Green Animals Topiary Garden, Portsmouth RI

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While on my drive up to Boston, MA I decided to stop at Green Animals Topiary Garden. Green Animals is located in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and is the oldest and most northern topiary garden in the United States.
This small country estate in Portsmouth was purchased in 1872 by Thomas E. Brayton (1844-1939), Treasurer of the Union Cotton Manufacturing Company in Fall River, Massachusetts. It consisted of seven acres of land, a white clapboard summer residence, farm outbuildings, a pasture and a vegetable garden.
Mr. Brayton’s daughter Alice gave the estate its name because of the profusion of “green animals.” She made the estate her permanent residence in 1939. Upon her death in 1972, at the age of 94, Miss Brayton left Green Animals to The Preservation Society of Newport County. Today, Green Animals remains as a rare example of a self-sufficient estate combining formal topiaries, vegetable and herb gardens, orchards and a Victorian house overlooking Narragansett Bay.
Gardener Joseph Carreiro, superintendent of the property from 1905 to 1945, and his son-in-law, George Mendonca, superintendent until 1985, were responsible for creating the topiaries. There are more than 80 pieces of topiary throughout the gardens, including animals and birds, geometric figures and ornamental designs, sculpted from California privet, yew, and English boxwood.
When you enter Green Animals you must go to the house to get your tickets. Be sure to get the map, it will contain a numbered listing of the topiaries so you will know what you’re looking at when you’re walking around the property. Even on the overcast day that I visited Green Animals it was beautiful. Along with the topiaries there are beautiful, colorful flowers everywhere. My favorite topiaries were mostly animals, but they were all just lovely. I saw one of the groundskeepers trimming one of the topiaries. He was kind enough to tell us a bit about topiaries. It was very interesting, I had no idea they took decades to grow. There was framework for a new topiary in place, which made me think of those lawn animals people put out in their yard at Christmas. There’s a children’s garden area where you can see many different vegetables, herbs and plants growing.
Green Animals is open seasonally, so be sure to check the schedule before going.
Here’s a slideshow containing 20 of my favorite photos from Green Animals.

And if you don’t have time to watch the slideshow now, pin the lion topiary below and come back at you convenience.

Green Animals is located at 380 Cory’s Lane, Portsmouth, RI 02871.
There is a fee to get in. If you’re only visiting Green Animals the tickets are $14.50 for an adult and $5.50 for children ages 6-17. Other tickets are available if you are visiting other Newport Mansions properties. They did extend a discount to me as a member of the AAA Auto Club.

Where is your favorite place to see topiaries?

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Green Animals website