A Garden In The Woods

By Howard Supnik

"...quite by chance, one grand fall day I followed a winding country road from Framingham to Sudbury, across a brook, around a bend and over a small hill into a magnificent grove of old Hemlocks. This was a place to explore. Ages ago, glaciers had laid down the terrain: eskers with steep-sided valleys between, a pond, a wooden bog, numerous springs and an ever-flowing brook . Here was a naturally beautiful place with interesting contours, many old trees and a variety of typical New England vegetation. Here, in a relatively small compass, were diverse soil types necessary for the support of native plants from many habitats far and near.. just the spot for a wildflower garden." (1) - Will C. Curtis

The imagery is clear and powerful and despite nearly sixty years of human intervention, it has endured. The description Will C. Curtis gives us is that of the mixed evergreen/deciduous woodland and rolling topography common to southern New England, where oaks dominate the land, and eskers, drumlins
and kettleholes define extraordinary spaces and provide a diversi!y of soils and microclimates. This diversity allows for native and exotic plant life from all communities to be grown for botanic display. Today, the Will C. Curtis Garden in the Woods is the 18 hectare botanic garden of the New England Wild Flower Society just twenty miles from Boston. Its six cultivated hectares make up the largest landscaped collection of native plants in New England, and its fourteen hundred varieties of plants include over two hundred rare or endangered species. Recognized more for its horticultural expertise. Garden in the Woods has tended to be overlooked as a designed landscape but, although much of it appears natural, the Garden is the result of one man's lifelong endeavor. It was with forsight that Will C. Curtis, a landscape designer from New York, secured the original 12 hectare woodland from the Old Colony Railroad, which had been holding the land as a gravel investment for seventy years. In 1931, Curtis began working from the basement of a one-room cabin and a small greenhouse, which he heated by burning blight-killed chestnut trees. Despite the lingering effects of the Depression, he managed to support his efforts with earnings from his small landscape design business.

Few landscape professionals have heard of Will C. Curtis, yet his training and accomplishments are impressive. After graduating in 1919 from Cornell University in landscape architecture, he helped layout the park system in Schenectady, New York and then accepted a position in Warren H. Manning 's office in Massachusetts. Manning had worked as a horticulturist and designer for Frederick Law Olmsted before opening his own office in 1896. A founder and president of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Manning was first trained as a horticulturist. Like Curtis, he had learned a great deal about native plants early in life. His designs depended on the use of native plants to give coherence and a sense of place. It is obvious that Manning, and even Olmsted, had a profound influence on Curtis who, when innocently referred to in a magazine as a 'landscape architect' emphatically replied by letter: "I would rather be called a landscapist or landscape designer copying after my old chief Warren H. Manning, whose office I headed when he was Dean of land scapists. He held that landscape creation had little to do with architecture except in an oblique way, a tenet to which I subscribe. l learned more from him than (from) any school." (2) It is important to note, however, that both Olmsted and Manning, as welI as several of Manning's disciples, including Dan Kiley and Fletcher Steele, employ architectonic strategies in the design of their landscapes. Geometries in their designs often provided an exciting contrast to nature in their designs.

Curtis, on the other hand, sought an alternative approach to design. Reflecting the subtleties of pure naturalistic design requires both a keen understanding of nature and an ability to discern the architectonic qualities of nature itself. When expericncing a Curtis garden, one is not immediately aware of the devices used to enclose, frame, organise, or dominate the landscape. Because architectural devices are not used, the subtleties of the landscape become even more exciting, as the path system, by controlling a seqeunce of events, plays a crucial role in the experience.

The idea behind Garden in The Woods is a simple one. Curtis wrote, "it is a Wild Flower Sanctuary in which wild plants will be grown, their likes and dislikes discovered and the knowledge so gained eventually passed on in an effort to curb the wholesale destruction of our most beautiful natives. This is to be my contribution to conservation."(3) His first objective , to conserve, responded directly to ecology and the environment. The second, to educate, illustrates his interest in the botanic garden as a source of knowledge and a place of study.

