martinhouseclr

41 2 // SITE HISTORY & EVOLUTION being more or less complete and ready for planting and being told that, at the very least, the Barton House planting design was being worked on as Griffin traveled to the Exposition. The triple-combination of newly arrived fall planting weather, Martin already having placed a gardener on staff, and the unkept promises by Wright to provide any sort of plan for any plantings appeared to be very aggravating to Martin. On 15 October, among other construction matters, Martin writes at the end of a long letter: BARTON PLANTING PLAN. PLEASE let us have it by return mail. We have a lot of bulbs and things from our place to transplant. Hebditch needs the work to keep him busy, and to improve these fine days. This planting need not await arrival of shrubs, but must await intelligence from the intelligence bureau. This is one of the details we are permitted to have fun with, but we must know the scheme first. Yours very truly 91 Not waiting for a planting plan, but using the provided material list, Martin orders a selection of plant material from Shady Hill Nursery [Fig. 25] three days later: 92 BARTON SHRUBS. I will place the order 91 DDM-FLW, 15 October 1904, Trans. Jack Quinan 2003, WMP-UB. 92 Shady Hill nursery appears to have been the supplier of much of the woody shrub material for the landscape, but not herbaceous perennials or trees. It is unknown where this material came from but would likely be locally grown. today with the following changes: Name No. scheduled No. ordered Hercules Club 5 3 American Beech 2 1 Acer Polymorphux 2 1 “ ” Aureus 3 1 Sumach 10 3 Sumach Fern-leaved 4 3 Rosa Rugosa 3 2 “ ” Alba 5 3 Elders 3 0 Snowberry 25 15 F[T]amarix Gallica 7 4 “ Indica 5 3 Viburnum [opulus] 10 5 “ Tomentosum plicatum 3 1 Clematis Virginiana 2 1 “ Flammula 2 1 “ Jackmanni 5 2 Memorial Rose 10 5 Trumoet Creeper [sic] 12 4 Grape 12 4 Wistaria [sic] 12 4 We add Ampelopsis Vitchii 4 Mr. Shady Hill warned me not to let the architect over-plant. The only objections our gardener made to the whole lot, other than to the mal-ordorous Elders, was that it was a terrible lot for so small a place, and we placed the order with the consolation that when they crowded the premises, we will have an an [sic] excuse for planting the several bare lawns on Summit Ave. with our superfluity. We take it that these shrubs are intended for North of the Barton wall in the rear of the house, and north of the south end of the Barton veranda in front of the house. If so, we will be greatly obliged if you will give us list of the shrubs with planting plan for the North half of the Martin Summit Ave. lawn East of the flower garden terrace wall. His portion is all fenced and graded and ready for planting. We must plant it this fall to keep the gardener busy and to have that much work out of the way. There will be plenty else to do in the spring. At present it hardly looks wise to attempt the hemi-cycle this fall. 93 The list within the letter seems to be a copy of the “shrubbery list” provided to Martin prior, and includes his own quantity revisions, based on what he learns to be a very dense planting from both his gardener and the Shady Hill nurseryman. This uncertain planting density continues to be a theme throughout the Martin House designed landscape. Christopher Vernon, noted Walter Burley Griffin scholar, accounts the density of the plant material to what he identifies as a Griffin-followed tenet of the era, ‘plant thick and thin quick’. 94 Vernon also credits 93 DDM-FLW, 18 October 1904, Trans. Zak Steele 2014, WMP- UB. 94 Christopher Vernon, e-mail message to author, 17 May 2014.