Tony started his presentation with a fascinating short video showing images of bees getting nectar from flowers and pollinating plants.  To view the full TED presentation, go to  http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_the_hidden_beauty_of_pollination.html . To see a short clip of honeybee pollination, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CdoBCEEpz4.

The Bee Crisis

Eight years ago, honey bees started dying off in great numbers primarily because of what is known as colony collapse disorder.  There are several theories as to the cause.  One is that the nectar that the bees were bringing back to the hive was tainted with pesticides and consequently was killing the bees. Agriculture relies on the use of pesticides, which are nicotine-based, along with herbicides and GMO seeds to yield larger crops. These pesticides, which are made by the Monsanto and Bayer Corporations, last 12 years in the ground.

There is now a nationwide movement to use local farms that don’t use pesticides for our food supply.

Another reason for colony collapse may be the increase in diseases in bees as well as pests, such as the varroa destructor mite.  You could say the crisis began in 1987 when the varroa destructor mite attacked the honey bees and decimated their hives.  Beekeepers and farmers used chemicals to kill the mites, but the mites have since become resistant to the pesticide.

Other reasons for colony collapse include malnutrition from limited plant diversity, lack of genetic biodiversity, and toxins in the environment.  For more information on colony collapse disorder, you can view the video “Banishing of the Bees” at http://www.vanishingbees.com/ as well as a list of causes at http://insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/tp/CausesofCCD.htm.

Did you know that bees pollinate 1/4 of the food we eat?

So crops must be pollinated to produce food. Each year 2,000 to 80,000 hives are put on trucks and brought first to the south to pollinate crops.  They are then trucked to farms across the country to pollinate various crops worth billions of dollars, such as almonds in California, cranberries in Wisconsin, and then back east to pollinate blueberries in Maine.  While this is addresses the problem of pollinating crops, in time it weakens the bees because it is not a natural way for them to live.

What Can We Do?

So part of Tony’s crusade is to motivate farmers, gardeners, and anyone else concerned about the supply of honey bees to take up beekeeping or help support local farms by purchasing honey from them.  He recommended watching the Michael Pollen movie, “Queen of the Sun.”  This documentary shows exquisite scenes of bees in their hives and pollinating flowers.  It interviews beekeepers from around the world from Illinois to Italy to New Zealand and even to the rooftops of Manhattan.  It urges us to not only be aware of the problem, but tells us what we can do about it.

Tony pointed out that while one beekeeper with a hive of 60,000 bees can’t make much of an impact, 60,000 beekeepers with one hive each can make a significant difference.  So how can we as gardeners make a difference?

• Stop using pesticides and herbicides in our gardens and on our lawns.  The internet has all sorts of information on nontoxic ways to control insects and weeds.  As for your lawn, the bees love crabgrass, dandelions, and clover, which is a nitrogen fixer that is good for your lawn.
• Don’t spray for mosquitoes.
• Grow flowers that attract bees such as borage, echium, and goldenrod.
• Shop at farmers markets.
• Buy local honey.
• Try beekeeping.

Because of public awareness of the problem, there has been resurgence in the number of beekeepers in this country.

Did you know that beekeepers in general get better vegetables and berries from their gardens?

And feral bees are coming back.  These are European honey bees that can be found in holes in the sides of trees and stumps as well as in between walls in old barns or houses – anyplace that provides protection from the elements. Or they may build a free-hanging nest high up in a tree in warm climates (the hive wouldn’t survive the winter in a cold climate like New England).

There are about 4,000 species of bees in the US, with 3000 species in Massachusetts.  There used to be 45 different types of bumblebees in the US, now there are only 5.

In Europe and America, the species managed by beekeepers is the Western honey bee, which has several subspecies such as the Italian bee, European dark bee, and the Carniolan honey bee.

Honey Bees

There are three castes of honey bee in a colony or hive: the queen, the workers, and the drones.

Queen bee:

• Has a longer abdomen and shorter wings than the other bees
• Lays about 2000 eggs in a day and is normally the only breeding female in the colony
• Starts as a normal worker egg, but is fed a larger amount of royal jelly than a normal worker bee, resulting in very different growth and metamorphosis
• Influences the colony by producing and disseminating a variety of pheromones or “queen substances.”  One of these chemicals prevents the female worker bees from laying eggs.  The pheromones also mark her territory.
• All of the worker bees and drone bees are her offspring.
• Has only one mating flight in which she mates with up to 30 drones from other hives (not her own), who then die afterwards.
• Has life span of 5 to 7 years.

Worker bees:

• Are female and are from a fertilized egg.
• Have a 45 day life span.
• In the first 21 days, they are very busy:
  • cleaning the cells
  • feeding other bees as well as eggs, larvae, and pupa
  • receiving honey and pollen from field bees as well as foraging for pollen themselves
  • making wax to build cells
  • guarding the entrance to the hive

Drone bees:

• Are male and are from unfertilized eggs
• Have a 60 day life span
• Are twice the size of the worker bees
• Other than eating, their only function is to mate with the queen
• When queen raising is over and the weather gets cold, they are driven out of the hive to die

Although there can be up to 100,000 bees in a hive, less than 1% are drones.  There is a 2 to 3 mile radius around the hive in which the bees operate.

Bee Hives

Beekeeping, or apiculture, which has evolved over the centuries, is the management of honey bees, which live in large colonies of up to 100,000 bees.

Twig Skeps or Hives

Evidence of beekeeping goes as far back as 2422 BCE in Egypt and can also be found in prehistoric and ancient Greece, Israel, ancient China, and the Mayan peninsula.  Evidence includes hives made of straw or twigs (skeps) and unbaked clay as well as equipment such as smoking pots and honey extractors. Beekeeping was an advanced industry providing income from honey and wax even as far back as 3000 years ago in ancient Israel.  In ancient Greece and Rome, beekeeping was documented by writers such as Aristotle and Virgil.  And you can see hieroglyphics of honey production in the tombs of ancient Egypt.

In medieval times, abbeys and monasteries were centers of beekeeping where beeswax was used to make candles and honey was used to make mead.

For thousands of years, honey was originally collected from wild hives in trees and rocks.  But to get the honey, the hives were destroyed and new ones were sought. So it wasn’t a very efficient system long term.

Langstroth Hives

The 18th century saw the move to a movable comb hive, which was perfected by Lorenzo Langstroth in America in the 19th century.  This consisted of a rectangular hive box with a series of wooden frames that were spaced 1/4 to 3/8″ apart.  This is known as the bee space, which bees do not block with wax and use to move about the hive.  So the bees build parallel honeycombs in the box that do not touch each other or the walls.  This way the beekeeper can slide any frame out for inspection or harvest honey without harming the bees or the comb, which contains the eggs, larvae, and pupae.  Variations of this system are used today throughout Europe and the United States.

