The never-ending evolution of tour-worthy gardens

CORNWALL — The thing with gardens is that they change all the time. That’s why you should never think, “Hmm, I won’t go on that garden tour because I’ve already seen that garden.”

Gardens change every day as different plants have their literal day in the sun. And serious gardeners, such as Bunny Williams, change their gardens every season. Therefore, even if you saw the garden at the extraordinary property Williams shares with her husband, John Rosselli, in Falls Village in May, during the annual Trade Secrets garden tour (she is the founder and honorary chair of the event), you should visit again. And again. Because every time you go, it’s going to be slightly different.

A new opportunity presents itself on Saturday, June 15, when Williams’ home is on the Books and Blooms Country Gardens tour, a fundraiser for the Cornwall Library. 

A cocktail party precedes the tour, on Friday, June 14, at the library at 6 p.m. Williams, who seems to be everywhere at once this year, enhancing Northwest Corner life, will give a talk at the cocktail party (tickets are $50 for the talk and tour or $30 for each event). Cocktail reception ticket requests were due by June 10 but contact the library to see if any remain. Tickets for the tour can be purchased on the day of at the library and at each of the gardens (maps are available at the library). 

There are four gardens on this year’s tour. Two are in Cornwall, at the home of Bart and Debby Jones and at the home of author Roxana Robinson. Also in Falls Village, in addition to the garden of Williams and Rosselli, is the home of garden writer Page Dickey.

Dickey and her husband, Bosco Schell, moved to Falls Village three years ago from North Salem, N.Y., and from a property there that Dickey often wrote about. That property was known as Duck Hill. Their new home, on Battle Hill Road, was dubbed Church House by Dickey because, of course, it used to be a church. 

The property is on 17 secluded acres just off Route 7. At one time, Dickey said, Battle Hill was a through road and the Methodist church there (the first in New England) was easy to access.

At some point a decision was made to pave nearby Page Road instead and Battle Hill eventually ended and grew into grass at the entrance to Dickey’s property.

While one might want to visit the Williams/Rosselli garden to see its evolution from spring to summer, what might entice visitors to Dickey’s garden is to see how it is different from her gardens at Duck Hill. 

The new property is smaller and better suited to two gardeners who are scaling back and trying to be less ambitious. 

For anyone who gets peckish while touring, Williams has asked the Falls Village Inn (where she did the decor) to open for lunch that day. 

Tour organizer Marnell Stover said that the funds raised at the  tour and talk will help pay operating expenses for the library. 

“We are in the process of refurbishing some areas and making it more comfortable,” she said. 

The tour will go on no matter what the weather.

“If it rains, put on your rain boots,” Stover said. “Gardeners still work in the rain. Everything will be bursting into bloom by Saturday, and the gardens will be beautiful whether or not it rains.”