Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens CT

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GROUNDS

The Tame, the Wild, and the Future

by Bee Mohn

At the far parking lot pick up a map in the kiosk, then begin a tour of the gardens - tame and wild. Head up Azalea Road on a gravel path. Fiddleheads, skunk cabbage and its growing partner, false hellebore, emerge under white oak and shagbark hickory woods with an understory of rhododendron and azalea. Take a detour through the blooming shrubs via a woodland grass path dotted with purple violets and white violets with blue centers.

Go back to the lot and take the Cemetery Trail. An old stone wall appears on the left under plenty of American beech, mature and regenerating with coppery buds, and a viburnum understory. On the right, Potter's Field where the indigent of Stamford were buried from 1870-1970 is enclosed by a stone wall. Since the 1990s, a group of interested volunteers have been uncovering grave markers - small concrete blocks marked with numbers - and studying the history and identification of those buried here.

The original 64-acre arboretum was dendrologist Dr. Francis Bartlett's private home. Here, Dr. Bartlett founded Bartlett's Tree Expert Company, experimented on grafting, and hybridized the first blight-free chestnut, the Bartlett chestnut. In 1965 the land was purchased by the state and managed by the University of Connecticut. In 2001, the City of Stamford took title and responsibility for its management was placed in the caring hands of the Bartlett Arboretum Association.

Back to the parking lot, head toward the Visitor Center, but first take a right to see the Mehlquist Garden named after rhododendron hybridizer Gus Mehlquist. The Association is trying to restore this garden with rare specimens among its 100 varieties.

“The problem with dwarf conifers is that they're not really dwarf. What was once dwarf is now over my head." - Dillon

Walk across Brookdale Road to the Dwarf Conifer Garden, established in the '60s when UConn took over the arboretum. Now, 40 years later, white pine 'Radiata,' with short needles that whorl around the stem, is over 30 feet tall. Go left along the upper perimeter past rambling junipers that probably once were planted as ground covers. To the right stand a magnificent Sciadopilys verticillata and a soft spruce Picea orientalis 'Gowdy' that will eventually reach 100 feet tall. Japanese maple add color. “We may change the focus to a Japanese Garden that has conifers in it," says Jack Dillon, executive director.

In the gardens around the Visitor's Center, a white pine dominates the area, and a tall juniper allee put in by Dr. Bartlett is underplanted with narrow-leaved hosta, Hosta lancifolia. Don't miss the Pollarded Garden where big hunky trees are kept in their place: Tartarian maple, Bartlett chestnut, sweet gum, red horse chestnut.

Change is happening at the arboretum.

Soon visitors will enter the arboretum on the wooded, winding Carriage Road that put you in the mood. An architect is drawing plans for a conservatory to replace the outdated, inefficient greenhouse. Gardens around the Visitor Center are being restored and redesigned. A secluded garden with a waterfall will replace a defunct pit house. New bee hives will help with pollination and educate children. “We're building classes around the installation," Dillon says of the observation hive destined for the Education Building. They're installing an herb garden, 12 x 12 in the classic English style, each herb for a purpose, and signage at the meadow.

“We're doing a lot. It's an exciting time to be here," says Dillan, who came to the arboretum in 1979 as a volunteer. He hopes to raise money to buy French doors for the Visitor Center, a gazebo.

But don't leave until you walk the boardwalk over a seven-acre swamp!

For this easy, fun excursion take the red triangle-blazed Rose A. Thielens Memorial Ecology Walk (Red Oak Trail) through American beech and white oak down along a swamp. Cross Poorhouse Brook and bear left, following faded red triangles. Soon the trail passes through a convergence of stone walls, old pasture boundaries sprinkled liberally with Spring Beauties.

Go right on the yellow circle-blazed Tulip Tree Loop trail and left on the orange square-blazed trail for a few feet, then meet yellow again with what must be purple triangle blazes. Take the purple onto a boardwalk through the swamp.

Here, tussock sedges, Carex stricta, and conglomerations of roots, trunks, moss, and soil buildup offer media for wetland shrubs and flowers to grow Ã¢â‚¬â€œ among them, iris, Sagittaria, highbush blueberry, ferns, red maple, alder, silky dogwood and plenty more blooming shrubs and herbaceous plants. At the end, walk straight across a green path to the enclosed wild flower meadow.

Take the orange trail back. It starts as an old woods road at the south edge of the meadow and ambles past black birch, hemlock, and musclewood. Marsh marigold blooms in muck near a stream. At the black birch and beech, bear left, then right on blue and left on red.

Come back as often as you can to this interesting swamp. Spend more time and walk all the trails; see all the gardens in this arboretum, a true work in exciting progress.