Katharine Smith Reynolds The original designers for the R.J. Reynolds Estate and Gardens were Buckenham and Miller, noted on drawings as the "Landscape Engineers from New York, New York." For unknown reasons, Katharine Smith Reynolds changed designers in 1915, choosing to work with the Philadelphia-based Landscape Architect, Thomas Sears. Sears was a graduate of Harvard's Landscape Architecture program in 1906 and, by the time of his employment at Reynolda, several of his garden designs were published in Ruth Dean's "The Livable House: Its Garden"(1917). According to Sears biographer Catherine Howett, "among the most important public commissions to which he contributed were the Colonial Revival gardens at Pennsbury Manor, home of William Penn; Washington Square in Philadelphia; and Pennsylvania's Valley Forge Park Chapel and Cemetery."   Plan by Buckenham and Miller, September 1913   At Reynolda, there are a number of similarities between the original garden plans and the garden as envisioned and constructed by Sears and Mrs. Reynolds. One half of the Gardens (the Greenhouse Garden) centers around a sunken garden divided into four quadrants. In the Miller plan, each of the quadrants had an oval shaped area with planting beds, while in the Sears plan, the quadrants became geometric-shaped parterres. The back half of the Gardens, in both the Miller plan and the later Sears plan, contained a variety of vegetables and fruits. Beginning in 1915 and continuing until 1917, Sears prepared detailed drawings for the Greenhouse Garden at Reynolda, which included plantings as well as structural elements (retaining walls, steps, fountains and pools and garden shelters). The drawings were arranged in a series of five plans: A, B, C, D, and E [illustrated below], though only Plans A, B and C were available for use in the recent rehabilitation project. Drawings D and E were only recently discovered within the Reynolda House archives. Using historic photographs and receipts from nurseries that supplied some of the original plant materials, a limited number of plants used in Plans D and E were identified.   Plan A is for the two quadrants of the Greenhouse Garden closest to the greenhouse. Both of these quadrants were planted primarily with roses -- a total of fifty varieties. Each quadrant had four magnolias, one at each corner. (Presumably these were intended to be saucer magnolias as those were planted; however, the species of magnolia is not called out on any of the Sears drawings). The perimeter of the rose garden and all of the Greenhouse Garden were bordered with a boxwood hedge, shown as a double line, but with no label on the Sears plan.     Plan B for the "Blue and Yellow Garden" in the southeast corner, 1917, by Sears. Plan B is for the other two quadrants of the Greenhouse Garden. These were the Blue and Yellow garden in the southeast corner and the Pink and White garden in the southwest corner. Over forty varieties of perennials were used in each of these two gardens. Flowers from the selected perennials produced the desired blue/yellow and pink/white color combinations. Here again, these gardens had a magnolia in each corner as well as the boxwood hedge border. Each also had four standards (metal posts with a small frame to train climbing plants) close to the center of the garden. In the Blue and Yellow garden, Japanese Wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) was planted and in the Pink and White garden, Slender deutzia (Deutzia gracilis). Plan C covers the cross pattern lawn area within the Greenhouse Garden, which separates the four quadrants of the garden. Perennials and a variety of shrubs were used as border plantings along the lawn. The main axis of the lawn was shown with an allée of twelve magnolias. Although a specific species was not noted, the earliest photographs taken after the planting show small deciduous trees in these locations. Photographs from several years later show Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica lobbii) planted in these locations. Most family members and individuals who have researched the estate believe it was Mrs. Reynolds who chose the Cryptomeria. Plan D includes the perimeter on all four sides of the Greenhouse Garden. This perimeter is at the grade of the greenhouse and surrounds the sunken lawn areas and four quadrants. Though Plan D was not available for this project, period photographs provided sufficient detail to identify much of the material. On the east side of the Greenhouse Garden, there were a series of linear beds, planted with irises and peonies. Plan E dealt with the southernmost end of the Greenhouse Garden that formed the boundary between the vegetable garden and the shelters and pergolas. Sears began preparing plans for the vegetable garden in 1919, noted on drawings as the "Fruit, Cut Flower and Nicer Vegetable Garden." Drawings in 1921 for the vegetable garden are the last of the Sears plans from this period. In 1924 Mrs. Reynolds died, and the gardens became the responsibility of the Trustees for the estate. Left: Notes added by Sears, October 1931, to original plan of the "Greenhouse Garden" [Plan C]. Right: Thomas Sears, Landscape Architect (courtesy Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens). In 1931 Sears made a return trip to the gardens, presumably at the request of the Board of Trustees and possibly Robert Conrad, longtime garden superintendent for the family who was on staff at the time of the garden's installation. Sears was asked to simplify some of the plantings in order to reduce maintenance requirements for the gardens. Drawings documenting this visit consist of a series of notes added to the original Plan C. Sears recommended replacing much of the original perennials with pachysandra, underplanted with the of Tulip 'Moonlight.' From Plan D, Sears specified removal of the linear beds that were surrounded by lawn panels and widening the adjacent beds on either side of the lawn so that additional Japanese pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis) and daffodils (Narcissus, sp.) could be planted. On the west side of the Greenhouse Garden, he called for the removal of most of the existing shrubs to be replaced with English Ivy (Hedera helix) and privet to be planted near the existing privet hedge along the fence that parallels Reynolda Road. He also recommended feeding the magnolias and Japanese cedars. A cost estimate prepared by Conrad, which closely follows the recommendation from the October 1931 plan by Sears, and later photographs show that these recommendations were likely followed. Mary Reynolds Babcock and her husband, Charles Babcock, became owners of the Reynolda Estate in 1936. Robert Conrad continued as the garden superintendent during this time. Documentation of this period in the garden's history is minimal. The roses were removed from their original location sometime prior to 1948, since a photograph from this date show the original rose paths with the roses absent. They required a high degree of maintenance and, according to oral history accounts, never looked pleasing. They may have also been suffering from shade provided by maturing, adjacent trees-weeping cherries, saucer magnolias and Japanese cedars. In 1958 the Babcock family bequeathed the remaining portions of the estate and gardens to WFU, which owns and manages the gardens today. In 1995, a cultural landscape report was undertaken and adopted in 1996. Construction followed and was completed by the fall of 1997. Planting has continued to the present as additional historic varieties have been located.