The Hermitage, Home of Old HickoryHorn, Stanley F.
History
The Hermitage, Home of Old Hickory
Horn, Stanley F.
Hermitage (Hermitage, Tenn.); Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845 -- Homes and haunts -- Tennessee -- Hermitage
The shrubbery also contributes its share of blossoms, from the golden
bells, bridal wreath, snowballs and calacanthus of the spring through
the altheas or Rose of Sharon of the summer, to the pink and red crape
myrtles of the late summer which cap off their showy mass of blooms with
a brilliantly colored array of scarlet leaves in the fall months.
The Hermitage garden offers some form of attraction at any season of the
year.
During the early days of the Ladies’ Hermitage Association the wealth of
bloom in the garden was turned to good account, especially in the
spring. Then cuttings of jonquils and peonies, literally by the
wagonload, were sent into Nashville and sold on the street; and there
were also sales of seeds and cuttings and surplus bulbs, so that
visitors might take away with them living mementoes of the Hermitage
garden. From this source the association was able to derive a
considerable and much-needed revenue at a time when funds were scarce
and every dollar of income was welcome.
During his lifetime Uncle Alfred, who acted as a guide to visitors,
always took especial interest in the garden and beamed with proprietary
pride when visitors gave expression to their appreciation of its
beauties. “Please do not pluck the flowers” says a conspicuous sign by
the side of the gate; but if a visitor really seemed interested in the
garden’s attractions the old retainer would slyly say: “Now if you like
dat rosebud, I won’t see you if you gets it.”
Some idea of what the Hermitage garden looked like in the old days may
be gathered from a description of it which was given in an interview
printed in one of the Nashville papers several years ago with an old
lady who had visited there with her father when she was a girl. Looking
back down the vista of the years, she said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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