Iron Gates
Cast iron was the most popular form of fencing for grand homes during the early 1900s because it was a readily available material of the new industrial age. It could easily be formed into ornamental designs to create a more formal and elaborate entry way. Urns too, were made of cast iron and were very common in Edwardian gardens. The gates and urns at Ruthmere are splendid examples of custom hand-wrought iron work.Ruthmere Tours:Guided tours of Ruthmere Mansion are held Tuesday through Sunday. Tuesday through Saturday, tours start on the hour between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday tours are at 1, 2, and 3 p.m. Ruthmere is closed Mondays, major holidays, and during the months of January, February, and March each year. We hope to see you soon!
Quilt Garden
Ruthmere's 2020 Quilt Garden is Ruth's Chrysanthemum.This year's design theme for Quilt Gardens along the Heritage Trail was flower patterns - Ruthmere chose the chrysanthemum, a flower that was beloved by Victorians in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The color pink was chosen to honor Ruth, the only child of Albert and Elizabeth Beardsley & Ruthmere's namesake. Little Ruth died as an infant in 1881, and Ruthmere's construction began in 1908 - 27 years after Ruth's death. Since the Beardsleys named this home after their daugther, it's plain to see how much of a lasting impact Ruth had on their lives, even despite her life being cut short. Ruth's portrait, painted by Indiana artist Lucille Cooke, can be seen hanging in Elizabeth's pink morning room in a black oval frame of mourning. This year's design was voted on and selected by Ruthmere's own garden volunteers! More information on Ruthmere Museum Campus can be found at www.Ruthmere.org
Past Quilt Garden Information
Visit our website and read more information about each year's design. https://ruthmere.wildapricot.org/Gardens
Balustrades
In Edwardian style gardens the fencing of the house had to compliment the exterior architecture of the home. Balustrade is a decorative railing supported by baluster posts. A baluster is the single, vertical post; the balustrade is several balusters spaced evenly and connected together. Balustrades often added to the formality of the space and were reminiscent of the Italianate and neoclassical styles of the décor and ornamentation.
Patriotic Garden
Ruthmere will again be a Blue Star Museum; the Blue Star Museums program is a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts that offers free admission to all active duty military personnel, National Guard, and Reserve personnel, as well as their families, from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Additionally, this year Ruthmere shows its patriotism with a special red, white, and blue garden. Patriotic gardens and victory gardens have been historical ways that people have shown their support for our country. While most people plan to decorate only for the patriotic holidays, Ruthmere will honor our country with this red, white, and blue garden all summer long.
Front Circle Garden
Ruthmere Museum’s sixteen foot circle garden is a beautiful addition to the grounds. This carpet-bed garden is modeled after a bed of solid red flowers in the forecourt of Queen Victoria's "Osborne House" on the Isle of Wight. The garden is raised to better show the design and help with drainage. In the spring the circle is blooming bright with yellow daffodils. During the summer, it is planted with either red geraniums or red begonias. The vibrant red contrasts against the pale tan and cream of Ruthmere’s exterior.
Tiffany Garden
The Tiffany garden is inspired by the work of American artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany, who is best known for his artistry with stain glass. Located in front of the greenhouse, the garden’s design is taken from the window pane in the dining room of Ruthmere. The flowers in the Tiffany garden were selected from the Tiffany stained glass windows and lamp shade designs located in Ruthmere. They include hollyhocks, peonies, poppies, black-eyed Susans, lilies, tulips, yellow roses and clematis vines. Planted in 2007, this garden brings joy to anyone who admires the influential designs of Tiffany Studios.
Trees and Vines
The presence of beautiful white birch trees framing the drive at Ruthmere is no coincidence. It was very common in an Edwardian garden to frame the carriage drive approaching the house. Vines were often used to cover less aesthetic features such as fences and tree stumps.
Greenhouse Conservatory
The greenhouse is an original feature of the 1910 Beaux Arts style home built by Albert and Elizabeth Beardsley. Elizabeth, the first lady of Ruthmere, loved flowers. Her husband Albert had the greenhouse built for her so she could enjoy her plants year round. A forty foot tunnel connects the main house to the greenhouse so she would not be exposed to the outdoor elements in the winter. The tunnel has painted canvas walls featuring the Italian Lake District, which was one of the Beardsley’s favorite vacation spots. In the late nineteenth century the greenhouse was a place where exotic and more diversified plant varieties could be grown in a controlled temperature. Orchids, fuchsia and lilies were considered rare plants at this time and required conservatories. Today plants raised inside the greenhouse continue to be varieties from the nineteenth century through 1945. The greenhouse is in need of several repairs. If you are interested in helping Ruthmere restore our greenhouse, please contact a staff member for more information.
Herm Statue
Statues integrated the human element and formality into the Edwardian garden. This art nouveau herm located by the greenhouse is original to Ruthmere’s property. A herm is a sculpture with a head and a torso above a plain, usually squared lower section. Herms originated in ancient Greece and were placed at crossings, country borders and boundaries as protection. They were also associated with fertility and luck. The herm at Ruthmere is unsigned weathered marble. It is American, based upon a French model, sculpted circa 1900.
Wedding Garden
The wedding garden, also called the Blue and White garden, is modeled after the work of Gertrude Jekyll. She was a famous gardener of the time period and the first nationally recognized female gardener. Jekyll radically changed the trends of gardening landscape. Her most popular color scheme was the Blue and White garden, which used a large variety of blues and blue-violets with the contrast of crisp white abundance.A third color, most often a pale green, was also added to make a subtle transition of flora down to plush carpeting of green grass. This was often done by using lambs ear with its pale green tones. She believed in layering plants by heights and color choices.Other flowers featured in the Blue and White garden are phlox, butterfly bushes, lilies, salvia, cleome, azalea, astilbe, delphiniums, hydrangeas, lavender, allium, and boxwood. Jekyll’s success broke ground for women to enter into the gardening field. Gardening allowed women an outlet for daily escape and purpose, and it became a passion of Elizabeth Beardsley.The fountain, located in the middle of the wedding garden is original to the property. The fountain adds an element of water which creates an easy and pleasant wandering area. Benches were also a necessary element to a formal garden, providing a clear place to rest among beauty.
Kitchen Gardens
Kitchen gardens were traditionally located close to the kitchen door to allow easy access for cooking. Kitchen gardens were utilitarian in purpose, and included herbs, fruits and vegetables with some flowers also. However, the kitchen garden at Ruthmere has always been filled with flowers. In fact, some of the wisteria was planted thirty years ago. Other flowers featured in the kitchen garden include peonies, ferns, butterfly bushes, hostas, morning glories and astilbe.
Angel Statue
The Angel is sculpted from two thousand pounds of Carrara Italian marble to Robert Beardsley’s precise specifications replicating a small baptismal font that he had collected years earlier. The smaller piece resides in the drawing room at Ruthmere. The Angel has been planned by Robert to serve as his private memorial to preside and protect him in his eternal rest. The Angel arrived at Ruthmere Museum September 3, 2009 and serves as a modern representation of classical sculpture.
Baldwin Apple Tree
The Baldwin apple tree was planted at Ruthmere Museum in 2008. The Baldwin tree is an apple variety discovered as a chance seedling in Massachusetts in 1740 and named after Colonel Loanne Baldwin, a high sheriff of the courts of Concord and Cambridge. In 1810, cuttings from the original tree were grafted and grown in Maine. By 1850, Baldwin was the standard all-purpose home and commercial variety of apple. The Baldwin apple is an excellent eating apple, also great for pie making and baking. It remained dominant in Maine until the terrible winter of 1934 when tens of thousands of trees perished and McIntosh apples became king.