Langstroth Frame

Beekeepers wear protective clothing including gloves, a hooded suit or hat and veil with a long-sleeved shirt that are all light colored. Don’t wear black because the bees often go to objects with this color to sting.

Other equipment includes a bee smoker which generates cool smoke to calm bees and to mask alarm pheromones released by guard bees.  This makes it easier for beekeepers to open the hive and work without triggering a defensive reaction.

Honeycombs in the hive are created mostly by young bees who create cells from wax that they secrete.  One or two of the cells are queen cells in the center of the face of the comb; the queen from one of the cells will supersede the old queen who either dies naturally or is killed off.  This is the method used most by beekeepers rather than swarming where many queen cells are created and another hive is created in the hollow of a tree or rock crevices.  The entire swarm moves to the new hive stocked with honey from the old hive.

How Do Bees Make Honey? 

Bee Collecting Nectar

The bees:

1. Get nectar from flowers such as clovers, berry bushes, fruit tree blossoms, garden flowers.  It is almost 80% water with some complex sugars.  Bees use their long tubelike tongues to suck the nectar out of the flowers and store it in their “honey stomach,” which is separate from their regular stomach.
2. Must get nectar from 100 and 1500 flowers in order to fill their honey stomachs. When the honey stomach is full, it weighs nearly as much as the bee (70 mg.).
3. Return to the hive and pass the nectar onto other worker bees who suck the nectar from the honeybee’s stomach through their mouth.
4. “Chew” the nectar for a half hour during which time enzymes break the complex sugars in the nectar into simple sugars to make it more digestible for the bees and make it less likely to be attacked by bacteria while it is stored within the hive.
5. Spread the nectar throughout the honeycombs where water evaporates from it, making the syrup thicker.  Bees fan their wings to quicken the process.
6. When the honey is thick enough, the bees seal off the cell with a plug of wax.  It is stored until eaten.  A colony of bees eats between 120 and 200 pounds of honey in a year.

You can see this process in the YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7cX2cjFunw.

In the commercial beehive, the most common being the Langstroth hive, the honey is collected in the honey supers, which are the frames hung in the hive.  The bees build the honeycomb on these frames.  When the honeycomb is full, the bees cap the comb with the beeswax.

Did you know that one beehive can produce up to 100 lbs. of honey? One frame produces 3 to 4 lbs. of honey.  The honey is 25% moisture and needs ventilation to reduce the moisture to 18%.

The color of the honey is determined by the plants that the bees feed on.  So a witch hazel plant produces light colored honey where as goldenrod produces a dark amber honey.

There are also special brood chambers in the hive where the eggs, larvae, and pupa develop.

Benefits of Honey

Tony says only buy local honey and don’t cook it.  Honey contains powerful antioxidants with antiseptic and antibacterial properties.  Its medicinal benefits have been have been used for centuries.  Some remedies include:

• A teaspoon of honey a day for arthritis.
• If you put honey on a bandaid, it produces peroxide when exposed to air – very cleansing.
• For a sore throat, eat honey to coat the throat; combine with lemon, cinnamon, or milk, vinegar, white tea.

Honey bees are also used to treat arthritis, which is known as “bee string therapy.”  There are practitioners who specialize in this.

For more benefits, go to http://www.doctoroz.com/blog/lindsey-duncan-nd-cn/honey-s-unknown-benefits.

To get started beekeeping, see www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/diy-backyard-beekeeping-47031701#slide-1, which gives an overview of the process.

C.L. started the talk with how difficult it can be to help someone about a plant problem when it’s not clear what the plant is.  She had a woman ask about her Japanese fern that was very tall.  The ferns C.L. had were not tall, so she didn’t know what the customer was talking about.  However, later through another customer, she realized the woman was referring to the FernLeaf Japanese Maple that can grow to 8 feet and whose leaves turn orange or red in the fall.  What a difference a few words can make.  If you don’t know the name of your plant, bringing a photo would help.

Choosing a Style of Garden

New American Garden Style

When first planning a garden, It’s important to choose a style of garden that:

• Goes with the style of your house
• Has plants that are compatible to the area being planted, and
•  Is in keeping with the time you have to spend on it

Keep in mind that an informal garden that has a mix of perennials, shrubs, and trees allows you to easily replace a plant that has died whereas a formal knot garden will look odd when a boxwood dies.  The new American Garden style that is popular now is a combination of perennials, annuals, vegetables, and shrubs.

Also:

• Be careful of plants that can take over a garden such as ribbon grass.  One indication of a plant that will be dominant is if its roots are growing out of the bottom of the pot when you buy it.  It’s okay to have them as long as they are in a container in the garden or on the deck.
• Don’t plant perennials in clay pots because they crack when the bottom of the container, which is on the ground, is cool while the upper part is warm from the sun.  Place the pot on three little blocks of wood in the winter so it is off the ground.  The plants in pots need to be hardy two zones colder than where you are (so if you are in Zone 5, the plant needs to be hardy in Zone 3).  If it’s not hardy in two zones colder, store in the garage or basement in winter.
• Only put soil in pots – no rocks or shards on the bottom!  That’s a habit I don’t seem to be able to kick.
• Be sure to make a map of your bulbs so in the fall you’ll know where to plant the muscari and grape hyacinth so it comes up next to the daffodils in the spring.

Using the Plants’ Characteristics For Your Benefit

For example, plant hosta, which break dormancy only when it’s warm, near daffodils which come up early in spring.  The hosta foliage hides the drooping leaves of the daffodils when the daffodils are done blooming.

Choosing the Right Plants For the Right Location

Geranium Macrorrhizum

Match the plants to the soil conditions. For example, if your soil is shallow and dry, try planting  succulents.  For a flower garden, try including weed smothering plants, such as Hakonachloa macra, Aster divaricatus, and Geranium macrorrhizum, which is also deer-resistant.  Plants for wet places include Juncus effuses, variegated red twig dogwood, and Primula japonica.  For dry places, try Coreopsis ‘Zagreb’, Achillia ‘Pineapple Mango’, and Pysocarpus ‘Summer Wine.’  These can tolerate up to six weeks without rain or watering.

A perennial that looks good throughout the season is Calamintha, which is a boxwood that flowers in late July and continues until frost; the bees love it.  Two varieties are ‘White Cloud’ and ‘Elfin Purple.’

An effective ground cover, which is also good in wet places, is Green-and-Gold chrysogonum with star-shaped yellow flowers.

Green-and-Gold Chrysogonum

For a cutting garden, include the perennial campanula bernice and dianthus barbatus (sweet william) along with dahlias, asters, and zinnias.  Also consider lysimachia punctate, also known as yellow loosestrife and circle flower.

