After a few years of disappointing blooms, this summer of ’24 is a show stopper of what can rightfully be described as a hydrangea heaven, contributing muchly to the pleasures of this Newport season. Bountiful, bouncy, blousy…however you chose to characterize them.
And surprise! surprise! it was the display at Marble House that provided slam-on-the-breaks images. Built in 1892, this stunner was a social and architectural landmark that set the pace for Newport’s subsequent transformation from a quiet summer colony of wooden houses to the legendary resort of opulent Gilded Age mansions. Of all the Preservation Society mansions this marble-facaded treasure has a “full court press” of hydrangeas both front and back. Normally all blue, this year they present a full spectrum of colors from soft blue to roseate pink to shades of purple. Having only written about Marble House at Christmas, I was smitten with this summer display…and am choosing to devote an entire post to this vision that greets passersby on Bellevue Avenue. Doesn’t the feature image look fresh and cool, with the bright green leaves of the hydrangeas as well as the overhanging branches of the majestic trees?
Stretching all the way from the house to the street…healthy and happy, flapping gayly in abandon and tossing their flowers in the welcome breezes.
A curve of all blue hydrangeas nestles into the curve of the limestone balustrade of the driveway.
I love this juxtaposition of the soft verdigris color of the Gilded Age light standards as a complement to the pastel shades of the blooms.
The right side of the horseshoe…one wouldn’t imagine that Marble House could appear so “flopsy-topsy,” in sharp contrast to the formal building.
Masses of hydrangea hedges continue the beauty on the back terrace, breaking up the coolness of the gray-white marble with their round blossoms.
And surprise! surprise! again…across a large swath of the back lawn, beyond the hydrangea hedges and teetering over Cliff Walk, is Alva Vanderbilt Belmont’s Chinese Tea House, modeled on 12th-century Song dynasty temples. Tea is indeed served here in the summer!
Just for your amusement, I’m sharing Newport’s favorite photographer, Nick Mele’s color-saturated image of hydrangeas from his book, A Newport Summer.
Whether it is the benefits of our warming earth, climate change, ponderous rain (or whatever,) hydrangeas have regained their due place across the island as much anticipated additions to our landscapes and gardens! I might even be prompted to consider the title “the new shades of old blue.” Stay Cool…
Hi Bettie,
Can you identify the cultivar of pink and blue hydrangeas that are planted at Marble House?
Love your newsletter!
Jeannette in PA
Oh my, you have outdone yourself once again Ms. Bettie! These hydrangeas are absolutely gorgeous, and that seems like such a tame word for such a beautiful floral presence! The tea house is stunning!
“Mopheads Rule!” Truly, a season to get “lost in just staring” at these vistas!! Our acidic soil has given us multiple iterations of colors…limey green, pastel blue, deep periwinkle & now…those deep aubergines… Our “Niko Blue” kaleidoscope!! EnJOY!!
It always astounds me that brown soil can produce all those exquisite adjacent colors of blue to periwinkle to pink. Each blossom of those gorgeous hydrangeas is a masterpiece of floral design and your lovely photos have captured their glory!
Hydrangeas,”…healthy and happy, flapping gayly in abandon and tossing their flowers in the welcome breezes.”
Dear Bettie, what a beautiful and HAPPY description of these flowers that I love so much. My Grandmother had a bank of cobalt blue hydrangeas on the north side of her home. I would sit underneath them next to the lily of the valley flower patch to cool off in the summer when I was a little girl. It was a magical place!
Thank you always for sharing these beautiful photographs of the garden flowers in Newport.
Kind Regards,
Mary from Wyoming
LOVELY LADY,
I REMEMBER, WAY BACK – IN THE SUMMER OF 1966, OF TAKING MY EMPLOYER, ‘MRS. R.R.YOUNG’ AND HER NEIGHBOR, BEVERLY BEAUGHART (?) (ANGLE SEA), TO A LUNCHEON AT THE ABOVE ‘TEA HOUSE’. WHILE ‘FAIRHOLME’ – ALSO A ‘CLIFF WALK’ “COTTAGE” … MARBLE HOUSE IS: “THE” HOUSE. THAT’S NOT TO SAY,
‘THE BREAKERS’ AREN’T IMPRESSIVE; BUT THERE’S SOMETHING ABT. MARBLE HOUSE THAT EVEN IN ITS IMPRESSIVE IMPACT – IT’S MORE ‘WELCOMING’.
BUT THEN AGAIN, THAT’S ONLY MY OPINION.
Ahhhhhhh….so glorious…. What a visual feast… Your narrative and photos
set us right down in the midst of its beauty and sensual delight. Newport is so very special, Bettie.
Hydrangeas are beautiful but you wouldn’t think they would be planted in front of Marble House. Just back garden only.
Agreed!! That’s why I knew I needed to do this post! xB