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What’s Flowering in the Children’s Garden

Chris Strand — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:50:31 +0000

Several visitors and staff members have asked for the names and sources of some of the plants growing in the children’s vegetable garden. I have copied the inventory below along with a very informal rating and source code. The rating scale is from “-” (no germination/poor performer) to “++” (star performer). If there is neither a plus nor minus next to the plant then it performed adequately. This was an unsual growing season. Typically tomatoes perform very well, but this year we had to remove them due to the late blight. Other plants are usually short-lived but lasted all season, such as the cosmos. So take the rating with a grain of salt. I have also listed the sources for the seeds; the key is at the bottom of the list.

One thing stands out, when I cast my eye down this list – the children planted an awful lot! This year we kept them moving pretty much non-stop. It is amazing what a group of 6 to 11 year olds can accomplish in just one day a week. I’d like to thank the parents, interns, and staff who helped the children accomplish this. Most of all, I’d like to thank the kids for doing such a great job with their gardens. It takes more than just hard work to make a garden - a really good garden needs to be fun and creative. That is what all of you brought to the garden this year THANK YOU.

Younger Gardeners

Tomato Celebrity (plants removed due to blight)
Eggplant (plants)
Marigolds (plants)
Simpson Elite Lettuce (++P)
Reggae Radish (P)
Thumbelina Carrot (P)
Carson Bush Wax Bean (++J)

Older Gardeners

Tomato Celebrity (plants removed due to blight)
Eggplant (plants)
Marigolds (plants)
Mint (plants)
Parsley (plants)
Freckles Lettuce (+P)
Watermelon Radish (P)
Mokum Carrot (++P)
Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos (+P)
Lilliput Mix Zinnia (+P)
Royal Burgundy Bush Bean (++J)
Nufar Basil (-J pelleted seed)
Bronze Fennel (+J)

Projects

Gloriosa Polyheaded Sunflower (+S)
Curiosity Nigella (S)
Mammoth Russian Sunflower (+B)
Envy Zinnia (++B)
Purity Cosmos (+P)
Lavender Queen Zinnia (+P)
Miss Willmott Zinnia (+P)
Nigella damascena (P)
Only the Lonely Nicotiana (P)
Zebulon Dwarf Sunflower (++J)
Sebring Zucchini (++J)
Birdhouse Bottle Gourds (+ FM, J)
Cucumber Lemon (-B)
Blueberries (plants of various cultivars)
Rhubarb (plants)
Walking onion (plants)
Moon and Stars Watermelon (+FM)
Serena Purple Angelonia (++ plants)
Junior Hybrid Sunflower (++B)
Sensation White Cosmos (B)
Sensation Picotee Cosmos (+FM)
Tea Time Series Four O’Clocks (+B)
Lipstick Nasturtium (B)
Summer Berries Mix Scabiosa (B)
Apricot Twist Sunflower (B)
Jersey Supreme Hybrid Asparagus (plants)
Mesabi Strawberry (- plants)
Paradiso Fig (plants)

B Burpee
FM Ferry Morse
J Johnny’s Selected Seeds
P Pinetree Garden Seeds
S Seeds of Change

For background on our children’s garden see Kids Grow.

Posted in Garden, Plants, Products

August in the Winterthur Garden

Karen — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:14:14 +0000

Maggie Lidz, our estate historian, shares notes from Mr. du Pont and other family members’ letters about gardening in August. Are you keeping good notes on your garden’s progress?

H.F. du Pont and his family were rarely at Winterthur in August but as you can see from the excerpts of letters below, the family has long appreciated the lush shade and fertile fields of Winterthur. The photos are of Winterthur in the 1970s by George Fistrovich

1874, Louisa Gerhard du Pont to Sophie du Pont: We all went up to Winterthur today to see it and to show Pauline the spring and ferns and all the lovely wood paths around the house. She seems delighted with it… Quoted in Wilkinson, EI du Pont Botaniste, p. 101.

Aug 4 1902 Pauline du Pont to her sister Anna Robinson: The country is beautiful and the garden very good, with peas, lima beans, corn, egg-plant, and tomatoes. The peaches are delicious this year, also our early figs.

August 12, 1845 Evelina du Pont Bidermann to her son: I get through this warm summer tolerably well thanks to our little bath house which is so prettily situated that I often linger on the door to view the quiet spot by the running streamlet meandering through the willows and wild plants.

