Plants from Around the World

Granite steps ascend the hillside through waving maiden silver grasses, heather, and rock rose. Enjoy the view of the Sound from the patio, bordered by daphnes and an ‘Ivory Halo’ dogwood. Lining the path to the gate, find daylilies, epimedium, ‘Aztec Pearl’ Mexican orange and two New Zealand corokias with zigzagging branches.

Once impenetrable, the back garden revealed surprises of both rare and unusual plants and trees. Plants from around the world with climates similar to ours thrive here, including species from  China, Japan, Turkey, Chile and New Zealand.

The evergreen buckbrush (Ceanothus cuneatus) shading the fern and hellebore garden disregarded its instructions to be a “low bush.”  Next to it, note the hardy Moroccan pineapple broom with cones of brilliant yellow flowers. A lovely backdrop to the patio is provided by a perfectly shaped Japanese umbrella pine and a redvein enkianthus, with scalloped bell blossoms in spring and gold and fuchsia foliage in the fall. 

Wander the back paths to enjoy a Kousa dogwood, winter hazel, tree peonies, a weeping cherry, a birch, a beech, and a Lawson’s cypress, which look like a mound. Once covered entirely by day lilies, the center garden now displays sage, begonias, salvia, dusty miller, and red and yellow twig dogwoods, producing contrasting texture and heights. Near the garden shed are a sourwood tree and the columnar ulmo at the rear, an elegant South American tree with aromatic blooms known for “ulmo honey”.