Mother's Day in Middleburg: Wingfield and Ellerslie Farms
I think I had the best Mother’s Day of anyone yesterday. Seriously. We went on this fantastic garden tour in Middleburg, VA. The tour of two sumptuous gardens on horse-country estates benefitted the Middleburg Humane Foundation, which is run by my lovely cousin, Hilleary Bogley.
The first stop was a 60-acre estate called Wingfield Farm, which has grown up over the past 18 years to be the most impressive tour of structures, statuary, plant and tree specimens I’ve ever seen.
This weeping evergreen beautifully frames a solar garden, which gets 10 hours of sunlight each day.
I think the owner has a particular fondness for evergreens and conifers, because they were everywhere, in every shape and form.
Here’s a copse called the Pigmy Pinetum – a pine forest filled with many varieties of miniature conifers.
The Monkey Puzzle tree, native to Chile, is one of only three living specimens in the DC region.
Here’s a closer version. I nearly cut myself touching the leaves – they are pricklier than a holly bush.
An upper fountain leads down a waterfall to the lower gardens.
“Hebe,” Cup Bearer to the Gods, is a Victorian statuary, framed by juniperus horizontalis “Wiltoni.”
Here’s a bit of whimsy – a lady caught by surprise in the outhouse!
My husband, walking down one of the garden’s many allées.
My children had a blast running through these sweeping slopes of lawn:
I loved all the details in this garden, including bee hives,
an old-fashioned tollhouse made from a converted tool shed,
a statue inside a structure formed by flower pots,
and a copy of a 14th-century Siberian chapel which holds inside it all manner of stuffed animals from past hunts.
The Brighton Pavilion, with its mirrored windows and intricate ironwork, was created to dress up the farm’s machine shed – what a giveaway that the owner is a woman!
OK, so that was just the first stop. After this show-stopper, we continued on to Ellerslie Farm, just down the road. After greeting the owner’s horse and two donkeys, we roamed the home’s flowering grounds.
As an iris lover, I was in heaven.
The house is at the bottom of a hill – and these are the front steps,
which lead up to this lovely pool filled with tadpoles.
Follow these steps to get down behind the home:
The wall on the right side of the steps is covered with this:
The rest of the property in front lets you meander the grounds – no border is a straight line, to encourage wandering.
And I’ll end with some gorgeous details.
