Show #22/8009. NaumKeag

Summary Of Show

Naumkeag-Originally Built In The 1880’s
Garden Smart visits one of the most breathtaking historic estates in New England. Naumkeag, perched above the village of Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, was ORIGINALLY BUILT IN THE 1880”s as a summer retreat for Joseph and Caroline Choate. Naumkeag is more than just a beautiful home, it's a living work of art. The house designed by famed architect, Stanford White is a shingle style masterpiece. Click here

Gardens Are Extraordinary - Spanning Over 48 Acres
But what truly makes Naumkeag extraordinary are the surrounding gardens which are a bold and imaginative collaboration between Joseph's daughter, Mabel Choate, and celebrated landscape architect, Fletcher Steele. SPANNING OVER 48 acres, Naumkeag's gardens are an ever-changing showcase of design and horticultural brilliance.Click here

Trustees Of Reservations
Naumkeag is preserved and cared for by the TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS, a non-profit organization that protects over 100 of Massachusetts most treasured places. Through their stewardship, these gardens have been carefully restored and open to the public to explore, enjoy, and be inspired.Click here

Fletcher Steele
This was one of the EARLIER LARGE ESTATES THAT FLETCHER WAS INVOLVED WITH. He mostly designed private landscapes, never really got involved any big public works. Most of his designs actually don't exist today, they have been renovated or bulldozed over when an estate changed hands. Naumkeag is considered his masterpiece. He and Mabel never created a grand design. They renovated and redesigned the garden piece by piece over about three decades. What would you say Fletcher Steele's overarching design aesthetic was? How did he like to design gardens? Fletcher Steele is interesting because he's the bridge between the 1800's Victorian formalism and the 1950's modern landscape architecture that kind of took off after World War II. Click here

Examples Of Steele’s Input On This Property
Eric would like to know what some of the BEST EXAMPLES OF THAT ON THIS PROPERTY. Definitely the most famous example is the Blue Steps, which are a terraced stairway from the house to the cut garden, designed in an art deco style, which he completed in the 1930's. But there's a lot to see at the garden. So, they start their tour. Fletcher Steele certainly had a very eccentric eye and was not afraid to blend gardening styles together. And this is a very, very playful example of that.Click here

Top Lawn
Next the guys are standing on the TOP LAWN. This is another Fletcher Steele design where you walk outside the house and you feel transported to the pastoral Berkshire Hills. This view is framed by large arborvitaes and birch trees. Click here

South Lawn
Next they're standing on what's called the SOUTH LAWN. As the story goes, they had just finished the afternoon garden and Mabel was outside drinking her morning coffee. Trucks of soil and fill drove by the house, she ran inside and called Fletcher in his office and said, "Fletcher, do we need any soil?" And he says, “Sure, have them dump it all onto the lawn outside the Afternoon Garden." Click here

Trees - Wonderful White Oak
Most of the trees on the property were planted through the process of the home being built and the gardens being established. But, there's a WONDERFUL WHITE OAK that clearly predates the property. This white oak was the reason why the Choate's bought the property. They loved to picnic under the oak when they were in the Berkshires visiting. So when the property came up for sale, they bought it and decided to build their summer cottage here. Click here

Blue Stairs
As discussed earlier, one of the features that Naumkeag is best known for are the BLUE STAIRS, you can easily see it's a very impressive feature. One of the things Eric noticed as they were walking here is there is a very subtle understated water feature that kind of trickles down the middle of the path that leads to the stairs, there's nothing ostentatious about it. One hears this little splashing of water when walking down the stairs, it's so pleasant. The whole journey from the higher elevation down to the cut flower garden is a very calm, peaceful walk, one is basically forced to slow down and enjoy the view. Click here

Glass House
A lot of the growing for Naumkeag happens on the property. They have a BEAUTIFUL GLASS HOUSE. When Naumkeag was a working farm the family would receive weekly shipments of vegetables and dairy from New York. Of course, no working farm and garden is complete without a glass house. These were important from a standpoint of keeping up with the many, many plants that were needed for the garden and for the many installations. And they try to continue that tradition today.Click here

Perennial Border
Eric would like to look at the PERENNIAL BORDER, that's the future home for many of these plants. Let's see where that work's going to happen. This is our final stop at Naumkeag and it is beautiful. We could call it a perennial allee that sits on the grounds of what had been a glass house originally but now is just this wonderful, colorful, happy little trail. The original greenhouse collapsed in the ’70's and was rebuilt about 10 to 15 years ago. It was decided to leave this segment of the greenhouse as a herbaceous border. So now the border fits into the framework of the original greenhouse and it kind of adds a little bit of structure to the border.Click here

Interesting Bluff
One thing Eric would like to point out - Mabel had a very interesting eye in the way that she thought about her plant selections and ground covers. There is a really INTERESTING BLUFF which is the backdrop to the perennial borders. In it is a big swath of Yucca Filamentosa used as a ground cover. Click here

LINKS:

Naumkeag

Trustees of Reservations

Fletcher Steele

Plant List

Show #22/8009. NaumKeag

Transcript of Show

In this episode GardenSMART visits Naumkeag House And Gardens in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It’s a beautiful spot where historic design meets stunning seasonal displays. We think you’ll be inspired by its’ timeless style and vibrant plantings. Join us as we Garden Smart in the Berkshire Hills.

