55 Species of Trees on Garden Tour at Rosemont

Sue and Randolph Jones believe that ownership brings not only pride but also the responsibility for caring and sharing.

Since they acquired Rosemont in 1997, the couple has acted as an exemplary steward of the well-known early nineteenth century manor house, which they will share with the public during the local Historic Garden Week in Virginia tour.

Their care of the property and grounds will be evident April 20 and April 21 to visitors who will be among the first to use a tree guide to the 55 species recently identified and marked.

"This is a wonderful resource for people to come and learn," said Carrie Blair of Middleburg during a recent visit with Sue Jones at Rosemont. Upon a recommendation from Blandy Experimental Farm, the State Arboretum of Vırgınia, Jones engaged Blair to make a woody plant inventory of notable specimens.

A master gardener and past president of the Piedmont chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society, Blair has taken courses in deciduous forestry and dendrology at Northern Virginia Community College but considers herself a largely self-taught amateur of trees. In addition to Rosemont, she has identified and mapped trees at Foxcroft School and at Airlie Conference Center.

"Rosemont ranks with such public gardens as Oatlands, Montpelier, and Mount Vernon in the number and age of the trees," Blair said. "The collection is valuable because there are fewer old trees surviving. A small property cannot house such large trees."

Blair believes that the small property owner can learn from Rosemont. Correct pruning is evident, and pruning, although most easily managed before leaves appear, can be done at almost any time.

Ornamental trees, she said, can be fed after leaves are out and there is adequate sun to promote utilization of fertilizer. "But feeding should be done sparingly if at all when the trees are under stress," said Blair, "as in the current drought, and hemlocks should not be fed at all if there is evidence of disease."

"These old trees are extremely resilient," said Jones. "We have them pruned mostly to remove dead wood."

Tea on the lawn, both afternoons of the tour, will be served with an enormous Atlas blue cedar as background. On the Greek Revival portico, added in the mid-1800's to extend the entire east side of the main house, visitors will view both the park-like vistas towards the Blue Ridge and the dean of Rosemont's trees, an ancient American hornbeam or ironwood. Close by is a venerable southern magnolia, almost as wide as tall.

Walking through the azalea-studded entrance grounds, visitors will find some of Blair's favorites, labeled with the same style markers that Blandy uses: a Kentucky coffee tree, a golden raintree [sic], a ginkgo, a mature Katsuratree [sic; one word], a particularly old and large Carolina silverbell, and fine examples of sugar and Japanese maple, white oak, tulip poplar, and beech, both European and American.

Rosemont has had time for trees to grow. The house stands on a tract that comprised 223 acres when granted to John Lindsey in October 1750. The next month, November 1750, the tract was surveyed by George Washington; the plat he made in this survey was published by the U.S. government in 1932. 

Several owners later the tract, now 703 acres, was purchased by George H. Norris, first high sheriff of Clarke County, in 1811. He is believed to have built Rosemont that year for his bride, Jane Bowles Wormeley, although there is reference to an existing house, called the Hermitage, when the property became his.

Norris's dwelling has been considerably enlarged over the years, most visibly by the lonic columned east portico (1840-60) and by an imposing center stairway and an extensive wing (both 1902). Vying with George Washington and George Norris for historical honors at Rosemont is Harry Flood Byrd Sr., governor of Virginia and then its U.S. senator, who from the 1920's embellished the landscape.

At the late Senator Byrd's annual Rosemont picnics, Byrd political regulars ate fried chicken and tested Virginia's political waters. Richard E. Byrd, son of the senior senator, kept the Byrd name at Rosemont until 1997.

The Joneses have retained the inherited ambiance inside the house as well as outside. To traditional furnishings and appointments in the living room and the library are added two pianos: in the living room, a small Baldwin grand; in the library, an upright Yamaha "silence model" fitted with earphones so that Randolph Jones can practice at odd hours without disturbing.

Walnut paneling in the dining room sets off a bowfront sideboard and Sue Jones's collection of Lenox "Rose" china in the breakfront. The sunporch switches style with Albuquerque furniture and her original wall stenciling.

The butler's pantry, where old cabinets and a copper sink are retained, the bright working kitchen, the "dog porch" with its old birdhouses, and the "apple-cutting room" used now for flowers, all will be open.

The Joneses have made one structural interior change, combining two small downstairs bedrooms into a billiard room. Here Randolph Jones displays a passion for rhinoceroses in a collection that includes leather, cloisonné, porcelain, wood, and pictures.

Randolph Jones will welcome visitors to another collection, that of antique cars housed in the recently restored carriage house. Car buffs particularly will appreciate a 1988 Lamborghini LM-002, a 1957 Triumph TR-3, a 1954 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith limousine, and other special interest automobiles refurbished and displayed in this museum-like setting.

On a wall in the kitchen entry are pictures of Rosemont past, among them an aerial photograph that shows the extent of the formal plantings under the Byrd ownership. While the Joneses make no attempt to duplicate such gardens, they have manicured the surrounding paths and maintained the infrastructure and plantings.

Like other local homeowners, Sue Jones worries about the lack of rain, not only for trees but also for long-time understory shrubs. "I don't know whether they will bloom in time for Historic Garden Week," she said, "but I walk around and say to the azaleas, 'Please don't die'."