Gardens Galore
It is still weeks until Trade Secrets, the annual gardening bash that benefits Project Sage, starts but patrons who want to take part in the May 18 tour of private gardens should make their reservations as soon as possible.
Two gardens—the Falls Village estate of Bunny Williams and John Roselli, and Sharpstone Farm Gardens in Millbrook NY—are already sold out. But there is still room for visitors at three other gardens: Maywood Estate Gardens in Bridgewater, Wethersfield Estate and Garden in Amenia, and Clove Brook Farm in Millbrook.
To be placed on a waitlist for the sold-out gardens, email either Kaitlyn Robitaille at kaitlynr@project-sage.org or Brenna Doyle at brennad@project-sage.org
Maywood, located at 52 Copper Road, is a private estate featuring a sunken perennial garden protected by 10-foot stone walls, a gazebo garden planted with flowers and shrubs to attract butterflies and hummingbirds, a rose garden planted in a French design pattern encircled by hemlocks, a woodland path populated by mature beech and cherry trees as well as Viburnum and rhododendrons.
A ledge garden on an exposed hillside, a bed of heather, a white garden, herb garden, ornamental kitchen garden and a 4,000-square-foot greenhouse give visitors a richly varied tour. Various production gardens are also integrated into the 40-acre landscape, providing fresh cut flowers, vegetables and field crops.
Maywood’s staff prioritizes good stewardship of the land and in its agricultural purposes, employing environmentally sound practices such as Integrated Pest Management programs, beekeeping, planting berry-producing plants to attract birds and establishing a bluebird trail.
Its opening hours are still to be announced; admission is $20.
Also open for viewing will be the private estate of Christopher Spitzmiller, a designer of posh, expensive lamps, and landscape architect Anthony Bellomo. Clove Brook Farm, with its neoclassical pool house and reflecting pool is located at 857 North Clove Road in Millbrook.
The garden at Clove Brook Farm was started following a restoration of the couple’s historic Greek Revival farmhouse. It has grown into a series of interconnected spaces beginning with a horseshoe-shaped garden near the house surrounded by a clipped hornbeam hedge and anchored by a dovecote. There are spectacular displays of tulips and sweet peas in spring, followed by towering dahlias in late summer.
The large garden "room" centering on the oval swimming pool and Neoclassical style pool house was added later. This room is also bounded by a hornbeam hedge and includes perimeter beds filled with various herbaceous perennials that evolve throughout the season.
Bellomo also designed and installed a large kitchen garden packed with various vegetables. The owners continue to add informal and naturalistic plantings throughout the property with unique sculptures establishing focal points.
Clove Brook Farm will be open from 10AM to 3PM. Tickets are $20.
The final garden open for general admission is the Wethersfield Estate & Garden that occupies 1,000 acres in northeast Dutchess County. Its elevation, 1.200 feet, make it the highest point in the region. From that vantage point, Whethersfield offers sweeping views of the Berkshires, the Catskills and the Taconic Hills.
Comprised of a Georgian-style house, classical gardens, a carriage house, and a farm, Wethersfield Estate & Garden is considered to be one of the finest examples of Italian Renaissance gardens in the United States.
Founded by Citigroup heir, philanthropist and investor, Chauncey Stillman, in 1938, Wethersfield Estate and Garden is now a non-profit organization devoted to the proper stewardship of land, habitat protection, conservation, culture and the arts.
Wethersfield has an Arts and Crafts English perennial garden, a cut flower garden, hedged yew topiaries and mature tree specimens. There are also 20 miles of trails for equestrian activities and hiking.
It is on the National Register of Historic Places and was awarded the 2021 New York State Historic Preservation Award for Excellence in Historic Landscape Preservation.
Whethersfield, located at 257 Pugsley Hill Road, Amenia, will be open 10 AM to 2 PM. Admission is $10.
There is one final treat on the tour this year but this one is reserved for underwriters at the patron level and up. Underwriters cover the cost of Trade Secrets, ensuring that all proceeds go directly to support the programs of Project SAGE (formerly Women’s Support Services). Trade Secrets contributes 30 percent of the Project Sage annual budget.
The underwriters can tour Page Dickey’s Falls Village garden from 10AM to 3PM. Dickey has been gardening passionately since her early 20s, writes about gardening, and designs gardens for others.
In 2015 she and her husband, Bosco Schell, moved to Falls Village to an old church with 17 acres of fields and woods and a view of the Berkshire foothills. They have created a landscape where a gravel path cuts through a garden of native and non-native perennials and shrubs in front of Church House—the 18th century Methodist church that is now their home.
Species roses should be in bloom around the patterned cutting garden in back of the house during the tour. Mowed paths strike off through meadows that embrace the garden, leading to trails in their woods—on the west side, high and rocky with marble outcroppings, on the east side, low, damp and fern-filled. A boardwalk allows visitors to walk through a small fen, a calcareous wetland rich with native shrubs and wildflowers.
Trade Secrets does not end with Saturday’s garden tours. Sunday, May 19th, brings the Trade Secrets Rare Plants & Garden Antiques Sale event at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville.
Underwriters can enter at 7:30AM, with early buyer entry (the $150 ticket includes breakfast) starting 9AM. General Admission begins at 10:30AM with a $50 admission, followed at 12:30PM and later by the Late Bloomers, $25.