Tour Recap: Gardens of Connecticut & New York with Trade Secrets
We just completed our first tour within the US and did we have a marvelous time! This little corner of the US (Litchfield County, Connecticut and Duchess County, New York) is packed with beautiful gardens, rolling hills, and charming towns. This trip also included weekend at the annual Trade Secrets garden show. We are proud to be the only company to offer a group tour to this show!
On our first day, we had a private visit outside of opening hours to Hollister House Gardens with owner George Schoellkopf. This garden is an American interpretation of an English cottage garden and one cannot help but feel the similarities to Cotswolds gardens such as Hidcote and Kiftsgate here.
The garden at Hollister House.
We also enjoyed a private tour of the estate at Wethersfield. This garden was more influenced by Italy and the inside of the home features frescoes from an Italian artist. The house is normally closed to the public and it was a treat to arrange a visit there for our travelers!
The garden at Wethersfield
The Trade Secrets garden tours were on Saturday, and how magnificent they were! One of the treats of this charity weekend is that some of the areas top gardeners generously open their private estates to Trade Secrets for one day only. This year we visited the gardens of Bunny Williams, Michael Trapp, and Christopher Spitzmiller at Clove Brook Farm. Bunny, Michael, and Christopher were all out mingling with visitors, making us feel welcome and at home in their homes.
Our group at Clove Brook Farm, the garden of Christopher Spitzmiller and Anthony Bellomo.
Wingback Travelers with Bunny Williams at her garden in Connecticut.
A Wingback traveler exploring the private gardens of Connecticut during Trade Secrets.
Wingback Travel’s Ross Harper with Christopher Spitzmiller.
On the last day of our four day trip we were up early for Underwriter Access to the Trade Secrets Rare Plant and Garden Antiques Sale. The sale was fabulous this year. Many of our travelers purchased peonies to plant at their homes in Georgia, and many more found antique treasures big and small. This year Martha Stewart was on hand for a book signing and a band played live music.
Trade Secrets is the event of the season for garden enthusiasts in the northeast!
We were tickled to see Martha signing books at Trade Secrets!
Wingback Travel’s Laura and Ross (the guides on all of our tours) at Trade Secrets.
Trade Secrets supports Project Sage and we are honored to support both with Underwriter tickets for all of our travelers.
We ended the trip with a private feast at Stissing House, an award-winning restaurant in New York State.
A Wingback traveler at Stissing House for our private feast.
One last group photo! We are so fortunate to travel with such wonderfully fun and kind people on our tours!
Wingback Travel’s Ross Harper enjoying the last of the sundaes.