Southold Historical Society Garden Tour: July 9, 2005

Beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wonderful.................... anazing.... every thing is clean and nice.
Long view look like a golf ground.... green and clean.....
Your garden is looking like a beautiful park.... and Entrance view is fantastic.
I this is better you are living in "Heaven". And this was not a garden tour this was Heaven Tour. Please change the Heading words.
Kaleem

Beautiful Arlene!!

Absolutely wonderful tour. Everything was beautiful and no matter what you say, there was not a thing out of place. Your trees are beautiful, Very LUSH vegetable garden. Love Jack's copper. Wish I were closer to take some lessons from him. I would love to do copper. (also, he is a nice looking man.)

I was honored to be on your write-up. There are so many things you have that it is hard to remember them all.

The huge blue hosta was gorgeous. And blooming right alongside the Astilbe yet!!! Good timing. Don't know how you got all of the flowers to do their act at the right time but they did it beautifully.

Take a long vacation you two, you earned it. Jeanette

Carmen: you deserve every word of praise. You took the time to read my wording and suggest the change to "Visual Scavenger Hunt" that had the first couple so excited that they had me caught up in it all over again. When she located the last item she could hardly contain her excitement! I will never take any praise away from you! Thanks so much.

To Janis (Woofens), Mary (Moby), Tricia (MiniSchnuz), "maray dost" Kaleem (gumlla - it means "container" in case anybody was wondering), Melissa and Jeanette -
thank you all for your lovely comments. We appreciate each and every word.

Hopefully I'll get to Part II with the next cup of coffee. Thanks again.

Arlene and Jack

Southold Historical Society Garden Tour: Part II

Visual scavenger hunt features to find:

A row of tiny birdhouses atop a copper bottomed trellis
The 9’9” tall copper trellis, covered with two purple clematis vines, made by Jack
A child’s tiny teacup in a “birdbath”
The Gnome’s home
A single Victorian birdhouse “finial” atop a piece of lavender trellis
A pretty statue of a little girl, Petals, sitting on a bench
The location of the rocks naming the Japanese irises
The statue from the book, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”
The white Obelisk Jack made for me
An aqua “stained glass” grasshopper

#1 solved:

Pennie and Paul Schwartz find the 9'9" copper trellis - #2 on the list.

Tiny tea cup in a birdbath - #3

Gnome village - #4

Victorian birdhouse and bird #5

Petals - #6

Japanese iris garden with names written on white beach rocks - #7

Statue from the book, 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' - #8

Obelisk that Jack made for me. It's covered with clematises, including the new one, 'Blue Moon', at the bottom left: #9

An aqua "stained glass" grasshopper - #10

#11 - the Grand Prize Winners: Pennie and Paul Schwartz of Southold!

Pennie was so excited with the hunt that it spread to Jack and I!
They were the first guests of the day and really enjoyed the garden but I think the hunt was the most fun for them. They selected the Hosta Plantaginea as their prize.

It was lovely to meet them and we look forward to their return to our little piece of heaven, as Kaleem calls our property!

Arlene

Fantastic tour of your gardens, Pirl! Wish I could have been there in person...so many vignettes and plantings to enjoy and admire!

Thanks for posting :-) t.

Love your blooming 'Blue Moon'.
Great photography.
Kaleem

Thanks Tabasco! I love the vignettes about as much as the rest of the plants, etc.

When we were on the last garden tour, in '98, I noticed an older woman actually running through the garden. I went over and told her she had four hours to see the seven gardens on the tour and there was no need to rush. Her reply shocked me: "I'm on the tour, too, and just wanted to see what YOU have" and then went on running.

So, for this tour, I wanted people to have to search out items so they'd stop and look at the flowers along the way and that was the reason for the visual scavenger hunt, so aptly named by Carmen, instead of my "contest". It made all the difference in the reactions of people when they'd stop to read the two pages.

One old bat made me laugh! The docent, Marian, gave this woman a flyer and told her she could read all about the gardens first. The woman said she didn't have time and would read it later! Oops, she missed the whole point of having fun while enjoying the garden!

Thank you maray dost Kaleem! I'm getting better all the time with the digital photography.

Thought you'd like to see the real PIRL. On her 100th birthday celebration I brought photos of three of our hybrid daylilies and asked which one she would like to have named after her. She selected this one and I said it would be called 'Pauline Reid Loeffler' and she didn't hesitate to correct me, 'Pauline Isabelle Reid Loeffler' and so it is.

I'll see if I can photograph a picture of her on our wedding day.

Far left, center, the real PIRL!

What a beauty she is! I'm so glad you posted her pic! Is her dh still alive?

No, he died in '66. The chap next to her in the photo is of my father-in-law who was also 90 at the time. We thought they made a cute couple! He died a year later.

What a beautiful flower to have named after you! I love it! I bet she felt so honored!

She felt honored when we dedicated all of our gardens to her, when we were on the tour in '98. She called, after reading about it in the flyer, and said to me, "I shed a tear". You just can't replicate her Albemarle, NC voice in print: really too bad. She was a gem! The real PIRL.

Arlene, it's all exquisite! No wonder you were chosen for the tour, and it's even better because you and your DH do it together! That is awesome! I especially loved the pink daylily towards the front of the thread, one of your hybrids, the sedum with the teacup in the birdbath, the grassy paths that connect all the gardens together, your amazing daylilies, and on and on! And you would give away Frances Williams as a prize! I should have been there. How lovely to have these beautiful gardens to wander in together.
I love your gnome door. I'll try to find a photo of mine. It's almost the same! My son and I made them for Christmas presents two years ago. I have a dwarf cedar planted by the door. Keep wanting to put up a little fence, but the dogs do want to knock it down!