Campanula Bernice

For screening, the tendency is to use arborvitae.  The problem is when one of the arborvitae dies and you have to replace it.  The arborvitae are then no longer the same size.  A better solution is to have a variety of plants as a screen so when you have to replace one, it’s not so noticeable.

Planting Trees

Sometimes doing too much can actually hurt instead of help.  When planting a new tree, you want it to have the best start and so you heavily amend soil in the area around the tree.  However, this can cause the area around the tree to sink.  This is because the tree wants its roots to stay in the enriched soil rather than spread, causing it to have a reduced root system.  Instead, when planting a tree, make the hole only as deep as the ball of the tree and put the original soil back in place.  You can place organic matter on the top surface to amend the soil from the top down.

When staking a new tree, only leave the support on for the first year.  To leave it on longer denies the tree the ability to stand in the wind.  It’s the movement of wind that helps a tree to create a strong root system.  Roots grow in the top twelve inches of soil and grow out horizontally. Also, remove any rope, wire baskets, or burlap around the base of the tree or root ball.  Otherwise, they can strangle the tree.  Burlap is generally treated with copper so it doesn’t break down.

Other Tips

C.L. says, “Gardening constantly gives us the opportunity to get over ourselves!”

• Do not attempt to control plant growth – let plants find their way as they do in nature.  To avoid weeds, plant thickly.
• Automatic irrigation systems often waste water because they come on at the wrong times such as when it’s raining.  This can cause lawn disease.  Instead, use a manual system and a rain gauge.  If the area gets one inch of rain in a week, don’t water.  Otherwise, use the irrigation system.  Be sure to check the rain gauge frequently.
• Best location for hydrangeas is where it gets morning sum and afternoon shade.  Mulch helps to retains moisture.  Hydrangeas lose moisture in the sun causing the big leaves and flowers to flop; but if they recover by dusk, they’re fine. Otherwise, water as needed.  When pruning, cut dead wood only.
• To control voles, use a regulation mouse trap baited with potato.
• For Japanese beetles, make up a concoction of hot pepper wax or cayenne with cloves of raw garlic and strain it.  Spray it on plants before there’s a beetle problem.  Irrigation systems can aggravate the problem because of the damp soil.
• For powdery mildew on peonies, minaria, and phlox, cut the plants to the ground.
• Leaf spot doesn’t kill; water in the morning, once a week.
• Cut down peonies in August and plant the annual snow alyssum, which blossoms from mid- summer through the fall and spreads to cover a wide area.

Finally, C.L. says to “go into the garden with a mood of celebration!”

I went to the exhibit yesterday, Thursday, April 4th, and it was well worth the trip. On three sides of the Italianate Courtyard, orange nasturtium vines hang from the third floor balconies and complement beautifully the flowers that adorn the ground floor garden below including: purple hyacinths, yellow daffodils, dark blue cineraria, orange-and-lemon flowered Clivia miniata, and pale yellow azaleas. Sunlight filtering through the glass roof also highlights the lush green foliage of the other tropical plants and trees of the courtyard as well as Greek statuary. It’s a sight to behold.

The museum, meant to emulate an Italian palazzo, was built to Isabella’s specifications and houses the extensive collection of fine art and antiques that she and her late husband Jack collected in the latter half of the 19th century on their extensive travels to Europe and Asia. All of the collections were placed in the rooms of the museum by Isabella personally; she stipulated in her will that everything remain exactly as she had arranged them.

For a description and overview of the museum, see the Public Gardens section of this website.

When I spoke with the museum employees, they said the exhibit would go to about the middle of April or when the flowers expire. It may be gone by the end of next week. So don’t delay! If you can’t make it this year, make a note on your calendar to see it next year.

Also, no photography is allowed.

At the Milford Garden Club meeting on Monday, July 11th, Lynda Zukas of Churchill Gardens in Exeter, New Hampshire led us through the process of assessing the demands of our time and the needs of our property to come up with a plan that is well thought out, but not too overwhelming to execute.  Lynda has been at Churchill Gardens since 1989 and is their Annuals Manager and Container Designer as well as doing some marketing.  Like many small businesses, she says she wears many hats.  She has a degree in horticulture from the University of New Hampshire.

Churchill Gardens, which is fifty years old, is currently owned by David and Diana Kirkpatrick, who is also an artist.  They have five growing greenhouses and host special events such as the Spring Open House on March 23 & 24 (hopefully, the snow will have melted somewhat) as well as an Easter Egg Hunt on the day before Easter, March 30th.

Lynda says you can create an oasis no matter the location using interesting colors, textures, and multiseasonal interest for your business, home, or public areas such as traffic islands.

Evaluating Your Garden Needs

First, determine the style you want based on the style of the business or home – Is it Colonial or Contemporary?  Look through gardening books, website, and magazines such as Fine Gardening for ideas and advice.

Second, determine the light and watering needs of the area:

• How much sun and shade does it get?
  Full sun is when the area gets more than six hours of sun.  If it gets shade, is it all day or part of the day?
• Does it have sandy or clay soil?
  It’s vital to have good soil to start with.  You need rich, organic matter with compost for moisture retention.  With all the composters available, it’s fairly easy to make your own using kitchen scraps and plant refuse from the garden.
• Is there water nearby?
  If the area gets intense sun in the morning, it may need watering by noon.

Third, be honest with yourself about your time and resources:

• How much time and effort are you willing to put in?
• How much time are you willing to put in for maintenance?There are plenty of low-maintenance plants available that require little care.  If you have the time and interest, there’s no end to the possibilities.  In either case, consider the following:
  • Color – this is very subjective; you can use paint chips or crayons to play with color schemes; if the area is in front, be sure to coordinate with the color of the front door or house.  Green is a calming color – you can play with different shades and textures.
  • Size – the area doesn’t have to be large – a 10 x 10 space is fine.  You can put a container garden in the middle of a small green space.

Fourth, take pictures of the area at different times of the day and from different angles.  Lynda says, “pictures tell the truth” and can allow you to notice details that might otherwise escape your notice, such as what’s behind the area.  Also, it’s helpful to take pictures of other gardens (such as on a garden tour!) to get ideas of what you can do with your area.

Fifth, put your ideas on paper and take measurements so you can draw the exact shape and dimensions of the area for plant placement.

Sixth, as you select plants for the area, think of what you want from a plant:

• What is a particular plant going to do?
• Is it a focal point or a filler?
• Is it an annual or perennial?  Does it have four season interest?
• Even though you like the plant, will it actually work in this area?

New Varieties of Perennials

Some new varieties of plants are longer blooming, have fall color and interest, and have a better overall form.  Plants to consider:

- Boomerang Lilac, which blooms in May and then reblooms in July and into September
- Blue Muffin Vibernum, which has blue berries and dark foliage
- Summer Wine Physocarpus, which offers foliage and form in winter.  Effective in a mass planting with hydrangeas.

