Keeping traditions at Old Westbury Gardens
Enormous banks of rhododendrons like these are unusual in a public garden. Here, a stone lion statue that once flanked a footbridge, sits surrounded by a profusion of blooms. (May 27, 2011) Credit: Newsday / Rebecca Cooney
Move over, Versailles, and step aside, Giverny: One of the most beautiful gardens in the world is right off the Long Island Expressway.
Old Westbury Gardens, an Old Westbury estate once owned by a turn-of-the-century financier, was named this year as one of the world's three best public gardens by Four Seasons Magazine, a publication of the hotel and resort company.
The magazine described Old Westbury Gardens as "not a mothballed garden. It is a vibrant, living, breathing, changing and growing landscape, so near to New York City (a half hour by car) yet so far away in spirit."
That spirit is due in large part to the staff of 10 horticulturists and gardeners, assisted by five international interns, who toil to maintain the gardens, which were started in 1904 by U.S. steel magnate John Schaffer Phipps on the grounds of his 200-acre estate, which includes a 44-room mansion. The gardens' English design is an homage to the heritage of Phipps' wife, Margarita, who was British.
The first garden built was a Rose Garden. It is unusual because of its vast heirloom variety. "We do grow a lot of heritage, traditional roses that people's grandmothers would remember, and that are very rarely found in the trade," said Maura Brush, director of horticulture.
The Walled Garden was constructed next, in an Italianate style with a symmetrical layout, and was Margarita's favorite. The Thatched Cottage and Garden was a 10th birthday present for Peggy, the Phipps' only daughter, in 1916.
In addition to the formal gardens, the grounds also have woodland gardens and a cutting garden to supply the public rooms of the house with cut flowers. All the flowers in the gardens, perennials and annuals alike, are started by seed. Aside from the gardens, the grounds feature a landscape remarkable for the great width of its trees, such as tulip poplars and beeches that are left with their skirting branches extending out into the lawns.
In 1959, the Phipps family turned the grounds and house over to the public. Old Westbury Gardens is on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Sarra Sounds Off, Ep. 17: Olympics a possibility for Long Beach wrestler? On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Newsday's Gregg Sarra talks with Long Beach wrestler Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez about pursuing a third state title and possibly competing in the Olympics in 2028, plus Jared Valluzzi has the plays of the week.
