Winterthur Garden Blog

Plant Nursery Sale

Friday, May 17, 10:00am – 8:00pm

Saturday, May 18, 10:00am – 5:30pm

Sunday, May 19, 10:00am – 2:00pm

in front of Museum Store

Shop our selection of locally grown shrubs, & perennials that will be available during these three days. Neighbor’s Envy Nursery staff will be here to answer your plant questions and help you make a selection that is right for your home. Still time left in the season to do lots of planting!

Wonderful, Healthy Plants in Big Pots!

So Many Pretty Things Ready for Your Garden (Or mine if I get there first!)

Thanks to Winterthur volunteer, Bob Leitch, enjoy some shots of the Winterthur Garden in spring!

And here’s the latest Winterthur Garden bloom list from May 15, 2013:

http://www.winterthur.org/pdfs/May 15 2013.pdf

In addition to incredible flowers all over the Winterthur Garden (the Peony Garden, the Pinetum, Azalea Woods, and Enchanted Woods),   the Quarry Garden is in full bloom right now with its intense carpet of candelabra primroses.  Come and see!

Fabulous color on rhododendrons in the Pinetum. Amazing!

The Peony Garden is Starting to Bloom. Just a quick walk from the Visitor Center!

The Quarry Garden is in full bloom now!

Just purchase a ticket at the visitor center or display your membership card, then enjoy all the Winterthur Garden has to offer!

Look for some amazing automobiles at Winterthur on May 18, from 10 am to 4 pm, weather permitting.  We are very grateful to private owners who agree to spend a day at Winterthur displaying their prized autos.

Here’s a photo from the display of 1930s automobiles on May 11 to give you a taste of what’s in store on May 18 when we feature autos from the post-war years, 1947 to 1969.  More info: http://www.winterthur.org/?p=1063

Historic Autos at Winterthur on May 11, 2013

In addition to the wonderful display of automobiles, Greg Landrey will speak at 1:00 pm in the Brown Horticulture Learning Center, just a short walk past the Peony Garden.

May 18, 1:00 pm
Brown Horticulture Learning Center
“Automobile Advertising: Slogans and Images of the Post-War Era”
Greg Landrey, director of library, collections management, and academic programs, Winterthur

Here’s the list of automobiles we hope to see at Winterthur on May 18, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, weather permitting:

William Shakespeare warned against the ides of March, but there’s nothing to fear in the Winterthur Garden in mid-May!  During today’s Wednesday at Winterthur on garden photography (many thanks to Jeannette Lindvig), I had time to stroll through Azalea Woods and the Peony Garden. And they call this a job!

Hope you will come to see the Winterthur Garden soon; and do enjoy the tram tour, but take time to walk to Azalea Woods, the Peony Garden, and the Quarry Garden so you’re in the middle of an incredible floral banquet.

Though some of the azaleas are just past prime, others are opening. Rhododendrons are holding their huge bouquets of intense color and the Quarry Garden’s candelabra primroses are in full bloom. There’s plenty to see on this day in May.

Here’s the message recorded on 302.888.4856, Winterthur’s Bloom Hotline:

Today, color and fragrance weave their magic throughout the Winterthur Garden. Azalea Woods and Oak Hill are splendid with clouds of pink, white and lavender azaleas and rhododendrons. Graceful sweeps of azaleas, spirea, and spikes of blue cammasia create a wonderland of color and texture at Magnolia Bend. Explore the March Bank to discover the delicate flowers of thousands of wildflowers, including flocks and Spanish bluebells.

The quarry garden is colorful now – it’s marshy floor is covered with bright red, pink and coral primroses while azaleas and rhododendrons continue the brilliant show in Azalea Woods. Pick up your admission ticket at the visitor center or show your membership card, then enjoy spring in the Winterthur Garden.

On a recent Tuesday, I was walking through the Peony Garden when I heard a rather odd buzzing sound. A large mosquitoe on the prowl?  No, I looked up to see a small drone hovering overhead. Ah, Greg must be nearby.

Greg Mackenzie, a former garden intern, now in Winterthur’s Development department has a new gadget, a drone that he uses to photograph the Winterthur Garden.

Enjoy his latest work!

http://gregmackenzie.zenfolio.com/p6082598/h5ed9336e#h5ed9336e

Here’s the latest list of everything in bloom in the Winterthur Garden. Quite a feat for our bloom-logging volunteer duo!

http://www.winterthur.org/pdfs/May 9 2013 Winterthur Bloom List.pdf

Oh dear, how to summarize 11 pages of blooms?

