The Ruin Garden at Teixeira Park in Mid-July

Mid-Atlantic Group Hardy Plant Society Arrives

The Mid-Atlantic Group of the Hardy Plant Society visited my garden today for about an hour. They were touring gardens in NewHampshire. The leader of the group, Janice Thomas, was scouting for gardens to visit last year when I was on The Garden Conservancy Open Days. I was thrilled to be included because I am originally from Malvern, PA and several of the garden mentors I have learned from, Joanna Reed, Charles Cresson and David Culp, are located outside Philadelphia where most of the gardeners on the tour hailed from. It was particularly fun to point out plants that I gotten from these three generous gardeners in my own garden.

I spent most of the last week preparing the garden for their arrival. Earlier in the season when I had just returned from England and the garden looked rather weedy and tattered, my son, Teddy, pointed out to my wife that when she felt things needed some sprucing up, she should invite people to see the garden and it would be whipped into shape (by me) in no time. He sure was right! The first group of photographs were taken this morning during my final cleanup.

The Upper Garden

The granite steps in the Hall with Balls

 The granite pillar focal point in the woodland garden as seen from the Lower Garden

 The Lower Garden

The Blue Bench Terrace

The Woodland Garden

Forty-three gardeners arrive by motor coach.

 

Gardeners everywhere in the garden

The most asked about plants were....

Gleditsia triacanthos 'Ruby Lace' 

Centaurea atropurpurea 

Boehmeria platanifolia 

Trachystemon orientalis

Filipendula palmata 'Variegata'

The coach leaves and is off to yet another garden. It is hard to believe that it was only about six weeks ago and I was helping lead a tour of English Gardens to North American gardeners. It was very interesting to see it from the opposite perspective.  Lots of work for such a short time of visiting. It is a great exercise in seeing what needs to be developed and improved in the garden.

New steps in the Woodland Garden

The plan was that rustic stone steps would be installed in the new woodland path this summer. Turned out it wasn't in the budget. What to do? Get creative. I went to my wife's family's cabin in Maine to mow the field and went into the woods and found a couple maple trees and  made myself some wooden steps. They made a difference immediately. The stone steps can wait.