Stop 5 Melrose Parterre Garden

Melrose Parterre Garden

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Natchez National Historical Park

Designation:

National Historic Landmark

Amenities

5 listed

Accessible Sites, Benches/Seating, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Scenic View/Photo Spot, Wheelchair Accessible

Very large native live oak and magnolia trees are found today throughout the Melrose grounds. This was no doubt a much sunnier place 150 years ago. Small, formal “parterre” gardens like this one can be found at several downtown Natchez houses. They have brick walks through beds with short planted borders. This one originally enjoyed a backdrop of open pastureland. The earliest photographs taken on the Melrose grounds were made not long after 1900. They show how the camellias and gardenias in this garden had already grown into large bushes. The towering crape myrtles have become filled with Spanish moss over the years.

Mary Louisa McMurran and her family enjoyed their walks through the different parts of their garden. She oversaw the planting of seeds and the growing of tropical plants in cold frames and a greenhouse. She took great joy in her flowers, calling them “God’s smiles.” In the beginning, small boxwood bushes lined these grassy walking paths, but flowering spring bulbs and monkey grass replaced them as edging in the 1900s.

George and Ethel Kelly, the second family to own the estate, placed their own stamp on this part of Melrose. They installed a tennis court on the west end of the flower garden.

The requested video is no longer available.