Gardens of Ellen & Allie Ash

Surrounded on all sides by giant American holly trees, the Ashes built their contemporary house in 1981 and the gardens have slowly grown to encompass most of their five-acre property.

After entering the gate, you are greeted by a perennial bed that includes flowering shrubs as well as perennials and annuals. The centerpiece of the backyard is a pool with a large covered eating pavilion. Also sharing the backyard are many small specialty gardens for roses, sedums, vegetables, show-quality dahlias, and a goldfish inhabited lily pond.

But the highlight is the almost two-acre woodland garden. Its meandering moss trails are lined with a combination of shade and sun plants plus numerous sculptures and whimsical garden accessories.

Already growing on the property were hundreds of hollies, oaks, hickories, and dogwoods to which have been added azaleas, rhododendrons, laurels, pieris, daphne, viburnums, camellias, and hydrangeas.
Filling out the smaller spaces are more than thirty types of hostas, and countless varieties of hellebores, tiarella, pulmonaria, tricyrtis, primula, aquilegia, ferns, clematis, native groundcovers, heaths, trillium and numerous large and small bulbs.

The garden had been lovingly planted and tended by the owners.

Open Days 2024:  Saturday, June 8
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.