MISSSION: BEAUTIFICATION … CONSERVATION … EDUCATION

Planting and Growing with Challenges September, 2021

Volume: VI Number: 5

Gardening Issue: Linda Doiron, Editor

Environmental Edition: May, August, November, February - Mary Lovings, Editor

Gardening Edition: June, September, December, March – Linda Doiron, Editor

Landscape Design: July, October, January, April - Suzanne Finger, Editor

History of Hills and Dales Estate

On October 30, 2021, the Redbud District is hosting the Garden Club of Georgia's annual

fundraiser benefiting the statewide Historic Landscape Preservation grant program. Members are

invited to visit Hills and Dales Estates, one of the most beautiful 19th century gardens in

America. I thought it would be interesting to explore the history and the women who have made

this gorgeous estate a living legacy of horticulture and stewardship of the land. If you are unable

to attend the event, the visitor’s information is posted on their website, and it's quite easy to get

to LaGrange, Georgia for a tour.

Hills and Dales Estate is a home built for textile entrepreneur Fuller E. Calloway and his wife Ida

Cason Calloway. It was completed in 1916 in honor of their 25th wedding anniversary.

However, that is not when the story begins. The gardens were started by Nancy Ferrell in 1832

and expanded by her daughter Sarah Coleman Ferrell beginning in 1841.

Sarah first established her formal boxwood parterre garden along the facing slope of the

property. She used formal Italian Renaissance and Baroque designs in laying out a series of six

boxwood patterns and descending terraces. She incorporated various religious symbols and

motifs into the garden's design as a testimony of her belief that Ferrell Gardens should be a

reflection of faith. Sarah grew a wide variety of plants and utilized local quarried stone to create

walls, steps, and terraces. The Ferrell Gardens were also known as “The Terraces” and became

nationally recognized at the time for their beauty. Today it remains one of the best examples of a

formal 19th century boxwood garden in the country. Between 1841 and 1903, Sarah added

fountains, an herb garden, a greenhouse, a lane of magnolias planted from seed, a rare ginkgo

tree that is now one of the largest in the South, and a China fir so tall that it has its own lightning

rod, all of which has taken these many decades to mature. The signature plant of course is

boxwood: dwarf English boxwood, American boxwood, Spanish boxwood, and curly leaf

boxwood grace two and a half acres of formal boxwood parterres.

*China Fir

Late in her life, Sarah had inspired the Calloway's interest in her property and encouraged them

to purchase it to care for the gardens as she had done. Fuller Calloway (1870-1928) was an

entrepreneur in the textile business and employed thousands of people. He married Ida Jane

Cason (1872-1936) and they had two sons, Cason Jewell Callaway (1894-1961) and Fuller Earl

Callaway Jr. (1907-1992). Eight years after Sarah’s death in 1903, the Calloways purchased the

property and built on the site of Sarah’s frame cottage. The new centerpiece of the 35-acre estate

became a beautiful Italian villa with Palladian elements designed by noted architects Neil Reed

and Hal Hentz.

Entrance gates open to the driveway that winds around to the villa through a grove of trees. The

villa is placed on the highest point in the grove but is concealed by the trees. The north side does

not have the close protection of trees so there is nothing to obstruct the view of the gentle hills

and dales that give the estate its name. A major restoration of the house was completed in April

2010 and all three floors at the home are open for guided tours. The visitor center features

museum exhibits, an orientation film, and a gift shop.

As Ida began restoring parts of the garden that had fallen into disrepair, she wrote about her

stewardship of the land. “Sarah’s spirit seemed to overtake me as I began to work in her garden,

reclaiming and restoring boxwood patterns.”

The boxwoods are noted for being planted in words and mottos. Ida added one motto from a

window in a church in Cornwall, England. The motto reads “Saint Callaway Ora Pro Novis (Pray

For Us) but Fuller said he needed concentrated prayer, so Ida changed it to “Ora Pro Mi” (Pray

For Me).

