Far Hills -- Kennelston Cottage

A modest fieldstone circa 1800 farm cottage was enlarged into a 22-room Tudor style mansion during the Country Place era in the early 1900's. That house burned to the ground in 1939 and was rebuilt in 1940 in the same style, with a conservatory and garage wing added by the current owners in 1995. Earlier remaining gardens included a secret garden, courtyard garden, pool garden and overgrown vegetable garden. New garden rooms have been added on the 30 acre property; those nearest the house are more formal and laid out on axial lines while the more distant rooms are casual in style, leading to surrounding woodlands. Starting from the low stone wall along the road there is a circa 1850 cottage and other outbuildings with a cottage garden of roses, hollyhocks, clematis and herbs, a nearby apple orchard with new and historic trees, a wire and post fence covered with climbing hydrangea and a red oak allée. The replanted secret garden has an informal perennial garden entry through an old stone foundation leading to boxwood parterres planted with perennials with lead statues representing spring and fall, and fences draped with climbing roses and autumn clematis. A boxwood hedge screens the secret garden from the house. A crescent shaped azalea garden was added in 2001 centered by an armillary sphere. The formal vegetable and herb potager has eight brick edged vegetable beds, four herb parterres, roses and clematis on the fences, a lilac walk and an all-white scented moon garden. The formal English style two level courtyard garden room has been modified with a new bluestone patio, grass walkways, and more exuberant plantings that include four standard dwarf Serbian spruces, weigela surrounding a curved stone bench, oak leaf hydrangeas and viburnums. The lower terrace has the original pond with a whimsical lead snail fountain and limestone coping.

A less formal hydrangea, fern and hosta garden room was planted in 1997, replacing the remains of an old stone wall. A rhododendron and daylily garden was added soon after, continuing toward the woodland and also replacing stone rubble. Kudzu-covered trees were removed and replaced with mature spruce. The conservatory garden next to the new wing has a spiral brick-lined gravel path terminating in an antique Burmese jar, planted with spring bulbs and boxwood. The original pool installed in the 1960's was positioned so it could not be seen from the house; with the installation of deer fencing a three-season garden could be planted, starting with allium, peonies, and irises in spring, echinacea and lilies in summer, and fall sedums and asters. A semi-circular bird garden room bordered with shrubs features a large feeder under planted with black elephant ears. Following the loss of numerous black locust trees to Hurricane Sandy in 2012 new garden rooms named after the wooden red gate installed in 2016 were planted with spirea, dogwood, winterberries, hydrangea, weigela, and Japanese maples. Another part of the property denuded of trees by the storm has been converted to large irregular swathes of native grasses, also attractive to birds. The English greenhouse built in 1997 is used for winter storage of container plants but also has a shaded terrace for casual dining and a boxwood nursery planted in symmetrical rows. In the center of the front lawn there is an antique sculpture of a pineapple, with dogwood, viburnum, daffodils and daylilies planted on the far side of the circular driveway. The foundation plantings at the house include ground covers, American boxwood, climbing and oak leaf hydrangea, hinoki false cypress and bottlebrush buckeyes.

Persons associated with the garden include Joseph Jr. (1871-1955) and Eleanor Theodora Duer Larocque (1870-1953) and heirs (former owners, 1903-1968); Charles and Nancy de Rohan (former owners, 1968-1974); William and Janis Coneys (former owners, 1974-1994); William Stone Post (1866-1940) (architect, circa 1903); Harry Allan Jacobs (1872-1932) (architect, 1913); Mott Brooshovft Schmidt (1899-1977) (architect, 1940); Hiland Hall Turner (architect, 1995); Brian W. Bosenberg (landscape architect, 1995- ); Ania Baas (garden designer, 1998- ); Christiana Chrobakowa (garden consultant, 2015- ); Helder Lopes (property manager, 2001- )