August 16 1893: There was no rain here Saturday night and everything is baking and burned. The outlook for the farmer is very serious.

August 17 1892 HA du Pont to his wife Pauline: The weather is cool and pleasant….I spoke to Eugene the gardnere about the pears as you requested.

August 19 1891, HA du Pont to his wife Pauline: We had only a few showers here yesterday morning ceased around noon. The thunder storm of last week was more serious—a tree in the lawn above the periwinkle bank having by struck by the lightning which also injured temporarily our telephone lines and the one at the railroad office at Montchanin.

Aug. 20, 1926, HA du Pont to Prof. Sargent: The country here has been green and beautiful and the vegetation luxurious. My evergreens have made a splendid growth; in fact some of them can now be fairly designated as young trees.

Aug. 21, 1933, HF du Pont to his sister Louise: Everything is lovely and green down here, as there has been so much rain.

Posted in Garden

Fresh Vegetables at Winterthur’s Farmstand

Chris Strand — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:19:06 +0000

Today Winterthur is known for its world-class collection of decorative fine arts, its scholarship, and its remarkable garden but at its height Winterthur was also an internationally recognized farm. With a prize-winning dairy herd and farms that produced fruits, vegetables, poultry, and cut flowers Winterthur was a model of an American country place. With this history in mind, we have been bringing back select elements of the farm – sheep have returned to our pastures, barns have been restored, and this summer we have reintroduced vegetable growing. This Saturday, August 8, you will have the opportunity to purchase vegetables grown on the property at Winterthur’s Farmstand. Located along Rte. 52, just south of the Entrance Gate, the Farmstand will be open from 10 am to noon. The Farmstand will feature potatoes, squash, and greens grown at Winterthur and corn, tomatoes and melons grown at neighboring Hill Girt Farm. If you would like to reserve your bag of corn or tomatoes or ask any questions feel free to post a comment, I will pass your questions along to our farmers. We will continue to offer vegetables at the Farmstand as the season develops.

Posted in Garden

Perfect Summer Day

Karen — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:02:53 +0000

Greetings! I’m back from a wonderful week of celebrating our daughter’s wedding on June 27th. The ceremony was held in the Lower Reflecting Pool Garden; the reception at the visitor center. I see these spaces most every day and yet was stunned by the beauty and power of the garden in the evening. Maybe it was the wine, but more likely it was the way the sun was setting, the birds were singing and our daughter and her new husband were beaming.

I revisited these spaces today. My main observation? Don’t try to take photos at high noon! The sun washes the color away. Nevertheless, here are a few photos to whet your appetite for beauty and to entice you to come visit the Winterthur Garden this summer. In bloom? Daylillies, hydrangea, hosta, crape myrtle. The garden is full, lush, well-kept and exceedingly romantic. Of course, that’s the view from the mother of the very happy bride.

Posted in Garden

H.F. du Pont’s Notes on His Garden in July

Chris Strand — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:14:33 +0000

by Maggie Lidz

HF du Pont made few notes about the Winterthur garden in July as he spent most of the month at his Southampton summer house. The exception was during World War 2. The notes that he made in July during the 1940s understandably focus on the farm and reflect some of the concerns common during the war years.

July 18, 1941 to Mrs. Chamberlain Chanler, HF271: After a long drought here, it is raining its head off and everything is rotting away. The trials of a gardener are manifest!

July 22, 1941 to W.A. Brooks: I am here [Winterthur] from Southampton for my every other week visit and am thankful that is has finally got dry enough so that we can thresh our wheat. A few more wet days and it would have sprouted in the fields and you know what that means to a farmer.

July 1942 to Albert Ely Ives: We have been here all summer and it has been very pleasant. Everybody else is staying home also.

July 23, 1943 to Bessie Andrews: Everyone is gardening furiously, freezing and putting up all kinds of vegetables for next winter. With the help of several boys we manage to keep the place looking quite nicely. The poor despised farmer has at last come into his own! We have beef cattle, sheep etc. and do our own slaughtering, so we don’t bother with those terrible rationing coupons.

Posted in Garden

Who grows up to become a gardener?

Karen — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:24:10 +0000

Jeannette Lindvig, a guide in the house and the garden, shares a beautiful essay and photo of the Winterthur Garden:

The other day I watched a young family walking through the garden at Winterthur. The parents were patient and attentive to their three children, two of whom walked easily with their parents. The one who caught my eye, though, was their toddler daughter. She lagged behind no matter how they cajoled and enticed her along.

