Category Archives: Events

The Store Is Open for the Season!

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Welcome spring with a visit to the White Flower Farm Store! We’re open for the season and stocked with plants, supplies, gifts, and gear to get you going and growing.

While the weather is not quite warm enough to begin gardening outdoors, we have plenty to get you started inside the house. We offer a wide variety of Dahlia tubers, which can be potted up and started indoors then transplanted into the garden as the spring temperatures settle down – generally sometime in the middle of May in our part of the world.  To bring color and life to your indoor spaces or dress up the house for Easter and other spring celebrations, we have a selection of beautiful, easy care houseplants – from cheerful primroses and beguiling, low maintenance Tillandsia (Air Plants) to fabulous foliage plants including Croton, Polka Dot plants, Song of India plants and variegated ivy.

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Our Tools of the Trade section features the top quality, professional grade tools we use every day at the farm including trowels, forks, pruners, hoes and spades. We also include a selection of hats, gloves, and caddies for carrying tools and harvesting vegetables.

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Our array of gift items ranges from hummingbird feeders and imperial vases to stationery,  compact field guides, and California-made botanical lotions and body products.

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Store staff made it a priority again this year to bring in items that are made in the United States. The store is filled with the vibrant and playful colors of decorative art poles, magnetic mailbox covers, and art planters that are all made in America. The planters come in an array of playful colors and designs created by artists including Mary Engelbreit. The frost-proof, fade-proof pots are equipped with raised bottoms for drainage and wheels on the bottom that make it easy to move them around on the patio or indoors. Choose one as a great gift for Mother’s Day or buy a group to display outdoors all season long. A variety of birdhouses include new styles made using reclaimed wood.

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As springtime makes its somewhat tardy appearance here in the Northeast, the outdoor spaces surrounding the store are slowly but surely being populated with flowering shrubs and trees.

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Red-flowering Andromeda shrubs blossom outside the store in Morris.

There are lovely red-flowering Andromeda, and yellow-flowering forsythia bushes, and as we were writing this, a cartload of hydrangea standards arrived to join the neat rows of evergreen shrubs and ornamental trees that are waiting for new homes.

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Cold hardy perennials are also in stock with more arriving daily. You’ll find Hellebores, Jacob’s Ladder, Dianthus (Pinks), Allium, Columbine, Delosperma, shown above, and many more.

This season’s Calendar is crowded with activities including our 12th Annual Great Tomato Festival on May 19-21, and our 3rd Annual Container Planting Make & Take Event. For the complete list, see our Lectures & Events listing.

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Decorative welcome mats and bird baths, a variety of birdhouses including some made using reclaimed wood, a range of houseplants including Begonias, Sansevieria, and Croton, and Dahlia tubers all await visitors to the store.

In addition to the great plants and other items you’ll find at the store, there’s one attraction that always makes any visit worthwhile, and that is our staff. Experienced gardeners all, they are friendly and knowledgeable, and they delight in sharing what they know and helping customers succeed in their own gardens. They can answer questions, solve problems, provide landscape solutions, and even help carry plants and supplies to your car. (A delivery service is also available. Just ask!) So bring your questions and cell phone photos of your garden. Our staff will delight in helping you create the garden of your dreams.

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The White Flower Farm Store and display gardens are at 167 Litchfield Road in Morris, CT. Our hours are 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily during the gardening season. If you’re looking for a particular item, please call before driving any distance to verify that we have it in stock. Our inventory is constantly changing. Phone 860-567-8789. We look forward to seeing you!

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Yellow-flowering forsythia shrubs await their new homes.

Please note: The Store will close at 2 p.m. on Easter Sunday, April 16th.

 

Plan a Visit to See Our Display Gardens

And While You’re in the Neighborhood, Enjoy Other Regional Attractions

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The Lloyd Border at White Flower Farm.

Sometime during this garden season, we hope you’ll visit our display gardens in the Morris section of Litchfield, Connecticut. Depending on the timing of your visit (or visits), you’ll find plenty of blooms in our outdoor borders, and quite possibly, in the Begonia House, which is generally in peak bloom from July to September. We also offer a variety of events each year, and you might consider planning your visit around those. Our 11th annual Great Tomato Celebration takes place May 20th–22nd at the farm, and our annual Open House will be held June 18th.

While you’re in the neighborhood, you might take the time to explore some of the other attractions Litchfield County and the surrounding hill towns have to offer. For gardeners, it’s pure heaven, and you can see why as you scroll below. If you’re accompanied by someone who doesn’t know a Hosta from a Hydrangea, coax them along by offering a number of other enticements: There’s hiking in Kent Falls State Park in Kent, and in the White Memorial Conservation Center in Litchfield, horseback riding at several area farms, live music at Infinity Hall in Norfolk and Bridge Street Live in Collinsville, the 21st annual Litchfield Jazz Festival in Litchfield, and an abundance of truly great restaurants. For the non-garden attractions, we’ll let you rely on the links provided. For the garden highlights, read below:

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Brush Hill Gardens in Washington, CT, will be open June 18th as part of a full day of Open Days garden tours. Photo by Barbara Paul Robinson.

