10th Annual East Quogue Garden Tour Is On Saturday

Some Hamptons gardeners crave monochromatic flower beds—all white, all blue, all the same.

Virginia Connolly has never been one of those people.

The gardens at her East Quogue home, where she’s lived for almost 23 years with her husband, Art, who owns Aspatuck Gardens in Westhampton Beach, prove it. They’re bursting with vibrant pinks and corals, soft lavenders and yellows, and traditional whites and reds—just the way Ms. Connolly likes them.

“Every year I say I’m going to do a little bit less, and every year I do the same thing,” Ms. Connolly said last week during a visit to her garden, which she is opening for the East Quogue Beautification Committee’s 10th annual garden tour on Saturday, July 21. “I would say it has an English garden look. That’s the look I go for. If something reseeds, I’ll let it go to town. Sometimes I have to pull stuff out. It can’t choke other things out. I’ve tried to make it interesting.”

She strolled across her lawn, fussing with some of the flowers in the front and corner gardens, which are sprinkled with ornaments, topiaries, containers, moss-covered statues and antiques, including a cast-iron urn from the 1800s. They add different levels, focal points and often pops of color to the garden, she explained.

“This is a jockey from the 21 Club,” Ms. Connolly gestured toward the lawn decoration in front of the porch, which is decorated with countless plants in colorful pots. “He makes the yard. My husband’s very proud of him.”

She pointed to a small sign in the corner garden. “This is a favorite of mine,” she said, and then read, “‘I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.’ It’s just about enjoying the flowers, but I do make bouquets from the garden.”

The key to any garden is employing a mix of perennials and annuals—forsythia, day lilies and lythrum with marigold, begonia and dahlia, for instance. Tropicals, including hibiscus and mandevilla, are a popular trend, Ms. Connolly said. She loves the old-fashioned flowers herself, such as gladiolus, which are climbing up a birdhouse in the front yard. They remind the avid gardener of her childhood.

“I remember when I was a kid, growing up, my mother always had gladiolus,” she mused, noting that she grew up in Great River. “Now, hardly anyone. Out here, everyone knows hydrangeas. It’s one of the biggest sellers in the store. I just think it’s sort of synonymous with the Hamptons. If you take a ride down Dune Road, they’ll all over Dune Road and they’re in the full sun. They’re just such a pretty flower, a summery thing. They’re so showy. People just love it.”

With the East End staple often come classic, shingle-style Hamptons cottages, which is the epitome of Susan Zaccharia’s newly renovated home and landscaped gardens laid with blue stone walkways.

Once she saw the house three years ago, she knew it was exactly what she wanted, Ms. Zaccharia said last week, looking around her garden that, once it grows in, will be full with hydrangea, forever roses, butterfly bushes, traditional beach grass, boxwood and day lilies.

“We’ve tailored certain things to give that big, lush look,” she said. “And I think it’s great. When I walk around the property, I’m just, I’m so happy with it. It’s like the perfect cottage with the look of an English garden.”

When picking her plant material, Ms. Zaccharia said she had to take the landscape into consideration because the side of her home is almost always cloaked from the sun. And so, she planted her window boxes with shade-loving flowers, including Dragon Wing Begonia, caladium, torenia amethyst, ivy geranium, Algerian ivy, fuchsia gartenmeister and apple blossom double impatiens.

“You have to plant things that are best suited for your light,” Ms. Connolly explained. “You can’t plant something that needs full shade in the full sun. So many people want to plant it all. You have to be smart.”

Ms. Connolly’s gardens, which continue around both sides of her house, into the backyard and even onto the street, are her source of relaxation and a way to decompress, she said, though not so much for her husband.

“He leaves the yard up to me because he knows I really enjoy it,” she laughed. “The people who love gardening, they love it. Even if they don’t want to do it themselves, if they enjoy the beauty of it, that’s fine, too. And they have the money to pay someone to do it? Good, so they can still enjoy it.”

The East Quogue Beautification Committee will host its 10th annual garden tour on Saturday, July 21, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at five area gardens. Wildlife experts from the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center of the Hamptons will be at the tour’s final garden at 2 p.m. with hawks, owls and other animals from the center’s education program. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at Roses and Rice on Main Street in East Quogue. For more information, call 653-4910 or email maria@mariasducktales.com.