Hydrangeas now come in a wide range of colors and styles:

- Incrediball Hydrangea has a massive, sturdier stem with large white blooms that turn to green at the end of its cycle
- Limelight Hydrangea complements nearby colorful plants
- Invincibelle Spirit Hydrangea comes in various shades of pink; it blooms in the spring and reblooms in the fall

Roses and hydrangeas planted in mass can add drama to curb side area.

For a low maintenance area or one located in a difficult area such as the side of a hill, consider the following tough perennials:

- Echinaceas, which now come in yellows and oranges as well as the traditional pink
- Sedums, which come in lots of colors and textures; good for holding a banking on a hill; however, voles do like to eat the roots.
- Hostas, the variety Empress Woo will be full size in just a few years.
- Grasses, which you can use as fillers or as a back drop or as a fence with a neighbor.  Available in a variety of colors and textures, they make for a low maintenance garden with high visual impact.  While they suffer from few diseases or insects, they need at least a half day of sun.

Borders

For a low maintenance border, start small and add plants gradually aiming for simplicity.  Plant in clusters of 3′s and 5′s.  Keep plants that need deadheading and pruning together.  If you don’t like to deadhead, pick plants that don’t require it such as astilbe, false indigo, or Joe Pye Weed.

For a mixed border, provide all season interest with evergreens such as conifer.  Use classic plants as the bones of the garden such as daylilies, hosta, perennial salvia, and daisies.  Add perennial geraniums, portulaca rose, low growing sedum, basket of gold, and alyssum, all  of which are fairly hardy.  A lime green leafed plant such as the spirea bush Goldmound, makes the colors of the surrounding plants “pop.”

For a herbs & vegetable border, raised beds, trellises, and bush varieties of plants allow you to grow quite a few plants in a small area while at the same time being attractive.  I saw examples of this “edible landscaping” at the Munjoy Hill garden tour in Portland, Maine where the houses had very limited space but the owners were imaginative in how it was used.  Herbs and vegetables were artfully mixed in with flowers.  Lynda cautioned to be aware of the different fertilizer needs of vegetables and flowers.

For borders with annuals, planting in masses can provide a great impact of color.  In the past five years, I’ve noticed a considerable increase in the variety of high-quality annuals such as Proven Winners.  They last a lot longer than the standard variety that we’re used to, especially in petunias, such as Suptertunia and Wave Petunia. Even though they are more expensive, in the long run they save you money because you need fewer of them and they last throughout the season as opposed to petering out in August.

New for 2013 are:

• Lemon Slice Superbells
• Frosty Knight Lobularia, an “alyssum on steroids” says Lynda
• Picasso in Pink Supertunia, which is drought resistant as is lantana, geranium, scaevola, verbena, and sweet potato vine in lime green; don’t forget that Supertunias are hungry and thirsty
• Cleome Senorita Rosalita

Plant these in large beds using just a few plants.  A repeat of color can draw the eye through the garden to the front door or to the back of the house.

For front yard appeal no matter the type of border, you want the area to feel cozy.  Add a bench along the path.  Use plants of different heights and textures.

Containers and Window Boxes

With these you can use them on their own or to complement a garden border.  They can add height and interest as well as a focal point to a garden or a sitting area.  By switching out plants from spring to fall, you can add seasonal interest to a garden.

In the summer, you can use house plants such as caladium, ivy, ferns, and palms in containers on the porch.  For window boxes, Lynda suggests caladium, new guinea impatiens, fern, and begonias.

I have had particular success with tuberous begonias.  I start the bulbs indoors in large pots near a sunny window in April and then transfer them to the window box at the end of May where they come into full bloom by late June and continue blooming until well into September and October.  They have height and great color.  In the fall, I then let the plants dry out indoors on newspaper.  I then transfer them to a large plastic covered container filled with peat moss and store in the basement where they stay until the next year.  I have saved a great deal of money by using bulbs instead of buying new plants each year.  For early color, I plant scaevola, alyssum, and ivy as a trailing plant in front.

Fall and Winter

Plants for a fall container or window box include mums, ornamental cabbage and kale, cool tolerant annuals.  If you use fall pansies, the plant comes up again in the spring for early color.

For winter, plant a classic container with greens and berries.  But be sure to remove them when they are spent.

Throughout the season, take pictures of what worked.  Note what didn’t.  Go through gardening magazines, books, and websites as well as seed catalogs for ideas for next year.

Last Note

Lynda made us aware of a recent problem with impatiens (but not New Guinea impatiens or Sunpatiens).  A downy mildew disease has come up from Florida; the mildew likes high humidity and cooler nights.  You can treat the area with fungicide.  Since it gets into the soil, do not plant there the following year.  Lynda said many nurseries including Churchill Gardens no longer sell them.

They also don’t sell Oriental lilies because of a ladybug infestation.

Replacements for both are begonias, coleus, torenia, lobelia, browalia, New Guinea Impatiens, and Sunpatiens.

Finally, do not put diseased plants in the compost!  Bag it and dispose.

So who was Rosemary Verey? Until this book, I didn’t know about her, but she is quite renowned in the gardening world. She was a self-taught garden landscape designer famous for her laburnum walk at her garden at Barnsley House, in the Cotswolds. The image has appeared in many calendars, magazines, and books; Barbara uses it on the cover of this biography.

Barnsley House
Rosemary Verey came to gardening late in life and, in fact, had no interest when her husband’s parents gave them Barnsley House in 1951. What gardens there were she had grassed over so her four kids had more room to play. Also, in post war Britain it was hard to find people to maintain the large gardens. Around 1960, her husband, David, an architectural historian, decided to build a garden and wanted to consult with Percy Cane, a horticultural writer and garden designer. It’s at that point that Verey decided she wanted to design the garden herself and spent the 1960′s learning all she could about plants and gardens. Having studied maths and economics at London University before she married, she was able to apply her mathematical ability to garden design.

Since Barnsley House sits on only four acres, Verey adapted what she read or saw of large estate gardens in the Arts and Crafts style of the Edwardian-era to fit in a much smaller space. And this is what made Verey’s ideas accessible to the garden loving public. Although she came from an aristocratic background, she was very down-to-earth and practical and explained ideas in such a way that others felt they could emulate what she had done.

When she opened her Barnsley House garden in 1970 to the public, I’m not sure she expected it to be as popular as it was. Over 30,000 people a year visited her garden until her death in 2001.

Verey wrote her first book at age 62, The Englishwoman’s Garden, in 1980. She went on to write over twenty more books, most notably The Art of Planting and The American Man’s Garden.

Potager and Knot Gardens
Her most influential garden was the potager, a kitchen garden adapted from the one at the Chateau de Villandry in the Loire Valley in France. The sections of the garden are enclosed by clipped boxwood. In Wilmington, Delaware, the Sanford Garden is one of Verey’s potager gardens. Stairs allow you descend into the garden and appreciate the geometric design from above as well as views of the unspoiled landscape in the distance.

