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Tudor Place ranks in top 10 picture-perfect gardens near D.C.
August
14, 2023 @ 10:000 am | Katherine Mahoney
What better way to spend the long summer days than getting lost in a garden surrounded by flowers and the summer sun? The D.C. area is filled with unique public gardens perfect for a summer picnic, photo op or simply basking in the sun. Grab your camera and sunglasses and meander your way through these 10 enchanting gardens.
Charleston Gazette-Mail
by David Zuchowski WV Travel Team | July 9, 2022
WASHINGTON — Our nation’s capital, some 370 miles from Charleston, has seemingly an endless list of attractions, museums and monuments that can keep you busy for days. But one type of attraction that often goes unnoticed is the wonderful gardens, which offer a refreshing outdoor alternative with fewer crowds than they deserve.
As playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, “The best place to find God is a garden.” On a recent visit, I took Shaw up on his word and visited four of the capital’s loveliest gardens. It was a refreshing change from the usual (but wonderful) places many tourists often visit. I began my visit at Tudor Place, originally the home of Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Martha Parke Custis Peter.
To read the full article click here.
The Georgetowner
June 9, 2022
Tudor Place’s 30th Annual Spring Garden Party honored Dr. Sachiko Kuno, “committed scientist, philanthropist, entrepreneur and visionary,” as Executive Director Mark Hudson and President of the Board Mary Moffett Keaney introduced her May 25 to the applauding crowd, which enjoyed wine, cocktails and a buffet on the south lawn — a Georgetown tradition, co-chaired this year by Autumn Allen and Amy Porter Stroh.
To read the full article, click here.
New York Social Diary
June 2, 2022
While selecting a theme for Tudor Place’s thirtieth annual garden party, the hosts didn’t look very far for inspiration-their own backyard provided more than enough.
To read the full article, click here.
The Georgetown Dish
The 30th Annual Tudor Place Spring Garden Party on March 25, 2022 recognized Dr. Sachiko Kuno for her critical role in the community, inspiring others to engage with and support historic preservation.
To read the full article, click here.
The Georgetown Garden Club helped rehabilitate the Box Knot at Tudor Place.
At the 2021 Garden Party on September 22,* Tudor Place will honor the Georgetown Garden Club for nearly a century of service to the community and decades of support for garden projects at Tudor Place. The relationship between the two organizations runs deep, going back to the earliest days of the Garden Club.
Click here to read the full article from the Tudor Place Times.
* The 29th Annual Garden Party will be held September 22, 2021 and honor the Georgetown Garden Club. Additional gala details can be found here. The 28th Annual Spring Garden Party on May 20, 2020 was canceled.
Trees gain one ring per year, like candles on a birthday cake. In this activity, students use tree rings to tell the story of a tree and its environment. Download the lesson plan and answer key here. Fit for elementary education.
Subjects: Plant science, natural science, simply math, historic preservation
Materials: Worksheet, glossary, and answer key (download) & pencil
Time: 25 minutes
Abilities: 5th grade reading level; basic counting and math; making comparison statements
Introduction:
Dendrochronology is the science of using tree rings to learn about the age and history of a piece of wood. Say the word out loud:
“ den-dro-chron-ol-o-gy ”
Dendrochronology is not only used for trees. Dendrochronology helps people learn about wooden buildings. Tree rings can also tell historians about the climate from long ago.
At Tudor Place, scientists took samples of wood from parts of the old house. The scientists used dendrochronology to learn what year the wood was cut down from a tree. They can’t know exactly, but they can make a good guess. The scientists discovered that parts of the building were older than we had thought. We can learn history through trees!
Learn how to read tree rings. Then find out what trees can tell us!
With the season upon us for nutty treats like stuffing and candied pecans, our thoughts turn to an arboreal star at Tudor Place, its widely admired pecan tree.
In our historic gardens, we are fortunate to have a magnificent pecan tree (Carya illinoensis), Washington, D.C.’s, oldest and largest living specimen, according to the Casey Trees Living Legacy Campaign. This 80-foot-plus tree was planted from a seed nut ca. 1875, when Britannia Peter Kennon (Thomas and Martha Peter’s daughter) owned Tudor Place. Britannia planted the nut in the Dining Terrace, southwest of the historic house, from a pecan nut given to her by Maggie Carraher, an Irish immigrant who worked as the Tudor Place cook. Surprisingly, given pecans’ preference for southern climates, the tree has survived and produces fruit to this day.