Since the very first botanic gardens, at Padua in 16th century Italy for example, physical layout and design have been influenced by the consciousness of the times, and reveal a strong correlation to the garden's purpose.

In the late 19th century, Olmsted helped Charles Sargent and Asa Grey layout Harvard University 's Arnold Arboretum. Together they created a botanic landscape, where not only trees and shrubs were displayed but also geological landforms and natural processes. It was easily accessible to Will C. Curtis as were other Olmsted landscapes in Boston and New York. Curtis' Garden in the Woods was another step forward in the evolution of the botanic garden because it combined the educational aspects of plants and the natural environment with the 20th century commitment to conservation.

In his later years, Curtis never used plans, and there is no evidence of any drawings. His design studies were in the earth, and through experimentation and trial and error they became dynamic landscapes . His approach was an abstraction of nature, recapturing the power of the edge, glade and grove, as well as that of colour, texture and fragrance. His attention to detail was just as important as his sense of space and hierarchy . The first action taken toward design was to open the woods to sunlight in certain areas to create special plantings and to add spatial interest. This was a difficult task in the thirties, taking at least one week to convert a single tree to firewood. Curtis, nearly fifty years of age in 1933, enlisted the help of Howard Stiles, a young plant enthusiast, to help with the garden's construction. The design evolved by stages, and cultivated plants were planted with wild species to create individual planting areas, each with a unique visual setting. Curtis took advantage of the rolling topography by creating winding paths along the ridges. The use of these geological landforms in combination with paths not only spatially separates bogs and meadows from swamps and ponds, but also provides visual continuity. Paths also follow the contours of another powerful natural form, the existing Hop Brook, which flows gently through the site. Much of Curtis' and Stiles' plant collecting was limited to plant-rescue operations where plants were endangered due to construction or landfill. They re-created similar habitats at the Garden, adapting to the needs of each plant.

In 1936 Stiles became a full partner, and while Curtis lectured to local garden clubs and other interested groups, Stiles cared for the grounds, directed tours, and developed a greenhouse collection of exotic plants. The Garden continued to grow, despite the devastating hurricane of 1938 which uprooted or broke nearly three hundred large trees and destroyed paths and planting areas. The damage was repaired within three years and once again Garden in the Woods flourished. Curtis' noted commissions, such as the 38 hectare Bette Davis estate in Franconia, New Hampshire, and awards, such as the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Gold Medal in 1965, helped support the Garden and promote its message. Curtis continued to learn from the garden and although he never finished his manuscripts for Little Brown of Boston or the Macmillan Company of New York his notes indicate a knowledge and enthusiasm for nature, which he regarded as the ultimate source of inspiration for designing landscapes. He wrote of views, composition, and colour, as well as the less tangible notions of rhythm, illusion, and balance. "All design, naturalistic or otherwise, is repetition of some object or objects, and (in order) to create pleasant pictures this repetition must be harmonious. .. Rhythm is the most important single attribute in landscape design, real but elusive. It is the quality that gives life and joy, motion and repose. It is poetry and song. " (4)

The garden was laid out intuitively by Curtis. Paths were located in the field, duplicating almost exactly the steps one would take while strolling through the woods - along ridges, by streams, through sunlight and shade - gently curving to experience particular views, vistas, and sounds, as well as the comforts of warmth and protection. The architecture was grouped close together in order to free the garden from artificialities, and though buildings have since been added, the 1933 pit greenhouse continues to overlook the plantings where Curtis inaugurated his garden. Circulation along a main north-south loop takes the visitor through approximately half of the Garden 's cultivated land , while the remaining half, as well as east -west secondary trails, meander through the natural woodland.

