The gardens

Magazine Antiques, March, 1995 by Robin Karson

Platt's office designed the planting in the formal garden.(6) Rows of Veronica, Achillea, Coreopsis, Aster, Nicotiana, Iris, Phlox, and nearly fifty other perennials and annuals softened the strongly architectural layout of the garden and provided a nearly continuous show of blue, white, and yellow bloom. However, Mather was not satisfied with the appearance of these borders, perhaps because George Jacques added red geraniums in an unusually liberal interpretation of the original scheme. In 1914 Platt recommended Ellen Biddle Shipman (1869-1950) of New York City, one of America's most respected herbaceous border specialists, to redesign the central beds. Shipman returned several times to refine the plantings after Mather's marriage in 1929 to Elizabeth Ring Ireland (1891-1957).(7)

While Platt was working on the formal garden (see Pl. XIX), Manning was overseeing the development of the wild garden, experimenting with many unusual wildflowers dug locally and on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the latter transported by the steamers of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company. Manning was enthusiastic about the subtle artistry that the wild garden required. He wrote persuasively to Mather,

Here by a careful selection of varieties you can secure the choicest of woodland effects,... without destroying the grace, the intricacy, and the charm of uncultivated plants.(8)

Manning's plan for the garden also called for large groups of Rhododendron maximum and Rhododendron catawbiense to provide seclusion and shade. These were collected in the wilds of North Carolina, where Manning was at work for James Tufts, another client, in Asheville.

Mather, however, grew impatient with the slow evolution of the wild garden. In 1920 he wrote to Manning, "It is indefinite. I think there should be more interesting features."(9) Manning was quick to defend his design, pointing out that Mather often missed the early spring climax of the garden while vacationing in Bermuda. Nonetheless, naturalism on this small scale was not proving compelling to Mather. The woodland illusion that Manning sought was also undermined by the sparse condition of the rhododendrons, which languished in the hard, cold clay.

In answer to Mather's frustration, both Platt and Manning proposed improvements. Manning suggested adding stepping stones and a small drip fountain to encourage the growth of mosses and algae, which were probably not the "interesting features" Mather had in mind. Platt also proposed a fountain, but a more monumental one that incorporated reminiscences of fountains at the Villa d'Este in Tivoli and the Giardino Giusti in Verona. Mather accepted Platt's idea at Gwinn (and used Manning's suggestion at his summer house in Ishpeming, Michigan). The fountain (Pls. X, XVII) gave the wild garden a vivid identity that Platt continued to embellish at Mather's urging, with a pergola of marble columns, seats, hermae, and other ornaments. Between 1910 and 1920 Platt added several more fountains throughout the estate and, at the turn of the drive, a monumental marble vase by Paul Manship (Pl. XI).