The pecan tree to my left was planted during my great-grandmother’s lifetime, in the east end of the arbor, by the kitchen. I think that she had expected it to shade the path in front of the house in the afternoon, but they decided that it was a little too close to the house, and it was then moved down to where you now see it. My Father said that it stayed there for many years, practically with out growing at all, probably as a result of cutting the tap root. However, a few years later it started to grow and ever since then has made a splendid growth every year.
— Armistead Peter III
The name ‘Pecan’ is a Native American term, translating to “all nuts requiring a stone to crack”. The history of pecan trees can be traced back to as early as the 1500s. Many people consider the pecan to be one of the most valuable North American nut species, as it is the only major tree nut that grows naturally in North America. One of the earliest pecan tree plantings was documented to around 1711, 60 years before the first recorded planting by colonists in the future United States. The first pecan tree planting on these shores occurred in Long Island, N.Y., in 1772. Towards the end of the 1700’s, pecan trees were planted along the eastern coast, including in the gardens of George Washington (ca. 1775) and Thomas Jefferson (ca. 1779). Their cultivation and commercial planting started in the 1880s, in Texas and Louisiana, and sales of pecans emerged throughout the country. Where Maggie Carraher obtained the nut she gave Britannia is unknown. It may have come from Mount Vernon or a local store in Washington.
Try Communications Director Mandy Katz’s recipe for candied pecans (great for homemade gift-giving!). And visit the historic pecan tree here any Tuesday through Sunday on a walk or self-guided tour of the 5½-acre historic garden for only $3 a visit. We also offer scheduled garden programs throughout the year, including monthly guided garden tours in spring through fall. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for a new From Our Garden post in December!
For this first post in From Our Garden, a new monthly blog at Tudor Place, I want to share with you one of the property’s several garden “rooms” and one of my favorite places here, the Bowling Green. The Bowling Green was also a favorite spot of Armistead Peter 3rd (1896-1983), the property’s last private owner. Since joining the staff of Tudor Place as director of gardens and grounds in August, I have been studying the plant collections and history in these wonderful gardens. This has meant getting to “know” Armistead 3rd and the generations that preceded him here and their approaches to the landscape. I’m also getting to know the amazing garden staff and volunteers who have accomplished so much in just my first two months here. We are looking forward to many projects to come and to connecting more deeply to our community with new garden programs.
One way to share more of the gardens is on the web: This blog inaugurates what we hope will be much new media and educational garden programming online. We will write and share photos here about garden programming, background and information on our plants (comprising, so far as we know, the only formally accessioned flora collection in a historic house museum), and ongoing projects. And sometimes, like today, we will simply invite you to “visit” a special spot.
This tour starts not in the Bowling Green, but above it, in the enclosure called the Summer House, built in 1960-1961 during Armistead 3rd and Caroline’s ownership. This small structure and the path before it offer a delightful view of the Bowling Green stretching southward, framed by a matching pair of elegant greyhounds sculpted in lead. Proceeding from there down a curved flight of brick and flagstone steps that skirt the terraced area, a shaded brick pathway leads to the Green’s only entry, midway along its west side. Prominent in the entry path stands a tall, octagonal bird bath adorned by a cupid statue – a feature designed by Armistead Peter 3rd with inspiration from the works of Verocchio. This bird bath was once surrounded by Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis), and our goal this fall is to restore these historically-based plantings surrounding it.
Entering the sheltered area of the Bowling Green, you will find it surrounded by beautiful specimen trees and shrubs including American Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens), American Holly (Ilex opaca), Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), and Kobus Magnolia (Magnolia kobus). No records suggest that any actual bowling went on here, but the name likely refers to the long, narrow lawn, which could have served for games like bocce or other forms of “bowls” or “lawn bowling.” At the green’s southern end, a statue by sculptor Paul Wayland Bartlett overlooks the brick-edged lily pond. Bartlett’s stepdaughter was Caroline Ogden-Jones Peter (1894-1965),Armistead 3rd’s first wife, and the collection contains many of his works. The lily pond statue replicates a figure Bartlett designed for the U.S. Capitol pediment, House wing, in 1909. The seating area by the lily pond here is one of the garden’s most relaxing areas, a great place to read a book for the afternoon.
We hope you enjoyed your digital visit and will come see us in person soon. You can tour the garden (orsix days a week, whenever we’re open, for only $3 a visit, or attend an upcoming garden program. Stay tuned for a new garden blog post in November!
As an historic site that bears the scars of slavery, Tudor Place seeks to look this injustice in the eye. Click here to learn more.
