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The Display Gardens convey the feeling and atmosphere of a “working garden”. It has evolved over the last six years from its cutting and vegetable garden roots to garden beds designed for information and inspiration. The garden rooms invite you to slow your pace and enjoy the intriguing and imaginative combinations of the wide variety of plants.
Children can play in the Bamboo Grove (Phyllostachys aureosulcata) which borders the Display Garden, and marvel at its other-worldliness as the canes clink together in the wind. We use cut bamboo canes for many projects, including a fence which supports sweet peas and summer flowering vines, and bamboo trellis and pergola that grace a pathway and shade a sitting area.
The newly restored 1901 Lord & Burnham greenhouse is open to tour during Mansion open hours. Each year we spend the winter and early spring propagating almost 2,000 plants for the gardens.
The William F. and M. Kathleen Church Cutting Garden is rich in color and fragrance and provides cut flowers that we use in arrangements for the house just as gardeners here have done over the last one hundred years.
Dwarf shrubs intermingle with perennials and annuals in the Idea Bed, located adjacent to the Cutting Garden. We have included plants which are surprising in their subtle beauty, compelling you to stop in your tracks to appreciate them. We have also taken care to select low-maintenance plants that have a long season of interest and plants that please the senses.
The Display Garden is also a collector’s garden that changes every year as we trial new plants and rediscover forgotten favorites. Some of our tried and true favorites include:
- Geranium ‘Rozanne’, which blooms non-stop from May to hard
frost;
- Senecio vira-vira, a tender perennial weaver with silver-grey
foliage that is more interesting than Dusty Miller;
- Delphinium ‘Delft Blue’, a stunning and sturdy repeat bloomer
that has over-wintered successfully for us
- Phlox ‘Natural Feelings’, a mildew resistant garden phlox
whose peculiar pink flower clusters are detailed with
green, lingering for months.
Dozens of containers of handsome and unusual specimen plants including dwarf alpines, succulents, and tender tropicals grace the Container Bed, the edges of the pool, choice spots in garden borders, and under the refreshing shade provided by the grape arbor.
Our Vegetable Garden feeds staff, volunteers, and occasionally the local soup kitchen. Historically, this garden grew over 30 different vegetables for the family and staff of 20.
Over the next several years we will implement a new design for the Display Garden. We look forward to all the challenges and opportunities the changes will present, and hope that you will visit often to witness those changes. | 
