Dear Andrea, Thank you for your hospitality

Dear Andrea,

Thank you so much for the wonderful tour of the Elizabeth Lawrence garden and house, maintained by the Wing Haven Foundation.

The garden looked wonderful, and full, and one could just imagine how pleased Elizabeth herself would be with it right now. Though the crinums and camellias weren’t in bloom your descriptions helped me imagine what it must be like when they are in bloom, along with the magnolias.

Of course, there were still plenty of blooms to delight anyone visiting in late summer.

I was particularly excited to hear how Elizabeth’s (can I call her Elizabeth instead of Ms. Lawrence?) niece and nephew are bringing some of her personal items back to the garden, like the sun dial which sits just outside her study window.

One can imagine how she once was sitting in her study, writing about her gardens and gardening, and then looked out her window and saw the sundial and the garden.

What an inspiring view both then and now.

The entire garden stands as testimony to the love of gardens and gardening shared by you and others, and shows great dedication to preserving the memory of one of the great garden writers of the 20th century.  I can’t imagine any gardener coming within a hundred miles of this garden on Ridgewood Avenue in Charlotte, without taking a detour to visit.

I want to especially thank you for the Barnadia japonica, which she would have known as Scilla scilloides.  While we both looked it up on our phones to make sure it was hardy enough for my garden, I can just imagine Elizabeth would have gone into her study and pulled one of her hundreds of gardening books off the shelf and looked it up to determine the same.

Thankfully, it is hardy enough and will be a treasured plant in my garden, knowing it came from the same bulbs Elizabeth planted in her garden so long ago.

Thank you again for the care and love you give to this garden, each and every day.

With a shared love of gardening,
Carol

P.S.  I hope the Barnardia blooms as well in my garden as it does in Elizabeth’s.

Barnardia japonica