Garden Smart visits one of the most breathtaking historic estates in New England. Naumkeag, perched above the village of Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, was ORIGINALLY BUILT IN THE 1880’s as a summer retreat for Joseph and Caroline Choate. Naumkeag is more than just a beautiful home, it's a living work of art. The house designed by famed architect, Stanford White is a shingle style masterpiece.

But what truly makes Naumkeag extraordinary are the surrounding gardens which are a bold and imaginative collaboration between Joseph's daughter, Mabel Choate, and celebrated landscape architect, Fletcher Steele. SPANNING OVER 48 ACRES, Naumkeag's gardens are an ever-changing showcase of design and horticultural brilliance. From the sweeping south lawn to the whimsical afternoon garden, the romantic rose garden, and the unforgettable blue steps, each space reflects Mabel's vision and Steele's genius. These gardens weren't just meant to be looked at, they were meant to be experienced. They play with light, space and seasonality in a way that still feels modern nearly a century later.

Naumkeag is preserved and cared for by the TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS, a non-profit organization that protects over 100 of Massachusetts most treasured places. Through their stewardship, these gardens have been carefully restored and open to the public to explore, enjoy, and be inspired. From spring bulbs to fall color, every season brings something new.

Our garden guide is Stephen Zelno a member of the Trustees of the Reservations. Together, we'll dig into the stories behind the design and the plants that bring it to life and the legacy that makes this place so special. Stay with us as we Garden Smart in the Berkshire Hills.

Eric welcomes Stephen to the show, thank you so much for joining us. What an amazing place. Stephen in turn thanks Eric and GardenSMART. Welcome to Naumkeag. Eric would like for Stephen to talk a little bit about the history of this beautiful space and this estate. It really is an unusual property.

Naumkeag was the summer cottage of Gilded Age lawyer, Joseph Choate and his wife Caroline Choate. They spent the summers here, coming up from New York City to escape the heat. The house was built in the 1880's. In the 1920's, the estate was inherited by their oldest daughter, Mabel. When Mabel inherited the estate, she slowly redesigned the whole garden with her friend and landscape architect, Fletcher Steele.

This was one of the EARLIER LARGE ESTATES THAT FLETCHER WAS INVOLVED WITH. He mostly designed private landscapes, never really got involved any big public works. Most of his designs actually don't exist today, they have been renovated or bulldozed over when an estate changed hands. Naumkeag is considered his masterpiece. He and Mabel never created a grand design. They renovated and redesigned the garden piece by piece over about three decades. What would you say Fletcher Steele's overarching design aesthetic was? How did he like to design gardens? Fletcher Steele is interesting because he's the bridge between the 1800's Victorian formalism and the 1950's modern landscape architecture that kind of took off after World War II. He was a contemporary of Olmsted, he studied under Olmsted. When he went to graduate school for landscape architecture he also apprenticed under Warren Manning another famous landscape architect at that time. Fletcher Steele is really the beginning of modern landscape architecture in America, introducing and practicing landscape architecture as an art form and introducing design to the landscape. He was actually a little bit light on gardening and horticulture and more into abstract shapes and forms in the landscape.

Eric would like to know what some of the BEST EXAMPLES OF THAT ON THIS PROPERTY. Definitely the most famous example is the Blue Steps, which are a terraced stairway from the house to the cut garden, designed in an art deco style, which he completed in the 1930's. But there's a lot to see at the garden. So, they start their tour. Fletcher Steele certainly had a very eccentric eye and was not afraid to blend gardening styles together. And this is a very, very playful example of that. Here we feel like we've got some of these very formal elements and then some elements that we wouldn't typically see in a formal garden. This is the Afternoon Garden. It represents the beginning of Mabel Choate and Fletcher Steele's relationship and the first garden that Fletcher Steel designed at Naumkeag. Mabel had just inherited the estate and had just returned from a trip to California. There everyone was putting in outdoor rooms, so she asked Fletcher to design an outdoor room. Fletcher Steel mixed all kinds of cultural influences. There is a French parterre with Spanish water fountains which serve as the room's rug. It has Venetian gondola poles surrounding the room, they provide a sense of enclosure to the room without obstructing the views to the rest of the garden. And then there are Italian marble seats, which act as the room's furniture. In letters back and forth between Mabel Choate and Fletcher Steele, Mabel actually complained about the furniture being so uncomfortable, and Fletcher Steele responds back to her and says, "Mabel, that's not the point. You're supposed to look at them, you're not supposed to sit in them.” Stephen likes the use of the grapevine to provide shade, because in the summers it can get quite warm, they provide the ability to enjoy the garden. The nice overhead pergolas are also attractive. Fletcher kind of debated, should the pergola cover the whole patio? But he felt it would look gloomy on a cloudy day. Eric thinks it's a wonderful intimate space, but one is still able to peer through and get glimpses of the mountains and of a majestic white oak. There are a lot of really nice borrowed views that are part of this design. Fletcher was very big on framing views, choosing specific views, and then creating either architecture to frame the views or by using plants like arborvitaes, even existing trees.