In her book Classic Garden Design, she described how to recreate garden features of the past, such as knot gardens with sundials and statuary. Through research, she discovered that the knots were ribbons of boxwood that wove over and under each other to create more interesting patterns than we traditionally associate with knot gardens. In this way, she brought new life to a centuries old idea.

She also was very innovative in her ideas about gardens in winter, which she discussed in her book The Garden in Winter. She felt a garden should look wonderful no matter the season, taking advantage of the form and color of evergreen and deciduous shrubs and plants in the winter landscape as well as stone structures, concentrating on design rather than flowers.

Although she had her own ideas for gardens, she was not averse to copying other’s ideas and advised Barbara ”to always carry a notebook” to capture those ideas.

Coming Into Her Own
In 1984, her husband died, leaving her with a mass of debt. So she was compelled to keep working, which was fortunate for the gardening world. She continued to write books and design gardens.

As part of a book and lecture tour, she visited the United States. She instantly felt an affinity for the American people, who loved her ideas and made her quite popular. According to Barbara, Rosemary “had an amazing personality and was full of enthusiasm. Her philosophy was that it is a sin to be dull!”

After visiting the U.S., she wrote The American Woman’s Garden and came several times a year thereafter to lecture and fulfill garden commissions.

Helen Mirren, who was in the movie Greenfingers (2000) about a gardening competition, met Verey and said she was the most intimidating person she had ever met. Given Mirren’s personality, that’s saying something!

However, Barbara said that she was generally known as the “Great Encourager” with one of her favorite sayings being “Just get on with it!”

At her garden at Barnsley House, the borders were densely planted in mostly soft tone plants such as alliums, geraniums, campanulas, clematis, and aquilegia. Barbara noted that Verey believed in “planting in layers” so the garden would look beautiful all season long. To do this, she ripped out plants when they were done blooming replacing them with others that would soon be in bloom. She would do this several times each season – editing and selecting – until her vision was complete. This to me was very reminiscent of Gertrude Jekyll who pioneered and advanced the idea of the cottage garden on a grand scale. However, Jekyll lived in the Victorian and Edwardian eras when there was plenty of inexpensive labor to fulfill her vision.

Because of the time and expense required to maintain the gardens, many Verey gardens have suffered a similar fate as the Jekyll gardens, falling into disrepair or being scaled back considerably. Unfortunately, Verey left no provisions for continuing her garden at Barnsley House. It’s had an up and down history since then and is currently a luxury hotel that is trying to revive the garden – an ornamental vegetable garden and potager.

Prince Charles and Elton John
Two of Verey’s most famous clients became friends of hers – Prince Charles, whose home Highgrove is near Barnsley House, and Elton John. Prince Charles, who commissioned her to design some of the gardens at Highgrove, helped secure an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for her. Barbara said that although Verey and Prince Charles had a falling out for time, they became friends again before her death.

Elton John, the flamboyant entertainer, appealed to Verey’s sense of fun. Apparently, she loved a good party and was often the last to leave, according to Barbara. It’s not something you would guess of a woman who with her pearls, floral dresses, and coiffed hair looks every bit the proper English lady that she was. She smoked and enjoyed her drink, but not to excess. She even had an affair in the seventies with an architect who may have had an influence on her gardens at Barnsley House. Barbara, who worked for Verey for a month as an apprentice in the early 1990′s, said that while she could be charming, she was also very opinionated and did not hesitate to make her views known. You did not cross her lightly.

You can see Verey with Elton John touring the gardens she created for him on YouTube’s Elton John’s Gardens with Rosemary Verey that was filmed in 1996.

Rosemary Verey’s Legacy
So what is Rosemary Verey’s legacy? Her designs are traditional and are in stark contrast to those of Modernist designers such as Dan Pearson and Christopher Bradley-Hole who became popular in the nineties. The fact is trends come and go and they each leave their mark and influence on those that follow. And I think that’s where Rosemary Verey stands. She brought the Arts and Crafts style garden of the Edwardian-era into the modern age, adding her own ideas along the way and making it something gardeners everywhere felt they could emulate and make their own. Her books and garden designs will continue to inspire and move garden design forward, constantly changing and evolving. Given Verey’s strong character, personality, and verve, I’m sure she wouldn’t have it any other way.

I look forward to reading Barbara Paul Robinson’s book and learning more about this fascinating garden designer and personality.

Betsy, who is a retired high school English teacher and was vice president of the Tewksbury Garden Club, has traveled with her husband up and down the east coast to visit these gardens as well as others.

The Beginning

Colonial gardens, at least in the beginning, were mainly for sustenance gardening – growing vegetable and herbs for the family.  Raised beds were built with boards or rocks to hold the soil.  These gardens grew vegetables we are familiar with today such as carrots, cabbage, turnips, and onions.

Most of the gardens, however, were “physic” gardens – herbs grown for medicinal purposes – and included lavender (also used as an insecticide), valerian, lemon balm, ladies bed straw (yellow flowered plant used for sore muscles), comfrey, tansy, rose hips, rosemary (used to improve memory). However, herbs, such as St. John’s wort, were also used as dyes for fabric and yarn as were black walnut hulls.  And, of course, they were also used for cooking such as chives, sage, basil, and lovage (tastes like celery).

Pleasure Gardens

The merchant and wealthy classes enjoyed pleasure gardens, which would be laid out in a geometric design.  There were wide paths with beds outlined by boxwood as well as a center treatment such as a sundial.  The paths were sometimes in a religious cross pattern to reflect the belief that “a garden affords a way to study God’s wisdom and the beauty of creation, Betsy explained.  This I didn’t know and will certainly be looking for examples of this when I next visit colonial gardens.

Gardening was considered an activity for a wise man since he needed to know Latin, math, design, and soil composition.  The garden reflected religion, morality, science, and “makes for a hearty, healthy moral home.”  I found this interesting because Eudora Welty  in her short stories of the South makes references to the idea that the condition of a garden reflects the morality of the owner.

To get the most out of the growing season, glass bell jars and hot frames were used to protect plants from frost.  Hot frames look like cold frames but use manure to heat the soil and create warmth for the plants.

Flowers you will generally see in a colonial garden include Love Lies Bleeding, globe amaranth, columbine, as well as roses.  Apparently, William Bradford brought rose bushes from England and planted them at the settlement in Plymouth in 1620.

In the better gardens, there would often also be a “folly” (small building of wood or stone used solely for decoration) in the garden, perhaps with a shade well to water the garden.  On the edge of the garden would be the “necessary,” or privy, made of brick or wood in a high-style.

