18 ★ FTWeekend 2 May/3 May 2015 House Home

perfect, natural columns of Ginkgo biloba“Menhir”. Pergolasandterraces,whichdripwith trumpet vine in summer, look down on standing stones and a massive “stone Returning to Innisfree after 15 years, Jane Owen henge”framingthelake. A grass dome, “possibly a chunk of mountain top or some such cast finds out whether this living work of art in down by the glacier that created the lake”, says Oliver, is echoed by clipped New York State retains its magic domes of Pyrus calleryana, the pear nativetoChina. Beyond the white pine woods, the path becomes boggy and narrow, criss- crossed with tree roots, moss and fungi. A covered wooden bridge reminds visi- torsthisisanall-Americanlandscape. Buteventheall-American,maplesyr- The hills up-supplying sugar maples here come with a twist. They are Acer saccharum “Monumentale” and, like the ginkgos, are naturally column-shaped. Innis- free’s American elms went years ago, are alive . . . victims of Dutch elm disease, but the Hemlocks are hanging on, with the help ofinsecticidetofightthewoollyadelgid. Larger garden pests include beavers, which have built a lodge 100m from the bout 90 miles west of the Iwillariseandgonow,andgoto bubble fountain, and deer. At least the thrumming heart of New Innisfree, . . . latter has a use, as part of a programme York City is a landscape Ihearlakewaterlappingwithlow of hunters donating food for those in that stirs my soul. I rate soundsbytheshore; need. So the dispossessed eat venison, it along with Villa Lante, WhileIstandontheroadway,oron albeitthetough,end-of-seasonsort. AThe Garden of Cosmic Speculation, thepavementsgrey, All is beautiful, but there’s one Liss Ard in Ireland, Little Sparta, Nin- Ihearitinthedeepheart’score. A stream, diverted into an oxbow, describe the style, although the shapes fly in the ointment: this magnificent na-ji Temple in cherry blossom season “Sound is difficult to manage. Our runs to join the lake at Innisfree are more saucer than cup-shaped. He informality, this living work of art, and Cranborne Manor Garden in Molly machinery is silent. When the animals Oliver Collins wasinspired,inpart,bythe8th-century needssupport. Salisbury’s time. Returning to Innisfree go away in winter the sound of water gardenmakerWangWei. “When Marion died there were 25 after 15 years, I wonder, will it have dominates,” says Oliver, who runs the Instead of a well-ordered progression full-time gardeners. Overnight that fell retaineditsmagic? landscapewithcuratorKateKerin. of garden views, as favoured by 18th- to five,” says Kerin. “Today there are This magnificent, hilly panorama He adds: “Mother died on April 10 century British landscaper Humphry effectively three full-time people made curls around a lake, its 185 acres three years ago, when she was 92. I am Repton, who was one of Lester’s influ- up from various part-timers. There revealed in glimpses. The drive wriggles notplanninganychanges.” ences, the cup gardens appear in no were debts of $25,000 but when those through woods, framing views down to The landscape began in the late 1920s particular order.On the other hand, the were paid off, Lester,who had grown up the water at the centre of a glacial bowl, as a collaborative effort between artist lake and its steep sides of maple, oak in the garden, opted to go for it and mossy uplands curving sharply up to Walter Beck and heiress Marion Burt andpineseemneatertovisitorsviewing maintain the garden rather than hive it rockycragsandoutcrops. Beck. Landscape architect Lester Col- theunfoldingscenes. offtomorelucrativeprojects.” OliverCollins,sonofoneofInnisfree’s lins joined the team in 1938. After the Below the footprint of the house, Most important is Kate and Oliver’s designers,LesterCollins,andnowpresi- Becks’ deaths in the 1950s, he doubled which is all that remains of the Becks’ ambition to buy back some of the land dent of the board which controls the the area of the garden, refined the mansion since Marion’s death, when it The 60ft water jet in the LestersoldoffonMarion’sdeathtokeep landscape, is waiting beside the lake design and ran the non-profit Innisfree became too expensive to run, a stream White Pine wood — Oliver Colllins the garden running. Land prices in the where the Air Spring bubble fountain Foundation as a public garden until his hasbeendivertedintoanelegantoxbow area would make development tempt- creates a boiling appearance on this deathin1993. —aneccentric,formalgrass-edgedrill— ing and some of the sold land directly chilly day. Oliver is the creator of the TheoriginalideawastocreateanEng- beforejoiningthelake. Plants are encouraged by tipping the overlooks the garden. So rattle your pump creating the effect. On the far lishlandscapetocomplementthehouse Last time I was here, in summer, balance in the favour of, say,mallow, by loosechange.Innisfreeneeds$5m. side of the lake, slim verticals of White the Becks built as a homage to the Royal swans drifted scenically between pink weeding out alder.There is a deftness of And, yes, it still retains its magic, Pines are echoed by a single 60ft water Horticultural Society’s house and gar- lotus flowers and water lilies; Pink Lady touchineveryaspectofthislandscape. 15yearson. jet.Above,mistbillowsoutfromacanti- den at Wisley, Surrey, southern Eng- orchids formed a carpet of colour over At second glance even the “natural” leveredrockformation. land. But herbaceous borders and ter- the spongy-thick layer of sound-dead- craggy outcrop 20m above us is a Innisfreewillbeopenfivedaysaweekplus The sight and sound of water, the races were inappropriate for the land- JaneOwen ening needles. Today, acres of moss 10m by 30m rock garden, which will by legalholidaysfromMay6untilOctober18, tumbling streams and hissing water scape. Instead they created a series of make a backdrop for trillium, hooded summer have verbascum, stachys, pen- innisfreegarden.org jet, are as much part of Innisfree as vignettes to highlight or accentuate the gentian, Primula japonica and ferns. stemon,oxalis,iris . . . Yeats’ eponymous poem, another of the existing features. Walter Beck coined Ongardens EveninApriltheskunkcabbageispush- The path opens out into a hilly JaneOwenistheeditorofHouse&Home. landscape’sinspirations: the term Chinese Cup Garden to ingitsgreatgreenbudsoutofthewater. lawn and the extraordinary sight of ReadherDiaryfromYaleinLife&Arts

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