Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden, is a book you'll read often through the years.
Dogwood Books & Antiques, below, was a vendor at my lecture venue in Rome, GA last weekend.
Bought 2 boxes of vintage garden books. Most will be given as gifts. Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden? Bought both their copies. Penny McHenry gave me my copy. .
Penny & I were in Mrs. Whaley's Charleston, SC garden less than 3 months after Mrs. Whaley died.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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2 days in Rome, a box of books per day. Couldn't afford to stay longer!!! Saw the 1st hydrangea blossom opening yesterday while reading the morning paper & perusing my Ipad (at the same time of course). Wanted to call Penny, tell her about my 'Penny Mac' being the first mophead this year in my garden. Missing her delightful scream at my news. Missing, more, her dive into all the wonderful/sumptuous/fabulous hydrangea happenings in her garden.
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It really stinks when a good friend is gone. Her phone number is still in my head. (Aren't those the beginning lines of a country song?)
I remember when my Dad died a few years ago, My Dad who I saw once each and every week when I was commuting to NYC from Massachusetts and we would always go out to eat and I would spend the night at his apartment in Fort Lee, N.J., I remember calling his phone # to hear his voice one or two last times.
ReplyDeleteYou are really compelling me to visit the places you mention in the Low Country. Hospitality, food and gardens - gotta love the SE!
ReplyDeletePlz tell me what gets copied by you and others from that garden. I like the way both views open up, and the narrow lawn between walls of green and flowering. So different than the desert, esp w/ wrong plants many force here and since we lack the same context.
I need a break from the SW, once work slows down - soon. And I have a friend in Savannah...hmmm!
I've been lurking too long! This post brought me out from behind the hydrangea bushes of anonymity ... knowing that something perfect can't be improved but should be loved and copied, being delighted by that first lovely bloom of the season, and celebrating a dear friend by keeping her memory alive in your heart.
ReplyDeleteVery cool, all of it!
Jane from Ohio
Loved this book. I found out about it from a neighbor who is a librarian at the local university. Not a gardener, but a reader of garden books (must be like people who don't cook but who read cookbooks like novels), she stopped one day while I was building the stone terraces in my front yard and said those magic words: you have to read this book.
ReplyDeleteThe design plan has gone foggy. My takeways—assistants need to have good footing in your beds and that she sold her vote to her husband so he would pay for her garden. I am a feminist, but that conversation about the financing of gardens still makes me laugh.
Hello Tara,
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful garden..I'll have to look for the book. I'm sorry you're feeling the loss of your friend at this time...it seems some things just bring back memories and feelings more than others. I'm looking forward to seeing more pictures of your own garden...I bet it's starting to look very lush right about now. I hope your day is a good one.
Maura :)
Hi Tara, You brought tears to my eyes. I wish I could my Father just to tell him that the Trilliums are up......
ReplyDeleteI knew it was going to be this garden! I saw this garden in "Garden Design" and FELL IN LOVE. Such a beautiful space with a fantastic vantage point.
ReplyDeleteLove the way you miss a friend.
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