IU10 Day Two Part One-Landcraft Environments

Out of all the places we were scheduled to visit during IU10, I was most excited about the personal garden of Dennis Schrader and Bill Smith, owners of Landcraft Environments, a wholesale grower of tropicals, tender perennials and unusual annuals located in Mattituck.  Those of you who live in the northeast and buy lots of tender plants may recognize their signature HOT PLANTS brand nursery containers.  In my neck of the woods only the more discriminating nurseries stock them.  Every year I buy a ***few***.

A quick google search will show that I'm not the first blogger to visit Dennis and Bill's garden and I likely won't be the last. Pictures don't do the garden justice though so if you ever get a chance to visit in person, jump on it. Last weekend they participated in The Garden Conservancy Open Days.  If my memory serves me this is a once a season event.

From the shady side street, the attractive restored saltbox home gives few clues to the garden within.  Not until you begin to stroll up the driveway to the garden gate do you realize that this is no ordinary garden.  Along the way you pass beds stuffed with artistic combinations of bodacious tropical plants.  Emphasis is on foliage.  Excitement and anticipation build.  This is going to be good!

With the exception of the front of the house the entire garden is fenced to keep the hooved minions of Satan at bay.  Just outside the entry gate was this large tree draped in a cloak of Hydrangea petiolaris with a supporting cast of shady characters at it's feet.

 

 

 

Window boxes were overflowing with a creative medley of tender plants.  Oh to have a commercial greenhouse filled with tropical treasures at one's disposal!  

 

 

 

 

Once inside the gate we gathered in this impeccably maintained courtyard overflowing not only with plants but with attention to detail.  

 

 

 

 

 

Details like this playful mixture of foliage against the garage wall.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun drenched deck and patio areas created the perfect stage to display succulent collections.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And if the garden wasn't fabulous enough, check out the house.

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

I loved the house. 

 

 

 

 

L-O-V-E-D the house.

 

 

 

 

Anyone relaxing on the covered back deck is treated to this long view of the garden.  In the distance is a garden area Dennis and Bill referred to as the controlled meadow. 

 

 

 

 

Flanking the lawn on the walk to the meadow are more beds chock full of tender and tropical plants.  A chilly, wet spring and late start left these plants sulking a bit in mid June but come August I imagine this garden is just an explosion of color. 

 

 

 

 

Bill and Dennis couldn't have been more generous and gracious with their time and knowledge.  Our group consists almost exclusively of zone pushing plant geeks who couldn't have been more appreciative.

 

 

Bill talks plants with part of our group

 

 

 

 

While Dennis leads the rest of the group through the meadow

 

 

 

  

 

Not too many roses make me stand up and take notice but this huge purple rambler got my attention.  Unfortunately this picture does not do it justice.  Weather conditions were beautiful for this trip but the clear sunny days made picture taking a challenge.  Most of mine came out overexposed to a point where no amount of photo editing could recapture the actual details.

 



 







 

 

Succulents in containers lurked around every corner.  I've just recently begun dabbling in this genre of plant design.  Fortunately for me I don't have all that much sun or interest to tend to plants indoors because I could see how quickly collecting these could become an obsession.



 

 

 

 

One of the many garden rooms we encountered throughout the three acre garden.

 

 

 

 

The Tiki House was an unexpected surprise in the middle of the garden.  At this point I would have been perfectly content to declare that it was noon somewhere and crack open a bottle of wine but we still had places to go and gardens to see.

 

 

 



 

Yes, we're still on Long Island.

 

 

 

 

What better place for a bunch of plant geeks to spend a beautiful summer morning?  Even if this garden was the only one I visited during the trip I would have gone home happy.  Thanks so much Dennis and Bill!  Please keep stocking CT nurseries with your Hot Plants.

 

And what better way to conclude a swoon worthy garden tour than some good food.  Following Dennis and Bill's suggestion, we had a delicious lunch at Love Lane Kitchen in downtown Mattituck.  Once again I have to give kudos to a restaurant for efficiently handling a group of 12 on such short notice.  Timing is everything though and we usually try to eat on the early side of mealtimes.

 

Since I've already rambled om long enough, I'm going to save the second half of this day for another post.  With four bloggers on this trip, good coverage was guaranteed.  My friend Deanne posted her take of the Landcraft garden weeks ago and although we probably took some of the same pictures, hers are infinitely better than mine.  When I took a looked at the calendar and realized over a month has passed since this visit I was honestly floored.  Life is so much about too much to do, so little time, isn't it?

 

Sue~ 

 

 

 

 

 

IU Converges on Planting Fields Arboretum and Old Westbury Gardens

The first official day of IU10 (and the sixth day of frivolity for me) was Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay and Old Westbury Gardens in Old Westbury.

Planting Fields was the first up and the drive over from the hotel gave us our first dose of Long Island rush hour traffic.  Originally I'm from the Boston area so I'm no stranger to traffic but after living in central Connecticut where my commute to work for the past 18 years has been on residential and secondary roads, I've become less immune and alot more impatient.  Impatience can be a virtue but in traffic not so much.  Don't get me started on the usefulness (or frequent lack thereof) of GPS or we'll be here all day. 

