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gardening

Bunny Williams’ Manor House Garden Tour

Bunny Williams’ Manor House Garden Tour

A view of Bunny Williams’ garden.

Christine Bates

FALLS VILLAGE – In addition to the annual plant sale at Lime Rock Park, Trade Secrets weekend is known for its private garden tours, attracting design and garden enthusiasts from across the region. This year, tours were offered in Connecticut and New York.

Acclaimed designer and author Bunny Williams — who founded Trade Secrets more than twenty-five years ago as a way to support Project SAGE — opened her garden in Falls Village for two days over the weekend. The coveted tickets to step inside Williams’ expansive property sold out as soon as they were posted. The interest warranted an additional Sunday tour, with an estimated 900 total visitors between Saturday and Sunday.

Visitors wandered through Williams’ property, featuring a Greek Revival pool house, a modern studio and library with an expansive view of the Litchfield Hills, and woodland shade gardens leading to tall tulips in bloom.

Guests were thrilled to be greeted by Williams herself. The final stop was the greenhouse, filled with tropical plants beside the vegetable and cutting garden with neat rows of lettuce and tulips.

“Like any good garden, Trade Secrets thrives because it’s cared for,” Williams said. “Trade Secrets has always been about more than plants and antiques. It’s about what can grow when people come together for a purpose.”

Christine Bates
gardening

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