Tag Archives: gardens

The gardens at Deepwood

01 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by in Deepwood, Garden, landscape architecture, Lord & Schryver, Restoration, Spring

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Even though this blog is named for Lord & Schryver’s home garden, I want to take this week to look at the gardens at Deepwood Museum & Gardens.

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The gardens at Deepwood were one of Lord & Schryver’s earliest commissions. Alice Brown hired the firm in 1929 to help her create gardens spaces around her Victorian Era house. The house was built in 1894 and was considered one of the most beautiful and impressive in Salem at the time. However, it was built on a rise and the basement exposed. The surrounding landscape was not designed in tandem with the building’s architect.

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Leaping forward to 1929, five years after Alice and Clifford Brown purchased the property, Alice decided that she needed help in designing the gardens around her home. Lord & Schryver, with their newly opened firm located within walking distance, made perfect sense. The gardens at Deepwood were designed and created over many years. In fact, the Scroll Garden was not created until 1936-37. The house and landscape were a challenge for L&S because they preferred to work with the architect to integrate the house and gardens. Although the sum of the gardens does not fit L&S’s standard design elements, the individual gardens are classic Lord & Schryver.

The Scroll Garden

In the early 1980s, after the Deepwood estate had been purchased by the City of Salem, a group of volunteers came together to rejuvenate the gardens. Deepwood was the only publicly owned Lord & Schryver designed garden and provided an opportunity to beautify a community asset. Over time, an intrepid group of enthusiasts–including a few of the original volunteer gardeners–met to study Lord & Schryver and formed what is now the Lord & Schryver Conservancy. The gardens today exhibit L&S’s design principles, educate the public about their pioneering landscape designs, and provide a place of beauty and respite.

C. glomerata at Deepwood

Today, volunteer gardeners still care for the historic gardens at Deepwood every Thursday morning, 9-noon. The gardens are inside the iconic green fence and open to the public every day of the week, free of charge, 5am until midnight. We hope that you visit and enjoy the many years of hard work and love that has renewed the gardens.

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Lysa
Donna
David

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!

Annual flower displays

16 Tuesday May 2017

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

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One of my favorite parts of caring for the gardens at Gaiety Hollow and at Deepwood Museum & Gardens is designing the annual flowers displays. What could be more fun than choosing flowers for two different gardens?

I start by considering which plants we know Lord and Schyver purchased for the gardens (documented in purchase records, photos, or journals). I think about how much room we have in the gardens,  what are the current growing conditions (sun, shade, water needs, etc), and how textures and colors will work together. I make lists and plans and then hit the local nurseries. That’s the fun part.

When the local nurseries don’t have the plants I am looking for or they don’t have the right color, it’s time to get creative. Or maybe I should wait a couple days to see if what I want comes in on the next truck? It’s always a risk.

Heliotrope
Argyranthemum
Pink Canterbury Bell
Vanilla marigold
Petunia
Joe the Cat at Godfrey Nursery

 

I’ve started from seed a few plants that I cannot find locally. They don’t look like much right now, but my imagination tells me that they will be beautiful this summer.

Verbena
Nicotiana

Last week, our Thursday and Friday volunteers planted all the annuals I had purchased for Deepwood and Gaiety Hollow. Dare I tell them that I bought more plants today? It’s so exciting to see the little plants in the ground. I’m a terribly impatient gardener, however, and find myself staring at them and willing them to grow faster.

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All plant information goes in an Excel spreadsheet for record-keeping

I hope that you visit and re-visit the Gaiety Hollow and Deepwood gardens throughout the season to enjoy the flowers and to see the changes taking place.

Mother’s Day, rain or shine!

11 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Mother's Day, Open Garden, Spring, Uncategorized

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We are welcoming visitors to Gaiety Hollow on Mother’s Day, May 14, 1-4pm. We hope that we have many new and return guests! Bring your family and enjoy the gorgeous shrubs and spring flowers blooming now.

Rhododendrons are the highlight of the West Allée.

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A stunning Deutzia is covered in white flowers near the Pergola.

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Forget-me-nots were some of Elizabeth Lord’s favorite flowers and they still re-seed themselves every year in the flower garden. They look like blue clouds right now.

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Pansies and alyssum are smiling in the sun in the newly restored Drying Garden.

 

And Peonia rubra plena, planted in 1955, is still showing off her gorgeous flowers in the Flower Garden over 60 years after she was planted by Elizabeth and Edith.

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We look forward to seeing you on Sunday…and don’t forget to bring your camera!

How things change…

03 Wednesday May 2017

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

Spring tours

19 Wednesday Apr 2017

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

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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.

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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

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

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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

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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

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Viburnum davidii 

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

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Pieris 

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Rhododendron just beginning to open by the statue in the Allée

Hellebores

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Epimedium 

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In the Evergreen Garden:

Anemone hybrid

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Hellebores

Pieris 

Camellias

 

In the Flower Garden:

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

Osmanthus delavayi under the crab apple

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Anemone nemorosa by the bench

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Tulips

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Daffodils (Narcissus)

Bellis daisies (Bellis perennis)

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

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Forget-me-nots (Myosotis)

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Grape hyacinths (Muscari)

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Viburnum burkwoodii

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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

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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.

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

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A sampling of camellias float in the pool.

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And daffodils and grape hyacinths were at their finest.

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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.

Sunshine and volunteers

11 Saturday Mar 2017

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

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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.

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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.