Tag Archives: Deepwood Gardens

Evening in the Garden

19 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by in Deepwood, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, House, landscape architecture, Lord & Schryver, Open Garden, Summer, Tours

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We took a twilight tour of the gardens at Gaiety Hollow this evening and as usual found the garden beautiful and restorative.

If you want to ease into the Salem Art Fair this weekend let me suggest the Lord and Schryver tours which are Saturday the 22nd at 9:00 at Deepwood Museum & Gardens and at Gaiety Hollow beginning at 10:30.  The cost is $5 for those 16 and up.

So why do this?  Why go visit gardens planted in the 1930’s by people long gone?  Well in Garden Curator Lindsey Kerr’s absence I’ll suggest a few reasons.

These women, Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver, lived here in Salem.  They designed cutting-edge gardens of great beauty for Salemites and for others across the Northwest.  They were rigorous, talented and interesting, and if you live in Salem they are a part of your history!  Come see the garden and learn their story, your back-story.

Walk through these garden gates and step back in time.  For the most part people don’t design or maintain gardens like this anymore. We are now into efficient, low water, low maintenance gardens. Here is a chance to see a house and garden designed and now maintained from another world altogether…and it is a captivating garden and a captivating world.

Come and see plant varieties and combinations that are “old fashioned” and yet totally up to date. Giant white hydrangeas, Nicotiana alata spilling out of beds, delphinium, grapes…ideas abound in this historic garden for modern gardeners.

Escape.  And this garden has been providing a breathing space for me and many others for years…always delightful, ALWAYS ALIVE, always a balm.

See you Saturday!

 

 

Gardens–and trees!–in bloom

25 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in Deepwood, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Tours, trees, Uncategorized

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The Tea House garden at Deepwood Museum & Gardens is already putting on a beautiful show. Poppies, iris, roses, foxglove, allium, and many more flowers were in bloom this afternoon. Most of the summer annuals have been planted and are ready to flower. The heat earlier this week made many of the plants grow quickly.

Foxglove
Iris
Rose
Poppy
Allium

An exciting bit of news for the historic garden nerds among us:

A few years ago, the much loved hawthorn tree next to the Tea House was removed.  In searching through records, volunteers discovered that Lord & Schryver purchased a white hawthorn for Deepwood in 1932.  They were perplexed as the tree blooming by the Tea House had a pink double flower. They contacted nurseries and searched online to find a replacement but there appeared to be none available in the US.

When the tree was removed, however, two shoots coming up from the roots were saved. One was left at Deepwood–to hopefully thrive and replace the historic tree–and one was taken to Gaiety Hollow to serve as a back-up . The volunteers waited to see what the young hawthorns would turn out to be. Would they come true to the historic tree? Or was the old tree grafted and the shoots would be from the root stock?

Well, this week the volunteers got a beautiful surprise. The young trees both bloomed masses of fluffy white double flowers–matching Lord & Schryver’s records–and then faded to pink–just as our volunteers remembered.

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Not the most beautiful photo, but it’s double and pink!

As photos were shared by email and text, you might have heard a few cheers echoing across the Valley.

Unfortunately, the intense heat made the hawthorn flowers fade and disappear all too quickly. But, the gardens at Deepwood are full of flowers and more than enough reason to visit. There will be a tour of the gardens this Saturday at 9am for those interested in hearing more stories about their creation and rehabilitation.

A second tour will take place at Gaiety Hollow at 10:30. The old hawthorns at the front gate are in full bloom and simply covered in clusters of white flowers. It is no wonder why Lord and Schryver chose to plant these trees with a view from their bedrooms and studio!

Hawthorn
Looking out the front door
View from Elizabeth’s bedroom

The annual display in the Flower Garden is also taking off, with campanula, roses, peonies, petunias, ageratum, alyssum, and daisies all blooming together. Come for a visit!

