Bishop's Garden at National Washington Cathedral

The century-old Herb Cottage building was badly damaged on Wednesday, September 7, when a towering crane being used to secure the earthquake- damaged pinnacles of the Cathedral’s central tower toppled during windy storm conditions, smashing the front roof and garden area of the structure. Long a main source of revenue for All Hallows Guild, the Gift Shop in the Herb Cottage sustained considerable damage. Luckily, no one was injured. The clipped roof, causing structural and water damage, will be repaired. The garden, mutilated by the huge crane, can be re-established. The garden benches, the re-circulating pool and walkway can be renovated and the smashed fig tree replaced. Though beheaded and damaged in the crash, the small bronze statue of Pan, the legendary god of forests and gardens, which has greeted visitors at the front entrance to the Cottage since the 1960s, can be mended and reinstated in its familiar location. The treasured stone walls which have acted like protective surrounds to the area can eventually be restored. The shattering destruction means a long restoration period and will require strong financial support from All Hallows Guild and its many friends and followers.

As the crane fell on the Cottage its great weight devastated surrounding gardens. Nothing was spared. According to the Cathedral Director of Horticulture Joe Luebke, there was significant damage to plants and trees from the Pilgrim Steps to the front of Church House. The Yew and Sophora japonica above the Upper Border are destroyed as is the Weeping Cherry, memorial Crab Apple and American Holly.  The Norman Arch is damaged and the Bishop’s Garden lost trees, boxwood, bushes and flowers of historic interest and ancient heritage. Peggy Steuart, chair of the AHG Garden Committee is busy formulating plans for the recovery of the damaged area and advises everyone to view the Cathedral website for current information.  Rehabilitation will take months, if not years.  Engineering and horticultural experts are still finalizing recovery options.  Until then, All Hallows Guild –like Humpty Dumpty is putting it all together again.

For updated information and more pictures of the damage to the Herb Cottage and Bishop’s Garden,  please visit our website: www.allhallowsguild.org on the home page under “Tours” or “Fall Events”. If you would like to help the Guild restore, repair and renew the extensive areas of destruction, you may do so online:  https://www.allhallowsguild.org/involved/donation_form.php

Forest at Adkins Arboretum, courtesy Carlisle Flowers

Forest Ecology for Gardeners, an interactive course lead by ecologist, Dr. Sylvan Kaufman was the first of three seminars sponsored by Adkins Arboretum on the Eastern Shore, Ridgley, Maryland. The oldest part of the forest at Adkins, adjacent to the Tuckahoe State Park, is 100 years old with oak and hickory trees most prevalent, Dr. Kaufman explained.  It was used for different purposes over time: pasture land, for agriculture, and logging. If a forest was clear-cut or an agricultural field abandoned in this area, the first trees to establish would be pines, sweetgums and tulip trees.

How the forests of North America appeared to the colonists can be summarized by a quote from John Bartram, the naturalist from Philadelphia, who said, “It seems almost as if the sun had never shown on the ground since the creation.”

Over time fields were cleared of the woods, Dr. Sylvan explained, and stumps were left to rot.  By the mid-1800s to 1930s the  steam engine and circular saw made cutting trees and accessing more remote forests possible. Wood was also used for its chemical properties.  Logs flowed down the Susquehanna River, the head waters to the Chesapeake Bay and the clear-cut erosion led to sediment deposit which then led to a rise in the level of the flood plain.

In the 1900s a chestnut blight occurred, decimating  the chestnut tree, a mainstay of the Mid-Atlantic East Coast forests.  The density of the forest, the amount of its undergrowth and the height of its branches are all telltale signs as to the age of the forest.  Early successional trees would include red maples, pines and sweetgums.  While not linear in progession, a late successional community would include hickory, beeches, and oaks, trees that can tolerate competition Dr. Kaufman taught us.

Elvis Presley's Meditation Garden, Graceland, Tennessee

Graceland was the home of Elvis Presley, a short drive from center city Memphis, Tennessee where he recorded his songs at the Sun Recording Studio before RCA.  We visited his colonial mansion the week after the anniversary of his death, a date that is memorialized by fans around the world.  This statement is not without fact.  There were standing wreaths from Belgian and Japan as if he had just performed in 1977.

Graves of his grandmother, mother, father, twin brother who died as an infant, and that of Elivs are viewed before the tour comes to an end.  Elvis built a circular fountain in the meditation garden and there is an eternal flame aside his grave.  We passed in single file by the remains of a man who still brings tears to the eyes of many an adoring fan regardless of age.