Founders of Our Country as Gardeners

After the American Revolution, the trend was more toward naturalistic gardens to reflect the ideals of the new nation,  which included preserving nature and living more simply than those in Europe.

Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were avid gardeners.  Washington freed gardens from geometric design, if only by softening the corners of the beds.  He softened the driveways by making them winding instead of straight.  He insisted on growing American trees that he gathered from around the country and included red bud (looks similar to a cherry tree), maple, and dogwood trees.

Jefferson strived for practical beauty.  He placed Monticello on a hill for the view and terraced on the south side to grow vegetables and fruit for the entire plantation including slaves.  He was the first person in the U.S. to grow tomatoes, which were thought to be poisonous by the general population at that time.

The home of  John Quincy and Abigail Adams in Quincy, Massachusetts has an historic orchard and an 18th century style formal garden.  It contains thousands of annuals and perennials including the Yorkist Rose Tree planted by Abigail in 1788.  The scent of lilac trees and roses would waft through the open windows into the house.

This property was more simple and smaller than that of Mount Vernon and Monticello.  After the revolution, the open lawn was more curved than linear and with the trees planted at the edges of the lawn the landscape looked more naturalistic.

Restoring a Colonial Garden

So how does one restore a colonial garden that has reverted back to fields, especially if you’re not sure of its exact location?  Well, aerial photographs come in handy as they reveal the shadows of the outline and paths of the garden that lie beneath the grassed over fields.  Also, the owners frequently left descriptions of their gardens in diaries and journals along with drawings and photographs.  The style of the original house and similar ones in the  neighborhood can indicate the type of garden grown.  Newspapers, catalogs, and surveys of the time can also reveal a great deal.

I’ve been to restored colonial gardens at the Codman House in Lincoln, Massachusetts and the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut.  You can almost feel the presence of the original gardeners who designed and continually tended to their gardens, showering them with love and devotion.  We can see similarities to our own modern gardens especially with plants such as delphiniums, echinacea, and roses, and perhaps pick up some old ideas made new again.

We are lucky on the east coast, especially in New England, to enjoy a plethora of historical properties from our early history that often include gardens.  Without fail, the properties and gardens  are restored, maintained, and shared with the public by colonial history experts and a group of dedicated volunteers.  The Public Gardens section of this website describes several colonial homes and gardens, with more to come!

• Two gardens in Connecticut:
  Palmer Arboretum in Woodstock
  Hill-Stead Museum Garden in Farmington
• Two gardens associated with the University of Maine:
  Lyle Littlefield Ornamentals Trial Garden in Orono
  Rogers Farm Demonstration Garden in Old Town
• Two gardens in Massachusetts:
  Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Gardens in Boston
  Beauport, Sleeper McCann House Gardens in Gloucester
• One garden in Vermont:
  Marsh-Billings-Rockerfeller Garden in Woodstock

I have not forgotten New Hampshire and Rhode Island!  Those gardens will be in the next batch.

I don’t think you’ll find a more interesting mix of gardens – they’re each so unique.  I received requests from members of the Palmer Arboretum and from the University of Maine to include their gardens.  They either sent information or sent pointers to information on the internet.  I welcome such requests because very often these gardens are not listed in any book or are on any garden or arboretum websites.  So if you know of a public garden that generally would not be known, please send me the information or a pointer to information and I will include it in the next batch of gardens.

Palmer Arboretum in Woodstock, CT

Founded in 1914, this arboretum fell into disrepair over the decades but was restored in 1985 by a group of concerned citizens.  Trees include a huge purple beech, a grove of false cypresses, gingko, English oak, amongst many others including a grove of Devil’s walking stick that kids will enjoy.

Hill-Stead Museum Garden in Farmington, CT

This estate took five years to create starting in 1896 and belonged to the industrialist Alfred Pope.  It was his daughter Theodate, a pioneering female architect, who designed the house and, with landscape architect Warren Manning, created a landscape that echoed that of the 18th century farmsteads.  With Beatrix Farrand, the renowned landscape designer, she redesigned the asymmetrical sunken garden with tall drystone walls, a summer house, brick paths, and flower beds.

Lyle Littlefield Ornamentals Trial Garden in Orono, ME

Started in the 1960′s, this garden allows you to view a collection of over 2500 woody and herbaceous plants.
Rogers Farm Demonstration Garden in Old Town, ME

This garden includes several gardens including an All-America Selections Display garden, a Japanese garden, a native plant garden as well as  a perennial border.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Gardens in Boston, MA

The museum has been undergoing renovations and expansion the past several years including that of  the outdoor gardens.  The interior courtyard garden is constantly changing its display of plants and so there is always something new to see.

Beauport, Sleeper McCann House Gardens in Gloucester, MA

The gardens here have also been undergoing renovation since 2009, restoring them to how they looked in the 1920′s and 1930′s.  They reflect the Arts and Crafts movement of the day where a naturalistic landscape gradually changes to more formal garden “rooms.”

Marsh-Billings-Rockerfeller Garden in Woodstock, VT

Part of the Marsh-Billings-Rockerfeller national park, the garden was started by Mary Rockerfeller in the 1950′s.  It reflects her love of color especially of blue.  There are also an azalea and rhododendron garden, a rock garden, and a cutting garden.

Like many of you, I’ve gone on numerous garden tours over the years and have often marveled at the seamless organization that makes a garden tour a success. Every detail is covered from selling the tickets, to producing brochures and maps, and ensuring everyone has a good time at each garden.

That said, I’ve been on several garden tours where I’ve been frustrated with a map that is hard to read, had difficulty finding the gardens because of a lack of signs, or visited a garden that did not offer water to quench my thirst on a hot summer day.

So what goes into a successful, well-executed garden tour? That is what I will attempt to outline in this section.

For any organization, putting together a garden tour involves commitment and a lot of work. It can be a daunting task for those who have done it before and know what they are doing. It can seem overwhelming for those who have never organized a garden tour before. In this new section, I want to give organizations a place to start. Of course there will be variations depending on the needs, resources and size of an organization or community. But this section will offer a structure of tasks that is common to all and lay the groundwork for what needs to be done.

I gathered this information from interviewing people who have extensive experience organizing garden tours for their organizations. I want to thank the following people for graciously sharing their knowledge with me:

Polly Shumaker of the South Church Congregational Church in Concord, New Hamphshire.

