The Historical Society of Islip Hamlet hosted its 6th "Secret Gardens of Islip" - Garden Walk on Saturday, July 14th, on a sunny afternoon.

The Baldassare Garden was overflowing with perennials, which include vinca, impatiens, dahlias and petunias.  The yard also plays host to two vegetable gardens that provide tomatoes, string beans, peppers, garlic, potatoes asparagus and figs.  A small spruce tree gets wrapped in lights at Christmas time for all their neighbors to enjoy.

The Umstatter Garden contains dwarf boxwoods which enclose a sea of Montauk daisies.  Their private oasis consists of birch, crab apple, cherry, Japanese maple, perennial garden beds, hydrangea, ornamental grasses and lilac.  A raised garden holds several large evergreens and a Japanese maple.

The Reiszl Garden, in a nod to the large deer population, contains a variety of holly trees and shrubs.  The garden also contains maple trees, perennials, astilbe, hosta, caladium, ligularia and elephant ear.  There is also a weeping willow tree, two butterfly bushes.  Front beds are lines with deer-resistant barberry, holly and golden mop.

The Duff Garden has a young weeping willow, many different colored azaleas, white pines and an asparagus bed which provides just enough for them.  The owner plants dahlia tubers every year, transplanted from her parents' yard.  Recently, raised beds were built for vegetable gardening.  Their home also contains an indoor garden.

The Wexler Garden showcases the artistry of Japanese design.  Care is given to plants like that given to bonsai trees; living plants are shaped to the exact form needed for the sympolic or graphic effect one desires.  Commonly used plants are:  serviceberry, pine, Japanese Maple, juniper, lotus, iris, shrub peony, horsetail, crabapple and rhododendron.  

Seatuck Environmental Association is a 1917 Normandy-style Chateau built for Louisine Peters-Weekes.  Designed by renowned architect Grosvenor Atterbury, her daughter, Happy Scully, bequeathed the 70-acre estate to be a nature preserve.  The property is a diverse mix of habitats, including extensive salt marsh, freshwater wetlands and mature upland forest as well as plants that provide a natural shoreline ecosystem.  

The society would like to thank the homeowners, Garden Walk guides, Carolines Flower Shoppe, Master Gardener Lucille Hoell, "Carols for Causes" Singers, Keep Islip Clean, Project Bloom and our ticket holders for making this walk so successful.
The Gardens
 
Susan Hantz-West
Est. 1992 Historical Society of Islip Hamlet