How things change…

03 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Open Garden, Restoration, Spring, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

in a single week!

I was out of town for ten days and my how the plants have grown. Tulip season has drawn to a close. The tree peonies that Edith and Elizabeth planted are almost done blooming (the heat today and tomorrow will finish them off). The herbaceous peonies are growing leaps and bounds and some will open any day now.

20170503_151348

The Viburnum burkwoodii and lilacs are filling the garden with intoxicating scent.

The Rhododendron are beginning to show off.

I am planting our summer annuals and perennials. I hope that the heat and the sun makes them grow big and strong! Lobularia maritima in the Drying Garden smells like honey.

20170503_151220

And I have a few seedlings growing in pots that will fill in the Flower Garden and Drying Garden later this month.

20170503_141051

Our next Open Garden is on May 14th–Mother’s Day. Come visit the garden with family and enjoy the beauty and peace that the garden brings.

Volunteer Appreciation!

24 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, House, landscape architecture, Lord & Schryver, Spring, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

I came in the back gate today for the event, and a quick walk through this garden makes you appreciate anew the power of commitment, focus and pure love of place.

This garden has been maintained and renovated and cared for thoroughly for years by volunteers.  Just this year we have been joined by garden curator Lindsey Kerr, the first salaried position.  Lindsey quickly saw the volunteers were key and she has intuitively networked with everybody…gardeners, carpenters, artists and photographers, archivists…the large team of people whose interest in the work of Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver has made this project go forward for two decades.  Lindsey wasn’t with us today, but I snuck up to her office (stopping on the landing for a quick look in to Lord and Schryver’s office)

for a couple of the views she sees everyday…

From up here I saw the clematis on the newly-completed pergola renovation just bursting into bloom (as planned by L&S)…here’s Lindsey’s photo of last week and then how it looked today…

We were offered refreshments,

and a look at some of the drawings of Lord and Schryver on the walls in the public rooms…(I liked this one which was Edith Schryver’s senior thesis project at the Lowthrope School)

and then to stroll the garden, returning to the house to tell what was our favorite spot in the garden…

Today all these volunteers were appreciated in the best way…each of us was handed a thank you note or two and asked to tell what we do for the garden and the conservancy, and in the story-telling there was a grace and a humor and a sense of commitment that seems rare in these days.

The Board master-minded a surprise gift for Board Chair Bobbie Dolp who really has worked full time doing everything from grant-writing to weeding…her favorite vintage photo of the house…(with a drawing by me of a cherry original to the garden)…she liked it…

…and before I forget I rounded the corner of the garage today to see the crab apple planted last fall in full bloom…

Volunteers we appreciate you!!!  Thank you for this work.

 

Spring tours

19 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Spring, Tours

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Today was the perfect day for a tour of the gardens. After all the rain last night, the gardens looked clean and new.

We had a lively group of folks come from the Willamalane Park and Recreation District for tours of both Deepwood and Gaiety Hollow and a catered lunch in the gardens at Gaiety Hollow. Everyone had a wonderful time. We hope to share the gardens with more groups throughout the season. Know someone interested in a private tour? Have them contact Bobbie.

20170418_131238

We have two tours open to the public this coming Saturday. Join us at 9am at Deepwood Museum and Gardens. Tours will leave from the kiosk near the parking lot. At 10:30am, there will be a tour at Gaiety Hollow. Meet at the front door.

 

 

“April, come she will

11 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Open Garden, Spring, spring annuals, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

When streams are ripe and swelled with rain…”

This spring has been unusually wet here in Salem. It has made for a sometimes difficult situation for gardeners trying to get work done and trying to time flower combinations. Last Friday’s wind and rain finished off the cherry blossoms and blew away many of the Magnolia flowers. Our dauntless board chair, Bobbie Dolp, was outside in the horizontal rain, string-trimming and pulling dandelions from the lawns in preparation for our first Open Garden this past Sunday.

