THE SLOWEST OF THE MOVING ARTS

A late afternoon lighter rain provided a chance for me to get outside without the biting bugs interference and do some much needed severe pruning. Some bushes had grown much larger than their descriptions...  Does this look like a smaller variety lilac?

Fifteen years ago my landscape architect brother had gifted us a landscape plan as a housewarming gift including my wish list of native and woodland plants taking into consideration our topography and climate zone. BTW Mother Nature does get the final decision what thrives/doesn't but one can try to control the outcome...

Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia

Last night  Wisconsin Public TV introduced us to Beatrix Cadwalader Jones, a New Yorker born in the late 1800's whose namesake and wealth are why we have the saying " Keeping up with the Joneses." They had a lovely summer home in Reef Point Estate in Mount Desert Island, Maine where as a child Beatrix had fallen in love with plants while playing on the grounds and would dig up the woodland native plants and plant them closer to the house. 

Her love of gardening would grow and through family connections at 20 she would be mentored privately by Charles Sprague Sargent, a botanist and Harvard professor of Horticulture since there was not a formal land planning class. She also wanted to study drafting to scale, elevation rendering and engineering so she went on to Columbia School of Mines. Ms. Jones learned all she could about the use of native plants from studying contemporary U.S. texts and visits to British gardens specifically Gertrude Jekyll who did thematic gardening. 

When she first began her landscape practice in 1895 public works were not available to women so she did private residences. With her Mother and Aunt Edith Wharton's family connections,  her clientele list was impressive including the Rockefellers.  In 3 years she was well known and was one of the American Society of Landscape Association founders ( the only woman) .

In 1913 she married Max Ferrand, "an accomplished Harvard and Yale History professor." He would later ('28) be offered directorship of the Huntington Library in San Marino, California which he couldn't refuse. Since 2 male landscape architects monopolized the West Coast area, Mrs. Ferrand would be the one to commute cross country by 4 day train rides. She would take an assistant with her to work, sending the assistant back before they reached the west coast. 

Beatrix Ferrand's illustrious career included "commissions to design almost 200 gardens for private residences, estates and country homes, public parks, botanic gardens, college campuses, and the White House." An interesting tidbit re:one of the campuses  at Princeton she observed where the students paths and planned the walkways accordingly. As for public parks she felt everyone needed access to a garden ...   

"Only a few of her major works survive: Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.,the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden on Mount Desert, Maine, the restored Farm House Garden in Bar Harbor, the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden (constructed after Farrand's death, using her original plans, and opened in 1988), and elements of the campuses of Princeton, Yale, and Occidental."

Dumberton Oaks, a 20 year project with 1200 features, italianate in nature, terraced from formal gardens with garden steps leading down to more natural landscaping as one reached the water feature, the creek. Ferrand kept in constant contact with its owners and would even create and install life sized models in place for them to understand how it would look. She implemented the use of 'rooms' separate gardens with vistas, a focal point,  a glimpse to draw one into the next room. One would walk from a serene Oriental calmness into a garden room bursting with color. 

Ferrand considered "gardening as the slowest moving of the arts."

In her later years after her husband retired they returned to her Reefpoint Estate and concentrated on expanding the gardens there to turn it into a study center. She also sent out informative gardening newsletters. Unfortunately, a terrible wildfire ravaged the area and while the estate was spared, in 1955 the decision was made to 'dismantle' the estate as its upkeep was prohibitive. She distributed plantings to other estates and sold the property. 

Ferrand spent her last 3 years at friends's Garland Farm where she lived in a lovely cottage with her caregiver. She designed their room views with their own gardens of 600 different plants, a more vibrant one for her helper and a cool colored one for herself... Beatrix Farrand passed in 1959 at the age of 86.

Since a picture paints a 1000 words here's a 2 minute clip of some of Beatrix Ferrand's Labor of Love