• Azaleas and Rhododendrons
• The Dove Tree (Davidia involucrata) – lovely white bracts drift in the breeze – by the Dorrance Gallery – probably the largest one in the USA!
• Flowering Dogwoods
• Doublefile Viburnum (Viburnum plicatum x tomentosum)
• Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
• Spanish Bluebells – see a ‘river’ of them by the 1750 House (Hyacinthoides hispanica)
• Wild Blue Phlox – a beautiful pale blue carpet on the upper March Bank
• Lilacs – lovely fragrance near the greenhouses and along Garden Lane at the Sundial Garden – sweet!!
• Lily-of-the-Valley – another sweet fragrance – in the Pinetum and Peony Garden
• Peonies – just starting in the Peony Garden – lovely voluptuous flowers

Too much to list. Your ‘job’ for the week is to get to the Winterthur Garden to see the garden at its spring best. The garden trams will likely be packed this weekend. Plan to wait in line for a little while…with four 24-passenger trams, we can serve about 200 people per hour.  This might be a good time to plan for a stroll in the garden. Azalea Woods is close to the visitor center and best seen on foot as the garden tram tours only skirt its beautiful center.

Just display your membership card or your admission tag and enjoy the Winterthur Garden. (At some point in your visit, we like members to check in so we can count you in the daily totals, please.)

This Saturday, May 11, Winterthur will feature the display of automobiles from the 1930s, that is if the weather holds. These are private owners who bring their beautiful, vintage autos for you to see.  Some will surely arrive as expected by 10:00 am, but some will decide to stay home, given the somewhat stormy weather predictions.

If the weather holds, we expect these automobiles on display from 10:00 am to 4:00 p.m.

• 1931 Chrysler Roadster
• 1942 Cadillac Limousine
• 1939 Packard Convertible Coupe
• 1935 Ford Station Wagon
• 1938 Buick Limousine
• 1941 Packard Club Coupe 160
• 1939 DeSoto 4-Door Sedan
• 1933 DeSoto Rumble Seat Coupe
• 1938 Hudson Terraplane
• 1930 Marmon coupe
• 1928 Mercedes-Benz 2-Door Touring
• 1935 Packard Closed Coupe
• 1936 Chevrolet Phaeton
• 1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom I

For more information about these spring displays, please see http://www.winterthur.org/?p=1063

Jennifer Burek Pierce, a research fellow in residence at Winterthur writes:

Winterthur is a world of flowers to me.  A book in the Winterthur library, Louisa May Alcott’s Flower Fables, enchants young readers with stories of fairies and elves responsible for flowers’ care.  The gardens that are now the background of my day’s activities seem so well-tended that they must have their own guardians, much like the ones Alcott envisioned.

In residence to do a research fellowship, I’ve walked past Winterthur’s resplendent gardens while my friends in the Upper Midwest complained about the snow that fell on May Day.  What’s a girl to do?  I send them pictures of what I see on the way to the Winterthur Library each day or what’s in bloom when I step outside during lunch.

The graceful ivory magnolia outside the galleries spilled white petals all over the ground.  My friends found it much more appealing than snowfall.

 

 

A closer look at my favorite flower.

 

 

Each day, some new bloom catches my attention.  One morning, a ballet-pink rhododendron seemed almost translucent in the sun.

 

 

Parts of the garden make me feel like I’ve somehow walked onto the set of Downton Abbey.

 

 

 

Even in the rain, the grounds are glorious.

 

Everyone I’ve met at Winterthur has made me feel welcome at this venerable and beautiful institution, and the garden staff has my thanks, too, for the beauty all around me during these last two weeks.

 

You may have noticed the row of four new accessible parking spots at the Visitor Center that were installed in March. They’ve been a big help so far this spring.  In order to liven up the area, Dave, the horticulturist of the Visitor Center area has planted new lavender azaleas (Rhododendron yedoense poukehense)in the area. right now, they’re blooming along with the wisteria and form a lovely composition.  Good news: there are a few of these azaleas at the museum plant shop!

Wisteria and Azaleas – What a Knock-Out Combination!

Dave’s putting the finishing touches on the planting

Rhododendron yedoense poukehense at Museum Plant shop

Close by, near the Brown Horticulture Learning Center, Michelle and her loyal volunteer, Mary, have been busy filling in a bank with ferns. Mary commented that “this is fern heaven!”  Keep watching as these ferns fill in and form a soft green carpet.

New Fern Planting by BHLC

Fern Heaven!