White Flower Farm: Blooming Beautifully in the Litchfield Hills

from Connecticut Food & Farm Magazine, Fall 2018, Volume 14

by Connecticut Food and Farm

Gift of the Harvest: Fall Fruit Liqueurs

by HILARY ADORNOWINTER CAPLANSON photos

IN THE LAT E 1930’S,

two important figures in journalism history traded the commotion of New York City for several serene acres in Morris, Connecticut. He was William B. Harris, the senior editor of Fortune Magazine. She was Jane Grant, the first female journalist for the New York Times, the co-founder of The New Yorker, and a prominent figure in the women’s liberation movement. After settling into their tranquil farmhouse, they began acquiring acres of adjacent property. What started as a garden intended for cut flowers, blossomed into White Flower Farm, which has been in continual operation since it was founded in 1950. The name “White Flower” pays homage to Harris and Grant’s first perennial border named “The Moon Garden,” which still produces gorgeous blooms of exclusively white flowers.

Before Google searches and e-commerce transactions, Harris and Grant worked diligently to source plants and shrubs beyond standard issue phlox and rhododendron. They tested selections from the tried and true celebrated gardens of England and brought the best performers to the United States. Their core values for White Flower Farm firmly asserted “good plants and good service... will always have an audience” – which became a proven concept in short order.

Utilizing his journalism chops, Harris began to write under the pen name Amos Pettingill, publishing a book in 1971: “The White Flower Farm Garden Book - what every gardener should know about raising (or not raising) more than 1,100 plants and shrubs.” Most people didn’t realize Harris and Pettingill were synonymous, and the latter was considered not only entertaining but also a great authority on all things horticulture.

In 1972, Jane Grant lost her battle with cancer, leaving Harris with a sizable property and business to manage. He began considering offers for the purchase of White Flower Farm, and met and began mentoring businessman and Bostonian Eliot Wadsworth II. Sensing Wadsworth’s commitment to maintaining excellence in product development and extraordinary customer service, Harris agreed to sell Mr. Wadsworth the property and business in 1976. Demonstrating his loyalty to preserving what had been established, Wadsworth even assumed the Amos Pettingill pseudonym and continued to write as Amos until Amos “retired” in 2016.

There was a seamless transition of ownership from Harris and Grant to Mr. Wadsworth, which is quite a triumph when considering the average success/fail rate of most acquisitions (today the rate is between 70% and 90% in favor of failure). Thanks to Mr. Wadsworth’s impassioned devotion to White Flower Farm, it remains a very successful and respected plant nursery, welcoming thousands of visitors to the 200-acre farm annually. There is a retail shop on the property, but most of their sales are generated by their flower-filled catalog which is distributed to addresses across America, offering everything from bulbs to perennials, cut flowers, houseplants, shrubs and trees. White Flower Farm ships all over the United States (except Alaska & Hawaii) and they maintain a complex shipping schedule, ensuring plants arrive at just the right time for planting (determined by planting zone). Some plants are even shipped with accompanying heat packs, creating a temperature safe environment during their journey.

I met with Head Gardener Cheryl Whalen on a gorgeous, temperate summer evening. Cheryl has been employed at White Flower Farm for over 30 years, starting in 1988 as greenhouse grower, working her way up to production house manager and finally becoming Head Gardener. In addition to managing the garden staff, Cheryl conducts garden walkthroughs for White Flower Farm employees. This function serves many purposes, including an educational experience for White Flower Farm’s customer service team, enabling them to speak knowledgeably about products, troubleshoot issues and make recommendations. In fact, many of the customer service staff are master gardeners or hold horticulture degrees, which is a pretty incredible pedigree for what is traditionally considered entry-level work.

Cheryl beamed with pride as we walked along the never-ending and numerous display gardens that she plans and manages. These impressive and diverse gardens serve several purposes: 1) they test performance and dependability; 2) they are actual models used for product photography for the mail-order catalog; and 3) they are physical demonstrations of White Flower Farm’s offerings, helping customers make their gardening dreams come true.