Mary Burke of the South Church, a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Gretchen Judd of the Peterborough Garden Club in New Hampshire

Drawn from New England: Tasha Tudor, A Portrait in Words and Pictures by Bethany Tudor, 1979

Bethany Tudor, Tasha’s eldest daughter, describes what it was like to grow up in the Tudor-McCready family in the 40′s and 50′s. She provides us with details of her family history not offered in other books, such as a more complete picture of Tasha’s father William Starling Burgess who not only designed yachts, but also small planes that he also built, and was a poet and storyteller. She describes Tasha’s childhood growing up in Aunt Gwen’s home in Connecticut; the bohemian existence greatly influenced the direction of her life. We learn what inspired her to become an illustrator and the difficulty in getting her first book published. We also get an inside look at Bethany’s life growing up in an old house in New Hampshire without running water and electricity with her family raising farm animals and growing their own food. Even though they worked hard as a family, Tasha also made their life almost magical with festivities throughout the year, especially at Christmas, and with activities such as marionette shows and a Sparrow Post with their dolls with miniature cards and catalogs. We learn more about how her love of Corgis began and how they inspired her work. And, finally, Bethany talks about Tasha’s move to Vermont, her life there, and the success she continued to have with her work. The book contains many photographs not found elsewhere. It is a loving tribute to a mother who provided inspiration, creativity, and a work ethic for her children.

The Private World of Tasha Tudor by Tasha Tudor and Richard Brown, 1992

In this book, we learn about Tasha Tudor, her life and work as the four seasons progress at her home in Corgi Cottage in Marlboro, Vermont. Richard Brown gives an overview of her life in the introduction from her Boston society beginnings, her accomplished parents, her life with her Aunt Gwen that shaped her ideas of what she wanted to do in life, her marriage and children, and her career as an illustrator. The book uses the four seasons as a backdrop to Tasha’s recollections of her life – memories and insights into what she experienced from a very early age to the present. It also allows the reader to see how she lives at Corgi Cottage from her love of the 1830′s with her collection of antique clothing and implements, to gardening and to her pets. We see her spinning and weaving, and learn more about her fascination with dolls and how she created a world around them that her children could enjoy. The book is like a personal visit with Tasha at her home, listening to her memories and philosophy on life, seeing how she lives, and experiencing some of the magic of the life she’s created.

The Tasha Tudor Cookbook: Recipes and Reminiscences from Corgi Cottage, Tasha Tudor, 1993

This book reminds you that the best meals are simple and basic and made with love. It’s wonderful to see the recipes (or “receipts”) that are referred to in the books about Tasha Tudor such as roast chicken and mashed potatoes, and the New Year’s dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. It includes how to roast a turkey in a tin kitchen; although most of us don’t cook in a fireplace or have a tin kitchen, it is still interesting to read how it’s done. Of course, the book wouldn’t be complete without her Scottish nanny’s Dundee cake and hot cross buns. Each recipe in the book is introduced by Tasha with stories of how they came to be and advice on cooking the dish.

Tasha Tudor’s Garden, Tovah Martin and Richard Brown, 1994

Tovah Martin was a friend of Tasha Tudor and visited her many times at her home in Marlboro, Vermont. She describes Tasha’s home and goes through the seasons with Tasha in her garden, letting Tasha talk about her ideas and stories about gardening. Although Tasha says she did not plan her garden, a structure is evident with the terraces providing support and boundaries within which Tasha creates and changes garden areas as she goes along. Coming from a long line of gardeners, Tasha avidly seeks out heirloom seeds and plants. In spring, her garden is awash in all types of bulbs especially daffodils and tulips along with the blue forget-me-nots. She loves primroses and plants seeds in the fall to enjoy plants in the spring. In June, the azaleas, bluebells, her mother’s lettuce poppies, “bomb type” peonies, and many roses set the stage for summer solstice with a Midsummer’s Eve party held in her lupine meadow. Tasha works hard but has help from family and friends with whom she’ll enjoy her daily ritual of tea time; later in the day she sketches in the garden. There’s a rhythm to her day that includes milking the goats and taking care of her animals. We learn about her secret garden as well as her secrets for growing lush flowers and vegetables (such as manure tea). Her meadow is filled with wildflowers featuring lupine, daisies, lavender rocket, black-eyed susan, and echinacea. She makes all sorts of wonderful treats from her fruit trees and berries. In the fall, we see her harvesting and storing potatoes, her favorite, and other root vegetables as well as drying herbs and planting yet more bulbs to welcome the spring.

Tasha Tudor’s Heirloom Crafts by Tovah Martin and Richard Brown, 1995

This book provides an overview of the tasks and activities that Tasha performed daily to live the 1830′s lifestyle she so loved ; the word “crafts” was used in the title for want of a better word. We learn more about the 1740 farmhouse that her son Seth built for her and its contents; that everything in the house has a purpose including chests, buckets, utensils, as well as baskets she’s made for vegetables and laundry. Tovah is by her side as she shows her what she does each day over the course of the changing seasons: gardening, weaving fabric, washing, dying, and spinning wool, taking care of her chickens and goats, cheese making, candle making, soap making, cooking on the woodstove, cider making, preparing for Christmas and Easter, quilting, dressmaking, and doll making. This is not a how-to book, but rather a look at the skills that Tasha has cultivated over the decades. In the course of showing the activities she so dearly loves to do, she talks about her life, her way of living and how it has evolved. Richard Brown captures in photos what Tovah so beautifully describes in text. There’s even a beautiful photo of the blue Canton tea set that Tasha often talked about and has been in her family for centuries.

The Art of Tasha Tudor by Harry Davis, 2000

Harry Davis, who studied art, became Tasha Tudor’s business partner in the 1980′s. He provides a detailed picture of her life from childhood to adulthood, including her marriage to William McCready and their four children. This personal background gives the reader a better understanding of not only the spirit at the core of her being, but also the challenges that life brought her and how she met them. As he is an artist also, he gave an insightful overview of her artistic development from her early art education to her career as an illustrator and author. At the same time, he describes her life in the 40′s and 50′s that she led with her family and inspired so many of her works. She enjoys her new freedom in the 1960′s with her children grown and having divorced McCready. Her creative endeavors continue with her move to Vermont in 1971 where she lived the 1830′s life she dreamed of, caring for her animals, particularly the Corgis, that permeated her later works.

Forever Christmas by Harry Davis, 2000

Although this book was not sanctioned by Tasha Tudor because of an acrimonious parting with Harry Davis, it nonetheless offers a view of Christmases celebrated by Tasha Tudor and her family. Harry Davis, who has treasured his Tasha Tudor Advent calendar since he was a child, takes us through the Christmas season with Tasha revealing the rituals and activities of the season that makes the season magic for her and others. Starting with the boxwood Advent wreath that Tasha has made for decades, we see her lovingly weave through it a red satin ribbon that adorned the pews at her parents’ wedding. On St. Nicholas day (December 6), she celebrates with an Advent tea featuring Dundee cake, a recipe from her Scottish nanny. She tells how she and her children would start making gifts in the summer – all gifts given are handmade; she talks about the gifts that were special to her as a child. Harry describes her fascination with snow from a child making snow horses with her friend Rose to making snow lanterns later in life. Then there’s the gingerbread ornaments for which she is famous, having made them for the White House. She doesn’t forget the animals at Christmas, hanging doughnuts on trees for the birds and giving treats to chickens, goats, Corgis, and parrots. It all culminates on Christmas Eve when they make a candlelit trek through the woods to the creche on the stone ledge. Christmas day we see the preparations for dinner featuring turkey roasted by the fire in a tin kitchen that has been in Tasha’s family for generations. The day ends with the lighting of the candles on the Christmas tree adorned with ornaments going back to 1858. There’s much more to discover in this book whose photos of her preparing for Christmas and illustrations from her books are exquisite.