Many thanks to the volunteers to helped greet visitors on Sunday and thank you to all who came to see and enjoy the gardens. We hope that you come again to see the seasons  change as we dig deeper into rehabilitating the gardens.
As the early spring flowers fade, new blossoms open to take their place. Tulips are in full glory in the Flower Garden and more are showing color every day.

 

Elizabeth and Edith’s forget-me-nots form a backdrop to tulips and a blanket under the roses.
fmn

Rhododendrons are beginning to open on the west side of the gardens.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our next Garden Tours are April 22nd. We hope that you join us.

Open Garden this weekend April 9

04 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Open Garden, Spring, spring annuals, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Please join us at Gaiety Hollow for our first Open Garden of the season! Visitors may wander through the gardens at their leisure and speak with our volunteers stationed throughout the property. The garden will be open 1-4pm. Admission is $5 for anyone over the age of 16. Gaiety Hollow is located at 545 Mission St. in Salem, OR.

Below is a partial list of plants in bloom this week. Scientific names are italicized.

In the front yard and along the Allée:

Crab apple (scientific name Malus) just beginning to open by front door

Camellias

20170404_152119

Viburnum davidii 

20170404_151955

Skimmia japonica (female plants have red fruit, male plants have only flowers)

20170404_152019

Pieris 

20170404_152135

Rhododendron just beginning to open by the statue in the Allée

Hellebores

20170404_152243

Epimedium 

20170404_152223

 

In the Evergreen Garden:

Anemone hybrid

20170404_152004

Hellebores

Pieris 

Camellias

 

In the Flower Garden:

Crab apple (Malus) just beginning to open by back gate

Osmanthus delavayi under the crab apple

20170404_152746

Anemone nemorosa by the bench

20170328_103424

Tulips

20170404_152438

Daffodils (Narcissus)

Bellis daisies (Bellis perennis)

20170404_152535

Bleeding Hearts (Lamprocapnos spactabalis–try saying it out loud!)

20170404_152403

Forget-me-nots (Myosotis)

20170404_152510

Grape hyacinths (Muscari)

3_28 grape hyacinths

Viburnum burkwoodii

20170404_152725

Prunus (aka flowering plum or cherries)

 

First tour of the season

28 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Spring, Tours

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

This past week was a whirlwind of activity at Gaiety Hollow. We had our first tour scheduled for Saturday and we wanted the gardens to look their best. Many, many thanks to the volunteers who put in over 60 hours of work to make the gardens shine.  Carpenters worked on the Pergola and cut plywood for guests and volunteers to walk on to avoid damaging the lawn. Garden volunteers filled up four large City compost bins with debris and needed to stash extra in the Service Yard.

Every day, we clean up more Camellia blossoms. You finish raking and turn around and there’s another one!
The morning of the tour, the gardens looked fresh and clean.

3_25 morning

Bobbie placed photos around the gardens so that guests could view the gardens in different seasons or years past.

3_25 tour

A sampling of camellias float in the pool.

3_25 camellia blossoms

And daffodils and grape hyacinths were at their finest.

3_28 grape hyacinths

We have more Garden Tours and Open Gardens coming up! The first Open Garden is April 9th, 1-4pm. More information on the website. We hope to see you in the gardens.

Deepwood: what’s blooming now 3/21

21 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

A few photos from Deepwood this morning. Many of the Gaiety Hollow plants are repeated at Deepwood. Here are a few new plants and a few that were too pretty no to include a second time.

In the Tea House Garden.

Bergenia
Rhododendron ‘Christmas Cheer’
Spirea
Hyacinthus
Anemone
Pulmonaria
Pulmonaria
Ranunculus

Walking down to the the Scroll Garden.

Chaenomeles (quince)
Magnolia
Erythronium (lamb’s tongue)

Near the entrance from Mission St.

Clusiana tulip
Skimmia japonica
Arabis

Camellias by the house foundation

Oemleria cerasiformis (Indian plum), a native plant common throughout the Deepwood natural areas.

