What's Blooming at Skylands
The beautiful spring plants around my beloved home in Maine are coming to life once again.
As you know, I love Maine. For me, it is a magical place and I always wish I could spend more time there. This year, because of the pandemic, I was not able to carry out my annual task of planting the large ornamental urns and planters that adorn the exterior of my home. Instead, my gardeners, Mike Harding and Wendy Norling, potted up what they could - agaves, succulents, and various other plants that were already there. Cheryl DuLong, who helps me care for Skylands, keeps me updated by sending photographs - this time of the terrace, the lovely views of Seal Harbor, and some of the growing spring blooms.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Here is my large “cracked ice” terrace at Skylands. Since I have not been able to visit this spring, my gardeners, Mike and Wendy, planted what we had into some of the big decorative vessels.
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- This is a gorgeous view off of what I call “Terrace 1” looking out over Seal Harbor with Sutton Island in the distance. In the planters, Mike and Wendy planted 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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- Cheryl took several photos of the spring flowers now blooming at Skylands. These alliums are growing in front of the Living Hall windows. Allium species are herbaceous perennials with flowers produced on scapes. They grow from solitary or clustered bulbs.
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- This ancient English stone trough is full of succulents. We also use the distinctive Mt. Desert pink gravel as a top dressing.
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- Here is an agave potted up in an Eric Soderholz planter made with reinforced concrete from the 1920s. Agaves are exotic, deer-resistant, drought-tolerant, and make wonderful container plants. 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.
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- This beautiful tree peony is growing just to the left of the alliums in front of the Living Hall window. Unlike the more common herbaceous peonies, which flop over if not staked, tree peonies bloom on graceful woody stems. Native to Europe and Asia, peonies were brought over to England by the Romans in the year 1200.
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- And these pink clematis blossoms are growing behind the tree peony and climbing up the house along with the kiwi vine. Clematis is a genus of about 300 species within the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. The name Clematis comes from the Greek word “klematis,” meaning vine. Clematis, pronounced KLEH-muh-tis, are native to China and Japan and known to be vigorous growers. Clematis are also beginning to grow at my Bedford, New York farm.
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- This collection of plants is at the center of the terrace with Seal Harbor in the background. The lily stems are already staked up and ready to support these tall specimens.
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- This is one of my favorite troughs. I bought this massive stone trough at Trade Secrets in 2013. It looks so beautiful here on the Maine terrace. It is planted up with succulents and more pink gravel – the same pink gravel that covers the carriage roads at Skylands.
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- Cheryl captured this succulent in the trough still holding droplets of water from the night’s rain.
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- The sphynx is already out “guarding” the terrace for the season. She is one of two glazed terra-cotta sphinxes designed by Emile Muller.
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- Another agave sits in this beautiful faux bois planter. This planter is extremely heavy – about four to five hundred pounds.
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- On the left, the original kiwi vines that are still thriving after all these years. And on the terrace, lots of agaves planted up and arranged in a row.
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- I love the meandering paths around Skylands – they appear as if they’ve always been here.
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- This photo is of a pretty ‘lady’s slipper’, Cypripedium. This orchid is a woodland plant that thrives in bright shade or dappled sunlight under tall trees.
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- And this is called a ‘Jack in the Pulpit,’ Arisaema triphyllum. It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing from a corm. It typically grows about 12 to 26 inches in height with three-parted leaves and flowers contained in a spadix that is covered by a hood.
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- The starflower, Lysimachia borealis, is a North American woodland perennial that blooms between May and June.
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- And here is Solomon’s seal, any plant of the genus Polygonatum of the family Ruscaceae, consisting of about 25 species of herbaceous perennials with thick, creeping underground stems and tall, drooping stems. The plants are particularly common in the eastern United States and Canada.
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- Here is the large stone wall at Skylands with Rockefeller’s teeth on top of the ledge.
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- And a view that never gets tiring. Taken through the woods, this view looks at Seal Harbor and Sutton’s Island in the distance. I can’t wait to return to Skylands for my next visit.
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