The journey through the Garden as it exists today begins just beyond the parking area where two discreet buildings, a nature centre and an administrative headquarters, welcome the visitor. A gently curving path winds its way beyond the Garden's first room, the nursery, where a greenhouse introduces the visitor to the purpose and spirit of the Garden. The new greenhouse sits unsympathetically in the landscape, ignoring the existing architecture, yet despite its architectural misfortunes, it provides a powerful symbol of the technical ingenuity upon which the Garden' s success depends. The nursery consists of both sunlit and sun-protected areas where plants can be propagated for the garden or for sale to visitors. Propagation methods include seed germination, plant division, root cuttings and, still in the experimental stages, tissue culture. While seed exchange and correspondence from Europe and Canada, including the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England and in Edinburgh, Scotland, play an important part in supplying new plants, seeds collected from Garden in the Woods prove to be the most dependable source. Beyond the nursery is the First Garden, so called because of Curtis' initial efforts. Here are rhododendrons fifty to seventy-five years old and ten to fifteen feet high. Beside them are smaller, less common flowering plants between loosely laced stone steps, which begin the sequence of events into the First Garden. At one point the path narrows amongst a dense evergreen canopy only to heighten the contrast of the sun-filled room beyond. This articulation of transition is yet another example of Curtis' genius. Once within the space, the visitor senses a strong spatial definition presented by the site's topography: a kettle hole or depression in the landscape. Within the kettle is a lily pond filled with hundreds of aquatic plants and surrounded by rock gardens and several distinctive planting areas. The path climbs gently to a ridge which overlooks another larger glade within the woods. One can either venture onto a secondary wooded trail, or follow the path descending into a glade, passing rock gardens, wetlands and meadow. Here the visitor encounters lady slippers, pitcher plants, rare orchids, and even prickly pear cactus in the Western Rock Garden. In the meadow, butterflies abound amidst purple coneflowers, wild lupin, black-eyed Susans and other colourful wildflowers. The only man-made element within this woodland is the earth path, which masterfully directs itself past red maples, oaks and spicebush, the delicate fruits of bunchberry, and the flowers of trillium, to join with Hop Brook, a tributary of the Sudbury and Concord Rivers. As the natural brookside habitat is experienced, the visitor is gradually led back through the woodland to the Visitor Centre.

As he grew older, however, Curtis became more fearful of developers seeking his land for gravel or real-estate. Either would destroy the Garden and its message. So in 1965, on Curtis ' 82nd birthday, Curtis and Stile entrusted their garden to the New England Wild Flower Preservation Society. Although Curtis remained as Director, and Stiles as Curator, things began to change . Almost immediately the Society purchased fifteen acres of new land to the north and west as a buffer against the encroaching residential development. The Visitor Centre was constructed, along with an additional parking area to accommodate the increase in constituency. Before Curtis died in 1969, the Society moved its headquarters from Boston to Garden in the Woods. Construction of the new greenhouse and education centre and restoration of Curtis' 1933 pit greenhouse all took place in the last decade. Under the guidance of David R. Longland, Garden Director, who as a youngster apprenticed with Curtis and Stiles, the garden itself has undergone changes. After research and experimentation, a new meadow garden has been established to determine which species of wildflowers can sustain themselves after competition. In a woodland opening in the clearing of Curtis' first nursery, this experimental meadow, now in its seventh year, was designed to express its colours through late summer, and to educate others about low-maintenance and aesthetic alternatives to lawn. Many changes took place as a result of the Garden's goals - to conserve and educate - and are, in most ways, a benefit to the Garden and the community . Mr Longland agrees, however, that the Garden which once served the interested public now serves the general public, and its sense of remoteness is quickly disappearing. (5)

