One of the highlights while living in North Carolina was visiting Montrose in October, a garden tucked away in Hillsborough, NC. I loved visiting this time of year because the garden expanded my knowledge of plants that celebrated fall with their foliage and flowers.
Nancy and her husband Craufurd bought Montrose in 1977 to live there and enrich the gardens. The property had bones; it dated back to the 1800s when it Governor William Alexander Graham lived on the site and had his law office there. Now, Montrose is know for its unique collection of plants that provide four-season interest. Nancy is also well-known in the world of horticulture from her running Montrose Nursery from 1984 to 1993. I recall even seeing her name pop up in books occasionally as a renown expert on Cyclamen and other interesting perennials.
If you’d like to learn more about the garden, you can live a year in Nancy’s shoes by reading her book Montrose: Life in a Garden. It was one of my favorite reads during the evenings of graduate school. I loved the day-to-day garden life that she shared. But, for now, enjoy these photos and a few perspectives from an autumn visit to Montrose.
Celosia rises from a hodgepodge of perennials in this border near the May garden. The garden is set around numerous historical buildings. The law office can be seen in the distance and dates back to the 1800s.
Verbascum chaixii ‘Album’ liked to grow near the gravel pathways.
One of my first encounters with a fall favorite—Cuphea micropetala or candy corn cuphea.
Another cute cuphea I saw was Cuphea cyanea. The flowers are small but there are plenty of them for effect. If you look closely, you might see the bat face in the flowers.
Nancy tries to time her open house weekends during the peak of autumn splendor. I hit it just right this visit to see Colchicum ‘Waterlily’ in flower.
A nice massing of Sternbergia lutea brightened this shady spot. It is such a quaint autumn geophyte.
My first encounter with Centratherum punctatum was at Montrose. Since moving to Texas I have discovered what a wonderful heat-tolerant self sower this plant is.
Dahlia coccinea erupts with vermillion flowers come October at Montrose.
A close up of Dahlia coccinea.
Cosmos sulphureus forms a wall of foliage and flowers that other plants can pop against.
I love to use this image and the next to teach students about how a person’s orientation to the plants and sun can affect color and intensity. Here, Helianthus angustifolius glows bright with the sun to my back.
But, from this angle where I face both sun and plants, we now see more shadows, which creates more of a shade of yellow in the flowers.
Stepping into the tropical garden, you can see that color is not the only driver here. Texture also creates a richness.
One of my favorite sights from Montrose was this old sugar kettle planted with hardy Orostachys. In their bloom they looked like flames licking out of a cauldron.
Nancy had a knack for creating simple yet effective plant combinations. I loved seeing this Tradescantia pallida ‘Purple Heart’ planted with this Symphyotrichum.
Another great color combination was this pairing of white Colchicum with this matrix of Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’.