Garden Conservancy Open Days

Since 1995, the Garden Conservancy has opened some of the premier private gardens in America to the general public.

This year, three great gardens in Westchester will be open the week of May 19. Two are in Chappaqua, and one Rocky Hills.

The garden of Shobha Vanchiswar and Murali Mani in Chappaqua is an organically maintained garden, winner of the 2007 Golden Trowel award from Garden Design magazine. It features a cottage garden of bulbs and perennials, a Belgian espalier of fruit trees, a grape arbor, an herb garden, a checkerboard garden, and a “meadow” with naturalized bulbs and a greenhouse. There are many European touches such as rose arbors, window boxes, a fountain, and Anduze pots.

Bila Zahrada’s White Garden, also in Chappaqua, is designed to complement their white Bauhaus house, circa 1938. Informed by traditional Japanese aesthetics, Bauhaus architecture emphasizes the integration of the house into its natural setting.

This inspired the owners to create a quiet white garden whose flowering trees, shrubs, and perennial beds maintain a disciplined focus on form, rather than color.

Shaded by towering oaks and surrounded by mature mountain laurel and rhododendron, multiple terraced spaces highlighted fragrance and foliage. Winding throughout are curving stone pathways and walls that encourage sitting and contemplation.

In nearby Mt. Kisco, at Rocky Hills, the home of William and Henriette Suhr, planting along the stonewalls began some 50 years ago and continues to this day.

You will find mature specimens of black walnut and ash, complemented by recent additions of weeping beech, dawn redwood, Stewartia, dogwood, and an impressive collection of magnolia and conifers.

Tree peonies and an extensive planting of rhododendrons and azaleas compete for attention with the carpet of bulbs throughout the thirteen acres.

Most impressive in May and June are the forget-me-nots, which are allowed full freedom throughout the garden.