The Gardens and Grounds
The gardens' principal interest is its collection of thousands of rhododendrons, which now include 125 of the known 145 Dexter cultivars. Their typical bloom time is from Memorial Day Weekend to mid-June. This collection has been painstakingly recovered since 1972, as Dexter's own named cultivars had been scattered without records. Each cultivar had to be recollected from gardens and nurseries up and down the East Coast. The site was prepared in 1972, and by the summer of 1977 it included over 300 plants representing nearly 100 cultivars, with an additional 25 cultivars as small plants in the nursery. All are now mature plantings.
Other items of horticultural interest include: holly, daylily, herb, hosta, and heather gardens, as well as more than a thousand varieties of trees, shrubs and flowers, many labeled.
The ground also include the Old East Mill, a windmill built in Orleans, Massachusetts in 1800, and extensively restored in 1999-2000. Visitors may view its interior on special days. In 2002 a labyrinth was also added to the grounds, designed by Marty Cain, one of the best-known labyrinth designers in North America. Also located on the grounds is the Hart Family Maze Garden established in 2005. A Cape Cod Hydrangea garden was added in the fall of 2008.
Read more about this topic: Heritage Museums And Gardens
Famous quotes containing the words gardens and/or grounds:
“If I could put my woods in song,
And tell what’s there enjoyed,
All men would to my gardens throng,
And leave the cities void.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and desertion, he would probably get one.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)