Marjorie Merriweather Post is perhaps best known for being fabulously wealthy; for her philanthropic efforts; and without a doubt, for her world-class collection of fine and decorative arts from Imperial Russia, particularly items that had belonged to the last Czar, Nicholas II, and other Russian royals.
From 1955 until her death in 1973,the General Foods heiress lived in grand style at Hillwood in northwest Washington,DC. Today, Hillwood Museum & Gardens draws thousands of visitors a year. And while most spend their time focusing on the mansion and its contents, Mrs. Post’s gardens are works of art in and of themselves.
Hillwood’s 25 acres—12 of which are gardens and the remainder woodlands—are demanding enough that they take a department of 12 to keep everything under control. The horticultural staff includes gardeners, a pest manager, and a flower arranger. While the staff removes any dangerous trees and invasive plants such as ivy, garlic mustard, honeysuckle, and euonymus from the woodlands, its efforts are mainly concerned with the gardens. In addition to those responsibilities, the staff maintains the putting green that Mrs. Post kept for her golfing guests.
While Mrs. Post was known to try different plants and flowers in her gardens, she did have certain favorites, and the horticultural staff tries very much to replicate the same sort of plantings, or at least flowers they believe she would have chosen. There are tulips in the spring; begonias in the summer; andmums, dahlias, and zinnias in autumn.
When it comes to the flower arrangements in the house itself, the staff again follows her style—that is, traditional arrangements in traditional containers that feature carnations, water roses, chrysanthemums, bells of Ireland, and gladiolus.
Landscape architect Shogo Myaida designed Hillwood's Japanese-style garden, bringing together fountains, sculpture, plantings, and paths, all with a traditionally Asian feel.
As to the gardens, the primary landscape architects were Umberto Innocenti and Richard Webel, who were well known for their work on some of this country’s greatest estates. The two began working at Hillwood in the mid-1950s to create a number of gardens for their patroness.
From the second-story drawing room, which adjoins Mrs. Post’s bedroom, one can look down upon the recently restored French parterre. The centerpiece of this formal garden is a rectangular pool of water with additional water spilling in from two smaller pools—one at either end of the garden. A terracotta statue of Diana overlooks the garden from behind the smaller pool at the foot of the garden. Boxwood craft the curved and scrolled patterns—the staff maintains that keeping the boxwood trimmed is the biggest task—and tulips, begonias, and mums spring up along the edges.
The entire garden is enclosed on three sides by an ivy-covered steel wall that dates back to Mrs. Post’s era.
When Mrs. Post threw a garden party, it was held on the Lunar Lawn, immediately outside the south side of the mansion. She was a great fan of outdoor sculpture—presiding over the comings and goings on the Lunar Lawn is a several-hundred-year-old lion.
Here, visitors find American elm trees that date back to the 1920s, although a few were replaced in the 1950s. Underneath the elms lie a changing cast of flora: in the spring, visitors will find azaleas, primroses, bleeding hearts, and forget-me-nots; in the summer, begonias, daylilies, and ferns; and in the fall, mums and autumn crocus.
Not surprisingly, much of the Lunar Lawn is simply turf upon which chairs and tables with umbrellas were set. Over the years, much of original lawn furniture wore out or was lost, but luckily the staff found a hotel in Atlantic City that was closing and selling off its blue and white furniture in the style that had originally been at Hillwood.
A centuries-old stone lion guards the Lunar Lawn, which features a bounty of spring tulips and leads out to the parterre and other more secluded areas of Hillwood's gardens.
A short distance from the house, the Rose Garden (the spot Mrs. Post chose for the monument that houses her ashes) offers flowers that climb up and entwine around a wood and brick pergola. The Rose Garden landscape designer, Perry Wheeler, created a circular bed surrounded by a number of semi-circular beds. While no one knows exactly what types of roses Mrs. Post planted, Hillwood’s horticulturalists have attempted to plant roses that will do well in this somewhat shaded area. The 100 or so roses in this garden are only for display and are not counted upon to provide cut flowers.
Immediately behind this garden is a path known as the Friendship Walk, which several friends of Mrs. Post designed as a gift to her. Informal and relaxing, it is touched by rhododendrons, azaleas, and boxwood. The flowering trees found here include magnolia, crapemyrtle, and dogwood, and the walk leads to the Four Seasons Overlook, with four sculptures that represent the different seasons and Victorian benches to situpon.
For the Japanese-style garden, which lies on what is known as the vista, or the slope below the Lunar Lawn, landscape architect Shogo Myaida brought together fountains in the form of several fish, grasshoppers, and frogs, all of which happily spit water into a pool that is home to a number of goldfish. Here also one will find bronze phoenixes, cranes, and turtles as well as stone Buddhas and lanterns. The most recent addition is a beautiful Japanese maple that will one day bend down toward the water.
When it came to water plants, Myaida made use of lilies and lotuses; crafted a wooden, Japanese-style bridge that crosses over the pool of water; and added another solid-stone bridge. You may also cross the water by stepping from one millstone to another. This is a garden that truly forces you to slow and calm down, to relax and regroup.
In addition to the gardens, the Greenhouses are open to the public. There is a Working Greenhouse and an Orchid Greenhouse, the latter of which includes some 2,000 orchids and around 1,200 different species. Mrs. Post considered orchids her favorite flower. During the winter, the Working Greenhouse protects tropical plants such as potted ficustrees, staghorn ferns, fancy-leaf begonias, and white birds-of-paradise, which are returned to the various outdoor gardens in the warmer months.
Also during the winter, the flowers for the house come from the Greenhouse rather than the outdoor Cutting Garden, which takes over when things warm up. Every Monday between 6 and 11 o’clock, elegant displays are created to be carried to the main house on Tuesday.
Mrs. Post was known for her high standards of excellence and was continually giving instructions as to what could be done better or what needed to be replaced. While the horticultural staff isn’t quite sure what Mrs. Post would make of the gardens today, most visitors vote that she would be very pleased with its efforts.
Mary Medland is a frequent contributor to ChesapeakeHome.
Contacts:
Hillwood Museum & Gardens: hillwoodmuseum.org or 877-HILLWOOD
