The gardens vary from estates bordering a lake to quarter-acre lots. All are within 10 minutes of each other. Two Short Hills gardens include the properties of the owners of Seibert & Rice, importers of fine Italian terracotta planters. Both were designed by Richard Hartlage, landscape architect and former superintendent of horticulture for the Morris County Park Commission. One features a 1920s American Tudor home with dramatic views, formal and informal plantings, a sweeping viburnum and grass hedge, undulating beds of Oregon grape holly and bamboo, flowering borders, and a line of pee gee hydrangeas in massive terra cotta pots. The other, a 1/4-acre hillside garden, features espaliered trees, patio with fire pit surrounded by garden beds, tropicals potted in large terra cotta pots, and a terraced garden with stone steps climbing to secret spaces. A nearby property, designed by CLC Landscape Design for a classic feel with minimal maintenance while providing maximum enjoyment, features extensive rose gardens, statuary, garden nooks, a stand of tall black bamboo, crepe myrtle, and a sweeping terraced wall garden with a fountain and stone steps leading to a secluded garden of colorful shrubs.

Summit gardens include a ¼-acre lot with more than 300 varieties of blossoming plants and unusual flowering vines and over 100 shrubs in 4,000 square-feet of garden beds designed, created and maintained by the owners. The garden, designed after the 200+ English gardens visited by the owners, features a two-level deck enclosed with flowering vines, patio nestled into a flower bed, stone loveseat built into a bank, twin bridges over a swale, and an award-winning compost program. Nearby, a 1920s Tudor Norman-style house on 2 ½ acres features a woodland garden, French ruin courtyard with cordon and candelabra style apple trees, potted flowers and dwarf grasses between bluestone pavement, a pool garden with potted tropicals and annuals, and perennial and shrub borders. This garden was designed by Susan Cohan, certified landscape designer.

For more information and to register: 973-326-7603 or www.arboretumfriends.org/events
** Photos by Mary Jasch