Milton Garden Club Awards Grant to Forbes House Museum for Garden Enhancements

Recently planted are a Japanese Stewartia next to the pollinator garden in the backyard, a Ginkgo tree near the Chinese bell opposite the museum’s side entrance, and a Heptacodium, or Seven-Son Flower Tree, at the front of the property.

“We’re grateful to the Garden Club for its donation, and invite everyone to visit the property to see our beautiful new trees, as well as the many impressive, older specimens that we’re so fortunate to have. The grounds are popular with families and available to the public year-round at no charge,” says Heidi Vaughan, Forbes House Museum executive director.

The museum has benefited from a long relationship with the Milton Garden Club. Club members worked with Milton Boy Scout Troop 5 to plan and install the pollinator garden in 2020 as part of an Eagle Scout project. In years past, the club also has created holiday wreaths for the exterior of the historic 19th-century house.

The Japanese Stewartia is a deciduous camellia, a flowering plant native to Japan and Korea. The Gingko, one of the oldest living tree species in the world, is native to China. The Heptacodium derives its name from Greek, meaning “seven heads,” in reference to the tree’s typically seven-part flower clusters.

The new trees complement the museum’s existing plantings, including the “Island of Infinite Pleasantness,” the Chinese-inspired garden with many species of trees and plantings native to Asia, created in the 1990s and restored in 2018.

For information about museum exhibits, tours and programming, call 617-696-1815 or visit forbeshousemuseum.org.