. Vanda orchids are heat-loving and native to tropical Asia.
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- This is called Lophophora – a genus of spineless, button-like cacti. The species are extremely slow growing, sometimes taking up to 30-years to reach flowering age, which is the size of about a golf ball, excluding the root.
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- This is a flower arrangement at the entrance pavilion of the Landcraft Garden Foundation dedicated to inspiring, educating and promoting gardening, horticulture and the preservation of the natural environment. The Foundation Garden is open Fridays and Saturdays now through October, so please visit if you’re in the area.
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- While there, we all enjoyed a delicious lunch prepared by Chef Devin of Landcraft Environments, Ltd. – a summer salad with pan seared scallops, seasonal fruits, and greens.
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- On our table – a charming arrangement of cut sunflower blooms.
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- And here’s another nice photo Kevin took of me, Bill, and Dennis just before we left. What a fun and very informative trip to Landcraft Environments. Please follow Dennis and Bill on Instagram and learn more about their great Foundation.
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