Being a focal point to the garden, we recently had the gate refurbished and today it was returned to the garden. Over the years, the top scroll had disappeared and we thought it was important to bring it back. …

"How beautiful it is when the garden becomes clear again; when no leaves blur the long straight line or gentle curve, or the restful circle laid on the square; when levels are sharply defined, and intervals between steps have the rhythm of falling water…”

"Adonis amurensis is a very difficult plant to get into one's possession. Sought out and ordered at last, it did not come until May, and the weak growth soon died away. I thought I had seen the last of it. But the lovely, lacy leaves began to unfurl the following February, and among them was a flower the color of buttercup and with a buttercup's sheen." …

"And now I have to confess that my choice for the first month of the year, the Chinese witch hazel, Hamamelis mollis, has none of the things I look for - except that it gives no trouble and stays in bloom for weeks. Its flowers, though utterly charming, are not spectacular; its habit is not graceful, its bark is dull, and its leaves are coarse... In spite of these failings, I consider this one of the ten or twelve best flowering shrubs and one that I cannot be without. …”

“It seems to me that there is never a time when some living thing is not pushing up from the ground, and that at the beginning of the year there is a more vital stirring. Canon Ellacombe said, "The garden is never dead; growth is always going on, and growth that can be seen, and seen with delight.”

"I would like to grow every snowdrop I ever heard of. Although I started many years ago to make as complete a collection as possible, I still have only the common sorts, for many are rare and very hard to come by - and difficult to establish as well."

“There are a number of fine evergreens that flower in the mid-south in winter, but the sweet Olive, Osmanthus fragrans, is outstanding. This is a very large but slow-growing shrub that should be planted only where there is space for it to develop to its full size... The sweet olive begins to bloom in September, and from then on through the winter the small white flowers perfume the air on warm days."

This is the gate to my garden. I invite you to enter in; not only into my garden, but into the world of gardens—a world as old as the history of man, and as new as the latest contribution of science; a world of mystery, adventure and romance; a world of poetry and philosophy; a world of beauty; and a world of work.