Back to the regularly scheduled program...Planting Fields Arboretum is a former estate now an historic state park located on it's original 409 acres.  A foundation established by the original owner, works in conjunction with the State of New York to manage all aspects of maintaining and staffing the property.  Based on how clean and well manicured everything was, my guess is the foundation isn't hurting for cash.     

Coe Hall, a 65 room Tudor revival mansion at Planting Fields Arboretum

The beautiful pool area was set in a sunken garden.  On this warm, sunny day that water sure looked tempting.  I wonder if anyone ever takes a dip?

Impeccably maintained and well designed raised perennial beds surrounded the pool.  Formal gardens are not usually my style but everything about the pool design appealed to me.

Nepeta edges a walkway through a section of the rose garden.



A dead espaliered fruit tree being used as a creative natural garden sculpture.

For the tropicalesque afficionado, the main greenhouse was a sight to behold.  One of my traveling companions, Kathy, has already written a blog post about the Planting Fields greenhouse HERE.  She spent more time poking around and her pictures are infintely better than mine.

 

 

 

 

One of my friends took this picture of me in the main greenhouse.  Do I look like Alice in Wonderland or what? 

 

 

 

 

This well designed small shady space located right outside the greenhouse entrance made great use of foliage texture and color.  Even with out the Fuchsias, it would be interesting all season.

 

 

 

 

Other areas surrounding the greenhouses were planted with interesting arrays of tropical foliage and annual color.

 



 

 

 

 

A Lantana standard...access to winter green house space can turn horticultural dreams into reality.

 

 

 

 

 

Finding food on the go for a dozen people on these trips can be a challenge.  Usually we book hotels that offer free breakfast to save time in the morning and I must say the breakfast at The Hampton Inn was decent.  We were disappointed to learn that the Cafe at Planting Fields (offering food advertised as homemade and gourmet) was not open during the week.

 

Meal skipping is not allowed on this trip so fortunately Westbury Gardens also had a cafe.  More like a snack shack in a wooded setting, it was counter service and picnic tables.   Food choices were limited and despite the light midweek crowd they were running out of items and seemed overwhelmed.  Although I've had better, my lunch was good.   

 

Westbury Gardens is listed on the National register of Historic Places is another well preserved former estate.  In my quest to find out more than what was provided on the official website, I came across an excellent article on a travel site called The History Trekker.  If you're nosy like me, check out the article   

 

 

Westbury House at Old Westbury Gardens



 

View of the South Allee from the South Terrace of Westbury House

 

 

 

Hey, I think I know these people!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Doesn't my friend Lisa look like she belongs here?

 

 

 

 

A former playhouse, this thatched roof cottage is now part of the children's garden.  Usually a children's garden is no place for me but on this day the children were elsewhere.

 

 



 

 

On the day of our visit, legions of people were hanging these battery powered lanterns all throughout the garden in preparation for an upcoming evening event.  Given the number of lanterns I saw, I'll bet the effect was pure enchantment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite part of Old Westbury was the Walled Garden.  Brick and limestone walls, similiar to those used in the house, surround the garden which is divided into six large sections by walkways and planted in an English mixed border style.

 

At the time of our visit I was suprised to see Astilbe used as the predominant blooming plant in just about every bed in the Walled Garden.  Don't get me wrong-I love Astilbe and the effect was absolutely gorgeous but in my garden Astilbe blooms for maybe a couple of weeks then over time the foliage dries up and goes to complete crap.  I know there are many cultivars and some are more drought tolerant than others but before touring this garden I never looked at Astilbe as a front and center plant.  My bad maybe. 





 

 





 

 

The main focal point in the Walled Garden was this lotus pond and beautiful pergola structure.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

I read that the balustrades were inspired by ones in the Boboli Garden in Florence.  In 2004 I was lucky enough to visit the Boboli Gardens during a trip to Rome and Florence.

 

 

 

What a relief to see my friends had the good taste to match their outfits to the roses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More amazing drifts of Astilbe.  Honestly, I would love to see what this garden looks like in August.  But Old Westbury wasn't the only garden we visited on this trip that relied heavily on Astilbe.  Of all places, the High Line...but I'm getting ahead of myself. 

 

 

 

 

We finished garden touring with a little time to spare before dinner.  Monique, our trip planner extraordinaire suggested a stop at Peconic River Herb Farm.  An upside to driving to an IU is being able to shop without the dealing with the logistics of how to get your purchases home.  Don't be fooled by the name.  Peconic River is a fully stocked nursery-the plant selection was first rate-everything from trees and shrubs to perennials to annuals.  I found a couple of plants I'd been looking for so naturally they came home with me.

 

 

 

 

The Gift Barn at Peconic River Herb Farm



 

 

No pictures but I want to give a shout out to the Farm Country Kitchen in Riverhead for setting up and accomodating a dozen people for dinner on less than an hour notice.  Fabulous food, quaint old building, riverside dining, BYOB...if I lived in the area this would be a frequent haunt.

 

What a day!  Seven days down.  Only three more days of this frivolity to go and I've already gotten my second wind.

 

Sue~