I joined the Martha Washington Garden Club for a tour of the house and grounds at Andalusia recently. They remembered that I had been the head gardener at Andalusia during the 1980’s and thought I might enjoy seeing the place again. It was better than returning to my alma mater. Improvements have been made everywhere. The gardens and house are more charming and more interesting than I remembered.

Andalusia is the historic seat of the Biddle family, located on the Delaware River, in Bucks County, just north of Philadelphia. The tour included the grand Greek Revival mansion, affectionately called the “Big House” as well as a tour of the grounds and gardens.

The house and grounds were acquired by Nicolas Biddle in 1814 through marriage to Jane Craig. Five years later, Nicolas Biddle was appointed as president of the Second National Bank of the United States. Nicolas Biddle, a banker, financier, politician, lawyer, and gentlemen farmer was also responsible for writing and publishing the Lewis and Clark journals. Nicolas Biddle was one of the most prominent men in the United States. Historical figures, the likes of President John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Joseph Bonaparte, were entertained at his homes in Philadelphia and at Andalusia.

The “Big House” holds many treasures collected by generations of Biddles over the past 200 years. A large oriental light brought back from the east by Commodore Biddle, hangs below the wide staircase. The library houses Nicolas Biddle’s extensive library and includes his edition of the Lewis and Clark journals. Floor-to-ceiling windows look out across the rolling lawn to the river from the twin front parlors. Family portraits by Thomas Sully, gifts from Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquis de Lafayette grace the remarkable collection.

The front lawn gently slopes to the Delaware River where you will find the historic Grotto built between 1834 and 1836 as a Gothic “ruin”. The Engine House also sits on the river and was used to pump water to the graperies. It is now used as a boathouse. Walking south along the river reveals the Billiard Room built by Mrs. Biddle so the men-folk would have a separate place to smoke and play billiards. The “Cottage”, a Gothic Revival mansion, is used by family members as a private retreat.

The formal gardens are located behind the Cottage and include perennial gardens on each side of the pool pavilion. You cannot miss the walled garden with its formal rose garden and historical interpretation of the Graperies. The two 17 by 280 foot brick and stone walls were built by Nicolas Biddle in the late 1830’s as the northern supporting walls for glass lean-to greenhouses used to grow grapes. The early 1800’s was a period of experimental farming for many a gentleman farmer. Nicolas Biddle’s pursuits included the first introduction of Guernsey cows to the Americas, growing Mulberry trees in an attempt to develop a silk worm industry, and his eventual success of growing grapes in the glass graperies.

After heavy storms destroyed the glass graperies in the late 1800’s the area between the walls was used for cold frames and vegetable and flower gardens. The crossing pea gravel paths were lined with boxwood that grew to maturity in the 1990’s. After 1933 most of the walled garden became lawn with the exception of the rose garden, still there today. Wisteria vines grace the southern side of each wall in May, around Mother’s Day.

The “Green Walk”, a dwarf conifer garden, the Dog Cemetery and the woodland garden are just beyond the walls. Today Andalusia is used for tours, events and weddings. For more information about Andalusia or to arrange for a tour visit the web at:

http://www.andalusiapa.org/visit/

Or call 215-245-5479

At Grounds for Sculpture, a 35-acre sculpture park and arboretum in Hamilton, New Jersey, large contemporary sculptures line the entrance drive, and you think, “This place is all about the art, right?” Then you step out of your car, and along the walkway there are waves of turf with undulating metal edging, and you realize that this is also a very different kind of arboretum.

Here, plants are no less sculptural than the artworks they enhance. More than 25 species of ornamental grass and bamboo are used as hedges, accents, and herbaceous borders. Pennisetum ‘Karley Rose’, accented by its pink inflorescences in June and July, leads you along a curving path from the Visitor Center to access the park. Leymus, Panicum and Festuca look like a blue haze planted around a pond filled with lotuses. A bamboo grove becomes part of the sculpture Erotica Tropicallis. Go through the bamboo, past skulking voyeurs, to enjoy Seward Johnson’s metal and Styrofoam rendition of Henri Rousseau’s painting The Dream.

It is hard to believe that as recently as 1989, this lush garden was the old dilapidated New Jersey State Fair Grounds. Then it was a flat vacant wasteland with part of an old race track, abandoned exhibition buildings, and “crummy soil,” according to Brian Carey of AC/BC Associates, landscape designer for the park. In less than two decades, the original 17 acres and 12 trees have grown to 35 acres and more than 3,000 trees and shrubs. With the excavation of berms, ponds, and watercourses, the designers sculpted the flat land into a charming contoured setting that obscures the industrial surroundings and becomes a backdrop for sculpture.

The transformation happened in part thanks to tree donations and to Carey’s ability to rescue large specimens from construction sites and abandoned nurseries. Six lacebark pines (Pinus bungeana) were saved from destruction with only a few days’ notice. These three-needled pines with mottled exfoliating bark are some of the finest examples of the species anywhere. Hundreds of red maples, grown inches apart, were transplanted from the defunct Princeton Nurseries. Carey explains how the trees were “dug in blocks of eight, like sausages,” then spliced back together to create a narrow allée, creating a tunnel of color in the fall. “The best part is that so far, only one tree has died,” he says.

When it comes to handouts, Carey says he will “take anything with interesting or exfoliating bark,” including thorns. An area unofficially known as the “pain garden” contains thorned honey locust, castor-aralia (Kalopanax pictus), pyracantha, and trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata). Throughout the park, look for trees with ornamental bark, such as stewartia, river birch, parrotia, and paperbark maple.

Conifers abound with 15 species of pines, as well as deciduous conifers that offer a splendid palette of spring and fall color. In front of the museum building stands a 50-year-old hinoki false cypress donated by nurseryman Tom Dilatush. Rare fastigiate conifers from Nancy Vermeulen dot the landscape. Not to be missed is a towering golden oriental spruce (Picea orientalis ‘Aurea Compacta’). Portals of weeping pines and spruces guide you from a wisteria-covered arbor to the Visitor Center.

Do not overlook the water garden. Here Carey shows “water used in as many ways as possible,” including fog that circulates around sculptures and around the sculpture-like leaves of coltsfoot (Petasites japonicas). A Camperdown elm (Ulmus glabra) serves as an umbrella to keep you dry. Nearby, take a walk through the Domestic Arts Building, pass through its indoor exhibits, café, and bookshop and go out to the Acer Courtyard, home of 47 rescued Japanese maples. Then relax, have a seat at one of the courtyard tables, and take in the view.

Grounds for Sculpture is located at 18 Fairgrounds Road, Hamilton, NJ, 609-586-0616 (groundsforsculpture.org).