Hollister House Garden Tour

First up in our Connecticut garden tours is Hollister House Gardens in Washington, CT. Nancy and I visited the garden on Saturday, 9/7/13, during their garden fair where they were giving tours and selling rare and unusual plants and artifacts. This is the first of many garden reviews to come.

The gardens and grounds are spectacular and are very well maintained. I am sure they rely on many volunteers to help. There are a few areas where they are doing some work and 2 truck loads of rocks are waiting to be moved to a new wall or other various areas throughout the garden. Don’t worry about restrooms, the public ones are brand new and nicely done.

Many flowers are in full bloom and are quite spectacular. Most are mature and established with many perennials in well thought out garden spaces. There are about 8 separate spaces, each uniquely created. Walls, fences plants and hedges separate the garden rooms making each it’s own. Hollister House Gardens is a preservation project of The Garden Conservancy.

One of my favorite parts of the gardens are the ponds and water features. Each are home to several families of green and brown frogs. They seem docile and used to humans.

The house and other outbuildings seem to be natural components. It’s almost as though you can feel them breathing and living among the garden spaces. The outside dining room is my favorite space. I can see this space hosting many meals and just hanging with family and friends.

The only negative part of the property that stood out to me was the dam for the main pond. It was covered in concrete and stucco and just didn’t seem to fit. Plus, part of the stucco was falling apart and crumbling. The other thing that bothered me was the lack of honey bees. There were many bumble bees and other pollinators, but I didn’t see one honey bee.

I would highly recommend visiting this special garden. A donation of $5 per person is requested which helps to expand their outreach and education efforts. Hollister House is open on Saturdays May through September. Check their site for hours.