Planting the Skylands Terrace 2018
The terraces at Skylands are decorated with beautiful and colorful plants once again.
I spent the Memorial Day weekend at my home on Mt. Desert Island, Maine to carry out my annual task of planting the large ornamental urns and planters that adorn the exterior of the house. It’s quite an undertaking, but I always enjoy the time, especially with the group that accompanies me - this year, I was joined by my daughter, Alexis, her children, Jude and Truman, and my dear friends, Kevin Sharkey and Hannah Milman. Many of the tropical and exotic specimens we plant are stored in a hoop house at my Bedford, New York farm, and then carefully loaded onto a trailer and delivered to Maine for the summer months. As soon as we arrive, I design the layout of where things will go, and we all get to work.
It's wonderful tradition I look forward to every spring - enjoy these photos.
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- Here we are on the cracked ice terrace. I am in the back, with two of our outdoor grounds crew at Skylands, Wendy Norling and Rick Andros, in front. It was a warm and overcast day, but we were all excited for a busy planting weekend.
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- We brought a great selection of plant material for all of the urns. Many of these plants were grown in my Bedford greenhouse. Propagating this way saves a lot of cost.
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- My greenhouse at Skylands cannot accommodate the large plants, so many are wintered over at Bedford and then brought to Maine. I always choose many different kinds of plants to bring here.
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- These alocasia plants are kept in soil, in plastic pots, and watered sparingly during the winter. Once they are planted, watered, and fed, they will grow into full glory.
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- We brought many trays of baby’s tears, which I like to use as under plantings in the large pots.
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- These pots are filled with Papyrus. Cyperus papyrus is a species of aquatic flowering plant belonging to the sedge family Cyperaceae. It is a tender herbaceous perennial, native to Africa, and forms tall stands of reed-like swamp vegetation in shallow water.
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- Here, we set aside some Norfolk pines in the rear, with more alocasias and many filler succulents and small trailing plants.
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- Here I am removing some of the bottom leaves on this agave. We always use moistened potting soil to fill the planters and pots. A good potting soil will include a mix of sterile soil, very well rotted leaf mold and compost.
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- Rick and Wendy had all our supplies out and ready. The pair of glazed terra-cotta sphinxes in the background are designed by Emile Muller and guard the entrance to the house.
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- We use wooden shims under the pots to ensure good drainage for the season.
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- To protect the rather porous and fragile pots, I like to line them with garbage bags, so the pots don’t soak up too much water. The garbage bags have drain holes at the bottom and are neatly tucked inside the pot, so they are not visible.
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- The giant, heavy Soderholz planter made with reinforced concrete from the 1920s, is now planted with silver-blue agave and ‘Silver Falls’ dichondra. Agaves are exotic, deer-resistant, drought-tolerant and make wonderful container plants.
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- Here are more agaves ready to be planted on the ledge leading to the western terrace. The western terrace is among my favorite summer meal spots. The pergola is covered with kiwi vines that are original to the home.
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- I planted another agave in this beautiful faux bois planter. This planter is extremely heavy – about four to five hundred pounds.
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- I bought this massive stone trough at Trade Secrets in 2013. It looks so beautiful here on the Maine terrace.
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- It is planted up with succulents. We planted it in color blocks with pink gravel – the same pink gravel that covers the carriage roads at Skylands. These are some of the succulents that were rooted over the winter from cuttings and pups.
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- In this pot – a cycad and baby’s tears. As the baby’s tears grow, it spreads and trails over the edge of the pot. I love how it looks in this urn.
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- These planter boxes are on the terrace off of what I call bedroom-one. They’re filled with scented geraniums, Pelargoniums. Known for its aromatic foliage, pelargoniums are semi-woody, tender, and native to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
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- This is one of two giant Soderholtz pots – Ellis Soderholtz was a pioneer in American garden pottery at the turn of the last century, turning concrete into these gorgeous vessels. I planted it with Bird of Paradise. The Bird of Paradise if best known for its banana shaped leaves and bird shaped tropical flowers. It is underplanted with Lysimachia.
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- This urn is a reproduction of one of several designed by British garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. It is planted with Alocasia and Ligusticum grayi, a species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common name Gray’s licorice-root.
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- It’s not easy dealing with giant, prickly agave plants. One must be very careful of one’s eyes, face, and skin whenever planting them. Here is a blue agave underplanted with Helichrysum petiolare, commonly known as licorice plant. The planter is a Lunaform vessel. Lunaform is a coastal Maine studio where beautiful handmade, weather garden containers are made. http://www.lunaform.com/
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- This planter has Selanginella started from cuttings in my Bedford greenhouse.
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- This planter is one of a pair, and was made sometime in the 18th to 19th century. This year, we planted it with Lady’s palm, Rhapis excelsa, and Parrot’s Beak lotus, Lotus berthelotii.
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- This ancient English stone trough is filled with kalanchoe beharensis, or Velvet Elephant Ear – a slow growing succulent tree-like shrub with large, undulating, soft, velvety leaves.
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- And flanking the front door of Skylands, we planted these urns with Kentia palm, Howea forsteriana, and begonias. The Kentia palm is native to Lord Howe Island off the eastern Australian coast, where it can reach an impressive height of 60-feet. For container growing, heights can vary between five and 12 feet. Kentias have upright slender trunks and long arching, feathered, dark green fronds.
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- Here is the other planter by the front entrance. Fortunately, because the Kentia palm is so forgiving, it will tolerate low-light and low-humidity conditions, as well as dust, and heat. It will look so beautiful here this summer.
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- Here is a view that never gets tiring. It’s from the terrace overlooking Seal Harbor and Sutton’s Island in the distance. It was a perfect day for planting at Skylands. Tomorrow, I will share more photos from our holiday weekend in Maine.
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