OLD LYME — Connecticut Historic Gardens Day is being held this Sunday, June 22, from 12 to 4 p.m. and the Florence Griswold Museum is one of the 16 participating sites throughout the state.
Enjoy free admission to the Museum’s grounds in full bloom during this special state-wide celebration of historic gardens.
Members of the dedicated ‘Garden Gang,’ who tend the gardens, will be on site to answer garden-related questions and give impromptu garden tours..
A Juneteenth celebration is planned at the Museum from 3 to 5 p.m.
Visit this link to see what is happening at each of the 16 gardens on Sunday.
It’s a full day at the FloGris on Sunday!
- Museum is open from 10am to 5pm. Admission is waived from 3 to 5pm to coincide with a Juneteenth Jazz & Poetry celebration 2-4 pm. This is the last day to view the special exhibition Their Kindred Earth: Photographs by William Earle Williams.
- From 11am to 4pm drop into the Hartman Education Center to enjoy several hands-on craft projects. Plein-air painting available, weather permitting. Fun for the whole family.
- Café Flo is open 11:30am to 2:30pm. Reservations are highly recommended, 860.434.5542 x126.
- From noon to 4pm members of our dedicated Garden Gang will be on hand to answer questions and give impromptu garden tours.
- At 2pm enjoy a Celebration of Juneteenth with Jazz, Poetry, and a Book Signing
Between 1670 and 1826 upwards of 300 enslaved African-descended and indentured Indigenous people labored in the historic town of Lyme. Today, Witness Stones mark 60 former sites of enslavement and indentured servitude. Join us for a Juneteenth celebration on the Museum’s north grounds featuring music by the Avery Sharpe Quartet and readings by the Witness Stones Poets Marilyn Nelson, Kate Rushin, Rhonda Ward, and Antoinette Brim-Bell, who will present their moving tributes in verse to those remembered with Witness Stones plaques. Seating will be provided under a tent and additional lawn chairs are welcome and encouraged.
Concluding the event, Artist-in-Residence William Williams, who created the 120 photographs of Old Lyme and greater Connecticut, will be signing copies of the newly released exhibition catalogue, Their Kindred Earth. Copies will be on sale at the event and in the FloGris Shop.
In the event of rain, the Juneteenth celebration will be held at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, 2 Ferry Road.The Connecticut’s Historic Gardens’ website offers some background to the gardens at the Museum, explaining, “Florence Griswold opened her timeworn family home to artists searching for a quiet country retreat where they could rejuvenate their spirits and find sources of inspiration. The group was known as the Lyme Art Colony and Miss Florence’s boardinghouse became the center of Impressionism in America.”
About Florence Griswold’s Garden:
The Connecticut’s Historic Gardens’ website offers some background to the gardens at the Museum, explaining, “Florence Griswold opened her timeworn family home to artists searching for a quiet country retreat where they could rejuvenate their spirits and find sources of inspiration. The group was known as the Lyme Art Colony and Miss Florence’s boardinghouse became the center of Impressionism in America.
The text continues, “Miss Florence was a keen gardener, and had what is characterized today as a “grandmother’s garden,” in which masses of flowers were informally arranged in bordered beds close to home. From seed catalogues and references to garden books among her correspondence, it is clear she was constantly in search of new and unusual plants.”
Noting, “She helped others establish their own gardens, and filled her home with small, informally arranged bouquets of fresh flowers,” the text adds, “Many of the Lyme Art Colony artists painted the gardens and landscape around her home. This information, along with archaeology that helped the Museum identify the physical boundaries of the garden beds and walkways, guided the garden restoration.”
The text concludes, “Varieties of hollyhocks, iris, foxglove, heliotrope, phlox, cranesbill and day lilies are among the many perennials that make up the garden.”
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