The Fells: A garden worth an autumn visit.
Last weekend I visited The Fells, an Historic Estate and Garden once owned by Abraham Lincoln's former secretary John Hay on Lake Sunapee in N.H. where Robert Mussey photographed this 100 foot long perennial boarder that is magnificent even this late in the season. The tall blue and pink flowers are New England asters. More surprising, the tall red "flowers" are actually the staked seed heads of spent Queen of the Prairie, a native wildflower. The house is closed for the season now but the gardens and hundreds of acres of landscaped trails with views of lake Sunapee are open to visitors for free from dawn to dusk. In addition to the Perennial Border, there is an Old Garden, hidden behind masses of rhododendron, lake views from the formal Rose Terrace and a most exceptional hillside rock garden where a brook trickles to a Japanese water lily pool, all ablaze in color as of last weekend. There is also a wonderful show of outdoor garden art. For more information visit www.thefells.org. The address is 456 Route 102A, Newbury, NH.
Carol Stocker has been writing about gardening for the Boston Globe for 30 years. She has won the top newspaper writing award of the Garden Writer's Association of American three times. Her newest book is "The Boston Globe Illustrated New England Gardening Almanac."