The Garden is located in Framingham, Massachusetts, part of Boston 's 'MetroWest', and while Framingham is still considered a town, its 70,000 residents might argue that with its complex network of shopping malls and high-tech industries necessarily comes a high level of urbanisation. The relationship, therefore, between the Garden and its context has become more complex. Indeed Framingham's growth has made Garden in the Woods even more special in the 1990s. In addition to its commitment towards conservation and education, the Garden now has a new responsibility as one of the few remaining spots for passive recreation. Although the site is not considered a place for concerts or picnics, it does offer a quiet alternative to the pressures of everyday life. Additions and changes to Garden in the Woods are small when compared with those of its surroundings, and in fact are not much different than they were in the 1930's. One familiar story is of a plant rescue operation which took place a few summers ago. (6) With a donation from the Massachusetts Orchid Society and the help of botanists and several volunteers, hundreds of native orchids were saved from the development of a waste treatment plant in Rochester, Massachusetts. Armed with spades and buckets, in the tradition set over half a century ago by Will C. Curtis, they set out on a cold, rainy morning - the best time to transplant the orchids - and with the owner's permission removed three varieties of approximately three hundred wild and threatened orchids. Meanwhile, back in the Garden, an overgrown path in a sunny bog had been restored to accept the plants. Another tradition set by Curtis is the promotion of education. Today, Garden in the Woods continues to run workshops, courses and garden tours. Its extensive library and slide collection offers the student of nature information which cannot be found in the garden. Because traditions such as these are not forgotten, Garden in the Woods remains strong as part of an organisation committed to conservation.

To the casual observer, Garden in the Woods appears to be natural or at best a copy of nature. First it should be obvious that because evolution is not an exact science it is impossible to duplicate nature. Second , it should be understood that although inherent to the act of 'imitating' nature is following the patterns it sets, it is not necessarily true that following patterns is unoriginal or derivative. Curtis uses the patterns found in nature to create new events, purely original within their settings, and as he learned from Manning, placing elements - buildings, paths , stairs - within mature natural landscapes is as much a part of landscape design as starting from scratch, and can be equally as inventive. This approach to landscape design is quite effective and could prove indispensible as our natural environment dwindles in the years to come. While the designers of today 's landscapes are compelled to push out the limits of artistic expression, more landscape architects may, in time, seek methods like those used by Will C. Curtis to preserve pieces of nature and in doing so, to express aesthetic purpose. Of the hundreds of written works concerning Garden in the Woods, the majority have focused on its horticultural prowess rather than its masterful landscape design. It is understandable, then, that a majority of the Garden's public knows the Garden for its native plants. This is true with many botanic gardens, and is most regrettable in this particular case, because like the gardens at Padua and Kew, Garden in the Wood signifies, through its design, astage in the evolution of a typology. Disguised as a natural landscape, Garden in the Woods is the botanic garden of the twentieth century.

References
1. W.C. Curtis , 'Garden in the Woods'. Popular Gardening, May 1953 , pp34-36.
2. Correspondence between Curtis and Horticulture Magazine, August 17, 1964, in response to an article by Barbara B. Paine . 'NEWFPS Campaigns to Preserve the Garden in the Woods', October 1964. p32.
3. Original Garden in the Woods brochure. 1934.
4. Will C. Curtis, 'Looking Out and Looking In', Garden Club lecture.
5. Interview with Garden Director David R. Longland , January 1986.
6. Written from author's experience as a Horticultural Intern at Garden in the Woods, summer 1985.

Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Garden in the Woods and the New England Wild Flower Society for allowing use of their library, photographs, and the Curtis archives in preparation for this article, as well as the following people for their assistance in reviewing article in manuscript form:
David R. Longland , Laurie D. Olin , Niall G. Kirkwood and C. Timothy Baird.
This article could not have been written without the support of the late Dr. Albert Fein , who inspired the research of Garden in the Woods for his seminar 'Preserving Historic Landscapes', given at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design in the Spring semester of 1986. Dr Fein will be remembered for his historic research in landscape architecture and his enthusiasm toward the profession. He will be missed deeply by his students.

Howard Jay Supnik studied at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, and now practices landscape architecture with Hanna/Olin Ltd, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Garden in the Woods is on Hemenway Road, Framingham, Massachussets, tel: (508) 877 9348.

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