Eric wonders if there is significance to the coal in the design? Originally, Mabel and Fletcher planted inside the boxwood parterre with annuals, like Lobelia and Calceolaria, but they never really did that well. So over the years, they changed it to this pink crushed gravel and black coal.

Eric would like to look at some of the other vistas in this garden. That is relatively easy because there's so much beautiful landscape that surrounds the estate. There are no bad views on this property, it's wonderful being able to walk out the back door and see these beautiful mountains. And that was a very thoughtful part of this design, creating these views and the allee of trees to enjoy the surrounding countryside.

Next the guys are standing on the TOP LAWN. This is another Fletcher Steele design where you walk outside the house and you feel transported to the pastoral Berkshire Hills. This view is framed by large arborvitaes and birch trees. The garden is terraced with old apple espalier and shrub borders. When you're standing on the Top Lawn all you see is the view, you don't see any of the garden or farmland below you.

And let's talk about some of the mountain ranges around here. The Trustees also manage some of the adjacent properties. The Trustees is the nation's oldest conservation organization, it started in the 1800s to preserve special places in the state of Massachusetts. They own over 100 properties, a lot of which are nature preserves, wildernesses and forests. But they also own some historic landscapes and farmland. Naumkeag actually overlooks another Trustees property called Monument Mountain. Fletcher framed this view. He called it Perugino View, because standing at the top looking at Monument Mountain reminded him of an Italian renaissance painter called Perugino.

Next they're standing on what's called the SOUTH LAWN. As the story goes, they had just finished the afternoon garden and Mabel was outside drinking her morning coffee. Trucks of soil and fill drove by the house, she ran inside and called Fletcher in his office and said, "Fletcher, do we need any soil?" And he says, “Sure, have them dump it all onto the lawn outside the Afternoon Garden." That soil sat there for about six months until Fletcher Steele finally made it to Naumkeag, they then sculpted this lawn into a kind of undulating hills up and down to the big oak tree to mirror the contours of the Berkshire Hills in the background. Fletcher was all about bringing the background landscape into the foreground of the garden.

We see also some other elements in the garden where the mixing of styles becomes almost an irreverence but also is one thing that makes this garden unique. With the kind of Asian elements blended with more European elements, Mabel and Fletcher felt they needed something to draw one's eye down to the end of the lawn, so they installed the Chinese pagoda. It's like an Italian baptismal, then they painted it in the same kind of gaudy colors as the Afternoon Garden. So it's a real hodgepodge of different cultures and styles.

Most of the trees on the property were planted through the process of the home being built and the gardens being established. But, there's a WONDERFUL WHITE OAK that clearly predates the property. This white oak was the reason why the Choate's bought the property. They loved to picnic under the oak when they were in the Berkshires visiting. So when the property came up for sale, they bought it and decided to build their summer cottage here. When they built their house, they hired their friend Stanford White of McKinney and White to design the house. They then hired Frederick Law Olmsted to design the grounds, he was “the" landscape architect at the time. Frederick Law Olmsted believed that houses shouldn't be close to the road, they should be kind of secluded into the property so he insisted on placing the house right on top of the oak. The Choate’s didn’t like that plan, and actually fired Frederick Law Olmsted and hired Nathan Barrett, a landscape architect out of Austin, to design the grounds. He agreed to leave the house close to the road where it is now. And thankfully, the majestic tree has survived.

As discussed earlier, one of the features that Naumkeag is best known for are the BLUE STAIRS, you can easily see it's a very impressive feature. One of the things Eric noticed as they were walking here is there is a very subtle understated water feature that kind of trickles down the middle of the path that leads to the stairs, there's nothing ostentatious about it. One hears this little splashing of water when walking down the stairs, it's so pleasant. The whole journey from the higher elevation down to the cut flower garden is a very calm, peaceful walk, one is basically forced to slow down and enjoy the view. This is one of Fletcher Steele's most iconic designs and definitely the most iconic part of Naumkeag. It was designed so Mabel, who at that time was in her 70s, could walk down the hill to get to her cut flower garden. On the right, it was designed with the intention of slowing one down, thus making an easy and gradual descent. It's a series of terraces that zigzag back and forth, but also the steps change in height and length. So it really slows you down and makes it an easy stride for going up and down. One must pay attention with the steps being different sizes and shapes, it forces one to think about every single move you're making.

