Self-guided Walking Tour

Self-guided Walking Tour
of the UUCSS Gardens, April 2001

1. As you leave the main entrance of the Sanctuary building you face the view depicted on the Autumn Quilt. Sargent’s crabapple trees, redbud, winter blooming and spring blooming camellia, aucuba, barberry, lilies, various groundcovers and perennial flowers offer year round interest.
2. Walk between the buildings toward New Hampshire Ave. and you will find the Moon Garden. Its plants bear white flowers. Japanese apricot, heath, primrose, bulbs and perennials provide flowers from winter until autumn.
3. Turn north between the Community Building and New Hampshire Ave. A row of magnolias will bloom for ten weeks of the year, eventually forming an arcade with the west wall of the building. Along the avenue Atlas cedar, Norway spruce, Austrian spruce, and pitch pine began as seedlings tended by our children thirty years ago.
4. The North Walk section NW8 on your map, a fall blooming liriope bed, is bordered by Hall’s pink daylily and coral bells, a Virginia fringe tree, two white blooming redbuds, and a purple leaf plum. Across the path a gazebo for small children is fragrant with honeysuckle in summer and clematis in autumn.
5. Sections NW2 & 3 have coral bells, columbine, crocus, daffodils, daylilies, lamb’s ears, peonies, primroses, sage, thyme, and tulips. Beautyberry at both ends of this area carries purple berries in fall and winter. At the top a grove of nandina has red berries all winter.
6. On the street side of the nandina yoshino cherry, rhododendron and azalea bloom in spring and perennials in summer. Groundcovers on this side of the property include ajuga, hosta, lily-of- the-valley, lungwort, pachysandra, periwinkle, sweet woodruff, and violets. Dogwoods are scattered throughout the area.
7. Cross the sidewalk and continue down toward the street. Sweet autumn clematis climbs the aging Japanese maple in MED1. On the right an arc of mahonia produces honey scented yellow flowers in early spring and blue berries in summer. It will eventually form a wall to shield the Meditation Garden from view.
8. Downslope from the mahonia is a Chinese witch hazel. It produces coppery fragrant blossoms in March and brilliant foliage in the fall. Turn right around the telephone pole and down the flagstone steps. On your left in MED 6 aucuba, azaleas, and euonymus are the backdrop for an interesting collection of bulbs and perennials.
9. To the right at the bottom of the steps is the view shown on the Spring Quilt, the Meditation Garden. Under the benches star jasmine bears fragrant flowers in early summer. Hybrid honeysuckle, “Serotina Florida”, against the retaining wall, perfumes this garden from summer until frost. Above the stone wall bulbs and perennials offer a pleasant prospect from the benches opposite.
10. In the bed by the south wall of the administration building a wintersweet shrub has highly fragrant winter bloom. Here also are bulbs and perennials.
11. SE3 includes a hedge of English boxwood and a Virginia Fringe Tree produces panicles of sweet scented blossoms in summer. SE4 is designed for an attractive view from inside the building.
12. The Coming of Age class built the bat house high on the south side of the tower. SE5, the Blue and Yellow Garden, includes a yellow flowering Chinese azalea. At the east end of the log wall is an amelanchier. This native tree and another at the entrance to the Meditation Garden give us white blossoms in spring, edible fruit which attracts birds in summer, and bright foliage in fall.
13. Turning east from the picnic table you will see the subject of the Summer Quilt. SE6, the Red Garden, along the north side of the Fellowship House, contains plants with red or white flowers: andromeda, azalea, bleeding heart, climbing hydrangea, crocosmia, daylily, monarda, rhododendron, yarrow. This bed includes Japanese maple and sweet bay magnolia.
14. SE7 harbors hybrid daylilies, mostly miniatures, in the shade of a Japanese dogwood.
    The parking lot is surrounded by plantings of trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs, and groundcover. Of special interest is P11, which contains an exceptional collection of hybrid daylilies. P13 is a series of beds planted with low groundcovers, and bulbs. Japanese dogwoods here provide some parking lot shade.
15. On the east side of the driveway leading into the parking lot is the entrance to the Nature Trail. Looking down this path you see the view portrayed on the Winter Quilt.
16. NT1 boasts hybrid buddlea for our butterflies as well as a butterfly house. The trail parallels the northern border of the property. A bog garden is being planned for NT 6. As the trees and shrubs along the trail grow and the plantings on the north edge of the parking lot increase in density this will become a secluded spot shut off from the rest of the world. Small as it is in area it will be suitable for quiet contemplation and enjoyment of nature. This is where the nursery school children take their hikes.