As we grow into our gardens I think we all develop trademarks - styles of gardening or a certain look in plants that is recognizable to our friends as being totally us.  To mark Julie’s next to last day as Blithewold’s Director of Horticulture, I thought I’d share some of what is “so Julie”.

Perfectly and delicately proportioned plants are what I think of as being very “Julie”.  Her favorites tend to have a balance between bloom and leaf shape and keep tidily to themselves rather than bothering the neighbors.   Perhaps because her own garden is the size of a postage stamp and everything in it is in perfect scale, she also tends to gravitate towards anything diminutive that, to me, cries out “so sweet!”.

Tried and true favorites are Tagetes tenuifolia ‘Lulu’ (Marigold) and old fashioned heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens).

Both have nose filling scents and although they ramble a bit, they are both brittle and more likely to be smashed than to smash something else.  (”Smash” is trademark Julie!)

A few days ago I asked Julie for a few of her current faves and here they are:

She’s into the tiny leaf basils that I wrote about here and the ornamental peppers, especially ‘Candlelight’.

See what I mean about perfect proportion?

Daphne transatlantica.  I love that Julie chose this one because it is Daphne x burkwoodii ‘Carol Mackie’ that is stealing the show in the Rose Garden right now.  D. transatlantica is like the pretty girl’s quiet friend:  When you take the time to notice her you realize she’s the one in bloom.

This daphne blooms all summer without stopping and is wonderfully fragrant.

Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snowflake’ is at the top of her charts now too (’Limelight’ will join the list when its blooms fade to pinkish in a couple of weeks).  The double blooms of ‘Snowflake’ are amazing in detail - and look exactly right with the leaf size, shape and color.

The view of the North Garden from the north porch is also a Julie favorite -

- and so is the Red-Tailed hawk that comes by to bathe in the North Garden.  It’s as if the fountain was made for him - it is perfectly proportioned!

What are your trademark favorites?  If you’re inspired to write a whole post about your - or a friend’s - signature style, please share by creating a link to this post.

À bientôt, Julie!

We’ve been getting the exclamation question “What are you going to do when Julie retires?!” since long long before Julie set an actual date. And as the date she set last year approaches, I still don’t have a good answer. For those of you who haven’t grown up knowing Julie or made Blithewold your garden away from home and aren’t yet acquainted, Julia L. Morris is our Director of Horticulture at least through Friday. She’s been at Blithewold for 30 years, knows every last plant on the grounds and in the gardens (no joke) and has taught everyone who has come within shouting distance of the property what it really means to be a Gardener.

Julie likes to tell the story about Vita Sackville-West keeping all of the tags from plants that had died because it kept her humble. I’m not sure a plant has ever died on Julie’s watch. And if anything has died, it certainly wasn’t from neglect (more likely, Kris Green Plant Slayer got too close). And yet Julie is as humble as they come. I remember once, deep within my years on the other coast, I turned on my TV and as it warmed up to the A&E channel I heard a very familiar voice talking about how Marjorie loved to ride around the grounds on her golf cart. As the picture came into view I bounced around the couch shouting “Hey, It’s really Julie! Look - there’s Blithewold!”. Julie took her interview on America’s Castles much more in stride than I did and keeps the light of her horticultural fame and expertise under a bushel. She ought to be every bit as well known as her mentor Ernesta Ballard and as familiar a name in public horticulture as Marco Polo Stufano or Bill Thomas. But she’s much happier in the potting shed than in the limelight.

It feels like there’s a general expectation that Blithewold will implode or somehow self destruct without Julie’s constant devotion and attention. I think Gail and I and maybe even Fred and Dan half expect disaster too. But Julie chose her retirement date very wisely: The end of August is the time for enjoying the story of the garden. We can do a few edits here and there but it’s pretty much ready for the publisher. — Basically as the growing season winds down, we can’t really get in too much trouble! So it’s a good season for our transition from training wheels too. Fred will shoulder Julie’s title and burden of responsibility and Gail will continue as horticulturist in charge of the gardens.

