This past weekend I was whisked away to a bygone era while touring two opulent, historic mansions, archetypes of the ‘Gilded Age’, in Newport, RI. The first was the former summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, fondly known as ‘The Breakers’. The 5 story (65,000 sq. ft. of living space!!!) was built between 1893 and 1895. The interior is filled with cold, smooth marbles from Italy and Africa, and warm, often rare, woods from around the world.
Being November, the colorful bedding plants that filled the parterre beds were gone but photographs had them beaming with blue ageratums, white alyssum (laid out in a shape that looked like a dolphin) and a pink annual that is listed on one website as pink alyssum. I have never seen pink alyssum look as vivid as portrayed in the pictures and think it might be a pink petunia or begonia. This mystery plant deserves closer inspection so another trip to Newport during the growing season would seem to be in order.
I found the clipped hedges to be of interest because they were so perfectly squared. I’m more of a follow the plant’s natural shape pruner. While I can’t imagine a hedge the shape of Sponge Bob Square Pants surrounding my more informal dwelling, these rigid, rectangular forms were quite well matched for their upscale, delineation purposes. As one’s gaze drifted seaward, the landscape became more informal and I bet I would find myself among the majority of visitors wishing that they could experience this view at the end of each perfect summer’s day.
Marble House was built a few years before The Breakers by the same architect, Richard Morris Hunt. It was built for William Kissam Vanderbilt who gave this phenomenal, museum quality dwelling to his wife, Alva, as a 39th birthday gift. She divorced him not too long after that, remarried and moved down the street only to return after her ex-husband’s death. A Chinese tea house was added at cliff’s edge and Marble House served as a site for women’s suffrage rallies.
Both mansions were exquisitely but tastefully decorated for the holidays. The poinsettias, delightfully decorated trees and other holiday items were engaging to the eye but what I noticed the most was the heady perfume of Oriental lilies and paperwhite narcissus wafting through the rooms and hallways as we made our way through the mansion rooms following cues from the audio tour. Lofty arrangements made with the lilies adorned various mantels and furniture. Occasional pots of forced paperwhites were set where their scent could be appreciated. In a small home the scent of so many lilies and paperwhites would have been overwhelming but in these large, cavernous rooms it added a light, romantic touch.
Potting up paperwhites for forcing into bloom is an annual holiday tradition. Sometimes I give them as gifts; sometimes I just keep their pervasive perfume all to myself. A small pot with 3 to 5 bulbs is sufficient to fill most rooms with fragrance. They are extremely easy to grow. Simply pot up the bulbs using regular potting mix or set them in colored gravel, marble chips or other small decorative particles in a water tight container. There should be an inch or two between the bottom of the container and the bottom of the bulbs to allow for root growth. Those growing in regular pots can be watered just like any other houseplant. For bulbs growing in gravel, keep the water level just touching the bottom of the bulbs.
At first I place the pots in a cool, dimly lit location for a couple of weeks until root growth is evident. Then they can be brought into a brighter spot but, if at all possible, keep them on the cool side (55 degrees F). Normally they will bloom 4 to 6 weeks after planting. Too little light and/or too high temperatures will cause the plants to become long and leggy and the foliage and flower stalks could flop over. You can tie them upright using yarn or ribbon, or cut the stems and enjoy them in a vase. Either you’ll love the smell of these flowers or loathe it. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground in this case.
Dawn

































lawn. I found several Monarch larvae, fat and happy munching on these new shoots. Monarchs have 4-5 generations per year in the northeast. It is this last hatch that will pupate and hatch into the adults who will migrate close to 2,500 miles to their mountain overwintering forest in the center of Mexico. 