A Center Of Calm
From The Day, New London, CT - May 1, 2001
By Paul Choiniere, Day Staff Writer
Under a bright spring sun, the brilliant pink blossoms of the Weeping Cherry tree cascade toward the thick green lawn, an urban oasis surrounded by evergreen trees and shrubs, viburnum bushes speckled with tiny white flowers, and lush hemlocks.
It is hard to believe that a couple of hundred feet away cars speed along Route 32. For 75 years, the Caroline Black Garden has served as a tranquil escape for students at Connecticut College, as a backdrop for artists and as a living classroom for those studying botany.
On Friday the four-acre property will be recognized as the 11th garden in the international network of "Gardens for Peace." The network was funded by Atlanta native Dr. Laura Dorsey to recognize special sites for reflection, meditation and spiritual renewal.
The idea came to Dorsey when, during the Vietnam War, she was visiting Japan to care for her wounded husband. There she discovered the Japanese gardens that serve as an escape from the stress of life.
Founded in 1984, Gardens for Peace recognized its first garden on the Swan Woods Trail at the Atlanta History Center, using criteria developed with the help of the University of Georgia's School of Environmental Design. Recognized gardens must have a feeling of peace and tranquility, as well as a sense of refuge.
Plant life offering a wide variety of color and texture, and nonvisual stimuli such as running water and fragrant scents, are all hallmarks of the peace gardens, as is a sense of mystery. The gardens have to open to the public to receive the group's designation.
"It has all the ingredients," said Kathy Garvin, assistant director of the Conn College Arboretum, during a tour of the Black garden. "It is such a wonderful place to escape, but a lot of people don't know it is here."
Black garden is considered part of the college's arboretum.
The peace garden dedication will take place at 2 p.m. Friday and is open to the public. A reception will follow. The garden is located directly across from the main entrance to Connecticut College.
Earlier Friday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., a symposium will be held on the Black garden, its history and its new designation. Lunch is included. Lauri A. Brunton, class of 1994, will be at the symposium to sell copies of her book "Sanctuary: Gardening for the Soul," which she cowrote. The cost of the symposium is $20 for arboretum members, $24 for non-members.
The garden was established in the mid 1920s by Caroline Black, first chairwoman of the college's Botany Department, to assist in her teaching. Following Black's sudden death in 1930 due to illness, the college named the garden in her honor. The garden now has numerous plaques dedicating various sections to donors of individuals who have played a role in the college's history.
Janet Brooks, a member of the class of 1944, nominated the Black garden for inclusion in the Gardens of Peace. It is the third college garden to earn the distinction, joining Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and a campus garden at Agnes Scott College in Decatur; Ga.
Among the Black garden's most distinguished features are the white oak and copper beech trees, with their massive canopies. A collection of different holly plants from around the world graces a gentle hill in one section of the garden. A manmade stream babbles across rocks as it winds its way through the center of the garden, ending in a pond filled with goldfish.
Spring is probably the best time to enjoy the garden, said Garvin. Demanding attention among the floral displays are the small, bell-shaped flowers of the Redvein Enkianthus tree. The tree earns its name from the red highlights that run through the cream-colored flowers, said Jeff Smith, a horticulturist at Conn.
With its delicate, spindly red leaves and twisting limb structure, the Crimson Queen Japanese Maple has an interesting look and history. The tree was taken from a cutting of the crimson queen that was imported to the college in the l950s and planted on the campus, the first brought to the Northeast. More than 40,000 cuttings have been taken from that tree and its offspring now are found throughout the country.
The wooded garden with its sloping landscape offers beauty throughout the year, said Garvin. In autumn the beds are striking with their ornamental grasses and late blooming plants. Summer blooming plants include Azaleas and the Sourwood tree. The many mature evergreens make the garden lovely in the winter, when the leafless deciduous trees allow a view of the Thames River.
Other designated peace gardens are located in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia; at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Madrid, Spain; at Lakewold in Tacoma, Wash; at the Pastoral Institutes, Nairobi, Kenya; at the Oakhurst Community Garden in Decatur, Ga; and in Seoul, Korea.