Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum - Bristol RI - Arboretums on Waymarking.com

Blithewold's trees have attracted attention throughout its history. From the mid to late 1800s, former owner, John Gardner planted many of the exotic trees that so excited the visitors from the Arnold Arboretum in 1926. Today the maturity of the collection, as a whole, is one of the character-defining features of the property, and it continues to draw visitors including botanists, garden groups and home gardeners looking for ideas and inspiration.

We are fortunate to have landscape architect John DeWolf's handwritten notes from 1895 containing his original vision for the property. He designed an informal landscape of gently sloping lawns with wide borders of flowers, trees and shrubs. Gravel paths meandered through the grounds to each distinct garden area. DeWolf laid out the Bosquet, planted a Nut Grove and designed an extensive Shrub Walk from the Bosquet to the Bay.

DeWolf heeded Blithewold's owners Augustus and Bessie Van Wickle's request for exotic as well as native trees and planted species from Europe, China and Japan as well as North America. It was thanks to his design that a border of protective evergreens grows along the northern edge of the Great Lawn, while deciduous trees and shrubs provided shade and interest along the south side. Nursery lists from 1908-1911, included hundreds of woody plants representing scores of species. Today there are about 500 species in a collection of approximately 2,000 trees and shrubs. Metal plant labels identify many of the plants. The collection boasts a variety of flowering trees and shrubs, weeping forms of deciduous and evergreen trees and venerable specimens of native trees.

The horticultural staff continues to propagate the property's most unusual or hard- to- find plants and maintains a replanting program to replace trees that have reached the end of their lifespan.

Blithewold offers its visitors today the same kind of experience enjoyed by its owners and their friends a century ago. Everywhere one walks, or looks, is something that was inspired by the family's love of plants, gardens and this very special place by the Bay.

Source: (visit link)

Arboretum address: 101 Ferry Road (Rt. 114) Bristol , RI Arboretum web site: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
A waymark may not be logged as visited, until the finder makes a trip to it.

To log this waymark, you must be able to prove to the waymark owner that you were at the arboretum in question.

Post a photo of an identifiably part of the Arboretum, having your GPS in the photo would be a good idea. In addition, but optional, you may include a a photo and latitude/longitude coordinates of a favorite tree/shrub specimen.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.