Photo Of The Week by Larry Hurley Private Garden Tour in New York

July 12, 2024
Larry Hurley
Private Gardens
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This was one of my first digital photos, from July 7, 2004. It’s taken at a private garden situated on the Hudson River, in New York.

I toured the garden with a busload of folks from the Perennial Plant Association, a national group of folks interested in perennials, mostly in a professional capacity as growers, landscapers, retailers, researchers, and so on. They do tours in conjunction with their national meeting, which in that summer was in New York City.

I thought of this photo as I am planning on attending a closer-to-home garden tour next weekend, sponsored by Olbrich Gardens, our local botanical garden in the Madison, Wisconsin area.

Garden tours are a great way to get ideas for your own garden. It gives you a chance to see what performs well in a home setting, where plants get less attention than they might in a public garden setting, and there are always interesting plant combinations to inspire you to try something new.

Garden clubs and public gardens usually sponsor tours of private home gardens as fund raisers. Check to see if there are any in your area this summer.

Larry Hurley

Larry Hurley worked at Behnke Nurseries from 1984 until the business was composted in 2019, primarily with the perennial department in growing, buying and sales.

Before landing at Behnke’s, he worked as a technician in a tissue culture lab, a houseplant “expert” at a florist shop, and inventory controller at a wholesale nursery in Dallas. With this and that, ten years passed.

When his wife Carolyn accepted a position at Georgetown University, Larry was hired at Behnke’s for the perennial growing department and garden center at Behnke’s Largo location.

In 2021, Larry and Carolyn moved back to Wisconsin to be closer to family and further from traffic. After 37 years in a shaded yard in Maryland, he is happy to have a sunny lot where he can grow all sorts of new perennials, if only he can keep the rabbits at bay. He also enjoys cooking, traveling, and the snowblower.

Garden Tour