Found in a handwritten journal titled, “Mrs. Fuller E. Callaway’s Favorite Recipes” dated

October 4, 1913, Ida wrote out her favorite recipe for fig cake. (In July 1975, Ida’s daughter-in-

law Alice was given a magnolia fig that she planted in a two-gallon bucket. She then replanted it

beside the greenhouse that September.) Many varieties of figs can still be found on the property

today.

Ida’s recipe for fig cake reads as follows:

3 cups of sugar

1 cup of butter

1 cup of sweet milk

16 egg whites

2 tsp. baking powder

1 ½ lb. pound of figs, cut in strips

Mix well, pour into greased mold and bake an hour and a half.

Both Calloway sons grew up working and managing their father's textile mills, and they married

sisters. Cason married Virginia Hollis Hand (1900-1995), and Fuller Jr. married Virginia's younger

sister, Alice Henman Hand (1912-1998) ten years later. After retirement Cason began working on

developing better farm practices near Hamilton, Georgia, and he and Virginia opened the Ida

Cason Callaway Gardens in 1952. Following Ida’s death in 1936, her two sons both submitted

sealed bids for Hills and Dales to see which one would get the family home. The bids were close

but, in the end, Fuller Jr. and Alice moved into Hills and Dales. Alice was only a novice gardener

and hesitant to take charge of such a large garden but soon became acquainted with it. Jo Phillips,

the current horticultural manager, and the speaker at the event on October 30th, remembers when

she got the job at the estate in 1994. “Alice Callaway started each weekday morning in the garden

going over the day's goals with the staff. From 8:00 AM to noon Monday-Friday, Mrs. Callaway

worked alongside us.”

Alice took care of Hills and Dales for 62 years, the exact length of time that Sarah did. She

commissioned a beautiful bird gate to mark the original entrance of Sarah’s garden.

I found a lovely quote from Alice, “In looking back over my years being in this beautiful garden,

I look out and I see all the beauty around me and it makes me wonder why I deserved all this

beauty. It has been a joy to me, it's been a joy to my family and it’s been a joy to many friends

and strangers as well…it is so beautiful and so refreshing and so wholesome, and what a

healthful life I’ve had working outside with the sunshine and the exercise and the companionship

of most everyone who's worked here and it has been a joy everyday…it’s pulled me through

some tough times and …given me hope for the future and I love it dearly.” What a wonderful

tribute written by Alice, only eclipsed by her and Fuller Jr.’s generosity to leave Hills and Dales

as a museum for the enjoyment of the visiting public.

Jo Phillips article, “The White Album,” examines Alice Calloway's use of white plants,

particularly in the church garden. It's a well written article, not only for its history and

recognition of Alice’s contributions, but also for its exquisite language describing what Jo fondly

calls the “white flower bandwagon”. Jo describes a beautiful white border notably with white

roses that is contrasted with surrounding green foliage. Camellias, hydrangeas, azaleas, hosta,

wisteria, callicarpa (beautyberry), daylilies, and silver hues of lamb’s ear and artemisia add

texture and glimmer to the composition. Alice had converted the church garden into a white

garden early in her tenure as the garden's mistress. Jo’s entire article can be found at this link and

is suggested reading before you go: Fall 2021, https://www.hillsanddales.org/portico-

newsletters/.

The tour will feature both the historic home and gardens. A lecture by Jo Phillips entitled

“Heirloom Plants for Garden Fragrance”, box lunch, welcome center with the orientation film,

and a gift shop will be available. The lecture begins at 10:30 a.m., and seating is limited to 90

attendees, so plan to come early.

*from left to right, Sarah Ferrell, Ida Callaway, Alice Callaway

GIVE TO THE HISTORIC LANDSCAPE PRESERVATION EFFORTS:

From the Garden Club of Georgia website:

Preservation Partner

A GCG donation category for members and clubs who would like to support historic landscape

preservation efforts within our state is available. Those clubs donating $25 or more to this

program will receive a "Partner of Preservation" certificate. For donations of $100 or more, a

"Patron of Preservation" certificate will be awarded. Make checks payable to GCG and mail to

the GCG Treasurer. Submit with the form at this link:

https://gardenclub.uga.edu/pdfs/Donations.pdf

Be Well,

Linda Doiron

The Hokey Gardener