13 Tuesday Jun 2017
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Open Garden, Summer, Uncategorized
A week ago today, GardenTime.tv stopped in for a quick interview with Bobbie and me. They allowed us to plug our Sunday Open Garden and–thanks to the show airing on Saturday morning–we welcomed more visitors to the garden than expected.
If you would like to watch the clip, here it is:
Disclaimer: I fumbled and got dates wrong! We are rehabilitating the gardens to the “period of significance” from 1932-1969, the years in which Edith and Elizabeth lived in the house and operated their firm.
01 Thursday Jun 2017
Posted in Deepwood, Garden, landscape architecture, Lord & Schryver, Restoration, Spring
Tags
flowers, gardens, historic preservation, House, June, Spring, Volunteering
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
11 Thursday May 2017
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Mother's Day, Open Garden, Spring, Uncategorized
Tags
forgetmenots, gardens, historic preservation, May, Mother's Day, Oregon, peonies, rhododendrons, Spring
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.
A stunning Deutzia is covered in white flowers near the Pergola.
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.
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.
We look forward to seeing you on Sunday…and don’t forget to bring your camera!
03 Wednesday May 2017
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Open Garden, Restoration, Spring, Uncategorized
Tags
annuals, azaleas, garden design, gardens, historic preservation, lilacs, May, peonies, Restoration, rhododendrons, Spring
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.
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.
And I have a few seedlings growing in pots that will fill in the Flower Garden and Drying Garden later this month.
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.
19 Wednesday Apr 2017
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Spring, Tours
Tags
April, garden design, gardens, historic preservation, National Register of Historic Places, Oregon, Restoration, salem, Spring, tulips
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.
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.
04 Tuesday Apr 2017
Posted in Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Open Garden, Spring, spring annuals, Uncategorized
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
Viburnum davidii
Skimmia japonica (female plants have red fruit, male plants have only flowers)
Pieris
Rhododendron just beginning to open by the statue in the Allée
Hellebores
Epimedium
In the Evergreen Garden:
Anemone hybrid
Hellebores
Pieris
Camellias
In the Flower Garden:
Crab apple (Malus) just beginning to open by back gate
Osmanthus delavayi under the crab apple
Anemone nemorosa by the bench
Tulips
Daffodils (Narcissus)
Bellis daisies (Bellis perennis)
Bleeding Hearts (Lamprocapnos spactabalis–try saying it out loud!)
Forget-me-nots (Myosotis)
Grape hyacinths (Muscari)
Viburnum burkwoodii
Prunus (aka flowering plum or cherries)
11 Saturday Mar 2017
Posted in Bill Noble, Gaiety Hollow, Garden, Lord & Schryver, Spring, spring annuals, Vintage Photos
Tags
carpenters, Cornish Colony, Ellen Biddle Shipman, garden design, gardens, historic preservation, National Register of Historic Places, pansies, primroses, Spring, spring annuals, spring bulbs, Volunteering
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
