This year two Monmouth County gardens, one in Rumson and one in Spring Lake, are on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 30.
Since 1995, the conservancy, a national organization, has spread the garden preservation message to a broad base of people by providing access to some of America’s finest private gardens, a rare opportunity to enjoy beautiful spaces not normally open to the public.
The garden at Beliza Ann Furman’s home in Rumson and the garden at the Spring Lake home of Richard and Barbara Nelson are open for visitors to enjoy.
Those who wish to visit the gardens may pay $5 at each garden.
Furman said of her garden at 8 Woods End Road, Rumson: “Over the past years, my late husband, Sam, and I replaced horticultural clichés with our interpretation of a real garden. The focal point is the pond-like swimming pool and waterfall, which are surrounded by several planted areas. In spring, bulbs, azaleas, viburnum, lilacs, astilbes, and rhododendrons stand out. In summer, assorted lilies, spirea, crepe myrtle, hydrangea, old roses, and gazillions of perennials fill in the gaps. We are in bloom from February to November. Behind the pool, climbing roses and crab-apple standards enhance a columned pergola and seating area. A formal parterre features a stone dining set, standard ‘Fairy’ roses, and assorted annuals.
The description of the Nelson’s garden at 115 Passaic Ave. in Spring Lake invites visitors to: “Meander through the bricked pathways of this formal English garden overflowing with dozens of varieties of perennials and herbs. The centerpiece, a stone urn, rises in the midst of the garden’s quadrants, and serves as the focal point. Its base is encircled by Oriental lilies, Asiatic lilies, tetraploid day-lilies, and poppies. A treat for the vigilant eye is the occasional hummingbird visiting the buddleia. A quiet brick courtyard features equally beautiful containers brimming with unusual annuals such as plumbago, taros, clerodendrum, tibouchina, strobilanthes, and pentas. Beneath hibiscus topiaries are various shades of lisianthus.
“On a raised stone bed surrounding the garden is a G-gauge outdoor railroad which runs along 400 feet of track. Villages are nestled among dwarf shrubs and groundcovers along with automobiles and characters, depicting scenes from the 1930s and ‘40s. Other plants of interest are brugmansia, alliums, agapanthus, digitalis, delphiniums, passifloras, scented geraniums, several salvia species, Gerbera daisies, and Begonia grandis.”
