Visiting Gardens - June 9, 2016
Jennifer Langston
10 am – 12: 30 pm
Two Gardens off County Line Road in Hunting Valley
Garden of Ingrid and Hans Luders
6 Whisperwood Lane, Hunting Valley
(Park at the top of the drive and walk down to the garden)
This is a garden created by Ingrid Luders, a Grand Master of the Ohara School of Ikebana, whose passion for teaching and promoting the art of ikebana has inspired plantings of exotic and unusual perennials especially suited to Japanese flower arranging. As an eclectic garden it is constantly in flux with additions and subtractions. When the Luders moved to the property in 2004, the garden consisted of 3 magnolias, large rhododendron bushes and weeds.
L’Ecurie – Garden of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas V.H. Vail
14950 County Line Road, Hunting Valley
(Parking for 16 cars is available in the courtyard.)
L’Ecurie is named for its origins as a stable designed by Monroe Walker Copper and built in 1936. In 1951 Iris and Tom Vail purchased it and converted it into their home. Ultimately they moved it, along with a pool and pool house, across a field and up a steep hill to the present site. After living with their first Japanese-style landscape design, they decided to redo the garden in a style reflecting their very symmetrical house. They engaged the well-known landscape architect, Russell Page of London, and worked with him from 1977-1983 to create a classical, signature Russell Page garden. The pool area and sunken garden is all that remains of the original landscape design.
12:30 pm – 3 pm
Three Gardens off Berkshire Road in Gates Mills
Garden of Sally and Sandy Cutler
1860 Berkshire Road, Gates Mills
Sally describes their garden as one that is always changing with the goal of reducing maintenance and making it more dog resistant, while offering pops of color as well as herbs and vegetables for the kitchen. Page Dickey wrote the book Dogs in Their Garden; Roz Creasey wrote the book Edible Landscaping; here we can enjoy the ideas first hand.
Garden of Janet and Chip AuWerter
1689 Berkshire Road, Gates Mills
(Please park on the street)
The property was once part of an expansive estate with a stone bridge and pool, built to delight riders of an interurban railroad running along Berkshire Road. Janet and Chip’s approach to their garden is a blending of intuition and creativity with the goal of providing a floral accompaniment to their beautiful natural surroundings. The emphasis is on native plants to attract birds and pollinators. A special feature is the 100 foot tall Metasequoia glyptostroboides, or Dawn Redwood tree.
Garden of Laurie and Les Jacobs
1710 Woodstock Road, Gates Mills
(Please park on the street)
Laurie and Les Jacobs' lily pond
This property was originally a farm, orchard and summer retreat of a Cleveland Heights physician who helped a Norwegian family come to Gates Mills to flee the Nazi occupation during World War II. They repaid his rescue assistance by building the log cabin from trees they felled on the property before returning to Norway.
The Jacobs' garden is intended to be a controlled woodland landscape. It emphasizes a wide variety of trees and woody plants with complementary herbaceous beds surrounding a system of two ponds linked by a stream with small waterfalls.
Questions and RSVP: Anne Higerd- annehigerd@wowway.com or 216-751-1815 or Jennifer Langston – JenBLangston@Icloud.com or 216-417-3048
We are most grateful for this unique opportunity to visit these special gardens on June 9, 2016. Please join us and make a day of it! Organize a carpool, enjoy a spot of lunch at Sara’s Place (reserve ahead of time), and come prepared for the weather. Guests are welcome!