My blog team is taking a little break, so for the next few days we'll be posting some of our favorite summertime blogs from years past. This one was originally posted on August 29th, 2018 - a fun day antiquing in New Hampshire. Enjoy the look back. And if you're in the area, this year's New Hampshire Antiques Show is on August 11-13, 2022.
I love antiques of all kinds and have been collecting for many years, so whenever my schedule allows, I always try to attend a show.
Not long ago while still vacationing in Maine, Kevin Sharkey and I took a day trip to New Hampshire to visit a couple gardens and to attend the 61st annual New Hampshire Antiques Show. The three-day event is hosted by the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association. This year, 67-exhibitors gathered at the Manchester Downtown Hotel to showcase some of their finest early American pieces - folk art, porcelain, country and formal furniture, paintings and prints, glassware, metalware, pottery and much more. It was a fun morning, followed by a fun lunch and a visit to the country's longest wooden covered bridge.
Enjoy these photos.
I always stop in the booth of Judy Milne. I’ve admired her pieces for many years. Judy owns Milne Inc., which offers design and decorating services and a showroom of vintage, industrial, antique and custom furniture in Kingston, New York. This wall is filled with fun antique and vintage signs.
Judy Milne also featured this rare marlin weathervane from the 1920s.
And these interesting antique pottery jugs and plates. Early American utilitarian earthenware and stoneware vessels date back to the Colonial period.
This deer buck was presented by John Chaski Antiques in Camden, Delaware. John Chaski’s love for antiques began at an early age, while attending auctions with his father. Now, he exhibits his collections at shows around the country, operates an open shop, and serves as broker for auction sales. https://www.johnchaski.com/
Here’s a brass eagle wall piece from Ian McKelvey Antiques in South Windham, Connecticut, a shop specializing in antiquities, art, and furniture.
And here’s another marlin table top figure.
Here’s a farm sign warning visitors of livestock in the area.
Recognize these? I also have a set. They’re German glass tulips from the early 1920s. The set includes red, pink, purple and yellow tulips, all with green stems ranging from eight to 12-inches tall. They’re quite rare.
Also at the New Hampshire Antiques Show – handmade antique quilts. People in nearly every part of the world had used padded fabrics for clothing, bedding, and even armor. In fact, the word quilt comes from the Latin word ‘culcita’, meaning stuffed mattress or cushion. With the arrival of the English and Dutch settlers in North America, quilting took on a new life and flourished.
Here is one of a set of 12 English antique creamware plates by Wedgewood from 1872 – a rare pattern with red feathered edges.
Another well-loved pottery maker was Roseville. The Roseville Pottery Company was an American manufacturer in the 19th and 20th centuries – one of the three major art potteries in Ohio at the time. Though the company originally made simple household pieces, the Arts and Crafts–inspired designs rose in popularity and are now sought after by collectors. This is a vintage Roseville creamware pitcher with a green band stripe.
Here is another early Roseville piece – it is about 18-inches in diameter at its widest point and approximately six and a half inches tall. The pitcher is cream color with a one and a quarter-inch orange stripe all the way around.
And who can resist a handsome cast iron dog figure – this one a hunting dog presented by Heller Washam Antiques in Portland, Maine.
After our morning at the New Hampshire Antiques show, we stopped for lunch at the popular Red Arrow Diner in Manchester. Its pledge: “to create, cook and serve, with consistency and a smile, the most palate pleasing diner eats known to mankind.”
The Red Arrow first opened in 1922 – it has kept a lot of its vintage charm ever since.
The popular eatery offers breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert 24-hours a day, seven-days a week, 365-days a year.
The diner displays “Dinah Doodles” along the wall – showcasing various patron drawings.
Here was Kevin’s lunch – a DinahMoe Burger with two ground beef burgers, lettuce, tomato, bacon, and cheese on a roll with fries.
I had a salad and a BLT.
This is one of the original vintage “Dinah mugs” at the Red Arrow Diner.
And here’s a look into the dessert case – pie pieces were going very fast.
On our way back to Skylands, we crossed this beautiful bridge – the Cornish–Windsor Covered Bridge. It spans the Connecticut River between Cornish, New Hampshire and Windsor, Vermont.
This is the longest wooden covered bridge in the United States and the longest two-span covered bridge in the world. There were three bridges previously built on this site—one in 1796, another in 1824 and then another in 1828. The current bridge was originally built in 1866, and rebuilt in 1988. It is approximately 449-feet long and 24-feet wide. I love the sign above – “Walk Your Horses or Pay a Two Dollar Fine.”
The Connecticut River is the longest river in New England, flowing roughly southward for 406-miles through four states. It runs from the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, all the way to the Long Island Sound. It was a beautiful drive home. If you’re ever in this area, I encourage you to take a drive along this gorgeous river.