Julie has taught us and mentored by tireless example. We all know better than to let sticks pile up on Bosquet paths, walk past a dry pot without watering it, or plant cardoons in the North Garden. Gail and I will keep growing ‘Lulu’ marigolds and choosing “that’s a Julie favorite” from catalogs and nurseries. We’ll try hard to keep a few steps ahead of the garden - no matter how pretty it is at this moment - to make sure that subsequent weeks are even better. We’ll have trick questions like “Are you going to cut back the teasels today?” ringing in our heads if she hasn’t already come by to ask them. We owe it to Julie to keep Blithewold beautifully tended to her high standards and we’ll prove it to ourselves that we’re up to the job.

Julie might be retiring but she loves Blithewold too much to really leave it, thank goodness. She has promised to help Margaret in the archives and I’ll bet we’ll see her now and again every day in the gardens too. To answer the question, “What are you going to do when Julie retires?!” I can only say, we’ll do our very best.

I’ve been meaning to trumpet about our basils almost since the day we planted them. So without further ado: I love basil (Ocimum basilicum)! Lavender is still the aromatic herb I would dress myself in head to toe if I could but there’s something totally blissful about being elbow deep in basil - it’s a comfort scent that I could just eat up. How convenient then that it’s food!

And it’s not just for the herb or vegetable garden anymore. This year, thanks to Gail making excellent seed catalog choices, we have some beauties and all around winners that we think look great in the mixed garden. She chose ‘Minette‘ and ‘Marseille‘ from Park’s; ‘Boxwood‘ from Burpee; and ‘Pistou‘ and ‘Queenette‘ from Johnny’s. They all have diminutive leaves and all but ‘Queenette’ made orbtacular blobs almost immediately after planting. ‘Queenette’ distinguished itself with an immediate array of decorative purple flower spikes and a refusal to bolt. It resembles a miniature and yellow-greener version of our old standby favorite ‘African Blue’ (which always surprises visitors when they learn that it’s not some kind of Salvia.) ‘Pistou’ has been the first to show signs of exhaustion - perhaps with a set of tiny hedge shears and a flair for topiary we could have coaxed a longer at-its-best season. The bees are sure enjoying the flowers though.

I took my taste test too late in the season to tell the true tale of the flavors and not being a hardcore foodie, I probably couldn’t be very accurate in my descriptions anyway. - To me they taste a lot like … basil …! ‘Queenette’ definitely has a licorice edge though and ‘Minette’ is kinda minty. They all make the most adorable garnish but it might take a few entire plants to make enough pesto (or as the French have it, pistou) to go around. Speaking of pistou, Lyn (a Rockette) brought in a recipe for Soupe au Pistou from “Cuisine of the Sun” by Mireille Johnston. Here is a very abridged version:

1 lb. White beans

a lot of garden harvest vegetables - anything goes this time of year although tomatoes are not on Mme. Johnston’s list.

1/2 cup lean salt pork

2 quarts water

bay leaves, sage, salt ‘n’ pepper

Do your usual vegetable soup making thing and then right before you serve it, add the pesto:

3 cups fresh basil

4-6 garlic cloves

1/2 to 1 cup Swiss, Parmesan, or Romano cheese

1/2 cup olive oil

pinch of coarse salt

Voilà

But of course, nothing goes with basil like a fresh from the garden tomato. I’ll wager that in Super Stop & Shop, you will never find a tomato that would rather be a teapot.

Gardeners have all the fun! (Sorry, Julie. I know it’s rude but you can’t hand me a freak and not expect me to show it off!)

Have you grown any basils you think are spectacular to either look at or eat? Do you have any good recipes to share? Please link back if you decide to make a pesto post!

Kudos and many thanks go to all who made the Celebration of a Century Gala such a whopping success. Gala volunteers were able to raise more money for our operating budget (salaries, etc) - as well as extra for a new roof for the mansion - than any of the other wildly successful galas in previous years. That’s truly astounding especially considering our country’s current economic funk. I am constantly amazed and gratified by just how supportive Blithewold’s supporters are.

I’m also endlessly gratified by our every day visitors - we wouldn’t be in the garden (or on-line) without them either. It’s not just their praise that we live for (and if I may take a moment for horn tooting, we are told almost every day that this is the most meticulously maintained public garden they’ve seen. Many many thanks to our amazing volunteers!), but their questions definitely make the days more interesting. One of our garden docents passed along a few questions from the weekend and I hope the askers watch the blog for the answers:

Q: What kind of grapes are on the arbor?