October in the Garden…

07 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Uncategorized, Vintage Photos

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Fall is here, but the zinnias are still going strong!

profusion of z's

zinnias

Last weekend we were hosting the meeting of the Pacific Northwest regional affiliates with the national Garden Conservancy…a chance for them to take a road trip and see what is really happening in our garden.  It’s always fun to welcome new people to Gaiety Hollow and its delights, but in preparation for the Saturday workshop, the Friday crew was doing a little seasonal pruning and hedge-trimming:

on the lawn

David

Bobbie

Shirley’s clippers looked light-weight and sharp…

Shirley 2

the familiar garden views still delight…

view through arbor with Jay tools tidying up

and the next project up will be re-plumbing the fountain and getting it in working order…

next project (1)

Correspondent Woody Dukes sent along this vintage photo of the urn when it was in the scroll garden at Deepwood…and then a photo of the urn in it’s new location…

Note ivy cut-out in terrace.

urn 1

Now we’re just waiting for some fall rain!

A Garden Party

23 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Uncategorized, Vintage Photos

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A good way to celebrate the many donors that have supported the garden at Gaiety Hollow was a garden party.  Sunday was one of the last days of summer, sunny and mild.  The garden (thanks to volunteer labor!) was looking lovely, there was food and music and wine…and donors.  A lovely afternoon…Garden 1

Garden 2

Garden 4

Garden 3

caterers

musicians

guests 1

desserts

Guests 2

The newest Lord and Schryver excitement at Gaiety Hollow has been the return of the urn that originally stood in the Lord and Schryver designed scroll garden at Deepwood Gardens…on the brick plinth at the back of this photo…

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and here’s how it looked one snowy winter many decades ago…

urn in winter

Lord and Schryver chose the large ceramic urn and imported it from the Philippines where Lord’s brother was living.  The scroll garden these days is too unprotected of a place for the urn, so it is now at Gaiety Hollow…a donation from Alice Brown’s heirs.

urn 1

urn 2

Thank you donors, one and all.

 

The First Open Garden (and the new fence)!

10 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Uncategorized, Vintage Photos

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In case you missed the first open garden event today, you still have two more chances.  Thinking of doing the “High Street Hustle” on August 15?  The garden will be open that day from 7:30 to 10:00 a.m.   Sunday, September 13th the garden will be open again from 2-5 p.m….so if you went today you might want to come back as the season begins to change.  (As one who has been in the garden in every season, I  know for sure it is always fascinating and always beautiful.)

Here’s what it looked like today:  Board member Susan Miller greeted people at the gate with information on the garden…

welcome table 8-8015

The day was perfect, warm and sunny, cool in the shade…perfect for strolling and straw hats…

Lorraine and Melinda 8-8-015

and chatting…

north side of house 8-8-15

Board members were scattered around the garden to give helpful information, and they had set up fantastic vintage photos of the garden so you could juxtapose what had been, what is, and what will be again…

white wall 8-8-015These two plants by the front door are gone, but plans are to replant…

fopuntain west side 8-8-15

The west side fountain garden…and the allee north and south

vintage allee s. 2 8-8-15

vintage allee n. 8-8-15

the grape arbor…

vintage arbor 8-8-15

and the parterres…

vinatge parterre 8-8-15

this year filled with zinnias…

IMG_5878

and the new fence…

replacement fence 2015

replacement fence 2015

The very beautiful “hardscape” in this garden is, of course, wooden.  Things decay over time…

rotten posts of garden seat

but luckily for Gaiety Hollow there is a crew of talented and dedicated volunteers who are willing and able to replicate these benches and fences…Woody Dukes rebuilt the bench last year, and Christopher Hackett and his crew of Tom McMullen and Jack Fisher rebuilt the fence this summer…with Don Roberts standing by to paint the items as cut and before being assembled…touch up still required.  HOURS of work and planning…for love of the garden.  Thank you so much.

So…mark your calendar and make a point of taking a walk through this peaceful place right in the heart of Salem.  We are so lucky here in Salem to have this “garden trifecta” within a half mile…Bush Gardens, Deepwood Gardens and Gaiety Hollow…maybe a visit to all three is in your near future??