The exhibit “Frocks” goes until October 20th when the museum also closes for the season.  Because I want to get this blog out as soon as possible so others will be aware that there are only a few weeks left to visit the museum, I won’t have all the book summaries completed.  I’ll post the summaries as I complete them.

The museum is located in the Jeremiah Beal House on Western Avenue in West Brattleboro, which is owned by the Brattleboro Historical Society. The Beal House is a Federal Style brick building from the early 1800s and may have been a stop on the Underground Railway before the Civil War.

The Tasha Tudor museum occupies just two rooms on the second floor of the Beal House.  Opened in 2009, this is their third season as a museum.  Leigh Branson, the museum’s curator, warmly greets you as you enter and will answer any questions that you may have.  I asked Leigh why they were in such a small space.  She said that they wanted to start small, especially since the recession was well underway when they opened in 2009, and they wanted to learn about the policies and procedures necessary to run a museum effectively on a small scale first before taking on a larger space.  The museum has been well received since it opened and has many supporters. So in time, they will move to a larger space and perhaps be able to offer classes as well as display more of Tasha’s items from her work and her home.

The first room that you enter is dominated by an early 19th century counter-balance loom on which Tasha wove many fabrics in between cooking and doing other chores.  Occasionally, there is someone who can demonstrate how the loom works.  There’s also a display in the corner of cards, illustrations, soaps, and other items for sale.

In the next room is the current exhibit of Tasha’s antique dresses or frocks.  The exhibit includes seven of the many antique dresses that Tasha owned.  Her dress collection had been on loan to Colonial Williamsburg and most of this collection was auctioned off in 2007; Tasha bequeathed several of her favorites to her family who have loaned them to the museum for the exhibit.

As you may know, Tasha was enamored with the 1830′s and 1840′s and how people lived then.  It was a simpler time in that there was far less technology than we’re used to now.  But it also entailed a great deal of arduous work without benefit of electricity and running water.  Tasha emulated this lifestyle – raising farm animals, growing vegetables and flowers, making her own clothes – while raising  her four children in a 19th century farmhouse in New Hampshire.  However, Tasha didn’t look at this way of living as arduous; she loved the time period, known as the Romantic Era, that spoke to her soul and spirit.

Tasha loved to wear her antique dresses, which she started collecting at the age of nine, as they made her feel feminine and part of this time period.  Collectors would frown upon her wearing the antique dresses, but Tasha felt they were there to be enjoyed and wore them often.

She also made her own dresses from that time period.  She had the gift of being able to see a picture of a dress and to work out a pattern from which she could make the dress, sewing it by hand and with an antique treadle sewing machine.  Her vast knowledge of historic clothing gave her the confidence to add her own creative touches to her dresses and other items.

One of the dresses that she made was an 1870′s purple bustle dress with details such as piping, a watch pocket, and a bustle back.  She used the sewing machine to put together the main pieces and then hand-stitched the detailing in the front.

Next to it was a Pierre Deux dress in a tan cotton fabric that Tasha made in 1984.  Pierre Deux was a luxury textile and decor company that specialized in French Country style.  Tasha met the owner Pierre Moulin, who subsequently had her make sample dresses for a possible collection to market and sell.  She made the samples but the project never went further.  He did use the samples for a window display in connection with the Steven Sondheim play Sunday in the Park with George.

Contrasting with the simple Pierre Deux dress was an 1830′s antique dress next to it – a paisley floral cotton day dress.  This dress reflected the Romantic Era fashion at the time with a wide swooping neckline, large mutton sleeves, a narrow waist, and a bell-shaped skirt.  Very feminine and in remarkably good condition.

An evening version of this dress came next in brown silk taffeta.  This was likely worn for more formal occasions such as a dinner or dance, or a coming out ball for a society debutante.  Even though Tasha was born into a family that figured prominently in 19th century Boston society, she had no interest in debutante balls, much to the chagrin of her mother and older brother Frederic.  As she said, “I didn’t give a damn about that, I just wanted to work in my garden and milk my cow.”

The formal brown silk gown was followed by Tasha’s favorite dress – an 1840′s silk pink and bronze striped dress with tassels and a silk pelerine, or cape.   On the inside of the pelerine, Tasha found a tag that showed it had been displayed in the 1911 Scottish Exhibition of Natural History, Art, and Industry as a wedding dress.

In contrast to the formal wedding dress, an 1840′s wool dress that Tasha wore in autumn and winter followed.  You can see it the book Tasha Tudor’s Garden.  It had brown, red, and blue striping with hemline pleats, popular at that time.  She paired it with a wool shawl, a neck kerchief, half apron, and layers of petticoats, and wool stockings.  Even though it was rare, she wore it daily.

The last dress was a purple cotton frock with a floating panel on the back that Tasha copied from an 1880′s original.  You can see this dress in the documentary Take Joy: the Magical World of Tasha Tudor.

Prior to this dress, Tasha wore her “Stillwater” dress.  Stillwater was her imagined New England religious sect that promotes the idea of a peaceful life filled with joy.  The Stillwater dress designed and made Tasha had a gathered skirt attached to a fitted button down bodice with tapered sleeves.  You can see her wearing it in the book Tasha Tudor’s Garden.  She would wear these dresses until they were practically rags, so it is hard to find an original.

Leigh said that they want children to feel welcome at the museum and have things that they are allowed to touch.  So there are some toys, dolls, and marionettes as well as a trunk of dress up clothes for children to enjoy, allowing the adults with them time to take in the exhibit as well as Tasha Tudor books and merchandise.

I highly recommend a visit to this exhibit.  It’s one thing to read about her dresses, it’s quite another to actually see the dresses and more fully understand and appreciate Tasha’s love for the time period from which they came.  I think the museum will expand in the next several years as support for their mission grows.  A larger space will allow them to display more of the items from Tasha’s life and perhaps offer classes in the skills that Tasha used daily, such as weaving and cooking.  In the meantime, the museum will continue to feature exhibits.  The next one may be about the dolls Tasha created.

Tours of Tasha’s house in Marlboro, Vermont are offered in the summer.  These are very popular and tickets sell out fast.  Start looking in February of a list of tours.  See the websites www.tashatudormuseum.org/ and www.tashatudorandfamily.com/ for more information.