Garden Conservancy

The mission of this highly regarded national organization is “to save and share America’s outstanding gardens for generations to come.” Since 1989, the conservancy has worked to ensure the survival of more than 100 gardens across the United States, and to promote gardens and gardening. In addition to lectures, garden-study opportunities, and other events, it hosts annual regional garden tours called Open Days.

Whether you visit a single site or multiple ones, viewing gardens of all types and sizes is a terrific way to absorb and appreciate fundamentals of garden design, glean tips on what to plant, and come away inspired to try new ideas.

In our neck of the woods, the 2016 Litchfield County Open Days are: June 11 and 18, July 9 and 30, August 28, and September 11. For a complete calendar of Open Days garden tours in Connecticut and across the United States, and to learn more about this organization, visit www.gardenconservancy.org.

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The first day of every Trade Secrets event features a Rare Plant and Garden Antiques Sale held at LionRock Farm in Sharon, CT.

Trade Secrets, May 14 & 15, 2016

Martha Stewart keeps the annual Trade Secrets event on her calendar. “Growing With Plants” blogger Matt Mattus has made the trip from Massachusetts. And, speaking for ourselves, we wouldn’t miss it. The two-day event features a garden market on the first day and self-guided tours of several private gardens on the second. This year’s event will be held May 14 & 15. Saturday brings the Trade Secrets Rare Plant and Garden Antiques Sale at the hilltop LionRock Farm in Sharon, CT. On Sunday, drive yourself around the hills of northwest Connecticut, stopping to visit four different gardens between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The gardens you’ll see this year belong to: internationally known interior designer and Trade Secrets founder Bunny Williams and her husband John Roselli; author, and lifestyle and fashion icon Carolyne Roehm, whose garden is called “Weatherstone”; Pat and Judy Murphy of “Old Farm Nursery”; and antiques dealer, and interior and landscape designer Michael Trapp, whose home garden is rarely open to the public. The Trade Secrets event is a fundraiser for Women’s Support Services of the northwest corner of Connecticut.

For more information about Trade Secrets and to buy advance tickets, visit www.tradesecretsct.com.

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Spring arrives in the Grey Garden at Hollister House Garden in Washington, CT.

Hollister House Garden

300 Nettleton Hollow Road
Washington, CT
860.868.2200

Inspired by some of England’s great gardens – Sissinghurst, Great Dixter and Hidcote – Hollister House Garden is an American interpretation of those classics. Situated on 25 acres in Washington, CT, it was begun in 1979 by George Schoellkopf and Ron Johnson. Schoellkopf’s 18th century house is surrounded by a succession of garden “rooms” that are separated by stonewalls and hedges, and decorated with a glorious abundance of plantings. Equal parts formal and informal, classic and wild, it’s a marvelous place to stroll and learn. Hollister House also hosts a series of events each season, and this year’s lineup is superb.

Hollister House Garden opens for the season April 30, 2016. For more information, including a calendar of events, visit www.hollisterhousegarden.org

Umbrellas shade the glorious peony blossoms at Cricket Hill Garden in Thomaston, CT
Umbrellas shade the glorious peony blossoms at Cricket Hill Garden in Thomaston, CT.

Cricket Hill Garden

670 Walnut Hill Road
Thomaston, CT
860.283.1042

Otherwise known as “Peony Heaven,” this specialty plant nursery in Thomaston, CT, grows and sells rare and unusual peonies (including herbaceous, tree and intersectional varieties). If you manage to make your visit during blossoming time, you’ll understand where the “Peony Heaven” nickname comes from. Founded in 1989, the nursery is run by members of the Furman family. It also specializes in perennial landscape edibles including Asian Pear, Pawpaw, Persimmon, Elderberry, Mulberry, and heirloom and other Apples, among other treasures. Visit Cricket Hill online at www.treepeony.com, or in person. Cricket Hill’s 27th Annual Peony Festival is timed for the weeks of peak bloom in the peony gardens. This year, it’s slated for early to mid-May for tree peonies and mid- to late May for herbaceous and intersectional varieties. Before driving, call the number above for blossom updates.

The Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden

9 Main St.
Bethlehem, CT
203.266.7596

Built in two stages between 1754 ad 1767 by the Rev. Joseph Bellamy, this home became a gardener’s paradise beginning in 1912 when it was purchased by Henry and Eliza Ferriday. It was Mrs. Ferriday who began designing the outdoor spaces, creating a formal parterre garden, planting fragrant perennials, shrubs and trees, and utilizing evergreens to screen the house from the adjacent roadway. When Mrs. Ferriday died, daughter, Caroline, took over ownership of the property. In addition to her work as an actress, philanthropist, and conservationist, Caroline continued her mother’s work in the garden. Today, the gardens are a treat for those who love lilacs, peonies and historic roses, as well as flowering trees and shrubs. Tours of the house and gardens are offered from May to early October. The home is considered a Connecticut landmark, and it’s included on the register of National Historic Places.

For more information, visit www.ctlandmarks.org/bellamy-ferriday.