The Olde Stone Quarry

Tree Peonies in bloom, May 2019 What's going on in the English garden so far this spring? Plants in the English Garden are slowly emerging and just a couple early bloomers such as the Rock Cress and some early yellow primrose are showing color. Today the Peony hoops have been installed to hold up the gorgeous blooms we should be seeing in about a month. The Greenhouse crew was busy growing lots of replacement perennials for the English Garden in the past several months. Some of the plants were started as seed or divisions taken in the fall and others were bought in as bare root. Because our Greenhouse space in so limited and annual production is in full swing, this meant we had to get the perennials out quickly to their new home in the English Garden. To do this so early, we had to slowly transfer perennials grown in a 75 degree greenhouse, to a make shift cold frame, and then lastly outside to get them acclimated to our cold nights. Thousands of plants in one o...

Sunrise over the Manor House, April 10, 2020. Yoshino Cherries in bloom with a pink cloud background, and in the foreground, fittingly, an heirloom variety of apple tree known as "Snow." There is an old adage, "It always snows on the daffodils." Weeping cherry tree and snowy daffodils near the Gardener's Cottage. I am not sure the origin of this wisdom, but snow on the daffodils is something most springs in Ohio you can count on. For one thing, daffodils have a very long blooming season: the earliest arriving sometimes in February, with a continued progression of bloom more or less through April. And most Aprils, we can count on one or more big snows. Manor House viewed through the Rose Garden, April 10, 2020. Including Good Friday, April 10, 2020. We awoke to several inches of light fluffy snow. And at sunrise, pink clouds over the Manor House cleared way for briefly blue skies. Rising sun illuminates the Birch Allee, April 10, 2020...

A fuchsia-hued peony, from May 2019, outside the English Garden One of the jewels of our garden is our extensive collection of Peonies. In the Great Garden alone, we have dozens of named varieties. Rain-splattered bud of Peony 'Doreen' in the Great Garden It is startling how rapidly those crimson stalks rise each spring.  They look like the most delicious asparagus in the world, but surprisingly few if any critters choose to nibble on them. They are mildly toxic. Rapidly rising crimson stalks in the Great Garden In a few weeks, they will bear their gloriously lavish flowers. They are beloved by our volunteer flower arrangers for their brief but glorious season. Our dried flower arrangers also have a knack for preserving these bodacious but ephemeral blooms. Some of our peony hoops in the Pole Barn, waiting to be deployed. We will use all of these (and more) before peony season is over. Until then, we will do our best to keep up! The stalks grow pro...

Lagoons at the old quarry site, March 2020 Something is afoot at the old stone quarry. Our chain of romantic lagoons, once a place for swimming and fishing and diving and ice skating have, over the decades settled and filled. Some retain a respectable depth of water. Others have become shallow muddy puddles. Fred and Ethel Our resident pair of migratory Canada geese, Fred and Ethel, are nonplussed. They are happy with mud or deep water. They are just wondering what all of the fuss and heavy equipment is all about: this is the spot they return to each spring to raise their brood. These old stone quarries inspired landscape architect Warren Manning to create a naturalistic landscape and gardens for the Seiberling family's great estate. He wanted to draw from and highlight the existing scenery and vistas into the Crooked River's valley. It is from these old stone quarries the Stan Hywet derives its name. He re-imagined them as lagoons with moon bridges an...

Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest Hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower;  But only so an hour. Robert Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay" Early daffodils in the Birch Tree Allee Over the last few weeks, volunteers have asked if I could send a few pictures during these days that we are away from the garden. So here are a few snapshots from yesterday’s drizzly first day of April. So many of our earliest spring flowers are gold. They cheer you up when the sun refuses to shine, and absolutely blaze when the sun finally hits them. Cornelian-Cherry Dogwood in the Birch Tree Allee Forsythia and Yoshino Cherry, just starting to bloom, by the side of the Manor House Forsythia and Cranberry Viburnum berries by the Gardener's Cottage. A favorite perch for birds. The sun makes an appearance over the Manor House, illuminating the forsythia banks. Rain drizzled frilly daffodils in the Great Garden. A pale yellow...

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:  when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. Charles Dickens These late days of March are supposed to be the lamb. But sometimes, when the sky rages, they can be the lion. Welcome cleansing gusts. So much can change with the wind.  Today started drab and drizzly. But then the wind picked up. The sky cleared. And suddenly, there was blue in the sky. Remnants of clouds, fluffy and white, brought out the Star Magnolia, Magnolia stellata, just now beginning to bloom. They are welcome harbingers of all the spring shrubs that will soon bear flowers. Such pristene white. Such perfect stars. All the more welcome on this bracing, gusty day.