June 23 and 24 found folks from around the southeast region flocking to Marion and/or Mattapoisett to tour private gardens that were all putting their best roots forward. On Friday, it was Marion’s Secret Gardens, and on Saturday, it was Mattapoisett’s June in Bloom garden tours.
The Marion Garden Group, established in the 1950s, sought to give local women a place to learn about gardening and gain confidence in building floral landscapes, some of which can still be seen in the village area.
Several years ago, Elizabeth Hatch, with the aid of several MGG members, saw an opportunity to beautify forgotten spaces whose high-profile locations made their neglect all the more painful to view. The group purchased barrels and plants and gathered a volunteer army to care for plantings at several Route 6 points including Spring Street, Mill Street, the turnaround just before Old Rochester Regional High School, Converse Road and, not to be forgotten, the grand welcome sign at Front Street. The group donated the sign to the town.
Ever present in any blue sky over flower beds was the gray-cloud issue of how to water the newly-planted flowers and bushes. It’s taken several long years of negotiations with the town and with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to get water service to the locations. Hatch reported that just a few days prior to the garden tour, the group received word that the state and local governments had reached an agreement that will allow water service to those areas planted by the MGG.
The Secret Gardens consisted of eight resplendent private properties, the Elizabeth Taber Library and the Town House.
The library and Town House feature velvety green lawns punctuated by flowering beds and year-round evergreen plantings. In the spring, there were daffodils and now in this season so eagerly anticipated by humans and plants alike, one finds hydrangea and lavender gently bobbing in the warm air. In the winter, a selection of evergreens gives the sprawling lawned space a traditional holiday look.
Marion’s featured gardens were all showstoppers, many of which are professionally designed in partnership with the owners. Main Street offered About Face roses, allium, a weeping Japanese larch and the much-loved geraniums and coneflowers.
Two homes on Mooring Road gave the day trippers roses, peony, foxglove, penstemon and cypress trees, while on Cottage Street, Pleasant Street and Rose Cottage, there were Rose of Sharon, red maples, Solomon’s seal and dogwoods. (Side bar: Haven’t the dogwoods been splendid this year, despite last summer’s drought?)
Many of the Marion gardens also featured works of sculptural art thoughtfully placed for the best visual impact.
The event raised money that will help to continue the MGG’s goal of beautifying public spaces throughout Marion.
The following day, the Mattapoisett Woman’s Club held its June in Bloom fundraiser. This event raises money for the club’s scholarship fund. Speaking with club president Sandy Hering the day before, we learned that due to the 2022 summer drought hydrangeas might not bloom to their full New England glory and that although surface-water tables are okay now, deeper underground flows are still below average. Something to remember as we advance into hotter days and watering decorative landscapes are regulated.
However, the rainy weather on Saturday didn’t stop the intrepid garden seekers, and their efforts were rewarded by all manner of flowering vegetables to flowering bushes. These gardens were primarily designed and cared for by the property owners.
Like Marion, which featured a number of water-view backdrops, so, too, did Mattapoisett.
Water Street, Oakland Street, Pearl Street, Mattapoisett Neck Road and Acushnet Road were the location of the six private gardens opened for the event. Water Street, with its historic homes and water views, added to the precious flowering beds lining fence lines and circling dwellings.
We were excited to see vegetables in several gardens, vegetables as food and vegetables as art, as in the flowering asparagus standing over 5 feet tall, delicate as Irish lace. Shade gardens with Hosta leaves the size of baby elephant ears and boxwoods like thick, dense building blocks of green were all part of the show.
But if two garden tours weren’t enough to satisfy your need for all things jardin, there was the Marion Art Center’s annual pairing of flowers and art – Art in Bloom exhibit.
This year’s floral artisans were inspired by the paintings now in the galleries by Anne Carrozza Remick and Stephen Remick, as they built living, still lives. Artists included Joan Gardner, Pam Norweb, Suzie Kokkins, Karilon Grainger, Connie Dolan, Mimi and Martha Plumb, Veronique Bale, Janne Hellgren, Brie Zawistowski, Susan Maguire and Cindy Latham.
While the welcome mats have been put away for now, a walk about the quaint, lush villages of Marion and Mattapoisett will do much to fill your soul with the splendor that is Mother Nature right here in our coastal home.
By Marilou Newell