I love the whole thing! Kaleem is correct, a little slice of heaven!

Thanks for the many compliments! Hybrids can be thrilling or "what went wrong".

You have a great idea with the cedar. We have tiny (one inch tall) yews and cypress that we're always yanking out and putting into the compost. Now, thanks to you, I'll take a few and gradually give them a walkway. Guess I'll be trimming them with a toenail scissors!

Arlene and Jack ,you have a wonderfullll garden thank you for sharing your day with us,I hope the looky lue found time to read the flyer and then kicked her self for not slowing downlong enough to enjoy the gardens(lol).
Pheadra

I doubt it Pheadra! She was off and not quite running. It's her loss and she missed out on a lot of fun that the others had. We even had strangers talking to strangers and friends meeting friends in the garden. Thank you, Pheadra, for coming along for the tour! I hope you saw your name in the credits I gave to the great people at DG for their inspiration - like you and the birdhouse with the bird!

All I can say is Wow Arlene. It's stunning. I knew that I had to leave the tour until I had a day to spend on it. The 'dog run' gardens particularly made me giggle. Not everyone has such stunning dog runs. You and Jack are so clever and such hard workers. I'm glad that you put a photo of the garden designers on the tour. :-) It just wouldn't have been the same without you.

It would be so lovely if people could slow down enough to enjoy the beauty. It makes me think of travelers who have four hours in Paris: Ah, don't you love the entrance to the Louvre? I.M.Pei you know. But no time - off to see the front of some other wonderful buildings that you'll never see the inside of. Oh, except the Eiffel Tower - you can see the inside of that without stopping the car. (LOL)

The pots are a work of art - and the hydrangea is to die for. What a bloomer. Tell Jack that his obelisks are beautiful please. I love all of the little secret things in your garden. It's magic!

Thank you Dorothie, and thanks for all the compliments. We enjoy gardening and do take our time. The neighbor on the other side of my old English Tudor used to say I gardened well but I was "so slow". I asked Mrs. Loeffler and she agreed! She was kind enough to say that I took my time. I just don't see rushing to do something. I dig a hole, nourish it, remove any weeds around it, carefully place the plant, give it a drink, do more backfilling, create a circle for the water to seep down and so on.

We went to Prince Edward Island for a four night stay and it ended up seven nights. A woman was walking from town towards her ship and she asked us, since we were parked down by the water in Charlottetown, if we were from the cruise. We said we weren't but that didn't stop her at all. She said not to bother to go into town because she scouted it out and "there isn't a thing worth having in those shops". I asked her how long it took and she said "an hour". We were in town every day for at least 2 to 4 hours and still left without seeing everything. It was so charming. She never met the Bishop of St. Dunstan (maybe he was only a minister but in his wonderful garments we appointed him Bishop), never saw the Barachois play and sing, never met the ditsy blonde who was so sweet and charming that we'd go back time and time again for dinner, never saw the real "Anne of Green Gables" house, barn, and certainly missed out on the grand Seafood Festival when I went back into the kitchen to photograph the chefs! Someone told me I had to leave and I told them, "I'm the photographer" so they let me stay! One chef even gave me his "secret recipe" and Jack and I became two of the tasters!

Between the cruise liners stopping for a few hours and then you can check off all of Prince Edward Island from your travel list and those who fly by on coaches and never get to meet the farmers, the business owners, the artists, the gardeners, miss out on touring the windmill farm, I wonder why they even bother!

lol Well...I can honestly say I've been on both sides of that coin. When I was in Paris (for 3 days) there were many things I didn't see. Didn't even bother with the Louvre. (Too big.) But my 74 y/o Mom and I both love churches. Boy, do we love churches! I had the most wonderful time escorting her to every church we could get to ~ Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, St. Denis and St. Germain l'Auxerrois.

I'd say it was time exquisitely spent. :)

I have no argument there. It's the attitude of "I've been to this country and that" but they've been rushed around and haven't seen what the country is all about. It's just crossing more countries or places off this imaginary list so people should be impressed.

I know many people who've been to Ireland as part of these 4 countries in eight days than I even want to think about! When we went to Ireland we were there for 12 days. So many people ask what on earth we did!

Last year, in Montreal, we stopped at the church where Celine Dion got married - didn't matter to us. It was the Cathedral of Notre Dame. I was born a Catholic but was revolted when I saw $4.00 admission charge! With all the troubles the church has? An admission charge?
We were both furious. No such charges at Ste. Anne de Beaupre in Quebec!

That's dreadful! Charging admission to a church ought to be the 8th "deadly".

We've been to Quebec many times: love the food and the people. Ste. Anne de Beaupre was even prettier than Notre Dame! So there, Montreal!

There was an additional charge for lighting candles - maybe $2.00 each, not sure. Just took some photos. Beautiful but I'm still not over an admission charge.

Charging for candles is OK. There's were many candles lit on my trip. :)

All I can say is WOW. Arlene, these are fantastic shots -- what eye candy. WOW.

Noone needs to be bored to enjoy that tour! It was a pleasure! What a wonderful job you have done. I know it is a lot of work, but I can see you must really love it too.
Thanks so much for taking time to share this!
JanetS

Thanks Kimberley and Janet: yes, we do enjoy it - I guess it shows!
I'd rather be outside than inside scrubbing floors. It's the most fun when people want to start daylily gardening! We give away so many and just hope people get addicted like we did!

Hey, I rarely scrubbed floors when I didn't garden. Now I SURE don't do much of that!