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Quote of the Day: John Greenleaf Whittier

February 13th, 2011

Give fools their gold, and knaves their power;
Let fortune’s bubbles rise and fall;
Who sows a field, or trains a flower,
Or plants a tree, is more than all.
~ John Greenleaf Whittier

I think of this quote when I visit gardens that were planted and tended many years ago like: Pierre du Pont’s Longwood Gardens, Thomas Jefferson’s gardens at Monticello, and F.A. Seiberling’s Stan Hywet. All of these men had riches and they chose to invest some of those riches in their gardens, which we all can now enjoy. Here are some photos from Stan Hywet in Akron from a couple visits in 2009, if you want to see the slideshow in full screen click on the little icon in the top left corner of the first photo.

[flashgallery folder=”Stan_Hywet”]

I really enjoy going to gardens like this, I’ll never have a grand garden filled with rare plants, but I often find little ideas to incorporate in my own garden. There’s something quite wonderful about visiting an established garden that has been around for a long time.

Do you enjoy visiting botanical and public gardens? What’s your favorite?

14 Comments to “Quote of the Day: John Greenleaf Whittier”
  1. gail dugas on February 13, 2011 at 8:09 am

    thank you for your sunday quotes.. you choose them well

    Reply to gail dugas's comment

  2. Kaytee on February 13, 2011 at 8:56 am

    The pictures are gorgeous, as usual. I’ve only been to Stan Hywet during the winter, so I never got to see the gardens. It’s only like 15 minutes from my Grandma’s, so I’ll have to get out there during the summer.

    I absolutely love visiting gardens. When my family would go on vacations when I was younger, we’d also go to at least one botanical garden or other type of garden. It’s so neat to see all the different plants, and all the arrangements.

    Reply to Kaytee's comment

  3. goatpod2 on February 13, 2011 at 9:09 am

    Nice quote! We love visiting different botanical gardens, etc.

    Amy

    Reply to goatpod2's comment

  4. Nebraska Dave on February 13, 2011 at 9:56 am

    We are blessed with an 80 acre botanical garden in the city that I live in. The cost for a year’s unlimited access is a mere twenty dollars. That includes several concerts on the huge outside patio. Every season the inside area is decorated with a seasonal flower theme. There are different parts of the garden that have water falls and streams that run through the areas. One whole section has been given to a volunteer model train group that has made no less than nine tracks of trains the run through tunnels, bridges made of tree branches, and towns of rustic rural flavor. There is a modestly priced sandwich shop there to have lunch. They have five green houses that grow all the plants for the gardens on the property. One part of the garden is a wooded area with natural area plants that is high on a bluff overlooking the Missouri river. It is very peaceful to sit in the designated sitting area and ponder the terrific view. This ground and garden was donated for just this purpose by a family that has long since been gone from this world but their memory lives on every year through this beautiful garden. My two visits last year were not nearly enough and I will clear my schedule to visit more often this year. Why do I let things clutter my life and take away the very things that bring the most enjoyment and peace. Not so for this year.

    Have a great botanical garden day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

    • Susy on February 13, 2011 at 9:58 am

      That sounds like a wonderful place. If I’m ever headed through I’ll have to try to visit this lovely garden!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  5. Sincerely, Emily on February 13, 2011 at 11:01 am

    Lovely quote and also lovely garden photos. Stan Hywat looks like a beautiful place. When we lived in Palm Springs I enjoyed going to Moorten Botanical Garden (http://www.palmsprings.com/moorten/). It is amazing and impressive, filled with cactus other desert plants. I liked it so much that I got married there. What a beautiful setting. Emily

    Reply to Sincerely, Emily's comment

  6. Kathi on February 13, 2011 at 11:25 am

    I love walking through Boston’s community (victory garden) plot. It is an oasis of well tended and loved veggie and perrenial gardens close to Fenway park.

    Reply to Kathi's comment

  7. mamaraby on February 13, 2011 at 3:01 pm

    So pretty!!

    Reply to mamaraby's comment

  8. Kelly on February 13, 2011 at 5:51 pm

    I visited the Niagara Falls (Canada) Botanical Garden years ago with (now) hubby and we had a wonderful time (best date we’ve ever had). It’s a lovely place.

    Reply to Kelly's comment

  9. MAYBELLINE on February 13, 2011 at 7:22 pm

    Huntington Library San Marino (Pasadena), California and Princes Street Gardens Edinburgh, Scotland.

    Love the flash player. How about a tutorial?

    Reply to MAYBELLINE's comment

    • Mr. Chiots on February 13, 2011 at 7:56 pm

      The flash player is called Flash Gallery. It is free to use but it keeps there logo in the upper corner. You can pay to remove the logo. Basically you just upload a folder of photos and then point the Flash Gallery at the folder. It reads the folder, loads the photos, and does all the heavy lifting. I took it one step further and made a WordPress short code so Mrs. Chiots types ‘[flashgallery folder=”Stan_Hywet”]’ in her blog post and it looks for that folder on the server and does the rest. There is good documentation on the Flash Galley site.

      Hopefully that is helpful.

      Reply to Mr. Chiots's comment

  10. Sierra on February 13, 2011 at 10:30 pm

    We only live a few minutes from Stan Hywet so I’m looking forward to visiting this spring. Probably my favorite is the Elizabethan Gardens in North Carolina.

    Reply to Sierra's comment

  11. annie on February 13, 2011 at 11:48 pm

    I love it! A few Christmases ago when my husband and I were in DC visiting his parents we went to the botanical gardens. Before we headed out my mother in law told us it would be a short trip – 30 minutes, 45 tops. Of course she doesn’t really understand that my husband, the forester, and me, the small farmer, can spend days looking at and talking about plants. We went on two separate days for an hour and a half each time and only saw half the botanical garden. I can’t wait to go back and see the rest, not to mention the outside sections that were not growing during that snowy December visit.

    Reply to annie's comment

  12. Karla on August 7, 2011 at 7:50 am

    The Missouri Botanical Garden is one of my favorite places.

    Reply to Karla's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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