My long and winding pergola is full of striking orange-colored tiger lily blooms.
This pergola, located on one side of a carriage road near my Tenant House, goes through several transformations during the year. In late spring, a palette of bold purple and white alliums covers the area, followed by the delicate shades of lavender and blue from the flowering clematis vines that wrap around each of the granite posts. Now, hundreds of brightly spotted tiger lilies line the garden bed for all to see - and they are thriving.
Enjoy these photos.
Tiger lilies, Lilium lancifolium, bloom in mid to late summer, are easy to grow and come back year after year.
Native to China and Japan, these robust flowers add striking beauty to any border. I love how they look with their bright and showy orange colored blooms.
In early spring, this garden is filled with bold green stems of new growth.
By late May, this pergola garden is filled with lots of blue and purple flowers. This palette of colors is a big favorite at the farm – it grows more colorful and vibrant every spring.
In early June, the granite posts are filled with gorgeous clematis flowers.
And then the entire garden goes through another dramatic transformation in summer. Here it is now – bursting with gorgeous orange. This side of my long pergola is one of the first areas I see when I drive into my property. This pergola has thousands of waist-to-shoulder-high lilies.
Tiger lilies are covered with black or deep crimson spots, giving the appearance of the skin of a tiger. They have large, down-facing flowers, each with six recurved petals. Many flowers can be up to five inches in diameter.
Lilies are well-known for having heavily pollinated stamens, which stain. Here, it is easy to see those pollen-filled anthers. When cutting, always remove the anthers to prevent a clothing disaster – just pinch them off with gloved fingers.
The blackish, round “seeds” that develop in the axils of the leaves along the main stem are called bulbils.
The leaves can grow to three inches long and about 3/4-inch wide. They are medium green, narrow, smooth along their margins, and glabrous, clasping the stem at their bases.
There are also a few white lilies in this bed – adding more interest to the long floral display.
And some lighter orange lilies.
And there are still more lilies that have yet to open.
In various spots along the pergola garden are some of the dried alliums which I leave through the season.
In this garden, we also have pops of daylilies. The daylily is a low-maintenance perennial—easy to grow, virtually disease- and pest-free, and able to survive drought, uneven sunlight, and poor soil. The daylily’s botanical name, Hemerocallis, comes from Greek hemera “day” and kallos meaning “beauty”. The name is appropriate, since each flower lasts only one day. Despite their name, daylilies are not “true lilies.” Leaves grow from a crown and the flowers form on leafless stems called “scapes,” which rise above the foliage.
On the granite posts, there are a few lasting clematis flowers. I have always loved clematis, and over the years I have grown many varieties of this wonderful plant. When well-maintained, clematis can bloom profusely from early summer to early fall.
There are a few bell-shaped clematis flowers that are still going strong too. These have slightly fragrant blooms.
Not far from the pergola is this giant weeping copper beech tree – I love these trees with their gorgeous forms and rich color. I have several large specimens on the property. On this afternoon, the clouds were also rolling in – look at the sky. Unfortunately, rain did not follow.
And across the “soccer field,” where my grandson Truman loves to play when he visits, are six matched standard weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus ‘Pendula’. Weeping hornbeams can grow to be about 50-feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 40-feet. These are very rare and precious trees and I am so happy they continue to thrive here.
On the other side, across the carriage road – a stand of stately bald cypress trees, now full of gorgeous soft green needle-like foliage.
In front of the tiger lilies is a border of boxwood shrubs I grew from cuttings. They’ve developed and grown into nicely sized specimens. Buxus is a genus of at least 70-species in the family Buxaceae. There are more than 300 boxwood shrubs planted on both sides of the pergola.
The entire pergola border and its surrounding gardens, trees, and other specimens provide a spectacular show every summer. Straight ahead is my perennial flower cutting garden – also filled with beautiful lilies this time of year. All the gardens are looking spectacular, but here in Bedford, New York, we’re still waiting for some much needed rain. I hope we get some soon.
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.
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.
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.
This guest was in awe at the beautiful tall evergreens seen from my driveway.
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.
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.
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.
This rhododendron near one of my natural pools begins to bloom in July with gorgeous pale pink and white flowers.
Look at its blooms. Rhododendrons are prized for these big, showy flower clusters and the glossy green foliage.
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.
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.
Here’s my gardener Mike Harding speaking with one of the members about the plants that thrive at Skylands.
The wild blueberries here in Maine are some of the sweetest – and they’re ready for picking.
Here’s a view of the wall ledge with “Rockefeller’s Teeth” at the top.
This look shows Seal Harbor with Sutton Island in the distance.
On my large terrace, all the gorgeous potted plants are doing so wonderfully since we planted them in May.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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