Horticulture enthusiasts will have two opportunities next weekend to visit private gardens in Southampton and on Shelter Island, thanks to benefits for the Southampton History Museum and the Parrish Art Museum.
The history museum’s regular summer tour, “An Insider’s View” of architectural interiors, has been rechristened “An Outsider’s View,” and will feature five sites ranging from a structured formal garden of clipped hedges and detailed gates to a whimsical waterfront cottage garden ablaze with flowers.
Stops on the self-guided tour, which will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sept. 12, include the Taft Compound on Hill Street, where a 19th-century barn was discovered in the 1970s when the owners cleared the overgrown property. The barn was renovated and the landscape and gardens executed in stages over the next decade.
Another renovation project faced the owners who bought the 1742 Daniel Halsey House in 1998. The house is framed by two copper beeches that survive from when the property functioned as a nursery, and the landscape is defined by yew and privet hedges and includes a kitchen garden.
The Orchard features a classic shingle-style house overlooking three acres of lush lawns. The estate’s name derives from 32 apple trees planted on the site, and a profusion of hydrangeas bloom every summer, along with seven transplanted hornbeams and eight crape myrtles.
The Camp at Cedar Crest was originally a “kit," or catalog house, displayed at the 1939 World’s Fair before being moved to its current location on Little Peconic Bay. There was no specific landscape plan for the property, which the owners have allowed to evolve over time.
The Port of Missing Men in the Cow Neck section of North Sea overlooks Scallop Pond. The various structures on the property sit on a vast landscape of open fields and copses filled with native beeches, locusts, cherry trees, and a proliferation of salt marsh cordgrass, sea lavender, glasswort, and water birds.
A champagne reception will be held at the Port of Missing Men on Saturday at 4:30. Tickets to the tour and reception are $150 in advance, $175 the day of the event, and can be purchased from the museum’s website. All participants have been asked to follow New York State safety protocols.
The Parrish Art Museum’s annual Landscape Pleasures benefit is also taking a different form this year. The traditional Saturday morning symposium will be replaced by online lectures by Pamela Burton, a landscape architect known for her interdisciplinary approach to private and public projects, and Patrick Cullina, an award-winning horticulturist, landscape designer, photographer, and lecturer. The time and date of the talks were not available at press time.
On Friday, Sept. 11, at 8 p.m., Landscape Pleasures ticket holders can attend an outdoor screening of “Leaning Into the Wine — Andy Goldsworthy,” a documentary about the British artist and environmentalist who creates site-specific sculpture and land art in natural and urban settings. The screening is free for Landscape Pleasures ticket holders, otherwise $20, $10 for members. Advance reservations are required.
Self-guided tours of private gardens on Shelter Island will take place Sunday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., with specific sites to be announced. Masks will be required.
Landscape Pleasures tickets, which include the online talks, the film, and the garden tour are $250, $200 for members. Sponsor tickets, priced at $400 and up, include a reception and guided tour through the museum’s “Field of Dreams” exhibition of outdoor sculpture on Sept. 12 at 5 p.m.
Because Landscape Pleasures has limited capacity, advance reservations have been recommended.
