Elm Bank Horticulture Center

Statues and an estate on the park grounds

The Elm Bank Horticulture Center is a 70 -acre garden and is located at the address 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, Massachusetts in the United States. The garden is the seat of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and offers generous open spaces and meadows, several streams and ponds, and various accrued gardens.

History

The area got its name Elm Bank in 1740, when Colonel John Jones bought the land and planted along the banks of the Charles River elm (English Elm ). Later, the land belonged to the families Loring, Broad and Otis until it was sold in 1874 for U.S. $ 10,000 to Benjamin Pierce Cheney. He had founded a delivery company, which later became the company American Express emerged. As Cheney died in 1895, he left behind over 200 acres ( 80 ha) plot of land to his eldest daughter Alice, it was 1905 is. In 1907, she became involved with her husband Dr. William Hewson Baltzell the architectural firm Carrère and Hastings to build on the site of a manor house in the style of Colonial Revival. At the same time they commissioned the well-known at this time landscape architects Olmsted Brothers with the landscaping of the entire area, the creation of new gardens and the improvement of existing facilities.

Conservation program

The entire site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places under the name Elm Bank on 10 July 1987, is now in the possession of the state Maasachusetts. In April 1996, the property was leased to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which has set up its headquarters there.

Since 2010, visitors have to pay an entrance fee for the visit. The revenue will be used for the maintenance of the gardens and to finance the organization and various special events.

Special

The gardens in the Elm Bank Horticulture Center include:

In this garden, visitors have the opportunity to self- sow plants, watering or interact in various ways with the elements of the garden. In every season (except winter ) school classes are taught here.

This garden was created in a joint effort of the University of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Flower Growers' Association and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Companies from around the world donate annuals that are here both amateur gardeners and professional gardeners available for viewing. In the garden unpublished varieties are also tested to date, should participate in the All- America Selections Competition. The previous winners are also on display, as well as hundreds of cultivars that have been submitted for consideration by commercial breeding companies.

The restoration of this plant from 1926 was based on the original plans from the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. The archive also contained a numbered list of plants as well as for purchase evidence of the originally planted trees and flowers there.

The Noanett Garden Club, the New England chapter of the Herb Society of America and the American Rhododendron Society operate joint show gardens at the Elm Bank premises.