Trees

Remarkable specimen plants include; a weeping European Beech, a contorted European Beech, a golden weeping European Beech, a Tri-color European Beech (Fagus sylvatica pendula, F.s. tortuosa, F. s. “Aurea Pendula”, F. s. roseo–marginata). There are also a fastigiate English Oak (Quercus robur fastigiata), a Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum), a huge creeping Norway spruce (Picea abies ‘repens’) that came from early Rock Garden Society luminary Burr Bronson in 1967 as a 6-inch plant, a weeping Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum), and a Phellodendron amurense or Chinese Cork tree; the latter located on the back lawn was acquired as a 6-inch seedling at the Annual Meeting of the Rock Garden Society in Conway New Hampshire in 1969. The gardens also contain several mature specimens of Stewartia.

The Arboretum in the pasture contains additional Fagus cultivars, conifers, Quercus in variety, an Aesculus collection, a Gymnocladus dioica (Kentucky Coffee Tree), other Magnolias, a variegated Liriodendron, and much more.

Many of the now mature specimens (Aesculus, Malus, and others), both in the garden and in the pasture Arboretum, were grown from seed collected at the Arnold Arboretum in the 1970s and 1980s by Alston Barrett. He also propagated from cuttings the golden forms of Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Filifera’ as well as our single C. lawsoniana.