I had planned to return to Blithewold, a country house estate located in Bristol, Rhode Island this year for ‘Daffodil Days.’ There are more than 50,000 daffodils planted in the garden and my goal was to photograph them. The opening date is delayed until May so I’ll have to wait until next year. Until then, I share last year’s visit.
Like so many gardens preserved for future generations, Blithewold is the legacy of two remarkable women, Bessie Van Wickle and her daughter Marjorie Van Wickle Lyon. Bessie and her husband, Augustus, purchased the property as a summer home in 1894.
Bessie, a passionate horticulturist, worked in partnership with a local landscape architect John DeWolf on Blithewold’s landscape plan and implementation for almost twenty years. DeWolf was, at the time, employed by the Olmsted Firm to supervise the construction of Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York. Perhaps Blithewold’s great lawn, surrounded by curvaceous pathways bordered with native plantings, pays homage to his work there.
Working collaboratively, they created a garden in harmony with the surrounding vernacular landscape and waterfront. It is more naturalistic than formal, an approach that contrasted with the grand gardens of their Newport neighbors.
Bessie personally oversaw the placement of garden structures, trees, and individual gardens. The Lord and Burnham Greenhouses were built in 1901 to support her horticultural collections. Restored and rebuilt in 2005 and 2015 respectively, they are used for educational programs.
Marjorie, a talented artist, shared her mother’s love of gardening and grew thousands of plants. She corresponded with renowned botanists including those at the Arnold Arboretum. To acknowledge her support, a Katsura tree, planted in the enclosed garden, was given to Marjorie by the Arboretum in 1972.
Marjorie lived and gardened at Blithewold for more than sixty years. In 1976 she bequeathed the property to the Heritage Foundation of Rhode Island (later known as the Heritage Trust). It opened to the public two years later.
The property’s cohesive design is considered one of the most fully developed and intact of its kind. It integrates architecture, landscape architecture, horticulture and the decorative arts. Visiting provides the opportunity to experience a landscape of the country house era that is expertly curated and impeccably maintained.
Blithewold was inspired by 17th and 18th-century American design precedents, notably the Colonial Revival and Arts and Crafts Movements. The landscape centers on the ten-acre Great Lawn surrounded by intimate garden spaces that vary in scale, size and character. The creation of a park with distinctive features, with the house at its center, was Bessie’s vision for the property.
As a country house property of its type, Blithewold is unique. It is preserved with a high level of integrity and its detailed collections reflect the Van Wickle’s personalities and interests. The house, gardens and arboretum reflect their personal passions for art, culture, nature, and service.
The thirty-three-acre property’s garden spaces are seen on the map below. Some are more formally defined than others and each has a distinct garden personality. Here’s a quick tour.
The North Garden, an outdoor room, transitions the house to the garden and ten-acre lawn. A formal space, it features a variety of annuals, perennials and flowering shrubs, ornamental stonework and fountain.
Leading from the North Garden is the Bosquet, a woodland of deciduous trees and evergreen groundcovers with a fountain at its center. An important part of the original landscape design, the shaded and secluded Bosquet contrasts with the great lawn and provides a transition space to the garden spaces beyond. It’s a bit mysterious and was one of my favorite spaces.
The Enclosed Garden is one of the earliest on the property. A winding circular gravel path encircles the lawn with a summerhouse, where Marjorie was married, serving as a focal point. Here DeWolfe recommended planting hardy perennials including irises, lilies, peonies, foxgloves, and roses. Specimen trees, including a Giant Sequoia were added in 1911.
Eight small gardens are used to experiment with new planting combinations. Dubbed the idea gardens, these are redesigned annually.
The Rock and Water Gardens are sited close to Narragansett Bay and accessed by an undulating path planted with specimen trees that border the great lawn. Asian-inspired landscape features define the water garden while the rock garden, Bessie’s favorite, is protected by a backdrop of evergreen and shrubs.
The Moon Gate is one of the Blithewold’s most iconic features and is often used in photographs. It provides access to a rose garden and connects the house to the carriage house and visitors and education center.
Blithewold’s mission is to preserve New England’s finest garden estate through excellence in horticulture and historic preservation and, by their example, to teach and inspire others. To that end they have recently published garden planner, A Year in the Garden. It includes excerpts from their blog, a monthly example of what’s in bloom and to-do lists to inform your own garden activities.
To learn more about Blithewold visit www.blithewold.org. You may also enjoy this episode of the NPS Podcast, Cultivating Place: Garden History: Blithewold and The Country Place Era Garden by Jennifer Jewell and Sarah Bohannon.
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