A: They are New England’s finest - Concord - and the vine is about 100 years old.

Q: Where are the beehives?

A: It’s been a couple of years since we’ve had busy domestic honey bee hives on the property but there is a thriving wild hive in a Horse Chestnut stump just off the path between the Enclosed Garden and the Display Garden.

Q: Why do bees like the pond?

A: Bees need water for making the brood food and to regulate the temperature in the hive. They keep the hive at a steady 95 degrees Fahrenheit or so - any warmer and the wax will start to melt. Some of the worker bees are given the job of bringing water to the hive and will make upwards of 50 trips a day. They like our cement pond because it’s close to the hive, a consistent source since it never goes dry, and it has plenty of convenient landing pads.

High praise also goes to Fred and Dan for making such a fun games table in the Display Garden. Not a day goes by without a game played and yesterday Margaret (our fabulous curator and 3rd floor archivist) and her grandchildren from the U.K. came over to play a round of Giraffes. (”Giraffes” is Thomas’ name for Draughts which is English for Checkers.) Team Thomas and Margaret took gold and Sophie won the silver.

And finally, kudos and a shout out to my friend Sarah who has started a public garden at Firehouse 13 in Providence, RI and is blogging all about it. Visit Green Zone to read posts which range in topic from WWII victory gardens to container planting in shoes. (Sarah’s day job has her out and about awarding state preservation grants to places like Blithewold for projects like our greenhouse restoration in 2005. Yay, Sarah!)

It’s summertime (the living is easy) and it’s Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - those are reasons enough for me to want to eat, drink and be generally merry. But not only that, Blithewold is 100 years young this year and hundreds of people will be celebrating in high style at the “Celebration of a Century” Gala this Saturday. I wish I could work the red carpet like Joan Rivers and broadcast the best and worst dressed. Instead, I’ll present my picks for best and worst dressed in the garden:

Praying Mantis is elegantly understated - green is definitely the new black.

Frog (son of Gus-Gus) is wearing this season’s green as well as a fashion forward statement in eyewear - he’s certainly an eye catching Prince Charming! Come here, sweetie and let me kiss you…

This Orb-web spider has gone a little overboard I think - super scary and yet I can’t take my eyes off her (kind of like a Cher train wreck). What was she thinking?!

The gardens are all dressed in their mid August party finery too. Here are some belles of the Bloggers Bloom Day Gala (hosted as always by generous Carol of May Dreams Gardens):

Anybody else in a party mood? Who’s dressed up in your garden?

It was really really good to get away. It always is. It’s not that I don’t love my work — you know I do! — Rather, it’s that after a little while in the blaze of summer, gardening starts to feel like a job. Taking a break reminds me that I really need to slow down and drink it all in to thoroughly enjoy it. After all, we garden because we love to, right? Sure it’s laborious sometimes and dirty but that is all part of the fun - at least until it starts to feel like work with a capital W. Over the weekend I met a Little Compton gardener who showed me around her garden and apologized for its “messiness”. But she also explained that she’s come to be able to actually relax in her garden - her hammock might even hold her in a nap now and again. I’ve got to say that that garden was one of the prettiest “messes” I’ve seen and I really envy her “work” ethic. It’s important to keep up with the weeding but we also need to stop and smell the cardoons. (Truly! - Have you ever leaned in for a sniff? Sweet honey but mind the bees…) At home I have decided to try to enjoy my “mess” without feeling frantic and here I am smiling again even as I help Ann deadhead the stinging eryngium. Do you ever need to take a vacation from gardening?

It also takes being away from it to really see what the garden is and how it’s grown. The first thing I noticed at Blithewold was how big and beautiful everything had gotten in just one week. Just like last year, the Stapelia opened for my return!

And the rain brought a chill to the air and long sleeves out of the closet.

And the cabbages are fully cabbaged. And the sunflowers are stratospheric.

At home I noticed other things like giant weeds and a decided lack of late season color. I’m glad I was able to get away from my garden long enough to see it with fresh eyes and I’m glad that I’m relaxed enough now to think it’s a thing of beauty anyway! What do you notice about your garden after you’ve been away from it?