A Garden Tour: Sycamore Hill Farm...Part I

I went on a garden tour over the weekend with my mom. I have taken this tour twice before but both times on Mother's Day. On Mother's Day, the gardens are filled with spring flowering trees, tulips and thousands of emerging perennials. It was absolutely spectacular to see the gardens in June!

Hundreds of Hostas were just bursting. Every kind of Hosta that you can imagine- amazing! The morning that we went, it was a bit drizzly, which made everything look so lush!

This is the stately home of the Hanford family. 

The Hanford's own Sycamore Hill Garden. It is nestled amidst the rolling hills of Marcellus, New York.

 

The gardens cover more than twenty five acres. We were there for three hours and did not make it to every border that we wanted to see. 

How did this get started?

The story that I heard is that on Mother's Day, (I don't know how many years ago) Mrs. Hanford's wish was that she could just spend the entire day in the garden planting and doing work. This became a tradition and every year the gardens grew in size and scope. Now, they generously open the garden for certain fund raising groups to do tours on Mother's Day. A few years back, they added a Father's Day tour (which is now called the Summer Solstice tour and is held a couple of weeks after Father's Day).

Starting this year they are offering a tour in the fall. That will be just as spectacular and I can't wait to go!

They have collected over eighty bronze statues from all over the world.

This "Iron Tree" was magnificent.

Every where you went, there was a place to sit and take in the view. They encourage you to bring a picnic.

I took almost two hundred photos! It's a photographers dream.

Even an amateur like me did okay with my camera phone!

I would love to show you every single statue- each one was so unique and every garden setting that they were placed in was just breathtaking

Marcellus is a small town of about 6000 people southwest of Syracuse, New York. It's very hilly which made for some gorgeous long range views.

The row of Arborvitae that you see in the distance is the perimeter of the Maze!

Here are some pictures from inside the maze. When we first came here years ago, the trees were only to our knees!

 Now they stand over ten feet high and you can actually get lost in the maze. We did (just a little)!

If you make it to the middle, this is what greets you! I can't even show you the Minotaur from the front- you would surely blush :)

This picture does not do this justice. These weeping trees practically bring tears to your eyes!

The way they are lined up makes such a statement- they truly looked mournful!

 Tomorrow I will show you some more of the pictures that I took or you can check out the album on my Ispirato Design Facebook Page. I've added many more there and will eventually put all of them in that album.

TTFN (TaTa For Now)

I hope you enjoyed the tour so far!