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A Labor of Love: the azalea gardens at Nancarles House

By Janice F. Booth
Photography by David Trozzo

Imagine colors such as red-gold, rose, crimson, violet, pink, coral, honey yellow, and snowy white; picture bells and trumpets and multipetaled blossoms. Envision a child’s party dress or summer parasols. Now picture these lavish colors and shapes splashed across rolling acres, over meandering paths, and along a curving drive. Such are the azalea gardens of Nancarles House, a Colonial-Revival in Gambrills. The Kirchners, who built the house in 1936 and laid out the original gardens, created a title for their grand new residence by blending their first names: Nancy, Lester, and Carol.

Nancarles House is the youngest house on the Maryland Historic Inventory and was selected because of its rare chestnut paneling. American chestnut trees were almost extinct in the 1930s. The home is distinguished on the outside as well by acres of azaleas, one of the original and current owners’ favorite plants. Lily Grace and Tom Hudson purchased the house in 1990 and, since then, have cultivated and expanded their home’s nearly six acres of azalea gardens, which now shelter more than 2,600 plants.

Azaleas, as you may know, are part of the genus Rhododendron. They’re rather gangly shrubs that bloom profusely for a few glorious weeks and then blend into the general green of a garden or woodland space. But when the azaleas are blooming everything else in the garden fades into the background.

Most azaleas come to the United States from Asia. China and Japan provide many of the most distinctive strains. The Asian azaleas are evergreen; others are deciduous, which means that they lose their leaves when the weather turns. Azaleas usually vary in height from low bushes two feet high to expansive six- to 10-foot-tall specimens. The gardens at Nancarles shelter hundreds of varieties of azaleas and other Rhododendrons, including a giant Rhododendron ‘Blue Peter’ that’s well over 12 feet tall.

Few places offer such a lavish setting for azaleas as Nancarles. The house sits on the edge of a rise overlooking the front lawn, where flowerbeds, walkways, and ponds tumble down a gentle hillside into the woods beyond. From the house, with its grand, antebellum style and pillared facade, the azaleas spill in a ring of color, circling both sides. These ribbons of vivid blossoms meet behind the house, near the covered well and the parterre, or formal vegetable and herb garden and tie together the front and back gardens. Also, they soften the impression of the white-fenced parterre, designed for the Hudsons by Mimi Armstrong, garden architect.

The Hudsons are attentive to the small details in the garden that create a sense of ease and encourage you to pause and savor the moment. Paths through woods and grounds are unobtrusive swaths of sandstone, grass, or mulch that never draw attention from the azaleas and trees. Among the property’s notable residents are grand specimens of oak, walnut, Chinese chestnut, and pecan trees as well as arching clusters of river birches and dogwoods. In an open swath of green lawn a nearly extinct Dawn Redwood rises well above the three-story house. Nearby grows a sapling Wye Oak, offspring of its late, great namesake.

Visible from the screened porch is the Fancy Garden, named for original owner of the house, Miss Nancy, who was teased for her enjoyment of formal or “fancy” living. Designed and cultivated by the Hudsons, this garden shelters the rarest and showiest azaleas, irises, lilies, and tulips.

In addition, a playhouse, cast-iron stairs, a steel bridge, three ponds, and a gardener’s barn punctuate the grounds—all part of the history of Nancarles House.

It seems that the Kirchners were unhappy living in Washington, D.C., in part because they could not vote in federal elections. So in 1936 they bought 43 acres east of the city and built their Colonial-Revival home. The home is distinguished architecturally by a two-story, pedimented porch supported by four large columns. Underneath is a huge, eight-paneled door crowned with a fanlight window.

Equally impressive is the home’s interior, with its American chestnut–paneled great room, walnut-paneled dining room, and gum tree–paneled library. Lily Grace Hudson is a patron of the arts, as well as a writer and journalist. Throughout the house landscapes in oil and watercolor, prints of birds and flora, portraits, and sculptures invite the appreciative gaze. Wandering through the rooms, admiring the works of art, you get the same easy sense of discovery as when you wander outside through the garden “rooms” filled with beautiful azaleas, hydrangea, forsythia, and weigelia.

The playhouse snuggled against the hillside, overlooking a stream at the edge of the grounds, once belonged to the Kirchners’ daughter, Carol. The tiny dwelling has a traditional appearance—a southern-style, sloping roof; long porch; and stone chimney.

Not far from the playhouse an incongruous cast-iron stair imposes itself on the woodland path. This quixotic placement of the flight of steps may remind the family and guests of their former home in the District of Columbia. (The steps are still in great shape, seemingly impervious to the decades of heat, and snow.)

Mr. Hudson is an intrepid investigator of the history of his family’s home and gardens. A busy attorney and author of three books on automotive law, he has researched the species of azaleas and the history of the flora and fauna in their care.