What was she up to? This sweetie with a diapered bottom bent to study and pick up a bug, examining it closely. She poked her face into the fulsome bloom of a peony. A bit further down the path she discovered a thorn on a rose, and flinched but did not cry when she tested its texture with her delicate little fingers. Then suddenly, and with a flourish, she picked a leaf off a shrub and placed it in her mouth, too quick to stop! A little nip, and then she spit!

A primitive memory welled in me. I, too, had enjoyed all these sensory discoveries as a small child. It was just my nature. And so I know, this two year old toddler – who, like me today, cannot simply stroll past the flowers and bugs without exploration and examination – is surely destined to become a passionate gardener when she grows up!

Posted in Garden

Gardening with Children

Chris Strand — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:28:40 +0000

This last Saturday, Winterthur garden interns and staff helped 21 children plant their vegetable gardens for our annual “Kids Grow” children’s gardening program. Over the next 10 weeks children and their parents will watch their seeds grow, pull weeds, thin, pinch, water and weed their way to a nice harvest of salad vegetables. By the end of the summer, bushel baskets of tomatoes and sacks of lettuce, carrots, beans, and radishes will go home with the children who, we hope, will have a new-found appreciation for vegetables and for gardening.

Gardening with children only takes a couple hours a week but the lessons they learn and the fun they have will last much longer. I will be posting information here, on our blog, over the next several weeks that I hope will encourage you and your children to try gardening. For young children between the ages of 6 and 8 years old we use a simple planting plan. Older children can be encouraged to be more adventurous and can, generally, take on larger and more complex gardens; our planting plan for older children gives them choices of different vegetables, herbs and flowers to grow.

Posted in Garden

A Gardener’s Frustration

Chris Strand — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:33:42 +0000

A gardener’s frustration with the weather is timeless and universal. The following excerpts, gathered together by our Estate Historian Maggie Lidz, are quotes by the du Ponts as they struggled with the Winterthur garden during the month of June, which was sometimes too wet, sometimes too dry and only very occasionally just right.

June 5, 1942 H.F. du Pont to John Magee, box 351: I played golf in the morning at which time it was a lovely pleasant day; but in the afternoon about four o’clock a fierce wind and rain storm began. Before you could say “Jack Robinson” there wasn’t an inch of lawn that wasn’t covered with little leafy twigs and between them were hailstones. It looked just like a green and white piece of needlework and was very beautiful.

June 7, 1962 Leslie Potts to H.F. du Pont, who was in England, WF15: We have had a very warm spring and a very dry one, and it is starting to take its toll, in that the grass is burning up.

June 9, 1967 H.F. du Pont to Bertha Rose, box 386: We are finally having four days without rain and I have been finding a place for the children of the late-blooming azaleas, which are still holding their own. These late bloomers will increase the enjoyment of the visitors to the June garden. One Saturday in May we had 2,000 and 1,000 on Sunday, which is really too many people.

June 10, 1926, H.A. du Pont to Professor Sargent: My place has never looked so well nor have the trees and shrubs been so floriferous …Our large white azalea was magnificent and my calendulacea azaleas were finer than ever before while the Kaemferi and other varieties are beginning to make some show. My evergreens came through the winter very well and al bid fair to make a strong growth this year.

June 10, 1948 H.F. du Pont to Baron Franz von Preuschen, box 427: I have specialized on our Azaleas for many years now and they really are superb. Some varieties start blooming early in April and the late ones are good till almost the end of May.

June 16, 1947 H.F. du Pont to Harold Vanderbilt, box 426: We have had the most dreadful weather here—very cold and rainy, and I don’t see any prospect of the alfalfa ever drying.

June 17 1932 Ruth Wales du Pont to her mother: RE & I had the most wonderful ride this am all out SE saw some beautiful country , a bluebird, & a family of quail, the babies too sweet. She is a wonderful horsewoman & nature-lover as well, I think.

June 18, 1943 H.F. du Pont to Bert Ives, box 338: my azaleas this year were a mass of bloom also. I now have a lovely plantation of them in the woods near the golf course. In fact, it is quite a feature.

June 28 1922 H.F. du Pont to Professor Charles Sargent: We are having a very wet June and I presume that it is good for the trees and bulbs but it is extremely bad for our haying. I feel quite desperate.

Posted in Garden