Peabody Ducks and Duck Master, Memphis, TN

A trip to Memphis, Tennessee is not complete unless you gather at the grand Peabody Hotel around 4:00 pm to get a front row seat in the resplendent lobby for the Duck March.  There is a balcony overlooking the “parade” if you are a late arriver.  The anticipation builds as the “Duck Master” tells the story of how the ducks came to live in the hotel.  Some pranksters decided that instead of live decoys swimming in the hotel’s fountain, they would replace them with mallard ducks.  They floated to stardom from the start.

Peabody Ducks Take to the Red Carpet

The crowd leans closer.  The red steps draw near.  Then when the music starts the ducks stop their circular laps in the Hotel’s fountain and file one by one down the red carpet steps.  The crowd is charmed.  The ducks walk down the steps and so well trained as they are, they pause in the middle of the red carpet for pictures! Then the paparazzi swarm.

The cameras click. ”Oh darlings, we really must go,” they tell their adoring fans.  They waddle to the elevator.  ”Rooftop please.”  Their home is the marble laid Duck Palace from where they descend at the comfortable hour of 11:00 am to begin their daily constitution until the crowds pack in.

The beautiful flower arrangement is replaced each night while the hotel’s guests and residents sleep.

Goldenrod, Candidate for National Flower, courtesy CarlisleFlowers

“Notes from Wood and Fallow” a column in Country Life in America, Volume I, a magazine for the Home-Maker, the Vacation-seeker, The Gardener, the Farmer, the Nature-Teacher, the Naturalist by L.H. Bailey, Editor, November, 1901 to April 1902, titles “Goldenrod, Queen of the American Garden.” Also known as solidago, it is a native plant that adapts to the climate of most of the 50 states.  There is a reason to make it the national flower, not to scorn the lovely rose.  W.W. Rowlee, the article’s author, points out that there are those who dislike this flower, considering it a weed that grows along the roadside.  The English use goldenrod in a naturalistic setting in the back of the border.  There are many different species of the flower.  Goldenrod begins to bloom in September but florists are happy to find this flower at the wholesalers any time of year.  It makes a wonderful filler.

David Wood Sculpture. He is an earth artist broadly in the tradition of Robert Smithson, Andy Goldsworthy, and Chris Drury and teaches at Vanderbilt. Cheekwood Gardens, credit: CarlisleFlowers

Cheekwood’s 55 acre gardens lie to the west of Nashville, TN and were originally designed by New York residential and landscape architect, Bryant Fleming for Leslie and Mabel Cheek.  They were completed in 1932.   In the 1950s, their daughter Huldah Cheek Sharp and husband Walter, donated the estate to become a botanical garden and art museum.  Did they know how generations of people would enjoy their gardens?

Cheekwood’s wooded path invites the visitor to contemplate sculpture, both modern and historic.  Clearing the trees, a hawk sits in front of a David Wood horizontal sculpture afloat in a pond.  The visitor is surprised; minutes later the hawk travels less than two feet above ground catches a bird with broken wing and swoops his captive to a tree siding the pond.  An onlooker describes the scene that enfolds.  We as one are engaged with nature.

Thomas, the Engine, at Cheekwood Gardens, credit: CarlisleFlowers

Minutes later on the other side of the path, children, this visitor acting as one, laughed in delight. Cheekwood has a train exhibition, TRAINS Tennessee in G,  to give the young their first memories of their garden. Here comes Thomas  around the bend.

It is a pleasure to say how engaging our host, Cheekwood was.

Abbington Green Inn Gardens, Asheville, NC, credit: CarlisleFlowers

Intuition told us to stay at a bed and breakfast when we recently visited Asheville, North Carolina.  It proved right.  The turn of the century Victorian and Arts and Crafts homes reflect the great detail the craftsmen, many of whom helped to build the Biltmore, the home of George and Edith Vanderbilt, employed to embellish these impressive homes.

The White Gate Inn and Cottage Garden, Asheville, NC credit: CarlisleFlowers

Each bed and breakfast was unique in style and we had the good fortune to stay in two, one on the first leg of our trip south and the second on our way home.  It quickly became apparent how challenging the life of a bed and breakfast owner can be: to get baby-sitters while you are away, employ staff to serve three course breakfasts, take care of homes that constantly demand attention, and on top of that to have time for a garden.  Below are gardens where we stayed and gardens that we visited.  For you who have not visited Asheville, it is a must!

Carriage House at 1900 Inn on Montford Garden, Asheville, NC credit: CarlisleFlowers

Chesnut Street Inn Garden, Asheville, NC credit: CarlisleFlowers