The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program Invites the Public to Visit
Private Gardens in Dutchess County and Litchfield County on July 9
COLD SPRING, NY: On Saturday, July 9th visit four private and public gardens in Amenia, New York and Washington and West Cornwall, Connecticut, open to the public through the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (most locations). Admission to each private garden is $7, benefitting the Garden Conservancy; children 12 and under are free. Open Days are rain or shine, and no reservations are required. Call 1-888-842-2442, or visit www.opendaysprogram.org for more information.
Visitors can start the July 9th Open Day at any of the following locations:
- Jade Hill – Garden of Paul Arcario & Don Walker, 13 Lake Amenia Road, Amenia, NY – Starting as a rocky hillside that was mostly lawn, Jade Hill has grown into a stroll garden designed to be a tapestry of texture and color. Favorite plantings include Japanese maples, conifers, and a bamboo grove, plus a rose garden, a gold-themed garden viewed from a cantilevered “Oriental” pavilion, as well as goldfish and lotus ponds.
- Hollister House Garden, 300 Nettleton Hollow Road, Washington, CT – situated around an eighteenth-century farmhouse, this romantic country garden features exuberant plantings set in rambling formal structure and is noted for its subtle and sometimes surprising color combinations. Reminiscent of such classic English gardens as Great Dixter and Sissinghurst, the garden is divided into a series of rooms which open to vistas over the garden and out onto the natural landscape beyond.
- Garden of Michael Trapp, 7 River Road, West Cornwall, CT – this Old World-style garden is intimate with cobbled paths, terraced gardens, raised perennial beds, and reflecting pools. Overlooking the Housatonic River, the property has a distinct French/Italian flavor.
- Garden of Jane Garmey, 106 Cogswell Road, West Cornwall, CT (1 p.m. to 5 p.m.) – an idiosyncratic garden that began to take shape about twelve years ago and surrounds an 1827 house, featuring two long beds, planted for drama and height with perennials, grasses, and annuals; a small kitchen garden; a boxwood parterre; a formal arrangement of weeping cherry trees; a long water rill; and a bird house village set in a glade of giant petasitis.
All Open Days gardens are featured in the 2016 Open Days Directory; a soft-cover book that includes detailed driving directions and vivid garden descriptions written by their owners. The directory includes garden listings in eighteen states and costs $25.95 including shipping. Visit
www.opendaysprogram.org or call the Garden Conservancy toll-free at 1-888-842-2442 to order with a Visa, MasterCard or American Express, or send a check or money order to: the Garden Conservancy, P.O. Box 219, Cold Spring, NY 10516. Discount admission tickets are available as well through advanced mail order.
The Garden Conservancy created the Open Days program in 1995 as a means of introducing the public to gardening, providing easy access to outstanding examples of design and horticultural practice, and proving that exceptional American gardens are still being created. Its mission to share American gardens with the public is achieved each season, through the work of hundreds of private garden hosts and volunteers nationwide. Digging Deeper, a new series of Open Days programming, is designed to offer a deeper look into the gardening world through immersive experiences with artists, designers, gardeners, authors and other creative professionals. The Open Days program is America’s only national private garden-visiting program. For information and a complete schedule of Open Days visit the Garden Conservancy online at www.opendaysprogram.org.