setting that has been reproduced through archaeological studies on the grounds and painstaking research through family diaries, old drawings and photographs, journals, letters and stories told by members of the Austin family. The graceful front entrance to the house, with its porte-cochere and formal flower beds, has been reproduced using old photographs so that it looks as it would have in 1905 when it was first landscaped. The annuals planted today are more modern cul- tivars of the ones used back then. Hybrid- ization has produced petunias, for instance, in a range of colours and sizes far removed from the original small blue or white flow- ers. Not as intensely hybridized as annuals, the perennials planted in other area of the grounds probably differ little from those that might have been grown at Spadina ninety years ago. Much original plant material can still be


seen on the grounds; the magnificent white oaks for instance, predate the house. There are other mature ornamental trees planted by the Austin family that preserve the intent of William Warren Baldwin when he initially


The glass house.


cleared the site “in an avenue all the way” to provide a view of Lake Ontario. Other plants still growing include the lilacs, peonies, day- lilies and irises, as well as a rose identified as ‘Dorothy Perkins’, “one of the best of the old ramblers,” according to a garden writer of the Edwardian period. The gardens and house plants are supported by a greenhouse built in 1913. The orchard includes varieties of apples


not commonly available today. The ‘Red As- trachan’ is a soft dessert apple and does not keep long or ship well so it has been dropped from nursery catalogues. At the turn of the century, a nursery might list over a hundred varieties, today thirty is more likely. The archaeological excavations at Spadina


revealed a system of brick-lined cinder paths and a parre-terre garden both of which have been restored. This parre-terre is a kitchen


A sun-dappled pathway in the garden. Lupins in the background.


www.localgardener.net


Spring 2012 • 27


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