Basking Ridge -- Borman Garden

This was the garden of Madeline P. Borman, a member of the Somerset Hills Garden Club and a friend of Molly Adams. Borman began creating this woodland garden around 1960 out of a jungle-like mass of locust and ash trees, dense thickets of shrubs, and nets of poison ivy, honeysuckle, and Virginia creeper. After clearing away the undesirable plants and relocating some shrubs, such as spice bush, privet, and blackthorn, Borman marked out a path and began planting native woodland plants such as ferns, Jack-in-the-pulpit, bloodroot, and hepatica. Primroses, daffodils, azaleas, and other spring flowers complemented the natives. In addition to the woodland garden the site included a stone terrace and seating area with adjacent lily pond, a lawn with garden borders, and a rustic gazebo. Documentation received with the Adams collection clearly assigns a 1965 date to some of the images; this date has been assigned to all of the individual images, although a ca. 1965 date has been given to the series as a whole.

Persons associated with the garden include Madeline P. Borman (former owner, ca. 1960-1988).