Arboretum & Garden
1: History: Vision for the Grounds
The grounds were designed by landscape architect John DeWolf, who based his overarching concept for the gardens on a naturalistic style. His design throughout these 33 acres harmoniously integrates varied garden spaces with pastoral grounds featuring towering trees and curving gravel paths.
Bessie’s influence on DeWolf’s vision is unknown, but her passion for improving the grounds was evident. She wrote of her intention to,
“…to create a park with distinctive features, using the house as a centre….to create an estate in which new beauties are constantly revealed, and the perfect accord between architecture and grounds is ever apparent.”
2: Using This App
To proceed from one tour, stop to the next, simply hit the “next” arrow or swipe right-to-left on the image. Use the audio bar to pause, rewind, or fast forward the narration, and tap on the top right of each picture to zoom in on it.
Some tour stops may have extra information, like this one does. Clicking on the “Learn More” button, as you did to get to this screen, allows you to explore the garden or its history to the fullest.
To help you find your way around, use the List/Map button on the top right. You can follow the tour in numerical order, or jump around to what interests you the most.
Press the “Main Tour” button above. This will help guide you to the next stop on the garden tour, the North Garden.
3: Garden Etiquette
In our gardens, picnicking, bird watching, painting, drawing, and photography are encouraged. You may park bikes near the visitor’s center. Please refrain from smoking, playing loud music, active sports, barbecuing, or sitting IN trees instead of UNDER them. Please leave your pets at home.
4: Garden Labels
When you walk through the gardens you’ll find that most of our plants, trees and shrubs are labeled. Look for the plant labels on small metal stakes in the gardens. The identification labels are on black metal stakes in front of the tree or shrub.