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Saturday, 14 July 2018
One garden visited, one more to go. I decide on the Garden at Federal Twist, also in Stockton, New Jersey. I've visited before, several times, but it has been more than a year and a half. When I arrive it is obvious this is a popular choice with the garden day trippers. As there is no field in which to park the narrow country road is lined with cars.
Walk in the driveway and take the entry path to go to the front of the house.
The front garden is mostly deer resistant plantings. The tour de force is behind
the house, down in a large swale of heavy clay soil and protectively fenced in.
Tall, stately prairie plants with deep roots that
penetrate the dense soil, necessary to support
the 6-foot tall Silphium perfoliatum, cup plant.
There's a drift of Filipendula rubra, queen of the prairie. James Golden
prefers the color when it begins to fade from the somewhat vivid pink
of the fresh-in-bloom flowers. One's own garden offers endless changes.
It makes Astilbe chinensis var. taguetii 'Superba' - a mere
three feet tall - look dainty by comparison to the filipendula.
The strongest color accent in the garden are the groups of red daylilies.
Even they have a touch of yellow to complement the various silphiums.
Interesting when the perennials have more height than a shrub like
buttonbush, Cephelanthus occidentalis, a native for damp to wet sites.
A wide spot in the gravel and bluestone path provides
space for two Adirondack chairs. But does the garden also
provide time to sit and contemplate? I have to wonder . . .
A ring, a sort of henge, space defined by a low wall and willows,
limbed up so their thin supple trunks offer minimal screening.
The path along the back of the garden is lined with yellow
daylilies, possible the classic Hemerocallis 'Hyperion' from
the 1920s, easy to grow, with fragrant, lemon-yellow flowers.
Another bold orange daisy at the entry to a side path.
Possibly Ligularia ×yoshizoeana 'Palmatiloba'. But
it might be a Senecio. Or a Packera. I need to ask James.
UPDATE: I did ask James, and he did give me an aswer. This is Ligularia japonica.
With, I have further discovered, the multiple synonyms of Arnica jaonica;
Erythrochaete palmatifida; Ligularia macrantha; and Senecio palmatifidus
A rusty wire sphere, one of two. Sufficiently airy that the wind passes
through, leaving it in place unlike a tumbleweed that blows around.
The Garden at Federal Twist is a garden for summer, when the stately plants reach their maturity. In autumn, when greens of chlorophyll turn beige, taupe, umber, russet. Even winter, when structure is reduced to outline, limned against snow. In spring? More of a promise. Glad I was here today.
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