My favorite part of White Flower Farm is the 280’ long Lloyd Border, inspired by the Arts and Crafts style of gardens of Great Dixter, the home of Christopher Lloyd, in East Sussex, England. Lloyd (not the actor who played Jim Ignatowski on Taxi – because I asked) rose to gardening prominence in the late 1950’s thanks to his legendary, denselyplanted country gardens. In 2001, Mr. Wadsworth consulted Great Dixter’s famed head gardener, Fergus Garrett, who designed the Lloyd Border that lives at White Flower farm. It features over 3,000 annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees and bulbs of every size, shape and color. It blooms from spring to fall, allowing visitors to see how White Flower Farms plants can be grouped and used in their own gardens. As Cheryl and I walked along the Lloyd Border, I foolheartedly attempted to identify plants and failed miserably. Thankfully, Cheryl had every single name on the tip of her tongue. She is a genus genius.

Cheryl’s story starts with her education at UCONN. Originally enrolled as a biology major, she soon realized working in a lab was wholly unappealing. She decided she wanted to work outdoors and had an epiphany in her sophomore year, switching her major to horticulture. When she announced her decision to her family, her father was concerned and asked her how she intended to make a career out of horticulture…and she didn’t have an answer. Fate replied instead when, a short time after graduation, she was hired by White Flower Farm. Cheryl never looked back.

WHAT STARTED AS A GARDEN INTENDED FOR CUT FLOWERS, INTO WHITE BLOSSOMED FLOWER FARM

White Flower Farm is breathtaking and expansive; it is a must-visit for anyone who comes to the area. On its rolling hills you will find meticulously curated gardens as far as the eye can see, punctuated by stunning 60+ year-old specimen trees, including a 40‘ tall weeping beech that makes me weep with joy every time I see it. And here is where my life and White Flower Farm intersect: in 1984, I was looking for a summer job and found an ad in the Torrington Register placed by White Flower Farm. Thankfully, I was hired to work in the fields, and that summer, I weeded more than one could possibly imagine. The real fun, however, happened when we harvested the Hemerocallis (Daylily) roots that would be for sale in their popular catalog.

Teams were assembled, and we followed a huge piece of heavy equipment called a “harvester.” Each team was assigned a seasoned professional who performed quality control. We would gather the roots, divide them as needed, and the Quality Control person would classify each plant as salable or not (the “not” group would get replanted and reconsidered in the future). I was taught the value of hard work as well as the effort required to produce beautiful results. A great employee perk was free bulbs and plants, which I overwhelmingly installed in the yards of my friends and family.

ON ITS ROLLING HILLS YOU WILL FIND METICULOUSLY CURAT ED GARDENS

GOOD PLANTS & GOOD SERVICE WILL ALWAYS HAVE AN AUDIENCE

Every year thereafter I received beautiful reminders of that summer’s effort (and I still drive by their yards to make sure they’re not neglecting my installations).

Today, I’m lucky enough to live five miles from this precious gardening resource - and I take every opportunity I can to see what’s growing at White Flower Farm. Any staff member I tap on the shoulder will have an encyclopedic knowledge-base to help me identify what will live in my garden and where it is best suited. With their help, I’m now working toward overwhelming my own garden.

This year I attended the 13th annual tomato sale (held each May). I arrived first thing in the morning, but the throngs of people scurrying around with their arms full of plants incited fear: I wondered if I missed out on the best offerings. I shouldn’t have wasted my energy because as soon as entered the sale grounds I had to stop and catch my breath. I saw seemingly endless tables in rows covered with thousands of tomato plants organized in alphabetical order, allowing shoppers to hone in on their coveted varieties. I’m a vegetable growing novice, so I selected plants for extremely scientific reasons: their names. This is how I ended up with Clint Eastwood’s Rowdy Red, Mortgage Lifter, and Purple Reign growing in my garden. (They were all delicious, so my theory warrants consideration).

You can visit White Flower Farm at 167 Litchfield Road, Morris, CT or online at: whiteflowerfarm.com

FALL PLANTING TIPS FROM CHERYL:

PERENNIALS & SHRUBS: Cheryl says planting of perennials and shrubs is safe through September. She cautions gardeners to make sure roots have time to establish themselves in the soil before the ground starts freezing, to avoid heaving.

BULBS: Fall is a great time to get bulbs in the ground. Try to get daffodils in the ground in September because they take a little more time to root. Tulips like to wait for October because they root quickly and if the temperature gets too warm they might try to start growing (which you don’t want). Hyacinth, Allium and minor bulbs (grape hyacinth, crocus, and species tulips) can all be planted in October.