Once a year the Hudsons celebrate their magnificent collection of azaleas with a grand party. For the last 12 years they’ve pruned and polished inside and out to welcome neighbors, friends, and relatives to their May garden party. Inspired by the gardens of Nancarles House, guests leave the party full of food, drink, and plans for what they’ll do in their own gardens.

Here are some of the Hudsons’ good ideas. She tells us, “Don’t be afraid to mix it up a little” and points out the riot of corals and pinks punctuated with splashes of white azalea blooms near their kitchen window. No need to worry if your colors don’t blend or match. Irises enjoy keeping company with coral bells, and poppies and cyclamen can share a flower bed very comfortably. Experiment a bit to see which blooms please your eye.

Mayapples, ferns, coral bells, lilies of the valley, and so many other pretty volunteers may be right beneath your feet, she tells us. She notes that he keeps an eye out for tiny azaleas popping up through the mulch. She points out a pretty crescent of seven or eight fuchsia azaleas: “Tom started this bed from tiny plants he found poking up in the flower beds. They make such healthy bushes.”

Finally, change is a good thing. He has been working for years to devise a vegetable-herb garden that is easy to maintain as well as handsome. “I had raised beds before, but they were hard to maintain. I couldn’t keep the dogs out of the vegetables,” he recalls. Last spring he reconfigured and reorganized his formal, raised vegetable beds and herb pots with the help of a professional. He thinks he may finally have the ideal garden. We’ll have to check next year to see if he’s changed his mind. A small pond near the kitchen was far too tempting to playful pups, who deconstructed the pond’s banks and left it a muddy puddle instead of a shimmering pool. They tried several solutions before deciding to add a ledge to keep the dogs from frolicking. In addition, they gained a pretty surface for seating and for arrangements of potted plants.

What seems to make the azalea gardens at Nancarles truly exceptional is the unexpected—the bench hidden from view, an unusual plant grouping, or the sign inviting azalea lovers to wander through the gardens. As in life, in the garden the wise embrace the unexpected and transform the misfits into stars.

The Joys of a Garden Party

You know you’re in for fun when an original watercolor-design invitation arrives, inviting you to an “Azalea Garden Party—Garden Party Attire (especially hats).”

Now, I’ve been to graduation parties, beach parties, birthday parties, and holiday parties. But what makes the garden party a particular favorite? The focal point, of course: the flowers and shrubs and trees and birds and sculptures that transform a lawn or yard into a garden.

Garden parties come from the Victorian era. In this country, hosts and hostesses along the Hudson River threw grand summer parties. According to Melissa Haug’s comprehensive article in Victoriana, the Vanderbilts’ and Rockefellers’ garden parties displayed their riverside palaces and palatial grounds to great advantage. And little has changed, it seems, in the manner and custom of such pastoral affairs, at least when the Hudsons are involved. Tents are set up, food and drink are plentiful, seating is casual and randomly arranged, ladies wear pastel colors and wide-brimmed hats, gentlemen don silk shirts and blazers, and the gardens and trees have center stage.

Garden parties are a gambler’s game: Can you choose the date when the maximum number of flowers will be in full bloom? What are the chances it won’t rain and a heat wave won’t descend on the party? Can you prepare the paths and lawn so a woman in a gauzy gown and three-inch heels can wander gracefully among your flowerbeds? If you invite 50 people and they all come will you be able to feed them? Where can your guests pause or sit, and on what?

After 12 years, the Hudsons have this garden party plan down cold! With a little help from friends and Mother Nature, they pull off parties that bring guests from as far away as Manhattan and Boca Raton.

Their invitations are stunning. For the last eight years Mary Kay Honeycutt, renowned local watercolorist, has created the invitation for the Hudsons’ party.

Because your guests’ comfort depends on weather, the Hudsons rent a tent—and folding chairs to scatter around the garden. The food is arranged indoors, with a lavish table of finger foods in the great room and exquisite desserts in the dining room. The tables are decorated with silver and crystal; the centerpieces are huge clusters of—you guessed it—azaleas.

The food is completely portable, so wandering guests can take their food and drink with them. The champagne and assorted light wines and coolers are served from the tent near the house, and wait staff wander about offering drinks and collecting stray dishes.

The entertainment takes place, of course, in the garden. And the Hudsons engage a harpist, whose music floats through the grounds, masking private conversations and inviting quiet wandering.

All too often parties are as hectic and busy as daily life. You return home ready to rest and recuperate. Not so with the Nancarles House garden party. This garden party refreshes and restores both body and spirit. The show is Nature’s. No one is hurried; there is nothing you must do.

Tags: mar 09 janice f. booth annapolis

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