Category Archives: Garden Travel

One of the things I love to do when traveling

Is visit local gardens.

So on our recent family trip

To Newport and its Jazz Festival

We headed for Bellevue Avenue

And the mansions of the “Gilded Age”.

They are spectacular.

Unbelievable really.

Actually, a little too unbelievable for our taste.

There likely were elaborate gardens

At one point.

But not so much today.

There are however seas of hydrangea

Blue mopheads, green limelights and

Of course, Annabelles.

But I like real gardens

The kind that are a bit messy and unkept

Like mine.

Luckily Elliott discovered Blithewold Mansion and Gardens

Down the road in Bristol, R. I.

Though Blithewold was built during the same era

It has a completely different feel.

I feels like a family lived, played and gardened there.

The estate is currently 33 acres.

It is filled with a cutting garden, vegetable garden

Water garden, bamboo forest, rose garden, greenhouses

And an arboretum.

Generally, I head straight for the flowers

And they were wonderful.

Many of the things I grow

And others I’ve long been curious about.

It did not disappoint.

But the trees are what captivated me.

In particular the Giant Sequoia.

Now remember, I’m on the east coast

Not California.

I know, I was a bit confused myself.

I don’t remember how the first one came to Blithewold

But Marjorie Randolph Van Wickle Lyon the daughter who grew up here

Took it upon herself

To learn to propagate them.

And propagate she did.

The origianal Sequoia is now 90 feet tall.

There are a dozen more on their estate

All of which are the product of Marjorie’s ingenuity.

It seems she created so many that she gave them

To guests who visited.

I like this lady.

So let’s think about this.

A young woman

Born in 1883

Into an era and a social strata

That shall we say

Didn’t encourage women to do

Well…anything.

Yet, she decides to propagate

GIANT SEQUOIA !

Marjorie never had children

Yet she left a legacy that will last generations.

So as three generations of Wynnes

Explored her home

I couldn’t help but think about the legacy

And memories

We create each day.

Hoping that we will leave such a lasting legacy.

Gail

Gardens