Eric would like for Stephen to talk about the blue paint. Over the years that has changed in the restoration of the garden. The steps were restored about 10 to 15 years ago and before they were restored, they had about 50 years of being repainted. Every time they repainted the fountains, they matched the color of the paint to what currently existed. But what was happening was the sun was fading the color of the blue so by the 2000s, the dark navy blue had actually faded to a light robin's egg blue and that's what everyone knew the steps to be. When they restored it they went back to the original color, the dark navy blue. Actually, a lot of visitors who had been coming over the years were upset. They thought that it had been painted the wrong color, but actually, this is the correct color.

In the Cut Flower Garden they have bulb displays every year. There is a daffodil and tulip festival in the spring that runs from about Earth Day to Mother's Day. All of the annual beds are filled with daffodils and tulips. At that time the beds are all filled with bulbs, then they do a big change over in May when it all changes to summer bedding.

A lot of the growing for Naumkeag happens on the property. They have a BEAUTIFUL GLASS HOUSE. When Naumkeag was a working farm the family would receive weekly shipments of vegetables and dairy from New York. Of course, no working farm and garden is complete without a glass house. These were important from a standpoint of keeping up with the many, many plants that were needed for the garden and for the many installations. And they try to continue that tradition today. They have sheep grazing in the field below and they still do a lot of the propagation in the greenhouses. Eric would like for Stephen to tell us about what he is working on. They have a seasonal change out that's about to occur and they're currently in the middle of that change out. Thus taking out all of the biennials right now and planting summer annuals, removing things like Foxgloves and Sweet Williams. But at the same time they're sowing next year's crop of biennials in the greenhouse. They start all of their seeds in small seed pans. Stephen shows us a dianthus barbatus, a Sweet William, they started them in late June, June 18th. So these are about ready to be picked out and potted up into six-packs or trays. Then they will grow things for a few weeks and if they need to be potted again, pot them in a little larger pot. If they get big enough they will even pot some biennials to an even larger pot. Steven shows us an Anchusa that they use as a biennial. It will get big and beefy and ready to be planted out in probably late September.

Eric would like to look at the PERENNIAL BORDER, that's the future home for many of these plants. Let's see where that work's going to happen. This is our final stop at Naumkeag and it is beautiful. We could call it a perennial allee that sits on the grounds of what had been a glass house originally but now is just this wonderful, colorful, happy little trail. The original greenhouse collapsed in the ’70's and was rebuilt about 10 to 15 years ago. It was decided to leave this segment of the greenhouse as a herbaceous border. So now the border fits into the framework of the original greenhouse and it kind of adds a little bit of structure to the border. It's also a nice because a lot of the property is very design focused and not very horticulture heavy and this gives the garden a little bit of a chance to play around with things like annuals and biennials and unusual plants. What are some of the plants featured here? Stephen is about to do a seasonal change out, what are some of the changes that are going to happen? There are three big seasons for this border. At the beginning of the year, for their Tulip Festival, these borders are full of tulips and forget-me-nots and Annual honesty. Then a second succession comes with all the biennials, things like Tanacetam, Foxgloves. They only last a few weeks, some are true perennials and some are true biennials and some are short-lived perennials that they could probably leave in and get a couple years out of. But they kind of stop blooming and don't exactly pay their rent for the rest of the season, so they rip them out and put in summer annuals, something like an Ageratum or a Flowering Tobacco or a tropical salvia that will keep the bloom going for the rest of the season, up until about late September, early October. They then rip those out and replant the biennials for next season.

EOne thing Eric would like to point out - Mabel had a very interesting eye in the way that she thought about her plant selections and ground covers. There is a really INTERESTING BLUFF which is the backdrop to the perennial borders. In it is a big swath of Yucca Filamentosa used as a ground cover. One usually sees this plant as kind of single specimens or in small clumps but here Yucca is used as a mass planting that one actually walks through. And, it works great as a ground cover because it's very drought tolerant and smothers out a lot of the weeds. It has a beautiful season when it blooms, then also is evergreen through the winter. When you think about it, it's actually a very practical choice for that application.

Eric thanks Stephen, we've had a wonderful day, Naumkeag is such a magical place, full of history, design and garden inspiration. We invite all of our viewers, if near Stockbridge Mass. to definitely make the trip here and explore this wonderful spot. Eric looks forward to visiting in the future and seeing what amazing things have happened. Stephen, in turn, thanks Eric and GardenSMART for visiting.

Naumkeag

Trustees of Reservations

Fletcher Steele

Plant List