20170321_124740

Gaiety Hollow: what’s blooming now 3/21

21 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

In an effort to help our docent program answer questions about plants in the gardens, I am going to periodically post a stream of photos of flowers and plants identified. I hope that some of these photos might entice you to visit the gardens.

(Click on or mouse-over the image for the name of the plant.)

In the front garden and West Allee.

Prunus (cherry)
Camellia japonica
Euphorbia
Daphne odora
Skimmia japonica
Pieris japonica

Scattered throughout the gardens are hellebores.

Helleborus
Helleborus

In the Flower Garden.

Bellis perenis (Bellis daisy)
Narcissus (daffodil)
Hyacinthus (hyacinth)
Narcissus (daffodil)
Leucojum (snowflake)
Erysimum (wallflower)
Muscari neglectum (grape hyacinth)

In the Drying Garden.

Viburnum bodnantense
Primula (primrose)
Hyacinthus (hyacinth)

A Wet Spring…

18 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by in Bill Noble, Drying Garden, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, House, Lord & Schryver, Spring, spring annuals

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

I was in the garden today…dodging raindrops on the way into a meeting…and I reflected on how beautiful this garden is…even on the very dreariest of wet spring days…

I noted some boxwood trimming had begun…

the pergola construction was well underway…

making us glad that this structure will be there providing shade next summer…like it did last summer…and for many summers to come…

the rain has helped the new lawn in the drying garden flourish…

and once inside…the fire was going and Bobbie was welcoming Bill Noble to the meeting.

Bill is here in Oregon lecturing on the Cornish Colony in New Hampshire.  His lecture in Salem is this coming Sunday (March 19th) at 2:00 in the Dye House at the Willamette Heritage Center.    I KNOW you won’t want to miss this one.   Bill formerly was with the Garden Conservancy and now works as a consultant to many famous gardens, including our own.  He is a knowledgeable and lively person, pictured like this for publicity purposes…

and here are my meeting notes…

but today we had a little fun…

See you Sunday!

Sunshine and volunteers

11 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by in Bill Noble, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Spring, spring annuals, Vintage Photos

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yesterday felt like the first true day of spring. The sun was shining and we could see blue blue sky between the white fluffy clouds. For the first time this season, the volunteer gardeners were able to get some work done at Gaiety Hollow. Not only did they finish planting all the spring annuals, but they also tackled the hellebore leaves. What a weight off my shoulders!

Primrose
Pansies
Bellis daisy
Hellebores
Grape hyacinth

The carpenters were also out working in the sunshine. One crew on the Pergola; one crew repairing the garage doors. If we get a spate of nice weather, we hope that both projects can be finished before the tour and open gardens begin.

IMG_3681

Chris and Tom work on the Pergola

In other news, we are really looking forward to Bill Noble‘s visit this coming week. Before starting his own consulting business, Bill was Director of Preservation at the Garden Conservancy and worked closely with noted gardens such as Longue Vue, the Gardens at Alcatraz, the Ruth Bancroft Garden, the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden, and Hollister House Garden. He has been a great resource for the L&S Conservancy for several years. He will  be meeting with the board and committees this coming Friday and Saturday. And then, on Sunday, March 19, he will give a presentation on the Cornish Colony at 2pm in the WHC Dye House.

Bill

Edith Schryver cut her teeth at the Cornish Colony while working for Ellen Biddle Shipman. Shipman was one of the foremost designers of her time and known for her formal gardens and lush planting style. She was of the first generation of women to break into the male-dominated landscape architecture profession. There is no doubt of her influence on Edith Schryver.

Charles Platt Garden
Charles Platt Garden
Charles Platt Garden
Charles Platt Garden

 

Don’t miss this presentation! Not only is Bill a dynamic speaker, not only will he tie the Cornish Colony to the story of Edith and Elizabeth, but…There will be birthday cake!

Edith’s 116th birthday is on March 20th, but we are celebrating a day early with everyone who attends Bill’s lecture. Come for an energetic and lush presentation, stay for the cake! We hope to see you there. Don’t forget to register online.